News of the World

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US NEWS

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Speaker Mike Johnson, White House Strike Spending Framework Deal

The bipartisan framework would set defense funding at $866 billion and non-defense spending at $704 billion for the current fiscal year, which is in line with the spending levels set with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), the debt limit deal struck by President Joe Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

The deal arose just about two weeks before funding for many government agencies was set to expire. The first tranche of agency funding was set to expire, while the remainder would end on February 2.

In his letter to House lawmakers, Johnson said that the “final spending levels will not satisfy everyone, and they do not cut as much spending as many of us would like.”

The Speaker said that the deal would remove in overall “$30 billion total reduction” from the Senate’s spending plans. He explained that there would be $10 billion in cuts to the IRS mandatory funding, and $6.1 billion from the “Biden administration’s continued COVID-era slush funds.”
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“It’s even worse than we thought. Don’t believe the spin. Once you break through typical Washington math, the true total programmatic spending level is $1.658 trillion — not $1.59 trillion. This is total failure,” the Freedom Caucus wrote.

Other News

Media Outlets Bury Revelation That Epstein Accuser Retracted Trump Allegations

On Monday, multiple media outlets ran reports of Trump having been named in the latest Epstein documents, but failed to note in the lede of their articles that the accuser had actually retracted those allegations in 2019.

Court documents made available on Monday included Epstein victim Sarah Ransome’s 2016 emails to the New York Post suggesting that she had Epstein-related sex tapes involving half a dozen prominent people, including Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and Sir Richard Branson.

Ransome, however, could not provide the tapes when asked, and no such footage has ever been uncovered.

Then in 2019, Ransome retracted her claims, according to the New Yorker, which reported that Ransome admitted to having “invented the tapes to draw attention to Epstein’s behavior, and to make him believe that she had ‘evidence that would come out if he harmed me.'”

Biden’s National Park Service to Remove William Penn Statue from Philadelphia

The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors. Welcome Park was designed by the internationally acclaimed design firm Venturi & Scott Brown Associates. The park is located on the site of William Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982.

The proposed rehabilitation of Welcome Park includes expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. The reimagined Welcome Park maintains certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches. The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled. In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline.

Damn it! The liberals are obsessed with rewriting history just because they hate how accurately it had been depicted for decades, sometimes even centuries.

More Than 300 Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested for Blocking NYC Bridges, Holland Tunnel

A massive mob of anti-Israel protesters took over three New York City bridges and Manhattan’s Holland Tunnel, leading to more than 300 arrests Monday morning.

The swarm of “Shut it Down for Palestine” demonstrators rallied through City Hall Park before descending upon the tunnel, as well as the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Manhattan Bridges.

Footage obtained by BreakThrough News shows members of the group standing, sitting, and holding banners across the roadways.

“You’re disrupting traffic, idiots!” one driver yelled as he was blocked in by the protesters at an intersection at the Williamsburg Bridge.

“You can’t do that! It’s against the law,” he shouted, as another man recording the incident yelled, “Hit ’em all! Run ’em over!”

The driver then got out of his vehicle, shoved three of the protesters, and warned them to stay away from his car as he screamed, “I have a daughter in Brooklyn! … I have to get home!”

Eventually, the group of demonstrators backed off.

EUROPEAN NEWS

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First the German farmers took it on Vice Chancellor Habeck, the main antagonist here, now it's against the government's policies including the aid to Ukraine...

The Crisis Never Stopped Being a Heavy Burden

Farmers Revolt! Tractor Protests Bring Germany to Standstill over Government’s Globalist Agenda

Farmers groups launched their planned week-long action to protest against the leftist coalition government’s plans to increase taxes on diesel fuel and eliminate the car tax exemption for farmers in addition to making deep cuts on the subsidies for the farming sector.

The proposed tax increases and funding cuts came as the government attempted to fill a 17-billion-euro ($18.6-billion) hole in the budget for 2024. Although the government was willing to seek to raise more money off the backs of German farmers, it was not willing to make any cuts in aid to Ukraine, which is set to double to eight billion euros this year.

Ahead of the planned week of protests from farmers, the government said that it would be willing to walk back some of the farming subsidy cuts and re-organise the tax increases over the next three years. However, the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) said that such moves would be insufficient to stave off the economic disaster facing many farmers throughout the country.

The nationwide protest on Monday has seen tractors shut down entrances to motorways, bridges, and tunnels in various states across Germany. According to broadcaster NTV, the farmers have closed access points to entire cities in the state of Brandenburg, including the urban area of Brandenburg an der Havel and Cottbus.

In Berlin, police reported that at least 566 tractors, as well as cars, trucks and vans, descended upon the city centre, blocking the Street of June 17th between the Victory Column and the Brandenburg Gate, where a candlelight vigil will be held later in the evening.

Production was also halted at a Volkswagen factory in Emden on Monday, with tractors blocking off access roads around the plant, preventing employees from getting to work.

Majority of Germans Back Return of Compulsory Military Service: Younger People Not So Sure

More than half of Germans of all ages – with one key cohort excepted – want to restore compulsory military service, a survey released Thursday reveals, as war on the European continent between Russia and Ukraine drags on into another year.

The revelation comes courtesy of a representative survey by the opinion research institute Insa and published by Welt. It shows 52 percent of respondents are in favor of armed service while 32 percent are against it.

Germany scrapped compulsory military service back in 2011 although a growing call for rearmament right across Europe is now forcing it to think again.

The polling sets out as the age of the respondent increases, agreement increases from just 30 percent among the youngest to 65 and 62 percent among the oldest respondents.

A relative majority of 18 to 29 year olds – the age group affected by compulsory military service – say no to the question, 49 percent, while among older people the positive view predominates at 43 to 65 percent.

The Welt story outlines shortly before Christmas, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) suggested conscription based on the “Swedish model.”

Germany Discovers New Energy Pipelines to Replace Russian Gas Have Been Sabotaged

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office is investigating “suspicions of unconstitutional sabotage” after holes were discovered drilled into a new gas delivery pipe installed to overcome the country’s dependence on imported Russian hydrocarbons.

Germany believes a number of one-centimetre (approximately half, or 13/32ths of an inch) holes have been “drilled” into a new gas delivery pipeline delivering the energy source to Germany’s national grid, an act of what is believed to be sabotage discovered in November but made public now. The exact cause of the damage or motivation behind an attempt to sabotage Germany’s energy imports is not known, but the Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitungsverlag reports Dutch-German energy company Gasunie has now confirmed the damage took place, and that they believe it was caused by “third-party intervention”.

The 35-mile pipe is intended to deliver gas brought to Germany aboard LNG carriers, which is cooled to a liquid state for safe transit at sea and re-gassified once it reaches the shore of the customer nation and then piped ashore. In this case, a floating LNG terminal receives and regasified the LNG at Brunsbüttel on the river Elbe and sends it ashore, and it was this pipe carrying the gas towards the national grid which was allegedly drilled several times.

The investigation has been taken over by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, underlining the seriousness with which the potential case of “unconstitutional sabotage” is being treated. The terminal was handed over to Deutsche Energy Terminal GmbH (DET) at the start of this year.

It is possible the sabotage could be related to the Ukraine-Russia war that necessitated the construction of the new LNG terminals in the first place, and The Times also notes they have been the subject of “heavy” protests by green activists too.

11 Killed in Russian Shelling of Donetsk While Ukraine Claims Successful Strike on Crimean Airbase

Eleven people were killed Saturday in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk province, according to regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin. Five children were among the dead and eight further people were wounded in the attack on the Pokrovsk district, he said.

Ukraine’s military claimed Saturday it successfully attacked the Saki military airbase in the west of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.

“Saki airfield! All targets were hit!” Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram. He also published a photo appearing to show the airfield, though it was not immediately possible to verify the image.

Russian officials did not comment on the alleged attack, but Russia’s Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Saturday that it had successfully downed four Ukrainian missiles over the peninsula overnight. Later on Saturday, the ministry reported that its air defense forces had shot down six anti-ship missiles over the Black Sea.

Traffic was temporarily suspended for a third straight day on a bridge connecting the peninsula, which Moscow seized illegally in 2014, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. The span is a crucial supply link for Russia’s war effort.

In Russia, local officials in Belgorod – some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border with Ukraine – said that an “air target” was shot down on approach to the city. Ukrainian attacks on Dec. 30 in Belgorod killed 25 people, officials there said, with rocket and drone attacks continuing throughout this week.

Russia Launches ‘Heavy Wave’ of Missile Strikes Against Ukraine, One Killed and Dozens Injured

Ukraine came under strong Russian missile attacks early Monday that struck near the front lines of fighting in the east as well as in central and western parts of the country, killing one person and injuring at least 30.

The heaviest casualty toll was in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where a woman died in a missile attack outside the city of Kryvyi Rih and 24 were injured in a strike on the town of Novomoskovsk. In Kryvyi Rih itself, more than 20 houses and a shopping center were damaged in a missile attack, said regional governor Serhii Lysak.

At least four missiles hit Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, injuring one person, said mayor Ihor Terekhov. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov also said two people were injured and two more were trapped under rubble after a strike on the village of Zmiiv.

In Zaporizhzhia, a major city along the Dnipro River, two people were injured in a missile strike on a residential district, said regional governor Yurii Malashko.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian troops conducted 131 artillery attacks on the Kherson region, killing two people and injuring five, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Kherson city and the surrounding region have been consistently targeted since Russian forces withdrew from the city to the eastern side of the Dnipro in the autumn of 2022.

At least six explosions shook the central Khmelnytskyi region on Monday morning, but there were no immediate details on casualties or damage.

The Ukrainian military said Monday that Russian forces made unsuccessful efforts to advance during the past day in several areas, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

ASIAN NEWS

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China Touts Freight to Europe as Houthi-Proof Alternative to Red Sea

China’s state-run Global Times on Sunday noted the Red Sea shipping crisis has entered its third month — despite the Biden administration ostensibly putting together a multinational security alliance to protect ships from the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen — so China is stepping in to offer its railroad network as a “viable alternative.”

Shipping demand is increasing as the Lunar New Year holiday approaches and long detours to avoid the Red Sea are both inefficient and expensive. The Global Times suggested companies like Maersk, which just announced the indefinite suspension of shipping through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, should think about the China-Europe freight train service instead.

Trains can make the trip in about 12 days, compared with about 40 days for ships, industry sources said.

But traders are grappling with price differentials. “The use of China-Europe freight trains is an option, but they run less often and often mean higher costs compared with ships,” Gao Yangjiang, general manager of Ningbo Rapid International Freight Agency Co, told the Global Times.

“More traders are using China-Europe freight trains, but there’s no fundamental solution to the Red Sea crisis at the moment. Rail shipping accounts for less than 3 percent of sea transportation, and it’s very difficult to increase that by even one percentage point,” Kang Shuchun, a director of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, told the Global Times on Sunday.

India Flexes Economic Muscle After Maldives Ministers Call PM Modi a ‘Puppet of Israel’

The government of the Maldives on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for making disparaging remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

One of India’s largest travel companies suspended bookings to the Maldives on Monday as the diplomatic row escalated, a serious step given how much the Maldives depends upon Indian tourism.

The controversy began when three deputy ministers in the Maldives Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Information, and Arts took umbrage at Modi for promoting tourism to the islands of Lakshadweep in a video.

Lakshadweep is an archipelago off the southwestern Indian coast that bears a considerable resemblance to the famed beaches of the Maldives. Modi paid a visit to Lakshadweep last week, went snorkeling, praised the natural beauty of the archipelago, and advised fellow “beach lovers” to give the islands a try.

Modi’s recommendation caused Indian search engine traffic for Lakshadweep to explode and, within a few days, global searches for the islands reached a 20-year high. MakeMyTrip, one of India’s top travel agencies, reported a 3,400-percent surge of interest in Lakshadweep on its website after Modi’s snorkeling adventure.

This news was not welcomed in the Maldives, where some residents felt Modi was trying to steal tourism revenue by touting Lakshadweep as an alternative. Modi’s government has indeed been sponsoring a celebrity campaign to convince Indian tourists to visit domestic attractions instead of traveling abroad. Last year, Modi suggested Indian couples should plan their weddings at domestic vacation spots instead of traveling abroad to get married.

People, it doesn't matter if Modi or Trump or Scholz did it, they are entitled to promote a local destination at any time. Even my small country has a Tourism Ministry and that's the kind of job they should be doing right now. Other countries might not like other nations' tourism campaigns but they should NEVER protest against that. No nation owns the tourists, they are free to choose their destinations at will.

MIDDLE EASTERN NEWS

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Several Attacks & A Not Very Serious Investigation

IDF: Leading Hamas Terrorist Hassan Hakashah, Based in Syria, Killed

Today (Monday), the IDF eliminated Hassan Hakashah in Beit Jinn in Syria. He was a central figure responsible for rockets fired by Hamas from Syrian territory toward Israel in recent weeks. Since the beginning of the war, Hakashah directed Hamas terrorist cells which fired rockets from Syria toward Israeli territory.

We will not allow terrorism from Syrian territory and hold Syria responsible for all activity emanating from its territory. The IDF will continue to act against any threat posed to the State of Israel.
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We will continue to operate against Hamas leaders, and today we also targeted a series of Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon, including military sites belonging to the organization. We responded with fire to areas from which launches were identified toward Israeli territory. As we have stated since the beginning of the war, we will not tolerate a threat near the northern border. We said it, and we mean it.
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Israel has been targeted by rockets from Hamas in Gaza; Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon; Hamas in Syria; and the Houthis in Yemen. All of these groups are funded and armed by the Iranian regime, which sits in Tehran, nearly 1,000 miles away.

Palestinian Authority Suggests Team-Up with Hamas, Islamic Jihad Terrorists to Rule Gaza

The leadership of Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in the West Bank, suggested creating a fusion government with the terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (IJ) to take control of Gaza, a report on Sunday claimed.

The “unity” government would reportedly take shape after Israel’s military operation against Hamas – a response to the terrorist atrocities of October 7 – was completed. Israel is not quite certain what Gaza will look like after the war is over, but its leaders have made clear they do not envision Hamas playing any role in its governance.

Jibril Rajoub, secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, reportedly said in December that a “great turning point” has been reached and the “time has come” for Fatah to reach a “compromise” with Hamas.
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Hamas certainly seems to see PA members as “potential martyrs,” having martyred a few themselves. After Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005, Hamas won a landslide election victory over the ostensibly more moderate and secular Fatah, an event that caused PA President Mahmoud Abbas to permanently lose his taste for holding elections. Hamas then violently expelled Fatah from Gaza in a vicious battle that concluded in 2007.

War with Hezbollah Looms as Blinken Visits Israel

Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon drew closer to war Monday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Israel on Monday evening.

Over the weekend, Hezbollah had launched a rocket attack on an Israeli base on Mount Meron, in northern Israel — a serious escalation of its attacks. In return, Israel attacked a Hezbollah command post in southern Lebanon, killing a major commander, reportedly Wissam al-Tawil (or “Jawad”) of the “elite” Radwan force.

Israel has warned Hezbollah for weeks not to open a second front in the war, as it battled Hamas terrorists in Gaza. As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has dismantled more and more of Hamas’s military capabilities, Hezbollah has faced more pressure to act.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his government’s warnings to Hezbollah, the Times of Israel reported:

In the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, Prime Minister Netanyahu tells IDF reservists that Israel prefers to restore security in the area without going to war with Hezbollah, but that it is ready to do so.

“Hezbollah got us wrong in a major way in 2006, and is getting us seriously wrong even now,” he tells soldiers from the 769th Regional Brigade.

IDF Kills Al Jazeera Journalist — Who Was Riding with Hamas Drone Operator

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that an Al Jazeera journalist and another reporter who were killed in an airstrike in Gaza on Sunday were riding in a vehicle with a Hamas terrorist who was a drone operator.

Al Jazeera’s role in covering the war has been under scrutiny, as it airs anti-Israel propaganda — and cuts off Palestinians who complain (much to the surprise of Al Jazeera reporters) about Hamas.

In Washington, DC, the Al Jazeera White House correspondent routinely challenges Biden administration policy on Israel.

On Sunday, Al Jazeera reported that three journalists had been killed in an Israeli airstrike near Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
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The IDF responds to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists in an Israeli airstrike the Gaza Strip earlier today, saying the pair, working for Al Jazeera, were in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone.

In response to a query on the matter, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit tells The Times of Israel that a military aircraft “identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft in a way that put IDF forces at risk.”

Short Open Editorial

People, this is something you should pay attention to from now on. Never stay close to a terrorist, no matter if you claim to be a doctor, a nurse or a journalist. That makes you a become a valid military target. In this particular case, they were following a drone operator.  What the heck were they thinking!?

If the journalists had been located a mile away from the terrorist and they had been hit by any missile or bullet, that would have been called a war crime. But that was not the case here, they were right at the terrorist's side.

The same principle is valid for hospitals that had been used as terror bases for terrorists. They even hid the hostages as previous reports have already denounced. Once they are used by terrorists or armies in any illegal way, they are committing war crimes and the places can be labeled as valid targets by any army.

Iran Claims All ‘U.S.-Backed’ ISIS Terrorists Tied to Soleimani Funeral Bombing Arrested

The Islamic State (ISIS), a Sunni jihadist organization that opposes Shiite terror hubs such as Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack. While the Islamic State has a history of taking credit for attacks it had no part in organizing, Iranian authorities have also said they believe ISIS to be the responsible party.

Mehdi Bakhshi, Kerman’s city prosecutor, confirmed on Iranian television on Saturday that suicide bombers executed the terrorist attack and claimed that Iranian law enforcement authorities had identified and apprehended 32 people involved in the planning of the attack.

“Thirty-two people have been arrested in [connection with] Kerman [terrorist] crime case and are going through preliminary interrogations,” Iran’s state-run Mehr News Agency quoted Bakhshi as saying, adding that the investigations into those individuals led to the discovery of another 16 bombs in Kerman province prepared for future attacks. Bakhshi insisted that the 32 arrested were all the individuals connected to the Soleimani funeral bombing.

The Iranian government has not made public at press time the identity of the suicide bombers directly responsible for the attack. Bakhshi did confirm this weekend, however, that one of the bombers was a Tajik national.