08-02-2024, 08:42 AM
USA
Honestly, I don't know why the US government should care about a green card holder at all. The guy's not a citizen as of yet so it does feel like the US admin just got tricked by Russia.
EUROPE
Biden Blames Trump
Quote:During a back-and-forth with reporters after announcing a prisoner swap deal with Russia on Thursday, a visibly testy and confused President Joe Biden tried to blame his predecessor and possible successor, Donald Trump, for not rescuing hostages that were taken after Biden took office.
Biden, who inserted a churlish partisan dig at Trump into his announcement of the deal with Russia, was attempting to depart from the podium when a reporter noted that Trump has “said repeatedly that he could’ve gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange.”
“Why didn’t he do it when he was president?” Biden snapped before marching off the stage.
As the Republican National Committee immediately pointed out, Russia seized two of the three American hostages freed in the deal Biden announced on Thursday after Biden took office:
...
Biden’s remarks on Thursday included a few moments when he seemed to grow preemptively angry at critics accusing him of making a lopsided deal to bring the prisoners home. The three Americans (and one U.S. green card holder) whom Russia held were innocents jailed on false charges, while the Russians released in the swap were hardened criminals convicted in proper court proceedings, including an assassin who conducted a political murder on German soil.
Trump has indeed stated that he could have arranged the release of Russia’s hostages without giving anything in return and would do so immediately if he returned to office.
For example, in a May post on his preferred social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said:
Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!
In July, after a Russian court sentenced Gershkovich, Trump wrote:
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was just sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Russian Court. Biden will NEVER GET HIM OUT, unless he pays a “king’s ransom.” I will get him out FOR NO COMPENSATION immediately following our victory on November 5th, and it will be my great honor to do so. Vote for TRUMP, and The Wall Street Journal should STOP BEING STUPID!!!
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), argued on Thursday that the Russians finally agreed to release long-held prisoners — including Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan — because they were nervous about Trump’s potential return to the White House.
“We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison, to begin with, but we have to ask ourselves, ‘Why are they coming home?'” Vance said during a CNN interview. “And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house.”
“That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength,” he added.
Prisoner Swap
Quote:Russia has agreed to release jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan in a prisoner swap, according to a report Thursday by Bloomberg News.
Bloomberg reported:
Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a major prisoner swap with the US, according to people familiar with the situation.
The men, jailed in Russia on espionage charges they and the US deny, are en route to destinations outside of Russia. The US and its allies will return prisoners to Russia that they hold under the deal, the people said, asking for anonymity to discuss matters that aren’t yet public.
Last month, Russia sentenced Gerskovich to 16 years in prison on bogus espionage charges. Whelan was left behind in a previous prisoner swap to release WNBA star Brittney Griner in 2022.
It is unclear which Russian prisoners held by the U.S. were released in the exchange, or what other concessions the U.S. made for Gerskovich and Whelan’s release.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had promised to secure the prisoners’ release, threatening enemies of the U.S. in his speech to the party convention last month: “To the entire world, we want our hostages back—and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.”
Quote:President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the complex prisoner-swap deal with Russia that freed unjustly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two others in exchange for prisoners including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov as a prodigious “feat of diplomacy.”
Biden said all four of the recovered prisoners were “convicted in show trials” by Russia “for absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever.”
In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the freed detainees included Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Muza, a U.S. green-card holder and Washington Post contributor who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kurmasheva was arrested in 2023 while visiting her sick mother in the Tatarstan region. She was convicted in a hasty secret trial in July and sentenced to 16 years in prison on false charges of espionage.
Biden said he and the families of the released detainees were able to speak with them by telephone shortly before his statement from the White House:
“They’re out of Russia,” he said. “Earlier today, they were flown to Turkey, and soon they’ll be wheels-up on their way home to see their families. It’s an incredible relief for all of the family members gathered here. It’s a relief to their friends and colleagues all across the country. We’ve been praying for this day for a long time.”
“The deal that made this possible was a feat of diplomacy and friendship,” he said. “Multiple countries helped get this done. They joined in difficult, complex negotiations at my request. I personally thank them all again.”
According to an ABC News report on Thursday, an especially tricky part of those “complex negotiations” was convincing Germany to release Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili.
German courts found that Krasikov carried out the killing on the orders of the Russian government, which supplied him with a false identity, false papers, and other resources.
The case caused a major diplomatic rift between Russia and Germany, which said Russia conducting a political execution on German soil was a “serious violation of German law and Germany’s sovereignty.”
The regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin has for years insisted that Krasikov must be part of any prisoner swap deal, including a rumored swap that might have freed dissident Alexei Navalny before he was killed under mysterious circumstances in a Russian penal colony in February 2024.
Honestly, I don't know why the US government should care about a green card holder at all. The guy's not a citizen as of yet so it does feel like the US admin just got tricked by Russia.
Controversial Secret Service Spokesman
Quote:The Secret Service spokesman who falsely claimed in a statement that former President Donald Trump’s security detail was never denied requested assets is still employed, the agency’s acting director confirmed this week.
“He is still employed, senator,” Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said during a Senate hearing Tuesday under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Rowe said he was not sure who approved the statement.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, claimed in a statement posted on X on July 14, 2024, a day after an assassination attempt against Trump:
Theres an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.
However, six days later, Guglielmi walked back that statement in a Washington Post report that said that “top officials at the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources and personnel sought by Donald Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday.”
The Post reported:
After receiving detailed questions from The Washington Post, Guglielmi said the agency had learned new information indicating the agency’s headquarters may have in fact denied some requests for additional security from Trump’s detail and was reviewing documentation to understand the specific interactions better (emphasis added).
Previous to the Post‘s reporting, Guglielmi had also personally denied to Breitbart News that requests from Trump’s detail had been rejected and asserted that assets to Trump had been increased in June. He told Breitbart News on July 16, “There was some inaccurate reporting about things were denied — that’s not true. They actually were increased.”
Now, as of August 1, 2024, Guglielmi initial post on X has a Community Note that reads, “This has now been confirmed as false. The USSS has now confirmed they did in fact receive requests for additional resources on former President Trumps security detail which were denied.”
A Democrat on Trump & a Horrible Poster
Quote:Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in 2018 praised an apocalyptic Pearl Jam concert poster that depicted former President Donald Trump dead, according to his 2020 book, Grounded: A Rural Democrat’s Fight to Unite America.
Tester’s last reelection campaign enflamed controversy when a Pearl Jam poster for a get-out-the-vote concert promoting the Montana Democrat featured a dead Donald Trump and an American bald eagle eating the remains of his corpse. Tester is close friends with Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, who designed the poster.
Tester’s campaign, not Tester himself, disavowed the poster, only after the media shed light on the controversy. Two weeks after the literature was revealed, Tester has yet to personally disavow it.
Even though the 2018 Tester campaign condemned the violent imagery in the poster, the battleground Senate Democrat appeared to enjoy the artwork, per his 2020 book, Grounded: A Rural Democrat’s Fight to Unite a Divided America.
The Washington Examiner found that Tester “actually loved” the Pearl Jam poster.
“As soon as word spread of how wild the posters were, fans stood in line for hours to buy them all up at $35 a pop. Christie showed me a copy, gritting her teeth,” Tester wrote.
“And there’s an unmistakable image of me, flying on my tractor above the fire and fury, waving with my two-fingered left hand,” Tester added.
He said, “‘This is so … interesting,’ I told Christie. Though the poster was off message, I didn’t want to admit to her that I actually loved it. None of us knew about the posters before we saw them on sale at the concert.”
Tester went on to write that the “big news” was not the concert, but the “artwork.”
The revelation about Tester’s praise of the violent, anti-Trump artwork follows after the recent shooting of former President Trump.
Tester wrote that he “was appalled by the violence at the political rally” and called for an investigation into the shooting.
Tester has also made violent calls to attack Trump.
In 2019, Tester said that the best way to beat the 45th president is to “punch him in the face.”
NY Supreme Court Wants Texas to Keep Busing Illegals to NYC
Quote:The New York Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by Mayor Eric Adams attempting to block Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s migrant busing program. The ruling allows the State of Texas to continue busing migrants to New York City.
In a post on social media, Governor Abbott vowed to continue busing migrants from the Texas border region to New York City and other sanctuary cities. The ruling by the New York Supreme Court is the second legal victory for Abbott in as many days.
A lawsuit filed by Mayor Adams and the New York Civil Liberties Union accused the bus companies contracted by the Texas Division of Emergency Management of violating the State’s Social Services Law by dropping off migrants “without providing a means of support,” CBS News reported. The New York Supreme Court rejected the city’s request for an injunction.
The lawsuit also asked for $700 million to compensate the city for the costs of shelter, food, and health care, the article states.
According to the Office of the Texas Governor, Texas has bussed nearly 46,000 migrants to New York City since August of 2022.
LAW360 reported:
The Commissioner for the New York City Department of Social Services had asked the court to enforce against eight companies Section 149 of the New York Social Services Law, which states that anyone who knowingly brings an out-of-state “needy person” into New York for the purpose of making them a public charge should be obligated to bring them out of New York or monetarily support them.
However, New York Supreme Court Justice Mary V. Rosado ruled Monday that the nation’s high court ruled in Edwards v. California that a similar California law was unconstitutional because the transportation of indigent persons from state to state fell within Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.
“The mass migration of people within the country, which the commissioner seeks to chill or prevent, is an issue reserved by the Constitution for Congress, lest the United States fall to a regime of Balkanization with each state setting fort a patchwork of inconsistent criteria for crossing state lines,” Judge Rosado wrote in the order.
The New York case is The Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services v. Buckeye Coach LLC et al., case number 150122/2024, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, LAW360 reported.
EUROPE
Netherlands: Red Riding Hood & The Bad Wolf
Quote:A central Dutch province is urgently warning parents not to take young children to a popular forest area near the city of Utrecht following two recent close encounters with a wolf displaying “atypical and worrying” behavior.
Utrecht province on Thursday was preparing to seek a permit to kill the wolf, which is a protected species throughout the European Union. It was seeking support and approval from the agriculture ministry for the permit.
On Wednesday, a child was pushed over by a wolf in Austerlitz, the province said in a statement. The incident came two weeks after another confrontation led to the closure of a popular walking area.
“Assuming it was a wolf involved, wolf experts say that the behavior displayed is atypical and worrying,” the statement said. “The province takes seriously into account that it is the same wolf that was previously involved in incidents in Leusden with another girl and a dog.”
Wolves have been spreading from east to west across rural areas of the Netherlands for years ever since arriving from Germany. The animals were officially confirmed as having returned in 2019, two centuries after being hunted to extinction, when a pair produced a litter of cubs.
While conservationists have welcomed the reappearance of a predator, wolves have been blamed for a string of attacks on livestock and have increasingly come close to members of the public. Earlier this year, authorities in a national park were given permission to use a paintball gun to scare off an animal that had been approaching humans.
Despite wolves encroaching on populated areas, there have been no serious injuries reported as a result of attacks.
Fauna Protection, a group that lobbies against hunting, said on X that “urgent advice is good, shooting is not.”
UK: Protests Outside Court
Quote:The UK Prime Minister has vowed to come down on what he called “a tiny mindless minority in our society” of people rioting against the mass stabbing of children as a judge names attack suspect Alex Rudakubana, citing the dangers of an information “vacuum” being allowed to form.
A British judge lifted reporting restrictions on the identity of the suspect charged with three counts of murder, ten of attempted murder, and one of possessing a knife on Thursday afternoon. Rwandan-heritage Alex Rudakubana of Merseyside was named , with the judge acknowledging doing so was “exceptional” because he is under the age of 18 and consequently ought normally to be tried anonymously, but saying the fact the defendant’s 18th birthday is in six days ameliorates the decision.
There have been several nights of protests turned to riots in some cases in towns across England following Monday’s attack and many have stated this situation has been fed by a major lack of information from the authorities about the attack. The judge acknowledged this too in his remarks accompanying lifting the anonymity of the suspect, stating: “Continuing to prevent the full reporting has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation, in a vacuum.”
The court heard that Rudakubana allegedly entered a dance party for young children in Southport, Merseyside, and stabbed 13 people inside with a “curved kitchen knife”. Rudakubana arrived at court this morning in a motorcade of police vehicles including riot vans, and large numbers of police officers stood outside the court to dissuade trouble.
Nevertheless, a large group gathered and Rudakubana’s police vehicle was cursed by some as it left the building. Newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports “a number of people shouted “f****** scumbag” as the prison van pulled out of the complex” and police stepped in to keep some people away from the vehicles.
Protests took place in Southport, Manchester, Hartlepool, Aldershot, and London. Over 100 arrests occurred nationwide.
In a week where a room full of children were stabbed, and where protests against the attack turned to riots, the government has decided to act against the rioters first, with the Prime Minister declaring “the immediate challenge is driven by far-right hatred” and announcing a new anti-riot police capability.
UK Cuts Live Feed After Controversial Claim
Quote:The UK Undercover Policing Inquiry was hearing evidence from a former police officer on Thursday when the feed was abruptly cut after he started talking about the role of the government’s domestic spying agency, MI5, in smearing political activists.
An inquiry into the conduct and activity of undercover policing in the United Kingdom from 1968 to 2008, commonly known as the ‘Spy Cops’ inquiry due to it having been set up over a decade ago in response to claims about police officers entering romantic relationships with female left-wing activists, is hearing evidence from its first former undercover police officer on Thursday.
Trevor Morris is a former undercover police officer who had used the recycled identity of a dead child to present as Anthony ‘Bobby’ Lewis, a disc jockey and German translator when infiltrating left-wing and activist groups in the early 1990s. As revealed by documents published by the inquiry, Morris takes strong exception to the criticism levelled at the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) undercover unit, arguing it saved countless lives and prevented much disorder by infiltrating radical groups.
While the SDS infiltrated dozens of groups in the decades of its existence until its role was taken over by the National Domestic Extremism Unit in the years following 2008, one of the cases which has grabbed most attention is that of the campaign for Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. It has been alleged for years that undercover police officers who infiltrated the Lawrence Family Campaign had tried to find “dirt” to “smear” them.
Questioning inevitably turned to this during evidence-hearing on Thursday, and while former undercover police officer Morris totally denied the police tried to smear activists, he clearly implied other branches of government did so. He said: “nonsense. That’s not what we’re about, we’re about gathering intelligence, not smearing individuals. That’s a Security Service job, let them do that. We’re about gathering intelligence, that’s what we were doing.”
Apparently realising what he’d said, the police officer quickly followed up by remarking: “Sorry, I shouldn’t say that… let’s scrap that last bit, I’m not saying that”.
David Barr KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, then started to ask a follow-up question before the live-feed, broadcast on a ten-minute delay to allow for such moments, was cut. He asked: “Just to be clear, are you or are you not in a position to say whether or not the Security Service was seeking to sm-“.
The feed returned some 45 minutes later with the chairman of the Inquiry, retired High Court judge Sir John Edward Mitting warning the journalists in the room not to report what had been said during a period of time when the cameras had been off.
Sir John said, in sombre tone: “before you resume, may I say to those behind that there is a purpose to these orders. I know that you have complied with them up to now. They are serious orders, they do have a potentially serious consequence if they are breached. Please, I ask of you as well as demand of you, comply with what the order requires you to do. A transcript in due course will be published, which will contain part of that what was said between the hours of 11:16 and 11:22, but only part of it”.
Of these orders, the Inquiry official website notes: “These restrict certain information from being disclosed or published. They are issued by the Chairman and are legally enforceable.”
While a short break had been programmed in during the morning session, the camera was off considerably longer than the 15 minutes advertised, and the feed was taken down mid-sentence as the counsel spoke.
UK Flooded with Illegal Immigrants
Quote:Since the new Labour Party government came into power earlier this month, over 3,000 illegal boat migrants have crossed the English Channel from France, throwing into question Sir Keir Starmer’s ability to “stop the boats”.
According to a tally from GB News, which had producers counting boat migrants as they were brought ashore, at least 133 illegals reached British shores on Tuesday.
The news outlet reported that the latest crossings have taken the total since the Labour Party came into government this month to more than 3,200.
This brings the total figure for the year to nearly 17,000, with most crossing under the previous ‘Conservative’ government of Rishi Sunak, which suffered its worst defeat in history in large part as a result of its failures to fulfil its repeated promises to the public on immigration.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said that his government will seek to “smash the gangs” behind the people-smuggling trade behind the continued waves of mostly young men arriving illegally in the country.
Critics, such as Reform boss Nigel Farage, have argued that merely targeting the gangs will be insufficient, as the lucrative model will simply motivate new criminals to fill the gaps, as with the endless and unsuccessful war on drugs. Farage and Reform UK have called for the UK to leave the deportation-blocking European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and to use the Royal Navy to immediately return boat migrants back to the beaches of France.
The English Channel migrant crisis is seriously straining public finances, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealing on Monday that the asylum system is already costing an additional £6.4 billion this year, alone.
Indecent Ex-BBC News Presenter
Quote:Huw Edwards, the BBC’s former top news presenter, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of making indecent images of children.
The offenses he pleaded guilty to at Westminster Magistrates´ Court in central London during a 26-minute hearing involved images shared on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021 by a man who had initially contacted Edwards via social media.
Edwards, who was the lead anchor on the BBC´s nighttime news for two decades and led the public broadcaster’s coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, has been remanded on bail until a pre-sentencing hearing on Sept. 16. He could face up to 10 years in prison, though the prosecution conceded that a suspended sentence may be appropriate.
The court heard that Edwards, 62, was involved in an online chat with an adult man on the messaging service who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children.
The images that were sent included seven of what are known as “category A,” which are the most indecent. Of those, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between 7 and 9.
The court also heard that the unnamed male asked Edwards on Feb. 2, 2021 whether what he was sending was too young. Edwards told him not to send any underage images. Five more, though, were sent, and the exchange of pornographic images continued until April 2022.
“Accessing indecent images of underage people perpetuates the sexual exploitation of children, which has deep, long-lasting trauma on these victims,” said Claire Brinton of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Speaking in Edwards´ defense, his lawyer Philip Evans said there is “no suggestion” that his client had “in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort.”
Russian Spies in Moldova
Quote:Moldova´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday it has expelled a Russian diplomat after two Moldovan officials were detained on suspicion of treason and conspiracy against the European Union candidate country.
One of the Moldovan officials is suspected of treason for allegedly collecting and providing information to an embassy employee that could be used against Moldova´s interests, the Prosecutor´s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases said, and the other is accused of plotting against the country for personal gain.
One of the suspects works in Parliament and the other for the border police. Both were detained earlier this week for 72 hours and were allegedly collaborating with a foreign embassy in Moldova´s capital, Chisinau. The authorities did not state which country’s embassy was involved.
The foreign ministry said Thursday that it summoned Russia´s ambassador, Oleg Vasnetsov, to inform him that an unnamed embassy worker was a “collaborator” who was declared persona non grata and must leave the country. Information and evidence were obtained, the ministry said, “that attest to the conduct on the territory of the Republic of Moldova … of activities incompatible with the diplomatic status.”
It is the latest diplomatic spat to strain increasingly fraught ties between Russia and Moldova, whose pro-Western government has firmly opposed Russia´s full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine.
In March this year, Moldova expelled another Russian diplomat after the Kremlin opened six polling stations in Moldova´s pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria for its presidential election, against the wishes of Moldovan authorities.
Russia had previously agreed to open just one polling station at its embassy in Chisinau.
"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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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