Quote:A member of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners is investigating District Attorney Fani Willis over allegations that she engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a special prosecutor she hired to work on the Trump election-interference case and is thus benefiting from the case.
“Under no circumstances should an elected official contract with or hire someone who they are in a romantic relationship with,” Commissioner Bob Ellis said in a statement, according to NBC News, adding that even in the absence of a relationship, “accepting favors and extravagant gifts from such contractors should also be considered improper.
...
Ellis has asked Willis to provide information to a list of requests for documents by February 2, including any work expenses submitted by Wade and payments to him.
The request comes after an attorney for Wade’s wife, Joycelyn Wade, submitted a filing on Friday related to her and Wade’s divorce case with bank statements showing that Wade had paid for airplane tickets for himself and Willis for at least two trips to Miami and San Francisco. The filing also claimed they went to Belize, Panama, and Australia.
...
Wade filed for divorce from his wife the day after Willis hired him on November 2, 2021.
Quote:Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of the two remaining challengers to former President Donald Trump, dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday, before the New Hampshire primary, and endorsed Trump.
In a video DeSantis released from Florida on Sunday afternoon, he endorsed Trump over the last challenger—former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley—saying that while he has disagreements with Trump he thinks Trump is better than Haley and certainly better than Democrat President Joe Biden.
...
In the video, DeSantis said that after his second-place finish in Iowa–he finished ahead of Haley but far behind Trump–he and his family and team have “prayed and deliberated on the way forward.”
“If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome — more campaign stops, more interviews — I would do it,” DeSantis said. “But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.”
Seconds later, DeSantis formally endorsed Trump.
“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said. “They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance and they see Democrats using lawfare to this day to attack him. While I have had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear — a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism — that Nikki Haley represents. The days of putting Americans last, of kowtowing to large corporations, of caving to woke ideology, are over.”
Quote:President Joe Biden again mocked gun owners over the weekend, suggesting they will need F-16 fighter jets if they are really serious about taking on the government.
Townhall reported Biden speaking to reporters, referencing Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Biden said, “And I love people who say, the ‘blood of liberty,’ or excuse me, ‘the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots.’ Well, guess what, man, I didn’t see a whole lot of patriots that are out there walking around making sure that we have these weapons…And if you really want to worry about the government, you need an F-16.”
Biden made a similar statement in the middle of summer 2023 following from similar ridicule a year before.
On June 21, 2023, the Washington Examiner noted Biden was pushing for a ban on AR-15 rifles when he said, ““We have to change. There’s a lot of things we can change, because the American people by and large agree you don’t need a weapon of war. I’m a Second Amendment guy. I taught it for four years, six years in law school. And guess what? It doesn’t say that you can own any weapon you want.”
Quote:Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) proposed a $14 trillion reparations plan Tuesday “for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”
The progressive congressman called on the federal government to foot the bill, arguing that there’s a way to pay for it “without raising taxes on anyone.”
“When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat,” Bowman told the Journal News in an interview published January 16. “The government can invest the same way in reparations without raising taxes on anyone.”
“Where did the money come from?” he continued. “We spent it into existence.”
Bowman is among nine sponsors in support of H.R. 414, a resolution introduced by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in May 2023 to recognize that the U.S. “has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”
That doesn't take into consideration that those people were sold to the European and American and Latin American ships by black slave traders located in Africa's west coast. Color doesn't justify receiving some extra money that will simply make prices soar again because of all that money floating around, being spent recklessly. It becomes another reason to irresponsibly raise the debt ceiling once again.
Quote:The proposal, a three-stage process, was described Sunday by the Wall Street Journal, which appears to rely heavily on sources inside U.S. national security agencies.
Leaving Israel without destroying Hamas would defeat Israel’s central goal in the war.
The Journal wrote:
The mediators have proposed a 90-day plan that would first pause fighting for an unspecified number of days for Hamas to first release all Israeli civilian hostages, while Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw forces from Gaza’s towns and cities, allow freedom of movement in the strip, end drone surveillance and double the amount of aid going into the enclave, according to the plan.
In the second phase, Hamas would free female Israeli soldiers and turn over bodies while Israel would release more Palestinian prisoners. A third phase would involve the release of Israeli soldiers and fighting-age men Hamas considers soldiers, according to Egyptian officials, while Israel would redeploy some of its forces outside the current borders of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is trying to use the hostages as leverage to avoid defeat. The Journal reports that there are rifts between Hamas’s leaders in Doha, Qatar, who are open to accepting a demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and leaders in Gaza, who want to keep on fighting.
Israel reportedly prefers a two-week pause for a hostage release that would not stop the war and would allow it to pursue its stated objectives of destroying Hamas’s military capabilities completely, so that it can never threaten Israeli communities again.
Quote:Ukraine must be willing to cede some of its territory to Russia for a peace deal, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday.
Ahead of a scheduled meeting between recently installed Prime Minister Robert Fico and his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday, the left-wing populist Slovak leader ruffled feathers in Kyiv by suggesting that any peace solution will likely require some territorial concessions to Russia.
“There has to be some kind of compromise, which will be very painful for both sides. And what are they waiting for? That the Russians will leave Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk? It’s unrealistic,” Fico said according to the Slovak news outlet Aktuality.
This comes in direct opposition to President Zelensky’s demands that Russia withdraws from all occupied territory before negotiations even start, making the restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders, which not only include the occupied areas in the Donbas, but also the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow has controlled since it annexed the territory in 2014.
Russia, meanwhile, claims that the territories in question have been “liberated” given that they are home to large populations of ethnic Russians, whom the Kremlin claims have faced discrimination from the Ukrainian government in Kyiv.
The Slovakian leader, who was elected on a left-wing populist platform last year, also reiterated his plans to block any attempts to incorporate Ukraine into the American-led NATO military alliance. As the head of a NATO and EU member state, Fico has veto power over Ukraine being admitted to either institution.
Quote:At least 18 people were killed Sunday by shelling at a market on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine, local officials reported Sunday.
A further 13 people were injured in the strike on the suburb of Tekstilshchik, said Alexei Kulemzin, the city’s Russian-installed mayor. He said that the shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military.
Kyiv has not commented on the event and the claims could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.
Emergency services continue to work on the scene, said Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk.
Also Sunday, fire broke out at a chemical transport terminal at Russia’s Ust-Luga port following two explosions, regional officials said. Local media reported that the port had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, causing a gas tank to explode.
The blaze was at a site run by Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, Novatek, 165 kilometers southwest of St. Petersburg.
In a press statement to Russian media outlet RBC, the company said that the fire was the result of an “external influence.” It also said that it had paused operations at the port.
Quote:Illegal boat migrants have reportedly been quietly given the right to work in Britain by the so-called Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a move critics warn will only serve to further incentivise illegals breaking into the country.
Almost 16,000 asylum seekers, including many who crossed the English Channel illegally in small boats launched by people smuggling networks on the beaches of France, have been permitted to work in Britain, according to data revealed under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws by The Telegraph.
This comes despite government policy stating that asylum seekers should not be able to work in the country while their claims are being considered.
However, according to the paper, the Home Office — the government branch tasked with managing immigration — has allowed some migrants to work in certain sectors of the economy allegedly facing shortages of workers, such as in agriculture, construction, and healthcare.
The report claimed that migrants can earn 80 per cent of the prevailing wage if they give up the £49.13 per week state government stipend afforded to asylum seekers. The foreigners can remain in government-provided accommodation under the scheme, however, if they pay for some of the cost. In total, 19,231 migrants applied to work under the scheme in 2022 and 15,706 applications were granted.
The scheme has been criticised by Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who warned that the policy would serve to increase the “pull factor” for more illegal migrants to come to the UK.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues.
The justices, by a 5-4 vote, granted an emergency appeal from the Biden administration, which has been in an escalating standoff at the border with Texas and had objected to an appellate ruling in favor of the state.
The concertina wire along roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) of the Rio Grande near the border city of Eagle Pass is part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s broader fight with the administration over immigration enforcement.
Abbott also has authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and allowed troopers to arrest and jail thousands of migrants on trespassing charges. The administration also is challenging those actions in federal court.
A federal appeals court last month forced federal agents to stop cutting the concertina wire. Large numbers of migrants have crossed at Eagle Pass in recent months.
In court papers, the administration said the wire impedes Border Patrol agents from reaching migrants as they cross the river and that, in any case, federal immigration law trumps Texas’ own efforts to stem the flow of migrants into the country.
Texas officials have argued that federal agents cut the wire to help groups crossing illegally through the river before taking them in for processing.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the administration. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas voted with Texas.
Quote:The partisan January 6 Committee deleted more than 100 encrypted files just days before Republicans resumed control of the House, Chair of the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) revealed Monday.
The missing files are significant because they might contain information reportedly used to prosecute former President Donald Trump in Fulton County, Georgia. Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, colluded with the committee to obtain information to prosecute Trump, Politico reported on January 10.
The partisan committee told lawmakers it lost or does not have much of the information they discovered during their January 6 hearings. Yet, if the Politico report is true, the committee gave Willis the information to prosecute Trump before deleting it.
Loudermilk’s forensics team identified 117 files that went missing on January 1, 2023. The forensics analysis suggests the committee either deleted or encrypted the files. Loudermilk demanded the passwords for the encrypted files, which could contain interviews and depositions that run contrary to the partisan committee’s narrative.
“It’s obvious that [the J6 committee] went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation,” Loudermilk told Fox News. “It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules.”
...
“We do know there was plenty of intelligence that there was going to be an attack on the Capitol. So Secret Service knew of it. The FBI knew of it. Department of Defense had intelligence. Homeland Security had intelligence,” he added. “That intelligence was sent to the Capitol Police Intelligence Division—but it never got passed on any further. The chief did not know about it.”
Quote:The Georgia Senate is set this week to authorize a subpoena-powered investigative committee to probe the alleged corruption of Fani Willis, Fulton County’s district attorney, Breitbart News exclusively learned Monday.
The potential committee is significant because Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ® refused to launch a criminal investigation into Willis last week, citing the need for a currently non-operational oversight committee to open the probe.
The proposed Georgia Senate committee could hold subpoena power as soon as later this week to “secure the attendance of witnesses or the production of documents and materials” related to Willis, according to a resolution put forth by Georgia state Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Forsyth). The committee, the only type of its kind in the state of Georgia, would comprise nine senators, only three of whom would be Democrats.
“The Georgia legislature has a responsibility to hold public officials accountable,” Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones exclusively told Breitbart News. “Recent reports have been deeply troubling and I appreciate Sen. Dolezal’s leadership on this issue.”
The timeline for the creation of the committee appears imminent. Dolezal will introduce the resolution Monday. Then it will likely be assigned to the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday. Upon approval from the Rules Committee, a Senate floor vote will be scheduled as soon as this week. If passed by the Senate, the Committee on Assignments will appoint the members.
Quote:After two decades, the legendary burger chain In-N-Out Burger has been forced to flee Democrat-run Oakland in Democrat-run California.
Oakland’s sole In-N-Out Burger location is still profitable. That’s not the problem. The problem is that Oakland is run exclusively by Democrats, and that means crime — lots of it. Per a statement from the company’s Chief Operating Officer Denny Warnick, the location will close for good next month:
Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies. Our last day of business in Oakland will be March 24, 2004.
We are grateful for the local community, which has supported us for over 18 years, and we recognize that this closure negatively impacts our Associates and their families. Additionally, this location remains a busy and profitable one for the company, but our top priority must be the safety and wellbeing of our Customers and Associates – we cannot ask them to visit or work in an unsafe environment.
Oakland employees will be given the option to transfer to another In-N-Out location or accept a severance package.
Things are so bad in Oakland, ABC 7 reports that another fast food joint in the same strip mall moved to drive-thru only last year due to all the car break-ins.
Crime is soaring in Oakland. Per an August 2023 report, murders are up 37 percent compared to four years earlier. Robberies jumped 30 percent. Car break-ins exploded by 40 percent, and car thefts “more than doubled.”
Quote:The Chicago suburb of Oak Brook has been beset with an increase in retail theft and burglaries over the last year, and police say the leading culprits have been recently arrived illegal border crossers who have filtered out to the suburb from Chicago.
The Oak Brook Police Department reports that 47 recently arrived illegal aliens have been arrested in connection with retail thefts and home and car burglaries just since October and more than 175 since last year, according to Newsbreak.
Officials of the suburb — which is only about 25 minutes west of downtown Chicago and only minutes south of O’Hare International Airport where hundreds of illegals have been sheltering for months — noted that the thieves often use bags lined with sheets of tinfoil in an attempt to thwart store anti-theft protection devices at entrances, the New York Post reported.
The issue has been ongoing in the suburb, especially inside the Oak Brook shopping mall.
As far back as 2021 the Oak Brook Police Department reported a gang of about 14 individuals entering stores and stealing all they could carry.
Quote:The U.S. military has ended its search for two Navy SEALs after they went missing during a mission in the Arabian Sea to interdict Iranian weapons headed for Yemen, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said Sunday.
“We regret to announce that after a 10-day exhaustive search, our two missing U.S. Navy SEALs have not been located and their status has been changed to deceased,” the command said in a statement.
“The search and rescue operation for the two Navy SEALs reported missing during the boarding of an illicit dhow carrying Iranian advanced conventional weapons Jan. 11 concluded and we are now conducting recovery operations,” it said.
“We mourn the loss of our two Naval Special Warfare warriors, and we will forever honor their sacrifice and example. Our prayers are with the SEALs’ families, friends, the U.S. Navy, and the entire Special Operations community during this time,” said Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, Centcom commander.
According to the Associated Press, the SEALs were part of a raid on an unflagged ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Houthi forces in Yemen. Officials told the outlet that one of the SEALs had fallen into the sea during boarding and another SEAL went in after him to try to save him.
The pair began their mission while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was still in hospital being treated for complications from surgery for prostate cancer.
Quote:According to a report from The Times of London, the UK Home Office — the government body responsible for controlling immigration and protecting the country’s borders — has signed a contract worth £36 million for the hiring of a “charter of vessel(s) to support small boats operations in the Dover Straits”.
The contract, which is set to come into force in April and will last until at least the end of March next year, will mean that private vessels will assist the Border Force in picking up migrants in the English Channel and bringing them ashore in Britain.
The government was forced into seeking private assistance to deal with illegal migration because of further delays to plans to replace the ageing fleet of cutters currently used by the Border Force, some of which are over 20 years old and need frequent repairs to remain operable.
While the government set aside £224 million to begin procuring five new cutters and six coastal patrol vessels in April of 2022, the process of replacing the current Border Force fleet was first pushed back to April of 2024 and now is not expected to begin until March of 2026.
In addition to the £36 million earmarked for private boats, the government also shelled out £9 million on refurbishing the outdated Border Force vessels to hopefully keep them running for a further five years.
The revelations come as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is seeking to finally implement the long-awaited plan to send illegal boat migrants to Rwanda, which still needs approval from the House of Lords.
Quote:More than a million leftist activists took to the streets of Germany in protest over the weekend amid growing calls to ban the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as it surges in the polls.
In a welcome distraction for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government — which has become deeply unpopular over economic stagnation, mass migration and most recently a farmer uprising against its globalist agenda — the legacy media, political elites and activist networks have rallied around a common target, the AfD.
According to organisers, over 1.4 million people took to the streets in protest against the populist Alternative for Germany party over the weekend, under the banner of slogans such as: “Against Fascism, Populism and the Right” and “Demo against the right – not an inch from fascism”, broadcaster NTV reports.
The protests were urged on by Chancellor Scholz in an apparent attempt to change the narrative from his struggling coalition government.
“Right-wing extremists are attacking our democracy. We are all called upon to take a clear stand: for our democratic Germany. And for our more than 20 million friends, work colleagues and neighbours who have a migration background,” Sholz said in a video released on Friday.
Well, the ones protesting on the streets are the leftists, not the far right wing. Do you see the irony here?
Quote:Tens of thousands of people were without electricity and hundreds of trains were canceled on Monday after the latest in a wave of winter storms lashed Britain and Ireland with heavy rain and wind gusts of almost 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour.
The U.K.’s Met Office weather service had issued an unusual blanket wind warning for the whole country before Storm Isha, which reached its peak overnight. A 99-mile-an-hour gust was recorded at Brizlee Wood radar station in northeastern England.
Ireland and the U.K. have been hammered since fall by a series of gusty and wet storms that have toppled trees, knocked out power and led to flooding along river valleys. Isha is the ninth named storm since September.
The railway operator for Scotland halted train service Sunday night and into Monday's rush hour. Network Rail, which owns the railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales, said it was placing speed limits on most lines to prevent engines from running into fallen trees and other debris, and trains would be affected into the morning commute.
Quote:The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual census of imprisoned reporters this weekend, and found China was once again the world’s worst jailer of journalists, followed closely by Myanmar, with Belarus in third place.
CPJ said those top three countries accounted for “more than a third of those incarcerated on the day of the census,” which was December 1. China jailed 44 journalists, Myanmar 43, and Belarus 28.
The report noted that China could be even worse than the census indicated because heavy censorship makes it difficult to determine exactly who has been jailed, but Beijing has clearly been on a widening “media crackdown since crushing the Hong Kong democracy movement of 2019 with a draconian “national security law” in 2020.
China’s methods have also shifted slightly toward a growing tendency to charge journalists with espionage or subversion, rather than “spreading fake news.” The report found that 19 of China’s 44 imprisoned journalists are from the oppressed Uyghur Muslim minority, against which China has been committing genocide since at least 2017.
China’s imprisoned journalists often face lengthy “pretrial detentions” that silence them long before they have a day in court. A prime example is Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, who was jailed in Hong Kong for almost 1,100 days before his “trial” even started. Lai pleaded not guilty to sedition and collusion with foreign powers – charges created by the Hong Kong national security law – on January 2.
Myanmar almost caught up to China as a jailer of journalists thanks to the ruling junta’s war against independent media. Belarus likewise went on a reporter-jailing spree after protests erupted over the shady “re-election” of dictator Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. Lukashenko put a twist on the authoritarian mania for accusing reporters of sedition by charging his opponents with “extremism” instead.
Quote:An Iranian soldier killed five of his comrades in their barracks dormitory on Sunday in the province of Kerman, the scene of the devastating Islamic State suicide bombing on January 3.
According to Iranian state media, the unidentified 20-year-old soldier entered the barracks at a base in Baghin, a city in Kerman, and started shooting other soldiers while they were resting.
The shooter was reportedly taken into custody with two Kalashnikov rifles, six magazines, and 180 rounds of ammunition on his person. He stole two vehicles in his unsuccessful bid to flee the scene of the attack.
The commander of the Baghin base, Brig. Gen. Amir Gholamalian, told reporters the motive for the shooting was “still unknown” as of Sunday evening. Golamalian said the suspect was under interrogation to determine the reason for his actions.
IranWire described the shooter as a “conscript,” a reference to Iran’s policy of mandatory military service for men aged 19 and over. Iran has a history of discipline problems and inside attacks, including a similar shooting incident at a firing range in 2017. Some critics of the regime’s policies blame these attacks on the practice of conscripting unwilling men from restless regions.
Kerman is the birthplace of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2020 while coordinating terrorist attacks against Americans in that country. The regime in Tehran declared Soleimani a “martyr” and required its subjects to worship him as such.
Quote:Authorities in Turkey are investigating eight bodies that washed up in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, including two found Monday on a beach in the vacation resort of Serik.
The Antalya governor's office said one body is believed to be a Turkish citizen who was reported missing. Authorities believe the seven other bodies discovered over the past week may be migrants from a boat that went missing off the coast near the Syria-Lebanon border last month on its way to Cyprus.
An estimated 90 people were on board the boat that disappeared on Dec. 11, the governor´s office said, citing information provided by the Lebanese embassy in Turkey.
An evaluation of currents, winds and waves indicates that the victims may have been dragged toward the Antalya coastline, the office said in a statement.
In Lebanon, a lawyer who follows migrants' cases, Mohammed Sablouh, said the boat left northern Lebanon with about 85 people on board, including 30 children.
Sablouh said contact was lost with another boat that left Lebanon on Thursday with about 50 or 60 people on board.
Quote:Israeli authorities have reportedly foiled a planned terror attack in Jerusalem by two Arab residents of East Jerusalem who had pledged loyalty to the so-called “Islamic State,” or ISIS.
The Israeli security forces, including both the Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet), said that the two would-be terrorists had hoped to detonate a truck bomb near the Israeli parliament, or Knesset.
...
Police said that the suspects, aged 19 and 20, were arrested on December 26 in their homes in Ras al-Amud in East Jerusalem. During a search, security forces found chemicals that were believed to be intended for use in making explosive devices, along with a notebook with instructions on preparing explosives and ISIS materials.
An ISIS flag was found on one of the Hamas terrorists killed during the October 7 attack (above).
ISIS was largely defeated several years ago, when U.S.-led forces ended the organization’s territorial “caliphate” and killed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in 2019.
Unlike the war against Hamas, the U.S. did not demand that the terrorists of ISIS receive their own territorial state at the end of the conflict.
Quote:The United Nations requested to be allowed to participate in the ongoing Argentine Congress debates regarding the massive small-government omnibus bill presented by President Javier Milei in December, local media reported over the weekend.
The formal request, issued by the Regional Representative for South America of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Jan Jarab, seeks permission from the heads of the three committees that are debating the bill to be allowed to realize online “virtual expositions” to Congress on the U.N.’s “perspective” on how the bill relates to international human rights obligations.
“We would like to present the perspective that emanates from our mandate – that is, from international human rights obligations and standards,” the U.N. letter read.
The U.N.’s request was forwarded to Congress by Argentine lawmaker Germán Martínez, who leads the parliamentary block of the Union for the Nation, a socialist coalition represented by former socialist Economy Minister Sergio Massa in last year’s presidential election and which represents the previous Argentine government led by socialist former President Alberto Fernández.
Martínez published a copy of the letter on social media on Saturday evening. The lawmaker demanded that the U.N. be allowed to debate among duly elected Argentine lawmakers, claiming it is “unacceptable to prevent the voice of the United Nations from being heard.”
The 351-page, 664-article-long omnibus bill Milei presented, titled “Basic and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines,” seeks to implement significant sweeping reforms to the Argentine state in matters of the economy, taxes, politics, security, education, and the nation’s electoral system.
No, Mr. Martinez, the UN should not be heard in a matter pertaining only to Argentines themselves.
Argentine is a sovereign nation, it has not become some protectorate of the UN.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:In his post, Rufo shared a report by Associated Press, revealing that Harvard has recently shed some light on its ongoing investigation into plagiarism allegations against Gay, noting that the Ivy League university admitted in a Friday letter to a congressional committee that it had learned of potential plagiarism on October 24 from a New York Post reporter.
By acknowledging that the school had known about plagiarism allegations against Gay since October, Harvard has effectively admitted that its entire defense of Gay in recent months was a sham.
Gay’s academic career fell under scrutiny in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, after which point Harvard leadership was slammed nationwide for failing to properly address antisemitism taking place on campus.
...
Amid the multiple antisemitism scandals, Gay’s own work ended up being called into question over allegations of plagiarism, which Harvard responded to in December by defending its president, saying, “we unanimously stand in support of President Gay.”
Gay resigned earlier this month. Her six month tenure marks the shortest tenure in Harvard’s history.
Quote:Department of Homeland Security General Counsel Jonathan Meyer sent a second demand letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton demanding the state of Texas grant full, unimpeded access to a border city park and boat ramp. The Texas Military Department seized Shelby Park in early January. Tuesday’s letter sets a deadline of January 26, for the state to grant the Border Patrol full access to Shelby Park and other areas along a 2.5 mile stretch of the Rio Grande in the small Texas border town of Eagle Pass.
The letter, attached below, directly addresses Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court order freeing the Border Patrol to cut wire and fencing installed by the state to gain access to the border under their statutory authority to enter private lands without warrant within 25 miles of the border. The 5-4 decision paused a lower court’s ruling that had previously blocked such action.
The letter addresses the issue by saying, “As you are aware, yesterday, the Supreme Court vacated the injunction prohibiting the Department from cutting or moving the concertina wire that Texas had placed along the border except in case of emergency, and restored the Department’s right to cut and move the concertina wire placed by Texas in order to perform their statutory duties. The Department must also have the ability to access the border in the Shelby Park area that is currently obstructed by Texas.”
The letter demands unfettered access to several areas in and around the park...
Quote:Host Neil Cavuto asked, [relevant exchange begins around 1:00] “I understand, maybe from your briefing earlier, sir, that the U.S. has, at this point, destroyed or degraded more than 25 missile facilities since January 11. They’ve had follow-up attacks. So, the fear is, they’ve got other means or areas from which they can attack us. I know that’s sort of like a pin-prick strategy, you can’t get to all pin sites. But what do you say about their ability to attack, U.S. elements, shipping interests in the Red Sea now? How much has that been degraded?”
Ryder answered, “Yeah, so, as you highlight, since January 11, we assess that we have successfully destroyed or degraded over 20 missiles and 25 missile launch and deployment facilities, as well as a variety of other capabilities, to include coastal radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, aerial surveillance, and weapons storage areas. So, all of that combines to degrade and disrupt their ability to conduct these kinds of attacks going forward. Now, we do know that the Houthis maintain capabilities, additional capabilities, and would not be surprised if we see other attacks in the future. But what we’re doing here is putting a cost on those attacks and essentially making it very clear that there will be consequences.
Quote:During a recent interview, Mayorkas appeared to agree with an assessment that the administration is releasing more than 70 percent of illegal aliens into the country. Mayorkas also privately told Border Patrol agents that the number of illegal aliens being released into the country was above 85 percent, according to a later report from Fox News. All of this contradicts Mayorkas’s repeated assertions that the U.S has operational control over its southern border, but it’s also very revealing about the approach Mayorkas takes to border security.
As record numbers of illegal aliens have crossed the border on a yearly basis since Mayorkas took office, the secretary has been loath to take responsibility for the catastrophe that has occurred on his watch. He has repeatedly blamed Congress for the border crisis, and has claimed that he inherited a broken immigration system, essentially telling the public not to blame him for the disaster. However, the root cause of the unprecedented surge in illegal aliens at the southern border is not a “broken immigration system,” or deficiencies of U.S. asylum law. It is Mayorkas’s blatant refusal to uphold the rule of law.
Mayorkas and his supporters contend that aliens have the right to claim asylum, and the overwhelming number of fraudulent asylum claims being made are not his responsibility. These defenses fall short when one looks at the vast incentive structure Mayorkas and his cronies have set up to enable illegal immigration.
Just months after being confirmed to his role by the U.S. Senate in 2021, Mayorkas authored a memo stating that entering the country illegally was no longer sufficient cause to deport an alien. Unless illegal aliens have committed a heinous crime or is deemed a national security threat, they can stay in the U.S. as long as they want.
As a friendly reminder, I'm leaving this official press release published when Mayorkas himself was the Deputy Secretary of the same department that now is doing nothing to prevent illegal immigrants from flooding the Southern Border like crazy. I can tell you that nothing has improved ever since his days as second in command of the DHS. But wait for tomorrow's edition of NOTW to learn more on why he's destroying the US by neglecting his duties there.
Quote:Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that the use of the Emergencies Act by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to shut down a series of trucker-led protests in February of 2022 was “unreasonable”, CBC reports.
The ruling came in response to a legal case brought forward by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and other individuals who argued that the protests did not meet the legal threshold for the government to use the powers granted under the act, which had never been used and was originally intended as a means of combatting terrorists.
The protests, which began in January of 2022, were almost entirely peaceful and featured truckers using their vehicles to block roads in Ottawa and along the U.S. border in opposition to vaccine mandates and other lockdown diktats, for which they were falsely branded as “racists” by the Trudeau government.
The triggering of the Emergencies Act by Trudeau — reportedly at the urging of the Biden administration in the United States — allowed the government to arrest the leaders of the Freedom Convoy, freeze bank accounts of protesters, and seize donations intended for the protest.
The Act states that, for the government to declare a public emergency, there must be “threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to be a national emergency.” The law defers to the definition of a threat from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which lists espionage, serious violence, foreign interference, or intent to overthrow the government as examples that would meet the threshold.
In his ruling, Judge Mosley said:
I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration.
“The potential for serious violence, or being unable to say that there was no potential for serious violence was, of course, a valid reason for concern,” he added. “But in my view, it did not satisfy the test required to invoke the Act.”
Quote:Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro ordered the activation on Tuesday of a security operation branded “Bolivarian Fury” to crack down on political dissidents, once again violating the terms of the oil and gas sanctions relief package brokered with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden agreed to relieve sanctions imposed during the administration of predecessor Donald Trump on the grounds that Maduro allow a “free and fair” presidential election in 2024.
Maduro claimed that the Bolivarian Fury crackdown plan seeks to “neutralize” foreign conspiracy plots allegedly attempting to generate “violent and seditious actions” against Venezuela’s socialist regime.
The announcement was made during an official event commemorating the 66th anniversary of the end of Marcos Pérez Jiménez’s dictatorship and Venezuela’s return to democracy on January 23, 1958. Maduro warned that, should something happen to him, the “Venezuelan people” would respond with the “Bolivarian Fury” plan.
“I am one of you and if someday the fascists do me any harm, any attack, I leave it in your hands to do what you have to do to restore justice and peace in Venezuela. Activate the Bolivarian Fury,” Maduro said.
Quote:Qatar slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, after the latter was reported to have called Qatar “problematic” because it hosts the terrorist billionaire leaders of Hamas while also mediating between Hamas and Israel.
On the one hand, Qatar is the go-between in negotiations between Hamas and Israel over the potential release of Israeli hostages, over 100 of whom remain in terrorist hands in Gaza. On the other, Qatar supports Hamas and controls Al Jazeera, a media network that pumps anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda to viewers throughout the Middle East and around the world. Qatar was also once a major funder of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as Hamas, and Hamas leaders live in exile in the capital, Doha.
Netanyahu’s remarks were reported Wednesday after he met with the families of Israeli hostages and commented that the United States had wasted an opportunity for leverage by renewing its ten-year contract with Qatar to host U.S. military bases there.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wrote:I think you need to speak to the hearts of the international community to pressure anyone who can pressure [Hamas]. First of all is Qatar. Now, when I talk about Qatar, you don’t hear me thank Qatar…Why? Because Qatar, as far as I’m concerned, is not significantly different from the UN, is not significantly different from the Red Cross, and to some extent it’s even more problematic. But I can use any factor for now that will help me bring them home. I have no illusions about them. I was very angry recently and didn’t hide it from the Americans that they renewed their contract for a military base in Qatar. Why didn’t you say ‘I ask you to bring back our hostages.’ That’s pressure!…Qatar has leverage on Hamas. First of all, pressure Qatar.
Honestly, the US lax attitude towards Qatar also baffles me as well. Anyway, there's another reason why you can't trust the Qatari just like that.
Quote:Leaked documents have implicated Qatari Ambassador Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani — currently his country’s representative to the U.S. and formerly its ambassador to France — in alleged efforts to bribe a French minister and spy on U.S. lawmakers.
Al-Thani’s name came up in documents exposed by Project Raven, itself an international scandal that involved more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives going to work for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as electronic surveillance specialists.
Project Raven began during the Obama administration with a certain degree of officially approved cooperation between the U.S. and UAE intelligence services, which led to Qatar aggressively hiring U.S. intelligence veterans with advanced electronic surveillance skills. The project was seen by U.S. officials as a useful tool against international terrorist groups — such as al-Qaeda — in its early days.
The UAE began using its American hires to collect intelligence on a growing constellation of security threats, including Qatar, which has often been at odds with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). These tensions led to a GCC boycott and a partial blockade of Qatar between 2017 and 2021.
When Reuters exposed Project Raven in a series of 2019 reports, some of the American intelligence officers the UAE hired said they felt the program started going off the rails around 2016, with surveillance extending to human rights activists, journalists, political dissidents, and Western targets, including Americans.
In 2016, the UAE told its cyberintelligence contractors they could either begin working for an Emirati firm called DarkMatter or quit the program and go home. Soon afterward, the UAE cyberwar unit began hacking into the smartphones of targets that included numerous Qatari officials, all the way up to the Emir of Qatar himself.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported in November that some of the Qatari documents exposed by Project Raven implicated al-Thani, who was then assigned to France, in a 2016 effort to bribe French Secretary of State for Relations with Parliament Jena-Marie Le Guen.
...
The Qataris took no action against French media outlets that ran the Le Guen story in late 2021, which MEMRI took as a tacit admission the leaked documents were genuine. The revelations contributed to a rolling scandal in France and the European Union that some observers labeled “Qatargate,” involving hundreds of efforts by Qatar to manipulate EU politics. The scandal took down several EU lawmakers, including former European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili.
MEMRI reported on Monday that, in addition to the Le Guen bribery allegations, al-Thani was allegedly involved in a Qatari intelligence initiative called “Project ENDGAME,” which involved hiring a company called Global Research Associates (GRA), headed by a former CIA official named Kevin Chalker, to spy on U.S. lawmakers.
Targets of Project ENDGAME included Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), plus Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), who was chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2019.
Quote:Ilana Stein, spokesperson of The National Public Diplomacy Directorate, said there would be no ceasefire after Hamas had violated past agreements, including the agreement earlier this month to transfer medicines to Israeli hostages.
Israel had “not received promised evidence that the medicine was received,” Stein told the international press. She added that Israel would not give up on its stated goals of destroying Hamas, freeing all of the hostages, and preventing Gaza from threatening Israel ever again.
The media — Israeli and otherwise — have been filled with speculation this week about the possible terms for a hostage deal between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, as 136 Israeli captives remain in Gaza, some of them already known to be dead.
As Breitbart News reported, the Biden administration has reportedly suggested, via Egypt and Qatar, that Israel and Hamas agree to a three-stage deal in which Israel would end the war in return for a gradual release of all of the hostages.
This would amount to a defeat for Israel in the war, since the Israeli government would not be able to complete its mission of destroying Hamas’s terror capabilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the deal and vowed that Israeli soldiers would not have died in vain.
Quote:The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) on Sunday announced an investment plan to build a petrochemical complex in China’s Fujian province, in cooperation with the Fujian Fuhua Gulei Petrochemical company.
Chinese state media celebrated the announcement as evidence that China and Saudi Arabia are growing closer, both economically and politically.
China’s state-run Global Times hailed the SABIC Fujian Petrochemicals Company created by Sunday’s announcement as an example of “the fruitful industrial cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia.”
The Global Times looked at Saudi Arabia’s $6.4 billion investment in the Fujian project as the petrochemical engagement ring for a geopolitical romance built upon the Saudis feeding China’s voracious appetite for fossil fuels.
Analysts quoted by the Chinese paper pointed to other agreements between big Chinese corporations and Aramco, the Saudi national oil company, as other signs of the increasing harmony between Beijing and Riyadh.
Quote:President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran departed for Turkey on Wednesday, expected to hold in-person meetings with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on how best to support the jihadist terror group Hamas in its campaign of human rights atrocities against Israel.
...
Both Iran and Turkey celebrated the October 7 attacks, Tehran with a massive street party featuring chants of “death to America” and Ankara with a “Great Palestine Rally” reportedly featuring over 1 million people.
Shortly before taking off to Ankara on Wednesday, Raisi reportedly commended “Iran and Turkey’s common position” on Hamas and emphasized that his meetings with Erdogan would focus on opposing Israeli self-defense operations against the terrorists in Gaza.
...Raisi reportedly added, “But we are sure that the victory belongs to Palestine. And it will be annihilation of the Zionist regime [Israel].”
The Islamist dictatorship of Iran opposes the existence of a Jewish state on the land of Israel. It openly rejects the idea of a “two-state solution,” with Israel and a hypothetical “Palestine” co-existing.
...
To further the “annihilation” of Israel, Raisi reportedly told PressTV that he would discuss with Erdogan “cutting off the vital arteries of the Zionist regime.” PressTV did not clarify what kind of action – military, economic boycotts, etc. – that would entail. The most prominent campaign to “cut off the vital arteries” of Israel currently in vigor is the series of operations by the Houthi Shiite terrorist organization of Yemen to attack commercial ships transiting through the Red Sea. The Houthis claim that they are only attacking ships with ties to Israel, but have shot missiles and conducted drone attacks against seemingly random ships, triggering a mass chilling effect on ship traffic in the region and forcing companies to divert their ships around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
The Turkish Communications Directorate confirmed Raisi’s visit on Wednesday with significantly less belligerent language than Raisi’s.
Quote:Research conducted by The Jerusalem Post staff and several sources uncovered what appears to be a network of several South African organizations and straw man companies deeply involved with funding Hamas activities through the Al-Quds Foundation, an international group sanctioned by the US and outlawed by Israel, using accounts registered in major local South African banks: Standard Bank, Nedbank, and Absa.
...
Sanctioning by the US and Israel notwithstanding, the foundation continues its operations across the globe, featuring roughly thirteen branches in different countries, sometimes holding different names. In South Africa, a registered organization named “Al-Quds Foundation SA” also exists which openly admits on their new website that they are “a branch of Al-Quds foundation with headquarters in Lebanon.”
The organization itself boasts about its fundraising activities, claiming funds would be transferred to the needy in Gaza. The foundation’s website lists Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels as its director, leading the South African branch since 2019.
Gabriels was once the head of the Muslim Judicial Council, the umbrella body for Muslims in South Africa, with authority over religious matters as well as communal affairs. The Post describes Gabriels as closely connected to leading Hamas officials.
Nedbank, the one bank that replied to the Post‘s queries, would not confirm the identity or existence of the Hamas accounts, while maintaining that it complies with international sanctions. South Africa’s banking sector is viewed as one of the few remaining repositories of expertise and competence in a country plagued by corruption, crime, and an ongoing brain drain.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Kevin Morris, Hunter Biden’s Hollywood lawyer, verified to House investigators last week that he purchased Hunter’s ten percent stake in the Chinese state-backed investment fund BHR Partners, confirming Breitbart News’s exclusive in April, as initially revealed by non-for-profit Marco Polo.
Morris’s ownership of the stake raises questions about his intent for the acquisition, as related to his ongoing personal and business relationship with the first family, along with the business partnership he now has with a Chinese Community Party-linked fund.
Morris acknowledged he bought Hunter’s stake only after pressure increased on Hunter to divest from the entity due to a conflict of interest upon President Joe Biden assuming the White House.
BHR Partners, an entity controlled by the Bank of China, has about $3 billion currently invested around the world, according to its website.
Morris stated he purchased the company because it was a “good business investment,” a transcript obtained by Breitbart News shows. Morris only admitted to the acquisition after asserting the reason for purchasing the company was covered by the attorney-client privilege.
Quote:President Joe Biden’s deputies have let 6.2 million illegal migrants into the United States, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Biden’s southern inflow is more than one migrant for every two American births since January 2021.
“More of those people are also being released into the United States than previously, generally through the use of parole authority or with a notice to appear before an immigration judge,” said the report, titled “The Demographic Outlook: 2014 to 2054.”
The 2023 inflow included 900,000 migrants who were released after they walked up to official border gates plus 1.1 million migrants who were released after they crossed through gaps in the border wall, said the CBO agency, which acts as an advisor to Capitol Hill legislators.
Roughly half of those migrants — 1.1 million — were let into the country by October 1, via Biden’s use of the “parole” loophole in border law, the CBO reported. Biden and his Democrat allies are now trying to expand the parole doorway.
The 2023 inflow also included 860,000 “gotaways” who sneaked past Biden’s half-built and lightly guarded border wall and 430,000 people who remained in the United States long after their visas had expired.
The figure is close to the partial data released by the Department of Homeland Security in early January.
The CBO data does not include hundreds of thousands of migrants released since October 1.
...
The CBO report noted that Americans’ “projected total fertility rate [fell] from 1.75 to 1.70 births per woman” in 2023.
In Canada, the same causes and effects have sharply reduced the Canadian birth rate.
Quote:1stResponderMedia posted a video on X showing an interview with a group of migrants who illegally crossed the border 12 miles east of Sasabe, Arizona, over the weekend. At least one of the migrants in the small group identified himself as an African migrant from Morocco.
A second male migrant traveling in the same group responded to a question about his country of origin with an ominous message.
“If you are smart enough, you will know who I am,” the migrant began. “But you are really not smart enough to know who I am.”
“But soon,” he continued, “You’re gonna know who I am.”
The migrant then walked away.
A spokesman for 1stResponderMedia told Breitbart Texas that Border Patrol agents picked up the man and transported him to a processing center. What happened to him after that is not known.
The CBP Nationwide Encounters Report shows Tucson Sector agents apprehended nearly 120,000 migrants in the first two months of FY24. Unofficial Border Patrol reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas reveal that Tucson Sector agents apprehended another 80,000 migrants in December and nearly 35,000 more in the first three reporting periods of January, Breitbart Texas reported.
Quote:On Tuesday, Jordan announced that he subpoenaed Becerra, suggesting that HHS has been less than forthcoming regarding how the agency handles UACs who are discovered to be criminals and gang members.
HHS oversees the UAC program, in which children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border are briefly taken into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody before being transferred to HHS custody, where they are eventually placed with an adult sponsor — the majority of whom are not their biological parents.
According to Jordan, the Judiciary Committee has asked repeatedly since June of last year for all information from HHS regarding where UACs are placed, the vetting process for adult sponsors, and what the agency does when a UAC is found to be a criminal or gang member.
HHS, Jordan alleges, has been unable to disclose the total number of UACs that the agency has placed in the custody of a known sex offender or the number of adult sponsors who have been rejected for being a convicted criminal, including a convicted murderer.
...
Becerra has been unable to guarantee that 100 percent of adult sponsors’ homes are inspected before a UAC is placed in their care — a requirement for many pet adoption programs, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) previously noted.
...
HHS losing contact with these UACs coincides with a boom in labor trafficking among migrant children. The labor trafficking pipeline has gotten so out of hand that the Department of Labor Inspector General has opened an investigation into the Biden administration’s handling of the issue.
Quote:Peter Navarro, a White House trade advisor to former president Donald Trump, was sentenced to four months in prison on Thursday for refusing to testify before the congressional panel that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Navarro, 74, a Harvard-educated economist, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress by a federal jury in Washington in September after a two-day trial.
US District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced him to four months in prison — two months less than prosecutors had requested — and ordered him to pay a fine of $9,500.
“You are not a victim,” The Washington Post quoted Mehta as saying at Navarro’s sentencing hearing. “You are not the object of a political prosecution. These are circumstances of your own making.”
Navarro had refused to appear for a deposition before the House of Representatives committee that investigated the January 6 attack on Congress by Trump supporters and declined to supply documents to the panel.
Navarro is the second close Trump ally to be convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the House committee.
Steve Bannon, one of the masterminds behind Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and victory, was also found guilty of contempt of Congress.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison but remains free pending an appeal. Navarro is also expected to appeal.
Quote:CBS’s Face the Nation is facing backlash after presenting a radical Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) board director as a typical member of a focus group on Sunday, without identifying his leading role in the group that was recently removed by the White House from its national strategy on hate over its leaders’ explicit praise for terrorism.
Moderator Margaret Brennan spoke with a “group of Michigan Democrats” regarding their voting intentions and the key issues influencing their decisions.
Five voters, described as students and community activists in Michigan, are seen sitting across from the journalist to take questions.
Brennan turns to a man named “Thasin,” asking if he changed his mind on his choice for the upcoming president, to which he responded in the affirmative, explaining that he “was a champion for Joe Biden until October 7th.”
“I feel he’s disowned us, disenfranchised us with his stance on Gaza,” he said.
According to Thasin, President Biden is “not listening” to Muslims.
...
“Even progressives … I define myself as a progressive, and many people that I talk to in my circles do not, are not going to be voting for Joe Biden,” he maintained.
What CBS and Brennan failed to note is that Thasin is no typical voter, but an adviser and board member of CAIR’s Michigan chapter, whose full name is Thasin Sardar.
Quote:A Delta Airlines Boeing 757 jet taxiing on the runway with 184 passengers on board at Atlanta’s international airport was forced to abort takeoff when a nose wheel fell off and parted ways with the stricken flight.
The wheel “came off and rolled down the hill” as the flight was waiting to begin its journey, according to a report from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The plane is 32 years old.
Delta confirmed the incident on the plane scheduled to fly from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Bogota, Colombia.
“Delta Flight 982 ATL/BOG was taxiing for departure when a nose gear tire came loose from the landing gear,” Delta said in a statement Wednesday, NBC News reports.
“All customers and their bags were removed from the aircraft, transferred to the gate and onto a replacement aircraft. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
The plane was put back into service the next day, Delta said.
None of the passengers or six crew members were hurt in the incident, according to the FAA’s preliminary report.
Those events come as another blow to Boeing’s name.
Quote:Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) spoke exclusively with Breitbart News Wednesday about his push to block the sale of Remington and other iconic American brands to Czechoslovak Group (CSG).
The other brands include Federal and CCI. All the brands are held under the umbrella of Vista Outdoor’s Sporting Products.
Vance has concerns about the sale due to links between CSG and the Kremlin, and he is asking the Committee on Foreign Investment to block the sale.
He explained his concerns in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Breitbart News has the letter, dated January 24, 2024, in its possession.
The letter says, in part, “[CSG has] a long record of wrongdoing and well-documented connections to American adversaries.”
...
“Until it can be proven that this transaction will not jeopardize our national security,” Vance concluded, “I respectfully urge you to deny the sale of Vista Outdoor’s Sporting Products business to the Czechoslovak Group.”
Quote:Tesla CEO Elon Musk says if the United States does not slap hefty tariffs on China, the American auto industry will be decimated.
According to CNBC, Musk made the remarks on a Tesla earnings call this week, suggesting that absent U.S. tariffs on China, Chinese automakers like BYD and Nio Inc. “will pretty much demolish” American automakers.
“The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world,” Musk said on the call, CNBC reports:
“So, I think they will have significant success outside of China depending on what kind of tariffs or trade barriers are established,” Musk said on Tesla’s earnings call Wednesday. [Emphasis added]
“Frankly, I think, if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other companies in the world.” [Emphasis added]
At the same time, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain endorsed President Joe Biden this week, as he has blasted former President Donald Trump’s plan that would see tariffs on China significantly rise and 10 percent tariffs on all foreign imports.
This Congress, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recommended Biden end U.S. free trade with China, which would include the White House revoking China’s permanent normal trade relations status (PNTR).
Already, China has become the world’s top exporter of cars — surpassing Japan. Similarly, Chinese automaker BYD has become the world’s biggest seller of Electric Vehicles (EVs), beating Tesla for the top honor.
Quote:The young woman has been identified as 25-year-old Órla Baxendale, who was originally from the United Kingdom and living in New York City to pursue her dancing career, according to her family’s lawyers who explained what happened in a statement, NBC New York reported Thursday.
She died on January 11 of anaphylactic shock “resulting from a severe allergic reaction to a cookie manufactured by Cookies United and sold by the supermarket chain Stew Leonard’s, the statement said. The cookie contained peanuts that were not listed as part of the ingredients,” per the NBC article.
An image shows the young woman and a container holding several of the cookies in question:
Leadership of the grocery store chain that has three locations in Connecticut recently issued a recall for the Florentine Cookies that were sold in Danbury and Newington.
Although the store’s recall said the items contained peanuts, the manufacturer reportedly failed to note the ingredients on the label.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that the Biden administration has asked top Chinese officials to pressure Iran to make its Houthi proxy terrorists in Yemen halt their attacks on Red Sea shipping.
According to the Times’s sources, these pleas from top Biden officials — all the way up to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken — have fallen on deaf ears in Beijing.
The Biden team has reportedly been asking China for help for “the past three months” but saw “little evidence China had put any pressure on Iran to restrain the Houthis.”
The best Beijing could do was a bland statement asking all parties to guarantee the safety of Red Sea shipping. The Houthis responded by assuring China and Russia that ships flying their flags would not be attacked. Terrorist attacks on the vessels of other nations continued unabated.
Pinprick airstrikes by United States and United Kingdom forces against Houthi missile batteries have not convinced the terrorists to halt their attacks or significantly degraded their ability to threaten commercial vessels, so Biden officials are now talking to reporters on background about a significant escalation of military action against the Houthis.
That favor Biden has asked China fully demonstrates what a moron he is. And Blinken and Sullivan are no better than their own boss. They don't even understand the Middle Eastern mentality at all.
Quote:President Joe Biden’s (D) administration announced Friday it is temporarily pausing pending decisions on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports as part of a move to combat so-called “climate change.”
In his statement, Biden said there will be a pause but “with the exception of unanticipated and immediate national security emergencies.”
He added that officials will probe the “impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America’s energy security, and our environment. This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.”
“While MAGA Republicans willfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis, condemning the American people to a dangerous future, my Administration will not be complacent. We will not cede to special interests,” the president claimed.
However, Fox News reported Friday that environmentalists have recently urged officials to make such a move.
...
While it is unclear which proposed projects the action will affect, a senior administration official told reporters at least two have a larger capacity and two have a smaller capacity. Another official added that the pause implemented Friday will only impact projects that have gone through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) lengthy approval process and are ripe for DOE approval.
In his statement Friday, Biden said his administration has been working to combat the so-called “climate crisis” in America and abroad, then touted his energy policies.
Open Editorial
The problem is that CO2 won't kill people or animals. To the contrary, trees and crops depend HEAVILY on high levels of CO2 in the air. No tree will get thicker and thicker in a short period of time like 10 years if it can't find water and CO2. The colder an environment gets, the thinner the rings of a tree will be. Scientists are fully aware of that fact.
CO2 might raise the temperature a bit more in the next few years? Good. A warm climate helps food production a lot. Go check the stats on crop yields yourselves. Here's the related study as well. It clearly shows how farmland area has no reason to dramatically increase its coverage of soil to produce better results. One of the important reasons behind this increase is the warm temperatures.
This doesn't mean that there is no ceiling that could be reached in the (distant?) future. Government can implement policies that can slow it down significantly. Some agricultural practices can also affect the soil negatively like not rotating crops every year. The lack of access to potash can also prove to be quite harmful for several economies around the world.
Do you care about preserving current soil conditions? Well, there are people already working on possible solutions to several issues.
Extract of National Library of Medicine's Article on the Issue Wrote:Increasing the productivity of existing agricultural land will also have environmental consequences (Tilman et al., 2002), but the negative consequences are generally less onerous and in some cases can be positive, depending upon how the land was previously used. Increased use of nitrogen fertilizers, a concern with both methods of increasing production, can increase nitrous oxide emissions, reduce water quality, and increase the size of hypoxic zones (Donner and Kucharik, 2008). However, incremental yield increases can be achieved on existing agricultural land through conservation tillage or transgenic insect control. Conservation tillage can decrease erosion, conserve soil moisture, and increase soil organic matter (Lal, 2004), and transgenic insect control can reduce broad spectrum insecticide use (Qaim and Zilberman, 2003; Cattaneo et al., 2006).
Anyway, it's not hard to prove that stopping the production of oil and gas does nothing to prevent the so called climate change. Yet, it does put at risk the current levels of food production that sustain the modern lifestyle. Heck, it can impair the production of medicines that also depend on oil because it is one of its raw materials! Then you'll have no excuse to complain that Americans or Europeans depend too much on China and India to get your medicines. Keep in mind they're still burning fossil fuels!
And nope, that's not the only reason they plan to convince you of not relying on fuels. They also need you to shorten your trips as proven with all the Tesla and electric charger stations articles published on NOTCW thread. If you go full electric, you'll lose your independence and will get stuck in the middle of nowhere and a gas-powered Ford will have to come to your rescue. Literally speaking.
Quote:The Georgia State Senate on Friday approved launching a subpoena-powered investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis by a 30-19 vote.
The investigation will be run by a Senate committee... This follows Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s ® refusal to launch a criminal investigation into Willis, citing the need for a currently non-operational oversight committee to open the probe.
Willis stands accused of misconduct and corruption during her prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Republicans became alarmed by a court filing by Mike Roman, a political operative and co-defendant of Trump in the Georgia election case, who leveled four explosive allegations against Willis in January about her conduct while prosecuting Trump.
...
The Senate committee will hold subpoena power to “secure the attendance of witnesses or the production of documents and materials” related to Willis, the resolution put forth by Georgia State Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Forsyth) read.
The committee, the only type of its kind in the state of Georgia, will comprise nine senators, only three of whom will be Democrats. The Committee on Assignments will appoint members to the committee.
“The Georgia legislature has a responsibility to hold public officials accountable,” Georgia Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones exclusively told Breitbart News on Monday. “Recent reports have been deeply troubling, and I appreciate Sen. Dolezal’s leadership on this issue.”
Quote:Republicans on the House Committee on Homeland Security are moving forward with their impeachment of embattled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The committee announced it will convene on Tuesday, January 30, to mark up articles of impeachment against Mayorkas for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) touted the committee’s yearlong “comprehensive investigation” into Mayorkas as well as “the causes, costs, and consequences of the unprecedented crisis at America’s borders, holding 10 hearings, publishing six reports totaling roughly 400 pages, and conducting extensive interviews with chief patrol agents for the U.S. Border Patrol.”
The announcement comes as Senate negotiations pairing border security and foreign aid reach a low point. With that deal seemingly on life support, the House sending articles of impeachment to the Senate — which would almost certainly kill the resolution — could be another step in highlighting Democrat inaction on the border.
The committee published excerpts of transcripts from chief and deputy chief patrol agents at the Southwest border regarding what it calls “a number of consequences of Secretary Mayorkas’s open borders”:
Never before have agents seen such historic numbers of illegal crossings.
The lack of consequences enforced by this administration for illegal entry
Mass releases functioning as a pull factor for millions of illegal aliens
Illegal aliens are now turning themselves in to Border Patrol, knowing they will be released into the interior.
The expansive degree of cartel control at the Southwest border
Agents are being taken out of the field in order to help process and release illegal aliens.
Illegal aliens are spreading the word of our open border back home, encouraging more crossings.
The operational impacts of open borders, including closed checkpoints and national security/public safety risks
Border Patrol sector chiefs contradict Secretary Mayorkas and say they do not have operational control in their sectors.
Quote:The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an organization for decades facing accusations of fueling radical Islam and antisemitism in Gaza, announced Friday it was suspending some staff over allegations they joined the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres “is horrified” by the accusations and an “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA will be conducted”, said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
A statement setting out the move was issued by Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, declaring:
To protect the Agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay. Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families.
These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the Agency has been providing since the war began. Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world.
The United States was the agency’s biggest bilateral donor in 2022, contributing more than $340 million, according to UNRWA’s website.
The U.S. State Department also reacted quickly to the news by stating it has paused additional funding for UNRWA while it reviews the allegations “and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”
Twelves workers from UNRWA currently face accusations they willingly participated in the deadly Hamas terror attack. The State Department declared that in light of the investigations:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on January 25 to emphasize the necessity of a thorough and swift investigation of this matter. We welcome the decision to conduct such an investigation and Secretary General Guterres’ pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate.
Quote:Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro declared on Thursday that the deal signed between his socialist regime and the Venezuelan “opposition” to hold a “free and fair” 2024 presidential election was “mortally wounded,” implying the cancellation of the election.
The agreements, signed in Barbados in October through the mediation of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, committed Maduro to taking steps towards holding a “free and fair” presidential election in the second half of 2024. Some of the steps included the lifting of bans on opposition politicians from running for office — including a ban on María Corina Machado, Maduro’s presumptive rival in the hypothetical electoral event. Maduro never lifted the ban and never fixed a date for the election at the time he declared the plan dead.
In exchange for the apparently defunct promise of elections, the administration of leftist President Joe Biden awarded the rogue socialist regime a generous oil and gas sanctions relief package that is presently allowing the state-owned PDVSA oil company to once again freely sell Venezuelan oil and gas in the U.S. and international markets.
Well, that last part is inaccurate to say the least. Venezuela never stopped selling oil and gas to US. Companies like Chevron or ExxonMobil just had to ask for an extension on a preexisting extraction and transport license and it has been continually renewed year after year. Both Trump and Biden administrations have granted the extensions without issues for years.
Quote:“Today, the Barbados agreements are mortally wounded. I declare them in intensive care, they were stabbed, they were kicked,” Maduro said during an official event. Maduro, despite never showing any signs of respecting his commitments, claimed that he hoped the agreements could be saved and that both sides could “push, through dialogue, great agreements of real national consensus, face to face, without hidden cards, without macabre plans.”
Maduro’s statements followed the launch of a crackdown on dissidents this week labeled “Bolivarian Fury,” an alleged response to the purported discovery of “foreign conspiracy plots” to kill Maduro and generate “violent and seditious actions” against the ruling socialist regime.
The first hours of the “Bolivarian Fury” crackdown saw the kidnapping of three of Machado’s campaign administrators, as well as attacks on the local headquarters of Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, in at least ten of the nation’s states. Other political parties and civil organizations also reported vandalization.
Vente Venezuela released a statement on Thursday asking U.S. authorities to address the situation, given their involvement in the collapsing election deal.
Quote:Questions remained Thursday over the military plane crash that Russia said had killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers ahead of a planned prisoner exchange, with Moscow and Kyiv trading accusations at the UN Security Council.
Russia has blamed Ukrainian forces for downing the IL-76 transport plane over the southern Belgorod region on Wednesday.
It said 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers were on board, as well as their escorts and the crew.
Videos on social media showed a large plane in the region plummeting from the sky on its side before crashing in a fireball, in what the Kremlin called a “monstrous act”.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it had opened a “terrorism” probe into the crash, saying the plane was downed by a “missile from the territory of Ukraine”.
It released a 39-second video of the scene that mainly showed aerial shots of a large blackened stretch in a snow-covered field with some damaged trees.
The video also showed a block of twisted metal and wires, as well as a hand and an arm — though it was unclear if they were from one or two people. No other human remains were shown.
Quote:Speaking to mark Ukrainian Unity Day, a state holiday marking the 1919 Unification Act proclaiming the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic — largely absorbed into the Soviet Union the same year — President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on Ukrainian pride and identity. While saying he was moving to give passports to all ethnic Ukrainians worldwide, President Zelensky also said he wanted to develop the “restoration of truth about the historical past” of Ukrainian areas in Russia.
The Ukrainian President said: “Today we must take steps not only to strengthen the unity of Ukraine and our people, but also to act for the unity of rights and freedoms, the truth about Ukrainians, the truth about us and the truth about our history. To this end, today I signed the decree ‘On the territories of the Russian Federation historically inhabited by Ukrainians’.”
The timing of the announcement to coincide with Ukrainian Unity Day offers some insight into what the President may have been referring to, given parts of 1919 Ukraine which it commemorates are now inside modern-day Russia.
Indeed, even beyond those short-lived borders, ethnic Ukrainians historically extended eastwards into modern-day Poland near Lublin and Krakov, and westwards beyond Crimea into Rostov and Saratov on the Volga in Russia.
Quote:A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a woman to 27 years in prison for a cafe blast that killed a prominent pro-war blogger after he was given a bust of himself that later exploded.
In a separate proceeding, a Moscow court convicted a former leader of separatist rebels in Ukraine who called President Vladimir Putin a coward of extremism and sentenced him to four years.
Darya Trepova, 26, was convicted by a court in St. Petersburg of carrying out a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking of explosive devices and forging documents in the April 2 blast at the cafe in which Vladlen Tatarsky was killed and 52 others were injured.
Tatarsky, 40, was an ardent supporter of the Kremlin´s military action in Ukraine and filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines.
Trepova was seen on video presenting Tatarsky with the bust moments before the blast at the riverside cafe in the historic heart of Russia´s second-largest city where he was leading a discussion.
She insisted that she didn´t know the bust contained a bomb. Russian authorities have blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating the bombing. Authorities in Kyiv have not directly responded to the accusation.
The court also convicted Trepova’s acquaintance Dmitry Kasintsev of concealing a grave crime for sheltering her after the blast and sentenced him to 21 months in prison.
Quote:NATO signed on Tuesday a $1.2-billion contract to make tens of thousands of artillery rounds to replenish the dwindling stocks of its member countries as they supply ammunition to Ukraine to help it defeat Russia’s invasion.
The contract will allow for the purchase of 220,000 rounds of 155-millimeter ammunition, the most widely sought after artillery shell, according to NATO´s support and procurement agency. It will allow allies to backfill their arsenals and to provide Ukraine with more ammunition.
“This is important to defend our own territory, to build up our own stocks, but also to continue to support Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.
“We cannot allow President (Vladimir) Putin to win in Ukraine,” he added. “That would be a tragedy for the Ukrainians and dangerous for all of us.”
Ukraine was firing around 4,000 to 7,000 artillery shells each day last summer, while Russia was launching more than 20,000 shells daily in its neighbor´s territory, according to European Union estimates.
Russia´s arms industry far outweighs Ukraine´s and Kyiv needs help to match Moscow´s firepower.
But the shells will not arrive quickly – delivery on orders takes anywhere from 24 to 36 months, the NATO agency said.
Can any nation going through a war survive for up to a year and a half without enough ammo supplies?
NATO seems to "care" for Ukraine but at the same time it takes its time to do something impactful enough that could deter Russia from invading more and more regions.
Quote:Contrary to alarming claims by top military officers in recent weeks, there is no “direct or imminent” threat to NATO nations, the alliance’s head has said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has toned down the rhetoric on future conflict, returning to the alliance standard of emphasising the importance of deterrence to prevent war rather than making bold claims about the likelihood of approaching war. Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday as NATO signed a new deal for buying artillery ammunition to restock member states’ inventories emptied by donations to Ukraine, Stoltenberg was questioned on the likelihood of “Russian tanks” entering a European capital city in the next decade.
Stoltenberg said that while the new ammunition acquisition was both for members to be able to protect themselves and to continue to supply Ukraine, he didn’t foresee Russian forces crossing into NATO territory soon. He told the room: “we don’t see any direct or imminent threat against any NATO Ally.”
The purpose of NATO’s increased activity on its eastern border — “vigilance, our presence” — is to “prevent an attack on a NATO ally”, he said. Speaking of military competency and readiness as a key means of deterrence, preventing future wars — for decades the raison d’etre of NATO — Stoltenberg continued and said the alliance’s task is “to prevent this war from escalating to full-scale war between Russia and NATO.
“And we did that by deploying more combat troops to the eastern part of the Alliance, by further increasing our defence investments, and also by exercising more.”
The clear emphasis on deterrence comes after weeks of comments by top military figures warning in dire terms about a coming conflict. The most senior military officer in NATO — who works closely with Stoltenberg — said last week the next 20 years would not be “hunky dory” and the public should be prepared to be involved in a “whole of society event” should war with Russia come.
Quote:A group of anonymous Iranian officials told Reuters that while Beijing is not interested in helping the United States, it has informed the Iranians that attacks by their Houthi terrorist proxies in Yemen must not damage China’s interests in any way.
Biden administration officials have been flummoxed that China did not take action on its own when rising shipping costs began hurting Chinese companies. The administration has grown increasingly explicit over the past few weeks about asking Beijing to exert its influence with Iran to make the Houthis back down.
China is clearly suffering from the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, which have largely cut off a shipping line essential to fast, affordable freight service from Asia to Europe. Chinese export companies are growing increasingly nervous about loss of profit, and possibly even the destruction of entire business models, from skyrocketing freight costs.
The Chinese Communist Party has seemingly been content to absorb these losses because the political and economic damage from the Red Sea crisis is so much worse for the United States and its allies. China put out a few weak statements calling for all parties to respect the safety of shipping, but also insisting that only Israel calling off its military operation against Hamas in Gaza could truly make the Red Sea safe again.
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“Basically, China says: ‘If our interests are harmed in any way, it will impact our business with Tehran. So tell the Houthis to show restraint,’” said one Iranian official.
The Houthis have already promised not to attack Chinese or Russian ships, but China cannot rely exclusively on its own ships to move all of its cargo.
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Instead, China’s emissaries settled for making it clear that Beijing “would be very disappointed with Tehran if any vessels linked to China were hit, or the country’s interests were affected in any way.”
One of the inside sources said that Iran’s response was to assure China that its business was valued, but Iran intends to continue pursuing its regional agenda through the Houthis and other proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
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There was also no evidence in the Red Sea theater that the Biden administration’s pleas with China have had any effect on the Houthis. The Yemeni terrorists attacked American cargo ships under escort by the U.S. Navy on Wednesday, forcing the cargo ships to turn back, and their owner Maersk to suspend all U.S.-flagged operations in the Red Sea. More missile launches and explosions in the area were reported by UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on Friday.
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China’s state-run Global Times on Friday mocked President Joe Biden for thinking China would save him from his Red Sea debacle after Washington has been so rude to Beijing for so many years.
“The timing of the news is interesting, as the U.S. has been organizing allied armed escorts in the Red Sea for over a month and conducting military strikes against the Houthi armed group for over two weeks, with little effect in terms of containment,” the Global Times chortled.
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However, since the recent escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict, US officials have repeatedly asked China to leverage this relationship and exert “influence” on Iran. If they believe the expected results are not achieved, they even criticize China. This obvious contradiction is a perfect portrayal of U.S.’ selfishness and double standards on the international stage.
The Global Times hooted that the failure of the U.S. initiative to protect Red Sea shipping, Operation Prosperity Guardian, and the ineffectiveness of limited punitive airstrikes against the Houthis left Biden looking like “a figure increasingly passive and struggling to cope in the Red Sea.”
Not surprised at all, it's the most natural reaction under the current circumstances. Who respects Biden nowadays?
Quote:Taiwan began training its first group of recruits under extended one-year compulsory military service on Thursday, a policy proposed by outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen in 2022 in response to growing belligerence from China.
Taiwan previously required only four months of compulsory service but, as of January 2024, men born after 2005 will be required to serve for one year. Those born before 2005 will continue with four months of conscription.
The new batch of recruits will be expected to not only serve for longer but to train harder, with a focus on combat instruction more comparable to U.S. military training. The new conscripts will also train with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles.
Eighteen-year-old conscript Yin Hsin-shih told Reuters on Thursday he was “a little bit excited” about his service. He agreed that longer service was necessary to “provide the needed defense power, given that our neighboring country is a great threat to our nation.”
Quote:Communist dictator Kim Jong-un had reportedly invited Putin to North Korea in September during a tour of eastern Russia. Kim’s visit to Russia by train was his first since the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic began in 2020 and Putin’s is expected to be the first visit to North Korea by a world leader following the pandemic.
Kim previously welcomed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese senior Politburo member Li Hongzhong to Pyongyang in July to attend a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement in 1953, which North Korea incorrectly celebrates as a “victory” in the technically ongoing war. The visits were the first of their kind since 2020.
Moscow welcomed Choe, the foreign minister, from January 15 to 17 and scheduled meetings with several high-ranking Russian regime officials, including Putin as well as her counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and deputy prime minister Alexandr Nobak.
In her conversation with the autocrat, “President Putin expressed deep thanks once again for the invitation of President of the State Affairs Kim Jong Un to visit Pyongyang at a convenient time,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. Putin “expressed his willingness to visit the DPRK [North Korea] at an early date.”
Quote:Nations with close economic and political ties to China – including both Russia and Ukraine, as well as serial human rights abusers Ethiopia and Iran, among others – applauded the Communist Party for its alleged “progress” on human rights on Tuesday during a periodic review of Beijing’s record at the United Nations.
China is one of 14 countries up for a “universal periodic review” at the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2024, which began on Tuesday. The review consists of the countries on the Council issuing their commentary, advice, and criticism on the countries’ performances on the issue of human rights, as well as a report later compiled by a “working group” of Human Rights Council states.
The Human Rights Council, despite its name, often operates as a haven for the world’s most aggressive persecutors and human rights abusers. The new class of members inducted to the Council in 2023 includes dictatorships such as Cuba, Qatar, Eritrea, and Vietnam, as well as repressive Islamist states such as Pakistan.
China is also on the Human Rights Council. The Communist Party is currently engaging in at least one genocide – against the majority Muslim Uyghur people of East Turkistan – executed through the mass imprisonment of millions of people in concentration camps, forced sterilization campaigns targeting thousands of women, and a state-sponsored campaign to steal children from their families and raise them under Han culture and communist values. China also stands accused of ethnic cleansing campaigns in Tibet, which it recently rebranded under the Mandarin name “Xizang” and littered with “boarding schools” to erase Tibetan language and culture, and in Inner Mongolia, where the government is campaigning to erase the local language and culture.
China also regularly represses its general population, who do not enjoy freedom of religion, expression, or any other basic civil right. It monitors their behavior through a “social credit system” that penalizes them if considered to be insufficiently enthusiastic about totalitarian dictator Xi Jinping and the communist system.
During its periodic review on Tuesday, China received criticism from the United States, Britain, and a small number of Western states.
“We condemn the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and transnational repression to silence individuals abroad,” the American representative at the reivew, Michèle Taylor, asserted. Her British counterpart urged China to “cease the persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Tibetans and allow genuine freedom of religion or belief and cultural expression without fear of surveillance, torture, forced labour or sexual violence.”
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The government of Iran, an Islamist dictatorship with close ties to both Russia and China, similarly praised China’s alleged work in “promoting social, cultural, and economic rights” through “economic programs.”
The representative from Ethiopia, a nation whose government was mired in a civil war against a group representing the ethnic Tigray minority for two years, declared that the nation “applauds China for improving the criminal litigation system.”
Quote:East Turkistan, home of the oppressed Uyghur Muslims, was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 on Tuesday afternoon, the day after a massive landslide struck the southwestern province of Yunnan. The earthquake killed at least three people, while at least 31 have been killed by the landslide.
China’s state-run Global Times reported that dictator Xi Jinping “demanded an all-out search and rescue” for victims of the landslide in Yunnan.
Xi also “demanded strengthened monitoring and a scientific approach in search and rescue efforts to guard against secondary disasters, as well as ensuring appropriate measures are taken to console the families of the victims and resettle those affected.”
The landslide struck a village called Liangshui in the early morning hours, catching residents by surprise and burying at least 47 of them in their homes. Rescue workers battled heavy snow, icy roads, and freezing temperatures to dig out some of the victims, while hundreds of village residents were evacuated to minimize the risk of another devastating landslide.
“We were all asleep at that time, in the early morning when it was still dark. Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and the ground shook. It felt like a major earthquake,” one of the survivors said.
According to the Global Times, over 900 rescue workers plus dozens of rescue dogs responded to the Liangshui disaster, and more could be on the way from neighboring provinces.
Quote:China’s state-run Global Times on Sunday praised Foreign Minister Wang Yi for paying his first overseas visits of 2024 to Africa and Latin America, where China wants to build closer ties with developing nations of the “Global South.”
“The strong bond between China and many developing countries is not only based on extensive economic cooperation but also on unwavering support for each other’s core interests, as exemplified by the Taiwan question,” the Global Times said.
No government in Africa or Latin America has a “core interest” in Taiwan. What the Chinese Communist Party newspaper meant was that developing nations were happy to pledge their devotion to China’s claims on Taiwan in exchange for financial and diplomatic incentives from Beijing. Not many government officials or businessmen in Jamaica, for example, would be willing to jeopardize lucrative Chinese contracts by standing up for Taiwan’s right to hold elections and determine its own fate.
The “Taiwan question” has given China a quick and reliable tool for judging if Global South nations are willing to shift away from the Western world and enter China’s orbit. The Global Times repeatedly showered praise on African and Latin American leaders willing to sing hosannas to the “One China principle,” while the United States and Europe insist on supporting Taiwan’s autonomy (while also not recognizing Taiwan’s sovereignty):
Strong consensus in each other’s core interests, as well as on most international affairs, is the solid foundation and prerequisite for China’s ties with developing countries. Take the Taiwan question as an example, most developing countries keep a clear mind and stand firm with the one-China principle, while a few countries, willing to serve as US vassals, always seek to stir up confrontation with China on this question, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Quote:Leaders of the Houthi terrorist organization of Yemen reportedly visited Moscow on Thursday, seeking support as they continue a campaign to disrupt global shipping by bombing commercial ships attempting to transit the Red Sea.
Neither the Russian government nor the leadership of the Houthi terror organization, formally referred to as Ansarallah, offered many details on the nature of their discussions. A top Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdel Salam, reportedly claimed that his delegation had met with Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to discuss pressuring America to stop supporting Israel’s self-defense operations against the Sunni terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.
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The government of leftist President Joe Biden, coordinating with the British government, has engaged in several airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. The airstrikes have had no significant effect on the Houthi Red Sea piracy campaign; Biden admitted they are doing nothing to stop the attacks but committed to continuing the bombing.
Abdel Salam, the Houthi spokesman, was reportedly seeking Russian support against both the Western airstrikes and the Israeli campaign in Gaza, urging Moscow to advocate for America to “stop the aggression on the Gaza Strip and deliver humanitarian assistance there rather than militarise the Red Sea.”
The spokesman added that the Houthis believed the meeting would help address “the need to increase efforts to pressure” America and Israel.
The Russian government was among the first to condemn the Biden airstrikes while offering no meaningful criticism of the Houthi attacks on random ships.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova declared on January 12, in the aftermath of the first strikes, that they showed a “total disregard for international law in the name of escalating the situation in the region for their own destructive purposes.” The Foreign Ministry branded the airstrikes an “Anglo-Saxon perversion” in a formal statement.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Republicans blasted President Joe Biden after the U.S. military announced three American troops were killed and 25 injured in a drone attack in Jordan on Sunday.
“Joe Biden emboldened Iran for years by tolerating attacks on our troops, bribing the ayatollahs with billions of dollars, and appeasing them to no end. He left our troops as sitting ducks and now three are dead and dozens wounded, sadly as I’ve predicted would happen for months,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said in a statement.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the Biden administration’s policy of deterrence against Iran “has failed miserably.”
“There have been over 100 attacks against U.S. forces in the region. Iran is undeterred,” he said, adding, “I am sending my condolences to the families of our fallen heroes in Jordan. I am also wishing a full recovery to those injured. Our forces in Jordan and Syria are there to protect the American homeland and to provide stability in a troubled region. Their service and sacrifice will always be appreciated. They are true heroes.”
On Sunday afternoon, U.S. Central Command announced that three U.S. service members were killed and 25 injured from a one-way attack drone that hit a military base in northeast Jordan, near the Syria border.
Iran-proxy forces have targeted U.S. troops in the region since Hamas’s terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,200.
There have been more than 150 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since mid-October, with at least one critically injured. Sunday’s attack was the first time U.S. troops have been killed in such an attack in recent months.
Let's make a recapitulation of what Biden had stated the day after some soldiers were injured but no one was killed during the Trump administration.
Quote:With the news of three American soldiers killed and at least 25 injured in Jordan on Sunday, President Joe Biden now finds himself in a worse position than the one he criticized his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, for in 2020.
As the then-former vice president was campaigning against Trump in January 2020, he criticized Trump for U.S. troops in Iraq suffering traumatic brain injuries caused by an Iranian missile attack and dismissing the injuries as minor.
“‘No, they just have headaches,'” Biden said, paraphrasing Trump before adding unintelligibly, “Basically what my words not his basic ones just grow up. They’re just all headaches.”
However, under Biden, as of Christmas Day 2023, there were at least 66 U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria who had been injured by Iran-backed attacks, including at least one critically injured and at least 19 who were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. The Pentagon has dismissed those injuries as minor.
Now — three American troops are dead under Biden’s watch, with more than two dozen injured. U.S. Central Command has not clarified the extent of those injuries.
Call Not For a Ceasefire But For Hamas to Be Stopped Permanently
Quote:In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Spencer, a world-renowned expert on urban combat who serves as chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, noted how Israel’s past operations have primarily targeted the extensive tunnel networks of both Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We knew about the Hamas tunnel system. I’ve been in many replica Hamas and Hezbollah tunnels. Most of the previous operations against Hamas in Gaza have been about tunnels. Even the last flare up, the 2021 Operation Guardian of the Walls, Israel’s response was to strike at the tunnel complexes,” he stated.
However, he explained, the actual scope of the tunnel system Hamas built under Gaza has “always been an estimate.”
“Since Israel fully left Gaza [in 2005], though you could have an eye in the sky, but that doesn’t prevent Hamas from digging underground,” he said. “And that’s why people in war usually go underground, to conceal what you’re doing, and in support of your military protection in a defensive role.”
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“Like ISIS and everybody else, and even in Ukraine, there are tunnels everywhere,” he said, “but it’s really [built and utilized] in support of your strategy, whether it’s to defend or attack.”
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“Unlike any other military operation in history, the tunnels [Hamas built] aren’t in support of the either enemy or terrain-based goal,” he said.
“Usually, in a war, you’re trying to defeat the enemy with a strategy to either destroy their [your opponents’] military or their attacking their capitals, and trying to seize the will [of your opponent] to stop fighting,” he added. “But Hamas has this longer strategy — their stated strategy is to destroy Israel and kill all the Jewish people.”
According to Spencer, Hamas employs extensive tunneling for lawfare and survival, aiming to undermine Israel’s military response and gain political power. The terrorist organization’s “game plan in mind” to achieve that, he claimed, is by “gaining time,” and includes the use of “hostage diplomacy.”
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In that light, Hamas’s well-known strategy is not just to use “human shields,” but to use “human sacrifice,” with their ultimate endgame being a scenario where “the world steps in and causes Israel to have to stop the operation.”
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“The tunnels are really the main way in which Hamas survives,” he added, “and if it survives, it gains power, [and] if it gains power, it’s able to achieve its political goal — which is to continue to build power to ultimately destroy Israel.”
Calling it a “crazy world” we live in, Spencer expressed dismay that so many are “discounting” both what Hamas is saying it wants as well as anything it actually does, “like the fact that Hamas does not let civilians in their tunnels.”
Though Hamas is the “case study for the use of human shields,” he noted, other terrorist groups — such as ISIS and Al Qaeda — did so as well, with [each] “trying to use the laws of war against a law-abiding military like the US and others.”
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“It’s craziness that in the world we live in, you have tens of thousands of people saying that Hamas are the victims when they are the actual oppressors, the killers, the human sacrificers — everything,” he added.
Spencer suggested that if after Hamas is allowed to remain after having used such brutal tactics, and Israel — while following all the laws of war and its right to defend itself as a nation — is demanded to end its operation, such an ultimatum would “drastically change the world,” with Hamas’ savagery being replicated worldwide and “existential threats” being posed to nations who would be unable to defend themselves even while adhering to wartime legal norms.
Quote:Anchor Dana Bash said, “One of the challenges that Democrats might have in organizing is some anger in some corners of the progressive movement over Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas terrorists. How concerned are you, especially since we have seen protesters over and over and over? How concerned are you that young Americans, progressives? I’m not suggesting they might vote for Donald Trump, but how concerned are you they might stay home?”
Pelosi said, “I’ve been the recipient of their exuberance as recently as in Seattle on Thursday, unfortunately, wanting to disrupt our very exciting Democratic meeting there. They are in front of my house all the time. I have a feeling for what feelings they have. We have to think about what we’re doing. What we have to do is try to stop the suffering in Gaza. This is women and children and people who don’t have a place to go, so let’s address that. For them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin’s message, Mr. Putin’s message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It’s about Putin’s message. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous and, organic and sincere. Some are connected to Russia. I say that having looked at this for a long time.”
Quote:The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into Northwestern in response to a complaint filed by Campus Reform editor-in-chief Dr. Zachary Marschall over the university’s handling of antisemitic incidents, the outlet reported.
The complaint, filed January 10, alleges that Northwestern University has failed to appropriately respond to incidents of harassment of Jewish students following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, and that Jewish students at the school “have felt increasingly unwelcome” since the attack.
The filing also cites an October 12 vigil hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine near the school’s Deering Library, where the colors of the Palestinian flag were projected onto the building, according to a report by the Daily Northwestern.
Moreover, the vigil was attended by Vice President of Student Affairs Susan Davis, the report noted.
The complaint also points to an Instagram post from Northwestern’s Asian American Studies Program, which called Hamas a “political group” and objected to the phrase “Hamas is ISIS,” saying that such language was “Islamophobic.”
Quote:The Biden administration has approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey following the Turkish government’s ratification this week of Sweden’s membership in NATO. The move is a significant development in the expansion of the alliance, which has taken on additional importance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The State Department notified Congress of its approval of the $23 billion F-16 sale to Turkey, along with a companion $8.6 billion sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Greece, late Friday. The move came just hours after Turkey deposited its “instrument of ratification” for Sweden´s accession to NATO with Washington, which is the repository for alliance documents and after several key members of Congress lifted their objections.
The sale to Turkey includes 40 new F-16s and equipment to modernize 79 of its existing F-16 fleet. The sale to Greece includes 40 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and related equipment.
NATO ally Turkey has long sought to upgrade its F-16 fleet and had made its ratification of Sweden’s membership contingent on the approval of the sale of the new planes. The Biden administration had supported the sale, but several lawmakers had expressed objections due to human rights concerns.
Those objections, including from the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, have now been overcome, officials said.
Quote:Canada’s stringent gun controls failed to stop a firearm and Molotov cocktail attack Tuesday on Edmonton’s City Hall.
The Edmonton Journal reported that the alleged 28-year-old shooter was armed with a long gun when he “entered the building through the parkade, fired shots and threw a Molotov cocktail.” Some councillors were in the building at the time of the attack but were taken to safe locations by police/security.
The attack on Edmonton’s City Hall occurred despite Canada’s stringent gun controls.
Those gun controls include a ban on “over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms and certain components of some newly prohibited firearms (the upper receivers of M16, AR-10, AR-15, and M4 patterns of firearms),” which went into effect May 1, 2020, according to the Government of Canada. And Canada had ammunition magazine restrictions long before the “assault-style firearms” ban was adopted.
Licensing is the law of the land in Canada and passage of a firearm safety course is a requirement for acquiring a license to a own a gun. A license is also necessary to legally acquire and/or possess a firearm.
Canada requires extensive background checks on those intending to purchase a firearm. Moreover, Ottawa’s City News reported that beginning July 7, 2021, Canada expanded the scope of the background check conducted so that it looks not simply at the previous five years of a would-be purchaser’s life, but at their entire life. At the same time, the prime minister announced requirements on firearm retailers in Canada were increased.
Canada also has a waiting period for gun purchases.
Quote:Canadian psychologist and author Dr. Jordan Peterson described his ongoing court battle over free speech on Friday, after he was ordered to take social media training because of past controversial posts.
Peterson, a professor emeritus of the University of Toronto psychology department, was sentenced to mandatory social media training by the Ontario College of Psychologists last year. He was forced to comply with the order after three Ontario Divisional Court judges dismissed his legal complaint against the administrative board.
...
"I'm in their hands at the moment fundamentally because they've already sentenced me, so to speak, to an indefinite period of social media retraining, with some social media expert, whatever the hell that is," Peterson bluntly remarked. "So I'm obliged to undertake that training, at my own expense, for an indefinite period of time until they in their wisdom presume that I've learned whatever it is I'm supposed to learn. Which, given my nature, strikes me as highly unlikely."
The academic has generated controversy in recent years with several posts calling out transgender ideology, politicians, and climate change.
...
All professionals in Canada under a regulatory board are at risk of losing their livelihoods, the psychologist argued.
The academic board is "making an example of me," he said, as one of the most well-known dissenting voices on gender ideology.
...
Peterson previously pledged to be transparent with the public on whatever training he is forced to take.
Peterson also shared information Friday about his online university he's launching as an alternative to "corrupt" universities.
Here's an earlier example of how some people entitle themselves to re-educate people that disagree with them.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:After a week of shutting down motorways across the country, forcing politicians of all stripes to come to meet them on their turf, the farmer uprising is set to descend upon the French capital as they were unimpressed by the compromises proposed by newly-installed Prime Minister Gabriel Attall.
With their demands not being met, farmers have decided to ramp up the pressure on the metropolitan liberal elites who vote for green agenda policies without feeling the consequences and allowing the rural population to suffer.
What is being dubbed as the “siege of Paris”, farmers are planning on shutting down at least seven critical entry points to the city and have hinted at enacting a blockade of the Rungis Market, the second largest wholesale food market in the world which serves as the main hub for food deliveries into Paris.
“The idea is that there are no trucks that can serve the capital, to ensure that no product enters Paris, to make Parisians understand that they need farmers to live. I say to our friends in the capital region: it’s going to be a long week,” the head of the Young Farmers Union Maxime Buizard said per Le Figaro.
France’s interior ministry said it will deploy a large number of security forces around Paris.
Quote:In the latest assault on famed pieces of art for the purpose of a political stunt, two members of the “Riposte Alimentaire” (Food Response) managed to sneak cans of butternut squash soup into the Louvre Museum in Paris and hurled them onto the most famous painting in the world.
Fortunately, the Mona Lisa painting was covered with armoured glass, and therefore was apparently not damaged by the political stunt.
The green activists said that their actions were meant to “kick-off a campaign of civil resistance, which carries a clear demand, beneficial to all: social security for sustainable food.”
“What’s more important?” Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food? Our agricultural system is sick! The farmers are sick,” a woman shouted after throwing the soup at the Mona Lisa according to Le Parisien.
Following the incident, the museum was evacuated and a cleaning crew was dispatched to the Salle des Estates room in which the painting is housed.
The famed painting from da Vinci has been forced to be behind protective glass since 2005 after previous attempts at vandalism.
Quote:Germany’s Air Force One equivalent has again let the government down, with one aircraft suffering an engine failure and another forced to divert because Eritrea wouldn’t permit it to use its airspace, stranding the Foreign Minister in Saudi Arabia.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a Green party politician, is due to make a three-day tour of diplomatic visits to East Africa, but her attempt to travel was once again interrupted by a series of failures and mishaps with her government-operated executive flights.
Attempting to fly on Wednesday, her first aircraft, a government executive flight white-painted Airbus A319 has to be cancelled as it developed an engine failure, reports Die Welt. Baerbock flew on a militarised Airbus A321LR painted in the military grey of the Luftwaffe, but even this second aircraft was destined to not reach its destination as hoped.
Baerbock’s flight to Djibouti necessitated transiting Eritrean airspace, and the captain of the German executive flight carrying the Green party politician aboard was unable to get permission from their air traffic control to enter. Remarkably, even calls directly to the Eritrean government to get the permission signed off failed, as a power cut in Djibouti meant the nation’s Foreign Ministry was unable to receive communications.
Quote:London is not the only city where vigilantes are destroying traffic cameras, as Italian counter-terror police have been deployed to catch the people behind the destruction of cameras in the north of the country.
A team of counter-terrorism and anti-mafia police officers are working to track down the people destroying speed cameras in several Italian areas, with cameras sawn down, shot out, and even exploded. The elite police squad finally got their first hit this week, reports Il Giornale, which reports security cameras at the scene of one strike against the traffic cameras caught a man in the act, allowing him to be identified and later arrested.
Calling themselves ‘Fleximan’, a play on words on the Italian name for a popular brand of battery-powered angle-grinder, this particular individual was caught after two months but police understand there were more perpetrators on the loose, all using the same name.
Remarkably, in some Italian areas, the Fleximan appears to be winning. AFP reported this week that while some mayors decry the vigilantes as dangerous menaces, in others there is tacit support for their actions from local governors. The wires service states Marco Schiesaro, mayor of Cadoneghe in Veneto said after cameras were vandalised in his town that he was “already unconvinced” they were a good idea and simply decided not to replace them.
A report in The Times of London notes one Fleximan has been leaving notes, taunting police. On Monday, one left on a downed camera read “The Fleximan is coming.”
Quote:Two teenage boys were killed after suffering stab wounds in Britsol, England after being descended upon by a group of attackers who fled the scene together in a car.
In the late hours of Saturday evening, two teenagers were attacked in a group stabbing on Ilminster Avenue in the Knowle West neighbourhood in the South Western English city of Bristol. A group of suspected attackers reportedly fled the scene in a car following the stabbing, which took place around 11:15 pm.
Paramedics arrived on the scene shortly after the attack and the two boys, aged 15 and 16, were rushed to hospital, however, both sadly died in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Bristol Post reports.
Police have so far arrested two suspects, a 44-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy, both of whom remain in police custody. Officers also said that they seized a car during the arrest. At the time of this reporting, the police have yet to identify the two victims or the two suspects.
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“The victims sustained stab wounds and were taken to two hospitals – Southmead Hospital and Bristol Royal Hospital for Children – by ambulance, where they sadly died in the early hours of this morning (Sunday, January 28).”
Quote:In the midst of increasing warnings about the potential of a hot war between NATO and Russia, plans are reportedly being made to upgrade the Lakenheath Royal Air Force base in Suffolk to store American nuclear weapons.
U.S. Department of Defense documents seen by the Daily Telegraph broadsheet in Britain reportedly laid out plans for a “nuclear mission” to proceed “imminently” at the base where American nuclear warheads were previously held during the Cold War but removed in 2008 as the Russian threat diminished.
The procurement documents are said by the newspaper to show that the Pentagon has ordered new equipment for the British base, including ballistic shields to protect “high-value assets”. They also reportedly showed that the Defense Department is planning to begin constructing a facility in June to house American military personal who will work on the base.
According to the report, RAF Lakenheath is set to house American B61-12 gravity bombs, which have a blast yield of 50 kilotons or over three times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War.
The reported decision to deploy nuclear weapons to Europe comes amid increasing tensions between the West and Russia. This week, Britain’s top military commander Chief of the General Staff General Sir Patrick Sanders said that the UK needs to make “preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing” and that given the UK’s diminished military capabilities, it may be necessary to field a “citizen army” to wage war with Russia.
The top general went on to say that the time has come to “think the unthinkable” and “look carefully at conscription”. Downing Street rejected the notion, saying that the British Army would remain a voluntary service.
Earlier this month, Estonia — which shares a land border with Russia — warned that NATO only has “three to five years” to prepare for a Russian attack. Sweden, which is likely to join the NATO alliance this year, has also warned its population to ready itself for war.
Quote:The SBU said late Saturday that five people have been charged, with one person detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border. If found guilty, they face up to 12 years in prison.
The investigation comes as Kyiv attempts to clamp down on corruption in a bid to speed up its membership in the European Union and NATO. Officials from both blocs have demanded widespread anti-graft reforms before Kyiv can join them.
...Both the president and his aides have portrayed the recent firings of top officials, notably that of Ivan Bakanov, former head of the State Security Service, in July 2022, as proof of their efforts to crack down on graft.
Security officials say that the current investigation dates back to August 2022, when officials signed a contract for artillery shells worth 1.5 billion hryvnias ($39.6 million) with arms firm Lviv Arsenal.
After receiving payment, company employees were supposed to transfer the funds to a business registered abroad, which would then deliver the ammunition to Ukraine.
However, the goods were never delivered and the money was instead sent to various accounts in Ukraine and the Balkans, investigators said. Ukraine’s prosecutor general says that the funds have since been seized and will be returned to the country’s defense budget.
Quote:Officials in Ukraine said Russia has provided no credible evidence to back its claims that their own forces shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be swapped for Russian POWs.
The Ukrainian agency that deals with prisoner exchanges said late Friday that Russian officials had “with great delay” provided it with a list of the 65 Ukrainians who Moscow said had died in the Wednesday plane crash in Russia’s Belgorod region.
Ukraine’s Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said relatives of the named POWs were unable to identify their loved ones in crash site photos provided by Russian authorities. The agency’s update cited Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, as saying that Kyiv had no verifiable information about who was on the plane.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that missiles fired from across the border brought down the transport plane that it said was taking the POWs back to Ukraine. Local authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, said the crash killed all 74 people onboard, including six crew members and three Russian servicemen.
“We currently don’t have evidence that there could have been that many people onboard the aircraft. Russian propaganda’s claim that the IL-76 aircraft was transporting 65 Ukrainian POWs (heading) for a prisoner swap continues to raise a lot of questions,” Budanov, who heads Ukraine’s POW agency, said.
Social media users in the Belgorod region posted a video Wednesday that showed a plane falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area, and a huge ball of fire erupting where it apparently hit the ground.
Quote:Two masked assailants attacked a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul during Sunday services, killing one person, Turkish officials said.
According to a statement posted on X by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, the armed assailants attacked the Santa Maria Church in the Sariyer district at 11:40 a.m. local time. He did not specify what kind of weapons were used or whether anyone else was wounded.
Yerlikaya condemned the attack and said authorities are working on capturing the assailants. An investigation has been opened.
Speaking to reporters, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu offered his condolences and support for religious minorities in the city, which like Turkey as a whole is primarily Muslim.
“There are no minorities in this city or this country. We are all actual citizens,” he said.
In remarks to the public in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Pope Francis noted the attack. “I express my closeness to the community of (the church) in Istanbul, which during the Mass suffered an armed attack with one dead and some wounded,” the pontiff said.
Quote:Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi dismissed the United Nations as an irrelevant and unhelpful organization in remarks alongside Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, demanding “reform” to make the U.N. more favorable to Tehran’s pro-jihadist ideology.
Raisi, in Ankara to sign a package of bilateral trade and diplomacy deals, railed that the United Nations had not done enough to prevent Israel from protecting itself from the Iran-funded Sunni terrorist organization Hamas and called support for Hamas and Palestinian terrorism “the top issue of humanity,” according to the Iranian state propaganda outlet PressTV.
...
Iran has funded Hamas and a fellow jihadist organization in the region, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars; a Hamas official told the BBC on the record that Iran offered “direct backing” for the October 7 attack on that day.
“The United Nations has lost its effectiveness in this matter and has gone to the sidelines,” Raisi lamented on Wednesday. PressTV reported that Raisi “called for the reform of the United Nations and other global bodies, lamenting that they have failed to prevent the Israeli genocide in Gaza.” Iran falsely refers to the Israeli counter-operation as “genocide.”
“Those who claim to defend human rights and whose mission is to defend global peace and security have been on the sidelines and are no longer effective,” PressTV quoted Raisi as saying, adding that he declared “the Palestinian issue the top issue of humanity.”
“The Iranian president said international organizations have failed the test of Gaza and showed they’re no longer effective,” the PressTV report continued. “He said the world should move toward forming new mechanisms to deal with threats to international peace and security.”
Erdogan did not similarly condemn the United Nations in the joint conference, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, though the Turkish strongman has often called for the complete dismantling of the current U.N. system. Erdogan spearheaded efforts to get the U.N. to adopt an international day against “Islamophobia” and has, for years, led a campaign called “the world is bigger than five,” demanding an end to the permanent seat system at the U.N. Security Council.
Quote:The United Kingdom, Italy, Finland, Canada, and Australia have all announced that they will suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over allegations that staff actively participated in the October 7th Hamas terror attacks on Israel.
On Friday, UNWRA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini that his agency has fired several staff members after receiving Israeli intelligence claiming that at least 12 UNWRA staff members participated in the Hamas terror attacks on Israel that saw the Palestinian Islamists butcher around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and kidnap over 250 more, some of whom remain in captivity to this day.
Following the revelations from Lazzarini, the Biden administration announced that it would suspend its funding towards the organisation.
In 2018, former President Donald Trump cut off funding entirely to the agency — which operates in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria — over evidence suggesting that schools run by UNRWA were indoctrinating Palestinian schoolchildren with anti-Jewish propaganda and staff members supporting terrorism. Yet, Biden’s White House reversed this decision and sent upwards of $700 million to the agency before suspending money on Friday.
On Saturday, several other Western nations announced that they would also halt funding to the U.N. agency. The British Foreign Office said in a statement per the BBC: “The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned.
“The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNWRA whilst we review these concerning allegations.”
Quote:Keep sending money. That was the urgent call Saturday from U.N. Secretary Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as he implored the world not to stop funding the embattled National Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the special refugee agency for Palestinians — after staff members were shown to have been part of the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The veteran Portuguese socialist promised anyone caught having been involved in the attack would be sternly dealt with, but in the interim seeks no halt to the flow of money from countries that donate to UNRWA coffers, the Times of Israel reports.
“Any U.N. employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” the U.N. chief promised in a statement. “The Secretariat is ready to cooperate with a competent authority able to prosecute the individuals in line with the Secretariat’s normal procedures for such cooperation.”
Guterres then called on the nations which have suspended funding to go back on their decisions even as it continues to be challenged over the veracity of its claims on the ongoing troubles in Gaza.
“While I understand their concerns – I was myself horrified by these accusations – I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations,” Guterres added.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:WASHINGTON — House Republicans announced two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Sunday, accusing him of failing to do his job by allowing thousands of asylum seekers to enter the country amid record-breaking illegal crossings.
The articles accuse Mayorkas of willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and breach of public trust.
The House Homeland Security Committee is expected to approve the charges at a Tuesday hearing and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) vowed Friday to hold a floor vote “as soon as possible.”
The first article says Mayorkas chose not to enforce the law, specifically a requirement that asylum seekers who illegally cross the border “shall be detained” until there is a decision on their status — with release into the US interior only allowed on a case-by-case basis.
The second article of impeachment accuses Mayorkas of lying to Congress about the border being “secure” and failing to comply with document requests.
The embattled secretary’s department revealed late Friday that December set a fresh record for illegal crossings — with data showing 302,000 people were apprehended along the US-Mexico border that month.
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said that the data “serve as more undeniable proof that Secretary Mayorkas must be impeached.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s markup, DHS released a scathing 4-page counter-memo accusing House Republicans of embarking on an “unconstitutional, evidence-free impeachment.”
The memo argued that Mayorkas has enforced the laws at the border, noting that a majority of migrants encountered at the border “have been removed,” that the department has seized more fentanyl and made more arrests for fentanyl-related offenses ” in the last two years than in the previous five years combined,” and claimed that the secretary has “provided historic levels of access and responsiveness” to the committee.
Democrats have sought to redirect the debate by pointing to bipartisan Senate negotiations that could result in new proposed limits on the number of asylum seekers allowed to enter the US — noting that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has alleged that former President Donald Trump is trying to scuttle a deal to keep the issue in focus ahead of his expected November rematch with Biden.
The border surge began in 2021, as Biden took office vowing a more welcoming approach to migrants.
Under Biden, many migrants choose to turn themselves in to authorities to get processing paperwork that entitles them to work permits following an initial wait period.
Up is down, left is right and sideways is straight ahead. - Cord "Circle of Iron", 1978 (written by Bruce Lee and James Coburn... really...)
Quote:The Pentagon announced the identities of the three service members who were killed in Jordan on Sunday. The service members were soldiers from Georgia.
The deceased were: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia, and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.
They died after a drone hit their housing unit, known as a container housing unit, or CHU.
The three soldiers were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, Fort Moore, Georgia.
Sanders, who was affectionately known as “Munchkin,” was identified on Monday as one of the three killed in the attack that also injured at least 34, according to WTOC.
Sanders was 24, according to News4JAX. Flags were flown at half-staff around Waycross, the outlet reported. WTOC reported Waycross Mayor Michael-Angelo James plans to hold an honorary service when her body is returned home.
Quote:A U.S. official said Sunday that the attack took place overnight at Tower 22, a small outpost in Jordan that is near the Syria border. The drone struck living quarters for the troops, which contributed to the high casualties, a U.S. official said.
This reporting indicates that the Tower 22 living quarters were a “soft target.” That is, a structure not “hardened” to protect those inside. The Journal continues:
Tower 22 is located close to Al Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, where U.S. forces have worked with local partners combating Islamic State militants. Tower 22 has served as a logistics hub for Al Tanf and, unlike the garrison, hasn’t previously been targeted in the recent series of Iran-backed militia attacks.
As think-tank analyst Andrew Tabler told the newspaper, “Tower 22 would probably be less defended than Al Tanf and any other U.S. position in Syria because it is across the border in Jordan.”
So, these soldiers were behind-the-lines logistics personnel. They—or, more pertinently, their commanders—weren’t expecting a drone attack. Hmm. Americans are fighting terrorists and militants backed by Iran, and yet they weren’t expecting an attack because they weren’t in Syria; they were in Jordan, the next country over.
Does that seem to be a failure of imagination? As in, American leaders, somewhere in the chain of command—from the field to Central Command to Washington, DC—failed to imagine that the foe would reach across a border. These are the bad guys, including Iran, who routinely refer to the U.S. as “The Great Satan.” So yeah, maybe it should have been foreseen that a borderline in the desert wouldn’t mean anything to anti-American killers.
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Today’s big new challenge is the drone. The U.S. has been using drones for decades, both for surveillance and for offensive missile strikes. Yet drones keep getting smaller, to the point where they are a little larger than birds, and they’re easy to form into swarms that can “kamikaze” the target. The testbeds for much of this new technology are Ukraine and Russia; each side is swarming the other with drones, such that familiar movements of tanks and infantry are no longer possible. Just on January 26, a Russian serviceman recalled seeing a “flock of Ukrainian FPV [first person view] drones led by a repeater drone Queen;” the aerial armada descended onto Russian positions and started blasting. And this video, released on January 22, shows a drone literally chasing a soldier in a circle and then blowing him up; it’s like a cartoon, except it’s not funny to be dead.
Drones are a disruptive technology. They are so cheap to mass-produce (the Ukrainians have been making them out of cardboard) and so nimble (lightly trained civilians can FPV them) that they call into question our ability to defend large assets, from tanks to bases to aircraft carriers. We can’t expect, for example, the Patriot missile, which is 17 feet long, to stop a hundred or a thousand or a million drones. Even Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome has been overwhelmed at times by mass volleys of Palestinian drones and homemade rockets. The idea of missile defense was designed for…missiles. These tiny drones are more like mosquitoes.
Quote:Eric Schwerin, the Biden family’s estranged “moneyman” who shared bank accounts with President Joe Biden, will appear on Tuesday for a House impeachment inquiry deposition.
House investigators hope to ascertain information about Schwerin’s role within the Biden family’s foreign business dealings as well as Joe Biden’s knowledge of and participation in those dealings.
In December, the Committee on Ways and Means released a spreadsheet compiled by an IRS criminal investigator that included dozens of email exchanges between or among Hunter Biden, Schwerin, and pseudonyms attributable to Joe Biden between 2010 and 2019.
The National Archives released documents showing Schwerin had direct contact with White House employees regarding Burisma.
Schwerin coordinated with the White House on Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, about issues when he didn’t work for or receive payments from Burisma.
Schwerin was the president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, a fund created by Hunter and several associates that spawned business deals in Russia, Ukraine, China, and Romania. Many of those deals yielded the Biden family business millions over decades while Joe Biden was an elected official.
EUROPE
Ukraine Defends Itself Against... Critics? and Paris in Crisis
Quote:The shock claim was in response to a request for information by Breitbart News on whether or not any American tax dollars had gone specifically to Uman, a city in the war-torn Eastern European nation that is currently seeing a condo built on a Jewish mass grave, as previously reported, in violation of a bilateral agreement with the U.S., and in violation of international law.
Breitbart reported on January 10 that a city in Ukraine is proceeding with building a condo on a Jewish mass grave, despite three letters from members of Congress from both parties to the Ukrainian government demanding the cemetery be protected.
Replying to an inquiry about whether or not U.S. dollars are going to the city where this is taking place, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Embassy told Breitbart that “funds authorized by American lawmakers to support Ukraine’s armament are not directly allocated to Ukraine” — after claiming the Ukrainian Embassy “did not receive” a request sent by Breitbart News eight months ago for information on the construction project, which requires desecrating the remains of victims of the 1768 Haidamacks massacre.
The spokesperson explained that, instead, a “significant portion” of the billions of dollars to Ukraine is “utilized in the United States for the construction of new weapons or to replenish those dispatched to Kyiv from U.S. reserves,” adding that “an analysis” (not specifically cited) found that “nearly 90 percent” of aid granted by Congress “is benefiting American interests.” The email continues, “The allocation of funds doesn’t imply immediate expenditure.”
“American interests” in this context presumably means weapons manufacturers.
Quote:In an escalation of the latest example of popular uprisings that have come to define President Macron’s tenure in office, farmers descended in their tractors to shut down major highways leading into Paris on Monday following a week of similar protests throughout the country.
According to the Le Figaro newspaper, farmers successfully enacted blockades on eight major highways, with tractors lined up for tens of kilometres around the ring road surrounding Paris. In total 16 highways and 30 administrative departments around the city were impacted by the demonstrations on Monday, while separate farmer uprisings continued in at least 40 other locations throughout the country.
President Emmanuel Macron will reportedly hold an emergency meeting with his government ministers at the Élysée on Monday to be briefed on the “overview of the agricultural situation”. Meanwhile, Gabriel Attal, who was installed as France’s youngest-ever prime minister earlier this month by Macron, will reportedly hold crunch negotiations with the leader of the FNSEA farmer’s union Arnaud Rousseau and the head of the Young Farmers Arnaud Gaillot on Monday evening.
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It is unclear exactly how many of the farmer’s 140 demands the French government can actually meet, given that many of the stifling green agenda regulations were imposed by the EU. However, farmers groups and populist politicians have noted that Macron’s party in Brussels was a principal backer of the climate change cause and, therefore, is still to blame.
Speaking from a blockade outside Paris on Monday, the president of the FDSEA farmer’s union in Yvelines, Luc Janottin said: “We want to tell Mr Attal that he must work for his subjects rather than going for walks on the farms. France could suspend overnight all the environmental standards that complicate our lives and we expect it to do so!”
Quote:China’s state-run Global Times on Monday dismissed the controversy, blithely accepting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ assurances that “any U.N. employee involved in accounts of terror will be held accountable.”
“It is necessary to emphasize that both the ongoing probe and the future investigation results should be handled on a case-by-case basis, without politicizing or exaggerating the issue. In particular, precautions should be taken to prevent any serious secondary humanitarian disaster resulting from this incident,” the Global Times pontificated.
The Chinese Communist paper falsely asserted that UNRWA is the only means for delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, so it must be forgiven all of its sins without any interruption in funding, so the bureaucracy can take its time figuring out precisely which Gaza employee belongs to what bloodthirsty terrorist gang:
"During the era of the Trump administration, the US temporarily suspended donations to the agency and even planned to propose alternative solutions. However, after the Biden administration took office, it gradually resumed funding and adopted a cooperative attitude toward UNRWA..."
The Global Times concluded by lauding the “indispensable role” UNRWA supposedly plays in humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians and pushing for a “two-state solution” as the only way to “achieve a comprehensive, fair, and lasting resolution to the Palestinian issue.”
The UNRWA already had a troubling history of working with Palestinian terrorists before last week’s explosive allegations, including UNRWA schools that were caught teaching murderous hatred of Jews and glorifying terrorism. Some of the now-infamous Hamas terror tunnels were built suspiciously close to UNRWA facilities.
Quote:Hong Kong Justice Linda Chan noted in her ruling that Evergrande has over $300 billion in liabilities and has been unable to come up with a realistic plan for restructuring after two years of effort.
A good deal of that mountain of liabilities consists of property development that will never be completed and unfinished apartments no one can live in. Evergrande has dozens of subsidiary companies and owns property in hundreds of cities, but most analysts believe its combined assets are no longer worth as much as its liabilities.
“It is time for the court to say enough is enough,” Chan said.
The court appointed a bankruptcy firm called Alvarez & Marsal to begin disposing of Evergrande’s assets to return some value to its investors and creditors.
Alvarez & Marsal managing director Tiffany Wong said her company’s goal was to “see as much of the business retained, restructured, or remain operational.”
“It is important to emphasize that the winding up order has been made to the parent company only. It does not have a direct impact on the operations of its subsidiaries, most pertinently the subsidiaries operating in the mainland [China],” she noted.
Wong’s reassuring statement seemed intended to calm jittery Evergrande executives and encourage them to work with the bankruptcy firm. If Evergrande does not cooperate fully with the Hong Kong court order, the case could be picked up by a court in China – a step that could either affirm the longstanding practice of China recognizing Hong Kong court decisions or nullify Justice Chan’s ruling, if the Chinese government decides not to let foreign creditors devour Evergrande’s assets.
Fergus Saurin, partner at a law firm called Kirkland and Ellis that represents a group of Evergrande’s creditors, said his clients were “not surprised by the outcome,” because Evergrande has a history of “failing to engage with us.”
MIDDLE EAST
Hostage Negotiation Failed, Houthis Hit Russian Cargo Ship
Quote:U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed a potential agreement on Monday that would have seen a phased release of hostages in return for lengthy pauses in fighting and the release of a large number of Palestinian terror convicts — up to 10,000 terrorists.
But Hamas issued a statement along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another terrorist organization in which it said that it would not accept any agreement that did not end the war and include a full Israeli troop pullout from Gaza.
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According to Channel 12 news, the offer centers around a 45-day pause in the fighting in exchange for 35-40 hostages in the first stage. Some 100-250 Palestinian prisoners would be released for every hostage. This would be followed by further releases in exchange for an extension of the truce, and a larger ratio of Palestinian security prisoner releases for each hostage.
Hamas is holding out for a permanent ceasefire. Israel would regard an end to the war that left Hamas intact in Gaza as a defeat.
Hamas has already broken an agreement to provide evidence that medications sent via Qatar actually reached Israeli hostages.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are reportedly near victory in the Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, where the leaders of the organization are thought to be hiding.
Quote:The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen launched a missile at a tanker carrying Russian fuel through the Gulf of Aden on Friday, destroying Houthi claims that Russian and Chinese cargoes would not be targeted and raising anxieties across the energy industry.
Trading firm Trafigura said on Friday that a Houthi missile struck the fuel tanker Marlin Luanda, which was hauling a load of Russian naphtha, a petroleum product used in creating plastics and refining fuel.
A fire broke out in one of the cargo tanks after the missile struck, prompting the crew to break out firefighting gear. Several hours after the attack, Trafigura reported the fire had been “fully extinguished” without injuries to the crew, and the ship was “sailing towards a safe harbor.”
Another ship carrying crude oil reversed course and fled the Gulf of Aden shortly after the attack on Marlin Luanda. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) responded by destroying a Houthi anti-ship missile that was “prepared to launch” and “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region.”
Oil prices rose one percent on Monday as traders grew concerned about the flow of oil through the Red Sea. Friday’s missile strike was the most serious Houthi attack on oil tankers to date and the first sign that Russian oil may not be safe from the Iran-supported insurgents of Yemen. The Russian oil industry was already dealing with disruptions in production and supply caused by the war with Ukraine.
Quote:All three nations had already been suspended by ECOWAS because their governments were deposed by military force.
The three juntas said on Sunday they were quitting because ECOWAS lost touch with its founding ideals and the “spirit of pan-Africanism.” They said the organization is now “under the influence of foreign powers” and has “become a threat to its member states and its population.”
All three accused ECOWAS of imposing “illegitimate, inhumane, and irresponsible” sanctions on them while they were fighting against Islamist insurgent movements. The junta leaders insisted that imposing military dictatorships was the only way for them to “take their destiny into their own hands.”
Niger junta spokesman Col. Amadou Abdramane said ECOWAS “notably failed” to assist the three departing states “in their existential fight against terrorism and insecurity.”
Representatives from ECOWAS were supposed to visit Niger last week for talks with military leaders, but they canceled their trip at the last minute, ostensibly because their chartered plane had mechanical problems. Only the representative from Togo made it to Niger, prompting the junta to complain about the “bad faith” demonstrated by most of ECOWAS skipping the meeting.
Sunday was the first time member states have unilaterally withdrawn from ECOWAS since the 15-member bloc was formed in 1975. Since all three countries are landlocked, their economies are likely to suffer for having alienated their neighbors.
The move will probably be especially irritating for Nigeria, the headquarters of ECOWAS. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu took over as chairman of ECOWAS in July 2023 with high ambitions to strengthen the alliance and bring greater stability to West Africa.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Six pro-life activists were found guilty on Tuesday for “conspiracy against rights” and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) in relation to a peaceful protest outside of a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021.
President Joe Biden’s pro-abortion administration announced in October 2022 that it had charged 11 activists involved in the March 5, 2021, “blockade” of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mount Juliet. Attorneys for the activists said they were conducting a “rescue” and had gathered on the second floor of the office building where the clinic is located to pray, sing hymns, and urge women not to go through with abortions. The peaceful protest was also live-streamed on Facebook, according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Six of the activists have now been found guilty of a misdemeanor FACE Act charge, as well as a felony conspiracy against rights charge, which carries with it the possibility of up to 11 years in prison and fines up to $250,000. They include: Chester Gallagher, 73, of Lebanon, Tennessee; Heather Idoni, 58, of Michigan; Calvin Zastrow, 57, of Michigan; Coleman Boyd, 51, of Bolton, Mississippi; Dennis Green, 56, of Cumberland, Virginia; and Paul Vaughn, 55, of Centerville, Tennessee.
Four other activists who have not gone to trial yet were only charged with a FACE Act violation and face up to one year in prison and fines up to $10,000. They include: Eva Edl, 87, of Aiken South Carolina; Eva Zastro, 24, of Dover, Arkansas; James Zastro, 25, of Eldon, Missouri; and Paul Place, 24, of Centerville, Tennessee.
Another activist, 24-year-old Caroline Davis of Michigan, already took a plea deal in 2023 and agreed to testify for the government.
Quote:Harvard has received a complaint claiming that its chief diversity and inclusion officer has plagiarized some of her academic works, lifting large portions of text from without including quotation marks, and even taking credit for a study conducted by her own husband, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon.
The complaint reportedly cites 40 separate instances of plagiarism that span the entirety of Charleston’s publication record.
In her 2009 dissertation for the University of Michigan, for example, Charleston is accused of quoting or paraphrasing nearly a dozen scholars without proper attribution.
The complaint claims, “Parts of Charleston’s dissertation were published previously, word for word, by her advisor, Rebecca Scott, and others,” adding, “Charleston will lift whole sentences and paragraphs from other scholars’ work without quotation marks, then add a correct reference somewhere in the footnote ending the long paragraph.”
Interestingly, one of the allegations involves Charleston’s sole peer-reviewed article from 2014 — co-authored by her husband, LaVar Charleston — who is the deputy vice chancellor for DEI at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The study, also co-authored by Jerlando Jackson, is accused of having the same methods, findings, and even interview subjects as a 2012 study written solely by Lavar Charleston.
“The 2014 paper appears to be entirely counterfeit,” Peter Wood, head of the National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University, said. “This is research fraud pure and simple.”
Quote:“A court order signed by Cobb County Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson indicated that special prosecutor Nathan Wade ‘entered into a temporary agreement addressing all issues presently before the court,'” reported the Hill.
The order said that both parties decided that Wednesday’s hearing would be unnecessary due to the agreement.
As Breitbart News reported, around the same time Wade had been preparing to indict the former president for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State, a judge in Cobb County, Georgia, ruled he had “willfully” failed to turn over documents about his income. Wade’s wife later said that the income included money he had made during his work on the Trump case.
Revelations about him being held in contempt of court came after a lawyer for one of the former president’s co-defendants alleged in a court filing that Wade had an affair with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
No evidence of an affair has been presented as of yet, but Wade’s wife has served Fani Willis with a subpoena requesting that she testify in the divorce case. As noted by Politico, even if the affair allegations yield nothing, the contempt of court evidence could spell troubling signs ahead for Nathan Wade.
Quote:On Jan 17, the Biden Department of Homeland Security, the cabinet-level secretary of which is currently facing impeachment in the House of Representatives, exultantly announced that it had protected more than 1,000 illegal aliens who had been injured while working illegally or had otherwise seen employers breaking federal employment rules.
Through its program, DHS boasted that it had “protected over one thousand noncitizen workers who were victims of, or witnesses to, a violation of labor rights.” DHS noted that the policy has been used to fast-track illegals into work permits and legalized their immigration status.
The announcement added that it is part of Biden’s goal of bestowing “legal rights” on “noncitizens.”
“These improvements advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to empowering workers and to improving workplace conditions by enabling all workers, including noncitizens, to more freely assert their legal rights,” the news release stated.
Without noting that people joining the work force illegally drives down the wages of real Americans — especially for blacks — the DHS press releases goes on to describe in grave terms how employers “perpetuate” violations with “inhumane acts.”
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In its press release, DHS went on to tout its liberal legalization policies afforded to illegals that turn witness against American companies, and the agency is expanding the gifts to illegals, noting that “A noncitizen granted deferred action based on a labor agency enforcement interest may request a subsequent period of deferred action for an additional two years when there continues to be an ongoing labor agency need.”
The program that allows illegals to rat on employers in exchange for legalized status and work permits was launched in January of 2023.
The program also immediately gives people in the country illegally protection from prosecution and deportation when they inform on employers. It has been chiefly deployed in New York, California, and Massachusetts, according to The City.
Quote:Texas Majority PAC, run by consultants who worked for Beto O’Rourke’s failed gubernatorial campaign, is being partially funded by Soros, who has a net worth of $6.7 billion and remains one of the biggest donors to Democrats in the United States.
According to records reviewed by the Texas Tribune, the group raised $2.25 million since its inception after the 2022 midterm elections. In particular, through the group, Soros has thrown six-figure donations to Democrats in Dallas County, Cameron County, and Hidalgo County.
“We need millions of more dollars and hundreds of more full-time staff to do this,” the group’s deputy executive director Katherine Fischer told the Texas Tribune. “Texas Majority PAC works with partners across the state to create the conditions that will make flipping the state possible.”
At the same time, the left-wing group Voto Latino has made it clear they are looking to turn Texas blue this year with mass immigration to the state.
In an op-ed for Democracy Docket, Voto Latino’s CEO Maria Teresa Kumar urges Democrats to take advantage of the nation’s historically high legal immigration levels, where more than a million legal immigrants are admitted every year, in upcoming elections.
Quote:Over the weekend, [Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan] Patrick appeared on Fox News telling Trace Gallagher he was happy the Biden administration decided not to cut the wire at the park, where, according to Patrick, four months ago, three thousand people were crossing each day. Patrick proclaimed the measures taken by the State of Texas had brought those numbers down to zero as he visited the park earlier.
The problem with Patrick’s assessment of the first battle of Shelby Park is that it is simply not true. As recently as December, nearly 5,000 migrants crossed daily into the Shelby Park area, where Border Patrol agents, Texas authorities, and the Texas Military Department were powerless to stop the never-ending streams of migrants from crossing the river into the area. The wire, more than 20 miles of it, was not capable of stopping the migrant surge of thousands per day and was quickly defeated by the migrants using garbage strewn along the Rio Grande to avoid injury as they marched across it.
Patrick’s story regarding an imaginary battle to seize the park and stop the hordes of migrants with wire and reduce the crossings to zero contradicts Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson who documented an empty park just ten days before the State of Texas seized it. The fictional battle to bring the park under control never happened, and Fox News, who has documented the migrant crisis in the area more than any other major television news network, offered no pushback against Patrick’s false claims.
Patrick’s statements differ significantly from those made by Speaker of the Speaker Johnson’s assessment of how and why the migrant flow in December at the park was brought under control. In the process of a well-deserved impeachment move against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the House is little helped by Patrick’s claims that differ from Speaker Johnson’s assessment. The two versions differ more than substantially — the two versions presented contradict each other wholly.
Quote:Punchbowl News first reported that the DOJ is conducting the criminal probe into Bush. The outlet cited six sources for the allegation.
On Monday, the Justice Department subpoenaed the House Sergeant at Arms for records related to the misuse of federal security money.
As Breitbart News reported, the House clerk read a message from the office of the Sergeant at Arms formally notifying the House chamber that the office had been served with a grand jury subpoena by the DOJ.
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Reports did not initially name which House Democrat is involved with the investigation. However, one House Democrat was previously investigated by the Federal Elections Commission for misusing campaign funds for private security.
Bush continued to pay now-husband Cortney Merritts for private security after their marriage, as Breitbart News reported.
Quote:Minnesota “squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) is facing fierce backlash and accusations of threatening to “make the U.S. bow to Somali interests,” with Republicans and others calling for her ousting after a clip appears to show her telling Somali Americans that her first priority in office is not America, but Somalia.
In remarks she made to a crowd that included Somali leaders in a Minneapolis hotel, the Somali-born Democrat congresswoman appeared to prioritize Somali interests — including expanding Somalia’s territory — over American ones.
According to a translation of her comments featured in a viral clip posted to X with more than 4.3 million views as of Tuesday morning, the pro-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Omar describes herself as “Somalian first” and “Muslim second,” saying that “the U.S. government will only do what Somalians in the U.S. tell them to do.”
“They will do what we want and nothing else,” she continues. “They must follow our orders, and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia.”
“We Somalians must have that confidence in ourselves that we call the shots in the U.S.,” she adds.
Describing America as a country where “one of your daughters is in Congress to represent your interests,” Omar tells the crowd to “sleep in comfort, knowing I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the U.S. system.”
Quote:Illinois’ election board announced Tuesday it is keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary ballot.
The confirmation comes a week before the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on whether the Republican’s alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualifies him from the presidency.
The attempt to keep Trump’s name off Illinois’ March 19 primary ballot by raising federal constitutional questions is similar to efforts in several other states.
AP reports the eight-member board’s unanimous ruling comes after its hearing officer, a retired judge and Republican, found a “preponderance of the evidence” shows Trump is ineligible to run for president because he violated a constitutional ban on those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.
But the hearing officer recommended the board let the courts make the ultimate decision.
The board, composed of four Democrats and four Republicans, agreed with a recommendation from its lawyer to let Trump remain on the ballot by determining it didn’t have the authority to determine whether he violated the constitution, the AP report sets out.
Quote:Experts on United Nations operations in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel told Congress on Tuesday that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has for years promoted the genocidal hatred of Jews, elevated violent jihadist ideology, and tolerated terrorist and terror-sympathizing employees.
UNRWA is the global organization’s specialized agency to handle “Palestinian” issues. It dominates the education system in Gaza, the territory controlled by the genocidal terror group Hamas, and employs tens of thousands of people there. Despite years of evidence that UNRWA was using hateful textbooks to indoctrinate Palestinian children into jihadist terrorism and cooperating with Hamas, it subsists through funding from America and Europe.
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The head of the agency, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, appeared to accept the Israeli evidence as legitimate, announcing that he had “taken the decision to immediately terminate” those implicated in the October 7 attack.
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At a hearing on Tuesday before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittees on Oversight & Accountability and Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, Hillel Neuer, the executive director of the NGO UN Watch, presented evidence that UNRWA employees celebrated the gruesome violence on that day. UN Watch published a report on January 10 revealing the contents of a Telegram social media group uniting some 3,000 UNRWA-affiliated members, “replete with messages, photos and videos celebrating the Hamas massacre of October 7th.”
“It was created by Hani Jouda, who advocates for the rights of UNRWA staff,” Neuer told Congress. “On his blog, Jouda quotes antisemitic texts that portray Jews as having a superiority complex that ‘fills the being of every Jewish individual,’ and as being ‘cunning’ and ‘clever in evil.'”
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Many others [on a Telegram group] shared emojis supportive of the massacre or prayers for the mujihadeen, an Arabic-language term for jihadists.
“Our new report identifies more than 25 other UNRWA teachers in the chat group who celebrated Jihadi terrorism and the murder of Jews,” Neuer noted. The employees of the agency, he asserted, “regularly call to murder Jews, and create teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism.”
Marcus Sheff, the CEO of the institute IMPACT-se, shared evidence his organization compiled of UNRWA teachers indoctrinating children in Gaza schools with violent antisemitic materials.
“Today’s Palestinian textbooks are producing the terrorists of tomorrow,” Sheff told Congress, sharing some examples:
For example, a grade twelve textbook warns students of “the danger” of the “People of the Book, especially the Jews,” who as a collective are described as treacherous, dangerous, hostile, and violent. A teacher’s guide on tenth grade geography and history instructs teachers to downgrade students who fail to connect the perpetration of massacres to Jewish religious thought.
A grade four math problem asks children to add the number of martyrs from the First and Second Intifadas, while grade seven physics is taught by asking students to calculate the velocity required to throw a rock at an Israeli soldier.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
News of the World
Color doesn't justify receiving some extra money that will simply make prices soar again because of all that money floating around, being spent recklessly. It becomes another reason to irresponsibly raise the debt ceiling once again.![[Image: SP1-Scripter.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Scripter.png)
![[Image: SP1-Writer.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Writer.png)
![[Image: SP1-Poet.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Poet.png)
![[Image: SP1-PixelArtist.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-PixelArtist.png)
![[Image: SP1-Reporter.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/GmxWbHyL/SP1-Reporter.png)
baffles me as well. Anyway, there's another reason why you can't trust the Qatari just like that.
Can any nation going through a war survive for up to a year and a half without enough ammo supplies?
Who respects Biden nowadays? 
Let's make a recapitulation of what Biden had stated the day after some soldiers were injured but no one was killed during the Trump administration.
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![[Image: QL7oRau.png]](https://i.imgur.com/QL7oRau.png)
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