News of the World
10-10-2024, 05:08 AM
USA
Well, demanding stuff from local villagers is exactly what mafiosi and gangsters
do, don't they? 
LATIN AMERICA
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST
Election Day: FBI Arrest Afghan Man
Quote:The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S., the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.
Tawhedi, who arrived in the U.S. in September 2021, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan, officials said.
The arrest comes as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over the possibility of extremist violence on U.S. soil, with Director Christopher Wray telling The Associated Press in August that he was “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.”
“Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,” Wray said in a statement Tuesday.
An FBI affidavit does not reveal precisely how Tawhedi came onto investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months showing his determination in planning an attack. A photograph from July included in the affidavit depicts a man investigators identified as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, “a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.”
Officials say Tawhedi also consumed Islamic State propaganda, contributed to a charity that functions as a front for the militant group and communicated with a person who the FBI determined from a prior investigation was involved in recruitment and indoctrination of people interested in extremism. He also viewed webcams for the White House and the Washington Monument in July.
Tawhedi’s alleged co-conspirator was not identified by the Justice Department, which described him only as a juvenile, a fellow Afghan national and the brother of Tawhedi’s wife.
After the two advertised the sale of personal property on Facebook, the FBI enlisted an informant last month to respond to the offer and strike up a relationship. The informant later invited them to a gun range, where they ordered weapons from an undercover FBI official who was posing as a business partner of the informant, according to court papers.
Tawhedi was arrested Monday after taking possession of two AK-47 rifles and ammunition he had ordered, officials said. The unidentified co-conspirator was also arrested but the Justice Department did not provide details because he is a juvenile.
After he was arrested, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators he had planned an attack for Election Day that would target large gatherings of people.
Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
He appeared in court Tuesday and was ordered detained. An email to an attorney listed as representing him did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
A for-sale sign stood in the yard outside a modest, two-story brick home listed as being connected to Tawhedi’s family in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.
A woman who identified herself as Tawhedi’s wife declined to discuss the case.
“We don’t want to talk in the media,” said the woman, who did not give her name.
Tawhedi entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa in 2021 and has been on parole status pending the conclusion of his immigration proceedings, the Justice Department said. The program permits eligible Afghans who helped Americans, despite great personal risk to themselves and their loved ones, to apply for entry into America with their families.
Eligible Afghans include interpreters for the U.S. military as well as individuals integral to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. While the program has existed since 2009, the number of applicants skyrocketed after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Shawn VanDiver, the president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of organizations dedicated to helping Afghans trying to leave Afghanistan, said that though the charges are serious, “it’s critical that we do not assign blame to an entire community for the actions of one individual. Thousands of Afghans who resettled in the United States are working to build new lives and contribute to our shared future.”
Hurricane Milton
Quote:Hurricane Milton made landfall near the city of Siesta Key in Florida, with winds of up to 120 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In a post on X, the National Hurricane Center revealed that around 8:30 p.m., the “radar data” showed that “the eye” of the hurricane had “made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County.”
“Max sustained winds at landfall are estimated at 120 mph,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.
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Video footage posted to X by Brian Entin, a Senior National Correspondent with News Nation, also showed all of the water in Tampa Bay being “sucked out by Milton.”
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Other videos posted to X showed massive amounts of water from the “storm surge” going into “Venice, Florida,” as the hurricane made landfall.
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As the hurricane made landfall in Florida, it was reported to be a “dangerous Category 3” storm, according to CBS News.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® issued a statement in a post on X that as the hurricane made landfall, it was “time to shelter in place,” adding that “as soon as weather conditions” died down, “search and rescue efforts” would begin.
“As Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Sarasota county, now is the time to shelter in place,” DeSantis wrote. “First responders are staged and ready to go, as soon as weather conditions allow. Search and rescue efforts will be well underway to save lives before dawn, and they will continue for as long as it takes.”
FEMA & Hurricanes
Quote:Democrats and establishment media are blaming FEMA’s poor Hurricane Helene response on Republicans who opposed a lame duck spending bill – despite FEMA’s administrator stating unequivocally the agency has all the money it needs.
The Kamala Harris campaign has led the finger pointing at Republicans who voted against a September funding bill that included appropriations for FEMA – among hundreds of billions for additional projects across the federal government, much of which the Republicans view as wasteful, woke, and contributing to the nation’s poor economy.
That September bill easily passed, and the FEMA administer has made clear that however one might judge its initial response to Helene, funding is not to blame. “I have funding and sufficient resources to support the ongoing responses to Hurricane Helene as well as Hurricane Milton,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters Wednesday.
That hasn’t stopped Harris’s campaign from politicizing the disaster. The campaign account posted on X a list misleadingly titled “Republicans who voted against FEMA funding” which included the Republicans voting against the September CR – insinuating those Republicans did not care about disaster relief.
The Republicans opposed the legislation for a number of reasons, most notably its funding for a grab bag of leftwing giveaways.
The bill included tens of billions of dollars in research grants from science agencies to universities for initiatives for “equity,” DEI, “gender-affirming care,” and fighting “racism” in fields of study like geoscience and engineering.
Funding in the bill also included billions of dollars in grants to nonprofits that enable illegal immigration by providing social services, transportation across the country, and connections to employment. Conservatives also point out the infrastructure programs funded by the bill disproportionately fund urban transit in Democrat strongholds, subsidize “road diets” and bike lanes that create congestion for drivers, and fund road-destroying EV buses.
Conservatives also point to Green New Deal initiatives in the Department of Energy and EPA funded by the massive bill, as well as funding for arts and entertainment – like the ritzy Kennedy Center in Washington, a hotspot for members of Congress.
It isn’t just domestic spending. Conservatives also opposed the robust foreign aid in the bill, much of which goes towards promoting leftwing nonprofits that spread the left’s social agenda abroad.
Many Republicans also objected on principal to the timing of the extension.
Most concerning, the continuing resolution extends government funding to the lame duck session – after the November election, but before a new Congress (during which majorities in the House and Senate are likely to switch) and before a new president takes office.
During this time, Congress is expected to pass a massive omnibus spending bill. The September CR’s opponents argue that bill’s extension to December will enable Democrats to avoid voter scrutiny, passing a bill after the election but before the voters’ most recent choices to govern take office.
Republicans had pushed to use the end-of-September funding deadline as leverage to enact concessions from Democrats, who along with some Republicans who have enjoyed directing government largesse throughout their careers, were content to push the major decisions until the lame duck sessions.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), among others, wanted a six-month CR paired with the SAVE Act – a bill to prohibit noncitizens from voting. That bill through mid-March would give the new Congress and administration the chance to choose spending levels and policy priorities. Other Republicans advocated pairing a six-month CR with a border security bill, like the House-passed H.R. 2.
Ultimately, those efforts did not make it past the House, and were almost sure to fail in the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority and Republicans tend to avoid rocking the boat. And the three-month CR favored by Democrats and the Biden administration passed before the deadline.[
Biden on Israel
Quote:The White House readout of President Joe Biden’s phone call Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — their first since August — omitted any discussion of what Israel might do to retaliate against Iran.
As Breitbart News reported, the call lasted between 30-50 minutes, and included Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It came as Israel prepares to respond to Iran’s ballistic missile attack last week, during which it fired 200 such missiles, over 10% of which broke through Israel’s missile defense systems.
The readout condemns the missile attack, but says nothing about what Israel might do to respond to Iran.
The full text, as published by the White House, follows:
President Biden spoke this morning with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. Vice President Harris joined the call. The President affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security. He condemned unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st. On Lebanon, the President emphasized the need for a diplomatic arrangement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line. The President affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasizing the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut. On Gaza, the leaders discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas. The President also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately. They agreed to remain in close contact over the coming days both directly and through their national security teams.
Amid silence about potential plans for responding to Iran, speculation flourished on social media. Biden said last week that Israel should not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, or its oil and gas facilities. Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday said that Israel’s response to Iran would be “powerful, precise and above all — surprising.”
Netanyahu’s office did not release its version of the call.
Gangs Killing Haitians
Quote:Where were Haiti’s elite anti-gang police on October 3 when more than 88 Haitians were being murdered by gangs in a rural town?
Hard to find, except for in New York where former anti-gang cops are working in low-wage Bidenomics jobs because President Joe Biden’s migration chief gave them visas to fill jobs in President Joe Biden’s economy.
The U.S. Department of State’s “2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Haiti,” admitted:
Law enforcement experienced a significant reduction in its [9,000 person] workforce as police officers fled the country; media reported 3,000 police officers departed Haiti since 2022, the majority of whom anecdotally left on the U.S. government’s [visa] processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, a humanitarian parole program [created by Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas] that included Haitians as of January 2023.
The New York Times described the aftermath of the Mayorkas-enabled massacre at the town of Pont-Sondé:
When Ms. [Bertide] Horace, who was about 10 miles away in the city of Saint-Marc, arrived with heavily armed police officers four hours later as the sun was rising, she said the streets of the town were strewed with bodies.
“People were coming out of hiding and trying to flee,” she said in an interview. “It was total panic.” The wounded, she added, were walking around “begging for help.”
The violence, perpetrated by a gang called the Gran Grif, left at least 88 people, including 10 gang members, dead, the United Nations said.
DocumentedNY.com spoke to four of the Haitian police officers living in New York in June 2024;
[Cosby] Jean-Charles is a security agent at John F. Kennedy Airport. [Roodolphe] Nicolas briefly found work as a parking valet in Manhattan for one month until his work permit expired … Miguel Chardovoine, who runs a small tree-cutting business in Buffalo, and Bernard C. Pierre, a cook at the Barclays Center, who prepares food for the Brooklyn Nets. Pierre also works as a parking valet in Manhattan and stock clerk at a Dollar General store.
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[Nicolas had] graduated from the 20th class of the Haitian police force [in 207], known as Orion. His comrades-in-arms called him ‘Battalion’ because he ranked second in the Haitian police academy. Because of his outstanding performance, he could choose the police unit he wanted to join. While most opted for the anti-drug trafficking unit, he ultimately joined a specialized unit that maintains public order and handles protests and civil unrest.
The ex-cops said they saw how Haiti’s elites protect the gangs whenever the police close in:
Like Chardavoine and Nicolas, Jean-Charles was fed up with a police institution he described as “sick to the bone.” He said he witnessed so much wrongdoing where services were focused on benefiting the wealthiest. Like his other colleagues, he told Documented there’s no real motivation from the police and the Haitian government to solve the crisis with the gangs.
The article was headlined “Members of Elite Haiti Police Force Lost in New York as Asylum Seekers and Parolees.”
The four ex-cops are just a few of the roughly 500,000 people extracted from Haiti by U.S. immigration policy, which is run by Mayorkas and his progressive deputies. They gave “Temporary Protected Status” to roughly 300,000 Haitians after they illegally crossed the border, and awarded travel visas to another 214,000 via Mayorkas’ parole program.
These days, educated Haitian migrants are being used around the country to manage the growing population of productivity-cutting, wage-shrinking, and rent-inflating Haitian workers in cities such as Springfield, Ohio, Washington, Ind., and Charleroi, Pa.
For example, a former officer in the Haitian Coast Guard was hired to help bring Haitians into Charleroi and its low-tech employers, such as Fourth Street Foods:
Bernabe, a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and the Haitian State University, has a wide-ranging career in public service including the military, law enforcement, and education.
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Leanna Spada, Executive Director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, with its headquarters in downtown Charleroi, spearheaded the search which led to Bernabe’s hiring. The search committee sought out an individual who would be a trusted partner to help capture the opportunity that the new wave of immigrants has presented within the Mid-Mon Valley.
“We brought life to the community,” Evency Dorzelma, a former Haitian police officer in Charleroi, Pa., told the Washington Post on October 9. “We don’t do no harm to anyone.”
Mayorkas’s multi-channel policy of Extraction Migration is designed to extract human resources from poor nations to boost consumption and fill jobs in the United States. Mayorkas also is trying to emulate Canada’s importation of Indians to provide consumer-economy employers with a cheap, subordinate, and disposable workforce.
In March 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris declined to take Biden’s offer of a leading role in immigration policy. Since then, she has not publicly objected to Mayorkas’ policies and she is widely expected to continue those policies if she is elected president.
Understandably, those policies are extremely unpopular in the United States, in part, because they help push millions of Americans out of the workforce as they push Americans’ economy into a low-tech future.
Many people have pointed out the disastrous results of Mayorkas’ colonialism-like policies in Haiti.
U of Kansas Professor Calling for Violence
Quote:A professor at the University of Kansas has been placed on administrative leave after saying that men who don’t for Vice President Kamala Harris because she’s a woman should be shot. “We could line all those guys up and shoot them,” he said in a recently leaked video. The university has not named the instructor as of Wednesday evening.
“What frustrates me [is] there are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president, because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president,” the University of Kansas professor said during a recently recorded lecture.
“We could line all those guys up and shoot them,” the professor continued. “They clearly don’t understand the way the world works.”
“Did I say that? Scratch that from the recording,” the professor added. “I don’t want the deans hearing that I said that.”
Nonetheless, video of the professor’s comments surfaced on social media, where the footage went viral.
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The University of Kansas responded to the backlash in a statement on X, informing the public that the professor, whose identity still remains unreleased, has been placed on administrative leave while the school conducts an investigation into the matter.
“The university is aware of a classroom video in which an instructor made an inappropriate reference to violence. The instructor is being placed on administrative leave, pending further investigation,” University of Kansas said.
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The university then attempted to explain that the professor was just trying to showcase “his advocacy for women’s rights and equality.”
“The instructor offers his sincerest apologies and deeply regrets the situation. His intent was to emphasize his advocacy for women’s rights and equality, and he recognizes he did a very poor job of doing so,” University of Kansas said.
“The university has an established process for situations like this and will follow that process,” the school added.
Crime Skyrocketing Even in Washington!?
Quote:A Washington woman resorted to calling the police after her decades-long habit of feeding local raccoons spun out of control into an all-out raccoon invasion of her home, authorities said.
The resident, living in the Seattle suburb of Poulsbo, called Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Thursday due to a mob of 100 raccoons “demanding food” outside her house, 12News reported.
Shocking video footage shared by the sheriff’s office shows the herd of woodland creatures camped out in the woman’s yard:
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The resident told deputies that she had been feeding raccoons for 35 years, but the population had “exploded” in the last six weeks.
“Somehow the word got out in raccoon land and they all showed up to her house expecting a meal,” Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kevin McCarty said.
“[The deputies] were shocked,” McCarty added. “They had never seen that many raccoons in one place. Nobody ever remembers being surrounded by a swarm of raccoons. This was a first.”
The woman’s neighbor, Wendy Cronk, said she has also seen a dramatic uptick in raccoon interactions.
“I’d say it’s been about the last month or so I’ve noticed it,” she told the local outlet. “I’ve had several raccoons in the yard recently. My dogs have gotten in a scuffle several times with a raccoon.”
“I’ve even had to take one of my dogs to the vet after tussling with a raccoon,” Cronk continued. “And I’ve also noticed there’s been a lot more hit raccoons up on the main road here.”
She added that she hopes her neighbor will stop feeding wild animals.
“I just hope that somebody steps in and helps her take care of this problem… and hopefully she’ll quit doing it,” said Cronk.
Another neighbor, Jim Malmbord, also complained to KOMO News.
“I’ve never seen that much, not in one place. You know, I can see where she started feeding them, but she didn’t stop. She just didn’t give up,” he said.
The raccoon-feeder told deputies that a trapping company had quoted her $500 to trap and relocate just one raccoon — leading the sheriff’s office to refer her to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for help instead.
“At this point, it’s been determined that the raccoons haven’t committed any crimes,” McCarty said.
“It’s pretty simple,” he added. “Don’t feed wild animals. When wild animals have a reliable food source, they’re going to keep coming back to it. And that’s what these raccoons did until the number of raccoons expecting a meal got out of hand.”
Well, demanding stuff from local villagers is exactly what mafiosi and gangsters
do, don't they? DHS Refusing to Collect DNA from Migrants
Quote:President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is refusing to collect DNA from millions of migrants arriving at the United States-Mexico border, whistleblowers allege.
A letter to Biden and Harris, signed by more than two dozen House and Senate Republicans, details whistleblower allegations against DHS in particular for allegedly refusing to abide by the DNA Fingerprint Act passed by Congress in 2005.
The law requires federal agencies to collect DNA samples from those arrested, charged, and convicted of crimes as well as foreign nationals detained by the federal government.
While former President Barack Obama’s DHS had failed to comply with the law, former President Donald Trump finalized a rule in 2020 that made clear the law had to be followed. Since then, whistleblowers allege, Biden and Harris’s DHS has continued to violate the law.
“In Fiscal Year 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration collected DNA from only 16% of the 1.9 million individuals encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Office of Field Operations (OFO),” the Republicans write:
Further, in Fiscal Year 2022, DNA was collected from only 37% of the 2.7 million individuals encountered by CBP and OFO. Whistleblowers also disclosed that in the first three quarters of Fiscal Year 2023, CBP and OFO collected DNA from only 36% of the 2.3 million individuals encountered. More recently, according to protected whistleblower disclosures, CBP officials visited United States Border Patrol (USBP) processing facilities in Tucson, Casa Grande, Yuma, and San Diego, and at no facility that these officials visited was DNA being collected. This blatant disregard for the law has been exacerbated by your administration’s failed border policies, which have precipitated an unprecedented explosion in nationwide encounters of illegal immigrants at our borders — over 10 million in just three and-a-half years and this staggering sum doesn’t even account for the estimated 2 million that crossed and evaded apprehension.
The Republicans note that Biden and Harris’s failure to collect DNA from migrants arriving at the border has had deadly consequences.
“Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, the Salvadoran gang member that allegedly raped and killed Rachel Morin, and who also was linked to the murder of a young woman in El Salvador, crossed the border four separate times,” the Republicans write:
During three of these crossings — twice in January 2023 and once in February 2023 — border patrol agents apprehended and deported him. According to the panelists and other whistleblower disclosures, DHS did not collect DNA from Martinez-Hernandez, despite having “three bites at the apple.” On his fourth illegal crossing, Martinez-Hernandez was able to evade border patrol agents completely.
Six months prior to Rachel Morin’s tragic murder, Martinez-Hernandez allegedly committed a home invasion, assaulting a 9-year-old girl and her mother in Los Angeles. DNA was collected at the crime scene and submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Had DNA been collected during any of Martinez-Hernandez’s three encounters with DHS, “there would’ve been an instant possibility that any future criminal activity would have stopped immediately. And there was a definite potential for the individual to be apprehended.”
LATIN AMERICA
Haitian Gangs Enslave Children
Quote:Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday that Haitian gangs are bolstering their manpower by recruiting more young boys as child soldiers, while young girls are pressed into service as sexually abused household slaves.
“Hundreds, if not thousands, of children in Haiti, driven by hunger and poverty, have in recent months joined criminal groups, where they are forced into illegal activities and face abuse,” HRW said.
The report noted that criminal gangs are increasingly recruiting children to swell their ranks in response to the U.N. Multinational Security Support (MSS) and greater international support for the Haitian National Police (HNP).
The gangs have a deep pool of children to recruit and abuse. Gangsters and warlords currently control almost 80 percent of the national capital, Port-au-Prince, which puts half a million children under their rule.
“While no official figures are available, human rights and humanitarian organizations and government officials estimate that at least 30 percent of criminal group members are children,” HRW noted with alarm. “Children participate in criminal activities ranging from extortion and looting to severe acts of violence, including killing and kidnapping.”
UNICEF warned in June that up to half of the soldiers in some gangs are children. The gangs like to use them as spotters, and for confrontations with the police. UNICEF worried that the problem was getting worse because the gangs are blocking shipments of humanitarian aid, creating more hunger they could exploit to bring children into their ranks.
HRW researchers spoke to several children recruited by Haiti’s thousands of criminal gangs. Young boys pressed into service as soldiers cited hunger as a major reason they went along with it. Some of them said associating with a gang was the only way to guarantee food for their families.
As for the girls, Haitian youths told HRW that gang bosses have developed a taste for raping children, inspiring each other to greater acts of cruelty and debauchery to satisfy their appetites and demonstrate their power.
“They rape them, not only the boss, everyone, whoever wants to, can rape them. They are in the group to serve them with sex and cooking and washing clothes,” one child soldier said of young girls taken by the gangs.
Other witnesses said the gangs stop feeding their young sex slaves and cast them aside if they become pregnant.
Haiti’s child soldiers said they are routinely threatened with violence and death if they hesitate to obey the sadistic commands of their bosses. U.N. officials have supported these claims by documenting numerous summary executions and lynchings of children since the beginning of 2024.
Cuba Interfering in Elections
Quote:The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned in a briefing on Monday that the communist regime of Cuba is looking to actively interfere in America’s 2024 election, not only influencing votes for president but seeking to aid pro-communist candidates in local and congressional races.
“Havana almost certainly has considered influence efforts targeting some candidates,” an unnamed ODNI official told reporters. “Havana may be, as it has done in previous cycles, trying to curry favor from congressional and sub-national politicians that it believes will support its preferred policies.”
“Havana is very focused on a few policy issues that it believes to be negatively impacting the regime, particularly the U.S. embargo on Cuba and other economic and travel restrictions, all of which Havana perceives as an effort to force regime change,” the official continued.
The Castro regime has for decades railed against what is commonly known as the American economic “embargo,” a series of regulations that mildly limit economic activity between the two countries. The embargo does nothing to stop humanitarian aid, food, or medicine from entering the country; America is Cuba’s largest supplier of chicken, for example. The embargo does ban America’s massive travel and technology companies from interacting directly from the over half-century-old violent communist regime, however, and curbs some tourism, though it notably does little to stop Americans from visiting the island. Cubans face significant restrictions on their travel freedoms imposed directly by the Communist Party, particularly regarding travel to America.
Despite the relatively minimal impact on Cuba’s international trade from the embargo, the Castro regime regularly demands it be lifted so that its leaders, running a government known for state sponsorship of terrorism, can access America’s prodigious markets and fund their lavish lifestyles. They also regularly engage leftists and communist sympathizers in America to agitate on their behalf.
The ODNI listed Cuba alongside Russia and China as countries “supporting or denigrating candidates involved in congressional, state, and local races.” Officials suggested Florida local races were particularly vulnerable to Cuban influence.
“Havana considers election influence activities as part of its standing requirements to influence those policies, and Florida is a prime target of their activities,” one official said. “To that end, we have observed Cuba tailoring influence activities based on its perception of a candidate’s stances on policies toward Cuba. For example, in 2020 Havana intended to denigrate specific candidates in Florida and pushed influence narratives to the Latin American community in the United States.”
Citing a greater ODNI report on election interference, the independent outlet Cubanet on Tuesday reported that the American agency described Cuba as “not new to these intents, but the current conditions allow them to intensify their efforts.” In addition to contacting sympathetic candidates, the ODNI suggested that Cuba is bombarding Americans with “disinformation” campaigns to favor the communist agenda.
EUROPE
Another American Sentenced in Russia
Quote:A Russian court on Monday sentenced 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen James Hubbard to nearly seven years in prison for helping to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
Russian prosecutors said Hubbard joined a defense unit in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He was taken prisoner by Russian forces after the city was captured in April 2022. Ukrainian forces were able to push the Russians out of Izyum in a counteroffensive about five months later.
The prosecution said he “systematically received material compensation” for his efforts, working out to about $1,000 per month. They also claimed Hubbard was trained and armed by the Ukrainian military.
Hubbard is a native of Big Rapids, Michigan. In a video interview posted on the Telegram messaging platform in May 2022, he said he moved to Izyum in 2014 and “lived happily with his wife.”
Hubbard supposedly confessed to the charges against him last month, but his sister Trisha Hubbard Fox has tirelessly argued that the case against him was fabricated.
“Russia’s prosecutor is lying! Steve was never a mercenary. He was an English teacher teaching English in foreign countries!” she said a Facebook post last month.
Other family members have said Hubbard drifted away from his relatives while teaching English in countries like Japan and Cyprus over the years. Fox said her brother was living quietly in Ukraine on a pension of about $300 a month, and did not speak either Russian or Ukrainian.
MIDDLE EAST
Israel: Stabbing Rampage in Hadera
Quote:Six people were wounded – two of them seriously – in a mass terror stabbing attack in the central Israeli city of Hadera on Wednesday morning, police reported. The terrorist was later neutralized.
The Jerusalem Post reports paramedics treated two men, ages approximately 30 and 50, in serious condition.
Additionally, a third person, approximately 70 years old, was moderately wounded. All three were evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera.
The mass stabbing only ended when police intervened. The Post report details:
According to the police, the terrorist attacked in four different locations, wounding two in the first, a third in the second, another two were attacked in the third location, and a sixth person was attacked in another location in Hadera before the police stopped the attacker.
“We arrived at the scene where there was a seriously injured person with stab wounds in multiple areas of his body and suffered from multisystem trauma,” MDA Paramedic Shaked Hajaj reported. “He was semi-conscious; we provided lifesaving medical treatment and evacuated him to the hospital. After that, we returned to the scene to continue treating other injured individuals.”
“The terrorist has been neutralized,” police said in a statement. “Four separate locations have been identified, resulting in six victims with stab wounds.”
The police did not immediately provide other details, but issued a brief video of the suspected attacker being apprehended, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile earlier two people were killed by rocket fire in Kiryat Shemona, from which most (not all) residents have evacuated.
According to Israel’s Army Radio, some of the rockets from a volley by Hezbollah were not intercepted by air defenses.
Israel has been on high security alert since the Hamas terrorist assault a year ago while a the conflict with Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon continues to escalate.
IDF Denounces Hezbollah Using Green NGO as Cover
Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Wednesday that the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is using an environmental non-governmental organization (NGO), “Green Without Borders,” as a front for its activities.
In a statement, the IDF said:
The IDF’s 36th Division is conducting limited, localized, targeted raids against key Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon that pose a threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel. During the operations so far, the troops have eliminated numerous terrorists, destroyed underground infrastructure, and dismantled over 500 operational enemy infrastructure and combat compounds, including weapons storage facilities.
Over many years, the Hezbollah terrorist organization has cynically exploited the “Green Without Borders” (GWB) environmental NGO as a front for its military activities in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah dug tunnels, stored weapons, and built military observation posts inside GWB facilities located near the border with Israeli communities. During the operations of the 36th Division, the troops countered these threats, conducted targeted raids on these Hezbollah military assets, and destroyed the weapons and underground infrastructure.
The IDF released photographs and videos of weapons, tunnels, and other assets that Hezbollah hid using the NGO.
Israeli soldiers continue dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, including an observation tower that Hezbollah built opposite Rosh HaNikra, a set of caves that had been, until recently, a popular Israeli tourist site.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Israeli undercover commandos killed several wanted terrorists in the Palestinian-run city of Nablus, in the West Bank (known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria), continuing to fight a war on several fronts.
According to one source, Israel has now flipped the script on Hamas in Gaza with regard to hostage negotiations. While Hezbollah, in Lebanon, once said it would only stop firing at Israel if Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel now reportedly says it will only stop the war in Lebanon when Hamas releases the Israeli hostages unconditionally.
Iranian FM Visits Saudi Arabia to Conspire Against Israel?
Quote:Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for high-level meetings on Wednesday intended to discuss how to stop Israel’s self-defense operations against Iran-backed terrorist organizations, Iranian media reported.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) confirmed on Wednesday that Araghchi met with his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, a meeting the Saudis described as necessary to discuss “bilateral relations and ways to enhance them.”
Iranian media reportedly the reason for the occasion differently, insisting the goal was “consultations and coordination” to “stop the regime’s [Israel’s] crimes.”
Iran is seeking to enhance “diplomatic efforts, in co-ordination with countries of the region, to stop the Israeli regime’s genocide and aggression and to alleviate the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters in Gaza and Lebanon,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman insisted in a statement regarding Araghchi’s stop in Riyadh.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency described the stop in Saudi Arabia as part of a larger campaign to pressure Muslim countries in the world to support Iran’s proxy war against Israel and its direct hostile actions towards the country. Araghchi also claimed that Iran is trying to help broker a “ceasefire acceptable to and agreed on by the resistance,” a term Iran uses for its network of jihadist terror organizations.
The meeting is notable because it will be the second high-level exchange between Iran and Saudi Arabia in a month – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with Prince Faisal in Doha, Qatar, last week – and because it follows a dramatic change in tone regarding Israel out of the Saudi government. A year ago, prior to the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Saudi leaders were openly discussing the possibility of normalizing relations with Israel, as some other Gulf states have done.
The Trump-era Abraham Accords brought full normalization for Israel’s relationships with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but that momentum stalled under current President Joe Biden, who prioritized treating the Saudi government, once an ally to America, as a “pariah” over the gruesome killing of Islamist journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden attempted to undo the harm caused to the American-Saudi relationship with a visit to the country himself in 2022, but the damage appeared to be done and Saudi Arabia has since floated into the orbit of American enemies such as China and Iran.
China brokered a normalization deal between Tehran and Riyadh in early 2023 that restored ambassadors to their respective countries and allowed the anti-American BRICS coalition to extend both nations invites to join. Iran rapidly accepted, while Saudi Arabia has not yet completed the membership process.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
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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
