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Just for you to know, here's an article with a couple of Twitter videos on what happened to Tampa Bay Rays' stadium in Orlando, Florida.
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FEMA's $750 Grant for Hurricane Victims is Not a Loan
Quote:Hurricane Milton is forecast to make landfall in Florida as a major hurricane later this week, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene wrought destruction on Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Misinformation about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and confusion over what the agency provides has spread in the midst of these disasters. A viral social media post viewed over 5 million times claims FEMA’s $750 Serious Needs Assistance is a loan and has to be paid back. Several VERIFY readers sent us questions to ask if this is true.
The Answer: False
No, FEMA’s $750 grant is not a loan.
WHAT WE FOUND
FEMA’s Serious Needs Assistance, which is a program that quickly gives disaster victims $750 for immediate supplies like food and medicine, is not a loan and does not have to be paid back.
Disaster victims get $750 from FEMA’s Serious Needs Assistance grant if the disaster has displaced them from their home and they establish they have critical needs they’d like funding to help cover. The critical needs that the $750 is meant to cover include emergency supplies such as food and water, first aid, childcare items, personal hygiene items and fuel for transportation.
Survivors in the hardest hit areas of a disaster may receive Serious Needs Assistance before FEMA inspects their home. In these cases, the goal of the grant is to get survivors money quickly while the agency determines their eligibility for other, larger grants.
Serious Needs Assistance is just one of many FEMA grants. A person can apply for more than one grant and receive multiple if they meet FEMA’s eligibility requirements.
Jaclyn Rothenberg, public affairs director for FEMA, posted to X that the $750 Serious Needs Assistance is not a loan.
“We do not ask for this money back,” Rothenberg said.
FEMA says on its rumor control page that other FEMA grants besides the $750 grant also do not have to be paid back in most cases. A survivor has to pay FEMA back only if they receive a FEMA grant to cover certain expenses and then later receive benefits from insurance or another grant that cover those exact same expenses.
Hurricane Milton
Quote:Weary Floridians will confront a growing death count, flooding, homelessness, gas shortages, and power outages on Thursday morning as Hurricane Milton’s overnight trail of destruction becomes evident in the harsh light of day.
The massive weather event smashed Florida as a Category 3 storm, bringing misery to millions still ravaged by Hurricane Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph alongside a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit.
About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm.
By early Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph as it moved offshore and was about 35 miles east of Orlando.
The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than three million homes and businesses without power as of early Thursday, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
The energy problems don’t end there.
“Almost a quarter of gas stations in Florida don’t have gasoline,” said Patrick De Haan, Head of Petroleum Analysis at the gasoline analysis site GasBuddy. “In Tampa … 63 percent of stations don’t have gasoline right now,” he told NewsNation’s “CUOMO.”
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management as reported by the Associated Press.
Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida Peninsula as a hurricane, eventually to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.
It is expected to impact the heavily populated Orlando area.
Before Milton even made landfall, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.
Just for you to know, here's an article with a couple of Twitter videos on what happened to Tampa Bay Rays' stadium in Orlando, Florida.
Harris Offers Green Cards to Afghans
Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris is promising to provide tens of thousands of Afghan nationals brought to the United States often without in-person screenings, with green cards. The move would come even as an accused Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist was able to get resettled in Oklahoma from Afghanistan as part of Harris and President Joe Biden’s massive Afghan resettlement operation.
In September 2021, the Biden-Harris administration began resettling nearly 100,000 Afghan nationals across American communities. Among those resettled was 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who was arrested in Oklahoma this month after allegedly plotting an ISIS terrorist attack on American citizens on Election Day.
Despite widespread vetting failures, according to several federal audits, Harris is vowing that as president, she would work to provide green cards to those Afghans resettled in the U.S. in 2021 by passing a Senate bill by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) that included such a provision.
Harris’s campaign website reads:
As President, she will bring back the bipartisan border security bill and sign it into law. At the same time, she knows that our immigration system is broken and needs comprehensive reform that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.
The resettlement operation has been plagued with vetting failures since Afghans started arriving at Dulles International Airport in 2021.
In April 2023, a former Department of Defense (DOD) official revealed to Congress that some Afghans were resettled in the U.S. before they were found to have been involved in placing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan to kill American troops.
In 2021, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) requested information about the number of Afghans who sought entry to the U.S. and were listed on the federal government’s “No Fly List” because of their ties to Islamic terrorism. Biden’s top agency officials have refused to disclose the total.
In September 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) issued a bombshell report detailing how the Biden administration brought Afghans to the U.S. who were “not fully vetted” and could “pose a risk to national security.”
Similarly, in February 2022, a DOD IG report revealed that Biden’s agencies failed to properly vet Afghans who arrived in the U.S. and that about 50 Afghans were flagged for “significant security concerns” after their resettlement.
Most of the unvetted Afghans flagged for possible terrorism ties, the DOD IG report stated, have since disappeared into American communities. The report noted that as of September 17, 2021, only three of 31 Afghans flagged with specific “derogatory information” could be located.
In August 2022, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) detailed allegations from a whistleblower who claimed the Biden administration knowingly resettled almost 400 Afghans in the U.S. who were listed as “potential threats” in federal databases and urged staff to cut corners in the vetting process.
In May 2022, a Project Veritas report alleged the Biden administration resettled Afghans listed on the federal government’s “Terrorism Watch List” in American communities.
In July of this year, Grassley asked DHS and the FBI for details about what the agencies are doing to monitor those Afghans who are deemed national security threats after they were resettled in the U.S. Neither of the agencies has responded to the request.
Trump Wants No More Debates
Quote:Republican former President Donald Trump declared Wednesday there will be no debate “rematch” with his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris as the 2024 race for the White House enters the final stretch.
He spoke hours after Fox News invited the two presidential contenders to join a possible second debate on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 27, saying early voting had already begun and there was “nothing to debate.”
The pair faced off for the first time on Sept. 10. and Trump rejected rejected a subsequent invitation from CNN for an Oct. 23 debate, accepted by Harris.
Trump has dismissed calls for any rematch on the basis Harris knows she lost the presidential debate hosted by ABC News, as Breitbart News reported.
“It is very late in the process, (early) voting has already begun — there will be no rematch!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media platform, thus dismissing the possibility of a follow-up to the candidates’ first debate in Philadelphia.
“Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate,” Trump added.
As Breitbart News reported, Harris issued a slew of false claims and hoaxes on the live television showdown in front of millions of Americans during the presidential debate, while ABC moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir tamely failed to fact-check her.
Meanwhile, debate moderators joined Harris in debating Trump, countering statements he made and trying to fact-check him, with Muir even bizarrely fact-checking a joke the 45th president had previously made.
Despite all that, a Reuters focus group found undecided voters leaned toward Trump 2-to-1 following the debate. A New York Times survey of undecideds produced similar results.
Daylight Saving Time Change
Quote:There's only one month left until most clocks across the U.S. "fall back" one hour.
Daylight saving time will come to an end for 2024 on Nov. 3, the first Sunday in November. At 2 a.m. that Sunday, clocks will shift back an hour and grant most people and extra hour of sleep.
With the change comes earlier sunrises and nightfall well before 7 p.m. It won't be until March 2025 that we adjust our clocks to "spring ahead" once again.
Frequent measures in Congress have tried to make daylight saving time permanent in order to ditch the practice of changing our clocks twice a year. However, the bills usually die before they ever come close to becoming law.
With little to no progress made on that recent legislation, Americans will continue to "fall back" in 2024 and "spring forward" next year.
When does daylight saving time end?
Daylight saving time in 2024 ends on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 2 a.m.
Why was daylight saving time started?
The practice has been implemented in some form since World War I when Germany originally introduced it to conserve power and energy by extending daylight hours.
The Standard Time Act in 1918 was the first introduction of daylight saving time to American clocks. The temporary measure, which once held the nickname "war time," lasted from spring to fall and was intended to cut energy costs during World War I. The act is also responsible for the five time zones still in place today.
$2 Bills Are Worth a Little More Than That
Quote:How much is a $2 bill really worth?
Many of us keep those $2 bills somewhere in our home because well we're not so sure why, but someone, somewhere, told us they're special. There's been online chatter recently that those 2 dollar bills you have saved somewhere could be worth thousands.
FOX43 Finds Out took some bills to the experts to find out if you can get more bang for your buck.
Michael Steinmetz, the Vice President of Steinmetz Coins & Currency, says he has people coming into his coins and currency shop in York County all the time asking if these bills are worth more than 2 bucks.
More times than not, the answer is no. Mostly because the US government still prints them.
"They're printed relatively sporadically. They're not printed every single year, they're printed when the government feels like it," said Steinmetz.
But how rare does a $2 bill need to be to fetch thousands of dollars from collectors?
It comes down to the serial number.
Steinmetz said, "Someone had, I believe, a number 1. So it would be like getting that note in your hand and looking down and seeing all zeros and a 1 at the end. I believe that note was also brand new and never used. It's a combination that just doesn't happen, which was why that note was worth so much money."
The expert said usually with these $2 bills, the older they are, the more likely they're worth more than 2 bucks, but not much more.
"The 1963 and '53 series. They do have additional value, none too crazy though," Steinmetz said. "$3-4 a piece on regular notes. Really gorgeous ones, yeah you can do a lot more money, you can probably get $20-$30 on a perfect note."
Steinmetz says mostly anything that would make a $2 bill worth a lot of money, is the same thing that would make any bill worth more money. Those rare serial numbers, different color seals, or they're just really old.
"I did have a young gentleman who works at a local gas station who found a number 8 $20. So all zeros and number eight," he recalled. "That was worth $400, but it's a very rare thing to have happened.
RNC & Heritage Foundation Fighting for Excluding Illegal Votes
Quote:Republican leaders are stepping up their efforts to protect Americans’ ballots and GOP candidates from the chaos of illegal migration, according to Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project at The Heritage Foundation.
The Republican National Committee “and the legal community of conservatives are better prepared this cycle than they were in 2020,” Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project at The Heritage Foundation told Breitbart News. “I do think there is a recognition within the party apparatus that they need to engage in this election lawfare and they are better prepared than they have been in the past … it’s light years ahead of what it used to be. ”
This month, for example, GOP lawyers persuaded Michigan’s top court to enforce anti-fraud rules for absentee ballots. GOP governors are cleaning registration lists, and D.C. Republicans are collecting data and lawyers for post-election lawsuits, he said.
“Our mission here at the Oversight Project is to conduct undercover journalism, conduct investigations, and present facts to the American people and policymakers, so they can identify the problem and fix it,” Brosnan said.
Brosnan’s project spotlighted the danger with a video from Arizona showing a Spanish-speaking man offering to register an undercover journalist who says he is an illegal immigrant. “I can bring you a form to register to vote … you just need [your driver’s licenses] and your residency [documents],” he told the self-identified illegal with DACA documents.
“The grassroots conservative movement is unhappy with how the election rules were changed for 2020 and have a lot of questions about how that election was run,” Brosnan said.
Younger and newer Republicans are grappling with the problems created by migration, he said. “I think you’re sort of seeing a changing of the guard in terms of Republicans in Congress … I do think that you’re seeing the realization, at least amongst Republicans, that mass migration is not good for the country,” he added.
“The left has framed the election integrity discussion in a way that any efforts to raise awareness about problems with the way elections are conducted in America make you a conspiracy theorist who is anti-democratic,” Brisnan told Breitbart News, adding.
We seek to present facts and educate the public that there are indeed problems with how elections are run in America, and our videos that we have put out recently in three states show the illegal aliens being noncitizens, admitting on camera to be registered to vote. This most recent video is of a person speaking with an undercover journalist, where the journalist says that they are a non-citizen on DACA, and the person offers to register them and their friends to vote [which] is a crime.
This phenomenon of noncitizens appearing on the voter rolls is real, as evidenced by the recent voter-roll cleanups in Texas and Virginia, where Texas removed people from their voter rolls, — 6,500 of which were non-citizens …. In Virginia, in their most recent voter-roll cleanup, 6,300 individuals were removed from the voter rolls as noncitizens … When you have the border wide open, a mass form of illegal immigration, things are going to slip through the cracks. And when the margins of these elections are so close, every vote matters.
In 2020, Biden won the prize by getting an extra 44,500 votes counted in three states — 20,500 votes counted in Wisconsin, 11,000 voters counted in Arizona, and 14,000 votes in Georgia. In 2016, Trump won with an extra 107,000 in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Nationwide, the population of illegal immigrants is roughly 15 million — and perhaps much more.
Meanwhile NYC Mayor Will Spend $2.3 Billion on Hotel Rooms for Immigrants
Quote:New York City Mayor Eric Adams is seeking $2.3 billion to spend on 14,000 hotel rooms to house migrants through 2025, according to reports.
The Adams administration projects the spending will be needed for the 150 hotels that are currently under contract with the city to house illegals, according to the New York Post.
Spending over the three years is likely to total up to $5.76 billion, the city says.
City hall has contracts with the New York City Hotel Association to provide the shelter at a cost of $352 per night per family, the city has reported.
“The New York City Department of Homeless Services is seeking to continue the City Sanctuary Facility program by procuring a vendor who can assist in acquiring the use of large-scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to help address the current emergency,” officials said.
The hotel association’s president and CEO, Vijay Dandapani, says his organization is paid about $100,000 per month to manage the contracts. In fact, he adds that they have full-time employees that work to fulfill the migrant housing contracts.
“We have five full time employees specifically for fulfilling the contractual obligations, besides work done by regular HANYC staff for the contract, in addition to their normal duties,” Dandapani told the paper.
On the tail of heavy criticism, Adams changed up his more lenient policies and began imposing 30-day limits for individual migrants and 60 days for families.
But the cost of the migrant crisis is already causing the city to limit services to citizens as officials have moved to cut funding for the city’s fire and police departments.
The Big Apple is only a small slice of the costs being sustained by New York state. Joe Biden’s border crisis is set to cost the Empire State upwards to $12 billion over three years, according to wire service AFP.
Meanwhile, the state is looking to enact a $237 billion budget that includes huge increases in migrant housing.
AZ Student Stabs Classmate But It's Not An Attempted Murder Case!?
Quote:The Arizona State University student who allegedly stabbed her classmate in a seemingly random attack has had her first-degree attempted murder charge dropped by prosecutors.
Kaci Sloan, 19, was witnessed charging at Mara Daffron when she walked into the Glendale classroom on September 19 before plunging a knife into her “multiple times,” an affidavit obtained by Fox News states.
Matthew McCormick, one of around 13 people who saw the incident, said he took action to save the other student’s life when he realized that she was being attacked.
“In that moment, I didn’t really have a thought going through my head, I just knew that I felt compelled to do something,” he told FOX 10 Phoenix. “As she was going for a third attack, I was able to grab her wrists and apprehend her before further damage could be done.”
Investigators have corroborated McCormick’s statement, saying in a police report that a witness “was able to disarm the defendant by pulling the knife away from the defendant’s right hand and threw it away from them.”
A different witness then “kicked the knife to the back of the classroom,” police said.
A third witness said that Sloan was “sitting in the classroom at a desk and suddenly got up and ran at the victim as the victim entered the classroom and stabbed her multiple times,” the affidavit states.
Police added that the stabbing occurred “without any provocation or any words spoken.”
Daffron was rushed to the hospital, and is reportedly “making great progress and is on the mend,” according to a GoFundMe page created on her behalf.
A handwritten note referencing an unspecified act Sloan was “about to commit” was found in her bag by detectives, and she allegedly admitted to them that she “came to class to hurt somebody and was planning the attack since the night prior.”
Police said the defendant also admitted to targeting Daffron because she was “an easier target” than another potential victim, who Sloan referred to as “a veteran.”
EUROPE
UK: Zelensky Visits London
Quote:Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky embraced British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a hug before hours-long talks on the ‘Victory Plan’ and military support in London on Thursday.
Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in London from Croatia on Thursday, the second engagement on his whistlestop tour of European capitals this week, drumming up support for his defensive war against the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian delegation met with the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the new head of NATO Mark Rutte, the British defence minister, the head of the British armed forces, and Starmer’s national security advisor inside Downing Street for around two hours.
Whille the talks may or may not have been fruitful for Ukraine, they are unlikely to have completely made up for the planned summit with President Joe Biden and Western leaders in Germany on Saturday that has been cancelled because of Hurricane Milton.
Before the talks, Sir Keir said of Zelensky’s second visit to the British Prime Minister’s official residence just in the past few months: “very good to welcome you back to go through plans, to talk in more detail about the work we can do together”. Zelensky replied for his part: “Me and my team give thanks to the UK people, the people of your great country, for your strength in us from the very beginning of the war. Today I want to share with you the details of the victory plan, we can count on you, thank you.
That a potential Presidential election win by Donald Trump could see him follow through on his promise to bring peace to the region is much of the mind of President Zelensky and his backers in this meeting was widely reported, with the Ukrainian apparently very keen to put his country into the most favourable possible position for any peace talks. His counter-invasion of Russia which started in the late Spring and which saw Ukraine take swathes of Russian territory has very likely been part of this bid, seeking to gain bargaining chips should the end of the conflict suddenly emerge.
The Associated Press in their reportage was typical of the articulation of these points, stating: “the plan seeks to strengthen Ukraine “both geopolitically and on the battlefield” before any kind of dialogue with Russia”. These foreign capital visits remain important for Zelensky given the predicted drop in financial aid to the country from its international partners reported by Germany’s Kiel Institute this week.
NATO Nuclear Exercise
Quote:NATO will hold a long-planned major nuclear exercise next week, the alliance´s chief said Thursday, a few weeks after President Vladimir Putin announced changes to Russia´s nuclear doctrine to discourage Ukraine´s Western allies from supporting attacks on his country.
The “Steadfast Noon” exercise starts on Monday and will run for about two weeks. It will be led by Belgium and the Netherlands, use eight military bases and involve 2,000 personnel and 60 aircraft from 13 nations. The exercise has been held at roughly the same time each year for over a decade.
Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads are taking part. No live munitions are used. The bulk of the exercise is being held around 900 kilometers (560 miles) from Russia in the North Sea. Moscow has been informed about the drills, NATO officials say.
“In an uncertain world, it is vital that we test our defence and that we strengthen our defence so that our adversaries know that NATO is ready and is able to respond to any threat,” new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters in London.
The United States and the U.K., with their strategic nuclear forces, are key to NATO´s security deterrence. France also has nuclear weapons but is not a part of the organization´s nuclear planning group.
Angus Lapsley, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning, said the exercise is aimed at proving that the alliance´s ability to counter any threat to its 32 member countries is credible and something that “any adversary would need to take extremely seriously indeed.”
Lapsley said that NATO has been monitoring the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear power, the rapid expansion of China´s nuclear capabilities and developments in Iran – “but obviously what worries us most is Russia.”
Orbán Makes EU Leftists Freak Out
Quote:Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s address to the European Parliament stressing the need to control illegal immigration sparked a full-scale meltdown from leftist and globalist factions in Strasbourg.
Laying out some of the top priorities for Budapest while it controls the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, borrowing from former President Donald Trump the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”, Prime Minister Orbán focussed heavily on the issue of immigration, saying that the “EU’s asylum system does not work today”.
Orbán argued that the open borders agenda favoured by Brussels has resulted in a rise in antisemitism, homophobia and violence against women across Europe. The Hungarian leader claimed that the “only solution” to the migrant crisis would be to only allow asylum seekers who were “given permission in advance” to enter the bloc.
Similar to the “Remain in Mexico” policy of the Trump administration, Orbán called for the EU to establish migrant “hotspots” in third party countries to handle asylum requests offshore.
“Since 2015, Hungary and I have been engaged in serious political debates on this matter. So far all attempts have been unsuccessful. We don’t know without external hotspots.
“Once we let someone in, we won’t be able to send them home,” he said per 24.hu.
Finally, Orbán called for the creation of regular Schengen Summits, in which member states could discuss new ways to improve border controls.
While the speech represented fairly standard fare for Orbán, and indeed for many conservatives throughout Europe, globalist and leftist factions in Strasbourg broke out into hysterical rants, accusing the prime minister of being a “dictator”, of allegedly being in the pocket of Beijing and Moscow, and for supposedly violating EU law by enacting restrictions on transgenderism in child entertainment in Hungary.
France Bans Return of Bin Laden's Son
Quote:There will be no return to France for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden’s fourth son, the country’s interior minister announced Thursday.
Omar bin Laden was expelled last year from a Normandy village he was living in after he was accused of glorifying acts of terror on social media.
The BBC reports the 43-year-old had been earning a living painting landscape portraits and is currently residing in Qatar.
But new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he signed an order barring him from returning to France, accusing him of authoring social media posts last year which “glorified terrorism.”
Bin Laden left France after his residency permit was revoked for two years by officials in the wake of the posts. French media reported the dispute related to content marking the anniversary of his father’s death.
He has lived in France since 2016, earning a residency permit through his marriage to UK citizen Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah – born Jane Felix-Browne.
Born in Saudi Arabia, Mr Bin Laden left his father’s side in 2000 after training at jihadist camps in Afghanistan.
Retailleau’s decision came as he met with 21 prefects, each responsible for a different French département, to discuss immigration.
The talks will focus more specifically on how to deal more efficiently with the legal measure called “obligation to leave French territory,” or OQTF, which is primarily used to deport foreign nationals.
Macron Visits Ukrainian Troops Training in France
Quote:French President Emmanuel Macron inspected the training of Ukrainian troops at a military camp in eastern France on Wednesday, a show of support for Ukraine as its Western allies mull a victory plan championed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian brigade that Macron visited is being battle-readied and armed by France for front-line deployment against the Russian invasion. For security reasons, Macron´s office said the base’s specific location could not be reported.
French military personnel are training 2,300 Ukrainian soldiers at the camp, teaching them how to use and maintain French-supplied weapons, and subjecting them to combat-like conditions, with stress, noise and drones.
It´s the first time Macron has met with some of the 15,000 Ukrainian troops that France has trained since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, including several thousand put through training courses in Poland.
The new Ukrainian Brigade No. 155 will eventually be made up of 4,500 troops. Of those, 2,300 are being trained in France, forming three battalions of infantry, plus engineers, artillery teams and other specialists. The brigade’s other battalions will be trained by Ukraine, to take the brigade’s total strength to 4,500 soldiers.
France is also equipping the brigade with an array of weaponry, plus training to use and maintain it. Macron’s office said the brigade will get 128 armored troop carriers, 18 Caesar artillery pieces and 18 AMX light tanks, plus Milan anti-tank missiles and heavy trucks. Macron has pledged up to 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) worth of military aid for Ukraine this year, his office said.
Macron’s office said the training has been adapted to front-line conditions that Ukrainian troops are encountering in the fight against Russia’s invasion forces. Training trenches have been dug using methods and layouts similar to those in Ukraine. Around 1,500 French military personnel are involved in the brigade´s training over several months.
Macron’s renewed focus on Ukraine also reflects how shifting politics in France have weakened his sway over domestic affairs. His decision to call surprise legislative elections in June backfired, leaving him with a minority government and strengthening the hand of his opponents in parliament. The government late Tuesday survived a no-confidence vote, the first of what threatens to be repeated efforts by Macron’s foes to bring down Prime Minister Michel Barnier in the months ahead.
Italy: Islamist Hate Preacher Kicked Out
Quote:The government of Italy has expelled Imam Zulfiqar Khan this week following calls from Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini to remove the Pakistani national over his radical Islamist preachings.
Khan, 54, the imam of the Jacopo di Paolo mosque in Bologna, was removed from Italy on Tuesday on order of Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi over concerns about state security and “growing ideological fanaticism” displayed by Khan.
The removal order cited Khan expressing a fundamentalist vision of jihad, the exaltation of martyrs, and support for Hamas terrorists in the Israel conflict, according to Italian state news agency Ansa.
Broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana reported that in videos published between November 2023 and April 2024, Zulfiqar Khan lambasted Western powers such as the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy of supporting “impure zionists” by backing Israel in its conflict with Hamas terrorists.
In one video, the Bologna imam was seen calling for Allah to destroy the supposed oppressors of the Palestinians.
In another sermon, Khan is reported to have called homosexuality “a disease to be treated” and argued that all Muslims have the right to that every confront it “to avoid catastrophic consequences such as even the very extinction of the human race”.
Russia Adds More Countries to List of "Volunteers"
Quote:About 200 women ages 18-22 from across Africa have been recruited to work in a factory alongside Russian vocational students assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.
In interviews with The Associated Press, some of the women said they were misled that it would be a work-study program, describing long hours under constant surveillance, broken promises about wages and areas of study, and working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching.
The AP analyzed satellite images of the complex in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan and its leaked internal documents, spoke to a half-dozen African women who ended up there, and tracked down hundreds of videos in the online recruiting program to piece together life at the plant in what is called the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow.
What to know from AP´s reporting:
Russia and Iran signed a $1.7 billion deal in 2022 after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and Moscow began launching Iranian imports of drones later that year.
Satellite images show the plant at Alabuga quickly expanded.
It is now Russia´s main plant for making the one-way, exploding drones, with plans to produce 6,000 a year by 2025, according to the internal documents and the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
Facing a wartime labor shortage in Russia, Alabuga has recruited from African countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as the South Asian country of Sri Lanka. The drive is expanding to elsewhere in Asia as well as Latin America.
About 90% of the foreign women recruited via a campaign dubbed “Alabuga Start” manufacture drones, according to David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector now with the Institute for Science and International Security. The documents show the women largely assemble the drones, use chemicals and paint them. The AP has been told some women have left the plant but are discouraged from doing so by management.
The foreign workers travel by bus from their living quarters to the factory, passing multiple security checkpoints, according to one worker who assembled drones.
"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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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
