News of the World
Second Assassination Attempt's Special Edition
Trump's Wannabe-Assassin
Quote:Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old alleged attempted assassin who tried to kill former President Donald Trump on Sunday, is avowedly pro-Ukraine — but appears, from his social media history, to also be anti-Israel.
In one post, preserved by the Israeli media service Abu Ali Express, Routh showed a Biblical map of “Palestine” (the name did not exist in Biblical times) and asked: “I am unclear what part of Isreal [sic] the Jews owned based on this historic map; Judea perhaps? It seems to historically be all palestinian [sic].”
The term “Palestine” was not used until the second century A.D., when the Romans reacted to a rebellion by Jewish residents of the area then-known as Judea by renaming the territory “Palestine,” to sever the Jewish connection to the land. The name was apparently derived from the Biblical people known as the Philistines, a foreign enemy group from the Mediterranean who settled near present-day Gaza but have no connection to the people who refer to themselves today as Palestinians.
Routh was so passionate about the Ukrainian cause that he traveled to Ukraine in an effort to join the war, and the to recruit soldiers, as Breitbart News reported Monday.
The combination of being avowedly pro-Ukraine, but skeptical of Israel, is a fair approximation of the current foreign policy consensus within the Democratic Party, as well as the media. The ABC News moderators at last Tuesday’s debate asked the two presidential candidates about pursuing victory in Ukraine, but a ceasefire in Gaza — despite the fact that Ukraine is fighting a nuclear-armed power, and that Israel is near victory against Hamas terrorists.
Quote:The FBI, Interpol, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were warned about former President Donald Trump’s second alleged assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, months before Sunday, when the Secret Service spotted Routh with a rifle about 400 yards away from the former president.
The lack of preventive measures against Routh caused some political pundits to speculate that the federal government engaged in willful negligence while protecting the president.
Chelsea Walsh, a nurse who had several encounters with Routh in Kyiv, Ukraine, alerted authorities to Routh’s threats of violence multiple times, she told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. In June 2022, she conveyed her concerns to a Customs and Border Protection officer in an hour-long interview at Washington’s Dulles airport, noting that “Routh was among the most dangerous Americans she met during her month-and-a-half-long stint in Ukraine.”
Again, in 2023, Walsh alerted the FBI and Interpol about Routh, but she did not hear back from the FBI, the Journal reported:
When she heard in 2023 that Routh was attempting to recruit Syrian refugees to fight in Ukraine, she filed an online report with the FBI and Interpol outlining her concerns about Routh and others, she said. Neither Customs nor the FBI followed up with her, she said. The FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Routh’s behavior had been flagged to the FBI in the past, though not in connection to Ukraine. A tipster told the FBI in 2019 that Routh had a firearm despite being a felon, but when questioned further wouldn’t verify providing the information, an FBI official said Monday. The bureau passed the information onto authorities in Honolulu, where Routh was living at the time, and closed the investigation.
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After being alerted to these messages in early June, other aid groups banned him from their Signal groups, and reported his activities to the State Department, noting their concerns that he might be engaging in human trafficking or immigration fraud, according to Adams. “Beware of American Ryan Routh,” Adams warned Ukraine aid groups in a June 2, 2023, message.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® launched his own investigation into the attempted assassination on Tuesday, following the FBI and Customs and Border Protection’s failure to take action against Routh.
Quote:Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old man who is suspected of an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, had connections in Iran that are leading some security experts to question if there was Iranian involvement.
A New York Times reporter who had interviewed Routh last year wrote on Sunday that Routh was working to recruit former Afghan special operations soldiers who had fled to Iran to go fight in Ukraine.
The reporter, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, wrote that when he was writing an article on volunteer fighters in Ukraine last year, his former Afghan colleague and friend Najim Rahim had put him in touch with Routh, who he had learned about from a source of his in Iran, a former Afghan special operations soldier.
A number of U.S.-trained Afghan special operations forces had fled to Iran after the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Since those forces were trained by U.S. special operations forces, the Afghan commandos’ escape into Iran potentially delivered “closely guarded secrets on U.S. special operators” to Iran, according to Foreign Policy.
Neff suggested that Afghan commandos were interested in fighting in Ukraine because “anything, even war, was better than the conditions in Iran for Afghans after the Taliban retook Kabul in August of 2021.”
However, other outlets reported that Iran and Russia were actually recruiting those Afghan commandos to go fight for them in Yemen and Ukraine.
According a November 7, 2022, Voice of America report, the former Afghan army chief, General Haibatullah Alizai, said, “When former Afghan military members go to immigration bureaus in Iran to extend their visas, they are told to go to Yemen to fight in support of the Houthis.”
Mohammad Farid Ahmadi, the former commander of Afghanistan’s elite National Army Commando Corps, also told VOA that former Afghan special forces now are engaged in “six critical areas” of the world: Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, Yemen, Iran, Syria and Russia, but “in small groups.”
And according to the report, Russia was offering them $1,500-a-month payments and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families.
Routh’s efforts to recruit former Afghan special operations forces in Iran to go fight in Ukraine would have likely — at the least — put him on the radar of the Iranian and Russian governments, and possibly have exposed him to Iranian and Russian exploitation or manipulation, and even cooperation.
While Routh expressed hostility towards Russia, he had a record of sympathizing with Iran.
In 2023, he self-published an e-book that apologized to Iran for personally having voted for Trump, who he said “ended up being brainless” for dismantling the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal.
“I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake,” he wrote, according to Time. “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment.”
Quote:Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old man who allegedly attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump on Sunday, told the New York Times in 2023 about his efforts to help Ukraine fight against Russia’s invasion.
On Sunday, after Routh’s identity was confirmed as the suspected assassin, the New York Times published an interview from 2023 profiling his Ukraine activism. Following Russia’s invasion in 2022, Routh wrote on social media, “I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE.”
The New York Times revealed that Routh’s activism on Ukraine ran deep to the point that he met with the Helsinki Commission in Washington, DC, a bipartisan commission that includes high-profile names like Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Thom Tillis (R-NC). Per the report:
In a telephone interview with The New York Times in 2023, when Mr. Routh was in Washington, he spoke with a self-assuredness of a seasoned diplomat who thought his plans to support Ukraine’s war effort were sure to succeed. But he appeared to have little patience for anyone who got in his way. When an American foreign fighter seemed to talk down to him in a Facebook message he shared with The New York Times, Mr. Routh said, “he needs to be shot.”
In the interview, Mr. Routh said he was in Washington to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission “for two hours” to help push for more support for Ukraine. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine.
Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, said on Sunday that there should be a full investigation on Routh’s access in Washington.
“There needs to be a full investigation of all the Washington officials and reporters the second would-be Trump assassin has interacted with over the last four years, including Malcom Nance, the entire Vindman clan, and everyone associated with the Helsinki Commission,” said Davis.
During his interview with the Times, Routh talked about some of the more extreme measures he entertained on transporting soldiers to Ukraine, even illegally from Pakistan and Iran. As part of his profile bio on the messaging app Signal, Routh wrote, “Civilians must change this war and prevent future wars.” His WhatsApp bio read, “Each one of us must do our part daily in the smallest steps help support human rights, freedom and democracy; we each must help the chinese.”
Quote:On Monday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” NPR Political Correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben said that “we have weeks until Election Day, and violence can have terrifying knock-on effects.” And cited as an example, “after the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, the crowd briefly turned on the press and yelled that the shooting was journalists’ fault. It was very tense and very frightening for a short while there.”
Co-host Steve Inskeep asked, [relevant exchange begins around 2:00] “Well, now, police have a suspect in custody, as we heard from Greg Allen. He has his own political views, apparently, as expressed over the years on social media. I should note, these kinds of attacks are most commonly traced to individuals who act out of their own, often very strange or inexplicable motives, but what, if anything, does this incident say about American politics generally?”
Kurtzleben responded, “Well, unsurprisingly, I’m going to say it doesn’t say anything good. But, to expound, there was a clip you played earlier where the Secret Service spokesman yesterday said, we live in dangerous times. And, yeah, that’s the blatant truth. Consider that another major storyline right now is that Trump and his running mate’s hateful rhetoric towards immigrants in Springfield, Ohio was followed by bomb threats in schools there. And we’ve seen this kind of disturbing incident growing for years, especially since Trump came to power or even got into politics. There was January 6. There was the attack on Paul Pelosi, former Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband. There have been threats to election workers.”
She concluded, “I just keep thinking about, after the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, the crowd briefly turned on the press and yelled that the shooting was journalists’ fault. It was very tense and very frightening for a short while there. My point is that we have weeks until Election Day, and violence can have terrifying knock-on effects.”
Quote:Figures including a senior UK government spokesman, Trump ally Nigel Farage, and former British Prime Minister Liz Truss have expressed thanks President Trump is uninjured after another apparent attempt on his life.
Former president and current Republican Party candidate for the presidency Donald Trump survived another alleged attempt on his life while golfing at his course in West Palm Beach on Sunday, with the FBI saying that it is investigating the incident as an “attempted assassination“.
It comes just over eight weeks after Mr Trump narrowly survived another attempt on his life during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when he was shot in his upper right ear.
Responding to the incident on Sunday, former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss said: “Thank God Donald Trump is safe. But what is happening in the US?”
“These attempts to subvert democracy must be stopped,” the former British leader urged.
The UK Home Secretary — the government post rolling together the nation’s interior minister and homeland security — Yvette Cooper also responded on Monday morning to this latest act of violence against President Trump, saying on television that it is “appalling to see political violence taking place”, and asserting that political violence has no place in a democracy.
Cooper, who could not by any means be said to be sympathetic towards former President Trump politically, continued to remark: “We’re all glad that the former president is safe, and that this attempt, whatever it was that happened, was not successful.”
Perhaps Trump’s strongest supporter and ally in the United Kingdom, if not all of Europe, is Brexit boss and now Member of Parliament and leader of the Reform UK party Nigel Farage. Mr Farage himself has suffered several physical attacks for his political career. He reflected on “another attempt on Trump’s life”, calling the shooting “truly appalling”.
Since leaving office, Liz Truss has become one of Mr Trump’s most outspoken supporters in Europe, arguing earlier this year that the very fate of the Western world depends on the former American president returning to power in November.
“I believe for the West to be saved, it is vitally important to get Republicans back in the White House,” Truss said at the Future of Europe Forum in Warsaw in March.
Similarly to Trump in the United States, Truss has accused the political establishment in the United Kingdom of subverting the democratic will of the British people, claiming that the Westminster civil service deep state bureaucracy and the City of London sought to undermine her government’s agenda.
Truss has also asserted that her removal from office in a Downing Street Tory Party palace coup in October of 2022 resulted from pressure exerted by political and financial elites, including by the Bank of England after she attempted to roll back high taxes and spending.
After just 50 days in power — the shortest tenure of any British PM — she stepped down. Truss was replaced by former Goldman Sachs banker Rishi Sunak, despite Conservative Party voters expressly rejecting him in the preceding leadership contest.
Quote:Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday responded to the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump by suggesting it was a natural consequence of the United States supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
When asked what the Kremlin thought about the incident, Peskov snapped, “It is not us who should be thinking, it is the U.S. intelligence services who should be thinking.”
“In any case, playing with fire has its consequences,” he added.
Peskov was alluding to evidence that Ryan Wesley Routh, widely identified as the suspect in the second assassination attempt against Trump, is an energetic supporter of Ukraine and may have plotted to kill Trump because he believes U.S. support for Ukraine would diminish under a second Trump administration.
Routh, 58, gave an interview about his Ukraine activism to the New York Times (NYT) last year. In the interview, Routh said he was in Washington to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a.k.a. The Helsinki Commission, to press the U.S. Congress for more financing for Ukraine’s war effort.
Routh appears to have written social media posts in which he volunteered to fight for Ukraine and he has threatened violent reprisals against those who disagree with him.
“I am coming to Ukraine from Hawaii to fight for your kids and families and democracy … I will come and die for you,” he allegedly said in one social media post. Later in 2022, he allegedly said he presented himself to the Ukrainian military as a volunteer but was turned down due to his age and lack of military experience.
“A lot of the other conflicts are gray but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil,” he said in a June 2022 interview with Newsweek Romania, when he was ostensibly in Kyiv trying to round up other foreign volunteers for the Ukrainian military.
The Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Unit International Legion, which is composed of foreign volunteers, issued a statement on Monday insisting that Routh has “no relation to the unit” and rumors to the contrary “disseminated in certain media are not true.”
Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, which has long been identified as having Nazi sympathies, also disavowed any links to Routh in response to a social media video that claimed the presumed would-be shooter participated in a 2022 public event to support the brigade.
“We believe that the spread of the narrative about the possible connection between Azov and Ryan Wesley Routh is playing along with Russian propaganda,” the Azov Brigade said.
Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation on Monday also said the attempt on Trump’s life has become a “topic for Russian propaganda.”
Dmitri Peskov said on Monday that Russia is “monitoring” the situation in the United States.
“We see how tense the situation is there, including between political competitors. The political struggle is escalating, and a variety of methods are being used,” he said.
USA
Trump Would End Ukraine War as President-Elect
Quote:Former President Donald Trump said that he wanted to end the was between Russia and Ukraine as President-elect — even before he takes office — though he did not say how he intended to do so, given laws barring private diplomacy.
Trump made the comment during an interview on X (formerly Twitter) “Spaces” with cryptocurrency enthusiast Farokh Sarmad — the first interview the former president has granted since escaping a second assassination attempt the day before at his Florida golf club.
Democrats smeared Trump as a Russian puppet, yet Russian President Vladimir Putin did not invade any countries while Trump was president. Upon taking office, President Joe Biden adopted a posture of appeasement, canceling Trump’s sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and holding a summit with Putin in Geneva before ever meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia invaded Ukraine, which held out — against the expectations of the Biden administration — but then Biden, who came to office declaring “diplomacy is back,” pushed for victory, which has been elusive after nearly three years of war. Biden has yet to call any kind of joint peace conference.
Trump’s comments appear at 27:18 below:
I want to get Russia to settle up with Ukraine and stop this — millions of people being killed, far greater than the number you read about. But I want to get that done before I even take office, I want to get that done as president-elect, because it has to be solved — too many people dying, too many cities are just in rubble right now, you look at the cultures just being destroyed. We’ve got to get that done, and I’ll get it done. There wouldn’t have been an October 7th, there wouldn’t have been Russia attacking Ukraine, there wouldn’t be inflation, all this inflation which has hurt people so badly. You wouldn’t have had that horrible type of withdrawal — we were getting out of Afghanistan, but with dignity and strength — that was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. And frankly Russia would have never gone into Ukraine if it weren’t for that. They looked at that and they said, “This country is no longer run by Trump. This country is run by stupid people.”
Trump did not explain how he would forge peace as a private citizen. The Logan Act prevents private citizens from conducting formal diplomacy on behalf of the U.S.; it was used by the Department of Justice as a pretext to eavesdrop on then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn during the presidential transition of 2016-2017.
Black Voters Against Chicago Mayor
Quote:Self-professed “progressive” Chicago Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson got an earful over his failed migrant policies from an elderly black resident at a recent town hall.
The woman, who said she was 80 years old and grew up in the Jim Crow South, said that Johnson’s pro-migrant policies are literally destroying the Windy City’s black communities.
“All I can say to you is that you are a disgrace,” the distraught woman said at the outset of her comments.
“I’m an 80-year-old woman, and I’ve never seen anything like this. I grew up in the Jim Crow South, and the policies that you’re passing in this city remind me of the Jim Crow South,” she continued.
“I had to drink out of a colored water fountain, or the whites would drink out of a white water fountain,” she explained. “But you know what I didn’t have to worry about? Going back to my community and it would be destroyed. And everybody else is in my community, but black people. And this is what you’ve done with this immigration.”
The woman then spoke about how Johnson’s wave after wave of migrants has torn Chicago’s black communities to shreds.
“You have allowed all these people. You’ve brought all these people into this city. You are destroying this city. And the black community is flooded with all these immigrants, violent ones, prostitution, gangs. You did that! You are doing this to your people. You are an absolute disgrace to me,” she said angrily.
“Like I said, I drank out of that colored water fountain, but I could go back to that black community that was intact,” she said, before contrasting that with what is happening today: “Women are crying, taxes are going up. What am I going to do with my children? Where are we going to go and live? This is because of you, Brandon Johnson! You’re destroying the black Southside of Chicago with your policies. All under the Democratic Party,” she said.
“You are a disgrace,” the resident concluded.
This is far from the first time that Mayor Johnson and his allies in Chicago have faced severe criticism from local black residents.
Texas Declares Tren de Aragua as Terrorists
Quote:Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang as a foreign terrorist organization on Monday. The move gives Texas law enforcement officials additional tools and resources to attack the gang and “disrupt their criminal operations and deny their foothold in the state,” the governor stated.
During a press conference on Monday, Governor Abbott said he was “designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization. Our goal is to defend Texas from the growing threat of the gang.”
“The recent entry and expansion of the vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is a dangerous and deadly problem facing our state and nation,” Abbott explained. “Our top focus is the safety and security of all Texans.”
The governor also designated the TdA gang as a Tier 1 gang and ordered the creation of a TdA Strike Team to identify and arrest TdA gang members.
The move by Governor Abbott follows news of violent activity by alleged TdA gang members that forced a Texas district court judge to order the closing of a hotel in El Paso, Breitbart Texas reported. City officials complained in a lawsuit against the owners of the Gateway Hotel after responding to nearly 700 calls for service to the address
Texas Department of Public Safety Director, Colonel Steve McCraw, likened the spread of TdA gang violence to an infestation of cockroaches.
“They multiply quickly; small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued,” Colonel McCraw told reporters at the press conference. “These Venezuelan thugs are highly combative, violent, and certainly adaptable.”
McCraw explained that gang members are involved in human smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, rape, assault, and sex trafficking.
“Governor Abbott has made it very clear: We will not allow any of these gangsters to gain a foothold in Texas,” McCraw stated.
Texas Border Czar Mike Banks placed the blame for the influx of Venezuelan gang members directly at the feet of the Biden-Harris open border policies.
“I want to be very clear: the Tren de Aragua problem in Texas and the rest of the United States is a direct result of open border policies,” Banks stated. “So there is no surprise that we have a criminal illegal gang problem in the United States, and thankfully, we’re addressing that.”
Family Wants Commanders to Use Redskins's Old Logo
Quote:The family of the Blackfeet chief who served as the face of the Washington Redskins for 48 years want his image back on the fields of the NFL, relatives told Fox News Digital.
The descendants of John Two Guns White Calf also want his incredible life story retold, too, to a new generation of Americans who seek unity and value multiculturalism.
The White Calf family has support in Washington, D.C. from one of their Montana senators, while the NFL franchise itself, now known as the Washington Commanders, is making new efforts to honor the team's heritage.
"The fans want him back and we want him back," Thomas White Calf, a great nephew of the celebrated early-20th-century native, said this week by phone, hours after the family met with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana.
Two Guns White Calf’s proud portrait adorned Redskins helmets, T-shirts, playing fields and marketing materials from 1972 until 2020.
"Our ancestor was the most famous and most photographed native in history," said White Calf, who was joined on the call by his mother, Delphine White Calf, a niece of the late Blackfeet chief.
"Two Guns was also the face on the Indian head nickel. I’m proud of him. The Blackfeet are proud of him."
EUROPE
Russia The Warmonger
Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the Russian Army to add 180,000 more troops, which would bring its total to 1.5 million active-duty soldiers — the second largest army in the world after China.
The order, which goes into effect on December 1, is the third major increase to the size of Russia’s military Putin has ordered since he invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He added 137,000 active-duty soldiers in August 2022 and 170,000 in December 2023.
With reserves and other personnel included, the Russian military will have 2.38 million members after Putin’s order goes into effect, increasing from 2.2 million.
“This is due to the number of threats that exist to our country along the perimeter of our borders. It is caused by the extremely hostile environment on our western borders and instability on our eastern borders. This demands appropriate measures to be taken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Putin’s decree for more troops was a response to NATO putting more troops and advanced weapons along Russia’s border.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said last Friday that NATO is “making plans of sending their troops to Ukraine.”
“This is a dangerous game, which may lead to a direct military confrontation of nuclear powers,” Fomin said.
On the same day, Putin warned that if Western powers lift their restrictions on Ukraine using their long-range missiles to strike targets deep in Russian territory, it would mean “NATO countries,” including the United States, “are at war with Russia.”
Putin said the Ukrainian military “is not capable of using cutting-edge high-precision long-range systems supplied by the West” to hit targets in Russia without direct Western assistance.
The chairman of the defense committee in Russia’s Duma, Andrei Kartapolov, said on Monday that Russia needs to expand its military to deal with the growing security threat posed by NATO after Finland joined the alliance in April.
Foreign military analysts believe that a severe Russian manpower shortage is one reason the Ukrainians were able to counter-attack and seize territory in the Kursk region last month. Russia has about 700,000 troops involved in the Ukraine invasion, and has been reluctant to call up more reserves to bolster its forces, fearing civil unrest.
French Far-Left on the Move
Quote:The campaign to impeach and remove President Emmanuel Macron over his refusal to install the preferred pick of the far-left for prime minister after July’s snap legislative elections is officially underway after the move cleared its first legal hurdle in the French parliament.
On Tuesday morning, the office of the National Assembly voted by a margin of 12 to 10 to deem impeachment proceedings against President Macron “admissible” for debate in the wider parliament at the Palais Bourbon, marking the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic a measure to remove a president has passed such a threshold, Le Figaro reports.
The vote was passed purely on partisan lines, with the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party of former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon having enough seats in the committee to override neo-liberal lawmakers loyal to Macron and the populist National Rally of Marine Le Pen by two votes.
“The Macronists had to refamiliarize themselves with democracy,” said LFI president Mathilde Panot following the vote, adding joyously: “It is an unprecedented event in the history of the Fifth Republic which has just occurred.”
The move, which was first threatened by Mélonchon and Panot last month, came in response to President Macron’s refusal to select a member of the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition of various leftist parties, including the LFI, which was hastily cobbled together ahead of July’s elections.
Macron’s decision to install Brexit villain Michel Barnier of the centre-right Les Republicains sparked accusations against the Élysée Palace of conducting a “coup against democracy” given that the NFP won the most seats in the National Assembly after joining forces with Macron in a strategic voting alliance to prevent the ascendant National Rally from taking power.
However, despite attempts from the far-left to claim the mantle of a democratic mandate, the NFP fell well short of the seats needed to hold a majority in the National Assembly and secured millions fewer votes than Le Pen’s National Rally, which now sits as the largest single party in the parliament.
Further undermining the NFP’s attempt to brand itself as the defender of French democracy, the leftist group had nominated Lucie Castets, a socialist deep-stater civil servant for prime minister, despite her never being elected by the French people.
While the impeachment proceedings clearing the first hurdle does mark a historic event, it is doubtful that the far-left will be successful in their aims of ousting the president. In a few weeks, the measure will be put before the Law Committee of the National Assembly and then likely before the entire parliament.
First, La France Insoumise will need to submit a resolution to convene a “High Court” in the Senate and National Assembly. This measure would only require one-tenth of the 577 parliamentarians, meaning that the LFI could pass it alone on a party-line basis. However, for the resolution to be approved, a vote of two-thirds in both houses would be required. A further two-thirds vote would then be needed to impeach the president.
Given that the Socialist Party (PS) — a member of the New Popular Front — has refused to back the move, the NFP would at most only be able to muster 151 votes, far fewer than the 384 needed for impeachment. The far-left has also failed in recruiting the populist National Rally to their cause, meaning that the measure was likely doomed from the start due to the current breakdown of seats in the parliament.
Commenting on the start of impeachment proceedings, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said on Tuesday: “In an attempt to make people forget its multiple compromises with Macron, the far-left is defending a procedure for impeaching the President of the Republic that has no chance of succeeding given the divisions on the left.
PM Starmer Interested in PM Meloni's Plan
Quote:During his first trip to Italy since taking office British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the UK will seek to replicate Giorgia Meloni’s success in stemming the tide of illegal boat migrants, sparking a wave of criticism from leftist Labour Party lawmakers back in London.
In the wake of eight more migrants drowning to death attempting to illegally cross the English Channel from France, Prime Minister Starmer met with his counterpart in Rome to “study” the methods used by the conservative Meloni government, which have seen over a 60 per cent decrease in illegal migration to Italy over last year, broadcaster RAI reports.
“Italy has shown that we can. You’ve made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes as equals to address the drivers of migration, of source and to tackle the gangs,” Sir Keir said.
Meloni’s government has adopted a “360 strategy” to tackle illegal immigration, including brokering EU-level and bilateral deals with migrant hot spot countries such as Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt as well as cracking down on NGO migrant taxis, increasing restrictions on asylum seekers being allowed to work, and levying heavier penalties against people smugglers and migrant boat captains.
While the scheme has yet to come into action, Meloni also inked a deal with Albania to house asylum seekers while they await their claims to be processed rather than allowing them to remain in Italy during the interim. Although Prime Minister Starmer scrapped a similar agreement with Rwanda on his first day in office, the Labour Party leader is “very interested” in the Albania scheme, according to Meloni.
She said: “The model that the Italian government has imagined, of centres to process asylum requests under Italian and European jurisdiction in a foreign country, has not been tested. If it works, and I believe it will work, everyone understands that it will be a keystone for the element of deterrence.”
The meeting of the two leaders comes as over 1,000 illegals crossed the English Channel in small people smuggler-operated boats launched from the beaches of France over the weekend. French authorities reported Sunday that eight migrants lost their lives in the busy waterway attempting to reach Britain.
The latest crossings take the total of illegal arrivals by boat into the country to around 10,000 since Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party came into power in July and nearly 24,000 since the start of the year.
In addition to scrapping the Rwanda scheme, leaving hundreds of millions of British taxpayer investments behind, the new left-wing PM has also refused to enact a ‘push-back the boats’ approach as has been advocated by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and was successfully implemented in Australia under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who’s Operation Sovereign Borders all but eliminated illegal boat migration to the former British Dominion.
Central Europe Flooded
Quote:Exceptionally heavy rainfall pounding Central Europe has prompted deadly flooding in the region, with four new deaths reported Monday in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Romania.
The flooding has swamped parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania as a low-pressure system crossing the region has unleashed record-high rains for days, and it was expected to affect Slovakia and Hungary later in the week. So far 16 people have been reported killed – seven people in Romania, five in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Austria.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting and later declared a disaster in flooded areas, a government measure to facilitate evacuation and rescues. He also said the government would provide 1 billion zlotys ($260 million) in immediate payouts to victims.
The flooding in Poland has burst dams and embankments while receding waters left streets covered in piles of debris and mud. It prompted a hospital in the southwestern Polish city of Nysa to evacuate about 40 patients.
Schools and offices in the affected areas were closed Monday and drinking water and food were being delivered by trucks. Many Polish cities, including Warsaw, have called for food donations for flood survivors.
Experts warned of flood threats due to the cresting Oder River in Opole, a city of some 130,000 residents, and Wroclaw, home to about 640,000 residents and where disastrous flooding happened in 1997.
Firefighters in southwestern Poland said flood victims included a surgeon whose body was found Monday morning in Nysa after he returned from hospital duty. The bodies of two women and two other men have been found in other communities in the region.
Police in the Czech Republic said that a woman and two men drowned in the northeast, which has been pounded by record rainfall since Thursday. The woman was found in the water in the town of Krasov and the men were found dead at different locations after water receded in the town of Krnov which was almost completely submerged on Sunday
Romanian authorities said Monday that another person died in the eastern county of Galati, bringing the total number of deaths there to seven.
One death previously was reported in Austria.
Authorities in the Czech Republic declared an emergency in two northeastern regions, including in the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.
MIDDLE EAST
Ayatollah States India is an Enemy
Quote:Iranian tyrant Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named India in a statement condemning “enemies of Islam” on Monday, equating the situation of Indian Muslims to that of Palestinian Muslims in Hamas-occupied Gaza.
The statement, published on the social media site Twitter (X), called for Muslims not to be “oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring” in India, as well as Gaza and Myanmar, currently governed by a military junta that has attempted to garner public support by aligning itself with prominent Buddhists.
The Indian government responded to Khamenei by calling his statement “misinformed and unacceptable” and alluding to Iran’s atrocious human rights record, including widespread abuses against Muslims living under the Islamic theocracy.
The spat is notable as Iran and India elevated their diplomatic relations thanks to Tehran joining the BRICS coalition, of which India is a founding member. Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa joined India among the original members of the anti-American coalition; Iran became a member in January alongside the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Saudi Arabia, Iran’s top geopolitical rival, appeared to have accepted the invite to join BRICS but its official membership status is unclear at press time.
BRICS membership opens both economic and diplomatic doors for new members. India and Iran recently cemented a lucrative port development deal and appeared interested in increasing the trade volume between themselves prior to Khamenei attacking India’s Hindu nationalist government. The countries have struggled to find points of mutual agreement, however, given Iran’s support for radical Islamist terrorism throughout the Middle East and India’s longstanding friendly relationship with the United States, which Tehran regularly refers to as the “Great Satan,” and with Israel, which Iran has threatened to destroy.
Khamenei made the remark against India in a post to Twitter in the greater context of encouraging Muslims to oppose Israel’s self-defense operations against the Iran-backed terror group Hamas in Gaza. Iranian officials claim the self-defense operation is a “genocide” against Muslims in the territory.
“The enemies of Islam have always tried to make us indifferent with regard to our shared identity as an Islamic Ummah [community],” Khamenei’s account posted. “We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in #Myanmar, #Gaza, #India, or any other place.”
Explosive Pagers
Quote:Update: The Lebanese government has lowered the estimate of wounded to 2,750 people, denying speculation that as many as 4,000 people had been wounded, according to the Times of Israel. Nine people are confirmed dead.
A Lebanese minister reported Tuesday that eight people had been killed and 2,800 injured in an apparent attack on Hezbollah members and fighters that targeted the pagers that the organization has been using for communications.
The Times of Israel reported:
Lebanon’s health minister says eight were killed and some 2,800 were wounded, including 200 seriously, in the pager blasts in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has said that two members are among the dead. A young girl, the daughter of a Hezbollah member, was also reported killed after a pager exploded in her parents’ home.
Images and videos on social media showed men with wounds to their abdomens and chests, presumably as a result of the exploding pagers, which detonated at roughly the same time on Tuesday.
Reports speculated that Hezbollah may have discarded their other, more sophisticated mobile devices after Israel killed Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, in July. It is not clear how the pagers were hacked, and it has not been confirmed that Israel hacked them, but there was speculation that malware may have caused the devices’ lithium batteries to overheat and to explode.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon was also injured in the attack. The son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament was killed.
According to reports, pagers also exploded in Syria as well, where Hezbollah and Iran conduct military operations.
Iraq Wants US Troops to Move Out
Quote:Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani told Bloomberg News in an interview published Tuesday that he believes there “is no need” for troops from America or other members of the coalition against the Islamic State to remain in the country, suggesting he will soon expel them.
Sudani gave the interview to Bloomberg on Sunday, shortly before Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian departed the country. Pezeshkian, inaugurated into the office on July 30 after the death of predecessor Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, made a tour of Iraq his first international trip as president. Pezeshkian made sure to spend time in Baghdad, where he signed 14 agreements with Sudani, and in the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where he wowed officials by speaking fluent Kurdish.
Tehran has transparently pursued increased political influence over the Iraqi government, bankrolling and advising a variety of Shiite terrorist organizations that have become close to Baghdad. Iran has notoriously supported the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shiite militias that became a formal part of the Iraqi military during the war on the Islamic State, and reportedly recently aided with the establishment of offices for the Yemeni Houthi terrorist movement and the Sunni terrorists of Hamas in the country.
The prime minister did not appear to include Iran in his call to end the international military presence in his country meant to combat the threat of the Islamic State.
“Today, Iraq in 2024 is not the same as Iraq of 2014. We have defeated Daesh [ISIS] with our sacrifices and the Iraqi people’s position from all its components and factions and with the support of the international community and friends,” Sudani said in a video of the interview published by Bloomberg on Tuesday. “And we appreciate that.”
“We found that the justifications have ended. There is no longer a need for a coalition of 86 countries. We moved from a period of wars to a period of stability. Daesh doesn’t pose a threat to the state,” he insisted.
Guys, let's find out why they're so interested in getting rid of US forces for months.
Quote:Iran is bolstering its influence in Iraq by moving in leaders of its proxy terrorist organizations Hamas and the Yemeni Houthi movement, the left-wing New York Times reported on Sunday — days after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian concluded a visit to the neighboring country.
Pezeshkian, elected in a special election following the death of predecessor Ebrahim Raisi in a mysterious helicopter crash in May, made a tour of Iraq his first international visit while in office. Pezeshkian departed the country on Friday after visiting Baghdad, meeting with Kurdish leadership in Erbil, and concluding with a stop in Basra. He emphasized unity and cooperation among Muslim political entities during his conversations there and reportedly signed 14 memoranda of understanding with the Iraqi government in Baghdad.
The Iraqi government has not openly boasted of helping its proxies expand their influence in Baghdad. The New York Times noted that it only confirmed the official presence of Hamas and the Houthis in the Iraqi capital via unnamed officials and that both terrorist organizations are attempting to keep a low profile in the country. The Houthis, as a Shiite terrorist organization, has reportedly received an especially “warm” welcome from the Shiite terrorist coalition known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which became an official arm of the Iraqi armed forces during the war against the Sunni Islamic State “caliphate.”
“Iraqi government officials quietly allowed both Iranian-backed armed groups [Hamas and the Houthis] to establish a more permanent presence in Baghdad early this summer,” the Times reported, claiming that “Iraqi officials deny publicly” this has occurred.
The erosion of American influence in the country under currently President Joe Biden appears to have played a role in the terrorists moving in, as the Times sources indicated Baghdad would rather not have Iran’s proxies grow roots there.
“Some Iraqi government officials, according to two of the people who spoke to The New York Times, say privately they are not thrilled about their new guests, but did not have the power to block them,” the leftist newspaper asserted, “given the sway of the Iraqi political parties with ties to Iran.”
The PMF are reportedly deeply involved in ensuring that Hamas and the Houthis can successfully operate in the country. According to the Times, Kata’ib Hezbollah, one of the most prominent Shiite terrorist groups in the PMF, has helped Hamas with security, while fellow PMF terror squad Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq have helped the Houthis.
While the Iraqi government has formally avoided loudly discussing the invasion of foreign terrorist organizations, radical Islamist lawmakers in Iraq have embraced it; the Times noted the Houthis found in Iraq an “especially warm” welcome.
“The presence of a representative of the Houthis in Iraq is welcomed by all political parties in Iraq,” it quoted one Shiite lawmaker, Saad Al-Saadi, as saying.
Adding to the Times‘ reporting, the news outlet Israel Hayom reported on Sunday that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and formal arm of the Iranian government — presided over an oversight “operations committee” in Iraq in March to help its terrorist proxies coordinate with each other. The committee reportedly brought together several PMF groups and the Houthis.
“Subsequently, in May, the Houthi leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, announced the beginning of coordination of military operations between his militia, Ansar Allah, and pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq,” Israel Hayom added.
Houthis Attacked Israel on Saturday
Quote:The Houthis fired a surface-to-surface missile that reached Israel at 6:32 a.m. on Sunday morning, local time, triggering sirens all over the area near Tel Aviv, but exploding in an open area without causing any damage.
The missile was detected in the midst of the morning news broadcast on Army Radio, taking the announcer by surprise. At first, it was unclear whether the sirens had been caused because of rockets fired from the south (Hamas) or the north (Hezbollah); then a report came that it had actually entered Israeli airspace from the east, sparking speculation that it had been fired by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq; then confirmation came that it had actually been fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, taking a circuitous route to enter Israel from an unexpected direction.
The missile was very large, according to Army Radio, and had been difficult to hit because it entered Israeli airspace at a low altitude. The missile was capable of carrying a payload of hundreds of kilograms’ worth of explosives.
It was unclear whether Israel’s Arrow missile defense system had hit the missile. Army Radio reported that the Iron Dome system, which deals with smaller, shorter-range rockets, deployed to hit shrapnel and missile fragments.
Israel struck the Houthis in July, after a drone fired from Yemen reached Tel Aviv without being intercepted.
Update: Israeli media reported that the Arrow system had intercepted the missile, but that there were concerns that the system had not intercepted the missile outside of Israeli airspace. “IDF sources accepted that the Arrow 3 defense system may have missed the missile outside of Israeli airspace, with the Arrow 2 system shooting it down over Israeli airspace on the second try,” the Jerusalem Post reported. Five Israelis were wounded while running for shelter.
Saudi Arabia on Houthis, Criticizes Biden
Quote:Saudi diplomat and former intelligence chief Turki al-Faisal recently lamented the weak response by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and the greater West to Yemen’s Houthi terrorists disrupting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Guardian reported on Sunday, dismissing “pinprick bombings” as insufficient.
The British Guardian newspaper was relaying comments that al-Faisal made during an appearance at London’s Chatham House to discuss the current turmoil in the Middle East. The Houthi terrorist movement, which relies heavily on support from Saudi Arabia’s longtime geopolitical rival Iran, has dramatically expanded its international profile in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre of hundreds of civilians in Israel.
Following the attack, the Houthis declared war on Israel and proclaimed they would attack all commercial ships transiting through the Red Sea that they deemed to be affiliated with Israel. The result has been dozens of attacks, including some deadly ones and two ship sinkings, on a seemingly random assortment of ships that has included some affiliated with Houthi allies such as China and Iran.
Global shipping companies have loudly complained that the international community should do more to protect global commerce as the Houthi campaign has caused shipping and insurance rates to skyrocket. The main response to that call has been “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” a Pentagon-led global operation allegedly intended to protect civilian ships attempting to transit through the Red Sea. Debuting in December, the operation had few named partners relevant to the Red Sea, and it is unclear if any meaningful defense work has been conducted under its banner, leaving shipping industry leaders feeling largely abandoned to the Houthi threat.
Outside of “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” Biden has greenlit some limited attacks on Houthi military targets — strikes that al-Faisal reportedly dismissed as making little difference in the security situation of the region.
“We have seen the deployment of European and US fleets along the Red Sea coast and more can be done there to interdict the supply of weaponry that comes to the Houthis from Iran,” the Guardian quoted al-Faisal as saying. “Putting pressure on Iran by the world community can have a positive impact on what the Houthis can do in launching these missiles and drones to hit international commerce.”
The Saudi diplomat lamented that “pinprick bombings” by American and British forces have had a minimal effect on the situation in the Red Sea. He also condemned Iran, however, for doing nothing to stop the Houthis from disrupting global trade. The Houthis, known formally as Ansarallah, could find their operations severely limited if resources from Tehran dried up.
Israel's War Goal
Quote:Israel’s security cabinet, which is responsible for setting military policy, decided early Tuesday morning to adopt the return of the residents of northern Israel’s border towns to their homes as an official war goal.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement:
The Security Cabinet has updated the objectives of the war to include the following: Returning the residents of the north securely to their homes.
Israel will continue to act to implement this objective.
The decision does not formally commit Israel to a war against the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah, which occupies southern Lebanon illegally and has been firing rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel since October.
However, it means that Israel is committing to pursue such a war in the event that ongoing diplomatic efforts, led by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, fail to resolve the conflict.
Some 60,500 residents of northern Israel, from a total of 74 towns, have been evacuated since October.
Israelis have been demanding action from their government to resolve the crisis. The Biden administration has tried to link a peace deal in Lebanon with a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The other three war objectives are: destroying Hamas’s military and governing capacities; freeing the hostages; and making sure that Gaza can never threaten Israel again.
Netanyahu Wants to Replace the Defense Minister!?
Quote:Israelis are awaiting a possible change at the top of the defense ministry, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering replacing incumbent Yoav Gallant with former rival Gideon Sa’ar, who is conservative but combative.
Gallant has repeatedly irked Netanyahu by opposing his government from within — and from without. It was Gallant who inflamed the public debate over judicial reform in 2023 by calling on Netanyahu to drop the reforms — while the prime minister was traveling out of the country. It was a gesture of open insubordination, stoking left-wing protests, and led Netanyahu to fire Gallant. Netanyahu later relented, but the tension between the two leaders has never ended.
In the wake of the October 7 terror attack, Netanyahu and Gallant presented a united front. (Both are facing possible charges from the International Criminal Court, which Israel and the U.S. have described as unjust.) But Gallant has spoken out publicly in favor of a hostage deal on terms favorable to Hamas, while also leaking that he supported an early attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon that Netanyahu, fearing opposition from the Biden administration, opposed.
Sa’ar has been a thorn in Netanyahu’s side for years. A former member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, Sa’ar left and refused to join any government led by Netanyahu, contributing to instability that lasted for several election cycles. Ultimately, Sa’ar did join the emergency national unity government that lasted for several months after October 7. Sa’ar left a coalition with the main opposition party of Benny Gantz, which itself later left the unity government.
Reports suggest that Sa’ar would back a more aggressive posture in both Gaza and Lebanon, while putting the brakes on judicial reform domestically. Details have yet to be hammered out — and no agreement exists until the ink is dry.
"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
