News of the World
USA
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST
ASIA
LATIN AMERICA
Keep in mind
that the President of the Supreme Electoral Court in Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, deeply hates Bolsonaro and freedom of speech. 
Apps and companies like Telegram have also been targeted by him and his colleagues in the past.
Texas vs SCOTUS & Other Articles
Quote:Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has dramatically raised the stakes in a confrontation with the Biden administration over illegal immigration from Mexico. He has ordered state forces to lay down barbed wire along the Rio Grande River, and thus block federal Border Patrol from approaching the border. His actions run directly contrary to the exclusive federal control over the border, as made clear by the Supreme Court, and threaten a conflict between federal and state militaries unseen since the darkest days of desegregation in the South.
Instead of inviting a breakdown of federal-state relations, no matter how deep the disagreement over border policy, Texas should instead invite the Supreme Court to overturn its precedent pre-empting any state role in immigration enforcement. Congress can also play an important role by making clear its views on whether the calamity at the border qualifies as an "invasion" or "imminent danger" under the Constitution sufficient to justify a state’s resort to self-defense. But unless Governor Abbott and his state and congressional supporters adopt this less confrontational, though also less immediately satisfying, approach, he will lose in the courts and may well lose control of his national guard units to Washington, D.C.
...This record-breaking surge has imposed heavy costs on communities in Texas, Arizona, and California, created a route for the trafficking of people and drugs, and has led to thousands of deaths of migrants at the crossings.
President Biden bears primary responsibility for this failure. Our constitutional system has recognized for almost 150 years that protecting the territory of the nation falls within the responsibilities of the federal government. In The Chinese Exclusion Case (1889), the Supreme Court recognized the federal government’s inherent power to exercise the powers of national sovereignty, such as conducting foreign relations, protecting the national security, and controlling the border. In a series of immigration laws, Congress ordered the executive branch to detain aliens entering the country illegally, provide hearings for those claiming political asylum, and to remove those here without a valid visa.
Quote:On Wednesday, the court argument began by saying that Disney lacked standing to sue the governor or his administration because, “When a statute is facially constitutional, a plaintiff cannot bring a free-speech challenge by claiming that the lawmakers who passed it acted with a constitutionally impermissible purpose.”
“Because Disney seeks injunctive relief, it must allege an imminent future injury, and it has not alleged facts showing that any imminent future appointments will contribute to its harm,” it said. “Disney struggled to articulate any injury attributable to the Secretary” or governor.
The court further argued that Disney has standing to sue district members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CTFOD) but still lost on the merits.
The case is Walt Disney Parks & Resorts v. DeSantis, No. 4:23-cv-163 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
Quote:California law requires that would-be ammunition purchasers submit to a background check like the check one undergoes to purchase a firearm.
The law implementing the ammunition background checks came from Senate Bill 1235, which usurped a permit-to-purchase scenario passed by California voters in 2016. The court challenge was directed toward SB 1235 and its chief enforcer, California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
[US District Court Judge Roger T.] Benitez weighed the background check requirement in light of the Supreme Court’s Bruen (2023) decision and found it unconstitutional.
He wrote, “The ammunition background checks laws have no historical pedigree and operate in such a way that they violate the Second Amendment right of citizens to keep and bear arms.”
Plaintiffs also targeted California’s law against purchasing ammunition in other states and bringing it back to California. Benitez also decided in plaintiff’s favor concerning the anti-importation law.
Benitez subsequently barred AG Bonta and any of his agents from enforcing the ammunition background check requirement or the anti-importation law.
EUROPE
Several Articles
Quote:The socialist government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez suffered a major blow this week as his Catalan separatists amnesty bill, which he promised in order to form a coalition government, was shot down in parliament by the separatist party that had backed the formation of the government in the first place.
Demonstrating the fragility of the coalition government Sánchez cobbled together following last year’s elections, in which the centre-right People’s Party (PP) won the most votes but fell short of enough seats to form a government, the Catalonia-based leftist-separatist Junts party broke ranks and voted down the amnesty bill put forward by the government they voted to install, El Mundo reports.
The Junts party (Together for Catalonia) is led by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who is currently living in exile as a fugitive in Belgium in order to avoid prosecution for treason over attempts to see Catalonia secede from the rest of Spain in 2017.
The party agreed to back Sánchez in his quest for a third government in November after the socialist PM agreed to introduce amnesty legislation for the Catalan separatists, many of whom are accused of involvement in terrorist attacks in addition to the treasonous support of breaking the country apart. The move by Sánchez, described by many as a craven political tactic to remain in power, sparked weeks of protests from conservatives and populists on the streets of Madrid, warning that the move would fundamentally undermine the rule of law.
Yet, rather than Sanchéz’s amnesty bill being blocked by conservatives, in a dramatic turn of events, it was the Junts party that voted down the measure, arguing that it did not go far enough to ensure that separatists
would not face prosecution and therefore would violate their post-election support agreement.
Quote:The American supercarrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower will need to return to the U.S. soon and the Royal Navy is ready to replace her with a British carrier on station in the Red Sea if necessary, the Armed Forces minister says.
James Heappey MP answers weeks of criticism over why the United Kingdom has two aircraft carriers but none have been deployed to the Red Sea conflict hotspot, saying there is already enough Western military equipment in the area, but British ships would go if needed. A group of allied warships including a British destroyer and frigate, and a U.S. battlegroup including the supercarrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (‘Ike’) have been deployed to the Red Sea since last year, defending global merchant shipping from missile, drone, and pirate attacks by Iran-backed Shiite Muslim Houthi militias.
The Red Sea is one of a handful of strategic global waterways which provide an important time-saving passage to the flow of trade, but which are also narrow enough for state action or terrorism to potentially close them off to commercial ships. In this case, hundreds of ships have been diverted away from the Red Sea to around the Horn of Africa, adding nearly two weeks to the voyage and piling considerable costs onto the industry.
Ultimately, the downstream effects to the wider world is the threat this is yet another inflationary pressure on the economy, while shortages and delays can shutter starved factories or lead to empty store shelves. Nevertheless, the UK’s position is one that the situation is being managed for now.
Quote:The farmer uprising in France continued to grow this week, as an estimated 12,000 farmers in over 6,000 tractors enacted roadblocks in at least 120 locations throughout France on Tuesday, including access points to major cities such as Paris, Lyon and Marseilles. However, some are calling for the protests to set their sights on the EU government.
“The next step is Brussels, that’s for sure,” a grain grower from Loiret told the Le Figaro newspaper, with another adding: “We are able to go to Brussels, that doesn’t scare us.”
Motivated by the climate change agenda and expansionist visions, the EU has gone from being the friend to farmers as it was in decades past and is slowly becoming a major foe of agriculture, imposing onerous environmental regulations on agriculture while at the same time allowing food produced cheaper in other parts of the world without such stringent standards to freely flow into Europe, and thereby undercutting local farmers.
Defending the system he has been integral in creating, French President Emmanuel Macron said that “it would be easy to blame everything on Europe”.
Macron, who left the country for a state visit to Sweden on Tuesday despite the national crisis, did admit that the decision by Brussels to grant Ukrainian agriculture tariff-free access has had negative ramifications on farmers throughout the bloc.
Quote:The lower house of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow authorities to confiscate money, valuables and other assets from people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information” about the country’s military.
After its swift passage in the State Duma, the bill is now expected to quickly sail through the upper house of parliament and receive Russian President Vladimir Putin’s signature.
Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the measure would strengthen the punishment for the “traitors who sling mud at our country and our troops” and “strip those scoundrels of honorary titles, confiscate their assets, money and other valuables.”
The new law would apply to people who are convicted of publicly inciting “extremist activities,” calling for actions that would hurt the security of the state or “discrediting” the armed forces. Discrediting the Russian military became a criminal offense under a law adopted as part of a sweeping government crackdown on dissent after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
“Everyone who tries to destroy Russia, who betrays it, must suffer the deserved punishment and pay compensation for the damage inflicted on the country, at the cost of their property,” Volodin said before Wednesday’s vote.
The proposed law does not appear to include real estate among the assets subject to seizure, unlike the draconian Soviet-era legislation that authorized the seizure of housing.
MIDDLE EAST
Gaza Aid
Quote:Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas have attempted to block humanitarian aid entering Gaza over the past week, gathering at border crossings to protest and to obstruct truck convoys of supplies being sent through Israel.
Israel has allowed dozens of trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, after inspection, since shortly after the war began. It has allowed the aid to flow despite evidence that much of it is stolen by Hamas terrorists and armed gangs, and kept from civilians.
Meanwhile, families of Israeli hostages, over 130 of whom are still thought to be in captivity — though not all are thought to be alive — are becoming desperate, protesting not only in favor of a hostage deal but against humanitarian aid being sent into Gaza.
They argue that Palestinians, and Hamas, should not receive food, fuel, water, and medicine if there is no guarantee that hostages are also receiving aid. Hamas is already thought to have broken an agreement to bring medications to hostages that require them.
As the Times of Israel notes, protesters succeeded in blocking at least some aid trucks from entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and southern Gaza on four successive days, from last Wednesday through this past Sunday.
ASIA
2 Articles
Quote:Just one day after former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced to a decade in prison for mishandling secure documents, another court slapped him and his wife, Bushra Bibi, with 14 years in jail for corruption.
The new conviction for Khan came from the Toshakhana case, named after the Pakistani agency in charge of regulating gifts for politicians. Khan and Bibi were accused of improperly keeping expensive foreign gifts and later selling some for cash, including $2 million in jewelry given to Khan by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Khan is already in prison, having been convicted on a previous Toshakhana allegation in August 2023. He has already been banned from running for office for five years — a prohibition extended to ten years by the new conviction. Khan and Bibi were additionally fined almost $3 million each.
Khan accused the court of rushing through proceedings to obtain a speedy conviction ahead of Pakistan’s elections, which are on February 8, 2024. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party is urging voters to turn out for the party slate to demonstrate their contempt for what they see as rigged legal proceedings against Khan, arguably the most popular political figure in Pakistan.
...
Khan refused to remain in the courtroom on Wednesday, so he was convicted in absentia.
...
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) Party, on the other hand, celebrated Khan’s conviction as the downfall of a “certified Toshakhana thief in front of the world.”
Quote:Members of a rock band that has been critical of Moscow’s war in Ukraine remained locked up Tuesday in a Thai immigration jail, fearful that they could be deported to Russia as a reported plan to let them fly to safety in Israel was apparently suspended.
The progressive rock band Bi-2 said on Facebook that it had information that intervention from Russian diplomats caused the plan to be scuttled, even though tickets had already been purchased for their flight.
“The group participants remain detained at the immigration center in a shared cell with 80 people,” the post said. It said they declined to meet with the Russian consul. The Russian press agency RIA Novosti said the refusal was confirmed by Ilya Ilyin, head of the Russian Embassy’s consular section.
The seven band members were arrested last Thursday after playing a concert on the southern resort island of Phuket, reportedly for not having proper working papers. On Facebook, they said all their concerts “are held in accordance with local laws and practices.” Phuket is a popular destination for Russian expats and tourists. After paying a fine, the band members were sent to the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok.
The detained musicians “include Russia citizens as well as dual nationals of Russia and other countries, including Israel and Australia,” the group Human Rights Watch said in a statement Tuesday. Those holding only Russian citizenship are thought to be most at risk.
LATIN AMERICA
Crises in Venezuela & Brazil
Quote:NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby gave socialist Venezuela a deadline of April to commit to a “free and fair” presidential election in remarks on Monday, threatening the restoration of oil and gas sanctions lifted by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The announcement comes after Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) recently upheld a ban imposed on top opposition candidate María Corina Machado that prevents her from running against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in the yet-to-be scheduled “free and fair” election.
“Now, accordingly, they [the Maduro regime] got until April to do so, so we have options available to us. I’m not going to preview any of those at — at this time. But we certainly have options, with respect to sanctions and that kind of thing that — that we could take,” Kirby said.
“They — they’ve got until April. They need to make the right decisions here and allow opposition members to run for office and release the political prisoners that they’re holding right now,” he continued.
The Maduro regime and the Venezuelan “opposition” signed a series of agreements in Barbados in October to work towards a “free and fair” presidential election to take place sometime in the second half of 2024.
Quote:Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez threatened the United States on Monday evening with halting deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants coming from the U.S. by February if the oil and gas sanctions the White House recently lifted return.
Since October, the socialist regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro has been enjoying a generous oil and gas sanctions relief package awarded by U.S. President Joe Biden in exchange for a vague list of promises toward celebrating a “free and fair” presidential election in 2024.
Weeks before the sanction relief package was granted, the Biden administration signed an agreement with the Maduro regime in October to establish deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants through the regime’s dubious Vuelta a la Patria (“Return to the Homeland”) program.
According to the socialist regime, Venezuela received 11 deportation flights from the United States as of December 31. The Maduro regime did not publicly disclose the total amount of migrants who returned in those flights.
The Maduro regime, which has taken no material steps towards fulfilling its commitments in the elections deal, has so far failed to uphold the terms of the agreement, opting to instead double down on its persecution of political dissidents.
...
In response, the Biden administration rescinded the sanctions relief granted to the state-owned Minerven oil company and gave the Maduro regime an April deadline to comply with the “free and fair” electoral agreements or it will reinstate the oil and gas sanctions lifted in October.
Quote:Brazil’s Federal Police raided the house of Carlos Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, on Monday morning as part of a broader probe into illegal espionage activities allegedly committed during his father’s presidency.
The police burst into the home and office of Carlos, Bolsonaro’s second eldest son and a Rio de Janeiro city councilman, by order of Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Minister and “anti-fake news crusader” Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading the broader investigation.
The probe that prompted the raid, named “Operation Close Surveillance” by the Brazilian Federal Police, seeks to determine the alleged involvement of Carlos Bolsonaro in a purported scheme carried out by the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) during his father’s presidency to carry out illegal espionage activities under a “parallel ABIN” structure. Carlos Bolsonaro stands accused of illegally obtaining intelligence through the alleged operation.
“In this new stage, the Federal Police seek to advance in the political core, identifying the main recipients and beneficiaries of information produced illegally within the scope of Abin, through clandestine actions,” the official police statement reads. “In these actions, investigation techniques specific to the judicial police were used, without, however, any judicial or Public Ministry control.”
The raid on Carlos Bolsonaro’s home Monday took place after de Moraes ordered a raid on Alexandre Ramagem, who served as Jair Bolsonaro’s former spy chief and is a current member of the Brazilian Congress, as part of the same investigation. The police executed another seven warrants on Monday.
The purported “parallel” ABIN structure allegedly conducted espionage activities in favor of Jair Bolsonaro on “targets and public authorities with the aim of creating false narratives” through the use of an Israeli-made software known as “First Mile.”
A source from the Brazilian police told Reuters that Carlos Bolsonaro is suspected of having used data obtained with the Israeli espionage software “possibly” to “feed fake news” against his father’s political opponents.
Keep in mind
that the President of the Supreme Electoral Court in Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, deeply hates Bolsonaro and freedom of speech. Apps and companies like Telegram have also been targeted by him and his colleagues in the past.
"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.
![[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)
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
