News of the World

[kyonides]

USA

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Proposed Name for a New TV Show: Chicago Fence

Chicago Begins Erecting Miles of Security Fencing Ahead of Democrat Convention

The City of Chicago is feverishly erecting miles of security fencing all around the downtown area as the city gears up for the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which kicks off on Monday.

The security fencing is not only going up around the United Center and McCormick Place, but fencing is also being erected up and down retail areas along Michigan Avenue, also known as the “Magnificent Mile.” In addition, fencing is going up around the areas designated as protest zones.

Road closures are already in place, practically shutting down the area from traffic.

The security zones were officially enacted on Friday to give workers more time to erect the fencing, and to put up concrete barriers to deter errant vehicular traffic, needed for Monday’s convention kickoff.

Social media is filled with images and video of the barriers being erected to keep Democrats attending the convention isolated in their secure zone.
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At the same time, many downtown businesses contracted with board-up services to lockdown their retail outlets to deter the sort of mass destruction suffered during the riots in 2020 that wiped out so many of the Windy City’s retail outlets.

DNC & Protests

Anti-Israel Protesters Gather Outside DNC, Tell Voters to Reject Kamala Harris

Anti-Israel protesters were seen gathering outside of where the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will take place this week, with some present even calling on voters to reject Kamala Harris.

The anti-Israel rally reportedly unfolded at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Dr. on Sunday afternoon — the first of many demonstrations that will happen this week.

“WGN News found one demonstration organized by ‘Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws,’ a coalition comprised of various feminist and pro-Palestinian groups; the latter issue will also be front and center come Monday,” per WGNTV.

Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the coalition, told reporters that “tens of thousands” of people will be marching in the street.

“Almost 270 organizations from across the U.S. have joined the coalition to March on the DNC,” Abudayyeh said. “Tens of thousands [of people] will be out on the streets starting tomorrow, August 19 at noon, right here at Union Park to say, ‘Stop the genocide now, end U.S. aid to Israel and free Palestine.’”

“Up until 2 p.m. when we step off, we’re going to be fighting for our rights and we’re going to be fighting for that route,” Abudayyeh added.

Photos and videos of the protests began to circulate on social media.
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During one speech, which Breitbart News broadcasted during a Facebook live, a woman denounced the Democrats for failing to deliver on promises.

“My issue with the Democratic Party is they tell us lies … Every time, they lie to us,” the woman said. “So why should we come out and vote for these Democrats? They’re not doing nothing for us. And I’m sick and tired of them lying to us. Every single time.”

Major Companies Leaving Illinois

Major Companies Leave Illinois Ahead of Democrat Convention

Morton Salt has joined the growing list of major companies to ditch Chicago for safer and more business-friendly cities ahead of the Democratic National Convention’s kickoff on Monday.

The company, easily recognizable by its iconic umbrella girl logo, started in Chicago nearly 180 years ago and grew to become the biggest salt producer in North America.

In 2021, the company had to slash 40 percent of workers at its headquarters in order “help meet our business goals,” ABC 7 Chicago reported.

Morton is now set to relocate to Overland Park, Kansas, according to Illinois Policy.

According to CNBC, Illinois is ranked at 33 in the U.S. for business friendliness.

“Morton Salt moving its headquarters from Chicago to Kansas makes sense,” reacted one X user:
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“Not only has Morton Salt been mined and refined in Kansas for more than 125 years, but Chicago has a terrible economic climate due to democrat policies. Plus, less crime in Kansas!”

The DNC convention, slated to begin on Monday morning, has prompted multiple businesses to board up their windows in anticipation of out-of-control protests, Breitbart News reported.

Before Morton Salt, several other household-name companies left Chicago for greener pastures:

Boeing

Aerospace manufacturer Boeing announced in May 2022 that it would move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia in order to repair soured relationships with lawmakers and regulators in Washington, DC, after two deadly 737 Max crashes, CNBC reported.

“The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent,” Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun said at the time.

Then-House of Representatives Transportation Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D) blasted Boeing’s decision, saying “failures of management” led to the crashes that killed 346 people.

“Moving their headquarters to Chicago and away from their roots in the Pacific Northwest was a tragic mistake,” DeFazio said. “Moving their headquarters again, this time to be closer to the federal regulators and policymakers in Washington, D.C. is another step in the wrong direction. Boeing’s problem isn’t a lack of access to government, but rather its ongoing production problems and the failures of management and the board that led to the fatal crashes of the 737 Max.”

Caterpillar Tractor Company (CAT)

Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar announced in June 2022 that it would relocate its headquarters from its longtime home state of Illinois to Texas, the Associated Press reported.

After spending over 90 years in Peoria and about five in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, CAT said it would transfer its global base to the Dallas suburb of Irving.

“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move,” CEO Jim Umpleby said at the time.

Kamala's Word Salad

Off-Script Disaster: Kamala Harris Confounds PA Crowd with Word Salad on ‘Duality of Democracy’

While speaking at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to stumble over her words while explaining what the 2024 presidential election is “about” and what the United States stands “for around the globe.”

“Our election is about understanding the importance of this beautiful country of ours in terms of what we stand for around the globe as a democracy,” Harris told the crowd. “As a democracy, we know, there’s a duality to the nature of democracy.”

Writer Greg Price posted a video of Harris’s speech on X, and commented, “Kamala word salads are so back.”

“On the one hand, incredible strength when it is intact,” Harris added. “What it does for its people to protect and defend their rights, their liberty, their freedom. Incredibly strong, and incredibly fragile.”

As Breitbart News reported, Harris has made “word salads” in her speeches before, where she has mentioned “odd phrases and explanations for simple ideas.”

In March 2022, during a speech in Louisiana, Harris marveled about the “significance of the passage of time.”

During a trip to Poland, Harris appeared to stumble over her words and stated she was standing in “the northern flank.”

“I am here, standing here on the northern flank, on the eastern flank, talking about what we have in terms of the eastern flank and our NATO allies, and what is at stake at this very moment,” Harris said at the time. “What is at stake this very moment are some of the guiding principles around the NATO alliance.”

Kamala Against Trump's Tax Cut

Kamala Harris Opposed 2017 Trump Tax Cuts, Which Doubled Child Tax Credit

Vice President Kamala Harris voted against the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act when she was a senator in 2017, which doubled the child tax credit, a tax credit she now hopes to dramatically raise.

In 2017, Harris voted in lockstep with Senate Democrats to oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which doubled the child tax credit to $2,000.

In a lengthy statement after voting to oppose the historic tax reform package, Harris wrote:

The tax plan approved tonight by my Republican colleagues is shameful. Tonight, corporations and the top 1% of Americans won at the expense of middle class families. This is wrong and does not reflect the best of who we are as a country.

At a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high and pay for workers has stagnated, my Republican colleagues have given corporations and the top 1% of Americans a permanent tax cut. This plan does this by adding $1 trillion to the deficit and asking workers and middle class families to pay for it. We should not explode the deficit and pull the rug out from the middle class to give billions to those who already have so much.

Under this bill, 572,000 tax payers making over $1 million a year will get $34 billion in tax cuts in a single year. If you’re a senior relying on Medicare, this tax plan puts you at risk by slashing Medicare by up to $410 billion over a decade, with more than $45 billion of those cuts hitting California. And because Senate Republicans couldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act, they’re trying to take away the health care of millions of Americans and increase the premiums for millions of Californians, by repealing the individual mandate.

Instead of playing politics with people’s lives, we should be delivering for the American people who have spoken loud and clear that this isn’t what they want. There is a better way to reform our tax code, one that is bipartisan, transparent, and fair for all Americans. [Emphasis added]

Harris wrote in 2017, “The Republican tax bill that passed the Senate is a travesty. It gives even more tax breaks to the top 1% and permanently cuts corporate tax rates at the expense of middle class families. This isn’t what Americans wanted, and it’s up to us to fight back at the ballot box in 2018.”

Walz Commuted a Sentence

Former Federal Prosecutor: Tim Walz ‘Has to Answer’ for Commuting Sentence of 11-Year-Old Girl’s Murderer

A former federal prosecutor slammed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and stated that Walz “has to answer” for commuting the sentence of a man who was convicted of murdering an 11-year-old girl.

During an interview on Fox Business, Joe Teirab, who is running as a Republican candidate for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, spoke about how Walz has been an “utter failure,” adding that the governor had “sat on his hands for multiple days” during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.
Teirab added that Walz needed “to answer” for commuting the sentence of Myon Burrell, who was convicted and sentenced to serve life in prison regarding the 2002 murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards.

“I think Tim Walz has to answer for this: there’s a man in Minnesota, a criminal named Myon Burrell, and some people might know his story because Myon Burrell’s a Bloods criminal street gang member. I charged the Bloods in a more recent case,” Teirab explained.

“Myon Burrell shot and killed an 11-year-old girl who was doing her homework on her kitchen table in Minneapolis,” Teirab continued. “He was convicted and he did almost 20 years in prison. And, after — he maintained his innocence, which he definitely wasn’t. Guess who commuted his sentence? Tim Walz commuted his sentence.”

“And, not long after being off of probation for three months, this criminal, Myon Burrell, got picked up for having drugs and a gun in his car,” Teirab continued. “And guess who bailed him out? Because he was set free. Guess who bailed him out? The Minnesota Freedom Fund. The same fund that Kamala Harris was soliciting funds for during the riots.”

Burrell had been 16 years old at the time that he was convicted and sentenced, according to the Daily Mail.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who had been serving as the district attorney for Hennepin County, led the case against Burrell.

In December 2020, Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea voted to commute Burrell’s sentence, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

The Gray Lady Can't Keep Victims' Names Secret

NYT Reporter Leaked Names of Jews in Australia Targeted by Anti-Israel Radicals

A New York Times reporter in Australia leaked the names of Jews in Australia on a WhatsApp group that was then leaked to pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists who “doxxed” and targeted them for harassment and vandalism.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Early this year, the contents of a WhatsApp group for Jewish creative professionals and academics, set up in Australia after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, leaked and fell into the hands of pro-Palestinian activists.

The activists posted snippets on social media, along with the names, photos and social-media page links of many of the group’s 600-odd members. Before long, members of the chat group faced online and in-person harassment—including threats and vandalism—repercussions that for some have continued several months later.

Throughout the crisis, it has remained a mystery how the chat thread leaked in the first place. The events were set in motion in January by a New York Times reporter, according to a Wall Street Journal review of the incident and statements from the Times.

The New York Post added:

Natasha Frost, a Times reporter who was based in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this year, downloaded and shared 900 pages of content from the private WhatsApp chat that was launched by Jewish professionals in response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists that claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis.

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Frost told the Journal that she shared the information with one person who then disseminated the details without her permission.

“Its subsequent dissemination and misuse happened entirely without my knowledge or consent,” Frost said. “I was shocked by these events, which put me and many others at terrible risk.”

Frost apologized and said that she would not be making further comments.

The Times said it had no knowledge of its reporter’s actions.

Jews around the world have experienced a rise in antisemitism since the Hamas terror attack of October 7.

Immigrants Cost NYC $5.5 Billion

Joe Biden’s Migrants Create $5.5 Billion in Taxpayer Spending for New York City’s Agencies, Landlords

New York City’s government has distributed $5.5 billion in taxpayer funds to landlords, companies, and city agencies since 2023 to help illegal migrants settle into New Yorkers’ housing, workplaces, schools, and communities.

The taxpayers’ expenses are growing rapidly: “New York City taxpayers have spent $308 million on migrants since July 1,” the New York Post reported on August 15.

That migrant funding is a gusher of cash for the city’s  CEOs, landlords, and city employees, according to the city’s “Asylum Seeker Funding Tracker,” which was quietly updated by Mayor Eric Adams on August 15.

The winners include the more than 200,000 migrants — many of whom sneaked past U.S. border guards — and the city’s investor community that celebrates the city’s extraction of poor migrants from their home countries. Meanwhile, the middle-class population share has dropped to 48 percent, down from 61 percent in the early 1970s, which was just after Congress restarted mass migration in 1965.

Since 2022, — or “fiscal 2023” — landlords and the city’s restate industry have raked in $2.19 billion of taxpayer funds via the migrants invited by President Joe Biden and his compliant Vice President Kamala Harris.

Companies offering a grab-bag “services and supplies” took in $2.22 billion, as the migrants crowded into shelters and jobs that would otherwise have helped lift Americans out of poverty.

White-collar city workers and their contractors got $520 million for “IT, Administrative Costs, and Other” work.

Food companies were paid $388 million to help feed the migrants, so nudging up food inflation for the city’s families.

Medical centers got $139 million that otherwise would have gone to sick and ailing New Yorkers.

EUROPE

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French Far Left: Prime Minister Should Be a Socialist

French Far-Left Threatens to Impeach President Macron if Socialist Not Installed as Prime Minister

The leaders of the French far-left have threatened to impeach President Emmanuel Macron over an “institutional coup against democracy” for so far refusing to nominate a leftist to become the next prime minister.

With the ‘Olympic Truce’ now over, former and current presidents of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Mathilde Panot have threatened to launch proceedings to “remove” President Macron for allegedly refusing to “take note” of the legislative elections in July.

Macron had partnered with the leftist New Popular Front coalition, which includes the far-left LFI, in a desperate last-minute bid to block the surging right-wing populist National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen during the elections, with Macron’s neo-liberals and the leftists strategically standing down candidates to back the candidates with the strongest chance of defeating RN in the second round of voting last month.

While the move was successful in preventing the populist party from gaining a majority, despite RN gaining the most votes of any party, after the election, Mr Macron immediately shunned the idea of nominating a prime minister candidate from the far-left for fear of fracturing his centrist base.

With seemingly no consensus candidate, the situation has left France without an actual government for the past month, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal merely serving in a caretaker role without the ability to pass legislation and only the power to act in emergency situations.

The varying factions mostly laid down their arms while Paris hosted the Olympics, however, with the games complete, the battle for control of the Hôtel Matignon has once again commenced.

UK: Somerset House on Fire

Fire Breaks Out at London’s Historic Somerset House

A fire broke out Saturday at Somerset House, a large arts venue on the River Thames in central London.

Smoke billowed from the building and flames could be seen coming from the roof as firefighters on tall ladders showered it with water.

The cause of the fire was not yet known, the London Fire Brigade said. Fifteen engines and about 100 firefighters were deployed.

Somerset House said all staff and the public were safe and the site was closed. The venue had been scheduled to host a breakdancing event.

The neoclassical building, which is nearly 250 years old, houses the Courtauld Gallery that features works by Van Gogh, Manet and Cezanne.

Germany: Ferris Wheel on Fire

At least 23 Injured as Ferris Wheel Catches Fire in Germany

At least 23 people were injured when two gondolas of a Ferris wheel caught fire at a music festival near Leipzig in eastern Germany, news agency dpa reported Sunday.

The fire started in one gondola and then spread to a second one on Saturday night, police said. Four people suffered burn injuries and one suffered injuries from a fall. Others, including first responders and at least four police officers, were to be examined in the hospital for possible smoke inhalation, dpa reported.

The accident took place at the Highfield Festival at Stoermthaler Lake near Leipzig. Police are still investigating what caused the fire.

On Sunday morning, police were still unable to provide any concrete information about the condition of those injured. The exact number of casualties had also not been determined, dpa reported.

The operator of the Ferris Wheel told dpa that no passengers were sitting in the gondola in which the fire started.

Ukraine War

‘Pot Is Empty’ — Germany to End New Ukraine Military Aid Amid Berlin’s Budget Crunch: Report

Germany has halted future aid to Ukraine amid Berlin’s budget struggles, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reports.

According to the FAZ report, all future requests from the Ministry of Defence for Ukraine aid will not be approved by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as his leftist government seeks to cut costs to address the 12 billion euro budget shortfall.

The paper said, however, that most of the money and physical aid already allocated to be sent to Ukraine will continue to be sent. This year, some 8 billion euros have been earmarked for Kyiv, while next year an additional 4 billion has already been approved after aid was slashed in half for budgetary reasons.

Past that, a government source told FAZ that “the pot is empty.” Government communications obtained by the paper said that “new measures” will only be approved if fresh “financing is secured” for upcoming federal budgets.

With Germany representing Ukraine’s largest single financier in Europe, the cessation of further aid payments could represent a significant hurdle for Kyiv to continue the war against the much larger and richer Russia.

Although the payment freeze is technically for future budgets, the effects of the cutoff are already having an impact on present-day aid transfers, with money for an IRIS-T air defence system offered by German manufacturer Diehl Defence recently being denied by the federal government.

This is because the €8 billion allocated for this year has already been spent, and the € 4 billion slated for 2025 has reportedly been surpassed. According to the report, while Ukraine will receive supplies previously agreed upon, “hardly any” new orders from Germany will be possible until 2028.

Ukraine Destroys Two Bridges Within Russian Mainland: Reports

Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in Russia’s Kursk region and struck a second one nearby, less than two weeks into its stunning cross-border incursion, disrupting Russian supply routes and possibly signaling that its troops are planning to dig in.

Russia’s pro-Kremlin military bloggers have acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge, which spanned the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo, will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges in the area. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lt. Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released a video of a Ukrainian airstrike that split the bridge in two.

Less than two days later, Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Oleshchuk and the Russian regional governor, Alexei Smirnov.

As of Sunday morning, there were no official reports on where exactly the second bridge attack took place. Russian Telegram channels claimed that a second bridge over the Seim, in the village of Zvannoe, had been struck.

According to Russia’s Mash news site, the attacks left the area with just one intact bridge. The Associated Press could not immediately verify these claims – but if confirmed, the Ukrainian strikes would further complicate Moscow’s attempts to replenish its forces in Kursk and evacuate civilians.

Glushkovo lies some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, and approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of the main battle zone in Kursk. Zvannoe is located a further 8 kilometers (5 miles) northeast.

Kyiv has been tight-lipped about the planned scope and goals of its lightning push into Russia, the largest attack on the country since World War II, which took the Kremlin by surprise and saw scores of villages and hundreds of prisoners fall into Ukrainian hands.

The Ukrainians drove deep into the Kursk region in several directions, facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic. Ukraine’s Commander in Chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles) of the Kursk region, although it was not possible to independently verify what exactly Ukrainian forces effectively control.

But the strikes on bridges, apparently aimed to stymie a Russian counterpush in Kursk, could mean that Kyiv intends to seek a foothold in the region – or at least signal to Moscow that it plans to do so.

Analysts say that although Ukraine could try to consolidate its gains within Russia, it would be a risky maneuver given Kyiv’s limited resources, because supply lines extending deep into Kursk would be vulnerable to Russian strikes.

Ukrainian City Hit With Russian Missile Strike Amid Kursk Incursion

A Russian missile strike sparked a blaze in the Ukrainian city of Sumy Saturday, while Ukrainian forces continued to push into Russia’s Kursk border region.

Two people were injured in the Sumy strike, which also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.

Ukraine’s air force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.

Alexander Kots, military correspondent with the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, said that Ukrainian pressure in Kursk “is not weakening yet.”

“In the main sections of the ragged front, the situation has stabilized. But there are areas where the enemy continues to try to expand its bridgehead,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday that Ukraine had destroyed a bridge across the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district with U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, marking their first use in the Kursk region.

Zakharova’s statement couldn´t be independently confirmed, although the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said that geolocated footage published on Aug. 16 showed that the bridge had collapsed following the strike.

Russian military bloggers said that the destruction of bridges would impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces, but not cut them off completely.

“No one has canceled the pontoons,” said Kots, stressing that the Seim River is smaller than Ukrainian waterways such as the Dnieper River. “And there are still smaller bridges.”

Russian Volcano

Russian Volcano Erupts After 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake

A volcano in southeastern Russia has erupted following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, state-owned media announced.

The Shiveluch volcano began spewing ash and lava on Friday after the earthquake shook the coast, the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences told TASS.

Shiveluch, one of the largest volcanoes on Kamchatka at a height of 10,771 feet, has produced an ash column reaching nearly five miles above sea level, scientists said.

The nearest settlement from the volcano, Klyuchi, is about 31 miles away.

No injuries have been reported, according to CNN.

Images published by Eastern European media outlet NEXTA show the enormous amount of ash pouring out of the volcano’s mouth:
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The earthquake took place about 63 miles east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a town on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and occurred 18 miles below the surface of the ocean, according to the Associated Press.

MIDDLE EAST

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Netanyahu on Ceasefire

Netanyahu: Pressure for Hostage Deal Needs to Be on Hamas, not Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that pressure — from the U.S. and from domestic opposition — for a hostage deal needs to be on Hamas, not the Israeli government, due to the terror group’s ongoing obstinacy.

Netanyahu at the beginning of a meeting with his governing coalition, after negotiations wrapped up in Doha, Qatar, on Friday without Hamas representatives present. Hamas, under its new leader Yahya Sinwar, boycotted the talks.

The Israeli government has been under pressure from the U.S. to agree to a deal — though it has already accepted the terms laid out by President Joe Biden in May. (Secretary of State Blinken will visit Israel this week, for the ninth time since the October 7 terror attacks.)

The domestic political opposition in Israel has also held weekly demonstrations for a deal, even though most Israelis also want to see Hamas defeated and reject a deal that would allow it to rearm.

There were reports that negotiations made progress, and that Israel had shown flexibility on the issue of withdrawing its forces from the Philadelphi corridor, the road that runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel took the corridor when it attacked Rafah in May, and has uncovered dozens of cross-border smuggling tunnels.

Hamas, however, refused to attend the talks, accusing Israel of adding new demands, which Netanyahu has denied.

In a statement Sunday, Netanyahu said:

[W]e are engaged in negotiations for the release of our hostages. This is a national mission of the highest order. We are holding very complex negotiations in which the other side is a murderous terrorist organization that is unbridled and obstinate.

However, I would like to emphasize: We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give. There are things we can be flexible on and there are things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on. We know how to distinguish between the two very well.

…

Once again, I would like to emphasize: Up until now, Hamas has been completely obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure needs to directed at Hamas and Sinwar, not the Government of Israel.

Strong military and diplomatic pressure are the way to secure the release of our hostages.

Israel has refused to agree to a Hamas demand that it withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and agree never to attack Hamas again. Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas as a military threat and governing authority.

Port Operator Complains

Port Operator’s Profits Fall 60 Per Cent, Red Sea Attacks Blamed

Dubai-based port operator DP World reported Thursday its half-year profits fell by nearly 60%, in part over the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the Israel-Hamas war that have affected shipping through the Red Sea.

DP World reported profits of $265 million this year, down from $651 million the same time last year. DP World Group’s chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, acknowledged that the Red Sea disruptions affected the firm’s revenues.

“The year 2024 has been marked by a deteriorating geopolitical environment and disruptions to global supply chains due to the Red Sea crisis,” he said in a statement included in the results. “While the near-term trading outlook remains uncertain due to macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds, the resilient financial performance of the first half … positions us well to deliver stable full year adjusted” profits.

Bin Sulayem did not elaborate on what specific effects the Houthi attacks had been having on DP World, a government-owned shipper that in recent years removed itself from the Nasdaq Dubai stock exchange.

The Houthis since November have been targeting shipping through the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The assaults have disrupted the $1 trillion of goods that flow annually through the region, while also sparking the most intense combat the U.S. Navy has seen since World War II.

The rebels maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or the U.K. as part of a campaign they say seeks to force an end to the war. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict.

Shippers have begun going around the Cape of Good Hope off Southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea entirely. The rerouting has affected shipping through Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, the home of DP World and the world’s largest manmade harbor.

DP World already had faced challenges through the coronavirus pandemic, but the Houthi attacks have seen it affected while the long-haul carrier Emirates, another Dubai government-owned entity, have soared.

LATIN AMERICA

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Journalist on Outgoing Mexican President

Critical Journalist Blames Mexican President if She Suffers Future Attacks

A journalist in Mexico who made headlines for her tough questions aimed at the country’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pointed the finger at him, claiming that if she suffers any attacks in the future is because of him and his rhetoric. The Mexican politician shrugged her off with indifference and asked if she was done.

During one of Lopez Obrador’s morning news conferences this week, Reyna Haydee Ramirez claimed that the president’s divisive rhetoric led to his supporters chasing her and screaming insults at her. She claimed that Lopez Obrador’s spokesman, Jesus Ramirez Cuevas, favored journalists who praised Lopez Obrador and censored or tried to keep out those who asked hard questions.

Ramirez showed a video on her cell phone where various individuals could be heard yelling, “eres una chayotera (you are a sellout),” as they surrounded her and chased her down the main plaza square in Mexico City. She claimed that police officers had to intervene.

Ramirez had made headlines in Mexico for routinely asking hard questions during Lopez Obrador’s morning news conferences, leading to several heated exchanges between the two.

According to Ramirez, the incident occurred in June when the country held its presidential election. She claimed that the issue was tied to Lopez Obrador’s rhetoric that journalists who question him are his opposition or paid mouthpieces of “conservative” politicians.

After she showed the video, a visibly upset Lopez Obrador asked if she was done and dismissed her concerns, claiming journalists were free to voice their opinions.

AMLO Complains to Biden

Mexico Complains to Biden over Financing Opposition NGO

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced he would write to U.S. President Joe Biden to complain about his administration financing non-governmental organizations that have been critical of his government.

The politician made the announcement during one of his morning news conferences. He pointed out that his Foreign Relations Ministry had just sent a diplomatic notice about the issue and added he was personally drafting a letter for Biden about it.

The diplomatic note is the second one Mexico’s diplomats have sent on the same issue. During the news conference, officials said the first diplomatic note had been sent in 2021. The message went unanswered.

Lopez Obrador complained that the Department of State has helped finance the group Mexicanos Contra La Corrupcion y La Impunidad (Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity) through USAID programs.

The NGO gained much notoriety in recent years for compiling reports and statistics about crime and corruption in the country. According to MCCI, when Lopez Obrador was trying to win the presidency, he would quote their reports. However, now that his party is in office, he considers the NGO part of the opposition for questioning high-level corruption, contract rigging, and other alleged improprieties reported by them.
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Earlier in the week, Mexico’s Financial Crimes Unit (UIF) released information that the U.S. government has reportedly sent more than 97 million pesos (approximately $5 million USD) to MCCI since 2018. Officials also singled out several U.S. private donors, including funds from the Rockefeller and Ford foundations.
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During that information release, Lopez Obrador and his staff also divulged the personal tax and financial information of private citizens who had donated to MCCI. The group claimed that in doing so, Lopez Obrador broke Mexican law.

AFRICA

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Nigeria Accuses Chinese Company of Property Seizure

Nigeria Accuses Chinese Company of Attempting to Seize Government Property

Nigerian presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga on Thursday accused a Chinese company called Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. of using “unorthodox means” and “subterfuge” to seize Nigerian government property abroad, including aircraft belonging to the presidential office.

Zhongshan says Nigeria owes it millions of dollars for a never-completed construction project.

Zhongshan signed a contract with Nigeria’s southwestern Ogun State in 2007 to develop a 10,000-hectare industrial park known as the Ogun Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ). Zhongshan acquired the rights to a substantial parcel of land in the OGFTZ in 2010 and created a Nigerian corporate entity to manage the project in 2011.

The deal went south and was terminated by Nigeria in 2015. The details of what went wrong are hotly disputed between the two parties. Zhongshan claims its Nigerian entity spent years building infrastructure in the park, including roads, sewers, and power, plus extensive marketing to persuade several companies to build factories in the OGFTZ.

Nigeria, on the other hand, angrily claimed Zhongshan did little more in the span of five years than building a fence around part of the industrial park. Ogun State refused to pay the compensation demanded by Zhongshan for the work completed to date.

Zhongshan executives claimed the Nigerian government used strong-arm tactics to drive it out of the country, including sending the police to harass company personnel and threaten them with prison time. Chinese managers said their immigration papers were improperly nullified, preventing them from working in Nigeria. One senior Zhongshan manager claimed he was “arrested at gunpoint” and held by the police for ten days, during which time he was beaten and deprived of food and water.

Zhongshan and its Nigerian subsidiary, Zhongfu, initiated arbitration proceedings in international court against Nigeria in 2018. Several other companies from various countries have filed similar charges against Nigeria, which does not have a good track record of winning arbitration battles.

Nigeria lost this one, too, as an arbitration panel in London ordered the Nigerian government to pay $70 million in damages to Zhongshan, an amount later increased to $81 million as Nigeria refused to pay and interest accumulated on the debt.

A British judge subsequently wrote an enforcement order allowing Zhongshan to seize two properties owned by Nigeria in Liverpool, valued at several million dollars apiece.