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GOP Rep. Weber: Biden Said We’d Help Europe Get Off Russian LNG, Now He’s Given Putin ‘a Gift’ with Export Pause

Weber said, “[L]ook, it’s unbelievable what this President has done. And you said it, nine Democrats voted with us. They know what’s at stake here. If you think about it, last year, President Biden told the European countries they needed to get off of Russian LNG and we would supply their LNG, America would. But, guess what? It’s a campaign year now. And so, all of a sudden, he’s taken this tack to appease his radical climate base. … It’s going to hurt the Gulf Coast of Texas, jobs for people, energy independence, it seems like this President is intent on killing our energy industry.”

He added, “This is a gift to Putin and to the Iranian killers, who just killed — basically, their proxies killed three of our fine servicemembers. I cannot believe that this President is going to stay this course and that Americans aren’t paying attention.”

Don Jr. Calls for Replacing All of the Pro-Ukraine Senate GOP Leaders

Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday called for Republican Senate leaders who voted for the Ukraine aid bill to be replaced, after the Senate voted to pass the $95 billion bill that contained $61 billion for the Ukraine War.

Trump Jr. in a post on X listed those who voted against the bill and those who voted for it, saying “they need to be replaced”:

Only 2 members of Senate GOP Leadership opposed the Ukraine First funding bill- @SteveDaines & @barrassoforwyo.

The rest of GOP Leadership stood with DEMOCRATS to send billions more to Ukraine- @LeaderMcConnell, @SenJohnThune, @SenCapito & @joniernst.

They need to be replaced.Only 2 members of Senate GOP Leadership opposed the Ukraine First funding bill-
@SteveDaines & @barrassoforwyo.

The rest of GOP Leadership stood with DEMOCRATS to send billions more to Ukraine- @LeaderMcConnell, @SenJohnThune, @SenCapito & @joniernst.

They need to be replaced.

Open Editorial 1

It's not like I'd support the Ukraine Aid bill at all, but his call here sounds way too off to me. It could significantly destabilize the GOP in a very short time.

As you may have noticed, there are 2 factions fighting for control of the Republican party, the old school guys and the MAGA ones. This could become an issue if Trump becomes the next president and is unable to convince many of those old guys and neocons of joining his faction in 2025. A not so drastic approach seems to be a realistic alternative for Trumpists. So they gotta get rid of Lis Cheney and Mitch McConnell at once.

J.D. Vance: Stalled $60 Billion in U.S. Aid to Ukraine Wouldn’t ‘Fundamentally Change the Reality’ on the Ground

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and others are demanding passage of the aid without hinderance at the 60th Munich Security Conference, which coincided with Ukraine withdrawing troops from the eastern city of Avdiivka after months of intense combat, AP reports.

But Vance told the final day of the conference, an annual gathering of security and foreign policy officials, “the problem in Ukraine … is that there’s no clear end point” and the U.S. simply doesn’t make enough weapons to support endless wars in eastern Europe, the Middle East and “potentially a contingency in East Asia.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson insists he won’t be “rushed” into approving the $95.3 billion foreign aid package from the Senate that includes the help for Ukraine, but the bill has been held up by Republican opposition over its lack of funding and support for U.S. border security.

Johnson said he had requested a meeting with President Joe Biden months ago on these issues, and was still waiting for the opportunity to talk one-on-one.

If the package goes through, “that is not going to fundamentally change the reality on the battlefield,” Vance argued, pointing to limited American manufacturing capacity.

He then set out, “Can we send the level of weaponry we’ve sent for the last 18 months?. We simply cannot. No matter how many checks the U.S. Congress writes, we are limited there.”

Vance continued, “I think what’s reasonable to accomplish is some negotiated peace,” he said, arguing Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the U.S. all have an incentive to come to the table now and that the two-year-old war will at some point end in a negotiated peace, the AP report notes.

Ricarda Lang, a co-leader of one of Germany’s governing parties, the Greens, countered that Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown repeatedly “that he has no interest in peace at the moment.”

Open Editorial 2

Some people might argue now that he's a traitor, especially if they come from the left, but let's be honest. Ukraine isn't going anywhere right now. It started attacking Russian cities as if that were a priority for a country that hasn't retaken all the relevant cities in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In fact, it's leaving Avdiivka in the next few days or weeks according to the Ukrainian general in charge.

Even a short lived peace that could last a couple of years would benefit Ukraine. Stocks could be piled up instead of getting depleted too fast. Current technologies could be improved and tested before endangering unprepared crews.

Do I believe that Russia would keep its word? Hell no!
But time is valuable and any pause longer than a couple of months is good for anybody defending itself from invaders, don't you think?  

What the US and the EU should be doing now is looking for a certain aspect or flaw in Russian politics or army that they can exploit to force Putin's hand to stop attacking Ukraine at once. This is greatly important for the US now that they fear China could take advantage of American low ammo stocks and serious problems to recruit new cadets to invade the small island of Taiwan. Japan alone could never stop the CCP from taking control of the neighbor nation.

Two Officers and a Medical First Responder Shot, Killed in Minnesota

Two police officers and a medical first responder were shot and killed Sunday around 5:30 a.m. while responding to a domestic situation in Burnsville, Minnesota.

The AP posted to X:

The Minneapolis Star said a third officer was wounded in the incident.

Details on the incident are scant at this time, but a “law enforcement source says that police were called to a residence on a domestic incident when shots were fired,” the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

A SWAT vehicle on scene “had multiple bullet holes visible on its windshield,” WCCO reported.

San Francisco Admits First Non-citizen to Elections Board

Bay Area public radio station reported Thursday:

The newest member of the San Francisco Elections Commission, a seven-member civilian body that oversees and creates policy for the city’s Department of Elections, isn’t legally allowed to vote.

Kelly Wong, an immigrant rights advocate, is believed to be the first noncitizen appointed to the commission. At a swearing-in ceremony administered by Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin on Wednesday at San Francisco City Hall, dozens of people gathered to commemorate the occasion.
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Wong’s appointment is the result of a 2020 voter-approved measure that removed the citizenship requirement to serve on San Francisco boards, commissions and advisory bodies. Each of the commission’s seven members is appointed by a different city official, such as the mayor, city attorney or district attorney. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to appoint Wong.

As Breitbart News has noted, non-citizens are allowed to vote in San Francisco in school board elections.

Open Editorial 3

As Ilhan Omar has proven in the recent past, non-citizens or even naturalized citizens like her can come up with plans that go against all US interests. Allowing an illegal immigrant that has not been vetted properly to become a supervisor of any elections defeats the purpose of organizing any sort of election in the first place.

Can they prove that Wong isn't working for the CCP? Nope, they can't because they never checked her political background in China.

Chicago Gang Member Misses Attempted Murder Court Date While Allegedly Attempting to Kill Someone Else

A Chicago man accused of stabbing a stranger on Christmas was released by a judge — then missed his court date for attempted murder while he was allegedly busy stabbing another random woman.

Allen Erenburg was set to be in court Wednesday after a grand jury charged him with seven felonies for the December 25 incident during which he allegedly knocked a man off his bicycle, “struck the man in the head with a hammer and stabbed him repeatedly with a knife,” CWBChicago reports.

Instead of going to court, the 44-year-old was back on the street stabbing a woman and threatening her boyfriend with a hammer, prosecutors say.

Erenburg was caught in the first place not after he allegedly attempted to kill the man on the bike, but five days after that attack when he was arrested in a separate incident in Roscoe Village, according to the outlet.

“A 49-year-old woman reported that she was sitting in her car in the 2300 block of West Belmont when a man started shouting at her, then pulled out a knife and slashed one of her tires,” the publication stated, citing a Chicago Police Department (CPD) report.

Erenburg then allegedly broke the woman’s rear window and fled, but CPD was able to find and arrest him just minutes later when the victim identified him as the perpetrator.

EUROPE

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Strike, Putin vs Navalny's Mourners, Estonia Defends Trump's Comments on NATO

German Union Calls for Lufthansa Ground Staff Strike at Seven Airports

A labor union in Germany has called on ground staff for Lufthansa to walk off the job at seven airports on Tuesday following a similar strike earlier this month.

The Ver.di union said Sunday that the one-day strike will affect the airports in Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa’s two main hubs, as well as Berlin, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne-Bonn and Stuttgart. It will run from 4 a.m. Tuesday to 7:10 a.m. Wednesday.

A 27-hour strike at five of the same airports that started Feb. 7 prompted the airline to cancel hundreds of flights.

The union is seeking pay raises of 12.5%, or at least 500 euros ($539) more per month, in negotiations for about 25,000 employees, including check-in, aircraft handling, maintenance and freight staff. Several-hour or one-day “warning strikes” are a common tactic in German contract negotiations.

A round of talks on Feb. 12 produced no agreement. More negotiations are scheduled for Wednesday.

Over 400 Arrested for Attending Navalny Memorial Demonstrations in Russia

Over 400 people were detained in Russia while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died at a remote Arctic penal colony, a prominent rights group reported.

The sudden death of Navalny, 47, was a crushing blow to many Russians, who had pinned their hopes for the future on President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe. Navalny remained vocal in his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving a nerve agent poisoning and receiving multiple prison terms.

The news reverberated across the globe, and hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repressions with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay a tribute to the politician. In over a dozen cities, police detained 401 people by Saturday night, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid.

More than 200 arrests were made in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, the group said. Among those detained there was Grigory Mikhnov-Voitenko, a priest of the Apostolic Orthodox Church – a religious group independent of the Russian Orthodox Church – who announced plans on social media to hold a memorial service for Navalny and was arrested on Saturday morning outside his home. He was charged with organizing a rally and placed in a holding cell in a police precinct, but was later hospitalised with a stroke, OVD-Info reported.

 What a good, err no, a perfect timing for a stroke...

Zelensky Demands More Weapons From West, Invites Trump to Visit ‘Front Line’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned allies Saturday that an “artificial deficit” of weapons for his country risks giving Russia breathing space, hours after his military chief said he was withdrawing troops from the eastern city of Avdiivka.

Zelenskyy spoke to the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of security and foreign policy officials. Ukraine is back on the defensive against Russia in the nearly 2-year-old war, hindered by low ammunition supplies and a shortage of personnel.

“Ukrainians have proven that we can force Russia to retreat,” he said. “We can get our land back, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin can lose, and this has already happened more than once on the battlefield.”

“Our actions are limited only by … our strength,” he added, pointing to the situation in Avdiivka. Ukrainian commander Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said early Saturday that he was withdrawing troops from the city, where outnumbered defenders battled a Russian assault for four months, to avoid encirclement and save soldiers’ lives.

“Dear friends, unfortunately keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficit of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war,” Zelenskyy said. “The self-weakening of democracy over time undermines our joint results.”

The president said that the troop withdrawal was “a correct decision” and emphasized the priority of saving Ukrainian soldiers’ lives. He suggested that Russia has achieved little, adding that it has been attacking Avdiivka “with all the power that they had” since October and lost thousands of soldiers – “that’s what Russia has achieved. It’s a depletion of their army.”

Democrat Mega-Donor Alex Soros Declares ‘We Must Not Abandon Ukraine’

Democrat mega-donor and chairman of the leftist-globalist Open Society Foundations (OSF), Alex Soros, declared on Saturday that the West “must not abandon Ukraine”.

Soros, who took over the Open Society Foundations last year from his father, Hungarian activist billionaire George Soros, met with Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday to express his continued support for Kyiv in its war with Moscow.

Urging Western nations to continue pouring billions in taxpayer money into the conflict, Soros wrote on X: “We must not abandon Ukraine.”
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Alex Soros, like his father, has been one of Ukraine’s most vociferous supporters, most recently travelling to Kyiv in December to meet with both President Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska, whom he gave $1 million to her charity, which he said has become a partner of the Open Society Foundations.
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The globalist Soros activist empire has been heavily involved in Ukraine for decades, establishing the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) in Kyiv in 1990, shortly before the fall of Soviet control of the country. The Soros network has claimed that the IRF has been the “largest independent funder of Ukraine’s vibrant array of civil society and citizen’s groups for more than three decades.”

In total, the Open Society Foundations network has poured some $230 million into the country, “including more project funding over the past decade than to any other country in Europe.”

The director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, which is funded by the Open Society Foundations, Mark Leonard said last year that Ukraine is one of Alex Soros’ top interests, saying that he was “in daily contact with the Soros Foundation in Ukraine, talking to different governments about their policy towards Ukraine.”

Going into 2024, the 38-year-old billionaire activist said that a top aim of his will be to stop former President Donald Trump or any other “MAGA-style” Republican from taking the White House, arguing that “such an outcome will imperil European unity and undermine the progress achieved on many fronts in response to the war in Ukraine.”

Netherlands: Police Attacked, Cars Torched as Rival Eritrean Migrant Factions Riot at The Hague

Riots between rival factions of Eritrean migrants broke out in the Dutch city of The Hague on Saturday evening as police officers were left injured and cars were set on fire outside a conference centre.

The home of the war criminal trying International Criminal Court saw war zone-like scenes brought to its doorstep as supporters of the leftist government of Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki gathered in the Opera Hall Centre in The Hague’s city centre on Saturday evening.

A group of anti-government Eritreans gathered outside of the building in protest, however, it quickly devolved into open riots, with the anti-government faction smashing the windows of the hall and setting it on fire.

Riot police were dispatched to help protect the building from further damage and the pro-government Eritrean group within the conference centre were escorted from the building under police escort, Der Telegraaf reports.

Cashes between the two groups ensued and the riots continued to rage late into the evening, with several police and fire brigade vehicles being set ablaze and other privately owned cars being burnt during the altercations. Several officers and riot police were injured during clashes with the Eritrean mob, who took to pelting officers with stones.

The chairwoman of the Dutch Police Union (NPB) Nine Kooiman described the riots between the two groups of Eritreans as “devastating and too idiotic for words” and Ramon Meijerink of the ACP police union called them “completely unacceptable” while praising police officers for their “courage to step forward under difficult circumstances.”

The local fire brigade was initially prevented from putting out the fires because of the violence from the rioters. A spokesman said: “We initially received a report of a police car that was on fire. We had to withdraw because the situation was not safe. Later, a police van was also on fire at the hall complex.

Estonian PM: Trump’s NATO Comments Are ‘Wake-up Call for Many European Countries that Haven’t Done Enough’

During an interview with “PBS NewsHour” Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent Nick Schifrin aired on Friday, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas responded to 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump’s comments about NATO by stating that while “all these statements from the United States are making us worried,” “we haven’t taken defense seriously enough.” And Trump’s comments have “been a wake-up call for many European countries that haven’t done enough. And I think that is a positive thing, if they start to do more.”

Schifrin asked, “This week, the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service released a new assessment that says Russia is preparing for a military confrontation with the West within the next decade. What is that based on, and can it be prevented?”

Kallas responded, “It can be prevented if we invest in our defense, because, if you think about the aggressor, the aggressor takes the step of attacking somebody when he thinks that he can win because the other side is weaker. So, we haven’t taken defense seriously enough. And that means all the NATO allies have to do more.”

Schifrin then asked, “We’ve been focusing on Europe, but I want to ask about the U.S. Is the United States a reliable partner?”

Kallas answered, “Of course all these statements from the United States are making us worried, because the United States has been the biggest ally. And the only time Article V has been used is when [the] U.S. called us. So, this is something that we need to do together. When you have aggression that pays off [in] some part in the world, it will invite other aggressors in the world to start wars elsewhere.”

Schifrin then asked, “Does Europe need to assume that the United States cannot defend Europe and cannot provide, perhaps, Europe a nuclear umbrella anymore?”

Kallas responded, “I don’t think so. We have the agreements in place in NATO, all the structures in place. What we definitely have to do ourselves is to do more, like I said before. But the United States has been a reliable partner. And, of course, we hope that it’s going to be in the future as well.”

Germany Overtakes Japan as World’s Third-Largest Economy, India Set to Pass Both

Japan’s economy and currency weakened somewhat more than expected in 2023, causing it to slide behind Germany to become the world’s fourth-largest economy.

According to current projections, India will pass both countries by 2030 to become the number three economy, behind the United States and China.

Barron’s on Wednesday quoted analysts who said the big problem for Japan was a “sharp fall in the yen against the dollar.” Japan’s economy grew 1.9 percent in 2023 while Germany’s contracted by 0.3 percent, but the yen took a 20-percent nosedive against the U.S. dollar over the past two years.

The weaker yen may have helped Japan with some key exports, such as automobiles, but it left the total value of Japan’s GDP at $4.2 trillion, losing third place in the world rankings to Germany’s $4.5 trillion.

Both Germany and Japan are suffering from worker shortages due to collapsing demographics, but Japan has a much worse problem with birth rates and analysts said Germany’s pro-business policies were better at keeping production high.

Japanese bank officials on Wednesday warned against “rapid moves” in currency speculation that were harming the national economy.
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Kanda was evasive about whether the government would intervene to protect the value of the yen or not, while Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi left the press conference without another word when asked the same question.

AFRICA

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Lula's Disastrous Speeches in Africa

Brazil’s Socialist President Lula Delivers Anti-Israel Rant in Egypt, Promises Money for UNRWA

Brazilian radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned Israel on Thursday, accusing the country of killing “women and children” in its self-defense operations against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.

The Brazilian president, during an official visit to Egypt, issued his accusations against Israel as part of a speech given during a session of the League of Arab States, in which Lula also made demands for the United Nations to recognize “Palestine” as a state with Jerusalem as its capital. Lula then repeated its accusations against Israel in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Lula also condemned the United Nations Security Council and urged the institution to reform its rules — a longtime demand the socialist president has made and amplified since Hamas’s brutal October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. Lula has aggressively condemned Israel for its self-defense operations after October 7 but had little to say to condemn Hamas.

“Brazil’s position is clear. There will be no peace until there is a Palestinian state within mutually agreed upon and internationally recognized borders, which include the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and East Jerusalem as capital,” Lula told the Arab League.

Lula claimed Israel’s response to October 7 was “disproportional and indiscriminate.”

“Under the pretext of defeating Hamas, they are killing women and children, something never seen in any war that I know of,” Lula said at a press conference following his meeting with the Egyptian president.

“The killing must be stopped,” he said at a later point in the press conference. Lula has previously accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza for defending itself against the terrorist organization.

Brazil’s Lula Compares Gaza to ‘Holocaust,’ Defends Putin in Navalny Death

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, caused outrage Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by comparing Israel’s war against Hamas to the Holocaust, then defending Russian president Vladimir Putin in the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” he adds.

Lula also says nobody should assume Russian President Vladimir Putin had anything to do with the death of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, after he died of “sudden death syndrome.”

“A citizen died in prison. I don’t know if he was ill or had any issues,” Lula says. “To make an accusation is to trivialize. I hope that a coroner will provide an explanation for why the individual died, that’s all.”

Lula’s comments provoked an immediate reaction from Israeli leaders across the spectrum.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said (via Government Press Office):

By comparing Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization, to the Holocaust, President da Silva has disgraced the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and demonized the Jewish state like the most virulent anti-Semite. He should be ashamed of himself.

ASIA

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Kishida-Jong-un's Meeting Taking Place in the Not So Near Future?

Kim Jong-un’s Sister Says He Might Be Willing to Meet with Japanese PM Kishida

Kim Yo-jong, the politically influential sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, said on Thursday that her brother might be willing to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio provided the latter is “respectful.”

Kishida has been seeking talks with the communist tyrant to discuss the fate of the Japanese civilians North Korea kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s.

North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency quoted Kim Yo-jong saying that if Japan “makes a political decision to open a new path for improving ties based on mutual respect and respectful behavior, it is my view that the two countries can open a new future.”

KCNA said Kim qualified her statement by adding that it was only her personal opinion, and she had no knowledge of plans by her brother’s regime to arrange a meeting with Kishida – but she is considered highly influential and occupies a strange position in the strange government of North Korea, often acting as her brother’s spokeswoman and close adviser. Kim Yo-jong is technically only a deputy department director in the North Korean Workers’ Party, but she seems much more influential than officials who technically outrank her.

Kim added that a meeting would be possible only if Kishida “does not lay such a stumbling block as the already settled abduction issue.” She suggested that Japan would be demonstrating “anachronistic hostility and unattainable desire” by dwelling too much on the kidnapping issue.

Japan certainly does not consider the abduction issue “settled,” although many of the victims have died over the years. Japan brings up the nearly two dozen of its citizens known to have been kidnapped over the years by North Korean agents whenever Pyongyang’s human rights record is discussed. North Korea has admitted to some of the abductions, claiming that it wanted to train the victims as “spies,” but it has resisted a full accounting of the sinister program. President Joe Biden met with the families of abductees during his visit to Japan in May 2022 and promised to support their efforts to learn the fate of their loved ones.

Prime Minister Kishida is pushing hard for a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea, encouraged by some positive feedback from North Korean officials. Kim Yo-jong, among others, speaks of Japan in much less negative terms than she did a few years ago.

China Blacklists Pro-Democracy Writers from Science Fiction Hugo Awards

A massive scandal rocked the world of science fiction and fantasy writing on Thursday, as leaked emails revealed authors were quietly disqualified from winning the prestigious Hugo Awards if their work displeased the Chinese Communist Party.

The Hugo Awards are among the oldest and most prestigious awards for science fiction and fantasy literature. They have been presented annually since 1955 by the World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, a massive and loosely organized literary society. The members nominate works published the previous year in numerous categories, such as Best Novel, Best Short Story, and Best Professional Artist. The annual convention to present the awards is held in a different city every year.

The 2023 Hugo Awards were held in October in the city of Chengdu, China, whose community of sci-fi fans lobbied hard for the honor of hosting the meeting.

Soon after the finalists were announced, the sci-fi world began rumbling with questions about why certain popular authors had clearly accumulated enough votes from Worldcon members but were not listed as awards finalists. The mysteriously excluded authors included Rebecca F. Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao, Paul Weimer, and perhaps the biggest name on the list, The Sandman and American Gods author Neil Gaiman.

Rebecca F. Kuang is a New York Times best-selling American author whose book Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution recently won several other high-profile awards, so her fans immediately noticed its exclusion from the Hugo finalists. Kuang herself expressed bafflement that her book could win the other awards but not be considered a Hugo finalist.

India: Police Tear Gas Farmers Marching on New Delhi Demanding End to Free Trade Deals

Police in India used drones to drop tear gas on a growing legion of angry farmers as they marched on New Delhi on Tuesday. The police also threw up barricades on major roads leading into the national capital and banned gatherings of more than five people to thwart the protests.

Indian farmers previously staged massive protests in 2020 and 2021, angered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agricultural reforms. The reform package was supposed to modernize the farming industry and remove some inefficient price supports, but farmers who were already struggling with poverty said the “three laws” proposed by Modi would make it impossible for them to survive.

Modi personally pleaded with the farmers to break up the protest camps they erected around New Delhi and return home, but the farmers stayed put for more than a year, braving harsh seasons and the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Modi eventually gave in and repealed the three controversial laws.

The new protest once again involves tens of thousands of angry farmers converging on New Delhi, many of them riding on tractors and trucks. The farmers say Modi reneged on some of the promises he made to end the 2021 protests, including pledges to double farmers’ incomes and guarantee minimum crop prices.

The farmers are demanding a pension program for farmers over 60 years of age and special terms for farm loans. They want India to withdraw from free trade agreements and the World Trade Organization (WTO) because they see those memberships as distorting the price of Indian agricultural products.

Most importantly, the farmers want an expanded system of minimum support prices (MSP) — a guaranteed minimum price the government will pay to purchase crops, set high enough to compensate farmers for implicit costs, risks, and setbacks, such as market fluctuations and bad weather.

MIDDLE EAST

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Rafah & Netanyahu Defies Biden

Israel Sets March 10 Ramadan Deadline for Hostage Release — or War in Rafah

The announcement, apparently representing the position of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, was made on Sunday by opposition leader Benny Gantz, who has joined the war cabinet as part of an emergency government of national unity.

The Times of Israel reported:

“The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know — if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, to include the Rafah area,” Gantz said.
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“We will do so in a coordinated manner, facilitating the evacuation of civilians in dialogue with our American and Egyptian partners to minimize civilian casualties,” the former IDF chief of staff and defense minister told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, as they convened in Jerusalem.

“To those saying the price [of an offensive] is too high, I say this very clearly: Hamas has a choice — they can surrender, release the hostages, and the citizens of Gaza will be able to celebrate the holy holiday of Ramadan,” he said.

The announcement represents a new approach to hostage negotiations. Hamas has dug in and said it will not release hostages unless Israel ends the war and withdraws completely from Gaza — which would mean Hamas would survive and Israel would lose.

Netanyahu Defies Biden with Unanimous Vote Against Imposed Palestinian State

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday by submitting a resolution to his government opposing a Palestinian state imposed from outside, and having the resolution endorsed unanimously.

Netanyahu acted after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued to press for Israel to accept a Palestinian state as the outcome of the war against the Hamas terrorists who began the conflict with a brutal terror attack on Israel on October 7.

The Prime Minister’s Office released the following statement:

The Israeli Government has unanimously approved a declaratory decision regarding Israel’s opposition to international diktats.

The text of the final statement:

1. Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.

2. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre would be a massive and unprecedented reward to terrorism and would prevent any future peace settlement.

The Biden administration has been obsessed with a Palestinian state since before the conflict, reportedly blocking Saudi-Israeli peace negotiations in September 2023 because the proposed deal did not explicitly call for the creation of a Palestinian state.

LATIN AMERICA

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How Much Does Venezuela Care About Human Rights?

Venezuela: Socialists Expel U.N. Human Rights Staff for Criticizing Human Rights Abuses

Venezuela’s socialist regime expelled the staff of the United Nations human rights office stationed in Caracas on Thursday, ordering the office to shut down its operations and giving its personnel 72 hours to leave the country.

The announcement followed a statement in which the U.N. Human Rights Office publicly expressed concerns over the arrest and disappearance of Venezuelan activist and lawyer Rocío San Miguel this week, whom the socialist regime accused of being involved in a dubious assassination plot against dictator Nicolás Maduro.

San Miguel’s whereabouts remain unknown at press time. The U.N. human rights officials described her detention as a potential “enforced disappearance,” which drew the ire of the socialist regime.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil made the official announcement on Thursday afternoon. Maduro ordered the 13 U.N. staff members to leave the country by Sunday. They will not be allowed back “until such time as they publicly rectify before the international community their colonialist and abusive attitude, in violation of the Charter of the United Nations.”

Gil asserted that Maduro had agreed to the office’s opening in September 2019 to “show the world the advances in human rights in Venezuela.”

Yeah, but they'd need an electronic microscope to one day find any of said advances.

Mexican Soldiers Find RPGs, Shoulder-Fired Rockets After Shootout in Beach Resort Town

Mexican authorities found a cache of RPGs, shoulder-fired rockets, and various other weapons after a shootout with cartel gunmen in the beach resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

The case took place this week in Puerto Vallarta, a region known for its luxurious beach resorts, with many tourists arriving each year.

According to information provided to Breitbart Texas by Mexico’s National Guard, the incident took place in the rural areas of Puerto Vallarta when a group of guardsmen were patrolling an area known as El Ranchito. The guardsmen spotted two gunmen leaning next to a vehicle. When authorities approached them, the gunmen tried to flee but crashed into one of the military vehicles.

After the crash, the gunmen fired at authorities in an attempt to flee, but authorities fired back and surrounded them, forcing their surrender. One of the gunmen sustained a gunshot injury to his leg and had to be rushed to a local hospital.

When authorities searched the vehicle, national guardsmen reported seizing two rocket launching tubes, ten rockets, seven grenades, rifles, handguns, ammunition, and tactical gear.

The use of rocket launchers and explosives by cartel gunmen comes as Mexico continues to see a high level of violence as a result of policies known as “Hugs Not Bullets” pushed by Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.