News of the World

[kyonides]

US NEWS

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3 Bad News + 1 Good News

Chicago Mayor Johnson: Migrant Influx ‘Not Sustainable’ Without ‘Significant Federal Support’

Johnson said, “Since taking office a little bit over seven months ago, my administration has responded to this humanitarian mission with the full force of government. We have roughly 15,000 people living in shelters, temporary shelters here in Chicago, nearly 27 shelters. A total of 4500 children are in our Chicago public schools system, providing health care and also making sure that we are screening individuals as they come through the city of Chicago, providing, again, onsite vaccinations at all of our shelters.”

He continued, “But let me just say this to make this very clear, what I have said repeatedly is that we have to have coordination. Since taking office, we’ve had an uncoordinated approach. And what I’ve worked to do, instead of having chaos, is provide some structure and calm around the situation. And without significant federal support, this is not sustainable.”

Discussing migrants being bused to sanctuary cities, Johnson said, “What I mean by uncoordinated, what Governor Abbott is doing is quite frankly reckless. I had a delegation to actually go to the border and see firsthand the challenges that are bordering states and our bordering cities are experiencing. What I called for repeatedly is a coordinated approach between state and local municipalities so that we can address this crisis.”

Denver Mayor: My Sanctuary City Is ‘Ground Zero for America’s Migrant Crisis’ — Migrants Need to Be Spread Out

On Wednesday’s “CNN News Central,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston stated that his sanctuary city “is now ground zero for America’s migrant crisis.” And that one thing they need the federal government to do is distribute migrants to different cities around the U.S.

Johnston said, “I think that Denver is now ground zero for America’s migrant crisis. We are, at this moment now, the single largest recipient city of any city in America per capita. We actually have more than two times as many migrants as the next city behind us based on our population. We’ve received more than a hundred buses in the last month alone, as you mentioned, more than 35,000 over the last year. And so, we are working hard to try to help those folks integrate successfully. But we are hitting real challenges. And these are the ones we’ve been pushing the federal government on, which is, we need more resources, we mostly need more work authorization, and we need a coordinated entry plan so that folks that do arrive in the country can be distributed to different cities around the country in the same way we did with asylees from Afghanistan or Ukraine..."

It seems like both mayors have held some serious conversations in the recent past. Don't you think?

Donald Trump to Stay on Ballot After Michigan Supreme Court Rejects Appeal on Procedural Grounds

Former President Donald Trump will remain on the ballot in Michigan after the Michigan Supreme Court rejected an appeal rooted in the Constitution’s “Insurrection Clause,” although on procedural grounds.

Unlike the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Trump can remain on the ballot for the state’s upcoming primary. It upheld the unanimous ruling of Michigan’s Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel held that the argument — that Trump “engaged in insurrection” — was not ripe (meaning that ruling on it would be premature).

However, the Michigan Supreme Court did not delve into whether or not it believed Trump engaged in insurrection as rooted in Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. Rather, the court rejected the attempt to appeal, lodged by an advocacy group, on procedural grounds, leaving undisturbed the decision from the Michigan Court of Appeals. The lower court determined that the question is irrelevant at this point in time in relation to Trump’s placement on the presidential primary ballot in the Wolverine State.

“At the moment, the only event about to occur is the presidential primary election. But as explained, whether Trump is disqualified is irrelevant to his placement on that particular ballot,” the appeals court determined.

Joe Biden’s Trade Office Helps China Avoid U.S. Tariffs, Again

Hundreds of China-made products will continue avoiding United States tariffs thanks to an extension announced by President Joe Biden’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this week.

The Section 301 tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of China-made products were first imposed by former President Trump after a decades-long free trade consensus in Washington, DC, that eliminated nearly four million American jobs from the U.S. economy from 2001 to 2018.

On Tuesday, Biden’s USTR Katherine Tai announced that her office will extend tariff exclusions for more than 350 China-made products and 77 COVID-19-related categories.

The tariff exclusions, a boon to China, have continuously been extended by Biden’s USTR since March 2022, as Breitbart News reported at the time.

The China-made products that will escape U.S. tariffs thanks to Biden include breast pumps, solar water heaters, garage door openers, X-ray tables, and thermostats, as well as food products from China such as crab meat, Dungeness crab, and Alaskan sole.

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Putin Critic Alexei Navalny Found in Brutal Arctic Prison Two Weeks After Disappearance

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny resurfaced on Tuesday, over two weeks after he mysteriously disappeared during a prisoner transfer.

Navalny reappeared at one of Russia’s harshest prisons, a former gulag called the Polar Wolf colony in the Arctic Circle.

“I am your new Father Frost,” Navalny said with characteristic humor when writing his first social media post since he disappeared before a scheduled court video appearance on December 11. Father Frost is the feisty Russian version of Santa Claus.

“Well, I now have a sheepskin coat, an ushanka hat, and soon I will get valenki,” Navalny told his followers. Ushankas are furry hats with flaps to cover the ears, while valenki are traditional Russian felt boots.

“The twenty days of transfer were quite tiring, but I’m still in an excellent mood, as Father Frost should be,” he said, noting that his “strange” route of transportation to the prison colony was seemingly designed to keep him in transit, and out of touch, for as long as possible. He said he was a little surprised when one of his lawyers appeared at his cell door because he thought he would not be found until mid-January.

ASIAN NEWS

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2 Crises

Japan Bans Synthetic THC Substitutes After Gummies Make Users Sick

Japan on Tuesday announced that six synthetic substitutes for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana and other cannabis products, will be banned effective January 6 because gummies containing the chemicals are making users sick.

The compound of greatest interest to the Japanese Health Ministry is hexahydrocannabiphorol (HHCP), a synthesized alternative to THC. HHCP and similar compounds are popular in Japan because THC itself is highly illegal. The penalties for possession are steep, with jail sentences of up to seven years awaiting Japanese citizens caught with even minute amounts of marijuana.
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For a variety of political and bureaucratic reasons, the Japanese government did not simply ban all synthetic alternatives to THC. Instead, it has restricted the compounds one at a time, usually after they were linked to health problems.

In November, a synthetic cannabinoid called HHCH caused five of its users to become so sick they required hospitalization after a man handed out gummies during a festival in Tokyo.
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Police said they previously investigated reports of people becoming ill after consuming gummies laced with HHCH, although the previous cases were not as severe as those reported at the Tokyo park festival.

The government imposed a ban on HHCH, which went into effect at the beginning of December, inflicting massive losses on shops that sold the popular substance. The short window of time between announcing and implementing the ban left some shop owners with little choice but to destroy their entire inventory.

Pakistan’s Massive Deportation Drive Included Afghans Awaiting Resettlement in U.S.

According to VanDiver and two “Western diplomatic sources” who spoke to Reuters anonymously, Pakistani police and local officials have sometimes ignored letters of protection written by the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan. Of 230 Afghans known to be holding those letters who were arrested for deportation, only 80 were subsequently released by Pakistani officials.

“The letters matter in some cases and not in others. Not all local officers are abiding by it,” VanDiver said.

The U.S. embassy wrote those letters in October after Pakistan set a November 1 deadline for the roughly 1.73 million Afghans illegally living on Pakistani soil to leave the country. Pakistan said refugees seeking resettlement in other countries could stay until December 31, a deadline later extended to the end of February 2024.

Pakistan said this sudden and massive deportation drive was made necessary by repeated terrorist attacks on Pakistani targets. Afghan nationals were involved in many of these attacks.

MIDDLE EASTERN NEWS

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U.S. Navy Shoots Down 12 Houthi Drones and Five Missiles in One Day

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Tuesday that the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen launched a massive barrage of drones and missiles at Israel, only to see their weapons intercepted and destroyed by the guided missile destroyer USS Laboon and F/A-18 fighters from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier battle group.

CENTCOM said U.S. forces “shot down twelve one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles, and two land attack cruise missiles in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Houthis over a 10 hour period.”

“There was no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries,” the statement added.

CENTCOM did not indicate if USS Laboon or other Navy assets were targeted by the Houthi drones and missiles.

The Houthis launched their attack the day after U.S. warplanes conducted retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq, whose latest assault on American positions in Iraqi Kurdistan injured three U.S. service members.

LATIN AMERICAN NEWS

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Bolivian Socialists Got Quite Bloodthirsty Now

Socialist Bolivia Seeks to Imprison Top Conservative Leaders in Nation for 20 Years

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bolivia presented charges on Tuesday against the right-wing governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, and former President Jeanine Áñez for their alleged participation in a “coup” against former socialist President Evo Morales in 2019.

Omar Mejillones, the prosecutor leading the “coup” case, is requesting a 20-year prison sentence for Camacho, Áñez, and six other men accused of plotting to “depose” Morales.

In reality, Morales was not the target of a coup but chose voluntarily to resign in late 2019 after the Organization of American States (OAS) found evidence of fraud in his unconstitutional fourth electoral victory. Morales fled the country to Mexico along with nearly his entire cabinet, leaving Áñez, then a senator, the top person in the line of succession in the country. She became interim president for a year before fulfilling her constitutional duty to organize elections as soon as possible. Bolivia is currently governed by Morales’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) Party.

Camacho, 45, is being accused alongside former Defense Minister Luis Fernando López, former military chief Williams Kaliman, and former police chief Yuri Calderón of being the “authors” of the alleged plot.

Áñez stands accused of being an “accomplice” alongside activist Marco Antonio Pumari, former Armed Forces inspector Jorge Fernández, and military chief Carlos Orellana.