News of the World
03-14-2024, 03:24 AM
USA
The build, educate, train, and inspire combo truly sounds like reeducation-camp style formation.
I seriously doubt any American with a little dose of common sense would ever want unvetted illegals get a free or simplified path to citizenship.
LATIN AMERICA
EUROPE
Does that mean Putin now wants all Americans (especially their politicians) to become his lackeys!?
West Point
Quote:West Point Superintendent Army Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland on Monday announced a new mission statement for the venerable institution that replaces the words “duty, honor, country” for the more generic “Army values.”
The West Point’s previous mission statement was:
To educate, train and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the United States Army.
The new statement says:
To build, educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character committed to the Army Values and ready for a lifetime of professional excellence and service to the Army and Nation.
Gilland claimed he wanted to focus more on the “mission essential tasks” of “build, educate, train, and inspire” versus “duty, honor, country.”
He said in a message posted on the West Point website:
Duty, Honor, Country is foundational to the United States Military Academy’s culture and will always remain our motto. It defines who we are as an institution and as graduates of West Point. These three hallowed words are the hallmark of the cadet experience and bind the Long Gray Line together across our great history.
Our responsibility to produce leaders to fight and win our nation’s wars requires us to assess ourselves regularly. Thus, over the past year and a half, working with leaders from across West Point and external stakeholders, we reviewed our vision, mission, and strategy to serve this purpose. We believe our mission binds the Academy to the Army — the Army in which our cadets will serve. As a result of this assessment, we recommended the following mission statement to our senior Army leadership:
To build, educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character committed to the Army Values and ready for a lifetime of service to the Army and Nation.
Both the Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of Staff approved this recommendation.
Our updated mission statement focuses on the mission essential tasks of Build, Educate, Train, and Inspire the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character, with the explicit purpose of being committed to the Army Values and Ready for a lifetime of service. The Army Values include Duty and Honor, and Country is reflected in Loyalty, bearing truth faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers. In the past century, West Point’s mission has changed nine times. Many graduates will recall the mission statement they learned as new cadets did not include the motto, as Duty, Honor, Country was first added to the mission statement in 1998.
Our absolute focus on developing leaders of character ready to lead our Army’s Soldiers on increasingly lethal battlefields remains unchanged.
Go Army!
Duty Honor Country
LTG Steve Gilland
61st Superintendent
The build, educate, train, and inspire combo truly sounds like reeducation-camp style formation.
Hunter Biden
Quote:Hunter Biden on Wednesday refused to accept House Oversight Committee James Comer’s (R-KY) offer to publicly testify before Congress on March 20.
Hunter previously said he would only testify in public and refused to appear for a closed-door interview in December.
“Here I am, Mr. Chairman, taking up your offer when you said we can bring these people in for depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose. Well, I’ve chosen. I’m here to testify in a public hearing today to answer any of the committee’s legitimate questions,” Hunter said outside the U.S. Capitol in December.
Hunter later appeared in February for a closed-door interview before the House impeachment inquiry.
In a letter to Comer on Wednesday, Abbe Lowell, Hunter’s lawyer, said the invitation is an “attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.”
“I must convey my surprise by your hasty request,” he continued. “After that 6-plus hour deposition on February 28, 2024 … I thought even you would recognize your baseless impeachment proceeding was dead.”
Lowell also stated Comer’s request for a March 20 hearing conflicted with Hunter’s hearing in California. Hunter pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges in California in January. The controversial tax charges did not include Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations and did not implicate President Joe Biden in any wrongdoing.
Comer said Hunter would not show for a hearing because he confirmed compromising evidence against Joe Biden during his closed-door deposition...
Crime
Quote:A Florida convicted pedophile has been arrested again less than two months after his release from prison, for allegedly raping a random woman.
Kendrick Marclain, 31, registered as a sex offender with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office on January 8 after getting out of prison on December 31, Fox News reported. Then, a woman accused the Panoma Park man of attacking her on February 3.
The woman told police that she had gotten into an argument with a family member while intoxicated that night and decided to leave the residence and go for a walk by herself. She reported noticing a strange man following her, and called her mother around 10:12 p.m. but lost connection.
“The victim said the man continued to follow her and made contact with her near Dollar General asking for a cigarette,” the sheriff’s office said. “The victim gave the man a cigarette, which they shared.”
Before she could leave, the woman said the man grabbed her by the neck, hit her head on a wall, and raped her.
The victim said the man then attempted to take her to his residence, but it was at this time that her father came looking for her and she was able to escape to his vehicle.
Investigators were able to match surveillance footage and forensic evidence to Marclain on Monday, officials said.
He was arrested, charged with sexual assault on a person over the age of 18, and is being held in the Putnam County Jail without bond.
Marclain had recently been released from prison for sexually assaulting a child under the age of 12, Fox News reported.
Immigration
Quote:Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) said Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that she believed after the border bill failed, Republicans were to blame for the migrant crisis.
Hochul said, “We are a nation of immigrants. I’m sitting here because my grandparents were teenagers in Ireland leaving great poverty. My grandpa started as a migrant farm worker himself in South Dakota in the wheat feels.”
She continued, “Fast forward to today, which is your question, we are doing the best we can to manage the influx, get people housing, it is very expensive and the state of New York is in for about $4.3 billion. I would like federal money. And guess what the federal money is and why it’s being held up?”
Hochul added, “The Republicans in Congress and in the Senate, said no, because Donald Trump called him up one night, the night before they should have voted on this to send 2,000 more agents, border patrol people to the border. I need some on the northern border, by the way we border Canada, money for states like New York, that would have helped us a lot, and just have a different path of citizenship and look at the asylum and whether it’s too loose right now the way it’s being used and probably abused. So I blame the Republicans now, the mess was bipartisan before that. Democrats and Republicans have not successfully found a way to have a path to legal citizenship because the employers want this.”
I seriously doubt any American with a little dose of common sense would ever want unvetted illegals get a free or simplified path to citizenship.
Quote:Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is “stonewalling” on details regarding Jose Antonio Ibarra, the illegal alien accused of murdering Laken Riley, Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) tells Breitbart News.
Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to Mayorkas on February 27 requesting all information on Ibarra, including his release into the United States and internal DHS communication regarding his immigration proceedings.
Mayorkas was asked to respond with the relevant information by March 11.
Green’s office told Breitbart News that DHS acknowledged on February 27 that the request was received, with officials calling it a “high priority.” As of March 13, though, Green’s office said Mayorkas has yet to respond with information on Ibarra.
“It’s unacceptable that DHS has failed to comply with this reasonable request,” Green said.
“The documents and information that we have requested should be quite simple for DHS to compile and produce,” he continued. “Secretary Mayorkas has repeatedly claimed that parole is being granted on a case-by-case basis, per the law’s requirement, and if that’s true, DHS shouldn’t have any trouble producing the documents verifying that in the matter of Jose Ibarra.”
Mayorkas, Green said, has also failed to brief the House Homeland Security Committee on the issue of Riley’s murder.
“Aside from confirming receipt of our request, DHS has not contacted the Committee to even discuss a timeline to respond,” Green said. “This is the type of stonewalling we’ve encountered over and over again from the administration. It’s time for DHS to be forthcoming.”
Quote:Republicans have introduced the bipartisan “Laken Riley Act” in the United States Senate after the legislation passed the House with support from 251 Republicans and 37 Democrats.
On Wednesday, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced Rep. Mike Collins’s (R-GA) Laken Riley Act, which would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take into custody illegal aliens arrested, charged, or convicted for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.
“Laken Riley should still be alive today, and we must act to prevent tragedies like this from continuing to occur in our country … we must prioritize American lives over illegal aliens,” Blackburn said.
“We simply cannot tolerate any more senseless tragedies like this one. What happened to Laken Riley should never happen to any American citizen,” Budd said.
Specifically, the legislation would require DHS to issue an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer against any illegal alien in the U.S. hit with such local charges if they are not already detained by local, state, or federal officials.
An ICE detainer requests local law enforcement to hold an illegal alien in their custody until federal agents can take over.
Britt said Riley’s murder “was a direct, preventable consequence of willful open border policies by President Biden and his administration,” while Collins thanked Britt for leading on the legislation:
Quote:DeSantis’s office announced Wednesday that it was deploying “additional state assets to the Keys and southern waters of the State of Florida.” According to the press release, there are security and surveillance assets in South Florida as well as the Keys “as a part of Operation Vigilant Sentry to stop illegal immigration at sea.”
Additional assets include 39 officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 23 from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission “with eight additional seacraft,” 48 additional Guardsmen from the Florida National Guard “with four additional helicopters,” and 30 officers from the Florida Highway Patrol.
DeSantis said in a statement:
Given the circumstances in Haiti, I have directed the Division of Emergency Management, the Florida State Guard, and state law enforcement agencies to deploy over 250 additional officers and soldiers and over a dozen air and sea craft to the southern coast of Florida to protect our state.
He noted that Florida has “significant” resources to halt illegal immigration from Haiti.
“No state has done more to supplement the (under-resourced) U.S. Coast Guard’s interdiction efforts; we cannot have illegal aliens coming to Florida,” he added.
The announcement comes as Haiti continues to descend into chaos, overwhelmed with bloody gang violence.
LATIN AMERICA
American Withdrawal & Haitian Crisis
Quote:American missionaries trapped in Haiti pleaded for rescue on Tuesday, reporting constant gunfire around their hideaway and corpses rotting in the streets. The group’s leader said the only assistance they have received from the Biden administration was advice to “be safe.”
“Okay, well, that’s not really helpful,” Jill Dolan of the group Love A Neighbor said of the response she received from the U.S. Embassy when she asked for help getting her family out of Haiti.
“My fear is that we will be caught in the middle of something really dangerous. We’re already on the front lines of it; we’re in a bad area. It’s kind of depressing. The gunfire never stops,” Dolan told the New York Post on Tuesday.
Dolan and her family are holed up in a “makeshift motel” in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, where the worst battles of Haiti’s immense gang war have been fought. She and her family founded Love a Neighbor — a nonprofit missionary charity, based in Washington State — to help manage a small orphanage for children abandoned or sold by their impoverished parents.
Dolan said she was on her way out of Haiti to attend a wedding in Florida with her husband and adopted teenage children when gangs attacked the airport, causing all commercial flights to be canceled.
“We’ve contacted agencies to extract us out. They have just said, ‘It’s way too dangerous where you are; you have to stay put,’” she told CBS News on Wednesday.
The Post spoke to other American missionaries and charity volunteers who said they have been trapped in various parts of Haiti — few of them as completely overrun with violent anarchy as Port-au-Prince, but nowhere in Haiti seems entirely safe.
The other missionaries also spoke of being abandoned by the Biden administration, which seemed able to do little beyond evacuating staffers from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.
Quote:With the announced resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the most powerful man in blood-soaked Haiti is ex-cop gang boss Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier.
Barbecue is not without his rivals, foremost among them a 26-year-old rap-singing gangster named Johnson Andre, aka Izo Vilaj de Dye, whose resume includes kidnapping, extortion, savage murders, and a YouTube award for one of his music videos.
“Izo,” as he prefers to be known, began cranking out politicized rap videos shortly after a rival Haitian gang abducted seventeen foreign missionaries in November 2021. The song, titled “Se Fot Yo,” accused the Haitian government of arming gangs and using them as paramilitary enforcers.
Izo’s YouTube channel quickly racked up 100,000 subscribers, which earned him a “Silver Play Button” plaque and a cash award from the video streaming service. Izo posed with his winnings in a social media snapshot and declared himself part of the “artist Mafia.”
This was not hyperbole because Izo leads one of the deadliest Haitian gangs, Baz 5 Segonn, or the “Five Seconds Gang.” Cherizier’s rival gang, actually a confederation of smaller criminal packs, is called G9 and Family. There are at least 200 distinct gangs operating in Haiti, with 23 of them competing for control of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.
Izo’s gang controls one of Haiti’s most miserable slums, the “Village of God,” where it practices such abuses as murder, rape, cop killing, recruiting child soldiers, and kidnapping. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has prosecuted gang leaders linked to Izo for abducting American citizens.
A petition campaign was quickly organized to rescind Izo’s platinum award and shut down his YouTube channel.
Quote:The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, declared on Sunday that “we can fix” the ongoing political turmoil and rampant gang violence in Haiti, equating the images of brutality from the island nation to the state of affairs in his home country before implementing a law enforcement crackdown in 2022.
Bukele did not specify who the “we” in his sentence was — whether he meant the government of El Salvador or the international community in general. He later commented that “experts” had declared similar violence in El Salvador “intrinsic” to the country, and the eradication of organized criminal violence from the country had proven them wrong.
El Salvador suffered decades of near-total control of society by organized criminal gangs, most prominently Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang. Bukele, who took office in 2019, greatly expanded police authority and, in 2022, enacted a “state of exception” that allowed police to detain tens of thousands of gang suspects. Bukele also built “mega-prison” complexes to house the suspects and is processing the criminals in mass trials to facilitate their removal from society.
Bukele’s dramatic expansion of law enforcement powers has alarmed outside observers, who fear that regular citizens may soon see their constitutional rights eroded as well. Yet no reports have surfaced from El Salvador of the imprisoning of political dissidents or silencing of opposition. The country’s most prominent opposition newspaper, El Faro, conceded in 2023 that “gangs do not exist” in the country as they used to, allowing citizens to enact basic liberties such as visiting their public parks in peace and establishing small businesses without paying the gangs extortion fees. El Faro continues to operate and freely publish materials critical of Bukele.
Bukele was overwhelmingly reelected in February’s presidential election with an estimated 85 percent of the vote.
Gunmen in Mexico
Quote:A group of cartel gunmen kidnapped and tortured a well-known journalist in Mexico who dared to write a column about the impunity with which drug lords lived in his state. The gunmen held the journalist for two days while they tortured him and questioned him before releasing him with a warning.
The incident began on Monday afternoon when Jaime Barrera Rodriguez, one of the most famous journalists in the state of Jalisco, was leaving his job at a local radio station on his way to his office at a local TV station for the night newscast when a group of gunmen kidnapped him at gunpoint in the city of Zapopan.
Soon after the kidnapping, Jalisco State Governor Enrique Alfaro made the incident public and revealed he was personally overseeing the issue.
By Wednesday morning, the gunmen released Barrera, who then called for help. State and federal authorities responded to the journalist’s location and continued their investigation. Alfaro announced the release and held a news conference where he provided additional details about the case.
Soon after his release, Barrera spoke with various journalists, and he claimed that the kidnapping was not for ransom but was actually a warning. He contended that gunmen tied him up and beat him with a paddle as they questioned him about his stories.
In a radio interview, Barrera claimed they asked him if he wrote under someone’s orders and why he wrote what he wrote.
According to Mexico’s El Universal, a possible reason for the kidnapping could have been over his most recent column where he criticized the government’s apparent lack of urgency in capturing the leadership of Cartel Jalisco New Generation and how in certain towns the group’s main leader Nemesion “El Mencho” Oseguera is welcomed with open arms even by public officials.
Maduro: Zelensky & Guaidó are Clowns
Venezuela’s Maduro Calls Ukraine’s Zelensky a ‘Clown’
Claims U.S. ‘Devil’ Preparing to ‘Discard’ Him
Claims U.S. ‘Devil’ Preparing to ‘Discard’ Him
Quote:Maduro, a close ally of Moscow, claimed that he supports Pope Francis’s recent call to negotiate an end to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. During an interview with Switzerland’s Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), Pope Francis said that Ukraine should have the “courage to negotiate” an end to Russia’s invasion of its territory. The comments, and Ukraine’s reaction to them, prompted the Vatican Press Office to clarify that the pope’s statements did mean he supported Ukraine’s surrender.
The socialist dictator asserted that “the time has come to negotiate peace” in Ukraine, comparing Zelensky, whom he further described as “crude” and “defeated,” to Venezuela’s former legitimate interim president, Juan Guaidó. Guaidó was president from January 2019 to December 2022 after Maduro clung to power by holding a sham presidential election in 2018 that paved the way for a constitutional crisis in the South American nation.
“Zelensky, the eastern president from over there in Ukraine, more and more resembles Guaidó to me, as clownish, as crude and as defeated as Guaidó, as harmful to his people as Guaidó,” Maduro said.
“In any case, I could say with my heart as a Christian, as a man of faith, that Pope Francis is right,” he continued. “And from Venezuela, we firmly support with devotion the words of Pope Francis’ call for peace in Ukraine.”
The socialist dictator then claimed that all wars, including what he called the “extermination of the Palestinian people” by Israel, must end.
Maduro further alleged that “U.S. Imperialism” is preparing to “discard” Zelensky, claiming that it would not be the first time “that imperialism sets up a puppet, uses it, burns it, destroys it and discards it.”
“We had a clown like Zelensky: Guaidó, the biggest clown, who said he was president in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. And in 2023, imperialism grabbed him, discarded him and threw him to the garbage dump in Miami,” Maduro said. “Now he lives like garbage in Miami — yes, a multimillionaire.”
EUROPE
Boris Johnson in... Venezuela!?
Quote:Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson secretly traveled to Venezuela in February to meet with socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, the British newspaper the Sunday Times reported over the weekend.
The Sunday Times claimed that Johnson allegedly discussed the Russian invasion of Ukraine with Maduro, who is a staunch supporter and key ally of Russia in the region. The newspaper further alleged that U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron knew of the meeting.
Unnamed sources claimed to the Sunday Times that Johnson was acting as a “back channel for the UK and the West more generally given the dire state of relations with a strategically significant country.”
Johnson reportedly spent less than 24 hours in Venezuela, traveling by use of a private jet from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic and arriving at a location outside of the capital city of Caracas, where he met with the socialist dictator. Johnson then returned to the Dominican Republic before departing to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Johnson spoke to Maduro about the war in Ukraine amid concern in western diplomatic and intelligence circles that the oil-rich socialist republic could supply weapons or other military support to Russia, a close ally,” the report read.
Johnson also allegedly discussed conditions to normalize relations with the Maduro regime. The United Kingdom does not recognize Maduro’s government as legitimate after the socialist dictator held a sham presidential election in May 2018 to cling to power.
Like much of the free world, the U.K. had instead chosen to recognize the now-dissolved presidency of Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate government. The U.K.’s recognition of Guaidó’s presidency over Maduro’s illegitimate rule was a crucial element leading to a London court ruling in favor of denying control to Maduro of more than $1 billion worth of Venezuelan gold held in the Bank of England in 2022. The socialist regime appealed the court ruling in 2023 after Guaidó’s presidency was dissolved in December 2022. A new ruling over control of the gold remains pending.
Other topics discussed between Johnson and Maduro, according to the Sunday Times, were the matter of holding a “free and fair” presidential election in 2024 and a de-escalation of Venezuela’s tensions with Guyana over the disputed Essequibo territory.
Guyana was a former British colony until it gained its independence in 1966. A 120-year-old territorial dispute over the Essequibo region, which represents two-thirds of Guyana, remains active today, a holdover of the British era. The Maduro regime escalated the dispute last year by threatening to forcefully annex the contested territory. Maduro has also continuously threatened the American oil company ExxonMobil to abstain from drilling oil in waters near the contested territory.
Cuban in Ukraine War
Quote:A Telegram channel allegedly linked to the Ukrainian military published a video of a man claiming to be a Cuban national scammed into fighting for Russia after accepting what he thought was a masonry job in exchange for the promise of Russian citizenship, multiple Spanish-language outlets reported on Monday.
The video is allegedly of a man caught fighting on the front lines against the Ukrainian military in Marinka, in the disputed Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The man identified himself in the video as Frank Darío Jarrosay Manfugás of Guantánamo and insisted that “at no time did we know that we were going to go to war” when he and his compatriots accepted jobs in Russia.
Jarrosay — sporting a heavy Cuban accent — tells his captors through an interpreter that “Cubans who were here [in Russia]” recruited him through Facebook to work in the country.
“It was not directly to the war. I didn’t come to the war. The page said that you come here to work in plumbing, masonry, carpentry,” he continued. “That is to say, the cities that Russia conquered, we came to rebuild them. That was the contract, but not to shoot bullets.”
The man identifying himself as Jarrosay said he was offered 250,000 rubles — about $2,725.24 — a month for “masonry” work, and he was paid his monthly salary in February and another 100,000 rubles — about $1,090.10 — for completing his first month on the job. He said he was part of a group of 35 Cubans sent to fight in Ukraine.
Jarrosay continued:
At no time did we know that we had to go to the war, do you understand me? We came to do carpentry, masonry. They made the contract up in Russian; we didn’t know what the contract said in Russian. They make you sign believing that it is for the labor you think you are signing up for. Before you know it, you’re in a trench shooting.
“The Cubans coming here do not have military training; they do not come with military training because they don’t come here for the war,” the man insisted. “I was never a police officer; I never shot bullets in Cuba. I don’t have military training.”
He recounted how the Ukrainian military captured him. During a mission to transport a portable solar panel grid, bombs started falling, and he lost track of his team.
Ukraine & China
Quote:The Chinese Foreign Ministry asserted Tuesday “all sides” in the Russian invasion of Ukraine “attached high importance” to the ongoing Chinese diplomat tour of Europe allegedly seeking to end the war, a claim undermined by the apparent lack of enthusiasm in Russia and Ukraine about the trip.
Li Hui, a senior Chinese diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, is leading his second round of “shuttle diplomacy” since the Russian government began its “special military operation” to recolonize Ukraine. Li and his team have stopped in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, and France since he left China on March 2, engaging in meetings with senior officials in each state on the status of the war. In Russia, Li received plaudits for trying – and an earful condemning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace formula, which requires Russia to return conquered Ukrainian lands to his country. In Ukraine, Li received pressure for China to do something about evidence of North Korean weapons being used by the Russian military and to encourage Moscow to return children abducted from disputed territories.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced in February that Li would travel to Europe to spread “China’s wisdom” and make meaningful contributions to ending the war. The tour is a sequel to a similar round of “shuttle diplomacy” in May 2023 that resulted from a phone conversation between Zelensky and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, one of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s closest partners on the world stage.
In May, China encouraged Ukraine to “build up trust” with Russia as Russia continued its attempt to colonize large percentages of Ukrainian land.
“Special Representative Li Hui laid out China’s position and proposals on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at the time. “There is no panacea for defusing the crisis. All parties need to do their part to build up trust and create conditions for ceasefire and peace talks.”
Li’s first tour did not result in talks between Ukraine and Russia or any notable changes to the state of the war. Similarly, in the past nearly two weeks of Chinese intervention, neither side offered any commitments to move forward with new talks or negotiate a definitive end to the conflict, reports from state media in both countries indicated. Discussion of China’s “political settlement” plan for the Russian invasion – a vague series of suggestions that include asking both countries to “calm down as soon as possible” – appeared nearly entirely absent this month.
Zelensky Will Deal With Russia
Quote:Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with French broadcaster BFMTV and engaged with controversial remarks by President Emmanuel Macron, that nothing was off the table when it comes to defeating Putin’s Russia and further NATO involvement shouldn’t be ruled out. The comments have caused concern across the NATO alliance in recent weeks with other national and military leaders insisting such a deployment was totally off the table.
Yet Europeans need not worry about fighting Russia directly, Zelensky said, as long as Ukraine is successful in doing it for them, another chance for the leader to hammer home his often-repeated point that wider war in Europe can be avoided by giving Kyiv more money and more weapons.
Zelensky told the French broadcaster that: “as long as Ukraine holds out, the French army can stay on French territory… Your children will not be killed in Ukraine, but if Russia invades NATO countries, your children may be sent to one of these countries.”
While Zelensky seemed content to pour cool water on feverish European discussion about the future of NATO support for Ukraine — while subtly promoting his own cause and the importance of continuing support — he also made clear the door was open for limited Western military deployment to his country. Rather than speaking of soldiers to fight Russia, NATO could consider sending support troops instead.
He said “why not think about technical personnel who would come to Ukraine”, citing the present situation that when advanced western vehicles are damaged in Ukraine they are shipped back to Poland to be repaired, the workshops and European personnel could be forward-deployed. France has also discussed such military services, with the suggestion the country could send combat engineers to find and remove landmines, or soldiers to train Ukrainian troops on their home turf.
Orban VS Biden
Quote:Hungary summoned its ambassador from the United States on Tuesday over what Budapest termed as “lies” from President Biden about Prime Minister Viktor Orbán supposedly seeking to become a dictator.
A diplomatic rift broke out between Budapest and Washington this week following comments from President Joe Biden, who claimed during a campaign stop in Philadelphia on Friday that Prime Minister Orbán “stated flatly he doesn’t think democracy works and is looking for dictatorship”.
Responding to the incendiary rhetoric, Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday that the Orbán government has summoned the U.S. ambassador for an explanation for Biden’s comments.
“We are not obliged to take lies from anyone, even if that person is the President of the United States,” Minister Szijjártó said on Tuesday afternoon. “Since such a lie has been said in connection with the Hungarian prime minister, we summoned the ambassador of the United States to the ministry, who was here today.”
Szijjártó went on to say that Biden’s comments made it more difficult to build Hungarian-U.S. relations, as it was “an offence not to the government, but to the country”.
When pressed by Fox News reporter Jacqui Rogers during a White House briefing on Tuesday as to whether it was the official stance of the United States that Hungary, a NATO ally, was a dictatorship, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan refused to confirm whether or not the president’s comments reflect the government’s official stance, referring the question to the Biden re-election campaign.
“Our position is that Hungary has engaged in an assault on Democratic institutions and that remains a source of grave concern to us,” Sullivan said
The accusations from President Biden came after the Hungarian Prime Minister — who was democratically elected in 2014, 2018, and 2022 after serving years in opposition after his first stint as leader between 1998 and 2002 — once again expressed his belief that only Donald Trump can bring peace back to Europe, while chastising Biden as a “pro-war” president.
Ye Olde Lovable Neighbor Putin Likes Nuclear Fireworks
Quote:Vladimir Putin faces re-election this week for a fifth term in office — a vote Western observers say isn’t fair and free and is essentially a rubber-stamping exercise — and gave a pre-election interview to Russian television where he once again made remarks on the potential for nuclear war over Ukraine. Broadcast Wednesday morning, the interview saw Putin assert his country was absolutely ready to use its nuclear arsenal but said he did not see the world “rushing to it” yet.
Warning Russian military doctrine absolutely called for nuclear retaliation if the Russian government, the nation’s sovereignty or independence were threatened, Putin told the broadcaster that “we are ready for this… from the military, technical viewpoint, we are prepared”.
Making reference to comments by France’s Emmanuel Macron about the possibility of NATO states deploying troops to Ukraine — a position he has doubled down on despite outrage from fellow alliance leaders about the danger of such remarks — Putin said: “the nations that say they have no red lines regarding Russia should realize that Russia won´t have any red lines regarding them either.”
Again making a clear reference to Western boots on the ground in Ukraine, Putin quipped he hadn’t used battlefield tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine yet because there hadn’t been the need so far.
Yet the Russian President, who is likely to ‘win’ another six years in power this week moderated the war talk by saying he wouldn’t feel obliged to launch nuclear weapons if Western states would just do as he tells them. He expects NATO states to keep their troops out of Ukraine, he said, and even that he was ready to enter negotiations with the West on the future of the country he invaded but only if those talks were based on what he called “realities”.
Does that mean Putin now wants all Americans (especially their politicians) to become his lackeys!? Ukraine Attacks Russia
Quote:Russian citizens fighting for Ukraine counter-invaded Russia on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian state media claimed, saying they were fighting to liberate Russia from “Putin’s dictatorship”. Both sides have so far claimed combat success in the clashes.
Kyiv-loyal units of Russian citizens have performed several incursions into Russia proper in the past year, but Tuesday morning’s attack which is alleged to have involved the coordination of several units including tanks across the borders of two Russian regions appears to be the biggest of the war so far. Units including the Russian Legion, the Siberia Battalion and the Russian Volunteer Corps are said to have crossed the border into the Russian provinces of Belgorod and Kursk on Tuesday morning, a day that also saw a large coordinated airstrike by Ukraine deep into the Russian interior.
Russia acknowledged an attempt on their border had been made, but said they repelled all assaults and claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the rebels. By Wednesday, Ukraine reported Russian forces were increasing the deployment of landmines along the Belgorod border, suggesting they did not welcome further incursions.
Footage shared, allegedly of the assault, shows tanks flying the blue and white flags of the Russian resistance apparently moving into combat. Ukrainian state media meanwhile claims the Kyiv-armed Russian paramilitaries — what they call “liberation forces — have captured the border village of Tiotkino in the Kursk Oblast and the border town of Lozova Rudka in Belgorod. Ukraine cites a report from the fighting by the Russian anti-Putin units which claim following the capture of a settlement: “Putin’s army is rapidly withdrawing from the village, leaving their positions behind and abandoning heavy military equipment.”
Spokesman for the Russian Legion Alexei Baranovsky gave his perspective on the fighting, telling Ukrainian television that the counter-invasion was timed for the Russian national elections that are taking place this week, but given the state of Russian democracy, they were having to ‘vote’ with guns. He said: “We decided to exercise our constitutional right to vote… We are casting our vote for a Russia without Putin; for the liberation of Russia from Putin…. We are going home to liberate our homeland from Putin’s dictatorship.”
Quote:Ukraine launched a wave of long-range drones against targets deep inside Russia on Tuesday, Russian officials said, hitting at least two oil facilities in the attack on eight regions of Russia in the latest display of Kyiv´s expanding drone capacity.
One drone struck and set ablaze an oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, according to regional governor Gleb Nikitin. That region is located some about 775 kilometers (480 miles) from the Ukraine border.
In another deep strike, a drone was shot down in the Moscow region, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Though it was brought down well south of the city center, the drone was close to Zhukovsky Airport, one of Mocow´s four international airports.
Another drone hit an oil depot in Oryol, 116 kilometers (95 miles) from Ukraine.
The strikes appeared to be evidence of Ukraine´s growing sophistication in domestic drone technology and its brashness in taking the war to Russia, after the Kremlin´s forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last year that his country had developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers (400 miles) away, in an apparent reference to drones.
Ukraine has also increasingly deployed sea drones in the Black Sea, where it claims to have sunk Russian warships.
Kyiv´s forces are hoping for more military supplies from Ukraine´s Western partners, but in the meantime are struggling against a bigger and better-provisioned Russian army that is pressing hard at certain front-line points inside Ukraine.
Kyiv´s increasingly bold attacks behind the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line running through eastern and southern Ukraine are coinciding with Russia´s presidential election. President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to win another six-year term, but Ukraine´s attacks on Russian soil could embarrass him.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said Tuesday that drones were intercepted over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Leningrad and Tula regions of Russia.
Separately, the ministry said that one Tochka-U ballistic missile, with a range of about 70 kilometers (40 miles), and eight Vampire missiles, which are fired from trucks and have a range of about 20 kilometers (12 miles), were shot down over Belgorod.
Russian border defenses are also reportedly being tested, though it was impossible to independently verify any side´s battlefield reports.
Russian Airplane Crashes
Quote:A Russian military transport plane with 15 people on board crashed on Tuesday while taking off from an air base in western Russia, the Defense Ministry said.
It said the Il-76 aircraft with eight crew and seven passengers crashed in the Ivanovo region. It didn’t say whether there were any survivors.
Ivanovo Gov. Stanislav Voskresensky offered condolences to the victims’ families. He said there was no damage on the ground.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement that an engine fire during takeoff was the likely cause of the crash. It said a team of investigators flew to Ivanovo to conduct a probe.
Russian media broadcast a video showing the aircraft heading down with at least one of its engines ablaze.
The four-engine Il-76 is a heavy-lift transport plane that has been in service since the 1970s with the Soviet and then Russian air force.
Tuesday´s crash came on a day when the Defense Ministry reported dozens of attacks on Russia by Ukrainian drones. In the past, Ukrainian drones hit some military air bases deep inside Russia.
Military experts have noted that as the number of Russian military flights increased sharply during the fighting in Ukraine, so has the number of crashes.
The Red & Green Axis
Quote:The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday announced that a group of Russian warships has arrived in Iranian waters for participation in a joint exercise with Iran and China called “Maritime Security Belt 2024.”
“The practical part of the exercise will take place in the waters of the Gulf of Oman of the Arabian Sea. The main purpose of the maneuvers is to work out the safety of maritime economic activity,” the defense ministry said.
“The goals of this exercise include strengthening the security of international maritime trade, combating piracy and maritime terrorism, facilitating information exchange for maritime rescue operations, and sharing operational and tactical insights,” said Iranian state media.
Russia’s flagship in the exercise is the Varyag, a guided-missile cruiser whose hull dates back to the 1980s. The ship carries an extensive inventory of modern radar systems and weapons, for both surface and submarine warfare. The Varyag often represents Russia’s Pacific Fleet in training exercises and demonstrations.
The Iranian Navy said last month that it was eager to participate in joint exercises with the more advanced and experienced Russian and Chinese navies, to enhance Iran’s blue-water naval capabilities.
“By accompanying Iranian ships at sea, we protect the shipping of the Islamic Republic of Iran and help countries that need support to ensure security and safety,” said Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, commander of Iran’s navy – an ironic sentiment, given that Iran’s Houthi terrorist proxies in Yemen are currently menacing the shipping of every other nation.
The Maritime Security Belt 2024 exercise is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, and will be observed by naval officers from Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Oman, India, and South Africa.
Netherlands
Quote:Police in Amsterdam arrested a man on Sunday for allegedly threatening to kill populist leader Geert Wilders, who has spent over a decade under police protection and is one of the most targeted politicians in the Netherlands.
Geert Wilders, who pulled off a “mega victory” in the Dutch general election in November, thanked Amsterdam police for their swift action in responding to the latest threat against his life, De Telegraaf reports.
The populist firebrand and strident campaigner against the Islamisation of Europe and mass migration wrote on social media following the arrest: “Many thanks to the Amsterdam police unit who arrested a person in a home this weekend because of a threat to kill me… Without the police, I would be an outlaw.”
Wilders has long been subjected to death threats, mostly in response to his blunt criticism of the Islamic religion and its teachings, and has received police protection for many years, and has been forced to hire 24-hour security and resides in a safe house for his protection. The Party for Freedom (PVV) leader has claimed that he receives multiple threats daily, sometimes as many as hundreds per day.
Following the release of his 2008 short film Fitna, which argued against the theology of the Qur’an and claimed the Islamic holy text was responsible for inspiring terrorism, antisemitism, violence against women, and the persecution of homosexuals and infidels, extremist leaders tied to Al-Qaeda issued fatwas (death warrants) on Wilders’ head.
According to the latest figures from the Threatened Politicians Team at The Hague, there were 1,125 death threats made against politicians in 2022, with at least half of those being directed towards Wilders.
Quote:Over three months since the Netherlands sensationally swung towards right-populist firebrand Geert Wilders the country is still without a new government, and negotiations now look towards a coalition where the leader of the largest party doesn’t get the largest job, possibly the humbling price of keeping the left out of power.
UPDATE 2100 — Wilders confirms he may not be Prime Minister
After all that speculation, Mr Wilders makes clear he is willing to step aside from the leadership role for now for the good of the country — very noble. Writing on social media tonight he said:
…I would like a right-wing cabinet. Less asylum and immigration. Dutch [as the priority]. The love for my country and voters is great and more important than my own position.
So, a right wing government possibly led by Wilders’ party, but without Wilders himself in the driving seat seems likely. Interesting. Wilders also counselled his followers not to despair, because the present electoral arithmetic didn’t preclude him from becoming leader in the future, should subsequent elections change the balance. He continued:
And don’t forget: I will still become Prime Minister of the Netherlands. With support from even more Dutch people. If not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow. Because the voices of millions of Dutch people will be heard!
NATO & Bosnia
Quote:The European Union’s executive arm will recommend that member countries open accession negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday, despite lingering ethnic divisions in the Western Balkan country.
Bosnia-Herzegovina country is among six nations from the region – alongside Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia – who are at different stages of the EU accession process, following a period of wars and crises in the 1990s.
Their memberships have been stalled for years. But after Russia´s war on Ukraine, EU officials are more keen on trying to lure them away from the Kremlin’s influence.
“We have realized that it is not enough to just wait for the Western Balkans to move closer to us,” von der Leyen told EU lawmakers on Tuesday. “It is not enough to say that the door is open. We must also take responsibility, and support their path towards our Union in any possible way.”
EU leaders are expected to discuss the European Commission´s recommendation at a summit scheduled in Brussels next week. There is no guarantee that member states will endorse it as separatist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who is pro-Russia, continues to undermine the presidency and other political functions in Bosnia.
Bosnia has been riven by ethnic divisions, even decades after the war that tore the country apart in the 1990s. In December, Dodik told The Associated Press that he intended to keep weakening the country to the point where it fell apart.
Bosnia was granted candidate status in 2022. For candidates to join the EU, they have to go through a lengthy process to align their laws and standards with those of the bloc and show their institutions and economies meet democratic norms.
Von der Leyen said that Bosnia needs to do “more progress” to join the EU, but insisted on the “impressive steps” towards the 27-nation bloc that the country has already achieved.
“More progress has been achieved in just over a year than in over a decade,” she said. “First, Bosnia and Herzegovina is now fully aligned with our foreign and security policy, which is crucial in these times of geopolitical turmoil.”
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
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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
