News of the World
09-11-2024, 04:30 AM
USA
OK, either she's as
lunatic and senile as Mr. 
is or she truly cares about Kim Jong-un. 
But you know people. They'd love to find a strange explanation on why she just made a slip and how normal it is not to care about South Korea.
EUROPE
A global plot that makes criminals serve their sentences in prison is definitely a plot I would love to support.
Harris Blames Trump
Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign tried to blame her and President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan on former President Donald Trump — even though it happened seven months after he left office.
The Harris-Walz campaign released a statement Friday that claimed, “Trump left the Biden-Harris Administration with zero plans for an orderly withdrawal — only a dangerous, costly mess.”
Trump had begun negotiations with the Taliban and reached a deal, but it had not been completed by the time he left office in January 2020. Biden — against the advice of his military advisers — decided to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan in September 2021, which prompted the Taliban to sweep into Kabul at the end of August 2021 and topple the U.S.-backed government in a surprise rout. The sudden takeover prompted mass panic and chaos as hundreds of thousands of Americans, foreign civilians, and desperate Afghans scrambled to depart.
The remaining U.S. troops in Kabul at the time, as well as hundreds more who were flown in, were ordered to carry out the withdrawal — as well undertake a massive civilian evacuation effort — under extremely stressful and dangerous conditions from a makeshift fortress at the Kabul International Airport while surrounded by the Taliban.
A suicide bomber infiltrated the crowd surrounding the airport on the final days of the evacuation, and killed 13 American service members. Before departing, U.S. military commanders ordered a drone strike that accidentally killed a humanitarian aid worker and members of his family, including children.
The Biden administration has never held anyone accountable for the bungled withdrawal that played out on television screens across the world, and President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have said they have no regrets.
After Trump recently participated in a ceremony to honor the 13 Americans who were killed, as well as those wounded, the Harris-Walz campaign claimed that Trump was trying to politicize the disastrous withdrawal — even though the families had invited Trump to be there and had given him permission to film the event. The family members of the fallen then released angry statements slamming the Harris-Walz campaign for their criticism.
Despite this, the Harris-Walz 2024 National Security Spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in a statement, “Trump shamelessly attacks the Vice President because he hopes he can trick the country into forgetting that his own actions undermined U.S. strategy and put our troops and allies in harm’s way.”
An Axios reporter noted that while some Republicans also thought Trump had cut a “bad deal” with the Taliban, the Biden-Harris administration had “debated options on trying to change the deal and went [with] Biden’s plan.”
...
National security expert Rebeccah Heinrichs posted on X about Harris’s attempt to gaslight the public, “This is crazy. Biden and Harris have defended their decision and process for the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Campaign staff are not going to get Americans to buy this.”
...
Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller reminded the public that Harris has previously bragged about being the “last person in the room” when Biden decided to withdraw the U.S. troops.
Report on that Terrible Withdrawal
Quote:Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a scathing report that took a fine-toothed comb to the military's botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and highlighted areas of serious mismanagement.
The Republican-led report opens by harkening back to President Joe Biden’s urgency to withdraw from the Vietnam War as a senator in the 1970s. That, along with the Afghanistan withdrawal, demonstrates a "pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners," according to the report.
The report also disputed Biden's assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and it revealed how state officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them.
Biden was not bound by deadlines in Trump's Doha agreement with Taliban
The report found that Biden and Vice President Harris were advised by top leaders that the Taliban were already in violation of the conditions of the Doha agreement and, therefore, the U.S. was not obligated to leave.
The committee also found NATO allies had expressed their vehement opposition to the U.S. decision to withdraw. The British Chief of the Defense staff warned that "withdrawal under these circumstances would be perceived as a strategic victory for the Taliban."
Biden kept on Zalmay Khalilzad, a Trump appointee who negotiated the agreement, as special representative to Afghanistan – a signal that the new administration endorsed the deal.
At the Taliban’s demand, Khalilzad had shut out the Afghan government from the talks – a major blow to President Ashraf Ghani’s government.
When Trump left office, some 2,500 U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan. Biden himself was determined to draw that number to zero no matter what, according to Col. Seth Krummrich, chief of staff for Special Operations Command, who told the committee, "The president decided we’re going to leave, and he’s not listening to anybody."
Then-State Dept. spokesperson Ned Price admitted in testimony the Doha agreement was "immaterial" to Biden’s decision to withdraw.
The withdrawal: State Department built up personnel, failed to hatch escape plan as it became clear Kabul would fall
The report also details numerous warning signs the State Department received to draw down its embassy footprint as it became clear Afghanistan would quickly fall to the Taliban. It refused to do so. At the time of the withdrawal, it was one of the largest embassies in the world.
In the end, Americans and U.S. allies were left stranded as the military was ordered to withdraw before the embassy had shuttered.
In one meeting, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon rejected military officials’ warnings, saying "we at the State Department have a much higher risk tolerance than you guys."
Gen. Austin Miler, the longest-serving commander in Afghanistan, confirmed McKeon’s comments and explained that the State Department did not have a higher risk tolerance but instead exhibited "a lack of understanding of the risk" in Afghanistan.
Asked why McKeon would make such statements, the officer explained, "The State Department and the president were saying it. Consequently, [Wilson] and others start saying it, thinking that they will make it work."
The report lays blame on former Afghanistan Ambassador Ross Wilson, who instead of shrinking, grew the embassy’s presence as the security situation deteriorated.
Revealing little sense of urgency, Wilson was on a two-week vacation on the last week of July and the first week of August 2021.
An NEO, a noncombatant evacuation operation to get personnel out, was not ordered until Aug. 15 as the Taliban marched into Kabul.
There weren’t enough troops present to begin the NEO until Aug. 19, and the first public message from the embassy in Kabul urging Americans to evacuate wasn’t sent until Aug. 7.
And while there weren't enough military planes to handle the evacuations, it took the Transportation Department until Aug. 20 to allow foreign planes to assist.
Wilson fled the embassy ahead of his entire embassy staff, the report found. He reportedly had COVID-19 at the time but got a foreign service officer to take his test for him so that he could flee the country.
Acting Under Secretary Carol Perez told the committee the embassy’s evacuation plan was "still in the works" when the Taliban took over, despite months of warning.
Harris and the Korean DMZ
Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris published a policy page on her official website Sunday promising she is “ready to be Commander in Chief on day one,” but she cited one of her most notorious foreign policy gaffes — claiming the United States has a “strong alliance” with North Korea — as evidence.
Harris’s presidential campaign debuted a slightly more detailed page of her stances on policy issues seven weeks after she replaced outgoing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic Party ticket. The page focuses heavily on her experience as a prosecutor and attorney general in California but also features a more limited explanation of her stances on international issues.
“Vice President Harris is ready to be Commander in Chief on day one,” her campaign states. “Vice President Harris has been a tireless and effective diplomat on the world stage.”
A prime example listed on the “issues” page is her visit to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in September 2022 in which she attempted to reassure the nascent government of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol of Biden’s commitment to supporting it against the persistent threat of a nuclear North Korea. Biden has not treated the Korean Peninsula as a foreign policy priority during his tenure. During his time in office, communist dictator Kim Jong-un has significantly expanded his influence internationally through broadening alliances with Russia and Iran.
Harris, her policy page states, “has met with China’s Xi Jinping, making clear she will always stand up for American interests in the face of China’s threats, and traveled to the Indo-Pacific four times to advance our economic and security partnerships.”
“She visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone to affirm our unwavering commitment to South Korea in the face of North Korean threats,” it continues, later referring to President Donald Trump as too “dangerous” on foreign policy to return to the White House.
“From advising on tough decisions in the Oval Office and the Situation Room, to serving on the Senate Select Committee on the Intelligence,” the page concludes, “to going after transnational criminal organizations as California’s Attorney General, Vice President Harris brings extensive national security experience.”
The page offers no details on Harris’s visit to the DMZ. Harris visited the inter-Korean border in 2022 and delivered a speech in which her goal was to reiterate how “ironclad” Biden considered Washington’s ties to Seoul. Harris opened the speech, however, by erroneously referring to North Korea as an American partner.
“So, the United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea. And it is an alliance that is strong and enduring,” Harris declared.
Harris appears to have misspoken, as the “Republic of North Korea” does not exist. The official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea, while North Korea refers to itself as the “Democratic Republic of Korea.” Later in her remarks, Harris referred to the “Republic of Korea.”
“I cannot state enough that the commitment of the United States to the defense of the Republic of Korea is ironclad and that we will do everything in our power to ensure that it has meaning in every way that the words suggest,” Harris said at the time.
“Our shared goal — the United States and the Republic of Korea — is a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the vice president said. The Democratic Party removed “denuclearizing the Korean peninsula” from its official policy platform in August.
OK, either she's as
lunatic and senile as Mr. is or she truly cares about Kim Jong-un. But you know people. They'd love to find a strange explanation on why she just made a slip and how normal it is not to care about South Korea.
Melania Trump on the Assassination Attempt
Quote:Former first lady Melania Trump raised questions surrounding the assassination attempt on her husband, former President Donald Trump, stating that they “need to uncover the truth.”
In a video posted to X, promoting her upcoming book, Melania, the former first lady spoke about how the assassination attempt on her husband during his rally in Butler, Pennslyvania, on July 13, “was a horrible, distressing experience.”
“The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,” Melania said. “Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder, why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech? There is definitely more to the story, and we need to uncover the truth.”
The former president was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part” of his right ear after Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire from the rooftop of a nearby building, where he had a direct line of sight of Trump.
Corey Comperatore, a former Pennsylvania fire chief, was shot and killed after Crooks opened fire at the rally. Comperatore threw himself over his daughter and wife as gunshots were heard. Two other men, James Copenhaver, and David Dutch, were also injured.
In the aftermath of the assassination, reports have revealed that a local law enforcement officer encountered Crooks prior to him opening fire.
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle also revealed that the agency had not placed agents on the roof that Crooks was on because there was a “safety factor” associated with a “sloped roof.” However, prior to the rally, the Secret Service had reportedly deemed the rooftop as a security risk.
As Breitbart News has previously reported, there were multiple security failings during the rally, such as the Secret Service reportedly seeing Crooks on the rooftop around 5:52 p.m., 20 minutes before Trump took the stage, yet nothing was done to prevent Trump from going on stage.
Other reports have revealed that Crooks was reportedly “photographed twice by security officers,” law enforcement officers reported him as being a suspicious person, and other law enforcement officers reportedly radioed that Crooks was acting suspiciously.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently revealed that whistleblowers alleged that the majority of Secret Service agents who were assigned to protect Trump at the Butler rally were actually from the Department of Homeland Security and that they had gone through a “two-hour online webinar.”
Vote Without ID
Quote:A loophole in Wisconsin election laws poses a significant risk to election integrity, a report finds.
More than 140,000 Wisconsinites can vote in the 2024 election without proving their identify by self-identifying as “Indefinitely Confined,” a new report by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty reveals. Through the loophole, voters can receive an absentee ballot indefinitely without ever showing an ID.
The “Indefinitely Confined” exception has skyrocketed since 2016, when approximately 66,000 voters registered under the status. In 2020 amid the pandemic, 265,979 registered under the exemption, when clerks in Democratic strongholds encouraged voters to exploit the loophole to circumvent Wisconsin’s voter ID requirements in 2020 – a practice later rebuked unanimously by the Supreme Court.
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the state by just over 20,000 votes, in a swing of around 48,000 votes to Democrats from the 2016 election when Trump carried the state.
“Confidence in our elections continues to be dangerously low in Wisconsin and across the country,” WILL Research Director Will Flanders said in a statement. “Voter ID is a popular and well-executed way to keep our elections secure and free of fraud. While the Governor refused to fix this loophole in the years since 2020, efforts must be made by local election clerks to resolve it as much as possible.”
Wisconsin voter ID laws require citizens to show ID to vote in most circumstances. However, ID is not required simply to register to vote.
The “Indefinitely Confined” exception provides a loophole for potential voters to avoid ever showing an ID.
“The indefinitely confined status was designed to provide those who are elderly, sick, or physically unable to get to the polls with an opportunity to vote,” WILL Policy Director Kyle Koenen added. “Although designed with good intentions, as our report shows, the system has a few key flaws that should be resolved.”
State laws require the removal of voters from the indefinitely confined list under specified circumstances. According to WILL, “if a voter does not return an absentee ballot after receiving one, the municipal clerk must notify them that they will be removed from the absentee mailing list unless they renew their application within 30 days. Voters can also be removed upon their request or if reliable information indicates they are no longer eligible, such as when a voter casts a ballot in person.”
However, not all counties comply with state law, WILL alleges. The number of voters using the exemption remains about 144,347.
EUROPE
Hungary About to Follow Texas' Example
Quote:Hungary said that it will bus illegal migrants to the European Union capital of Brussels if the bloc attempts to force Budapest into accepting supposed asylum seekers who broke into other EU nations.
In a move reminiscent of Texas Governor Gregg Abbott’s scheme to send illegals to liberal-run cities throughout the United States, Hungarian Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Bence Rétvári promised to provide migrants with one-way tickets to Brussels.
Standing before a fleet of busses in Budapest on Friday, the Hungarian politician said per Magyarnemzet: “If the European Union forces Hungary to let in illegal immigrants, Hungary will offer the migrants to transport them to Brussels for free after completing the European procedure.”
“The mayor of Brussels reacted to the proposal in such a way that it would turn the everyday lives of the people of Brussels upside down. And Hungary protects the southern border so that the everyday lives of Hungarians are not turned upside down,” he added.
The declaration from Hungary comes as the EU is attempting to impose heavy fines, starting with €200 million due on September 17th, for Budapest’s refusal to acquiesce to accepting in alleged asylum seekers from other European Union countries in a mass redistribution scheme.
Rétvári noted that while other EU nations have left their borders open to waves of illegals, Hungary has been diligent in preventing illegal crossings of its border, including the building of a fence along its southern border.
Rétvári said that the border wall has not only protected Hungary but also protected the EU as whole from further illegal immigration, and therefore, Budapest is looking to counter sue the bloc for services rendered in protecting the EU border. He claimed that since 2015, Hungary has prevented around one million illegal migrants from entering.
“It is outrageous that the European Union does not recognize and financially compensate the Hungarians’ activities, but instead attacks them,” he said.
Speaking at the Cernobbio Forum in Italy earlier this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned that if Brussels forces countries such as his own to adopt the pro-mass migration policies favoured by elites in Western Europe, it could result in the collapse of the EU as a whole.
“Why do we need it?” Mr Orbán questioned. “It would be much better if the countries which do not wish to follow the common migration policy were granted an opt-out. It would be much better to offer them the possibility of an opt-out than forcing them to combine forces with others, leading to conflicts which would cause the entire European structure to disintegrate.”
Russian Drone Flying Over Romania
Quote:A Russian drone violated Romania’s airspace during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, the NATO member reported Sunday, urging Moscow to stop what it described as an escalation.
The incident occurred as Russia carried out attacks on “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube River in Ukraine, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said.
Romania deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace, and NATO allies were kept informed, the ministry said. Romanian emergency authorities also issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions.
Preliminary data indicates there may be an “impact zone” in an uninhabited area near the Romanian village of Periprava, the ministry said. It added that an investigation is underway.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions and as recently as July this year.
The Romanian Defense Ministry strongly condemned the Russian attacks on Ukraine, calling them “unjustified and in serious contradiction with the norms of international law.”
Mircea Geoana, NATO’s outgoing deputy secretary-general and Romania’s former top diplomat, said the military alliance also condemned Russia’s violation of Romanian airspace. “While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” he wrote on X.
In Ukraine, two civilians died and four more suffered wounds in a nighttime Russian airstrike on the northern city of Sumy, the regional military administration reported. Two children were among those wounded, the administration said. In the Kharkiv region farther east, overnight shelling killed two elderly women, according to local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.
Fresh Sanctions for Iran
Quote:The US, UK, France and Germany have imposed fresh sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.
The measures include restrictions on national carrier Iran Air's ability to fly to the UK and Europe, and travel bans and asset freezes on a number of Iranians accused of facilitating military support for Russia.
Visiting London, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russians had been trained by Iranian forces to use short-range ballistic missiles and that they could be deployed against Ukrainians within weeks.
Iran has repeatedly denied supplying such self-guided weapons to Russia.
At a joint news conference with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Tuesday, Blinken asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "increasingly relying on support" for Iran and North Korea to help "wage his war of aggression on Ukraine" in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
He said the US had recently shared intelligence with its partners showing that dozens of military personnel had been trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles (120km).
Lammy said the move was "a significant and dangerous escalation”.
The missiles are likely to boost Russia's arsenal, enabling it to hit Ukrainian cities close to Russia's borders or areas it already controls at the same time as it deploys its longer-range missiles deeper into Ukrainian territory.
The UK Foreign Office said the US and UK sanctions targeted several key individuals heavily involved in the ballistic missile and drone supply chains.
They included Brig Gen Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari, who it said was director general for international relations at Iran’s defence ministry and was linked to its exports of defence products to its partners.
Sanctions have also been imposed on five Russian cargo ships for transporting the military supplies from Iran, despite what the UK said were repeated warnings not to do so.
Additionally, several organisations, including some allegedly involved in the production of Iran's kamikaze-style Shahed drones - which Russia has used consistently in attacks on Ukrainian cities - have been sanctioned.
In a statement, the UK, France and Germany - known as the E3 - said Iran's supply of missiles represented a "a direct threat to European security".
But Iran called the Western statements "false and misleading".
World Order Under Threat
Quote:The international world order is “under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War”, the U.K. and U.S. spy chiefs together warned Saturday.
Sir Richard Moore and William Burns – head of the UK Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) respectively – delivered their cautionary tale in a Financial Times opinion piece, adding they saw the war in Ukraine coming “and were able to warn the international community”, in part by declassifying secrets to help Kyiv.
Further work is already being done to “disrupt the reckless campaign of sabotage” across Europe by Moscow, push for de-escalation in the Israel-Gaza war, and counterterrorism to thwart the resurgent Islamic State. The two further wrote:
There is no question that the international world order – the balanced system that has led to relative peace and stability and delivered rising living standards, opportunities and prosperity – is under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War.
For both agencies, “the rise of China is the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century, and we have reorganised our services to reflect that priority.”
On Russia, the heads of MI6 and the CIA said Russian intelligence was waging a “reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe.”
They did not list examples but there has been a spate of mysterious sabotage and arson attacks on infrastructure in the UK, Germany and in the Baltics.
U.S. intelligence also reportedly foiled an alleged Russian plot to assassinate the chief executive of Germany’s leading arms manufacturer.
As well as physical sabotage, the two pinpointed threats posed to Western democracies by Russian information operations.
Both men set out staying the course in resisting Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine “is more vital than ever”, saying Russia “will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence”.
“In the 21st century, crises don’t come sequentially,” they wrote. “While significant attention and resources are being deployed against Russia, we are acting together in other places and spaces to counter the risk of global instability.”
UK: Thousands of Prisoners Now Released, More Waiting in the Line
Quote:The UK’s new left-wing government released the first of thousands of prisoners early on Tuesday morning, with convicts saying they had been convinced to vote for the Labour Party for life after gaining their liberty.
Over 1,700 extra convicts are being released from UK prisons today, considerably more than would normally be let out in a typical day and nearly double as many who would end their sentences in a week in normal times, it is stated. If the government’s plan continues as advertised, the number of extra prisoners turned out onto the streets early, having served less than half of the court-ordered sentences, will rise to 5,000 in the coming weeks.
The new left-wing Labour government has spent much of its first months in power arresting people — most notably over the anti-child-stabbing and anti-mass-migration protests and riots — and with the already poor inherited state of the prison system, it is running out of space for new inmates. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood says the mass release of prisoners is a sign the government is “tackling the crisis head-on” and necessary to prevent a “total collapse of our criminal justice system that would leave the public less safe”.
Yet justice experts question the wisdom of the move. Speaking to the UK state broadcaster the BBC on Tuesday morning Martin Jones, chief inspector of probation, said offenders released are “almost bound” to be back in jail “within days or weeks” because “things will go wrong in the community”.
He remarked further: “Around about a third of people released from prison each year will be proven to have committed a further offence within a year… And then, of course, there’s a small risk that some of those offences will be serious, and whilst rare, that risk cannot be eliminated.” Meanwhile, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said that it is “inevitable” some of these ex-convicts would use their new-found freedom to commit more crimes, reports The Times.
UK: Why Can They Deport the Foreign Criminals?
Quote:Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice has questioned why the left-wing Labour Party government is releasing criminals back onto the streets early rather than deporting the thousands of foreign criminals clogging up space in British jails.
In a question posed in the House of Commons, Tice, who serves as Nigel Farage’s second-in-command questioned: “Why, when there are some 10,000 foreign criminals blocking up space in our jails, why aren’t they being removed and deported, simultaneously saving the British taxpayer billions of pounds every year and having the support of millions of British voters?”
This call was seconded by Mark Fairhurst, the national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, who told TalkTV on Tuesday that while there are some difficulties surrounding deportations, such as the need to identify a foreign criminal’s country of origin and for those countries to actually accept returns of their nationals, there is “absolutely no reason why we couldn’t repatriate and create an additional 10,000 spaces.”
“Over the last couple of years, ridiculous as it sounds, we’ve been offering financial incentives for prisoners to go back to their country of origin,” Fairhurst said, noting that this has often happened with Albanian criminals, who still represent the largest foreign cohort in British prisons. The POA chairman pointed out that the UK does have a returns policy with Albania and therefore the government could easily start to remove more Albanian criminals from the country.
Fairhurst also argued that the £4 billion earmarked by the Labour government to invest in building more prisons could be better spent on modernising the current prison system, which he described as “crumbling”, as well as putting money into funding more mental health spaces as there are a “lot of people in prisons with acute mental health disorders because it’s the only place” to put them.
As of the end of March, there were 10,422 foreign criminals in jails in England and Wales, an increase from 10,148 at the same time last year. Foreign offenders make up around 12 per cent of the total prison population, costing the UK taxpayer £47,000 per head to feed, house, and rehabilitate, or around £500 million per year, according to The Telegraph.
UK: Millionaires Wanna Leave Because of Labour Tax Raids
Quote:Nearly ten thousand millionaires are predicted to flee the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom this year amid expected tax raids from the left-wing Labour Party government of Sir Keir Starmer.
While the previous Tory government of Rishi Sunak ushered in the highest tax burden since the Second World War, in large part to pay for the debts accrued during the coronavirus lockdowns, it is widely predicted that the fall budget of the Labour government will see further money grabs by the British state, with likely targets including capital gains and inheritance taxes.
According to a report from The Times of London, a firm which helps wealthy people relocate abroad said that in August — the month after Prime Minsiter Starmer came to power — they had seen a 69 per cent increase in inquiries from wealthier people seeking to leave the UK.
Another similar company, Henley & Partners, estimated that a record 9,500 millionaires will likely leave Britain this year, the highest of any country besides Communist China.
It found a net loss of 4,200 millionaires in the first five months of the year — during which time Labour was widely predicted to come to power — and that a further 5,300 are expected to flee by the end of the year. Popular landing spots for the wealthy and entrepreneurs include low-tax destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, and Switzerland.
The likely flight among the innovative and investor classes has sparked concerns that the looming tax hikes may fall foul of the Laffer Curve and fail to raise the intended funds for the treasury.
UK: Cost of Asylum Seeker Flats
Quote:The UK government has refused to reveal the cost of kitting out flats for alleged asylum seekers over concerns of a backlash against migrants.
The independent Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ruled in favour of the Home Office in refusing to abide by Freedom of Information requests about the cost of furnishing an apartment bloc in Hampshire to house some 346 supposed asylum seekers. According to The Telegraph, the flats were said to have been equipped with flat-screen televisions and satellite tv.
John Edwards, the head of the watchdog, said that refusing the FOI request was justified given the potential threat posed to migrants if the public was made aware of how much they were spending on migrant flats.
“While the commissioner appreciates the public interest in the cost of providing accommodation used to accommodate asylum seekers, in his view this is outweighed by the Home Office neither confirming nor denying whether it holds any information falling within the scope of this request,” his ruling stated.
In its arguments to the ICO, the Home Office said that the information was “highly emotive and sensitive” and that previous reports on migrant housing had resulted in public disorder.
“It is common knowledge that vulnerable asylum seekers are targets of reprisals or reactions, and asylum-seeking individuals or groups of asylum-seeking individuals have been threatened and harassed in the past,” the government department said.
Germany to Take Advantage of Sunak's Failed Plan for Migrants
Quote:Germany is looking at taking advantage of the hundreds of millions spent by the British on the now scrapped Rwanda migrant scheme to send its own illegals to the East African nation.
In one of his first acts after coming into office in July, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced an end to the plan to send illegal boat migrants to asylum processing centres in Rwanda rather than allowing them to remain in Britain.
Although the previous Conservative governments had failed to get the scheme off the ground, after the plan was mired in legal challenges kicked off by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after it sensationally stepped in to block a migrant removal flight in the summer of 2022, the UK taxpayer had already sent £318 million to Kigali to construct asylum centres and economic development in the country.
This week, German migration commissioner Joachim Stamp proposed that Berlin take advantage of the investment by the British to send its own illegals to Rwanda as Germany seeks to increase removals in the wake of recent Islamist terror attacks in Solingen and Mannheim and growing anger among the public over the open borders agenda imposed upon the country.
Stamp suggested that the government use “the capacities available there that were originally prepared for this deal with the British,” broadcaster NTV reports.
The neo-liberal Free Democrat politician said that the scheme could be used to deter the use of “hybrid warfare” tactics by Russia and Belarus to send migrants towards the EU’s eastern border to destabilise the bloc. Stamp said that this could amount to removing around 10,000 migrants to Rwanda per year.
“This would mean that Putin and Lukashenko’s propaganda would no longer catch Iraqis, Syrians and Afghans saying: Come here to Minsk or to Moscow and we will take you to Europe,” he said.
“If we could find a third country in this place, that would be excellent. We currently don’t have anyone who has come forward, with the exception of Rwanda.”
Although the policy has not been agreed upon by the other parties of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ‘traffic light’ coalition government, namely the Social Democrats and the Greens, should Germany take advantage of hundreds of millions spent by the British taxpayer, it would likely represent a major political blow for the new left-wing Starmer government in London.
Former Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman told The Telegraph: “Germany’s decision to adopt the Conservatives’ Rwanda scheme is more evidence of support within the EU of the need for a meaningful deterrence.
“That Starmer ditched the plan makes the UK look like a soft touch for illegal migrants, makes us now an outlier from other EU states grappling with the migration crisis, and is a waste of the vital work done to get the scheme up and running. A big mistake that Starmer will come to regret.”
Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick added: “Labour’s decision to scrap, not strengthen, the Rwanda plan looks more foolish by the day. Across Europe, leaders can see that you need a deterrent to stop illegal migration. Sir Keir has squandered such a highly-prized partnership and is now completely powerless to stop the boats.”
The Labour government has argued that scrapping the Rwanda scheme allowed for investment into targeting the criminal people smuggling gangs operating on both sides of the English Channel, notably the creation of a new Border Security Command task force.
However, more than 7,000 illegals have crossed the Channel since Labour came into power in July, taking the total for the year to over 21,000, compared to 29,437 for the entirety of last year.
Germany: Gang Rape...
Quote:A refugee may have been gang-raped by his fellow countrymen over a disagreement on the regime in Tehran, in an attack in a derelict brewery in a German state.
An Iranian male seeking refuge in Germany was found tied up injured by police responding to reports of screams coming from abandoned buildings in Iserlohn, Sauerland, North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday night. It is stated the man had been subjected to a gang-rape.
A police helicopter scoured nearby woods leading to four individuals being arrested. The 30-year-old victim was taken by ambulance to hospital for treatment, but the severity of his injuries has not been announced.
Earlier reports discussed the possibility the man-on-man gang rape of a refugee may have been an act of xenophobia by the “right-wing scene”, yet new developments reveal the four arrested men who faced a judge on Monday are also migrants of Iranian heritage. The suspects aged 24, 34, 42 and 46-years-old are residents of the Netherlands and Denmark, but are not natives of Europe.
With xenophobia now “ruled out”, police are investigating a potential political motive, with the Berliner Morgenpost reporting the attackers may have been loyalists to the regime in Tehran and the victim a critic.
Broadcaster NTV cites senior public prosecutor Michael Burggräf who said of the alleged crime: “According to investigations so far, the crime was primarily aimed at sexual humiliation”.
Police are still seeking two more suspects. The investigation is ongoing.
Germany: Papers Please
Quote:Germany enacted strict new land border controls Monday in what has been described as a response to irregular migration and growing extremist threats.
“We are strengthening our internal security through concrete action and we are continuing our tough stance against irregular migration,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a news conference.
AP reports the ministry said it notified the European Union of the order to set up border controls at the land borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for a period of six months.
They will begin next week on Sept. 16 and comes after a deadly knife attack in Soligen last month killed three people. The perpetrator was a Syrian asylum-seeker who claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group.
Even more recently, police in Munich exchanged fire with a gunman near the Israeli Consulate last week, fatally wounding him. Authorities said they believe he was planning to attack the consulate on the 52nd anniversary of the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The latest restrictions enhance those already in place on the land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders praised Germany’s move and said the Netherlands should do the same.
“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new Common European Asylum System, we must increase controls at our national borders even more,” Faeser said.
She noted Germany already has had more than 30,000 rejections of people seeking to cross its borders since last October, with the rush to enter going all the way back to 2015 when then Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the country to all and sundry migrant arrivals.
Ukraine
Quote:Reports published in the past week indicate that Ukraine is struggling to conscript enough soldiers to replace its staggering battlefield losses against Russia.
The Russians have taken horrific casualties as well, but their vastly larger population could be the key to eventually winning a war of attrition.
Fears of a manpower shortage led Ukraine to modify its conscription law in April, removing demobilization limits that formerly rotated soldiers out of service after 36 months on the battlefield. The draft age was also lowered from 27 to 25.
“The enemy outnumbers us seven to ten times,” Joint Forces commander Yurii Sodol told Ukrainian lawmakers when he urged them to remove the demobilization provision.
In July, a 60-day grace period for conscription registration expired. Ukrainian officials estimated the tougher registration laws could make up to four million more conscripts available.
The latest news from the front lines renewed concerns that Ukraine simply cannot keep up with the casualties is has sustained.
Channel News Asia (CNA) noted on Monday that between battlefield losses and people fleeing the country – including men fleeing the country to avoid conscription – Ukraine has lost 10 million people out of a prewar population of 45 million.
Worse still, Ukraine’s population of men under 30 has dwindled from 6 million in 2022 to less than 5 million today, reducing both the pool of potential conscripts and the manpower that would be available for postwar reconstruction. Ukraine’s economic output has dropped by about 25 percent since the war began, with a manpower shortage as one of several factors dragging it down.
“We are now in a war of attrition. It is very difficult to choose between butter and guns,” Ukrainian Deputy Central Bank Governor Sergiy Nikolaychuk told Bloomberg News in a June interview.
Ukraine is trying to compensate for this demographic loss by allowing some 3,000 prisoners to fight on the front lines, and men below the reduced draft age of 25 are finding ways to enlist.
“They can erase all violations you had and pardon you. That means you can start all over again. Such a chance has never been given to anyone before,” an enlisted prisoner told CNA.
Ukrainian women are stepping up to fill jobs that are normally held by men so more men will be free to fight in the war, but Ukraine is still suffering from a significant labor shortage – and that could get worse even if the war ends soon as a fair number of Ukrainian men could leave the country to be with wives and children who emigrated after hostilities began.
Ukraine was already an “old” country with demographics skewing toward 55 and older, which means the loss of so many young people to combat and emigration will make it even more difficult to provide medical and support benefits to an aging population. Elderly Ukrainians forced to relocate by Russian advances are losing their homes and possessions, which will make caring for them even more expensive – and there will be fewer young workers to do it.
Quote:Ukraine launched a major drone attack against Moscow and several other Russian cities on Monday night — possibly the largest Ukrainian offensive involving unmanned aerial vehicles since the war began in 2022.
The Russian military claimed it destroyed 144 of Ukraine’s drones, but some damage and fatalities were still reported.
The governor of the Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov, said 20 Ukrainian drones were shot down in his area, but others were able to damage apartment buildings and houses in the towns of Lyubertsy and Ramenskoye. Local media photographed fires burning in a few high-rise buildings after the drone strikes.
“A woman was killed, and three more people sustained injuries. Five residential buildings near one of those damaged have been evacuated as emergency services were handling drone debris,” Vorobyov said. If his account is accurate, it would mark the first civilian death in the Moscow region since the war began.
Russian civil and military officials said more drones were intercepted over Tula, Belgorod, Kaluga, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Oryol, and Kursk, the province Ukrainian ground forces invaded in August.
Three airports outside Moscow were shut down temporarily during the attack, causing 48 flights to be diverted. The mayor of Moscow said debris from an intercepted drone damaged a house on the edge of the city, but no other Ukrainian drones were able to reach the Russian capital.
“There is no way that nighttime strikes on residential neighborhoods can be associated with military action,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, condemning the attack.
“The Kyiv regime continues to demonstrate its nature. They are our enemies, and we must continue the special military operation to protect ourselves from such actions,” Peskov said.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian civilian neighborhoods many times during the invasion, including attacks on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Ukrainian military chief Serhiy Popko said Russia attacked Kyiv again on Monday night with a swarm of 46 drones, 38 of which Ukraine’s air force allegedly shot down.
Drone warfare has figured prominently in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with both sides innovating offensive and defensive tactics. Drone swarms — like those both sides reportedly launched on Monday — usually cause minimal damage because the drones are easily intercepted, but Ukraine does not have permission to use U.S. and European-supplied missiles to hit targets deep in Russia, so it must employ drones for long-range attacks. Russian oil facilities are frequent targets for these drone strikes.
Ukraine’s latest innovation, spotlighted in social media videos that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry released, is the “dragon drones” — low-altitude drones that drop extremely hot payloads of thermite on their targets.
These thermite charges, which burn at temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, have proven extremely effective at burning away soft cover to expose Russian soldiers to follow-up attacks.
Netherlands: Imam Finally Sentenced to 14 Years
Quote:In a landmark case, the Netherlands has sentenced two Pakistanis to prison for calling on their followers to murder Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders.
The court in The Hague sentenced 56-year-old Imam Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali to 14 years in prison over his issuing of a fatwa death warrant on the head of Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders, who now serves as the main power broker behind the Dutch government, for his role in promoting cartoon contests featuring caricatures of Mohammed.
The court found that Jalali had issued demands for the killing of the populist politician in the English language to increase the chances of the fatwa being taken up by an international audience. It ruled that the calls were made with terrorist intent and that it is likely that Jilali’s followers took the demands seriously, Dutch broadcaster NOS reports.
Meanwhile, the court also sentenced 29-year-old Saad Hussain Rizvi to four years in prison for making death threats against Wilders. Rizvi is the leader of the radical Islamist Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) group. While the Public Prosecution Service had demanded a six-year sentence for the TLP leader, Rizvi was partially acquitted as it was not determined that he had terrorist intent behind his statements.
Despite the rulings, it is unclear if the two men will actually face justice, given that both reside in Pakistan, a country which the Netherlands does not have an extradition treaty with. However, Wilders called for an international arrest warrant against the two Islamists.
Nevertheless, the politician described the ruling as a “pure win”, adding: “I now hope that the Dutch government will also do everything in its power to ensure that those involved will serve their sentences.”
Regardless of whether Jilali or Rizvi serve time behind bars, Wilders said that the decision is “an important signal, also internationally, that pronouncing a fatwa on a parliamentarian does not go unpunished.”
Switzerland: Islamic Scholar Convicted of Rape
Quote:A Swiss appeals court on Tuesday found Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan guilty of rape and sexual coercion in a Geneva hotel 15 years ago, overturning last year’s lower court acquittal.
AFP reports the court said it “annuls the judgement of 24 May 2023” and sentenced the former Oxford professor to three years in prison, two of them suspended.
Swiss-born Ramadan, 62, is the grandson of the founder of the Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and wrote his doctoral thesis on his ancestor.
Named by Time Magazine in 2004 among the 100 most influential people in the world for his influence on European Muslims, Ramadan has stirred controversy throughout his intellectual career.
Alongside the now concluded Swiss case, a Paris appeals court ruled in June this year Ramadan should be tried for raping three women between 2009 and 2016, a decision his lawyers have challenged.
The scholar spent more than nine months in pre-trial detention in 2018, but was released in November that year.
Ramadan said he had not carried out “a single act, behaviour or sex act that was not discussed beforehand” with the women despite allegations of slapping, choking, and non-consensual penetration by his many accusers.
Ramadan was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University.
He was banned from entering the United States by the George W. Bush administration in 2004 after it was alleged he donated to the Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP/ Palestinian Relief Organisation) from 1998 to 2002.
The U.S. government considered the ASP a group that funded terrorism by giving some of their donations to the anti-Israel terrorist organisation Hamas which is proscribed in the U.S.
Ramadan’s supporters previously used social media networks to claim the sexual assault allegations were all part of a global “Zionist plot,” as Breitbart News reported.
A global plot that makes criminals serve their sentences in prison is definitely a plot I would love to support.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
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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
