News of the World

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USA

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When things weren't clear on what happened to Trump...

Donald Trump Reported Safe After Gunfire Near His Location

Donald Trump is safe after “gunshots in his vicinity,” the Trump campaign said Sunday.

“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity,” Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement. “No further details at this time.”

According to one report, the gunshots were fired while Trump was at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he was golfing today.

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said a suspect has been apprehended and an AK-47 rifle was found in the bushes at Trump National, citing law enforcement officials.

Trump was shot in the ear on July 13, 2024, at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, narrowly avoiding death. The Secret Service has been blamed for security failures that day, with the director stepping down under pressure soon after.

Later on the FBI had to make a public statement on the issue.

FBI Says Trump Was Target of Apparent 2nd Assassination Attempt

The FBI said on Sunday that former President Donald Trump was targeted in a suspected second assassination attempt in as many months after his campaign confirmed that shots were reported in his vicinity.

“The FBI has responded to West Palm Beach Florida and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump,” the FBI told The Epoch Times in a statement.

A representative of U.S. Secret Service separately told a news conference Sunday that a Secret Service personnel opened fire on a suspected gunman “located near the property line,” adding it’s under investigation, while the Palm Beach sheriff said that officials recovered an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks that had “ceramic tile” inside, and a GoPro camera.

A Secret Service agent that is stationed near of Trump while he was golfing “was able to spot this rifle barrel” and “immediately [engaged] that individual, at which time the individual took off,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

Photos shared by law enforcement Sunday showed what appeared to be two black bags hanging from a fence near the golf course. A firearm was seen between them and pointed through a gap in the fence, while the GoPro was hanging to the side.

The suspect, who was between 400 and 500 yards from the former president, was also intent on “filming what was going on,” Bradshaw told the news conference. The individual was near the fourth or fifth hole of the course, which was one or two holes ahead of where the former president was located, he added.

Prosecutors are now working to secure a warrant and pretrial detention paperwork, Palm Beach County state attorney Dave Aronberg said. The suspect will likely be initially be charged at the state level but federal counts could be filed.

“Our filing of the warrant and charges at the state level does not preclude the federal charges that could be coming,” Aronberg said. “But in the meantime, it looks like the warrants and a pretrial detention motion will happen first.”

Earlier Sunday, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said it has taken a suspect into custody that is believed to be connected to reports of shots fired in the vicinity of Trump. The identity of the individual has not been disclosed.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said that the person of interest in the incident, who was not identified, “was relatively calm” during the arrest.  “He was not displaying a lot of emotions. Never asked, ‘What is this about?’” the sheriff told reporters of the suspect as he was being detained.

The former president’s campaign said in a statement earlier Sunday that he is safe, which was later echoed by the U.S. Secret Service. No injures were reported, law enforcement officials said.

An email sent out by Trump said that he is “safe and well” after the reports of shots being fired.

Maryland Governor on Black Men Supporting Trump

MD Gov. Moore: Young Black Men Leaning Republican Because ‘Frustration of the Pace of Progress’

Governor Wes Moore (D-MD) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that a quarter of black men under 50 said they would support the Republican candidate in this year’s election because of “frustration of the pace of progress in America.”

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about the Harris campaign, because you are out campaigning for them, and there’s a big push in the coming days to focus in on black voters in particular. The NAACP released a poll on Friday that showed while black Americans overwhelmingly identify as Democrats, over one quarter of black men under 50 said they would support the Republican candidate in this year’s election. Why do you think that younger male black voters are changing their association like this?

MOORE: You know, I think there is a, you know, especially for younger black men, there is a frustration. But it’s not necessarily frustration with Vice President Harris, and it’s not even frustration with the Democratic Party. Frankly, it’s a frustration of the pace of progress in America. You know, I think about my state, in my state, when I was inaugurated, we had an 8 to 1 racial wealth gap in the state of Maryland, and that’s not because one group was working eight times harder. That’s because of historical policies and circumstances. When I’m I’m the third African American ever elected governor in the history of the United States. That’s not because I’m only the third African American ever qualified to be a governor. And so I think the thing that we continue to see, and frankly, I think that debate was actually a perfect illustration. Where for many of us, we grew up being told by our family members, you’ve got to work 10 times as hard in order to get ahead, in order to get an opportunity. We saw Donald Trump walk on that debate stage uniquely and historically unprepared. And because he thinks he can win on a whim. And so I think the frustration that people feel is real, but I think the thing that we’re continuing to push to a lot of voters, particularly African American voters, is that Donald Trump is a vessel to the skepticism, but what he is not is actually a vehicle for the solution.

Immigrant Arrests Increase in California

Migrant Arrests in California Border Sector Increase as Election Approaches

San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents are reporting an increase in migrant apprehensions over the past couple of weeks. The near 25 percent increase from two weeks ago comes as the 2024 presidential election nears.

San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel published a weekly update on social media detailing the arrest of at least 4,000 migrants. The migrants reportedly came to the U.S. from 53 separate nations.

This is up by more than 12 percent from one week earlier when the chief reported the apprehension of 3557 migrants.

One week earlier, McGurk-Daniel posted the apprehension of 3,063 migrants from 53 countries. This week’s report of 4,000 migrant apprehensions represents an increase of more than 30 percent from the August 28 report. It is the highest weekly recap since mid-June when the sector reported nearly 7,700 apprehensions from 71 countries.

The San Diego Sector led the nation in migrants apprehensions in August after agents arrested just over approximately 14,000 migrants, according to unofficial Border Patrol reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas. This was down slightly from the 15,000 arrested in July.

The July encounters report of approximately 56,000 and the August report of approximately 58,000 reveal the lowest number of apprehensions during the Biden-Harris administration. In contrast, the lowest number of migrant encounters during the Trump era came in April 2020, when agents apprehended only 16,182 migrants.

A CBP official told Breitbart Texas in February that Mexico’s efforts are not a long-term fix to the problem. “The migrants are just being delayed from reaching the U.S. border,” the source stated. The migrants are being moved further south, delaying their efforts to reach their goal of seeking asylum in the U.S.”

ABC Never Wanted to Attack Kamala

ABC Moderator Linsey Davis Admits: ‘Fact-checking’ Was Only Planned for Trump

ABC News’ Linsey Davis, one of two moderators for last week’s presidential debate, admitted to the Los Angeles Times that the plan was only to fact-check former President Donald Trump, and not Vice President Kamala Harris.

As Breitbart News noted, Davis and co-moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump seven times — often incorrectly — while never fact-checking Harris once, even when she used hoaxes, such as the Charlottesville “very fine people” hoax.

Davis told the Times that ABC had deliberately targeted Trump — and only Trump — because of perceptions that he had been allowed to get away with false statements in the CNN debate against President Joe Biden in late June.

As the New York Post noted:

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Davis said she wanted to address concerns that Trump’s statements could be allowed to “hang” there unchallenged by his opponent or the moderators, as they were when Trump and Biden debate on CNN in June.

“Davis, wearing pink glasses while speaking to The Times over breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, said the decision to attempt to correct the candidates was in response to the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Biden, whose poor performance led to his exit from the race,” the Times reported.

“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis told the outlet on Wednesday morning.

Davis admitted that the moderators studied past statements — “Politicians tend to say the same things again and again” — but somehow did not prepare to check Harris’s repeated use of hoaxes. (Harris used the “very fine people” hoax in 2020 during the vice presidential debate with Mike Pence, who fact-checked her onstage at the time.)

Biden also used the “fine people hoax” and other lies in the June debate, and CNN did not fact-check him, either.

Laken Riley Murder Case

Prosecutors Push Back on Laken Riley Murder Suspect’s Claims that Evidence was ‘Unlawfully Collected’

Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan illegal immigrant accused of murdering Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, is trying to bar certain evidence from being used in court, as prosecutors allege that a bloody jacket, a fingerprint, and other discoveries tie him to the victim.

The defense for Ibarra asked to suppress “(a) two cellular devices believed by the State to belong to Defendant and the information contained within them; (b) genetic and physical information taken from the person of Defendant; © the contents of Defendant’s social media accounts, which include Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram; and (d) location data obtained from Google, Inc. In support of this motion,” according to a court document filed in late August that Fox News obtained.

The defense is arguing that authorities “unlawfully collected” those items without search warrants, the outlet reported.

Ibarra, 26, was living with his two brothers — also illegal immigrants from Venezuela — in an apartment near the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Athens campus when he allegedly killed Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University student, while she was out for a run on February 22.

The body of Riley, a UGA graduate who had recently started the nursing program at Augusta, was found hours later in a wooded area near Lake Herrick with injuries consistent with blunt-force trauma to her head and asphyxiation, Breitbart News reported.

Prosecutors have pushed back against Ibarra’s argument that the way police gathered evidence violated the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine, saying that law enforcement entered his apartment less than 12 hours after Riley’s murder without a warrant because they feared that its inhabitants might “destroy evidence,” court documents that Fox News obtained reveal.

“The State anticipates that the evidence will show that shortly after the murder of Laken Riley, local law enforcement officers were looking for a person or persons depicted in two different videos,” prosecutors said. “One video was taken from near and around University Village housing building ‘S’ that was associated with the peeping Tom incident.”

On the same day of Riley’s murder, Ibarra also allegedly spied on a different UGA student through an apartment window and was hit with a separate “peeping tom” charge as a result, Breitbart News reported in May.

NYT Removes Nazi Language from Headline

New York Times Removes Nazi Language from Headline on Column Criticizing JD Vance

The New York Times removed a controversial headline of a column critical of Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), Donald Trump’s running mate.

The original headline – “JD Vance’s Blood-and-Soil Nationalism Finds Its Target” – used a term closely associated with the Nazi Party during Adolf Hitler’s reign of Germany.

The use of “blood and soil” generated an immediate backlash of accusations that the paper tied Vance’s America First policies with German nationalism espoused by the Nazi party.

The heat appears to have spurred the paper to edit its headline to “Shouldn’t JD Vance Represent All of Ohio?”

But screenshots of the original headline live on.

The New York Times and other establishment media outlets have overwhelmingly given Trump and Vance negative coverage, while praising Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN).

The outlet praised Harris for her supposed decisive debate night victory Tuesday, despite polls conducted after the debate showing Trump continued to rise.

Vance on Springfield Residents

Vance: Media, Harris Campaign Have Been ‘Calling the Residents of Springfield Racists’

Senator JD Vance (R-OH) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the media and the Harris-Walz campaign are calling the residents of Springfield, OH racists.

Host Kristen Welker said, “On former President Trump’s baseless claims about migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, claims you first shared online, Senator, earlier this week. Local authorities now say there have been no credible reports of migrants hurting pets or animals and in fact, neo-Nazis are now taking credit, frankly, for pushing these rumors mainstream. Why are you continuing to double and triple down on these baseless claims?”

Vance said, “I have heard first-hand from multiple constituents, people when made 911 calls a month ago, a year ago, who are making these complaints. I trust the constituents more than I do the American media that have shown no interest in what happened in Springfield until we started sharing cat memes which is disgraceful.”

He added, “We condemn all acts of violence and all threats of violence, but Kristen, the reason they changed my mind on Donald Trump is actually perfectly highlighted by what’s going on in Springfield because the media and the Kamala Harris campaign, they’ve been calling the residents of Springfield racists. They’ve been lying about them and they’ve been saying that they make up these reports of migrants eating geese. They completely ignored the public health disaster that is unfolding in Springfield at this very minute.”

EUROPE

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Ukraine War

NATO Admiral Backs Ukraine Long-Range Missile Strikes on Russia

The head of NATO’s military committee said Saturday that Ukraine has the solid legal and military right to strike deep inside Russia to gain combat advantage – reflecting the beliefs of a number of U.S. allies – even as the Biden administration balks at allowing Kyiv to do so using American-made weapons.

“Every nation that is attacked has the right to defend itself. And that right doesn´t stop at the border of your own nation,” said Adm. Rob Bauer, speaking at the close of the committee’s annual meeting, also attended by U.S. Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Bauer, of Netherlands, also added that nations have the sovereign right to put limits on the weapons they send to Ukraine. But, standing next to him at a press briefing, Lt. Gen. Karel Rehka, chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, made it clear his nation places no such weapons restrictions on Kyiv.

“We believe that the Ukrainians should decide themselves how to use it,” Rehka said.

Their comments came as U.S. President Joe Biden is weighing whether to allow Ukraine to use American-provided long-range weapons to hit deep into Russia. And they hint at the divisions over the issue.

Biden met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday, after this week´s visit to Kyiv by their top diplomats, who came under fresh pressure to loosen weapons restrictions. U.S. officials familiar with discussions said they believed Starmer was seeking Biden’s approval to allow Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow missiles for expanded strikes in Russia.

Biden’s approval may be needed because Storm Shadow components are made in the U.S. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share the status of private conversations, said they believed Biden would be amenable, but there has been no decision announced yet.

Providing additional support and training for Ukraine was a key topic at the NATO chiefs’ meeting, but it wasn’t clear Saturday if the debate over the U.S. restrictions was discussed.

Russian Counter-Counter Offensive: Moscow Bids to Retake its Own Territory Around Kursk

Russia has massed large numbers of troops back on its own territory in a bid to control and reverse Ukraine’s gains into Russian Kursk, the counter offensive to the counter offensive now reportedly underway.

Ukraine threw Russia a curved ball earlier this year when it pivoted from occasional point-scoring incursions into Russian territory to a full-on bid to capture and occupy Russian territory, a tit-for-tat for Ukrainian land occupied by Moscow, and quite probably a bargaining chip for peace negotiations, should they come. While fighting grinds on, Russia now appears to be making a serious bid to retake its United Nations-recognised borders in Kursk, what might be called a counter-counter-attack.

Russian and Ukrainian sources, as well as analysis of battlefield footage by groups like the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggests Russia is retaking some of its own territory. While the Ukrainian government has been silent on these events so far, several senior Russian state figures have made bold claims about the speed with which it is damaging Ukrainian forces in Russia.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said this morning that the country is “confidently pushing the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of Kursk”, while Moscow state media TASS cites special forces commander Major General Apty Alaudinov who claims 10 villages have been taken back by Russian forces. He said: “The situation is favorable. Our units have launched an offensive on the right flank of the Kursk direction. As of yesterday and today, around 10 settlements in the Kursk region have been liberated in this direction.”

General Alaudinov made some large claims about the Ukrainian forces themselves, alleging that Kyiv was executing large numbers of its own soldiers. While such claims in wartime should always be taken with a pinch of salt, nevertheless the officer asserted: “the number of prisoners killed by their own comrades to prevent them from being brought here must be in the hundreds… I have even noticed that Ukrainian formations seem to be focusing less on destroying their enemy, i.e. us, than they are on destroying their own fighters who have decided to surrender”.

Official Russian claims about the casualties inflicted on Ukrainian forces during the fighting to push them back out of Kursk are equally hair-raising, but impossible to prove. Moscow alleges they have taken out in the counter-counter-offensive:

…over 12,200 personnel, 96 tanks, 42 infantry fighting vehicles, 77 armored personnel carriers, 656 armored combat vehicles, 401 motor vehicles, 90 artillery guns, 26 multiple launch rocket systems, including seven HIMARS rocket launchers and five M270 MLRS, eight surface-to-air missile systems, two transporter-loader vehicles, 22 electronic warfare stations and seven counter-battery radar stations, two air-defense radar systems, eight engineering vehicles, among them two obstacle-clearing vehicles and one UR-77 mine-clearing vehicle.

Ukrainian City Without Running Water or Heat After Russian Strikes

The key eastern Ukraine city of Pokrovsk is without a drinking water supply or natural gas for cooking and heating, authorities said Thursday, as the Russian army´s attritional slog across the Donetsk region lays waste to public infrastructure and forces civilians to flee their homes.

A water filtration station in Pokrovsk was damaged in recent fighting, and more than 300 hastily drilled water wells are the city´s last source of drinking water, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.

The previous day, Russians destroyed a natural gas distribution station near Pokrovsk, Filashkin said. Some 18,000 people remain in the city, including 522 children, he said. More than 20,000 people have left in the past six weeks as Russian forces creep closer to residential areas, Filashkin said.

“Evacuation is the only … choice for civilians,” he added.

Pokrovsk is one of Ukraine´s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region, which lies on part of the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. Its capture would compromise Ukraine´s defensive abilities and supply routes and would bring Russia closer to its stated goal of capturing the entire Donetsk region, which it partially occupies.

Russian troops backed by artillery and powerful glide bombs have turned Donetsk cities and towns such as Bakhmut and Avdiivka into bombed-out shells, though the push has cost Russia heavily in troops and armor.

Ukrainian forces have held out as long as possible, even when strongholds such as Chasiv Yar appeared to be in danger of imminent collapse. Ukraine has also launched a daring incursion into Russia´s Kursk region, partly in the hope that Russia will divert its troops there from Donetsk.

But Russian Maj. Gen. Apti Alaudinov said troops had recaptured 10 settlements in Kursk and caused the Ukrainian army heavy losses, Russian state news agency Tass reported Thursday. It was not possible to independently verify the claim.

Russia has fired missile and drone barrages at Ukraine just about every day since the war began in February 2022, aiming especially at the power grid and potentially dooming Ukrainians to a bitterly cold winter this year.

Erdogan Affirms Turkey’s Support for Ukraine, Calls for Return of Crimea

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that his government’s support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence” is “unwavering.”

Erdogan added that Russia should return occupied Crimea to Ukrainian control, in accordance with international law.

Erdogan’s support for Ukraine was blended with his support of the Crimean Tartars, whose leader Mustafa Abulcemil helped organize Wednesday’s summit. The Turkish leader noted that Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of the expulsion of the Tartars from Crimea, a brutal ethnic cleansing ordered by Russian dictator Josef Stalin.

Erdogan said the Crimean Tartars have a right to live “freely, securely, and peacefully in their homeland.” They are unlikely to exercise this right so long as Russia occupies the Crimean peninsula, as they have done since 2014.

Russia’s annexation of Crimea, accomplished with a quiet infiltration of troops followed by a rigged “vote” at gunpoint, has been ruled illegal by the United Nations and European Union. The U.N. has documented serious human rights violations by occupying Russian forces, including aggressive persecution of the remaining Crimean Tartars.

“Our sincere wish is for the war to end with a fair and lasting peace based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence,” he said.

Erdogan made his remarks in a video address to the Fourth Summit of the International Crimea Platform, hosted by Ukraine with over 60 nations and international organizations participating.

One of those participating organizations was NATO, whose Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg submitted a video address promising continued military support for Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said the courage of Ukraine’s defenders was an inspiration “to the world and to me personally.” He said Ukraine is on an “irreversible path to membership in NATO,” which also counts Turkey as a member.

Turkey occupies a singular position in the Ukrainian conflict, a balancing act in which it maintains good relations with Russia while remaining a NATO member and openly supporting Ukraine. Turkish companies have provided Ukraine’s defenders with some of their most effective drone weapons against the Russian invaders.

Erdogan has pitched himself as a potential mediator for cease-fire negotiations and it seems likely he would be more acceptable to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky than the other major aspirant for that role, China.

On Thursday, Zelensky trashed China’s much-touted “six-point plan,” rolled out after a May meeting between Chinese and Brazilian officials.

“You either support the war, or you don’t support the war. If you don’t support it, then help us stop Russia,” Zelensky truculently informed the Chinese.

Two Dead in Odesa as Ukraine and Russia Exchange Missile and Drone Strikes

Two people died in a missile attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, local officials said, as Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone and missile attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down 10 of the 14 drones and one of the three missiles Russia launched overnight.

Oleh Kiper, Odesa’s regional governor, said the two who died in the suburbs of Odesa on Saturday night were a married couple, and that another person was wounded in the attack.

At least 33 people were wounded Sunday afternoon when a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, adding that the guided bomb hit the 10th floor of the building, with the fire spreading across four stories.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it downed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday over western and southwestern regions, with no damage caused by the falling debris. It also said another Ukrainian drone was shot down Sunday morning over the western Ryazan region.

While Ukraine and Russia regularly launch overnight drone raids on each other’s territory, Ukrainian officials generally do not confirm or deny attacks within Russia’s borders.

The latest attacks came after Ukraine made a new call Saturday on the West to allow it to use the long-range missiles they have provided to strike targets deep inside Russia, as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.

So far, the U.S. has allowed Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine.

Kyiv officials argue the weapons are vital to weaken Russia’s ability to strike Ukraine and force it to move its strike capabilities further from the border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to social media on Sunday to again appeal for a shift in the West’s policy on the use of long-range weapons, noting that Russia had launched “around 30 missiles of various types, more than 800 guided aerial bombs, and nearly 300 strike drones against Ukraine” this week.

“Ukraine needs strong support from our partners to defend lives against Russian terror-air defense, long-range capabilities, support for our warriors. Everything that will help force Russia to end this war,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

Netherlands on Asylum Seekers

Geert Wilders-Led Dutch Government Announces Emergency Restrictions on Asylum Seekers

The populist-led government in The Netherlands has announced it will use emergency powers to declare an asylum crisis and will formally request to “opt-out” from European Union migration diktats.

Dutch Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber, a member of populist Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) said this week that the government will enact a “legal asylum crisis” to stem the tide of mass migration into the country, which is one of the most densely populated in the EU and is suffering under a housing crisis.

“People are experiencing nuisance, the entire chain is stuck, there are no more houses… We have to do something about the influx – and very quickly. This can be done by declaring a legal asylum crisis,” Faber said according to De Telegraaf.

Faber, who echoed the promise from Wilders to enact the strictest ever asylum system, said that the measure will not require the government to go through the Dutch House of Representatives of Senate as it has the powers to declare such an emergency under the Aliens Act, much to the consternation of pro-mass migration parties of the previous government.

The government has the power to enact emergency asylum restrictions, including pausing all new decisions on refugee status, for a period of up to two years. The asylum minister also said that The Netherlands will also seek an “opt-out” from EU asylum and migration rules, as was previously afforded to Denmark in the 1990s before Brussels formalised the current system.

The restrictions on asylum will represent the fulfilment of the coalition agreement negotiated by PVV leader Geert Wilders, whose party became the largest in the country in last year’s elections and now serves as the main power broker in The Hague.

Commenting on the move, Wilders wrote on X: “A new wind is blowing in the Netherlands. 2.5 million people voted for the PVV and we make it happen.”

“If things continue like this, by 2050 there will be between 21 and 23 million inhabitants in the Netherlands. Far, far too much, on this very small piece of earth,” added MP Claudia van Zanten of the government coalition partner, pro-farmer BBB party. “Fortunately, this cabinet’s main agreement has a strong migration section.”

While the full scope of the plan has yet to be laid out, Germany’s Welt reports that the government will also seek to vastly reduce chain migration, with recognised refugees only being permitted to bring in their relatives if they have been in the country for at least two years, have their own accommodation and a stable income.

Plans to modify the asylum system also reportedly include scrapping the automatic residency for refugees who have lived in the country for five years. Meanwhile, the government is also seeking to reduce legal immigration by reducing the number of foreign student visas and work visas for migrants.

Hugh Grant Can't Explain What Happened to London

Leftie Actor Hugh Grant Asks ‘Who F**ed London?’

English actor Hugh Grant has questioned who is to blame for the decline of London, a city run by the same left-wing Labour Party he has personally campaigned on behalf of.

Taking to the X social media platform on Sunday, the Love Actually luvvie wrote: “Who exactly fucked London? Dug up, coned, paralysed, miserable. I need someone to hate.”

Responding to Grant, the account for the youth political organisation Turning Point UK quipped: “Your Labour mates.”

Indeed, the Labour Party has controlled the British capital for the past eight years under leftist Mayor Sadiq Khan.

While the Four Weddings and a Funeral star has often aligned himself with the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrat party, Grant has personally campaigned for the left-wing Labour Party as well, including in London.

For example, during the 2019 general election in Britain, while advocating for tactical voting to prevent Boris Johnson’s Tories from gaining a majority to implement Brexit, Grant joined then-Labour Party candidate Faiza Shaheen on the trail in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency of London.

Since coming taking power in 2016, life in the capital has declined in many regards under the Labour Party, most notably on the issue of safety.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 14,626 recorded knife crimes last year, an increase of 2,481 over 2022 and equating to around 40 offences per day.

Since coming into office in 2016, the Labour Party Mayor has presided over a 38 per cent spike in knife crimes.

Italy: Prosecutors Demand 6 Years in Prison for Deputy PM

Witch Hunt: Italian Prosecutors Demand Six Years in Prison for Deputy PM Matteo Salvini over Blocking Open Borders NGO Migrant Taxi Ship

Italian prosecutors have been accused of conducting a political witch hunt as they seek to jail Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini for six years over blocking an NGO migrant taxi ship from disembarking illegals into the country in 2019.

Prosecutor Geri Ferrara has demanded that populist League party leader Matteo Salvini should be imprisoned for six years, charging the current deputy PM and transport minister with kidnapping and refusal of official documents over his blocking of the Spanish ‘Open Arms’ ship from unloading 147 illegals into Italy in 2019 when Salvini served as Interior Minister.

Ferrara argued that the action to protect the nation’s borders was not an inherently political act but rather a failure to carry out administrative duties mandated by European Union and international regulation, broadcaster RAI reports.

“The person at sea needs to be saved, and his classification is irrelevant; migrant, member of a crew, passenger. According to the international law of the SAR convention, even a human trafficker or a terrorist must be saved and then, if necessary, justice takes its course,” the prosecutor said on Saturday in Palermo.

“It was argued that Open Arms should return the migrants to the Libyan Coast Guard… The rescue operation does not end with the mere intervention in a dangerous situation, but with the disembarkation phase: the states have the obligation to intervene and respect European regulations in terms of immigration,” Ferrara added.

In rebuttal, Giulia Bongiorno, defence attorney for the Deputy PM, asserted that the the trial is inherently political, and that it was “contradictory” to only prosecute Salvini for a policy adopted by the entire government, arguing that “there is no Salvini conduct in the dock, but a political line in the dock.”

The prosecution of Salvini has drawn condemnation from both home and abroad, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose government is in coalition with the populist politician’s League party, saying: “It is incredible that a Minister of the Italian Republic risks six years in prison for having done his job defending the borders of the nation, as required by the mandate received from the citizens.

“Transforming into a crime the duty to protect the Italian borders from illegal immigration is a very serious precedent. My total solidarity with Minister Salvini.”

Salvini’s populist allies across Europe have also raised their voice in support, including French National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, who said: “The trial and the 6-year sentence requested against him [Salvini] are extremely serious at a time when the migratory submersion is increasing everywhere in Europe. We are in solidarity and more than ever at your side, Matteo.”

Geert Wilders, the main power broker behind the Dutch government, which is preparing for a showdown with the EU over asylum and migration rules, described the trial as a “total disgrace” and said that Salvini “deserves a medal” for “defending his country”.

For his part, Salvini, who was not in attendance at the trial on Saturday, said on social media that his move to block the migrant taxi ship from unloading illegals into the country was merely about fulfilling the promises the government made to the voters of Italy.

“I would do everything again: the defence of the borders from illegal immigrants is not a crime,” he declared.

Central Europe Flooded?

Torrential rains trigger mass evacuations as rivers surge in Central Europe during record flooding

Another night of torrential rains pounding Central Europe forced massive evacuations in the hardest hit areas in the Czech Republic, where floods reached extreme levels on Sunday.

Meteorologists have warned the situation still might get worse as waters in most rivers are rising, the flood wave made its way through the country and more heavy rains could return overnight.

Authorities declared the highest flood warnings in almost 90 places across the country and in two northeastern regions that recorded the biggest rainfall in recent days, including the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.

In the city of Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of around 56,000 have been asked to leave their homes for higher ground. Rescuers used boats to transport people to safety in a neighborhood flooded by the raging Opava River.

“There’s no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told Czech public radio. He said that the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century.”

“We have to focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Czech public television on Sunday. His government was to possibly meet Monday to assess the damages.

The worst “is not behind us yet,” the prime minister warned.

At least 4 missing and villages cut off

Thousands of others also were evacuated in the towns of Krnov, which was almost completely flooded, and Cesky Tesin. The Oder River that flows to Poland was reaching extreme levels in the city of Ostrava and in Bohumin, prompting mass evacuations.

Ostrava, the regional capital is the third-largest Czech city. Its mayor, Jan Dohnal, said the city is facing major traffic disruptions in the days to come. Almost no trains were operating in the region.

Towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains, including the local center of Jesenik, were inundated and isolated by raging waters that turned roads into rivers. The military sent a helicopter to help with evacuations.

Jesenik mayor Zdenka Blistanova told Czech public television that several houses in her and other nearby towns have been destroyed by the floods. A number of bridges and roads have been also badly damaged.

Four people who were swept away by waters were missing, police said.

About 260,000 households were without power Sunday morning in the entire country, while traffic was halted on many roads, including the major D1 highway.

A firefighter dies as Lower Austria declared a disaster zone

Germany: Plan to Kill Soldiers Foiled

Terror Plot Foiled: Syrian Migrant Allegedly Plotted to Kill German Soldiers on Their Lunch Breaks

German terror police are investigating after an alleged Islamic extremist was arrested, said to be plotting to kill soldiers with a machete while they were off-base buying lunch.

A 27-year-old Syrian man was arrested on Thursday after buying two 16-inch machetes — heavy curved knives adapted for clearing undergrowth and now well known on the European criminal scene — which the security services claim he intended to use to launch a terrorist attack.

The man, who was in Germany on a humanitarian visa but who had no previous criminal record or outstanding deportation orders, is alleged to have been plotting to launch an attack against groups of soldiers who travel into Hof, Upper Franconia, Bavaria to buy lunch from their barracks.

The Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism at the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office are leading the investigation, and prosecutors say, per Germany’s Die Welt, that the man intended to kill as many lunching soldiers as possible.

The purpose of this was to propagate the alleged cause of Islamic extremism and to unsettle the German people, they claimed.

Austria Against Islamic Extremists

Austria Security Services Raids 72 Islamic Extremists

Austrian security forces carried out raids against 72 alleged Islamic extremists this week ahead of the 23th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, citing the potential for copycat violence on the date of the plane hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The raids occurred across the European country on Tuesday, before Wednesday’s anniversary, because the 2001 tragedy remains symbolic for extremists and has inspired copycat attempts, the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence said Thursday in a statement.

Authorities thwarted an attempted attack last year on anniversary at the Vienna central station, and the risk remains high on the date around the world, it said.

Tuesday’s raids came a month after authorities foiled a plot to attack planned Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna which were then canceled. Austrian officials said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the Islamic State group and sought to kill tens of thousands of fans.

The 19-year-old had allegedly uploaded to the internet an oath of allegiance to the current leader of the Islamic State group. Authorities said they also found Islamic State group and al-Qaida material at the home of a second suspect, who is 17.

The actions on Tuesday included raids on several prisons in Austria, as well as interrogations of suspects and seizures of digital devices such as cellphones to look for evidence of radical Islamic propaganda.

Franz Ruf, Austria’s director general for public security, appeared to reference the Taylor Swift plot in the statement, saying the last few weeks have shown the importance of cooperation between security agencies to counter extremism.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner also called for stronger powers for investigators to be able to root out such plots. Currently, Austrian officials often rely on other countries – such as for the Swift concerts, where the CIA discovered the information – because unlike some foreign intelligence services, Austria can´t legally monitor text messages.

Switzerland: Politician Resigns After Scandal

Switzerland: Migrant Politician Resigns After Using Mary and Jesus For Shooting Practice

A left-green politician uploaded a video of herself using a print of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus for handgun target practice to Instagram, later claiming she had no idea that the image had religious significance.

32 year old Sanija Ameti, until this week a Green Liberal Party (GLP) city councillor of Zurich in Switzerland is being ejected from her political party and has even lost her job at a public relations consulting firm after courting outrage. The left-wing activist, whose recent publicity stunts have including distributing condoms to fight “xenophobia” had published footage of herself on Instagram using a print of a 14th century painting of Mary and Jesus for pistol shooting target practice.

It is claimed the politician, who migrated to Switzerland as a child with her family, has received threats after the act and is now in receipt of police protection. Even so, many quarters of Swiss society have called for forgiveness, including Swiss Catholics and conservatives.

The Swiss Catholic Women’s Association, which describes migrant politician and activist Ameti as a “media-savvy lawyer, who is known for her provocative demeanour… Ameti’s Muslim family fled from Bosnia to Switzerland in 1995 with Sanija, who was three years old at the time and who now describes herself as an agnostic” reminded its members that “As Christians, we are called upon to forgive”. The body blamed tabloid media for any terse words about the Ameti shooting.

Swiss conservative magazine Die Weltwoche was also pretty gentle in its response, saying while Ameti’s act was “unnecessary and tasteless” and that it “hurt the feelings of religious people”, nevertheless “there is no right not to be insulted” in an open and free society. There has to be room to be disrespectful and stupid, the paper notes, and “Anyone who is against cancel culture stands by Ameti – even and especially if you do not share her views and actions”.

In all, the paper says, her disrespect is far less dangerous to Switzerland than her political views on dragging the long-neutral country into the embrace of the European Union.

The gentle reaction of such sections of Swiss Christian society may reflect on the nation well, especially in the light of other communities in Europe taking rather less understanding paths of reaction to perceived slights against their own prophets, gods, and idols.

For Ameti’s own part, she has issued an apology and written to Swiss Bishops to ask for forgiveness even if, somewhat incredibly, she clings to the line that she didn’t realise the religious significance of the Mary and Jesus print before she started shooting at it, saying: “I deleted it immediately when I realized its religious content. I didn’t think about it”. She has resigned from her position as leader of the Liberal Green Party faction in Zurich.