Quote:Russia on Friday began a sham three-day election engineered to give President Vladimir Putin another six years in power, with any likely rivals long since intimidated into dropping out, jailed, or killed.

On the latter score, supporters of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged Russians to cast protest votes against Putin as a final tribute to his most persistent political adversary.

Navalny supporters dubbed their protest strategy “Noon Against Putin.” Navalny himself endorsed the scheme in one of the last messages he sent to supporters before his mysterious death in an Arctic prison colony last month.

Participants were asked to visit their local polling station at noon, obtain a ballot, and then use it for some gesture of contempt or defiance — from tearing up the paper ballot to writing Navalny in as a candidate.

Actually voting for one of the candidates ostensibly running against Putin was considered the least effective means of registering discontent, since all of them are regarded as “puppets” of the Kremlin, planted in the race just to give Putin the illusion of meaningful opposition.

Navalny’s widow Yulia endorsed the protest and said she was heartened by the level of support her late husband still receives.

“Looking at you, I am convinced that everything is not in vain, and this thought gives me strength. Now you all know that there are actually a lot of us, all those who love and support Alexei, who share his ideas and, as long as we have each other, it’s not over,” she said.
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Navalny previously developed a tactic called “smart voting” that involved taking every opportunity to cast votes against Putin’s United Russia party, to leave him with the smallest possible presence in the legislature. Navalny’s allies compiled lists of opposing candidates and advised supporters on who they could vote for to deliver the maximum possible humiliation to Putin.

Quote:Both sides claim to have the upper hand in the Belgorod and Kursk regions after Kyiv-loyal forces staged a counter-invasion of Russian border areas this week, which is now in its fourth day.

War has come to the Russian mainland and the country will not be allowed to “live in peace” until it withdraws from Ukrainian territory, a top Kyiv official states as another announces Russian territory has become “an area of active combat actions”. Ukraine claims combat successes including the destruction of Russian military infrastructure inside Russia proper, but Moscow denies these claims out of hand, asserting its forces have prevented incursions and that all damage is down to a “massive” artillery attack by Ukraine.

As previously reported, three paramilitary units which Ukraine says are manned by Russian citizens opposed to the Vladimir Putin government launched cross-border strikes into Russia itself in the early hours of Tuesday morning. While similar attacks took place last year they were short-lived skirmishes, and the battles this week appear to be the largest of their kind in the war so far.

One of those anti-Putin Russian militias equipped by Ukraine, the Freedom of Russia Legion, said they have destroyed two of Russian army warehouses in the Kursk region and that they had advised local residents to evacuate from the impacted areas, or else stay indoors for their own safety. A spokesman for the group claimed thousands of civilian cars had attempted to make the journey, but Ukraine has stated Russian forces have been preventing would-be refugees from leaving, leading to claims they were using civilians as human shields.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency asserted his organisation had intercepted communications from Russia “stating that the main transport hubs are cordoned off by law enforcement, roadblocks have been set up” and that residents were being threatened with fines, or even losing their jobs is they attempted to flee.

The senior spy also spoke on Thursday to hail what the claimed success of the attack on Russia by “Russian citizens who, having no other options, are defending their civil right with arms against the Putin regime”. He said, as a result: “Kursk and Belgorod regions are now an area of active combat actions. This is what we confirm”.

Ukraine’s Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksii Danilov emphasised the counter-invasion was an act of revenge and that such actions would continue until Russia ended its war against Ukraine. He said: “I want to say that if Putin believed that the war would not come to Russia, he is deeply mistaken. It will come and it will come quite far… We will not let this monster live in peace until it gets out of our territory”.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported they had spoken to one anti-Putin militia leader, Denis Nikitin — who they described as a “notorious… white extremist” — who said the Russian resistance needs Western backers. He said, allegedly from a combat unit inside Russian territory: “If the West wants to win this war, they should help us … the only real opposition to Putin is us, Russian citizens who took up arms and are fighting … People in the West should ask themselves – do they want to actually stop Putin or do they want to just pretend they’re helping?”.

Quote:If Ukraine’s defence crumbled France would step in to prevent a Russian victory, President Emmanuel Macron has said, saying those leaders that call for limits to Western intervention have chosen “defeat”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has made yet another explosive intervention in the ongoing debate over Western involvement in Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion. The President continues to absolutely reject the general NATO position that donating arms and ammunition and providing training to help keep the country independent of Moscow is positive, but becoming directly involved as a combatant is not.

The suggestion there could be Western boots on the ground was unspoken until last month when Macron voiced it for the first time, and has refused to be cowed on it despite concerned reactions from other NATO leaders since.

Speaking to French television on Thursday night, President Macron said while he was deliberately vague about what exactly he had in mind to keep his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin guessing, nevertheless he believes the Ukraine war is “existential” to Europe and France and a Russian victory should not be permitted. He told his interviewers that: “If Russia wins the war in Ukraine, Europe’s credibility would be reduced to zero”, reports France24.

The comments came just hours before the President and his German and Polish counterparts met in Berlin on Friday to discuss Ukraine, a clear move by Macron to set the agenda for the meeting with leaders who have made clear they wish to avoid direct contact with the Russians.

A Russian victory in Ukraine would mean more wars in Eastern Europe, Macron predicted last night, and while France “will never go on the offensive” and draw first blood, nevertheless he clearly telegraphed it would be willing to step in to prevent a Ukrainian defeat. The President continued: “France is a force for peace… Today, in order to have peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak, and so we must look at the situation lucidly and say with determination, strong will and courage that we are ready to use all the means at our disposal to achieve our objective, which is that Russia should not win.”

Appealing to his allies, Macron fell back onto an argument he has used previously in recent weeks, that at the start of the Ukraine war the NATO allies said it would be too much of an escalation to send battle tanks to Kyiv, but eventually, they were sent. Then the West said it would be too escalatory to send cruise missiles, and yet they were delivered too. Anyone who chooses to limit what further support Ukraine might need in the future, he said, was choosing defeat.

Macron told the interviewer: “if we decided to be weak, if we decided today that we would not respond, it would be choosing defeat already. And I don’t want that”.

As stated by the French premiere, if Russia looked like it would win in Ukraine, NATO would end up fighting Moscow anyway, either in defence of Ukraine or later, when Russia moves on to “threaten Moldova, Romania and Poland”, as Macron said he believed they would.

Quote:Denmark is extending conscription, more than doubling the period of mandatory service, calling up more young people, and requiring women to enrol in the lottery for selection for the first time.

Women are to be conscripted into the Danish armed forces, as the nation’s leadership says it is seeking to deter aggression by being better prepared for war. Under the plan, which wouldn’t come into force until 2026, mandatory military service would dramatically increase from four months to 11, encompassing five months of training followed by six of service.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said protecting the nation is an honour for those conscripted, saying: “We do not rearm because we want war. We are rearming because we want to avoid it… we propose full equality between the sexes.” The Foreign Minister emphasised Russia does not pose a direct threat to Denmark, but expanding the military now is about preventing “ourselves [coming] to a place where they could come to do that”.

Defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen says the European security situation “has become more and more serious, and we have to take that into account when we look at future defense… a broader basis for recruiting that includes all genders is needed.”

As things stand presently, all men are required to report to a military depot on ‘Defence Day’ to be physically assessed to determine whether they are fit for callup, and then entered into a lottery. Although millions of people in Denmark are technically eligible to be conscripted, actually the nation’s military is one of the smallest in Europe and only around four thousand people are presently in mandatory service at any one time.

Under the plan, women aged 18 would also be obliged to attend Defence Day and enter the service lottery.

Between the increase in length of service by more than double, and a slight increase of the total number of conscripts by 300, the number of people serving in the Danish armed forces is forecast to grow by a not inconsiderate proportion in the coming years, leading those presently serving to ask whether the force is capable of absorbing more conscripts. The Danish Broadcasting Corporation reports there is already a shortage of housing, equipment, and senior soldiers in the armed forces, all of which would be put under extra pressure by the arrival of more recruits.

Quote:Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped by one-tenth last year as renewable energy grew in importance, the use of coal and gas diminished and economic pressures weighed on businesses and consumers, official data showed Friday.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, who is also the economy and climate minister, said Europe’s biggest economy is on course to meet its target for 2030 of cutting emissions by 65%, compared with 1990.

Germany aims to cut its emissions to net zero by 2045 and is working to ramp up the use of solar and wind power and other renewable sources.

The country’s environmental protection agency said that Germany emitted about 673 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2023, a decline of 76 million tons or 10.1%, compared with the previous year. It was the strongest decline since 1990.

The agency pointed to Germany’s “very successful expansion of renewable energies” but cautioned that progress in cutting emissions is not satisfactory across the board. It said more needs to be done in the transport sector in particular, for example by expanding electric mobility and cutting some subsidies.

Habeck’s ministry said projections for the coming years point to a decline in emissions by 2030 of nearly 64%, compared with 1990.

“Germany is on course, for the first time,” Habeck said in a statement. “If we stick to our course, we will reach our 2030 climate targets.”

That, he said, can be done with a recovering economy.

Germany was one of the worst-performing major developed economies last year, weighed down by high energy prices, global economic weakness and interest rate hikes to fight inflation. The country is home to many energy-intensive companies, including in the chemical and metal industries.

Quote:During an interview with CBS News on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith stated that Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden have all “pushed” NATO members to boost their defense spending to 2% of GDP and Trump does deserve “credit” for the increase in NATO members meeting the defense spending target and that having members meet their obligations “is ultimately good for the United States and good for our allies.”

Smith said, “What we decided ten years ago is that every member of this alliance should spend 2% of their own GDP on their own defense. And by investing in their own defense, it ultimately makes the alliance stronger, because we have better forces, better capabilities, and the ability to support one another for any threat that we might face. … [W]e started with just three allies in the alliance spending 2%, and this year, we’re going to be somewhere between 18 and 20 allies spending 2%. So, that’s a huge leap. I credit three U.S. Presidents: President Obama, President Trump, President Biden, they’ve all pushed on this. And now, we have two-thirds of the alliance spending what they need. We still have work to do. We’re going to get those other allies across the line in the next couple of years. Everybody has a plan in place, but, ultimately, the bottom line is, a stronger NATO means that it can help protect America’s interests, and it can help protect the interests of our allies. So, an alliance that is spending more is ultimately good for the United States and good for our allies.”

Later, Smith stated, “In terms of some of the rhetoric we’ve heard out on the campaign trail in the United States, what I will say is encouraging the Kremlin to attack NATO allies is absolutely irresponsible and irrational, but it’s also dangerous. It puts the lives of U.S. troops at risk, and it puts the lives of allied soldiers at risk.”

Quote:South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said on Sunday that citizens who fight on Israel’s behalf in the Gaza war will be arrested when they return home to South Africa.

“I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and who are fighting alongside or in the Israeli Defense Forces. We are ready. When you come home, we’re going to arrest you,” Pandor said at a “Palestinian solidarity” conference in Pretoria, which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) Party hosted.

Pandor encouraged ANC loyalists to make posters reading “Stop Genocide” and demonstrate outside the embassies of Israel’s “five primary supporters.” She did not name these countries, but the group would almost certainly include the United States and the United Kingdom.

“Don’t only come to this dinner. Be visible in the support of the people of Palestine,” she told the conference attendees.

Pandor’s comments followed up on a warning from the Foreign Ministry in December that people with dual South African-Israeli citizenship could be prosecuted and stripped of South African citizenship if they join the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) without approval from the government.

The Foreign Ministry expressed “grave concern” in December over reports that “some South African citizens and permanent residents have joined or are considering joining the IDF in the war in Gaza and in the other Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

This was evidently a reference to Israel’s Security Service Law, which stipulates that all citizens must enlist for military service, even dual nationals who do not reside in Israel.

Quote:Cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) top 230 million worldwide and show no sign of slowing down, UNICEF said in a report released Friday, citing a dramatic increase of 15 percent since 2016 with most cases being reported in Africa.

FGM can include partial or total removal of the clitoris as well as the labia minora, and suturing of the vaginal opening to narrow it, in the incorrect belief the cut can control women’s sexuality and make them more likely to be obedient to religious and social restrictions.

The practice has been known to cause fatal bleeding or infections, and can also have long-term consequences such as fertility problems, childbirth complications, stillbirth and painful sexual intercourse, AFP reports.

“It is indeed bad news. This is a huge number, a number that is bigger than ever before,” said Claudia Coppa, lead author of the report released to coincide with International Women’s Day.

The AFP report sets out Africa is home to the most number of FGM cases with more than 144 million, ahead of Asia (80 million) and the Middle East (six million), according to the survey of 31 countries where the practice is common.

“We’re also seeing a worrying trend that more girls are subjected to the practice at younger ages, many before their fifth birthday,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said in a statement.

“That further reduces the window to intervene. We need to strengthen the efforts of ending this harmful practice.”

The report also showed that four in every 10 survivors live in conflict-torn countries with high population growth rates, claiming political instability disrupts efforts prevent the practice and provide support to victims.

“Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sudan account for the largest numbers of girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation in conflict-affected countries,” the report said.

Quote:Hunter Biden tried to help Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked entity CEFC China Energy Co. purchase a maker of U.S. nuclear reactors in 2016, a strategy memo and testimony given to the House impeachment inquiry shows.

CEFC is closely linked to the CCP. The chairman of CEFC was Ye Jianming, who paid Hunter a $1 million retainer fee for legal services in 2017. Hunter also received a large diamond from Ye in February 2017 worth an estimated $80,000.

Ye “had direct abiding and deep ties to Chinese intelligence when they were arranging these ideals for the Bidens,” according to Breitbart News senior contributor and Government Accountability Institute president Peter Schweizer.

The memo obtained by lawmakers suggests CEFC’s goal was to exploit Hunter’s proximity to the Obama White House to allow the controversial deal to go through — all while shielding the transaction between CEFC and Westinghouse, the maker of nuclear reactors. Just the News first reported on the information obtained by lawmakers:

Congressional investigators recently obtained new memos and testimony about the nature of the plan to help CEFC gain a larger foothold in the global nuclear energy market by acquiring Westinghouse. One of Hunter Biden’s former business partners, Rob Walker, told Congress the future first son was involved, providing a letter to make the Chinese comfortable with the plan.
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This plan would place the appearance of a layer between CEFC—a China-based company with close connections to the ruling Chinese Communist Party and component of its national energy strategy—and the iconic U.S.-based energy company.
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At the time, Westinghouse was U.S.-based but owned by Japan’s Toshiba and one of the darlings of the nuclear industry with its new AP1000 reactor, a smaller and more advanced power generator. But it privately was suffering financial strife due to cost delays and overruns at a planned nuclear power plant in Georgia that would eventually force the company to file for temporary bankruptcy protection.

Hunter was not the only Biden attempting to help CEFC acquire business in the American energy sector. James Biden, brother of President Joe Biden, confirmed to the FBI in 2023 that his family tried to help CEFC purchase a U.S. liquid natural gas facility in Louisiana. James told investigators that he worked with Louisiana state officials to cut regulatory red tape to benefit the deal. The deal never materialized.

House investigators launched the probe into the Biden family in November 2022. They revealed Joe Biden received money from James and Hunter Biden. They also showed that nine additional Biden family members received payments from the family’s foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren.

Quote:It is crucial to continue to fight for former President Donald Trump, Peter Navarro, who faces prison for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena in a continuing battle of lawfare against Trump and those connected to him, said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday, offering these parting words: “Don’t cry for me, Argentina; fight for Donald Trump.”

Navarro served as a trade adviser to Trump and faces prison next week for refusing to comply with an order from the now-defunct House January 6 select committee. He filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court asking for intervention, and they have asked the Justice Department to respond by Monday afternoon — a day before he is due to be imprisoned. Meanwhile, Navarro also has a book coming out, The New MAGA Deal, which explores “the future policies and bold initiatives” of a second-term Trump administration.

“Do you believe they’re doing this to you because of what you stand for and because of the things that you talk about in this book — they are trying to silence you and keep you from being at Trump’s side pushing this America First agenda?” host Matthew Boyle asked.

Navarro confirmed there are a few chapters on lawfare, but he ultimately said he was indicted and held in contempt by a Democrat Congress when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had control.

Quote:On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas responded to questions on whether President Joe Biden will take executive action on the border to combat the surge at the border that is taking up resources by saying that “Executive actions in the past have been challenged in the court[s], and executive actions without the accompanying resources will not meet the moment.” And “We are always considering what we as an administration can do in the shadow of Congress’ failure to act, but we continue to believe that Congress must and can act. We must have them deliver the solution, rather than live with the problem.”

Co-host Amna Nawaz asked, “Now, we know the administration has been weighing executive action, under some kind of presidential authority that could bring those numbers down by restricting asylum access if people enter illegally. Will the President take that executive action?”

Mayorkas responded, “Amna, a couple of points: Very importantly, that what we are experiencing at the southern border is reflective of what the world is experiencing, the largest number of displaced people around the world since World War II, if not before then. And so, we mentioned the different nationalities of the individuals arriving at our border. That is what other countries across the Atlantic are experiencing and around the world, number one. Number two, the answer is exactly what the bipartisan group of senators presented to Congress, and that is legislation that provides for much-needed fixes to what everyone agrees is a broken system and much-needed resources to implement those fixes. Legislation is what is needed. That is what is enduring. Executive actions in the past have been challenged in the court[s], and executive actions without the accompanying resources will not meet the moment.”

Nawaz then asked, “But absent congressional action, because we know that that bill did not have a path forward in the Republican-led House, absent congressional action, does the President have authority? There is a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says he can suspend entry if he finds that entry of migrants is, ‘detrimental’ to the United States. Should he use that authority to bring down those numbers that you know are taxing resources in our system?”

Mayorkas answered, “We have not given up on Congress in terms of its ability to actually fulfill its responsibility to the American people. We are always considering what we as an administration can do in the shadow of Congress’ failure to act, but we continue to believe that Congress must and can act. We must have them deliver the solution, rather than live with the problem.”

Quote:On March 8, 2024, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman decided against a federal ban on gun ownership for illegal immigrant Heriberto Carbajal-Flores.

The case at hand centered on Carbajal-Flores, who was “charged with possession of a firearm while illegally or unlawfully in the United States.” He had a handgun in his possession “in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois,” on June 1, 2020. He was charged for being a non-citizen in possession for a firearm.

Carbajal-Flores sought twice, unsuccessfully, to have his indictment removed. But in his third attempt, a decision in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States’ Bruen (2022) decision, resulted in a different outcome.

Coleman, a Barack Obama appointee, countered government arguments against Carbajal-Flores’ firearm possession by noting:

The government argues that Carbajal-Flores is a noncitizen who is unlawfully present in this country. The Court notes, however, that Carbajal-Flores has never been convicted of a felony, a violent crime, or a crime involving the use of a weapon. Even in the present case, Carbajal-Flores contends that he received and used the handgun solely for self-protection and protection of property during a time of documented civil unrest in the Spring of 2020.

Coleman ultimately concluded, “The noncitizen possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5), violates the Second Amendment as applied to Carbajal-Flores. Thus, the Court grants Carbajal-Flores’ motion to dismiss.”

The case is United States v. Carbajal-Flores, No. 1:20-cr-00613 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Quote:President Joe Biden’s U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted a boatful of Haitian migrants and returned them to their society without triggering an avalanche of asylum claims, NBC News reported on March 15.

“The U.S. Coast Guard stopped 65 Haitians who were trying to flee Haiti by boat and sent them back to Haiti,” said NBC, citing an agency statement.

This policy suggests that Biden’s pro-migration deputies want to quietly avoid triggering a massive exodus of asylum-seeking migrants when many polls show escalating public opposition to his policy of importing poor workers and renters.

The sea interception prevents the migrants from reaching U.S. soil where they can apply for asylum. If they were allowed to reach U.S. soil to apply for asylum, their success would guarantee many more migrants — forcing Biden’s campaign deputies to either detain a large population of black Haitians or release them into U.S. communities during an election year.

The boat interception also suggests that Biden’s top aides have rejected a proposal to let the migrants travel to Guantanamo Bay for “processing.”

On Wednesday, CNN reported that White House officials were debating whether to process Haitian migrants using the base as a gateway for Haitians to get into the United States. “The Biden administration is discussing using Guantanamo Bay to process Haitian migrants if there is a mass exodus to the US amid worsening conditions in the country, according to a US official,” CNN reported on Wednesday.

So far, the White House has downplayed the threat of Haitian migration and media coverage of the sea interceptions — likely because it wants to minimize its embarrassment about blocking black Haitians while welcoming millions of southern migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Quote:Out of 25 major cities, Democrat-run Chicago is the only one to have experienced a net population loss compared to the year 2000.

Since 2000, Chicago has lost 231,000 people net despite the fact that the U.S. population has increased from 281.4 million to 341 million.

With 60 million more people, Chicago lost nearly a quarter of a million souls.

How is that even possible?

During the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022, the once-great Windy City lost a net total of 79,000 and 77,000 people, respectively. Between July 2022 and July 2023, that number slowed to a net loss of 16,000, which is considered the “normal” for a city in decline for the last quarter century.

The only cities that suffered a net loss of more population than Chicago in 2023 were the Democrat-run Los Angeles (down 71,000) and the Democrat-run New York City (down 65,000).

Meanwhile — in the sane state of Texas —Houston and Dallas saw a net growth of 100,000 each.

“In all,” reports Wirepoints, “the Chicago area lost more than 172,000 people during the pandemic period—the nation’s fourth-worst loss behind only New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.”

Since 2020, Democrat-run New York has lost 492,298 people. Los Angeles is down 379,447. San Francisco is missing 173,877. This isn’t just the insane pandemic lockdowns chasing people away. It’s the George Floyd riots, crime, taxes, and public schools tossing out academic basics while embracing grooming disguised as transgender nonsense.

Quote:Company officials say they will investigate after a Boeing plane operated by United Airlines was found to be missing an external panel when it landed in Medford, Oregon, on Friday.

The plane initially took off from San Francisco International Airport (SFO), NBC Bay Area reported, citing a statement from United which said the airport in Medford was its destination.

“After the aircraft was parked at the gate, it was discovered to be missing an external panel. We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service. We’ll also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred,” the statement noted.

There were 139 passengers and six crew members on board the Boeing 737-800. However, an emergency was not declared because there was no indication of damage as its journey progressed.

An image shows the exposed insides of the plane where the panel should have been after its landing:

Authorities at the Medford airport said the flight tower shut down flight operations to clear the runways, but Rogue Valley International Medford Airport director Amber Judd said they did not find any kind of debris or panels, therefore, the airport eventually resumed operations.

“The incident involving United Airlines flight 433 is the latest in a string of recent mechanical problems on United airplanes,” the NBC article said, highlighting several recent incidents that were connected to SFO.

Quote:Germany, France and Poland vowed Friday to procure more weapons for Kyiv and step up production of military equipment along with partners in Ukraine, promising that Ukraine can rely on the trio of European powers as it tries to overcome a shortage of military resources.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a hastily arranged summit of the so-called “Weimar Triangle” of the three countries. The meeting came as Russia votes in an election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin´s rule.

Scholz said he discussed what support is needed now with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.

“He knows that he can rely on us, and we are renewing this signal for support for Kyiv from here today,” he said after the meeting. “But a crystal-clear signal also goes to Moscow – the Russian president should know that we won’t let up in our support for Ukraine.”

Kyiv’s forces are hoping for more military supplies from Ukraine’s Western partners, but in the meantime, they are struggling against a bigger and better-provisioned Russian army that is pressing hard at some front-line points in Ukraine. The European Union´s plans to produce 1 million artillery rounds for Ukraine have fallen well short, while aid for Ukraine is being held up in the United States by political differences.

The German leader said that “starting immediately, we will procure even more weapons for Ukraine, on the overall world market.”

“Secondly, the production of military equipment will be expanded, including though cooperation with partners in Ukraine,” Scholz added. And he said that a new “coalition for long-range rocket artillery” will be set up, underlining a pledge made at a conference in Paris last month.

Scholz gave no details, and the three leaders took no questions. Macron reaffirmed France’s support for a Czech-initiated plan to buy ammunition and shells outside the European Union, but also gave no details.

Quote:Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has vowed to “occupy Brussels” in the lead-up to the European Parliament elections to protest against EU encroachment on national sovereignty and the push towards war with Russia.

Marking the anniversary of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution in the garden of the National Museum in Budapest on Friday, Prime Minister Orbán addressed thousands of supporters, calling for them to join him in protesting the globalist agenda in Brussels.

The conservative leader cast the impending European Parliament elections in June as a choice between “war or peace”, arguing that Hungary can “only prosper with peace” and therefore declared: “We have no other choice, we have to occupy Brussels… We will march to Brussels and bring change to the European Union ourselves.”

Orbán said that people in the Western world have become numb to the realities of war as they “think and live as if they came from nothing and go to nothing therefore they have no regard and, according to their conviction, there is no need to pay attention to anything and anyone.”

“They start wars, destroy worlds, redraw country borders and graze everything like locusts… they disregard the dead and deprive the unborn of their rights,” the prime minister said.

In contrast, Orbán said that the people of Hungary understand war: “Hundreds of thousands of dead, war invalids, widows, orphans, destroyed bridges, bomb funnels, tens of thousands of people made to run on the ground; a murderer and the life of a generation went to the last war.”

“We will not tolerate them ruining the farmers, destroying the middle class, bringing European companies to the ground, taking away the rights of nations, making our children debt slaves, and bringing the whole of Europe to war,” he added.

The Hungarian leader went on to argue that his country had been deceived by the European Union, saying that rather than peace and prosperity, Brussels has only brought war and “financial blackmail”, referencing the EU holding up joint funds from Budapest over the conservative nation passing legislation restricting LGBT ideology in education and children’s television programming, a refusal to open its borders to mass migration, and restrictions on abortion.

Quote:Ukrainian shelling of the Russian city of Belgorod killed two people, officials said Saturday, while Russia claimed to have thwarted a new attempt by saboteurs to cross the border.

Saturday´s attacks occurred as Russians entered the second day of voting in a presidential election that is all but certain to extend Vladimir Putin´s rule by another six years after he crushed dissent.

A man and a woman died in the attack and three other people were wounded, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app. It was the latest in exchanges of long-range missile and rocket fire in Russia´s war on Ukraine.

Five people were also wounded when a Ukrainian drone hit a car in the village of Glotovo, some 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Gladkov said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also said Saturday that it had thwarted attempts by “Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups” to enter the country from Ukraine’s Sumy region. That followed an armed incursion claimed by Ukraine-based Russian opponents of the Kremlin on Tuesday in the Belgorod and Kursk regions,

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that Moscow’s military and security forces killed 30 fighters while thwarting the latest incursion.

The Russian Volunteer Corps – one of the groups who claimed to have crossed the border on Tuesday, who say they are “fighting for the freedom of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples” – released a video on social media Saturday claiming to have captured 25 Russian soldiers.

Another of the groups, the Freedom of Russia Legion, warned of a “massive strike” on military bases in Belgorod late afternoon Saturday and urged residents to take shelter. Shortly afterward, Russia´s Ministry of Defense claimed that Russian air defenses had shot down 15 rockets over the Belgorod region. Videos appeared on local news sites, appearing to show smoke rising from buildings and falling shrapnel. The authenticity of the videos couldn´t be independently verified.

Cross-border attacks in the area have occurred sporadically since the war began and have been the subject of claims and counterclaims, as well as disinformation and propaganda.

Quote:New rules to combat extremism are well-intentioned but extremely flawed and open to abuse, potentially stifling freedom of speech, warns Nigel Farage.

The UK government is introducing new rules to prevent extremists from associating with the government and state bodies, depriving them of funding and legitimacy. But freedom of speech advocates warn while the intentions are noble, the government handing itself a new set of powers risks creating a means for future governments to suppress other ideas in the future.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage is one of those to voice his concern about how easily abused the rules could be, stating for broadcaster GB News — itself already the subject of something of a witch-hunt for trying something new in UK broadcasting — that “my concern is could this be open to abuse?”.

Farage said he absolutely supported the notion that no government money should be finding its way into the pockets of Islamists or Neo-Nazis, as stated by the government in their launch of the police. The problem, he said, is that the new rules being proposed are so open-ended and vulnerable to being radically re-interpreted by future governments, that it risks creating a potent tool to shut down debate on subjects they don’t want aired.

The extreme reactions of the state to unwelcome ideas, Farage said, is not a matter of future speculation but is a matter of fact. The Brexit leader illustrated his point with an anecdote from the first time he was elected to the European Parliament 25 years ago and was grilled by a top government man.

Farage told GB News:

My first day there, Sir Stephen Wall, he was the representative for the Foreign Office in the European Union, came to my office, sat with the three of us from UKIP that had been elected and said: “Gentlemen, what are your intentions?”

It was clear he thought we were an extremist terrorist group. And that’s the worry with all of this… I think it has the potential to be abused by governments that want to shut down debate on issues that they don’t like.

He had further said: “Had this definition been in place then, I very much doubt the electoral commission would have allowed me to stand as a candidate.”

Quote:A rubber dinghy carrying migrants sank off Turkey’s northern Aegean coast on Friday, killing at least 22 people, officials said.

Turkish coast guard personnel rescued two migrants from the sea off the town of Eceabat in Canakkale province, while two others reached the shore by themselves and notified officials, Gov. Ilhami Aktas said.

It was not clear how many people were on the boat when it sank and the coast guard was continuing to search the area, he said.

Aktas told the state-run Anadolu Agency that seven of the dead were infants or children.

The migrants’ nationalities were not immediately known.

They were trying to reach the Greek island of Samothraki, the private Demiroren News Agency reported.

Eighteen rescue boats, a plane, two helicopters and a drone were involved in the search and rescue mission, the statement said. Ambulances were on standby at a nearby port, Anadolu reported.

Although their numbers have declined in recent years, migrants mostly from the Middle East and Africa often leave Turkey to try to reach Greece or Italy in search of a better life in European countries.

The Turkish coast guard said it caught at least 93 migrants attempting to leave the Turkish coast on boats this week.

Quote:The IDF conducted its own investigation of the incident, and issued a statement rejecting Hamas’s claims:

On Thursday, 14 March 2024, the IDF facilitated the passage of a convoy of 31 humanitarian aid trucks containing food and supplies intended for distribution to civilians in the northern Gaza Strip.

Approximately one hour before the arrival of the convoy to the humanitarian corridor, armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy. As aid trucks were entering, the Palestinian gunmen continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks. Additionally, a number of Gazan civilians were run over by the trucks.

An intensive preliminary review conducted overnight by the IDF found that the IDF did not open fire at the at the aid convoy in Kuwait Square. A review of our operational systems and IDF forces on the ground found that no tank fire, air-strike or gunfire was carried out toward the Gazan civilians at the aid convoy.

The IDF is continuing to review the incident.

While the IDF continues its humanitarian effort to supply food and humanitarian aid to the civilians of the Gaza Strip, Hamas terrorists continue to harm Gazan civilians who are seeking food – and Hamas is blaming Israel for it.

As a result, on the first Friday of the month of Ramadan, a smear campaign was created with the aim of spreading baseless misinformation for the sake of instigating violence in other arenas.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has been known to fabricate claims of atrocities, notably in the supposed Israeli attack on a hospital in Gaza earlier in the war. That turned out to have been the result of an errant Palestinian rocket, and to have hit the hospital parking lot, not the hospital itself, killing roughly 50 people — not 500, as the ministry claimed.

Recently, an expert accused the ministry of fabricating death statistics that are often repeated by the media.

Quote:Former President Donald Trump on Saturday night forecast a financial “bloodbath” awaits the U.S. motor industry if he is not elected and China is enabled to swamp the country with their products.

The comments came at an Ohio rally hosted by the Buckeye Values PAC where he discussed the possibility of an increasing trade war with China over auto manufacturing in general and electric vehicle types in particular. Trump said:

If you’re listening, President Xi — and you and I are friends — but he understands the way I deal. Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now … you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us, no. We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected.

Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it […] It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars. They’re building massive factories.

Critics in the political arena and the general media were quick to wilfully manipulate Trump’s words and infer intentions on his behalf even after Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung made clear Trump had clearly been talking about the impact of offshoring on the country’s auto industry and his own plans to increase tariffs on foreign-made cars.

“Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are engaging in deceptively, out-of-context editing,” he said.

James Singer, a spokesman for President Joe Biden’s campaign, issued a statement following Trump’s remarks, noting that former Vice President Mike Pence announced he will not endorse Trump’s re-election bid.

“This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence,” Singer said.

If someone truly wants to play the Manson family in real life, don't you think they would tell you how exactly they'd kill other people? Or at least tell you who might be some of their first targets... Trump never did that. He was just talking about business because... he's been a businessman his whole life so to say!

Quote:A New York City man is suing Burger King for $15 million for allowing a location to be turned into an “open air drug bazaar” that’s ruining the surrounding neighborhood.

The restaurant in question is located on Fulton Street, just blocks away from City Hall. Despite its proximity to the office of Mayor Eric Adams (D), local resident Kevin Kaufman says a group of eight to 10 “professional drug dealers” have all but completely taken over the spot.

Kaufman, a 69-year-old filmmaker who has lived on the block for 20 years, said in the multi-million-dollar lawsuit filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court that the store is a “base of operation” for selling drugs.

In a recent investigation conducted by the New York Post, a group of eight men and one woman were seen blocking the store’s location for hours last Tuesday, “with one man acting as a doorman with a cup seeking change.”

When people made it inside the restaurant, they appeared to be offered drugs for sale by the horde.

Two of the men were reportedly spotted openly drinking vodka as another smoked marijuana and “peddled loose cigarettes to Burger King customers leaving the restaurant, passersby and his associates.”

Reporters from the Post even observed the group’s ringleader holding “meetings” while the alleged criminal activities were going on:

Members of the group repeatedly entered and exited the restaurant, never ordering food, and used the desolate space as their office. The apparent leader of the group sat at a table while sipping coffee from a Dunkin’ cup and holding meetings with associates. Another member plopped down at a window seat to monitor the traffic outdoors while rolling joints.

“We’ve reached out to every direction we can and the only ones that seem to be responsive and listening are the cops,” Kaufman told the publication. “Cops are doing everything they can to get rid of these people, but they’re handcuffed. It’s this idiotic bail reform. They have arrested a couple of people, but they are back within 24 hours.”

According to Kaufman, franchise owner Lalmir Sultanzada holds much of the blame.

The 66-year-old Long Island resident is an immigrant from Afghanistan who also owns a Popeyes, a Dunkin’ Donuts, and several other fast-food spots around the city.

Quote:Russians crowded outside polling stations at midday Sunday on the last day of a presidential election, apparently heeding an opposition call to protest against President Vladimir Putin in a vote that offered them no real alternatives.

Putin is poised to extend his nearly quarter century of rule for six more years after a relentless crackdown on dissent — and early returns announced after polls closed in Russia showed he had nearly 88% of the vote with 24% of the precincts counted, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission.

The election took place amid attacks within Russia by Ukrainian missiles and drones, which have killed several people. Polling happened in a tightly controlled environment where Putin only faces competition from three token rivals and any public criticism of him or his war in Ukraine is stifled.

Putin’s fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile. Beyond the fact that voters have virtually no choice, independent monitoring of the election is extremely limited.

Navalny’s associates urged those unhappy with Putin or the war to protest by coming to the polls at noon on Sunday — and lines outside a number of polling stations both inside Russia and at its embassies around the world appeared to swell at that time.

Among those heeding call was Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, who joined a long line at the Russian Embassy in Berlin as some in the crowd applauded and chanted her name.

She spent more than five hours in the line and told reporters after casting her vote that she wrote her late husband’s name on the ballot.

Asked whether she had a message for Putin, Navalnaya replied: “Please stop asking for messages from me or from somebody for Mr. Putin. There could be no negotiations and nothing with Mr. Putin, because he’s a killer, he’s a gangster.”

Some Russians waiting to vote in Moscow and St. Petersburg told the Associated Press that they were taking part in the protest, but it wasn’t possible to confirm whether all of those pictured in line were doing so.

Joining a line at a polling station around noon in Moscow, a woman who said her name was Yulia told the AP that she was voting for the first time.

“Even if my vote doesn’t change anything, my conscience will be clear … for the future that I want to see for our country,” she said. She, like others, didn’t give her full name because of security concerns.

Another Moscow voter, who also identified himself only by his first name, Vadim, said he hoped for change, but added that “unfortunately, it’s unlikely.”
Independent Russian media posted images of spoiled ballots posted by voters, with “killer and thief” inscribed on one, and “waiting for you in The Hague” written on another, in a reference to an arrest warrant issued for Putin on war crimes charges related to his alleged responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

Why do I now deeply suspect that those independent media mentioned above won't remain open for another month or so?

Quote:The Supreme Court denied former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro’s motion to avoid jail time over his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 committee in 2022.

“Departing from the practice in most serious or high-profile legal fights, [Chief Justice John] Roberts ruled on Navarro’s request himself, without referring it to the full court,” noted Politico. “The chief justice noted that a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that Navarro failed to raise several challenges to the fairness of his conviction when he first sought to remain free pending appeal.”

In his one-page order, Roberts appeared to keep the door open for Navarro to challenge the initial convictions, writing, “I see no basis to disagree with the determination that Navarro forfeited those arguments in the release proceeding, which is distinct from his pending appeal on the merits.”

As AFP reported, the 74-year-old Navarro was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena:

Navarro, 74, a Harvard-educated economist, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress by a federal jury in Washington in September after a two-day trial.

US District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced him to four months in prison — two months less than prosecutors had requested — and ordered him to pay a fine of $9,500.

Judge Mehta reportedly said at the time of Navarro’s sentencing, “You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution. These are circumstances of your own making.”

Quote:Moments after a 4 p.m. deadline passed, the U.S. Supreme Court placed an indefinite hold on the controversial Texas SB4 Immigration Law. Justice Samuel Alito issued another order temporarily blocking the bill from taking effect.

The last-minute intervention does not specify a timeframe for the latest pause. For now, state law enforcement officers will not be prosecuting, jailing, or deporting migrants who enter Texas illegally from Mexico.

The new law would allow state and local law enforcement officers to arrest and prosecute migrants illegally entering the state. The law provides stiff penalties for illegal entry into the United States through Texas. It also provides a mechanism for migrants to be removed from the United States as part of their sentencing process for the crime of illegally entering the state.

The federal court wrangling on the constitutionality of Texas’ new immigration law has seen the law blocked, reinstated, and paused by the Supreme Court on three occasions.  In late February, Austin’s Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra halted the implementation of Senate Bill 4, which was to take effect on March 5, citing the federal government’s supremacy over the enforcement of immigration laws.

In his decision, Ezra stated, “For the past century, Texas has relied on its expansive police powers afforded to it under the Constitution to regulate crime within its borders. Texas may continue to do so, but it cannot regulate the federal field of unlawful entry and removal.”

Texas filed an appeal of Ezra’s ruling on the matter leading up to a Saturday federal appeals court ruling that granted a seven-day hold barring enforcement of the law from allowing the Biden Administration to elevate the matter to the United States Supreme Court. Under the appeals court ruling overturning Ezra’s initial order, the law would have gone into effect on March 9 had the Supreme Court not stepped in.

Texas SB4 mirrors a current federal statute under Title 8 of the United States Code 1325, which makes illegal entry into the United States a misdemeanor for a first-time offender and a felony for a second offense. Under the Biden administration, the federal statute has not been pursued to any significant degree.

Quote:The allegation of sexual assault from 31 years ago against Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been detailed months after the initial lawsuit was filed.

As Breitbart News reported in November 2023, an unidentified woman filed a lawsuit against the mayor, alleging he sexually assaulted her while the two were working together in 1993. On Monday, the New York Times reported that Adams allegedly “asked a colleague for oral sex in exchange for career help in 1993 and sexually assaulted her when she refused.”

Filed in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act, which provided New Yorkers a one-year window to bring lawsuits over sexual assaults that may have occurred decades ago, the woman said the incident allegedly happened when she and Adams worked together at New York City’s transit police bureau. At the time, she had asked him for career help after having been passed up for a promotion. In the 26-page complaint, the woman claimed that Adams drove her to “a vacant lot and requested oral sex.” When she declined, Adams then allegedly “forced her to touch his penis and ejaculated on her leg.”

“The effects of that sexual assault, betrayal and astonishing abuse of power, continue to haunt the plaintiff to this day,” the lawsuit said.

The woman claimed that she feared for her life at the time due to Adams’ then-status as a police officer with a loaded gun.

Mayor Eric Adams has denied the sexual assault allegation since the lawsuit was filed in November 2023.

“That is not who I am,” he said at a community meeting in December. “I want to be very clear: Never happened. I don’t even know who the person is. I don’t even remember if I ever met them before.”

The woman now lives in Florida and reportedly stopped working for the city in 1994. The lawsuit also seeks $5 million in damages and names the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) transit bureau and the Guardians Association — a fraternal organization of Black police officers that Adams had been active in at the time — as defendants...

Quote:Bloomberg reported on March 11 that Tyson is working with the nonprofit group Tent Partnership for Refugees in the hiring project that centers on those who have come through New York City’s intake system.

The company already has approximately 42,000 immigrants in its workforce, the report said.

“We would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them,” said Tyson Human Resources leader Garrett Dolan. On Saturday, Fox Business reported the company is pushing back against the news and has accused the Bloomberg article of “misinformation.”

The outlet reported:

“In recent days, there has been a lot of misinformation in the media about our company, and we feel compelled to set the record straight,” Tyson said in the statement. “Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, and we led the way in participating in the two major government programs to help employers combat unlawful employment, E-Verify and the Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program.”

“Tyson Foods employs 120,000 team members in the U.S., all of whom are required to be legally authorized to work in this country,” the statement adds. “We have a history of strong hiring practices, and anybody who is legally able is welcome to apply to open job listings.”

The Bloomberg article noted the Tent Partnership for Refugees group was founded by Chobani’s Hamdi Ulukaya. He is a Turkish-born billionaire with ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative, John Podesta, and other globalist figures, Breitbart News reported in 2016.

In 2018, Ulukaya said America should have an immigration policy based on “humanity,” the outlet reported at the time.

Quote:Multinational food conglomerate Tyson Foods is suffering a backlash after laying off 1,200 American workers only to turn around and announce that it would like to hire 42,000 illegals in their place.

The food giant announced that it was shutting down an Iowa pork factory that will lead to the elimination of 1,200 jobs, but even as the plant announcement was made, the company also reported an effort in Manhattan to hire thousands of illegals for a plant in Tennessee, Fox Business Network reported.
...
The announcement, though, brought Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) to attack Tyson for the firing of Americans while hiring illegals.

“We’re certainly going to look into whether we can change that, assuming Tyson is operating legally,” Vance said on Jesse Watters Primetime. “All we know is that they are firing American workers and hiring illegal aliens to replace them. This is the entire point of illegal immigration — and Republicans, we’ve got to hammer this point home.”

Meanwhile, the company is suffering a major backlash on social media where thousands of Americans are advocating for their friends to support a boycott of the company.

After the backlash started, Tyson jumped into damage control mode and pushed out a statement saying they oppose illegal immigration.

“In recent days, there has been a lot of misinformation in the media about our company, and we feel compelled to set the record straight,” Tyson said in the statement. “Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, and we led the way in participating in the two major government programs to help employers combat unlawful employment, E-Verify and the Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program.”

Quote:National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Monday that President Joe Biden had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to oppose Israeli plans to attack Hamas in the city of Rafah.

Sullivan added that the president had asked Netanyahu an “interagency” team of military, defense, and humanitarian officials by “the beginning of next week” to meet with U.S. officials in Washington and negotiate over a Rafah operation.

He said that the Biden Administration might approve limited, targeted strikes in Rafah, but would refuse a broader Israeli invasion of the town, saying that such an invasion would put civilians and humanitarian aid corridors at risk.

Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas, on the Egyptian border in Gaza. It is home to the last four battalions of Hamas, and is thought to be where Hamas leaders are hiding and keeping Israeli hostages. It is also a key smuggling route.

Biden has publicly opposed any Israeli operation in Rafah since February, at least until there is a plan to evacuate the one million Palestinian civilians who have fled there. Netanyahu has said that not to invade Rafah is to lose the war.
...
Sullivan said that Biden had specifically criticized Netanyahu’s plans to attack Hamas in Rafah. Sullivan said that Biden had addressed what he called a “straw man,” the “nonsense” argument that to refrain from attacking Hamas in Rafah means giving up on defeating Hamas.

Instead, Sullivan said, Biden stressed that Hamas could be defeated without an invasion of Rafah. Sullivan did not elaborate as to how Biden proposed to convince Hamas to surrender without a fight.

Sullivan quoted Biden as saying that Israel needed to adopt a long-term “strategy” that included a Palestinian state. (Presumably, Hamas would be coaxed out of its tunnels, and away from its weapons, by the prospect of such a state.)

Sullivan said that the fact that Hamas terrorists had returned to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City — he emphasized, for whatever reason, that Hamas terrorists had fired “back” at Israeli soldiers” — was not proof that Hamas needed to be defeated militarily, but rather that Israel had failed to maintain control of areas it had already cleared out in Gaza.

Sullivan also claimed, bizarrely, that Israel interferes in American politics — a claim for which he gave no evidence.

Is this how you wanna treat your own ally, Biden?

Quote:Former President Donald Trump said that Israel should “finish” the war in Gaza against Hamas “quickly” so that the world could return to “peace.”

Trump’s remarks came in an interview with Howard Kurtz of Fox News.

Left-leaning Axios spun Trump’s remarks as encouraging Israel to give up the war.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying since February that he, too, wants to end the war, in “weeks … not months” by attacking the last Hamas stronghold in the city of Rafah.

The Biden Administration has been opposed to an Israeli attack on Hamas in Rafah, ostensibly because of concern for Palestinian civilians — though arguably civilian suffering would be less if Hamas were defeated quickly.

More cynically, critics believe that the Biden Administration is using Hamas’s survival as a way to gain leverage over Israel and force Netanyahu to accept a Palestinian state, run by the Palestinian Authority government.

Meanwhile, the drawn-out debate over Rafah — including a demand by Biden for talks with Israel in Washington — has arguably made the suffering of Palestinian civilians worse than it would have been if Israel had been allowed to defeat Hamas quickly.

Earlier this month, Trump told Fox News that Israel should “finish the problem” and defeat Hamas. He added that the war would never have taken place if he were president.

Hamas was relatively quiet during the four years of Trump’s administration, after several wars during the Obama administration.

Trump also told Kurtz that Biden had told Netanyahu to “walk.” Trump and Netanyahu have had a frosty relationship ever since Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Quote:A Lebanese migrant apprehended near El Paso, Texas, reportedly claims to be a Hezbollah terrorist. The Lebanese national claimed to be headed to New York and said he wanted to make a bomb.

Border Patrol agents arrested 22-year-old Basel Bassel Ebbadi, a Lebanese national, after he illegally entered the United States from Mexico near El Paso. “I’m going to try to make a bomb,” Ebbadi told Border Patrol agents when asked why he came to the U.S., according to an exclusive report by the New York Post.

Agents captured Ebbadi on March 9 after he crossed the border from Mexico into Texas. The agents transported the Lebanese man to the El Paso hardened facility for processing and investigation. Two days later, Ebbadi told the agents he was going to make a bomb. The agents moved the man to isolation and contacted the Tactical Terrorism Response Team to conduct an interview.

During the interview on March 12, agents Mirandized the man who later admitted to being a member of a foreign terrorist organization.

Ebbadi also reportedly admitted he trained with Hezbollah for seven years and served as an active member for an additional four years. His duties included guarding weapons locations.

Quote:Haiti’s National Police carried out a series of operations in Port-au-Prince this weekend against the armed gangs led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, who are making a play to control the country after forcing Prime Minister Ariel Henry into exile.

The operations reportedly saw the removal of roadblocks in the Haitian capital neighborhood of Delmas by the police on Friday. On late Saturday evening, police officers swarmed the gang-controlled Delmas neighborhood, clashing with men from Cherizier’s gangs and leading to an exchange of gunfire. Police reportedly killed an undetermined number of gang members and seized their weapons in the clash. It is not known if Cherizier was in the Delmas neighborhood at the time of the operation.

“New strategies are being implemented by the police with the aim of recovering certain areas occupied by these armed gangs in recent days, in order to facilitate the free movement of peaceful citizens,” a police statement reportedly read.

Haiti’s National Police is considered one of the last functional institutions of the Haitian state after Cherizier and his gangs took control of the country and forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce last week that he would resign.

The police continue to fight the gangs, which are more akin to organized armed militias than small gangs of young men, for control of Port-au-Prince’s blocks. Gangs are believed to be presently in control of at least 80 percent of the city, leading to widespread reports of killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence.

Sources from the Haitian police told CNN on Monday that they have begun relying on the local anti-gang vigilante movement known as Bwa Kale (a slang term for street justice) that surged in 2023.

“We constantly receive threats; they say they will come and attack us, destroy the neighborhood. So we block the streets and the police to do the searches; no civilians are involved in searching cars,” an anonymous Bwa Kale member told CNN, adding that the group is armed only with “machetes and our bare hands.”

Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, who is currently acting as interim prime minister, released a statement on March 14 in which he ordered the police to use “all legal means at their disposal” to enforce a curfew imposed on March 7 and extended through March 20 on Monday.

UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell compared Haiti’s current chaotic situation to a scene out of the 1979 movie Mad Max in an interview given to CBS News on Sunday.

Really, when anybody is able to compare any given situation to a post-apocalyptic movie, something's gone beyond terrible already!

Quote:The State Department on Saturday announced it was arranging a charter flight for U.S. citizens stuck in Haiti departing from Cap-Haïtien International Airport, but warned that they would have to get to the airport on their own and that the nearly six-hour drive from Port-au-Prince is “dangerous.”

“We are arranging a charter flight for U.S. citizens with valid U.S. passports from Cap-Haitien to the U.S. Travel to Cap-Haitien is conducted at your own risk,” the State Department’s X account posted.

It added in a security alert posted to its website that the flight depended on whether or not the security situation in Cap-Haïtien remained stable, and noted:

The overland trip from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien is dangerous. We recommend you consider the Cap-Haitien flight only if you believe you can reach Cap-Haitien airport safely. We cannot provide overland travel from other parts of Haiti to Cap-Haitien. We continue to work on options for departures out of Port-au-Prince and will let you know about them as soon as we are able to safely and securely arrange them.

It added:

The security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous. Travel within Haiti is conducted at your own risk. The U.S. government cannot guarantee your safety traveling to airports, borders, or during any onward travel. You should consider your personal security situation before traveling anywhere in Haiti. Only attempt to depart Haiti or travel within Haiti if you believe it is safe for you to do so.

It is not clear how many flights will be flown.

The alert added that U.S. citizens choosing to depart using “U.S. government coordinated flights” must sign a promissory note agreeing to reimburse the government for the flight.

So it's no longer a duty to extract their own citizens but a business oportunity only!!

Quote:Hundreds of Cuban citizens took to the streets of Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo on Sunday to protest against power blackouts, severe food shortages, and the total lack of political rights under communism in the country.

The peaceful protesters – who chanted “Electricity and Food,” “Fatherland and Life,” and “Freedom” – reportedly began to gather on Sunday afternoon, demanding an end to communism and the inhumane living conditions that the Castro regime continues to subject them to. The protest was reportedly initiated by a group of women and their children.

Cuba’s economic situation has deteriorated significantly in the past decade as more than six decades of communist rule have left the nation and its infrastructure in complete ruin, prompting the worst economic and migrant crisis in the nation’s history.

Power blackouts that can last 20 hours per day, which have plagued Cuban citizens for years, have dramatically worsened in recent weeks. Castro regime authorities admitted over the weekend that entire regions of the country are enduring blackouts “practically all day.” The daily blackouts now include the capital city of Havana – which had previously been spared from the worst consequences of the government’s failure to maintain the power grid. Similarly, worsening food shortages and inflation have led to rising hunger in the nation.

The Sunday afternoon peaceful protests began in the streets of eastern Santiago de Cuba, extending to other areas as the day went by.

Quote:He Xiaopeng, the CEO of XPeng Motors, predicts a “bloodbath” against America’s auto industry with the help of cheap China-made electric vehicles (EVs).

Over the weekend, former President Donald Trump was campaigning in Andalia, Ohio, when he warned that without fierce new United States tariffs on China-made EVs, the American auto industry will face “a bloodbath for the country” with jobs lost and industry offshored.

“We’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected,” Trump said. “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole, that’s going to be the least of it, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country, that’s going to be the least of it.”
Trump’s remark mimicked comments made by Xiaopeng in a letter to XPeng employees obtained by CNBC last month. Xiaopeng suggested that “a bloodbath” is coming for the American auto industry this year.

China seeks to deliver a “brutal knockout round” against its Western competitors, including the U.S., in the global EV market, Xiaopeng said.
CNBC reported:

“This year also marks the beginning of a fierce competition that may end in a ‘bloodbath’ (or as I prefer to call it, the brutal ‘knockout round’) among Chinese auto makers,” Xiaopeng wrote in the employee memo.

“XPeng has engaged in this cutthroat competition right from the outset, thus accumulating considerable experience. Our guts, grit and perseverance, I firmly believe, will lead us to victory.”

As Breitbart News reported, the corporate media and President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign were quick to jump on Trump’s remarks and characterize them as a warning of political violence if he does not win this year’s election.

So when will any liberal news media start covering this mention of bloodbath as a direct incitation to violence on behalf of the CCP?

Quote:The government of Pakistan confirmed the execution of “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations” within Afghanistan on Monday, outraging the Taliban, which claimed to have responded by bombing Pakistani military bases “with heavy weapons.”

The relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan has been tense since the terrorists seized Kabul in August 2021, the direct result of leftist American President Joe Biden’s decision to extend the already two-decade-old war in Afghanistan beyond the May 2021 deadline set by predecessor former President Donald Trump. A report published in February 2023 found that Biden left an estimated $7.2 billion in military equipment in Afghanistan, now believed to be under the control of Taliban terrorists and their allies.
Islamabad has blamed the Biden administration’s poorly executed extension of the war and the subsequent abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops for a “recent resurgence in terrorism” on the Pakistani border. Evidence indicates that the weapons Biden abandoned in Afghanistan have fallen in the hands of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistani Taliban, which is a separate entity from the Afghan Taliban (the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”) but enjoyed an alliance with the Kabul-based terror organization.

Pakistan has increased its military operations against the TTP and other jihadist elements on the Pakistani-Afghan border, as well as launched a massive campaign to deport nearly 2 million Afghans present in the country illegally. On Monday, the Pakistani Foreign Office confirmed the execution of airstrikes on Afghan soil allegedly targeting the Hafix Gul Bahadur Group, which it claimed was affiliated with the TTP.

The statement from the Foreign Office angrily condemned the Taliban for allowing a threat to Pakistan’s national security to persist on the soil it claims to control. Pakistani officials claimed that they had successfully neutralized a TTP terrorist named Abdullah Shah, but a man claiming to be Shah published a video shortly after the attacks declaring himself alive and active in jihad.

 You think?

Quote:Israel accused Hamas on Monday of using hospitals as “human shields” again as terrorists fired on Israeli soldiers from within Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Shifa Hospital was notorious earlier in the war, when Israel claimed — then proved — that the facility had been used to hide terrorists, to move hostages, and to cover up underground Hamas facilities.

Early Monday morning Israel time, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israel was conducting a limited operation at the hospital, protecting hospital operations while targeting Hamas terrorists.

The IDF also said in a statement that terrorists had been firing at Israeli soldiers “from a number of hospital buildings.” It added: “The forces engaged the terrorists and identified several hits.”

One of those hits was apparently a senior Hamas commander. In a joint statement, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, also known as the “Shin Bet” or “Shabak”), said:

Following IDF and ISA intelligence indicating the presence of senior Hamas terrorists in the Shifa hospital, IDF and ISA forces conducting precise operational activity in the compound eliminated Faiq Mabhouh, head of the Operations Directorate of Hamas’ Internal Security. He was also responsible for coordination of Hamas terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip.

Faiq Mabhouh was eliminated in an encounter with the troops while armed and hiding in a compound at the Shifa hospital, from which he operated and advanced terrorist activity. Numerous weapons were located in the room adjacent to where he was eliminated.

The IDF also released other evidence of terrorist activity at the hospital:

In a briefing to reporters on Monday, Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman described the IDF operation at Shifa Hospital and reiterated that Hamas uses hospitals and civilians as human shields, which is a war crime.

Asked by Breitbart News to comment on whether the U.S. Senate was withholding military aid until Israel held new elections, as demanded last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Hyman declined to comment.

Quote:Sending NATO troops into Ukraine would trigger a “Third World War”, warned Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, who went on to accuse French President Emmanuel Macron of exploiting the war for personal political purposes.

Senior Italian government officials castigated President Macron for his recent spate of militaristic suggestions that NATO soldiers could be deployed to Ukraine and therefore potentially engage with Russia.

Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said that Italy’s position is “very clear”, saying that while Rome plans to continue supporting Kyiv’s fight to fight back the Russians, both through financial and military aid, this does not mean Italy is at war with Russia and, therefore, there will be “no direct intervention by our military in that conflict is envisaged, with tanks, planes or men.”

“It has never been discussed within NATO and we don’t understand why today we need to evoke such a scenario, which would have very dangerous consequences, even a Third World War,” Tajani warned.

“Our goal is to achieve peace, not to widen the war. This is why we help Ukraine to resist, this is why they will not be left alone, to reach an end to hostilities without one state having occupied the other. But it has nothing to do, I stress, with our direct intervention,” he told the Milan-based Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The senior Italian politician went on to suggest that President Macron might be engaging in political posturing, noting that the “electoral campaign” for the European Parliament elections is in full swing, with voters set to head to the polls in three months. Macron — who is coming off a disastrous year plagued by riots, strikes and political chaos — is currently trailing far behind Marine Le Pen’s populist right-wing National Rally party, which is projected to come in first place in France; an outcome that would likely damage Macron’s standing at home and abroad.

“I don’t understand, I don’t know if it’s the electoral campaign that has an impact, influencing the attitude of many leaders when it comes to voting. Maybe he wants to highlight the differences with pro-Russian parties like Le Pen’s. But we are in a completely different position,” Tajani said.

Quote:Spanish police have arrested three people for the deaths last November of five migrants who were threatened with a machete and forced to jump off the boat they were traveling in with dozens of other migrants, authorities said Monday.

According to a police statement, the five died on Nov. 29 off the southern coast of Cádiz. The police said two men and a woman were arrested earlier this month but gave no further details.

The people smugglers had threatened the five with a machete and forced them to jump into the Atlantic Ocean despite the strong currents and cold temperatures.

Thirty-seven migrants had traveled in the boat from Kenitra, Morocco. The statement said the migrants had paid between 3,000 euros ($3,270) and 12,000 euros ($13,000) for a place in the boat.

Video images in November showed many of the other migrants being forced out of the vessel closer to land, before the smugglers sped off in the powerful boat. Police said they found the boat and some documents later, which helped in tracking down the three suspects.

Four of the bodies were recovered within hours and a fifth was found days later. The migrants were identified with the help of DNA samples from a family in Morocco.

Tens of thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan countries try to reach Spain each year in large open boats launched from northwest Africa. Most go to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, while others from Morocco, Algeria and Middle Eastern countries try to cross the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean to mainland Spain.

Several thousands die making the hazardous journey.

Quote:A riot broke out on Sunday evening at a police station in a multicultural suburb of Paris following the killing of an 18-year-old man during a police chase.

Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and other makeshift projectiles were thrown at the La Courneuve police station, in Seine-Saint-Denis, the home to one of the largest foreign-born communities in France. Trash fires were also set ablaze by the agitants.

Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez announced on Monday morning that nine people have been arrested in connection to the riot, Le Figaro reports. Nuñez added that two police officers were injured by projectiles during the incident, however, they did not require hospital attention.

Security around the police station and additional officers have since been deployed to the area.

The riot was reportedly inspired by the death of ‘Wanys R’, an 18-year-old, who died on Sunday as he and a companion fled from police on a scooter. The scooter was hit by an anti-crime brigade police car coming from the opposite direction after being called upon as backup for the chase. The young man, who was thrown from the vehicle, later died from his injuries at a hospital.

According to reports, Wanys R was well known to police and had recently been released from prison.

Reda Belhadj, a spokesman for the SGP Police FO Ile de France blamed the riot on the death of the youth, saying: “They were claiming a vendetta to follow up the events in Aubervilliers,” which he said rioters believe was a “premeditated” killing.

A similar incident last year sparked nationwide riots in France. In June, a 17-year-old Algerian-heritage teenager, Nahel Merzouk, was shot and killed by police after he attempted to flee from a traffic stop in the Nanterre suburb of Paris.
...
The former presidential candidate for the far-left New Anticapitalist Party, Philippe Poutou, celebrated the riots on Sunday evening, writing on X: “Nice fireworks this evening in front of the La Courneuve police station. Support for legitimate anger after yet another young person was killed by the police. Logical continuation of the revolts of July 23. Everything is getting worse, racism, discrimination, poverty, poor housing, repressive violence.”

However, the riots are also being cited by populists to criticise President Emmanuel Macron. The leader of the anti-mass migration Reconquest party, Eric Zemmour, said: “What is happening in La Courneuve is the routine of Islamized neighbourhoods which do not support the French police, French law and France in general. The political class is paralyzed by these people. Not me.”

Quote:President Putin reacted to the death of the nationalist opposition leader which triggered a wave of condemnation in February, caustically noting: “It happens. There is nothing you can do about it. It’s life”.

Western leaders may be criticising the Russian elections, but President Vladimir Putin has clearly been left feeling emboldened by the vote, and chose this moment to comment publicly on the mysterious death of one of his most prominent critics for the first time. Speaking on a late-night television interview as results of the vote that is rubber-stamping another six years as President, Putin made it clear he wasn’t overflowing with sympathy for his former critic, and batted away criticism by insisting that prisoners also die in American prisons.

President Putin said: “well, he passed away, and this always is a sad occurrence. But there were other cases of people dying in penitentiary facilities, too… People are dying in US prisons too, aren’t they… It happens. There is nothing you can do about it. It’s life.”

The Russian strongman also claimed that before Navalny died in an arctic penal colony, Putin had agreed in principle to a prisoner swap, which would allow the camapigner to be released abroad in return for a Russian prisoner held by the West, and on the condition that he never returned to Russia. Putin said he had been approached by a non-governmental colleague who had suggested a prisoner swap, and claimed he had instantly agreed to the idea before his interlocutor had finished talking.

Reflecting this plan was unable to come to fruition because just “a few days” later, Navalny died in prison, Putin said: “But unfortunately, whatever happened, happened”. Putin made no indication of who he may have considered swapping for Navalny from the West, but it has previously been claimed it would have been for Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence for murder in a German prison.

Putin watchers noted the comments are the first time he had referred to Navalny by name in years, the Associated Press stated.

So was Putin trying to enlist Krasikov as a special agent  to get rid of Navalny?
 Now we won't know how that story would have ended... or would we?

Quote:Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with GB News host Nigel Farage that if he is reelected, the United States will stay in NATO if other nations pay their “fair share.”

Farage said, “You said this back in 2017 and 18 when you were president, you visited Brussels, and you commented that the Russians can do whatever they want if these countries don’t pay. You said it again recently. That’s now being used.”

Trump said, “They can use it, I don’t care if they use it. Because what I’m saying is a form of negotiation. Why should we guard these countries that have a lot of money, and the United States was paying for most of NATO? When I went there, I had already had it out with them. They then stopped paying again. But now they’re paying because of those comments that you saw two, three weeks ago. I don’t know if you know, but a lot of money’s come in since those comments were made.”

He continued, “NATO was not paying. I went to the first meeting early in my administration, and I saw what was going on, and I said, ‘You’re going to have to pay your bills, everybody.’ Then, at the second meeting, I hit them hard. The question was then asked by the head of a major country in front of everyone else: ‘So if we don’t pay our bills, are you going to protect us from Russia?’ I said, ‘You mean you’re delinquent? You’re not paying the bills? Then no, I’m not going to pay you. We’re not going to do it. We’re not going to defend you if you’re not paying your bills.’ It’s very simple. And hundreds of billions of dollars came flowing in.”

Trump added, “NATO became strong because of me. Now, NATO has to treat the U.S. fairly because if it wasn’t for the United States, NATO wouldn’t even exist. They took advantage of us like most countries do.”

Farage asked, “If they start to pay their bills properly and the club is fair, are places like Poland going to be defended? Will America be there?”

Trump said, “Yes. But the United States should pay its fair share, not everybody else’s fair share.”

Farage said, “Fair enough.”

Trump said, “I believe that the United States was paying 90% of NATO, that could be 100%. It was the most unfair thing, and don’t forget, it’s more important to them than it is to us. We have an ocean between some problems. They will take advantage. They took advantage of us on trade. They took advantage on the military.”

Farage asked, “So if they start to play fair, America’s there?”

Trump said, “Yes. 100%.”

Quote:The Democrat judge, Arthur Engoron, delivered a summary judgment against Trump that denied him the opportunity to mount a defense. Now, Trump is scrambling to find a way to pay the $464 million judgment — including interest.

The former president was able to obtain financing for a bond for the more than $90 million he was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll in a separate New York case, over claims of sexual assault and defamation, pending his appeal.

But Trump has been unable to find insurance companies willing to underwrite the massive bond necessary for the bond in the fraud case, meaning that he may have to sell some of his real estate holdings at discounted “fire sale” prices.

Biden — or his speechwriters — thought this was good fodder for a joke at the Gridiron Dinner, despite the fact that his son faces criminal (not civil) charges for his own financial dealings, which allegedly also benefited Biden himself.

Biden said:

Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone. Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, “I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.” I said, “Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.” (Laughter and applause.)

Trump must pay the bond even if he wins on appeal, meaning he could suffer financial losses despite being innocent. Fox News’ Charlie Gasparino told Neil Cavuto on Your World on Tuesday afternoon that forcing Trump to sell a large portion of his real estate portfolio to pay the bond could have an effect on the commercial real estate market in New York City, which is already struggling to recover from the pandemic, crime, and high-tax policies.

Quote:President Joe Biden, who is 81 years old and diagnosed with sensory peripheral neuropathy in his feet, has been spotted wearing special sneakers to assist him with stability when walking, according to a report.

Inside Edition ran a segment on February 29 on how the octogenarian has been seen recently wearing sneakers with “a wide sole that is no doubt great for stability.”

“And the president does have a history of stumbling,” Inside Edition‘s Les Trent said.

Trent tried on the shoe at a store, and asked an employee, “Why might a shoe like this be good for the president or someone elderly?”

The employee responded, “Yeah, well, it’s going to be really supportive. This outsole traction here is going to be how you really stick to the ground when you’re walking.”

The shoe was identified by Inside Edition as Hoka’s Transport shoe in all black. The shoes also have a “quick-toggle lace” for “easy on and off,” according to the product description.

A White House spokesperson claimed the shoes were for exercising.

“I know y’all aren’t partial to presidents who exercise, but don’t worry — you’ll get used to it,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital.

However, Biden was shown in Inside Edition‘s report wearing the shoes with a suit jacket and pants, not exercise wear.

The apparent change in footwear is occurring as Biden — the oldest president in U.S. history — is gearing up to run for another term amid questions about his age.

Quote:A Texas law that empowers local police to arrest and deport migrants accused of entering the U.S. illegally has again been put on hold, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed its enforcement.

The Supreme Court’s divided decision to allow Texas to assume border security duties marked a significant win for the state's efforts to control illegal immigration from Mexico. It was short-lived, however, as hours later, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 order preventing the law, known as Senate Bill 4, from taking effect.

The appeals court panel’s decision comes ahead of arguments before the court on Wednesday.

SB 4 has remained in legal limbo since Gov. Greg Abbott controversially signed it into law in December. The Biden administration has sued to strike down the measure, arguing that the law would usurp federal authority on matters related to immigration enforcement.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an early stay the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued on SB 4 in February.

The ruling was not focused on the merits of the case.
The court also did not explain its reasoning for ending the stay, but Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh suggested it could rule differently on the merits itself.

"Before this Court intervenes on the emergency docket, the Fifth Circuit should be the first mover," Barrett wrote.
...
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a scathing dissent, accusing their conservative counterparts of inviting "further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement."

Quote:The Canadian government of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday that it is ending arms sales — such as they are — to Israel, bowing to pressure from left-wing radicals as Israel fights against genocidal Palestinian terrorists.

According to Al Jazeera, Canada’s arms exports to Israel are minuscule, amounting to less than $90 million over the past nine years. “The vast majority of Canada’s military exports to Israel come in the form of parts and components.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, reacted angrily, according to the Times of Israel:

“I am sorry that the government of Canada is taking this step that undermines Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of Hamas murderers who carried out terrible crimes against humanity and against innocent Israelis, including the elderly, women and children,” he says in a statement.

“History will judge the current acts of Canada harshly,” he says.

Trudeau has adopted a posture toward Israel in the war against Hamas that has been inconsistent at best. Canada sided with Israel after opening arguments at the International Court of Justice at The Hague in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of “genocide.” But Canada also restored funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after staff at the organization were accused of participating in the October 7 terror attacks against Israel.

Earlier this week, the Canadian parliament adopted a resolution calling for a two-state solution to the conflict, after left-wing politicians wanted an even stronger resolution, calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Quote:Upon securing another six years in power, Vladimir Putin suggested that Russia may seek to extend a buffer zone into Ukrainian territory to prevent drones and other long-range weapons from being able to strike Russian territory.

Potentially signalling his end goal for the war, Putin said that Russia may seek to create a “cordon sanitaire” between Russia and Ukraine, which he said per state media that it would make it “quite difficult for the adversary to overcome with its weapons, primarily of foreign origin.”

While Russia currently controls around 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory, this is concentrated almost entirely in the southeast of the country in the Donbas and Crimea, leaving no so-called buffer zone along around four hundred kilometres of border with Ukraine. Likely buttressing Putin’s rhetoric on this domestically is Ukraine’s recent land attacks against some Russian border areas, amounting to an attempted counter-invasion with paramilitary forces.

Further, Kyiv has taken towards launching drones and artillery strikes at targets, such as oil refineries and other infrastructure in the Russian mainland, as well as using Western-supplied Storm Shadow, ATACMS, GLSDB and Himars missiles to strike targets in Russian-controlled territories.

With the much-heralded counter-offensive from the Ukrainians failing to recapture any meaningful amount of its territory and in light of widespread reports of ammunition shortages, Moscow may use the opportunity this Spring to seize more territory in the northeast of the country in order to seal off access to Russian targets like Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk.

Speaking on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow “would take measures to safeguard [its] territories” from Ukrainian artillery strikes and drone strikes.

With Ukraine apparently on the back foot, there have growing debates in the West surrounding the on strategy and preferred outcomes. Last week, Rolph Mützenich, the head of the Social Democrats Party (SPD) — the same party as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — in the Bundestag parliament suggested that the West should seek a “freeze” of the conflict to avoid further bloodshed and more losses to Russia.

During a debate on sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, Rolph Mützenich said: “Isn’t it time that we not only talk about how to fight a war but also think about how we can freeze a war and end it later? Aren’t these questions also politically important?”

Quote:“If we want peace, we must prepare for war”, says top European Union figure saying the bloc needs to not just speak the language of diplomacy, “but also the language of power” to Russia.

The world is changing and becoming less secure, and the European Union needs to “shift to a ‘war economy’ mode” to survive, President of the European Council Charles Michel says. Writing an op-ed published on Monday the Belgian, who runs the convening body of the European Union’s leaders, Michel said if Russia was not stopped in its invasion of Ukraine, then Europe would be the next target.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already caused the European Union to become a “geopolitical” entity in a new way as it has moved to order large quantities of ammunition to be delivered to Ukraine, the Council leader said, remarking that the continent has under-spent on defence for years. The remarks echo closely those of European military leaders who have argued in recent months that the post-Cold War era is now over, along with its ‘peace dividend’ of low military spending, freeing up resources for the rest of the economy.

Michel said: “For decades, Europe has not invested enough in our security and defence.  Today we face the biggest security challenge since the Second World War, so we must build our defence readiness. This will take a radical and irreversible shift in our thinking, towards a strategic security mindset… If we want peace, we must prepare for war.”

Russia is already trying to “destabilise” other European states and poses a “serious military threat” to Europe if left unchecked, he said. Dissent on this view by those who may argue “Ukraine does not concern us, that it is draining our budgets and dividing us” are speaking “blatant lies” argued Michel, dismissing them as “Kremlin propaganda”.

While the language of preparing for war to guarantee peace closely aligns with actual NATO doctrine, the strident words underline a rapid shift in European attitudes. While in recent years — even after Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014 — many European states including the big players like Germany were content to spend as little on their militaries as possible and leave America to pick up the tab, that is now rapidly changing as they foresee a deteriorating security picture.

Quote:Emmanuel Macron’s explosive talk of deploying NATO troops to Ukraine, saying “We need to make sure that Ukraine wins in this war.”

While NATO in general, and particularly its more Western members remain very concerned about the repeated, almost daily, exhortations from French President Emmanuel Macron that the time for ‘boots on the ground’ in Ukraine may be coming, he is finding some support from the Eastern European states. These countries which have a land border with Russia and Belarus, or would do if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued unabated, feel directly threatened by Moscow expansionist sentiment and clearly wish to see a definite outcome for Russia’s invasion, discouraging it trying the same with others.

Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins has been touring European allies, and calling for European states to be ready for war, and is one of those voicing his support for President Macron’s pro-involvement stance for Ukraine. Speaking to Britain’s The Times, Karins said President Macron’s words are valuable because he is “encouraging allies to think outside the box”, and remarked ruling out sending troops to Ukraine is wrong.

Hitting similar talking points to Macron himself, who has cited tanks or cruise missiles as examples of support to Kyiv that were once said to be unthinkable but which are now supplied in great quantities by NATO partners, Karins continued said time and time again, the West had been paralysed by the fear of Russia reacting badly to them giving support. He claimed that every time, concern of Russian anger proved to be unsubstantiated.

The Latvian foreign minister said:

We have not individually but collectively been rather hesitant on supplying all kinds of aid… There has always been talk of escalation: ‘What will the Russians think? We don’t want to anger them.’ And Russia each time tries to frighten us.

Then we take the decision and nothing actually changes. So it shows there’s not much to fear because we already have a very widespread war in Europe. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins in this war.

Quote:Former U.S. President Barack Obama called in at the British Prime Minister’s official residence on Monday, but the office is keeping tight-lipped about the purpose of the one-hour meeting.

Barack Obama surprised when he turned up at Rishi Sunak’s front door on Monday, going inside the historic Downing Street residence for an hour and meeting with the Prime Minister. Former President Obama walked up to the famous black door alone but later emerged alongside the U.S. Ambassador to London Jane Hartley.
While Obama and Sunak clearly had enough to be talking about, the reason for the visit and what was discussed was not immediately disclosed, the mystery talk being described by an official to British government-adjacent newspaper The Daily Telegraph as “informal” and private. The Times notes shortly before Obama entered Downing Street, the British finance minister also arrived at the Prime Minister’s official office and residence by the front door. That arrival may be seen as a pointed statement given it is thought to be possible to get to the Prime Minister’s office from the Chancellor’s through internal passageways without going onto the street to be seen by the press.

Barack Obama’s visits to Downing Street may not have the happiest associations for some: his meetings there in 2016 ended in him telling the British people not to vote for Brexit, and if they did the country would go “to the back of the queue” for a trade deal with the U.S., which was seen as a potential benefit of leaving the European Union. This hectoring position, of telling sovereign people how to vote was not perceived to have been well received at the time, and the UK subsequently voted against Obama’s wishes.

While President Obama was out of the White House shortly after, he threat was made actual by eventual successor Joe Biden, who has stalled on trade with the UK since, leaving the country seeking deals with individual states instead.

Quote:German police detained on Tuesday two Afghan citizens accused of planning to attack police near the Swedish parliament in response to the burning of copies of the Quran...
The suspects, identified only as Afghan citizens Ibrahim M.G. and Ramin N., were detained in the eastern city of Gera, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The men were only identified by their first names and initial, according to German privacy laws.

The prosecutors said the Islamic State group´s affiliate in Afghanistan tasked the suspects in mid-2023 with carrying out an attack in Europe in response to Quran burnings in Sweden and other countries.

The pair made preparations for an attack on police and other people near the parliament in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, “in close coordination” with IS members, including doing online research of the location and tried unsuccessfully to procure weapons, the statement said. The attack never materialized.

Anti-Islam activists have carried out a string of public desecrations of the Quran in Sweden, sparking outrage among Muslims around the world and threats from Islamic extremists. In October, a gunman killed two Swedish soccer fans before a match in Brussels.
...
Prosecutors said Ibrahim M. G. joined the IS affiliate in August 2023. Together with Ramin N., he had raised 2,000 euros ($2,170 ) in donations for the Islamic State group to help a member jailed in northern Syria.

The Afghans are suspected of crimes including providing support to a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit a crime, and infringements against trade laws.

Quote:London police said Monday they have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder after two people were wounded with crossbow bolts in two separate attacks in the capital.

A manhunt was launched after a 44-year-old woman was hit in the head with a crossbow bolt in a residential part of Shoreditch, east London, on March 4. In a separate incident on March 14, a 20-year-old man was wounded in the neck by the same weapon in the same area.

The Metropolitan Police said their injuries were not life-threatening.

The force said a 47-year-old man was arrested late Sunday in Shoreditch, and that officers searching his home found a crossbow, knives and other weapons.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway said the arrest was “a significant development” but he added that the investigation was complex and ongoing. The suspect is in custody at an east London police station.

Britain’s government is considering tightening regulations on crossbows so that they are restricted like firearms.

Currently anyone over 18 can legally buy a crossbow, but carrying it in public without a reasonable excuse could be punishable by up to four years in prison.

Quote:Iraq´s former defense minister, who holds dual Iraqi-Swedish citizenship, has been arrested in Sweden, authorities said Tuesday. He is suspected of illegally receiving benefits in the Scandinavian country.

Prosecutor Jens Nilsson told Swedish broadcaster SVT that Najah al-Shammari has been wanted for almost a year and a half. The prosecutor told broadcaster TV4 that al-Shammari was arrested on Monday at the Stockholm airport by upon arrival in Sweden.

Swedish media earlier have said that al-Shammari claimed child and housing support for years – despite living in Baghdad.

In 2019, Swedish news agency TT said al-Shammari, is registered as living in a Stockholm suburb.

Swedish newspaper Expressen had reported that he moved to Sweden in 2011, received citizenship in 2015 and was reported to authorities, along with his wife, for suspected benefits fraud. He allegedly continued to claim social payments years after returning to Iraq.

Sweden and its Nordic neighbors are known for providing generous social benefits.

Quote:Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be allowed to take part in the traditional parade at the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics, the IOC said Tuesday.

The opening ceremony on July 26 will see thousands of athletes travel on boats down the River Seine for several miles (kilometers) toward the Eiffel Tower, instead of the normal parade of teams inside a stadium.

The International Olympic Committee said athletes from Russia and Belarus who are approved to compete at the Olympics as neutrals will have a chance only “to experience the event” — likely watching from near the river.

The IOC decision follows the International Paralympic Committee which two weeks ago announced a ban for its Paris opening ceremony on Aug. 28.

Russia and Belarus are barred from team sports at the Olympics because of the war in Ukraine and the IOC has laid out a two-step vetting procedure for individual athletes from those countries to be granted neutral status. Those athletes must first be approved by the governing body of their individual sport and then by an an IOC-appointed review panel.

Neutral athletes must not have publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine, or be affiliated with military or state security agencies. It is unclear if membership of a Russian military sports club, such as CSKA, will be a reason for denying neutral status.

The IOC said Tuesday it expects about 36 neutral athletes with Russian passports and 22 with Belarusian passports to qualify for the Paris Games.

A decision on whether those athletes will be allowed to take part in the Aug. 11 closing ceremony will be taken “at a later stage,” the IOC said.
Any medals won by neutral athletes will not be counted as a collective group in the overall medals table.

The IOC also revealed details of the replacement flag in jade green that will be used for neutral athletes at medal ceremonies, where a specially written anthem without lyrics will be played.

I do think that it's insulting to play an anthem that has no real meaning. It'd be way better to just play nothing than doing such a ridiculous thing, IMHO.

Quote:The communist regime of North Korea reportedly fired several ballistic missiles on Monday, an apparent gesture of “welcome” to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who landed in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday to attend President Joe Biden’s “Summit for Democracy.”

The “Summit for Democracy” is an event Biden founded virtually in 2021, ostensibly to bring together the leaders of the free world to discuss ways to protect the integrity of free states and combat authoritarianism. The “Summit for Democracy” has been met with ridicule and alarm in prior iterations, as the inaugural summit featured the State Department causing a “technical error” that censored a map of Taiwan that did not conform to the Chinese Communist Party’s false borders. Last year, the most prominent headlines on the Summit for Democracy were mocking statements from China and Russia declaring the event as unserious.

The missiles fired on Monday did not hit any targets or cause any damage, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) told reporters, but were nonetheless a threat intended to respond to both the presence of America’s top diplomat on Korean soil and the recent culmination of joint American-South Korean military exercises. The missile attack followed another apparent response to the joint exercises, a propaganda display last week in which communist dictator Kim Jong-un appeared in photos alongside North Korean “new-type” tanks, and purportedly drove one himself.

Kim warned in North Korean state media on Thursday that his country boasts the “most powerful tanks in the world.”

“North Korea fired at least three missiles, and their trajectories were similar to those of KN-24,” an unnamed South Korean official told the newswire service Yonhap. The JCS described them as short-range ballistic missiles and reported that they flew out of Pyongyang and landed in the East Sea (or Sea of Japan).

“The KN-24 is a solid-fuel ballistic missile with a range of up to 410 km and a payload of 400-500 kg,” Yonhap clarified.

The Korea JoongAng Daily observed that the ballistic missile launch was the first of its kind since January 14 and appeared to be of solid-fuel missiles, which take longer to load and fire than liquid-fuel models. In January, North Korea claimed to debut both new missile models and an alleged underwater nuclear weapon system.

“Our army’s underwater nuke-based countering posture is being further rounded off and its various maritime and underwater responsive actions will continue to deter the hostile military maneuvers of the navies of the U.S. and its allies,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s flagship state propaganda outlet, reported at the time.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday stating that both Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and his American counterpart, Blinken, condemned the incident.

Quote:Anti-Israel demonstrations throughout the United States should be “saluted,” according to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who boasted of the power of “uncommitted” voters to pressure President Joe Biden and “lead him to lose the presidential elections.”

The Lebanese terrorist group leader’s remarks were made in a Wednesday speech that was streamed live on Al-Mumahdun’s YouTube channel, as reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Today, what many people demonstrating in America are doing… we should salute them and be grateful to them,” he said. “The Arabs, the Muslims, and the non-Muslims, from among the other free Americans — Christians and others — in the Democratic Party who wrote to Biden: ‘We are uncommitted to vote for you.’ These people are very influential at this stage.”

Calling such efforts “the most important means of pressure on the Biden administration,” Nasrallah maintained that the 81-year-old president is “not afraid of the world, the international community, God, history, or anything.”

“Biden now is afraid of one thing only: that his policy and actions in Gaza will lead him to lose the presidential elections,” he states. “This is why he keeps debating, denying, and playing games.”

According to Nasrallah, if the current pressure and opposition to Israel in the U.S. continues, it may “open a door for hope.”

“Of course, there are countries that boycotted Israel, denounced Israel, and accused it of committing genocide, like Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, South Africa, and so on,” he explained, stating that such positions “are appreciated” and help “mount the pressure” on the Jewish state.

“But at the end of the day,” he added, “it is the American position that is decisive.”

Last month, Biden administration officials met with Arab- and Muslim-American leaders in Michigan, a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election. At least one official with whom they met is an openly pro-terror leader in the area.

Quote:In an additional irony, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops who will be providing onshore security for the building of the pier would, essentially, be protecting a Hamas asset and allowing a Hamas-linked contractor to make millions.

Journalist Caroline Glick translated an interview with Yedid on Monday:

Host Shimon Riklin: You’re bringing an initial report that the pier that is being built in the Gaza Strip will be owned by Qatar/Hamas.

Arab Affairs Correspondent Baruch Yedid: Yes. Yes. The Americans asked the Qataris to take on the financing and management and the operation as we reported last Wednesday based on Arab sources. A few days ago the Americans conferred in Cyprus with several parties including the Emiratis and the Qataris. I can report that the only one who so far has agreed to finance this port, this pier is Qatar. Qatar has an interest in this port. Qatar wants to preserve Hamas. It wants control over a central artery of life in the Gaza Strip. It also wants a leverage point over Hamas. That’s why it’s clear why Qatar is involved.

Riklin: What about the State of Israel?

Yedid: Israel is not involved in this issue.

Crosstalk.

Yedid: Israel is not being included in the discussions. I’ll get to Israel shortly. Why is this good for Hamas? Hamas views this as a sort of aspirin, that’s what people in Gaza are telling us. Hamas is concerned about this pier which they fear will legitimize continuous Israeli presence in Gaza for the long run. Israel you asked about? Israel, from our diplomatic sources, Israel opposed. The Americans ignored us and assigned the Qataris to run the project. The Qataris didn’t only say yes, the Qataris came with an additional demand. The Qataris wanted this port to be built by a company named Al Hissi from Gaza. A bit about the Al Hissi Company. Today, contractors in Gaza are very angry at this company, the Al Hissi Company that is owned by Yasser al Hissi. This company is the primary supplier for engineering, electricity and infrastructure for Hamas, a lot of the municipalities, local governing councils, transportation infrastructure in Sejaeeya, Gaza City, Khan Yunis and other locales. It’s controlled by Palestinian officers. It also transfers, according to contractors in Gaza…

Riklin: Wait, wait Baruch, you’re bringing a lot of information. I want to make this clear to our audience. Can you say that this company Al Hissi is a Hamas company, that it’s controlled by Hamas?

Yedid: It is controlled and a subsidiary of Hamas. It wins massive contracts.

Noam Amir (military correspondent): And what will it do with the concrete for the port?

Riklin: I don’t understand what is going on here. I don’t understand. This pier will be controlled by Hamas and Qatari control. We have IDF soldiers guarding the area. I don’t understand how this … works.

Yedid: This company also carried out most of Qatar’s projects [in Gaza]. Here you see on the screen the heads of the company with the ambassador Amadi. This is the man who brought the suitcases of cash into Gaza. This is the Qatari ambassador. Here is the company on the right, signing the contracts. This company is registered in the Palestinian Authority. Who is bringing it in, the same “cabinet” of American foreign charity [USAID] which assigns this body to coordinate the entire project. This is the body that is bringing in the Al Hissi Company. So here we’ve arrived at a point where the Qataris will have control because they’re the financiers. This is good for Hamas because their company is operating it. When the original idea was to isolate Hamas. Here we have another instance – and not a lone instance – of Qatari-American cooperation. Yesterday, a senior Jordanian officer spoke to one of the Arab media outlets and said, “If Hamas is there, I’m concerned.”

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is run by Samantha Power, a Biden Administration official with a long history of hostility toward Israel — one that she has continued into the present conflict against Hamas.

Quote:Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Kr. said in an interview published Tuesday that Israel is a “moral nation,” and he backed its response to Hamas terrorists, opposing President Joe Biden’s anti-Israel drift.

In the interview, conducted by Reuters and published in the Jerusalem Post, Kennedy expressed concern for the humanitarian cost of the war to Palestinian civilians, but said that Israel had no choice but to respond as it had.

From the interview:

“Any other nation that was adjacent to a neighboring nation that was bombing it with rockets, sending commandos over to murder its citizens, pledging itself to murder every person in that nation and annihilate it, would go and level it with aerial bombardment,” Kennedy said.

“But Israel is a moral nation. So it didn’t do that. Instead, it built an iron dome to protect itself so it would not have to go into Gaza.”

He said Hamas gave Israeli leaders no choice after fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Rather than pressuring Israel, Kennedy said, the U.S. should be pressuring states that currently support Hamas.

Several Jewish leaders expressed their support for Kennedy’s position, notably Democrat-turned-Republican Dov Hikind, a former New York State Assemblyman who is the founder and leader of Americans Against Antisemitism...

Quote:On Wednesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Biden Campaign Co-Chair Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) stated that it would be “almost impossible” for Israel to go into Rafah “and conduct an operation in a way that isn’t unreasonably dangerous and unsafe and will result in thousands and thousands more civilian casualties.” And the operation definitely can’t “be safely done in the coming weeks.”

Coons said, “Israel has the right, even the obligation, to defend its civilians against Hamas and to continue pursuing Hamas terrorists. But they have to balance that with their obligation to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid going into Gaza. So, a delegation from Israel is now on its way to Washington to meet with our military leadership to consult on how they could possibly conduct a ground invasion into Rafah, where there are still four battalions of Hamas fighters, and allow for civilians to get out of Rafah and conduct an operation in a way that isn’t unreasonably dangerous and unsafe and will result in thousands and thousands more civilian casualties. It’s exceptionally difficult to do, almost impossible, frankly.”

Co-host Steve Inskeep then said, “That was my question — almost impossible, it sounds like you’re skeptical that the Israelis could give you some plan or give the president some plan that would protect civilians and also involve an invasion of this city.”

Coons responded, “They would have to provide for space elsewhere in Gaza where there was shelter set up for nearly a million Palestinians. So, this is not an operation that can be safely done in the coming weeks.”

Quote:United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander Gen. Laura J. Richardson left open the possibility of sending troops to Haiti as part of an “international solution” to address the ongoing violent situation of the Caribbean nation in remarks given during an event held by the Atlantic Council think tank on Tuesday.

“I think an international solution, a solution that also includes Haiti’s perspective, is very important,” Richardson said. “So I don’t think a U.S.-only solution is where we should be heading.”

Richardson asserted that the Biden administration is trying to “do exactly that, work on an international solution.”
During the event, Richardson was asked if U.S. forces could be part of said international solution. The SOUTHCOM commander answered, “They could be at the end of the day, we wouldn’t rule it out at any time” given “what’s going on in that country.”

“We are prepared if called upon by our State Department and our Defense Department,” she asserted, adding that the United States does not presently have plans to send troops to Haiti and pointing out that SOUTHCOM has a “wide range” of contingency plans and is prepared for possible mass migration from Haiti or elsewhere.

“The military always continues to plan and be ready for any possible situation. Certainly, what’s happening in Haiti is disappointing and is very concerning,” Richardson said. “And so, with US SOUTHCOM and what we are prepared to do, we want to make sure that we take care that our responses are humane in this crisis that is currently happening.”

Large sectors of Haiti continue to be under the control of violent gangs led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, who has openly called for a “bloody revolution” in the Caribbean nation. The gangs have continued to launch violent attacks, killing civilians and looting houses.

Quote:The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced Tuesday that it had launched an inquiry into the University of California Berkeley for antisemitism, adding it to the list of universities being probed.

The announcement came after a series of antisemitic incidents on campus, including assaults on Jewish students and a recent mob attack in which enraged students, some allegedly using antisemitic slurs, pounded on glass doors to shut down an event with a pro-Israel speaker.

Jewish groups have also sued Berkeley and its law school for antisemitism, including allowing student groups to exclude speakers who are pro-Israel — effectively, banning Jews.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

The committee’s investigation comes just nine days after the U.S. Department of Education announced it would add UC Berkeley to the list of schools being probed for possible discrimination.

The House committee has been investigating several universities for possible antisemitism, including Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the wake of a tense December 2023 hearing involving the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT, all three faced intense pressure to resign. The presidents of Harvard and Penn acquiesced.
...
The committee asked the university to provide extensive documentation about its policies for addressing discrimination, all reports of antisemitic incidents, any disciplinary proceedings involving antisemitism or anti-Zionism, funding for Palestinian rights organizations on campus and funding from foreign entities.

Quote:Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s “best friend in business,” refused to attend Wednesday’s impeachment inquiry hearing into President Joe Biden.
Archer’s lawyer told House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) that his client could not attend the hearing due to “short notice.”

“Providing such short notice for a witness’s public appearance before the Committee on a matter of national importance is patently unreasonable,” lawyer Matthew Schwartz wrote Comer, ABC News first reported.

Former Biden associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis appeared at the hearing.

Archer previously told the inquiry that Hunter placed Joe Biden on speakerphone multiple times with his business associates.

Galanis confirmed Archer’s testimony. He said then-Vice President Joe Biden was on speakerphone calls with Biden associates, including one call with a Russian oligarch and one-time mayor of Moscow.

Archer’s family remains tied to investments made during Joe Biden’s vice presidency. His wife still owns his stake in BHR Partners, a Chinese investment fund that has deployed billions around the globe. Kevin Morris, Hunter’s lawyer, also controls Hunter’s stake in the fund.

Quote:The decision to not prosecute Steve Nikoui, father of late Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, was confirmed Tuesday evening by Fox News.

The grieving father attended the SOTU on March 7 as a guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), and was removed after shouting “United States Marines!” and “Abbey Gate!” — a reference to the entrance of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Islamic terrorists detonated an explosive, killing his son.

The August 26, 2021 bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans as American military personnel were evacuating people from the destabilized region in the Biden administration’s pull-out, ABC News reported.

Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office told Fox News that it decided to drop the charges because they don’t typically prosecute similar forms of protest.

The outlet reported that Nikoui was said to be “thrilled and humbled” with tears of joy when he was told the good news by Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA).

Quote:Unofficial Border Patrol reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas revealed that Swanton Sector agents apprehended nearly 900 migrants during the month of February. This is up by more than 105 percent over the prior February. This brings the total for FY24, which began on October 1, 2023, to more than 4,000 migrant apprehensions.

Earlier this month, Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia reported on X that his agents apprehended more migrants in FY23 than in the prior 11 years combined. He added that his agents doubled the record-shattering pace of last year’s first four months. During the first four months of this year, agents encountered 3,192, according to the official CBP Nationwide Encounters Report. During the same period in FY 23, these agents encountered 1,514 migrants. The Swanton Sector covers the Canadian-U.S. border in eastern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

Chief Garcia posted another report on social media a few days later revealing that agents assigned to the Champlain Station in New York set a record for the most encounters in a one-week period. During that timeframe, these agents apprehended 158 migrants from 14 different nations.

In one incident, Champlain Station agents using a K-9 team encountered a group of seven Mexican nationals who illegally entered New York from Canada.

Quote:President Joe Biden has issued a new environmental federal regulation to begin phasing out gas-powered cars, requiring American automakers to produce Electric Vehicles (EVs) as part of his sweeping green energy agenda.

On Wednesday, Biden announced the rule to require that a majority of new cars sold in the U.S. market are EVs or hybrids by 2032, the New York Times details:

Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American automobile market. A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers’ lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of total U.S. car sales, far from the 56 percent target under the new regulation. An additional 16 percent of new cars sold would be hybrids. [Emphasis added]

In a statement to the Times, Biden called his green energy agenda “an ambitious target” and the beginning of “historic progress” on fighting global warming.

“Three years ago, I set an ambitious target: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emission,” Biden said. “Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs. And we’ll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead.”

The regulation comes even as a survey from Consumer Reports posted last year revealed that American consumers reported about 80 percent more problems with EVs than consumers with traditional gas-powered cars.

Quote:The athletes competing at the Paris Summer Games will have plenty of condoms, but they will not have air conditioning.

“We designed these buildings so that they would be comfortable places to live in in the summer, in 2024 and later on, and we don’t need air conditioning in these buildings because we oriented the facades so that they wouldn’t get too much sun during the summer, and the facades, the insulation is really efficient,” said Yann Krysinski, who is directing the service of infrastructure for the Games.
The buildings housing the athletes will apparently have some sort of cooling system, however. According to Reuters, cooled water will be circulated in the floors of the rooms to generate coolness.

The decision to forego traditional air conditioning is borne of the organizing committee’s desire to make the 2024 Paris Games record-breaking in terms of reducing the event’s carbon footprint.

Once the Olympic Games are over, planners intend for the buildings once used to house athletes to become housing for up to 6,000 Parisians. The attempt to make carbon footprint history does not come without risks. Some 5,000 people died in France last year due to oppressive heat, and forecasters have claimed there is a possibility of similarly sweltering conditions this summer as well.

Quote:A freshly landed migrant was transferred directly to hospital in Dover on Wednesday after reportedly having been stabbed while aboard a people smuggler boat at sea, carrying its cargo of irregulars to Britain’s shores.

A migrant was stabbed while aboard a smuggler’s boat taking him to the United Kingdom across the English Channel, having to be taken to hospital for treatment. The injuries were described as not being life threatening and the victim was put onto a smaller lifeboat to be taken ashore while the remaining 60 migrants who had been on the smuggler boat were loaded onto the larger Dover lifeboat, states GB News.

Kent Police said, per The Sun, that “officers are carrying out enquiries to establish the full circumstances, including where, when and how the injuries were sustained”, but made no mention of any arrests having taken place so far.
A total of eight ‘small boats’, as they are called, are reported to have landed on Wednesday carrying some 450 migrants to the United Kingdom. No other day this year has been busier, and trends from previous years suggest as the Spring makes itself felt and better weather arrives, the number of boats and daily migrant totals will rise considerably.

In the late summer of 2023, 872 migrants arrived in 15 boats in one day, and thousand-migrant weeks were not unknown, even in a year where boat arrival levels had fallen compared to previous years.

Brexit leader and boat immigration campaigner Nigel Farage said Wednesday had been a “beautiful day in the English Channel” — attracting the large numbers of boat crossings — and that “these are people being brought into Dover to be processed, they’ll end up living in four-star hotels… none of this is going to change unless we get tough as a government.”

Reflecting on the violence on Wednesday, Farage said: “One of the passengers stabbed another one, so you can see not everyone who is coming is a poor, innocent refugee. Far from it. This is a disaster for our country.”

Quote:Muslims make up nearly a fifth of all prisoners in England and Wales as of September of last year, with 15,594 inmates belonging to the Islamic faith, government data has revealed.

While Muslims only make up around 6.5 per cent of the British population overall, they account for around 18 per cent of the prison population according to data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), The Telegraph reports.

In comparison, Christians made up the largest religious group in prisons at 45 per cent, however, according to the 2021 Census, Christians represented 46 per cent of the population of England and Wales, meaning that as a group, people who profess to be Christian are incarcerated broadly proportionately.

Meanwhile, those who were not affiliated with any religious group comprised 31 per cent of the prison population, compared to 37 per cent of the population as a whole.

The Ministry of Justice figures also revealed that white people made up a disproportionate number of Muslim inmates, with 19.9 per cent of Islamic prisoners, or 3,096, being recorded as white. This is compared to white people making up just 7.8 per cent of the Muslim community in the UK.

This comes in contrast to 35 per cent (5,489) of Muslim prisoners being recorded as being “Asian or Asian British” and 27 per cent (4,212) were recorded as “Black or Black British”, while the remainder were either unrecorded or were of mixed background.

The strikingly high percentage of white Muslims within the prison population has been attributed by some as a result of conversions out of fear, with Muslims representing a powerful force within many British prisons.

Former Prison Governor Ian Acheson, who conducted a review of Islamist extremism in prisons for the MoJ, said: “There’s strong evidence that people convert as a pragmatic response to who controls power and space in our prisons.

“This seems to be the case in high-security prisons, in particular, where safety is at a premium and there are also large numbers of violent young men entering custody searching for meaning and belonging. So Islam in this case has gang characteristics”.

Quote:Taking a snipe at the American aviation giant’s recent safety record, which has been a matter of massive concern in the United States, French government minister Bruno Le Maire said he’d far rather fly Airbus, the European jet rival.

Le Maire’s comments were made in address to Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury who was present at the same event. He praised the quality of European industry, saying that in the last century the continent had produced “the best machine tools, the best planes, the best cars, the best chemicals”, and for now at least it still made “the best planes… by far”.

The minister said he preferred “the situation” of Airbus to that of Boeing, and preferred to fly on the Europe-made aircraft than American, noting caustically “my family cares about me too”.

As noted by Bloomberg, the Airbus boss did not join in with the gloating over Boeing’s woes, and said the problems of his competitor did not make him happy and that fatal accidents calls for “humility, not complacency”.

Airbus was formed in the 1970s to compete with the American companies then dominating the global commercial jet industry, combining design and construction from several European states including France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The company’s A320 jet liner is, with the Boeing 737, one of the most produced aircraft ever, with other 11,000 made.

Quote:China sent a delegation to Qatar to meet with the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, the Foreign Ministry revealed on Tuesday, reportedly telling him that Beijing is “keen on relations” with the genocidal group.

The encounter is the first of its kind between the Chinese government and Hamas since October 7, when the terrorists executed an unprecedented siege of Israel that resulted in an estimated 1,200 deaths, the abduction of an estimated 250 people, and a spree of torture, gang rape, and the desecration of the dead. The “al-Aqsa flood,” as Hamas terrorists refer to the attack, is widely considered the largest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

Hamas is a Sunni terrorist organization that enjoys funding from key China ally Iran and has openly called for the destruction of Israel and the elimination of Jewish people from the territory. The Chinese Communist Party has been largely favorable to Hamas since October 7, particularly at international venues such as the United Nations and BRICS coalition meetings, despite Beijing orchestrating an ongoing genocide of Turkic Muslims in occupied East Turkistan and justifying it by claiming it is necessary to prevent terrorism. China has similarly supported the geopolitical goals of other jihadist terrorist groups despite its claim to oppose radical Islamic terrorism, most notably the Afghan Taliban.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting with Haniyeh on Tuesday in a statement that offered almost no information beyond the fact that the meeting occurred.

“On March 17, 2024, Ambassador Wang Kezhuo of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with the President of the Hamas Political Bureau, Haniyeh, during his visit to Qatar and exchanged views on issues such as the Gaza conflict,” the statement read.

During its regular press briefing on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry refused to offer any more information, Newly minted spokesman Lin Jian addressed the situation in the Middle East only in the context of the Palestinian Authority appointing a new “prime minister,” Mohammad Mustafa.

“Any arrangement concerning the future and destiny of Palestine must follow the principle of ‘the Palestinians governing Palestine’ and fully reflect the Palestinians’ aspirations,” Lin said. “China stands ready to work with all parties to deescalate the current tensions and bring the Palestinian question back to the right track of the two-State solution.”

Prior to the confirmation on Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reportedly that the meeting between Haniyeh and Wang occurred on Sunday. It claimed that Wang told the Hamas terror leader that China believed Hamas “is part of the Palestinian national fabric and China is keen on relations with it.”

Quote:Israel struck five senior Hamas operatives in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Monday, despite the public opposition of the Biden administration to Israeli attacks there, and a demand for prior approval by Washington.

As Breitbart News reported, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday at the White House that President Joe Biden opposed attacks in Rafah had summoned Israeli officials to D.C. for discussions.

At most, Sullivan suggested, the U.S. might support limited, targeted strikes within Rafah against specific Hamas targets. He strongly implied, however, that such operations would need to be cleared with the United States first.

Nevertheless, on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or “Shin Bet,” or “Shabak”) were conducting a secret mission in Rafah, killing four senior Hamas officials and wounding another.

In a joint announcement, the IDF and ISA said:

On Monday, IDF fighter jets acting on IDF and ISA intelligence eliminated senior Hamas operatives in Rafah who assisted its military wing in establishing continued control, as well as operations in the field.

The operatives struck were Sayid Katab Alkhashash, Osama Hamd Zaher, Muhammad Aud Almelalakhi, the heads of Hamas’ Emergency Bureau in Northern and Eastern Rafah, alongside Hadi Abu Alrus Kasin, an operations officer.

The senior operatives were the representatives of Hamas’ leadership in Rafah. As part of their roles, they managed the terror organization’s activities in humanitarian zones and were responsible for coordination with Hamas operatives in the field.

Furthermore, Nidal Aleed, the Head of Hamas’ Rafah Emergency Bureau, who managed all of its operations in the area, was eliminated in a strike last week.

Of the five, all were confirmed dead except Muhammad Aud Almelalakhi, whom the IDF described as “struck.”

Quote:Hunter Biden perjured himself during his February closed-door interview with the House impeachment inquiry, former Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski testified Wednesday.

Bobulinski previously alleged that President Joe Biden is the “big guy” marked in a text message to receive a ten percent stake in a joint venture with CEFC China Energy Co., a company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Bobulinski provided examples to support his claim of perjury during his opening statement Wednesday morning.

In the first example, Bobulinski questioned the timing of when Hunter began to work with CEFC:

1. In Hunter’s transcript (Page 42), he states, “I officially began to do work for CEFC when the – when I received a retainer from CEFC in early – or spring of 2017”. Why, then, did Hunter yell at CEFC Executive Director Zang in front of his entourage as I sat right next to him in New York City on Sunday May 7th, 2017? Hunter was adamant that he was owed the rest of the $20 Million CEFC had committed to paying for the work he had claimed he had done in prior years.

In the second instance, Bobulinski argued that Hunter did not tell the truth when he claimed that President Joe Biden never interacted with Hunter’s associates:

2. On Page 48 of his transcript, Hunter is asked, “He’s never interacted with any of your business associates. Is that correct?” The “He’s” is a reference to Joe Biden. Hunter responds, “Yes”. Hunter arranged the meeting between his father and me at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 2, 2017. The sole reason Hunter wanted me to meet his father was because I was the CEO of Sinohawk, the Bidens’ partnership with CEFC. I was a business associate. In his transcript, Hunter confirms that that meeting with Joe took place and incriminates his Uncle Jim for perjury by confirming it.

In the third case, Bobulinski said Hunter “lied” about leveraging Joe Biden to receive a $5 million payment from CEFC:

3. Hunter lied to the Committee about important details concerning his money demands and threats to CEFC on July 30 and July 31, 2017. He leveraged his father’s presence next to him in that infamous text in order to strong-arm CEFC into paying Hunter immediately and in the process defrauded the partners of Sinohawk Holdings LLC and Oneida Holdings LLC. The threat worked, as a few days later the Chinese wired $5 million dollars into a company of which Hunter owned 50%. It’s important to remember that CEFC considered this money an interest-free loan to the “Biden family”, and planned to send more. I have the email from CEFC to prove it.

Quote:A whistleblower said that the CIA reportedly blocked federal investigators from interviewing Kevin Morris, a high-powered entertainment lawyer representing Hunter Biden, about his connections to the president’s son during probes into his alleged tax crimes.

The unnamed whistleblower told the House Oversight and Judiciary Committee chairmen that the “intelligence agency stopped IRS and Justice Department investigators from interviewing Morris in August 2021, a Hollywood lawyer and patron of the first son, according to a Thursday letter addressed to CIA Director William Burns,” per the New York Post.

“The whistleblower informed Oversight chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) that two DOJ officials were summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. — and told Morris ‘could not be a witness for their investigation into Hunter Biden,'” the NY Post reported.

Comer and Jordan wrote in the letter later obtained by the outlet that “it is unknown why or on what basis the CIA allegedly intervened to prevent investigators from interviewing Mr. Morris.”

“However, these allegations track with other evidence showing how the DOJ deviated from its standard investigative practices during the investigation of Hunter Biden,” the letter said, later adding that the whistleblower’s account “seems to corroborate our concerns about DOJ’s deviations from standard process to provide Hunter Biden with preferential treatment.”

In a statement to the NY Post, a spokesperson for the CIA said that the agency “does not obstruct investigations.”

“CIA does not comment on specific investigations,” a spokesperson said. “We can say that CIA cooperates with law enforcement partners and does not obstruct investigations. CIA also fully and routinely cooperates with our oversight committees and will continue to do so.”

The committee has asked the CIA to provide any and all records relating to the “DOJ and IRS investigation of Hunter Biden or to Kevin Morris,” per the Post.

Quote:President Joe Biden, 81, will be invited “in the coming days” to testify publicly before the House impeachment inquiry, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) said Wednesday.

The impeachment inquiry is investigating the Bidens and President Joe Biden’s role in the Biden business.

Investigators previously found a massive web of wire transfers, 20 shell companies, and associates who helped the Biden family business rake in at least $24 million from foreign nationals over the course of approximately five years. They also revealed Joe Biden received money from James Biden and Hunter Biden. In addition, they showed that nine additional Biden family members received payments from the family’s foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren.

“In the coming days, I will invite President Biden to the Oversight Committee to provide his testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies with his assistance,” Comer said in a closing statement during Wednesday’s impeachment inquiry hearing. “We need to hear from the president himself.”

Ian Sams, a White House spokesman, mocked Comer’s preemptive invitation. “LOL,” he posted on X. “Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong. He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he’s received have refuted his false allegations.”

“This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment. Call it a day, pal,” Sams added.

However, Comer previously said about 20 percent of the material he is investigating remains outstanding. This includes Hunter Biden’s AT&T cell phone data and public testimony from Hunter and James Biden.

Despite Sams’ claims, Comer will likely want to question Joe Biden about evidence suggesting his involvement in the family business...

Quote:President Joe Biden’s welcome lured at least 1,000 Latino migrants to their deaths along his border in 2022, according to an agency statement quietly released on March 18.

The number is roughly double his 2021 border death toll of 568 migrants.

The score is more than four times the 254 people who died while trying to get over President Donald Trump’s guarded border in 2020 as Democrats jeered at him for supposedly keeping “kids in cages.”

Biden’s 2022 death toll includes 895 discovered bodies in deserts, mountains, and rivers, plus 96 people killed while crossing the border, plus 55 people killed while being pursued, pursued, processed, or detained by border agents, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The migrant deaths included more than 151 women, plus 17 teenagers or children.
The department’s death counts do not mention the growing number of Americans killed by the many migrants who are allowed to walk past the nation’s border. Also, the many additional Biden deaths in 2023 will not be released until after the 2024 election.

This year, GOP legislators and their mainstream allies are more willing to spotlight the death toll of Americans, such as Laken Riley, a student nurse who was killed by a migrant that has been welcomed over the border by Biden’s deputies.

But the GOP legislators are also beginning to shame Democrats — and their progressive voters — by spotlighting the many dead migrants racked up by Biden’s ambitious progressive deputies.

Quote:Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that former President Donald Trump has brought “hell and chaos” to the United States.

Host Joy Reid asked, “Are any of your colleagues concerned that members of Congress would be targeted if these people were put back on the street?”

Swalwell said, “When the threats come in to me and my colleagues, what we’re told by the Department of Justice, which is doing a very good job to try to track these, is that hey, we’re being targeted too. You’re seeing that Donald Trump has unleashed and created this environment where the investigators are also being terrorized. So are FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors, they’re receiving as many death threats as me and my colleagues.”

He added, “That’s just the hell and the chaos that he has brought to our country. And it’s really easy to do that when you don’t have the firewall within your own party to stop you. So that’s why this is all so important. And just functionally, because we’re not helpless here, I have also been working with DOJ to write legislation that would create a harassment crime so that it’s not just a high threshold of threats, but that we can protect people as much as possible.”

And I thought he had brought disgraced to the US Congress for sleeping with a  Chinese spy.

Quote:Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion Friday that could force a vote to strip the gavel from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

The motion is not privileged, which means the House will not immediately hold a vote on the motion. The procedural motion is the same one Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) used in October 2023 to end Kevin McCarthy’s speakership after only nine months.

Greene filed the motion shortly before the House voted on a $1.2 trillion minibus spending bill. That 1,000-plus page legislation was released in the 2:00 a.m. ET hour Thursday morning, but Speaker Johnson held the vote Friday morning, violating rules intended to give lawmakers adequate time to review legislation.

Significantly, Johnson violated the Hastert Rule to pass the spending bill. That rule dictates that a Republican Speaker cannot pass legislation without the support of the majority of the House Republican Conference. Yet only 101 Republicans voted for the bill, with 112 voting in opposition.

Greene can change her resolution to privileged, which would force the House to address it. But with the spending bill passed, the House began a two-week Easter recess. When the House reconvenes, questions about Johnson’s future will be louder than ever.

Quote:Muslims will yet “slaughter” the Jews “like sheep” when the opportunity arises, according to a Michigan Islamic cleric who appealed to Allah, seeking to become “soldiers” for Islam in any form desired, including death.

In a sermon at the Islamic Center of Warren, Michigan, in January, Imam Abdou Zindani warned of the fate of Jews everywhere, pointing to a Palestinian businessman who told a Jewish New Yorker what Muslims have in store for the Jews.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, Jewish man,” he said. “One day will come, and we will slaughter you like a sheep and the stone and the tree will work… undercover for us, [saying:] ‘Hey Muslim, come, there is somebody hiding here, get up and kill him.’”

The Sheikh was apparently referencing a grisly passage in the Islamic text, known as the Hadith, that reads as follows: “Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say, oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me — come and kill him.” The same excerpt is cited in the Hamas terror group’s charter.

He later made an emotional appeal to Allah, begging that Muslims be made his “soldiers.”

“Every way you want us to be — with the tank, with the eye, with the money, with the hand, make us soldiers for Islam,” he said. “Make us die the way you want us to die.”

The clip, which was originally streamed live on the mosque’s YouTube channel, has gone viral in recent days, with many expressing outrage over the radical rhetoric being espoused on American soil.

“They are here. Islamists are in the US. They are preaching Islamic supremacy, terrorism and the destruction of our culture,” warned one X user. “Is the FBI on the job? Do you care about uncontrolled, illegal immigration? How long will people wait?”

“It’s getting late,” he added.

“Sort of says something that Democrats are tripping over themselves to capture these votes, doesn’t it?” asked another user.

Quote:Catherine, Princess of Wales, said Friday she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.

Her condition was disclosed in a video message recorded on Wednesday and broadcast Friday, coming after weeks of speculation on social media about her whereabouts and health since she was hospitalized in January for unspecified abdominal surgery.

She asked for “time, space and privacy” while she is treated for an unspecified type of cancer.

“I am well,” she said. “I am getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal.”

Catherine, 42, née Kate Middleton, hadn’t been seen publicly since Christmas until video surfaced this week of her with her husband, Prince William, heir to the throne, walking from a farm shop near their Windsor home.

Kensington Palace had given little detail about Catherine’s condition beyond saying it wasn’t cancer-related, the surgery was successful and recuperation would keep the princess away from public duties until April.

The news is another shock for the royal family since the announcement last month that King Charles III was being treated for an unspecified type of cancer that was caught while undergoing a procedure for a benign enlarged prostate.

Quote:Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn Thursday in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days, officials said. Air defenses shot down all the incoming missiles, though 13 people including a child were injured by falling wreckage, they said.

Residents of Kyiv were woken up by loud explosions around 5 a.m. as the missiles arrived at roughly the same time from different directions, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Administration.

Ukraine´s air force said Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles against the capital.

Kyiv has better air defenses than most regions of the large country. The missile interception rate is frequently high, rendering Russian attacks on the capital significantly less successful than during the early days of the war.

An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were hospitalized in Kyiv, the city administration said. Eight other people sustained light injuries, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Ukraine’s Emergency Service said around 80 people were evacuated from their homes.

Falling wreckage from the intercepted missiles set fire to at least one apartment building, burned parked cars and left craters in streets and a small park. Some streets were littered with debris, including glass from shattered windows.

The attack came after repeated Ukraine aerial attacks in recent days on Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine. On Thursday, five people were injured in the latest attack on the Belgorod region, which damaged homes and the city sports stadium, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Russia´s Ministry of Defense said it stopped 10 rockets over the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened Wednesday to “respond in kind” to the attacks.

Quote:Russia attacked electrical power facilities in much of Ukraine, including the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, causing widespread outages and killing at least three people, officials said Friday.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko said the nighttime drone and rocket attacks were “the largest attack on the Ukrainian energy sector in recent times. The goal is not just to damage, but to try again, like last year, to cause a large-scale disruption of the country´s energy system.”

The attacks caused a fire at the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station, which supplies electricity to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power installation.

The main 750-kilovolt power line to the plant was cut off, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said early Friday. A lower-power backup line was working, he said.

The plant is occupied by Russian troops, and fighting around the plant has been a constant concern because of the potential for a nuclear accident.

The dam at the hydroelectric station was not in danger of breaching, the country’s hydroelectric authority said. A dam breach could not only disrupt supplies to the nuclear plant but would potentially cause severe flooding similar to what occurred last year when a major dam at Kakhovka further down the Dnieper collapsed.

One person was killed and at least eight injured in the Russian attack, said Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

Attacks on energy facilities in the Kharkiv region caused blackouts, and other attacks were reported in areas of western Ukraine far from the front lines. Two people died in the Khmelnytskyi region, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry.

Quote:A terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall and mall in Moscow, Russia, on Friday night that has reportedly not concluded at press time has left “over 100 casualties,” the Russian outlet RT reported.

Multiple reports in Russian media have reported the presence of at least three gunmen participating in the attack. The terrorists, reportedly dressed in camouflage, stormed the venue and opened fire at the audience inside the concert hall with what some reports indicate were automatic weapons. The terrorists also reportedly detonated a grenade, setting the Crocus City complex on fire.

The fire is so large that the Russian government has deployed a water-discharging helicopter to end it and has prepared two more to fly in, according to RIA Novosti.

Videos on social media shared by Russian news outlets – such as RT, Ria Novosti, Sputnik, and others – show panicked concertgoers attempting to hide under seats and the sound of gunfire. Reports indicated that one of the assailants detonated a grenade, causing the ongoing fire.

“People in the hall laid down on the ground to avoid the fire, laying there for about 15-20 minutes, after which they began to crawl out. Many managed to get out,” the Russian outlet Sputnik reported. Sputnik said that at least 100 people had been evacuated, but quoted the Russian Health Ministry saying that it was responding to the incident with over 70 ambulances, suggesting a prodigious casualty count.

RT reported over 100 casualties and counting, but did not specify how many were dead or wounded.

As of press time, the latest updates from RT indicated that the terrorists “have reportedly barricaded themselves inside of the burning building. The group has apparently not attempted to take hostages or make any statements, shooting people on sight instead.” The attackers are at large in the complex at press time.

Crocus City was hosting a concert by the progressive rock band Piknik on Friday. Piknik was banned from Ukraine after performing a concert in occupied Crimea, Ukraine, prompting Ukraine to ban them from the country. The band declared they “do not give a damn” about sanctions or politics in response to Ukraine’s condemnation, recalling that the Soviet Union had also blacklisted them.

Quote:A Russian diplomat has been declared persona non grata in Slovenia and ordered to leave the European Union country within seven days, its Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Slovenia is expelling the Russian diplomat over “activities incompatible with the diplomatic status,” the ministry said in a statement. It provided no further details.

Slovenia and Russia already have reduced the number of staff working at their embassies in Ljubljana and Moscow. A number of other EU countries have expelled Russian diplomats since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Last year, authorities in Slovenia apprehended two Russian spies who used a real estate and antiques agency as a cover for their activities in the Alpine nation.

Quote:In response to heavy pressure from farmers across Europe, the EU announced on Wednesday that it would be adding several staple foods to its list of Ukrainian agricultural products with “emergency breaks” to prevent the country from flooding markets in Europe with cheap produce and undercutting local farmers.

The European Parliament said on Wednesday that it has agreed to extend the temporary suspension of tariffs and other restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU for another year, until at least June 5th 2025, to help prop up the economy of the war-torn country. However, farmers throughout Europe have complained that they are being unfairly undercut by cheaply produced products from Ukraine, which not produced under the same restrictive and expensive environmental regulations, and has a much cheaper workforce.

Following months of tractor protests from farmers throughout Europe — notably blockades at the Ukraine border with Poland — the EU said that it would be adding oats, maize, groats, and honey to its emergency break list, meaning that it can halt imports swiftly if they exceed the average set in 2022 and 2023.

The list had previously only included items such as eggs, poulyry, and sugar, so the addition of grainst to the list is a significant move. However, the EU refused to go so far as to include wheat on the emergency break list for Ukraine, often dubbed the “breadbasket” of Europe over its high wheat production.

Sandra Kalniete MEP of the European People’s Party said of the compromise: “Tonight’s agreement reinforces the EU’s continued commitment to stand by Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression until Ukraine’s victory. Russia’s targeting of Ukraine and its food production also impacts EU farmers.

“The Parliament heard their concerns, and bolstered safeguard measures that would alleviate the pressure on EU farmers should they be overwhelmed by a sudden surge in Ukrainian imports.”

Quote:Dutch police said Thursday they had arrested someone suspected of throwing a burning object at Israel’s embassy in The Hague, which is under heavy security amid the war in Gaza.

“Around 10:50 am someone threw a burning object… towards the Israeli embassy,” police said.

“We have arrested one suspect. No-one was injured. We are investigating and there is a large barrier around the embassy.”

Security has been stepped up around Israeli embassies across the world as the country’s military presses an offensive in Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Hamas attacks resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly of civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s military has since waged a relentless ground and air offensive in Gaza that has killed 31,988 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the densely populated Palestinian territory.

“It is unacceptable that such an attack can take place in the Netherlands. Fortunately, no injuries were reported,” said the embassy in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

“This shows the dangerous consequences of the worrying trend of increasing hatred and incitement. This hatred cannot be tolerated.”

Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte also described the attack as “unacceptable”.

“Criticism is allowed in the Netherlands but this should never lead to violence. I am grateful to the authorities, who are taking this very seriously,” added Rutte.

In February, there was a bomb scare at the official residence of the Israeli ambassador in The Hague.

Police cordoned off the area but found no explosives.

At the time, authorities in The Hague had imposed emergency security measures around the Israeli embassy in response to an unspecified threat.

Quote:Venezuela’s socialist regime approved a law on Thursday to “formally” create a new state out of two-thirds of neighboring Guyana, annexing the historically contested Essequibo territory.

The 39-article law, named “Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba,” established the purported creation of a new state for Venezuela called Guayana Esequiba that will allegedly consist of the Essequibo, a 61,600-square-mile territory that Guyana currently administers and which represents approximately two-thirds of its entire territory.

The law, which the socialist-controlled National Assembly just recently approved, is part of the regime’s broader plans, announced in December, to annex the Essequibo region, which include granting Venezuelan identity documents to the region’s mostly indigenous inhabitants; issuing oil, gas, and mining licenses to exploit the resource-rich region; and establishing authorities to “administer” the territory and “preserve” its biodiversity.

The socialist regime claims that its annexation plans are part of a “mandate” stemming from the results of a sham five-question referendum held in early December, which asked “what to do” about the Essequibo dispute.

Despite the extensive footage showing low voter turnout and completely empty electoral centers, Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his regime claim that more than “ten million” votes were cast in favor of his annexation referendum, an amount much higher than any other claimed turnout rates in previous sham elections.

“The Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba is declared sanctioned,” Jorge Rodríguez, the head of the National Assembly, wrote on social media. “We have fulfilled the people of Venezuela who came out en masse to say Yes five times on December 3!”

Venezuela and Guyana have maintained an over 120-year-old territorial dispute over the Essequibo. Venezuela has historically argued that the territory has been part of its borders since it gained independence from Spain in 1811 — 188 years before the current ruling “Bolivarian Revolution” rose to power in 1999.

The problem for Guyana is that it needs weapons to defend its terroritory.

Quote:The Brazilian newspaper O Globo revealed on Wednesday that prosecutors in the country are pursuing charges of money laundering and fraud against 25-year-old Jair Renan Bolsonaro, the youngest son of the nation’s eponymous ex-president.

An attorney for the younger Bolsonaro appeared to confirm the charges in remarks to the Globo-affiliated G1 news outlet, objecting that the improper leaking of the details of the case to the media was “very detrimental to the defense, due process, the presumption of innocence and, thus, the image of those who have the right to defend themselves.”

The Brazilian newspaper Estadao independently confirmed the criminal case. The reports indicated that prosecutors submitted their paperwork to charge Jair Renan Bolsonaro on March 15, leaving the federal courts to process the case.

The news of the charges against Bolsonaro’s youngest son surfaced a day after Bolsonaro himself was indicted on charges of conspiracy and inserting false data into government public health systems. Prosecutors accused Bolsonaro and 16 others of being part of a conspiracy to grant him and his 12-year-old daughter Laura false coronavirus vaccination cards in late 2022, which would have allowed the two to enter the United States. Bolsonaro, Laura, and his wife Michelle Bolsonaro traveled to Florida shortly after his defeat in the 2022 presidential election to convicted felon Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the current president.

Bolsonaro faces several other criminal cases including allegations that he plotted a “coup” against Lula and that he played a role in the January 8, 2023, riot in Brasilia against Lula’s inauguration for a third term. Opponents of the inauguration argued that, as a convicted felon, Lula should never have been allowed to run for president. Lula was allowed on the ballot after the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the nation’s highest court, overturned his multiple convictions on procedural grounds, failing to present any exonerating evidence.

Quote:Two immigration officials in Mexico lost their jobs after the country’s National Migration Institute (INM) was unable to cover up their arrest. The officials were arrested as part of an investigation into a large-scale extortion scheme where the officials allegedly targeted migrants.

The case revolves around top officials with INM in Tijuana using their position to extort money from migrants in order not to deport them. Sometimes, the victims had travel permits and visas and still had to pay the corrupt officials. The initial reaction of the INM was to cover up the incident, but after the arrest of two officials and a raid at the home of a third top official, the institute announced that they had begun firing people.

The case first began in late February when Mexican federal authorities raided the house of David Perez Tejeda, the regional delegate for INM in Baja California. Since then, INM authorities tried to cover up the case and the allegations of deep-rooted corruption.

During the raid, authorities found more than one million pesos (approximately USD $60,000) and $27,000 (USD) hidden in a safe. Authorities also found some ammunition rounds and a series of notebooks with the names of migrants. It is believed that those notebooks were used to document the migrants that had been extorted.

Perez Tejeda, who was a former senator in Mexico, has not been arrested but is currently one of the targets under investigation in the case, law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed to punish those behind a “barbaric terrorist attack” on a Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133, saying Russia had arrested four gunmen who were trying to flee to Ukraine.

Kyiv has strongly denied any connection, and Putin made no reference to claims of responsibility by the Islamic State in his first public remarks on the attack.

At least 133 people were killed when camouflaged gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow’s northern suburb of Krasnogorsk, and then set fire to the building on Friday evening.

The jihadist group has claimed the attack, writing Saturday on a Telegram channel that it was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and firebombs,” as part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam”.

It is the deadliest attack on Russia in almost two decades and the deadliest in Europe to have been claimed by the Islamic State.

Russian officials expect the death toll to rise further, with more than 100 injured in hospital.

“Terrorists, murderers, non-humans … have only one unenviable fate: retribution and oblivion,” Putin said in a televised address to the nation on Saturday.

Calling the attack a “barbaric, terrorist act”, he said “all four direct perpetrators … all those who shot and killed people, have been found and detained”.
...
The FSB said earlier Saturday that the assailants had “contacts” in Ukraine, without providing further details.

Kyiv, facing a Russian military offensive for the past two years, said it had “nothing to do” with the attack, presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement.
...
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Friday, saying its fighters attacked “a large gathering” on Moscow’s outskirts and “retreated to their bases safely”.

Some witnesses filmed the gunmen from the upper floors as they walked through the stalls shooting people, footage shared on social media showed.

Then “the terrorists used a flammable liquid to set fire to the concert hall’s premises, where spectators were located, including wounded,” the Investigative Committee said.
...
The head of the state-run RT media outlet, Margarita Simonyan on Saturday posted two videos claiming to be interrogations of two handcuffed suspects, who both admitted to the attack but did not say who organised it.

Russian Telegram channels, including Baza which is close to the security services, and a lawmaker said some of the suspects were from Tajikistan, a post-Soviet country in Central Asia.
Tajikistan’s foreign ministry told Russia’s TASS news agency that authorities were “in close contact” with Moscow about the “supposed participation of the country’s citizens in the terrorist attack”.
...
Major events were cancelled across the country, including a friendly football match between Russia and Paraguay set to take place in Moscow on Monday.

Another article stated the Russians had arrested 11 suspects.

Quote:Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov is the first senior Russian figure to acknowledge the country is at war, saying the conflict changed in nature after Western states began to arm Ukraine. Responding to internal comments about his comments on Friday, Peskov later clarified his position, saying that while the government acknowledged it is “de facto” at war, that did not change the state’s legal position that the invasion of Ukraine remains a “de jure” special military operation.

While the semantics of conflict — whether Moscow calls its invasion a war or not — will matter little to those fighting on the front lines, or those being bombed at home, such developments will seem important to intent Kremlin watchers attempting to infer attitudes and intentions from the Russians.

That the admission that Russia is in fact at war comes just days after Putin rubber-stamped another six years in power for himself in the nation’s ‘elections’ may be significant. Indeed, another first that quickly followed the vote was the Russian leader naming his deceased former critic and rival Alexi Navalny for the first time in many years, possibly signalling Putin is feeling comfortable in his position.

Peskov said:

“We are at war. Yes, it began as a special military operation, but as soon as this company formed there, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, this became a war for us. I am convinced of this. And everyone should understand this.”

While Russia appears willing to face reality in this regard — that it is unmistakably at war — it continues to stick to its own ideological guns elsewhere. Indeed, Peskov accused Ukrainians living in Ukraine of occupying Russian territory, prompting him to remark that Moscow will seek to “liberate the territory”.
...
While Russia is speaking of itself being at “war” for the first time, this is not by far the first time it has accused the West of going to war with Moscow. Even so, much of Russia’s energy in public-facing messaging for Western leaders is focused on dissuading NATO nations from continuing to provide aid, or from offering new levels of lethality.

While these threats can take on a lurid, alarming aspect — such as the constant talk of nuclear war from the Kremlin — the latest messaging relies on a hectoring history lesson and a warning of the humiliation of failure. Threatening to inflict a total, historic defeat on Europe if it continues to involve itself in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian diplomat Vasily Nebenzia at the United Nations cited French leader Napoleon Bonaparte’s disastrous invasion of Russia in the 19th century.

Quote:Russia unleashed one of its most devastating attacks against Ukraine’s electric sector on Friday, an aerial assault it said was retaliation for recent strikes inside Russia and which could signal an escalation of the war just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a preordained election.

Many Ukrainians were plunged into darkness across several cities, at least five people were killed, and damage to the country´s largest hydroelectric plant briefly cut off power to a nuclear plant that has been a safety risk throughout the war.

Russia fired off more than 60 exploding drones and 90 missiles in what Ukrainian officials described as the most brutal attack against its energy infrastructure since the full-scale war began in early 2022.

Kharkiv, Ukraine´s second-largest city, sustained the most damage, officials said, and the attack came a day after Russia had fired 31 missiles into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been urging Western allies for weeks to provide it with additional air-defense systems and ammunition, a period in which $60 billion in U.S. aid has been held up by divisions in Congress.

“With Russian missiles, there are no delays, like with aid packages to our state,” Zelenskyy said. “It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions.”

Russia’s defense ministry called Friday attacks “strikes of retribution.” Ukraine has increased shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region along its northeast border and has launched drone strikes targeting Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities.

Ukraine’s latest strike inside Russia on Friday killed one and injured at least three, according to local officials.

Putin has described Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other regions as an effort to frighten residents and derail the highly orchestrated election that ended Sunday. And he vowed to strike back.

Quote:Two sources told Reuters on Thursday that Ukraine could scrap the Sponsors of War list and its website within a matter of days.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers held a meeting on Wednesday at which it decided to remove public access to the International Sponsors of War website, following complaints from foreign embassies that there was no “regulatory framework” controlling the list. The ministers also felt the Sponsors of War list was redundant because the Ukrainian government also maintains a “state register of sanctions” that does have legal force.

Ukraine’s National Agency of Corruption Prevention (NAZK) created the list in the summer of 2022 in an effort to build public pressure against international corporations that have not terminated their business operations in Russia.

Part of the rationale for shaming the companies as “Sponsors of War” is that they are paying taxes to the Russian government, which is spending lavishly on the stalled invasion of Ukraine. Some of the companies also pay for advertising in Russian media, employ local services such as food delivery, and “cooperate with state and local law enforcement agencies of the aggressor country,” as NAZK put it.

Most of the 50 companies currently listed as Sponsors of War are relatively obscure, but there are a few heavyweight corporate entries, including Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Subway. Fourteen of the listed companies are Chinese, including massive energy companies like Sinopec and tech giants such as the Alibaba Group. China is Russia’s largest remaining international ally after the brutal Ukraine invasion.

NAZK claims there are roughly 1,600 foreign companies doing business in Russia after the invasion but only a tiny fraction of that number has been added to the International Sponsors of War list. The blacklist is purely a public relations operation, with no legal force inside Ukraine.

According to Reuters’ sources, China has been leaning most heavily on Ukraine to discontinue the list. China publicly demanded Ukraine remove all Chinese firms from the list in February, hinting that China’s massive purchases of Ukrainian grain could be at risk if Kyiv did not comply.

Quote:The future Queen of the United Kingdom shocked the world on Friday when she revealed her cancer diagnosis, but revealed she had delayed making the news public until she had been able to explain what was happening to her own children “in a way that is appropriate for them”.

It was revealed on Friday that Princess Catherine, the wife of the heir apparent and future King, has been diagnosed with cancer, the news coming just weeks after it was revealed the King, too, is undergoing cancer treatment.

While Catherine’s now three-month absence from public life and the speculation that has gone with it, and her packed schedule as a front-line working Royal before that has generally filled public perception, the importance of her role as a mother to three children came front-and-centre in the Princess’s statement on Friday. While not stating exactly how long she had known about her cancer diagnosis, Catherine made clear she had delayed the news going public before she and her husband were able to break the news in an “appropriate” way to their children, as well as reassuring them their mother is going to be “OK”.

The Princess said:

This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.

As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK. As I have said to them; I am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal; in my mind, body and spirits.

Having William by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance too. As is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you. It means so much to us both.

The timing of the announcement was reportedly linked to the fact that Princess Catherine and the Prince of Wales’ children finished their school term today for the Easter Holidays, breaking up for three-and-a-half weeks until mid-April.

Quote:Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was called out by French populist Marine Le Pen on Saturday during a video address to the ‘Winds of Change’ convention for not coming out against the second term of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Failing to live up to her reputation as a populist firebrand, Giorgia Meloni has governed from the centre since coming into power in 2022 and has sought to deepen Rome’s ties with Brussels rather than opposing the globalist agenda of the likes of Von der Leyen.

Specifically calling her out for this, former presidential candidate and the leader of the National Rally in France, Marine Le Pen said in a video address to a convention of the Identity and Democracy (ID) party in Rome on Saturday: “A message for Giorgia: will you support a second mandate for Von der Leyen or not? I believe so. You must the truth to the Italians, you must tell what you will do.”

Le Pen said that her party in France, which is a member of the ID group in the European Parliament, will “fight with all possible forces to prevent a second mandate for Von der Leyen.”

The French populist went on to say that she believes only Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and his League party will actually stand up to Von der Leyen’s attempts at a second term following the European Parliament elections in June.

While delivering some wins for conservatives like banning lab-grown meat and introducing further crackdowns on surrogacy births, the central issue that saw her come to power, reducing illegal migration, has only continued to grow worse under her leadership.

Indeed, in 2023, according to information from the Interior Ministry, 155,754 migrants arrived in Italy in 2023, a fifty per cent increase over the previous year when 103,846 illegals were recorded reaching Italy.

Meloni had promised a hardline approach towards illegal migration, particularly the people smuggler-operated boats which dump hundreds of thousands of illegals on Italy’s shores every year. Prompting hysterical reactions, Meloni had suggested instituting a naval blockade in the Mediterranean to stop the migrant boats from crossing the sea from North Africa.

Quote:A Maryland town’s entire police force has been mysteriously suspended, leaving residents completely “blindsided” without much explanation.

The commissioners of Ridgley, a small town of just under 1,900 people, placed every member of the police department on leave with pay on March 13, “pending investigation by the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor.”

According to an announcement from Commissioners Anthony Casey, John Hurley, and Leonard Buckle, the local government is “currently developing a temporary agreement with the Caroline County Sheriff’s Department to guarantee uninterrupted public safety services for the citizens.”

They added that Ridgley residents can still call 911 for emergencies.

Caroline County Sheriff Donald Baker added that the Maryland State Police would help out as well, Fox News reports.

The state prosecutor’s office has not made any statement regarding the nature of the investigation or when it is expected to end.

A law enforcement source who spoke with WBOC claimed that a whistleblower accused Ridgley officers of not “properly disposing of surplus equipment, including guns and cars,” the outlet reported.

The insider also claimed that the investigation is looking into members of the department who were not properly submitting administrative reports and failing to complete background checks on new officers.

No official bodies have confirmed these reports, however.

Locals are quite skeptical of the entire situation.

Quote:Experts have been documenting evidence for decades that points to China making prodigious profits from killing political prisoners, most prominently Falun Gong practitioners and Turkic Muslims imprisoned in East Turkistan’s concentration camps. That evidence ranges from leaked government documents to eyewitness testimonies and unexplained inconsistencies in China’s official organ transplant data. The evidence has led to little condemnation for the Communist Party, however, which simultaneously denies committing the human rights atrocity and boasts of record-setting numbers of organ transplants that stretch the limits of what is mathematically possible in a system using only voluntary organ donors. Top surgeons with ties to the Communist Party are still welcome members of the global medical elite. Research by Chinese scientists suspected of being tied to the forced organ harvesting trade is still published in international journals.

On Wednesday, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing to address China’s forced organ harvesting, seeking updates on the harrowing evidence presented by researchers in past hearings on the subject. Among those present were researchers Ethan Gutmann and Matthew Robertson, responsible for some of the most thorough research exposing the abuses, and MIT professor Maya Mitalipova, who warned that China’s voracious appetite for DNA sequencing data could grant it a database of civilians nationwide that it could scan whenever it needed to find an unwilling organ donor to kill.

“The Chinese Government is building the world’s largest DNA database by acquiring DNA sequencing data from companies within China and across the globe including the USA,” Mitalipova explained in her written testimony to Congress.

“Numerous biotechnology companies are assisting the Chinese police in building this database and may find themselves complicit in these violations,” Mitalipova elaborated. “They include multinational companies such as US-based Thermo Fisher Scientific and major Chinese companies like BGI (Beijing Genome Institute) … BGI in particular is dangerous because it collects genetic data of Americans and uses it for research with the Chinese military.”

Reuters revealed in 2021 that BGI launched an initiative to seek out partnerships with American biotech companies – after sharing DNA data with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) coming from non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), which doctors use to predict the viability of children in the womb.

Mitalipova suggested that the database could be used to streamline the killing of not just political prisoners, but anyone in China to harvest their organs.

Quote:On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen stated that if ISIS-K’s claim of responsibility for the attack on a Russian concert hall is accurate, “that would be very embarrassing for the Biden administration if it turned out that ISIS-K has sort of re-grouped to the extent that they can reach out to other countries [and] carry out major attacks” when the Biden administration is “responsible” for pulling troops from Afghanistan.

Bergen said that if ISIS-K was responsible, it suggests that their capabilities are “back.”

He added, “[I]nitially, when I saw this, I was a little skeptical, because, typically, if you’re an ISIS fighter, you don’t care about getting killed at the scene of the crime. You don’t — you’re not looking for a getaway, you’re looking to martyr yourself. So, in this case, it looks like the people did get away, according to the Russians. And that isn’t sort of typical for an ISIS-type attack. So, — however, the fact that it’s not just the Americans who had intelligence in their system about ISIS presence in Moscow, it turns out that the Russians did, too. Otherwise, why would Russian state television report on March 7 about a plan to attack a Moscow synagogue by ISIS? So, I don’t know. It isn’t absolutely typical of their M.O. But, certainly, ISIS has attacked concert venues in the past. In, Paris, you recall in 2015, they killed 130 people, most — many of them were attending a concert. And, obviously, this work could well be — it could be just what it — as this group says. I’m still looking for evidence, and, hopefully, we’ll identify who these people are relatively quickly. Are they Tajiks? Are they Chechens? If they’re part of ISIS. Did they train in Afghanistan? That’s a very big question here. Obviously, that would be very embarrassing for the Biden administration if it turned out that ISIS-K has sort of re-grouped to the extent that they can reach out to other countries [and] carry out major attacks at a time when they’re responsible for the withdrawal from — of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.”

Quote:President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has extended and redesignated a temporary amnesty program to nearly 10,000 Burmese nationals living in the United States, ensuring they are not eligible for deportation and can hold American jobs.

On Friday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 9,600 Burmese nationals in the United States who would otherwise be eligible for deportation.

Burmese nationals with TPS will be able to remain in the United States and hold American jobs through November 2025 as long as they claim that they were in the country as of March 21, 2024.

In addition, Mayorkas announced so-called “Special Student Relief” for Burmese nationals who are in the United States on F-1 student visas, which will allow them to “request employment authorization, work an increased number of hours while school is in session, and reduce their course load while continuing to maintain F-1 status through the TPS designation period.”

TPS was first created under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 (INA) and prevents federal immigration officials from deporting people from countries that are designated as experiencing famine, war, or natural disasters.

Since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program as the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden administrations have continuously renewed the program for a variety of countries.

Quote:Drug addicts near a firehouse in East Harlem have been seen pooping and shooting up outside the facility, the New York Post reported Saturday.

The disturbing news comes as Democrat-controlled New York City grapples with a drug crisis and rampant crime.

Battalion Chief Burgess shared his thoughts on the scene outside the Engine 35, Ladder 14 firehouse, where photos show people sitting on the ground.

Burgess said the druggies break into vehicles, poop on them, and leave trash and needles everywhere.

“These people are so far gone in their addiction that it’s hard not to feel bad for them, but you feel that rage when they’ve defecated on your car, like what happened to mine last week,” he continued, noting that such instances happen on a daily basis.

One firefighter told the outlet that some of the individuals become aggressive when they are asked to move, while others simply grant the request.

“The firehouse is only a few blocks from OnPoint NYC, a so-called safe injection site that critics say enables addicts and lures them to the neighborhood,” the Post article added.

Social media users shared their thoughts on the report, one person writing, “Elections have consequences.”

“With democrats in office nobody is safe!” another user said, while someone else commented, “But this is exactly what Democrats created, what they want.”

A man in New York City recently sued Burger King for a whopping $15 million for allowing one of its restaurants to become an “open-air drug bazaar,” Breitbart News reported Sunday:

The restaurant in question is located on Fulton Street, just blocks away from City Hall. Despite its proximity to the office of Mayor Eric Adams (D), local resident Kevin Kaufman says a group of eight to ten “professional drug dealers” have all but completely taken over the spot.

Quote:During an interview with the Fox News Channel aired on Friday’s broadcast of “Special Report,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) reacted to claims that 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war — a claim that has been repeated by President Joe Biden — by stating that number includes a huge number of Hamas terrorists and also said that the war could end immediately if Hamas would surrender and release the hostages.

Fetterman said, [relevant remarks begin around 1:55] “I was very disappointed that our caucus wasn’t — we didn’t have the opportunity to do that. I really wanted to hear from Netanyahu. In fact, I even asked the Republicans — back channels, just like, hey, can I just sit there? And I don’t even have to [ask] any questions. And I’ve always been incredibly surprised why we’re not talking about where this was because of Hamas and the things that they’ve done and that why [isn’t there] a protest kind of a surge to demand that Hamas [surrender] on this. If you really want to end all the — just the misery and the death and the destruction, if they would just surrender, and it would end tomorrow, release everybody, send them home. And that’s been very frustrating.”

He continued, “And then we’re talking about now there [are] 31,000 Palestinians that were killed, and, well, you’re not talking about, well, 13,000 or more are actually Hamas fighters on that. So, why aren’t you breaking that out as well, too? And then, if you do, and talk about the casualty ratio, it’s actually very clear that this isn’t a genocide or that the Israelis are targeting civilians. In fact, the only ones that [target] civilians, that’s Hamas.”

Quote:On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said he is “very upset” about the government funding bill stripping funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) over accusations that multiple UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 attack because they’re the only group that can get aid in and that he’s talked with people “on how we can get resources to them and they may be able to get resources to UNRWA or whoever else” can get aid in.

Co-host Alicia Menendez asked, “Very quickly, though, another complication here is the restrictions on funding to UNRWA. You have a lot of progressives very upset about it. Your thoughts?”

Meeks responded, “I’m very upset about it. We had to strike this deal in order to keep the government open. But we know that UNRWA is the only one that has the ability to get the aid to the people there. So, [that’s] something that was a problem for me, also. But I had to make some decisions, because you give and take when you do these budgets. So, we still — and I’ve been talking to a number of individuals…from other humanitarian organizations on how we can get resources to them and they may be able to get resources to UNRWA or whoever else can get food and aid into the region, absolutely key and essential.”

Quote:A government report in Canada forecasted a deep civic breakdown in the once-stable society that now suffers from unprecedented levels of elite-imposed migration.

The secret and heavily redacted report was prepared by the country’s version of the FBI — the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The partial copy was extracted from the agency by an academic lawyer and was published in Canada’s National Post newspaper.

The report is titled “Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada,” and features many progressive-approved concerns about claimed global warming in cold-weather Canada.

But the visible sections of the text spotlight several obvious costs of migration — expensive housing, wider wealth gaps, and reduced civic trust caused by the government’s policy of forced diversity:

Popular Resentment

The coming period of recession will also accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations. For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live.  The fallout from this decline in living standards will be exacerbated by the fact that the difference between the extremes of wealth is greater now in developed countries than it has been in any time in several generations.

Erosion of Trust

The past seven years have seen more social and political polarization in the Western World …

Paranoid Populism

Capitalizing on the rise of political polarization and conspiracy theories have been populists willing to tailor their messages to appeal to extremist movements. Authoritarian movements have been on the rise in many liberal-democratic nations …

“The situation will probably deteriorate further in the next five years,” the report begins.

Quote:Representatives from China and Russia reportedly met with a top Houthi official named Mohammed Abdel Salam in Oman this week to hammer out a safe-passage agreement that will protect Chinese and Russian vessels in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said in January they would not attack Russian or Chinese vessels, but a lower-ranking Houthi official informally made the promise.

The Houthi terror campaign was supposedly focused on ships registered to Israel or its close allies — such as the United States and the United Kingdom — but the Yemeni insurgents have attacked numerous vessels that did not meet those conditions. At least one Houthi missile attack is known to have imperiled a shipment of Russian oil.

“Several people with knowledge of the militant group’s discussions” told Bloomberg News on Thursday that Chinese and Russian diplomats in Oman worked out a formal agreement for safe passage with Salam.

In exchange for guaranteed safe passage, the Chinese and Russians evidently promised “political support for the Houthis in bodies such as the United Nations Security Council.” The most obvious support Beijing and Moscow could offer would be using their veto powers to block U.N. resolutions against the Houthis, a service their primary patrons in Iran cannot provide.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief Gen. Michael Kurilla told the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that China and Russia are already supporting the Houthis and receiving safe passage in exchange.

“Russia and China have a bye on any movement through the Red Sea. So what you’re seeing is Iran is using its proxy to allow access for Russia and China to go through the Red Sea while blocking access to others,” he said.

Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that there was no alternative to an attack in Rafah, and that Israel was prepared to do so without U.S. support.

While thanking Blinken for American help thus far, and while sharing his concern for civilians in Gaza, Netanyahu said that “we have no way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there. And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we need to, we will do it alone.”

Netanyahu and Blinken met in the “Kirya,” the main Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Blinken has been on a week-long visit to several countries in the Middle East, trying to secure a hostage deal and temporary ceasefire.

For weeks, the U.S. and Israel have disagreed publicly over Rafah, which is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza. It is also next to the Egyptian border, making it a strategically important point — for aid, and for smuggling.

President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu on Monday and said that the U.S. believed Hamas could be defeated without an Israeli military operation in Rafah, though the White House did not explain how that could be done.

Netanyahu publicly disagreed. Blinken said in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday that an Israel attack on Hamas in Rafah would be a “mistake” and “unnecessary.”

Israel depends on the U.S. heavily for resupply of arms and ammunition.

Quote:Another U.S. military asset left for Gaza on Thursday to help fulfill President Joe Biden’s promise to build a pier linking the war-torn territory to the rest of the world.

The MV Roy P. Benavidez left its berth in Newport News, Va., loaded with heavy equipment and materials needed for the U.S. Army-led project.

About 500 of U.S. soldiers will participate in the mission to aid Gaza. All together, Pentagon officials have said about 1,000 U.S. troops will be involved.

The ship will deliver the components to the Army’s 7th Transportation Brigade, which will construct the pier in the Mediterranean Sea.

UPI reports Army officials call this capability Joint Logistics-Over-the-Shore (JLOTS).  Lt. Gen. John Sullivan, deputy commander, U.S. Transportation Command said in a statement:

JLOTS is a critical capability that allows ship-to-shore cargo distribution in the absence of a usable pier.

It can be used to augment an established port or to create a pier where one is needed and allows us to support areas where large populations are isolated from food, water and other forms of humanitarian aid.

The Benavidez is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Fleet.

It will support four Army vessels with the 7th Transportation Brigade, which departed the U.S. in support of the mission earlier this month, as Breitbart News reported.

Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder has said the pier will be fully operational within 60 days of when Biden ordered the project during his State of the Union address.

The structure is expected to be as much as 1,800 feet long, with two lanes, and the Pentagon has said it could accommodate the delivery of more than two million meals a day for Gaza residents.

Quote:The Biden Administration attempted to pass a resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Friday that tried to pressure Israel into accepting a temporary ceasefire in Gaza — and Russia and China vetoed it anyway.

The Times of Israel reported:

The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal after Russia and China vetoed the measure proposed by the United States.
...
It marked a further toughening of Washington’s stance toward Israel. Earlier in the five-month-long war, the US was averse to the word ceasefire and vetoed measures that included calls for an immediate ceasefire.
...
The draft had stopped short of explicitly demanding that Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza. In the delicate language of Security Council resolutions, the draft “determines” the “imperative” of an “immediate and sustained” ceasefire.

Quote:The figurehead “president” of the communist state of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, participated in a “virtual reality” Gaza experience this week presented by the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese outlet al-Mayadeen in Havana.

Díaz-Canel, who serves as the face of the 65-year-old dictatorship led by 92-year-old Raúl Castro, told al-Mayadeen that “everyone in Cuba is a child of Palestine” and claimed that the way to end Israel’s self-defense operations against the genocidal jihadist organization Hamas is to “put an end to capitalism” and destroy the American “empire.”

The Castro regime is an enthusiastic supporter of jihadist causes and a close ally of fellow U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism Iran. Following the October 7 massacre of about 1,200 people by Hamas in Israel, the Cuban Communist Party raised its voice to support Hamas and the “Palestinian cause,” condemning Israel for declaring war and launching self-defense operations in the Hamas stronghold of Gaza, intended to prevent a repeat of the worst terrorist attack in its history. The Castro regime lit up Havana in the colors of the “Palestinian” flag after October 7 and Díaz-Canel traveled to Iran shortly thereafter to denounce Israel and express solidarity with the region’s jihadist operatives.

While enthusiastically embracing jihad abroad, Cuba is one of the world’s most repressive states against people of all faiths, including the small population of Cuban Muslims. The Castro regime has for years banned the construction of mosques and other Muslim community centers and censors nearly all public expressions related to religion.

Díaz-Canel’s encounter with al-Mayadeen occurred during the “Patria International Colloquium” in Havana, a convention for regime sympathizers from all backgrounds. The event featured a stand dedicated to pro-Hamas propaganda, the independent outlet Cubanet reported, which featured a virtual reality headset playing Hamas propaganda videos accusing Israel of “genocide.” Díaz-Canel wore the headset and claimed to experience something “very tough” and live the experience of people in Gaza.

Quote:Brazilian radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva resumed his condemnation of Israel on Wednesday by once again accusing it of committing “genocide” in Gaza over its self-defense actions against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.

Lula, whose previous condemnations and antisemitic remarks against Israel have single-handedly strained the historically friendly relationship between both countries in recent weeks, once again accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza during an event held in Brasília that commemorated the 44th anniversary of the ruling Worker’s Party (PT), which Lula founded.

The Brazilian president, right before singing a “happy birthday” to his PT party alongside Brazilian first lady Rosângela Lula da Silva and PT’s president Gleisi Hoffmann, called for Hamas to release the hostages that it still maintains in captivity since the October 7 terrorist attack — but demanded that Israel stop what he described as a “genocide” in Gaza.

“People who advocate peace in the world don’t have the courage to defend women and children in the Gaza Strip, who are being murdered every day, because that’s not a war, that’s genocide,” Lula said. “We have to have the courage to say these things, otherwise it’s not worth our time on planet Earth and it’s not even worth doing politics.”

Lula has repeatedly accused Israel of “murdering women and children” in its self-defense actions against Hamas.

“In the same way that we in the PT condemn the terrorist act of Hamas, in the same way that we defend that Hamas has to release the Israeli hostages, and that Israel has to release the Palestinian hostages, we have to say, no more killing women and children who have nothing to do with this war,” Lula said this week.

“Where is the UN, which should exist to prevent these things from happening?” he continued.

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday that the administration had not ruled out “consequences” for Israel if it defied President Joe Biden and attacked Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Biden has warned Israel publicly not to attack Hamas in Rafah, due to the presence of large numbers of civilians there, which the terrorist group uses as human shields. Israel says that it cannot win the war without defeating the last four Hamas battalions in Rafah.

Harris’s spoke to ABC News on Sunday, telling a reporter that “I have studied the maps” of southern Gaza:

In a wide-ranging new interview with ABC News, Vice President Kamala Harris suggested there could be “consequences” for Israel if it moves ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah in its pursuit of Hamas fighters.
...
[Senior congressional correspondent Rachel] Scott followed up: “Are you ruling out that there would be consequences from the United States?”

“I am ruling out nothing,” Harris replied.

Israel says it can move civilians to areas near Rafah during the fighting.

On Friday, after meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israel intends to enter Rafah. He added that while he would prefer to do so with U.S. support, “if we need to, we will do it alone.”

Critics say that the Biden administration is playing into Hamas’s strategy by preventing Israel from destroying it.

Quote:On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school and announced three quarters of a billion dollars being dedicated to securing more red flag laws.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school is the site of the February 14, 2018, tragedy in which an attacker with a legally purchased firearm shot and killed 17 people.

UPI reported that Harris made two announcements after touring the part of the school in which the attack occurred.

The first announcement was that the Biden Administration is creating a National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center and funding it with $750 million.

The second announcement was directed to state legislatures, urging them to use the federal monies to secure red flag laws. Harris said:P

Red flag laws are simply designed to allow communities a vehicle through which they can share, and have somewhere to share it, information about the concern about the potential danger or the crying out for help of an individual and then let’s give it to them before tragedy occurs. Part of why I am here today is to challenge every state to pass a red flag law.

Harris did not mention that California adopted a red flag law in 2014, according to Giffords. However, FBI data showed that California led the nation in “active shooter incidents” in 2021.

Quote:Ukraine’s military claimed on Sunday to have hit two Black Sea warships near Crimea as well as having struck a communications centre used by the Russian Navy in Sevastopol.

Two Russian Navy ships stationed off the Crimean peninsula were hit by missile strikes, the strategic command of the Ukrainian Army claimed in a post on social media. Additionally, a Russian naval communications centre in Sevastopol was hit during the barrage.

The facility reportedly previously served as the headquarters for the Ukrainian Black Sea fleet before Moscow illegally annexed the territory in 2014.

“Ukraine’s defence force successfully hit Russian large landing ships Yamal and Azov, a communications centre, as well as several infrastructure facilities of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol,” Ukrainian StratCom said in a statement.

Mikail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea confirmed on Sunday that multiple missiles were fired from Ukraine at Sevastopol. Razvozhayev did not confirm the strikes on the warships or the communications centre, but said that the missile attack was “the most massive one in recent times”.

The Russian official said that ground defences managed to shoot down 10 missiles. However, Razvozhayev claimed that a 65-year-old man was killed as a projectile hit his home and that a further four people suffered shrapnel wounds.

According to a report from London’s Daily Telegraph, the missiles used in the attacks are believed to have been Storm Shadows supplied to Ukraine from the United Kingdom.

Quote:Russia launched its third massive missile attack on Ukraine in the past four days, and the second to target the capital of Kyiv, with Poland’s military saying that one of the missiles launched at western Ukraine briefly entered its airspace Sunday.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said Russia used cruise missiles launched from Tu-95MS strategic bombers. An air alert in the capital lasted for more than two hours as rockets entered Kyiv in groups from the north.

He said the attacks were launched from the Engels district in the Saratov region of Russia.
According to preliminary data, there were no casualties or damage in the capital, he said.

The operation command of Poland, a member of NATO, said in a statement that there was a violation of Polish airspace at 4:23 a.m. (0323GMT) by one of the cruise missiles launched by Russia against towns in western Ukraine.

The object entered near the Polish town of Oserdów and stayed there for 39 seconds, the statement said. It added that military radar systems observed the missile the entire time and all necessary procedures were launched to ensure the safety of Polish airspace.

Poland’s Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters in a televised news conference that the Russian missile would have been shot down had there been any indication that it was heading towards a target in Poland. He said the missile penetrated Polish airspace about 1,000-2,000 meters (0.6 miles to 1.2 miles)

The Polish foreign ministry said it would “demand explanations from the Russian Federation in connection with another violation of the country´s airspace.”

“Above all, we call on the Russian Federation to stop the terrorist air attacks on the inhabitants and territory of Ukraine, end the war, and address the country´s internal problems,” the statement read.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, there have been a number of intrusions into Polish airspace.

---

Quote:The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has given the first glimpse of conditions of the MV Dali after it allided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, showing teams searching for chemical leaks, hidden fires, and inspecting damage.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators and U.S. Coastguard boarded the container ship MV Dali on Wednesday to inspect damage and retrieve data from the onboard recorder to form part of their investigation. The Board has now released a series of photographs and video from those visits, giving an insight into the level of damage sustained by the ship — which is to be freed, refloated, and recovered by U.S. Army engineers and a specialist salvage firm — in the impact.

An important part of the early investigation is ascertaining whether a wider threat may be posed by hazardous materials loaded aboard the Dali, which according to the manifest are present in 56 of the 4,700 shipping containers aboard. In the footage NTSB investigators are seen using thermal cameras, likely to detect hidden chemical reactions or fires deep inside the cargo containers that may have been set off by the crash, and a portable get detector to find potential leaks.

The handheld gas sniffer used by one investigator is a sophisticated model that wirelessly alerts a remote base station when alarms of high gas concentrations are triggered, in case the investigation team has already been overpowered by dangerous chemicals or vapours.

As the investigators go inside the ship, the extent of damage to its structure from the impact, the bridge falling on the bow of the ship, or both is clearly visible. In one internal compartment, the deck is ruptured and spatter on a nearby bulkhead indicates the force of the break. Oil or chemical contaminant is visible on the deck and considerable debris that appears to have fallen from above is scattered.
The visible damaged containers and cargo in the fore part of the ship on deck is illustrative of a typical container ship and the very global nature of the industry. Beyond rolled-out firehoses and large amounts of concrete rubble and twisted steel are at least two badly dented black oil-type drums, whose labels say they originated from Shanghai with the SI Group, a Texas-based chemical company with operations in China.

An apparently torn-apart shipping container nearby is marked IC33, meaning it was originally certified as safe for use by Chinese State Railways. Nearby are several bulk chemical containers, one marked UN1993, meaning it carried class three flammable liquids.
In the wheelhouse, the roving camera of the NTSB captures one of their investigators insert a USB stick into the ship’s voyage data recorder terminal to download data and a Coast Guard Captain wearing the silver eagle of his rank discusses the situation with investigators on the bridge wing.

While the investigation continues, the recovery effort begins. What has been called “the largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard”  has been delivered to Baltimore by barge to begin the work of clearing the central shipping channel. Dredged to 44 feet in comparison to 15 to 20 feet elsewhere around, the Fort McHenry channel which passed under the highest point of the old bridge and which the MV Dali missed is the only navigable water in the Patapsco for large cargo ships, or will be once the wreckage is removed.

Quote:Governor Wes Moore (D-MD) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that claiming the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was due to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies was “foolishness.”

Host Dana Bash said, “Some Republicans are trying to blame the bridge collapse on policies that encourage workplace diversity. A Utah state representative who is running for governor tweeted, quote, ‘This is what happens when you have governors who prioritize diversity over the well-being and security of citizens.’ Another Republican running for Congress in Florida posted ‘DEI did this.’ What’s your response?”

Moore said, “My response is, I have no time for foolishness! I’m locked in.”

He continued, “I’m making sure that we can get closure and comfort to these families. I’m making sure that we’re going to keep our first responders safe, doing heroic work. I’m making sure that we’re going to open up this channel and be able to get boats and ships and get our economic engine going again. I’m making sure that we’re taking care of our people to include our first responders and families and small businesses who’ve been impacted by this. And I’m making sure that we are going to get the Key Bridge rebuilt. I have no time for foolishness, and so I’m not going to delve into it.”

Quote:...
The Long and Costly Road to Rebuilding the Baltimore Bridge

The job of rebuilding the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is going to take a lot longer than many people initially thought—and cost a lot more money.

The Associated Press reported Friday that rebuilding the bridge could take “anywhere from 18 months to several years,” according to experts. It pinned the price tag at $400 million “or more than twice that.”

If anything, those are lowball estimates. The original bridge took five years to build from groundbreaking to ribbon-cutting. But the planning for the bridge began years before that. It cost $141 million back in the 1970s, the equivalent of $735 million today.

Simply adjusting the 1970s construction costs for inflation, however, does not capture the picture of how much more expensive major infrastructure projects are today than they were 50 years ago. A 2019 Brookings Institution study of costs to build interstate highways found that states spent approximately three times as much to construct a highway mile in the 1980s as they did in the early 1960s. The study stops then because major infrastructure construction has almost ground to a halt since then.

Bloomberg reported last year:

Since the 1980s, no new expressways have been built, or even seriously proposed, in most Northeastern cities. In the booming West, construction persisted a little longer, but even in the highway mecca of Los Angeles, there hasn’t been a new urban freeway since I-105 was completed in 1993. Dams were largely stopped too: Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River became a potent symbol for the environmental movement, and would prove to be one of the last big federal water projects of its kind. Though some new urban highway projects are still underway — and taking down Black and brown homes in the process — the scale of construction is a tiny fraction of what was happening from the 1960s to ’80s. Today, discussions often focus on removal of some of the most damaging infrastructure built in the postwar boom, from dams along the Snake and Colorado rivers to urban expressways like I-81 in Syracuse.

A big driver of the increased cost in construction is what the authors of the Brookings study call “citizen voice.” Starting in the 1960s, the ambitious projects of planning czars such as Robert Moses were increasingly tied down by changes in laws and regulations aimed at protecting worker safety, the environment, community needs, endangered species, and a vast array of other interests. New laws imposed additional costs and federal court decisions made it easier for citizens to fight projects or demand concessions, adding to the price tags and causing projects to take much longer to complete.

The original Key Bridge was built as costs had already started to escalate significantly, but by all accounts costs have continued to rise. Concerns over environmental impacts of construction are as high as they have ever been. The waters over which the Key bridge spanned have important populations of marine life and are a key rest stop for migratory birds—and protecting these will make building the bridge more expensive.

Feds Estimate a $2 Billion Price Tag

Federal officials have told Maryland lawmakers that replacing the bridge and the cleanup would cost at least $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. Even that is likely to be an underestimate, especially if things like interest rate expenses incurred to finance the bridge are included.

A conservative estimate for the time it is likely to take to clean up the disaster site and rebuild the bridge might be ten years, Benjamin Schafer, a professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told USA Today.

Quote:Never Trumper Bill Kristol lamented the bad optics for Democrats as President Joe Biden chose to go to a multi-million dollar fundraiser in New York City hosted by Hollywood celebrities while former President Donald Trump attended a wake for a young New York City police officer killed on duty.

“An unfortunate day politically for the Democrats,” Kristol posted on X.

“Biden does a fancy NYC fundraiser in the midst of chaotic left-wing street protests–looks like limousine liberalism plus the breakdown of law and order,” he added, referring to mass protests outside of the fundraiser by activists opposing the Biden administration’s support for Israel.

He continued: “And Trump attends the wake of a slain NYPD police officer on Long Island.”

The star-studded event also featured former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. All three sat for a panel moderated by comedy show host Stephen Colbert. The panel was reportedly interrupted six times by protesters. It was described as a “grassroots fundraiser” by Biden, but reportedly brought in $25 million.

Quote:A federal judge sentenced a Chinese migrant who illegally crossed the border into Texas to 12 years in prison after authorities found several videos depicting child porn in his cell phone. One of the videos involved a girl who was under the age of five years.

Chinese national Tong Sun went before U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton this week at a federal courthouse in McAllen, Texas, where he received a prison sentence of 144 months following a child pornography conviction. Sung pleaded guilty to the charge on December 20, 2023, according to information obtained from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Breitbart Texas first reported on the case in May 2023, after agents with Homeland Security Investigations charged him with child porn possession. U.S. Border Patrol agents found the images in the Chinese migrant’s cell phone while they were processing him after he had illegally crossed the border into Texas. According to prosecutors, Sun entered Texas near the border town of Roma, a notorious human smuggling location.

According to court documents, Sun gave Border Patrol agents permission to search his phone. When questioned by HSI agents about the content, he said that he had purchased the phone years prior and had planned on erasing the porn content before crossing the river into Texas but was unable to. The content included a video of a man forcing a girl appearing to be under the age of 5 to perform sexual acts. A second video showed similar content with a preteen girl.

Quote:Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia posted a report on social media showing that his agents arrested nine U.K. nationals who illegally crossed the Canadian border near Highgate, Vermont, last week. The agents intercepted the Nissan SUV loaded with the human smuggling cargo after it crashed through a landowner’s gate in an attempt to move into the U.S. interior without detection.

The arrest of the nine British nationals illegally entering the U.S. via the Canadian border adds to the record-shattering pace of migrant apprehensions in the Swanton Sector this fiscal year. During Fiscal Year 23, which ended on September 30, 2023, Swanton Sector agents apprehended more migrants than during the previous 12 years combined, Breitbart Texas reported.

“During the first four months of FY24, SWB has doubled the number of apprehensions made during the same period in FY23,” Garcia stated in a post on X.

By the end of March, the year-to-date migrant apprehensions in the Canadian border sector could hit the 5,000 mark.

Quote:As the Christian world celebrates Easter, the Islamic State (ISIS) is calling upon Muslims to attack Christians and Jews globally during the closing weeks of Ramadan, specifically targeting Western and democratic nations, including America, Israel, and European states, as part of its ongoing jihad campaign.

The terrorist group ISIS is urging Muslims worldwide to mark “the holy month of Ramadan” by “target[ing] Christians and Jewish people, especially in the US, Europe, and Israel,” as reported Friday by the British daily the Mirror.

The directive was issued via Telegram by Islamic State spokesperson Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari, who also praised the recent deadly attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall music venue that saw at least 143 people killed by terrorists from ISIS-K (the Afghanistan affiliate of ISIS) who fired on some of the estimated 6,000 attendees of a rock concert.

Following the attack, the Islamic State faction circulated a selfie taken by the gunmen, lauding the “bloody attack” against a “large crowd of Christians.”

Urging the group’s supporters to attack “crusaders” everywhere, the terror group’s spokesman told them, “We ask God that you make it to Palestine so you could fight the Jews face to face in an endless religious war.”

Al-Ansari’s address from Thursday commemorated the tenth anniversary of ISIS’s caliphate declaration, criticized Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda for deviating from their original path, commended the worldwide spread of the Islamic State, and warned that American troops stationed in Iraq will “lead to more attacks” from the terror organization.

Furthermore, he called for increased attacks by ISIS members in Mozambique and the Philippines.

Quote:French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France is to deliver “hundreds” of armored vehicles by the beginning of next year to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid for the country that just entered its third year since the Russian invasion.

In an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune’s Sunday edition, Lecornu said that “to hold such an extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs, for example, our armored personnel carriers. It’s absolutely key for troop mobility.”

The French military is currently replacing its old VAB armored personnel carriers that started being used in 1979 by a new generation of armored vehicles.

“This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities. We’re talking about hundreds (of vehicles) in 2024 and early 2025,” Lecornu said.

Lecornu also said France will provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft missiles.

The move comes as France’s government is pushing its military industry to boost its production to meet Kyiv’s urgent needs for ammunition.

Quote:An allegedly ISIS-tied Egyptian man was arrested in France in connection to a suspected terrorist plot against the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

French officers of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) arrested a 62-year-old Egyptian with reported links to the so-called Islamic State in Paris earlier this month on suspicion of planning an attack on the Notre Dame Cathedral.

While his arrest was initially reported at the time, the suspected terrorist’s ties to ISIS, his nationality, and his alleged planned attack on the medieval Catholic cathedral, which is still being repaired after being badly damaged in a 2019 fire, were first reported on Sunday by Le Journal du Dimanche.

Following his arrest, the suspected jihadist was indicted for “criminal terrorist association” and was placed under pre-trial detention on March 8th.

The French Ministry of the Interior said: “Everything is done to ensure the safety of the French. The prefects received very precise instructions; radicalized people are closely monitored. We have strengthened the security of places of worship and educational buildings, but also of transport and public buildings as well as festive, cultural and religious gatherings.

“Since 2015, the DGSI workforce has been doubled, increasing to more than 5,000 agents. The budget has also been significantly revised upwards. At the same time, 10,000 police officers and gendarmes are mobilized to exercise increased surveillance of places at risk.”

Quote:France is to repatriate from Vietnam the bodies of six soldiers who died in Dien Bien Phu, the country’s last stand in colonial Indochina, the defence ministry said.

The operation will happen “in the coming days”, the statement added.

Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam was the site of an epic battle against Vietnamese communist forces in 1954 that spelt the end of France’s colonial empire in Indochina.

Vietnamese fighters hemmed in French forces — equipped with superior weapons — and bombarded them with heavy artillery.

The ferocious battle in the rugged, remote valley killed thousands of soldiers on both sides in under two months.

The existence of the six bodies, “conserved in three different locations”, had been reported to the French embassy in Vietnam in 2012, 2021 and 2022, the ministry said.

The Vietnamese authorities approved the repatriation on March 25, and the bodies were exhumed the following day, it said.

Quote:Dozens of men clashed with French immigration and law enforcement officials as a riot broke out at a Paris airport amid efforts to deport a Kurdish activist from the country.

Chaos erupted at the Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday as around 20 supporters of Firaz Korkmaz, a Kurdish activist, brawled with police and civilian airport staff as they tried to block his removal to his native Turkey. Ultimately, Sentinelle soldiers stationed in the airport were forced to break up the riot in the terminal, broadcaster Europe 1 reports.

Before the riot, the supporters were joined by several local communist officials, including Margate Marianne, Pierre Barros, and Raphaelle Primet, who protested against the deportation of the leftist Kurdish activist.

Korkmaz’s removal was reportedly prompted by his attendance at a protest on February 26th in Strasbourg outside of the headquarters for the Council of Europe in support of Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a radical leftist group labelled as a terrorist organisation in the European Union, the United States, and in Turkey, among others.

Öcalan served as the leader of the PKK during the start of the series of armed Kurdish rebellions against the Turkish government. He was abducted by Turkish Intelligence in 1999 in Nairobi, Kenya and was sent to a prison on the Turkish island of İmralı island in Turkey, where he is believed to remain to this day.

According to the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency, Korkmaz was deported to Turkey, despite the attempts to block his removal.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight.

Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldier’s rights.

No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shakeup over recent months. It included the dismissal on Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on Feb. 8. He was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month [March].

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia launched 12 Shahed drones overnight, nine of which were shot down, and fired four missiles into eastern Ukraine.

Russia unleashed a barrage of 38 missiles, 75 airstrikes and 98 attacks from multiple rocket launchers over the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s armed forces said in social media posts.

Quote:A Russian cruise missile strike on infrastructure in Ukraine’s western Lviv region killed one man, officials said Sunday.

The attack destroyed a building and sparked a fire, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on social media app Telegram. He said that rescue operations were ongoing.
Meanwhile, thousands in Ukraine’s Odesa region were temporarily left without power Sunday after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility, Gov. Oleh Kiper said. Some 170,000 homes were left with temporary power outages as a result of the attack, said Ukraine´s largest private electricity operator, DTEK.

The Ukrainian air force said that it shot down nine of the 11 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as nine out of 14 cruise missiles.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions.

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest thermal power plants in the eastern Kharkiv region, was completely destroyed following Russian shelling last week. Power outage schedules were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 had lost electricity after the plant was hit on March 22.

Quote:Former American action movie star Steven Seagal, now a Russian citizen and enthusiastic supporter of dictator Vladimir Putin, paid a visit on Thursday to three recovering victims of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack at the Pirogov National Medical Center in Moscow.

The Russian Ministry of Health posted photos of Seagal, 71, saluting the three injured victims for their “courage and perseverance” at the hospital.

“What happened was a terrible tragedy that should not have happened. And I think that Russia will serve as an example and let the world understand that you can’t just do this to any people and go unpunished,” Seagal reportedly said.

“I thank the doctors for the prompt work they are doing, I am glad to see that the patients are feeling well and are recovering,” he said.

The Ministry of Health said four victims of the terrorist attack are recuperating at the Pirogov National Medical Center, but only mentioned Seagal visiting three of them.

Seagal vocally supported Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. He became a Russian citizen in 2016 and was quickly banned from entering Ukraine, although since the invasion he has been able to visit parts of the country that were occupied by Russian forces. He was named a “humanitarian envoy” for the Russian Foreign Ministry in 2018.

Quote:Romania and Bulgaria partially joined Europe’s ID-check-free travel zone on Sunday, marking a new step in the two countries’ integration with the European Union.

After years of negotiations to join the Schengen area, there is now free access for travelers arriving by air or sea from both countries. However, land border checks will remain in place due to opposition primarily from Austria which has long blocked their bid over illegal migration concerns.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the change as a “huge success for both countries” and a “historic moment” for what is the world’s largest free travel zone.

The Schengen Area was established in 1985. Before Bulgaria and Romania’s admission, it was comprised of 23 of the 27 EU member countries, along with Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Around 3.5 million people cross an internal border each day.

Austria vetoed Romania and Bulgaria’s admission into the Schengen zone at the end of 2022 but allowed Croatia full accession. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007 and Croatia in 2013.

Siegfried Muresan, a Romanian Member of the European Parliament, told The Associated Press that it is “an important first step” that will benefit millions of travelers annually.

Quote:A British judge decided to grant asylum status to the Clapham chemical attacker and accepted his supposed conversion to Christianity as genuine, despite determining that he had lied about numerous aspects of his life and failed to demonstrate a basic understanding of Christianity.

In January, Abdul Ezedi, a 35-year-old from Afghanistan who had illegally entered the country on the back of a lorry in 2016, attacked a mother and her two children with a corrosive alkali chemical in the Clapham area of South London. The attacker successfully fled from the scene but is said to have later thrown himself into the River Thames, where police said his body was discovered weeks later.

Now court documents provided to several British news outlets revealed how the illegal migrant was granted asylum in the country in 2020 after being rejected by the Home Office twice before. The Home Office also questioned the validity of Ezedi’s conversion to Christianity, with the department concluding that the migrant was attempting to use “religion for his own ends”, with false conversions being a common tactic among asylum seekers, who then argue that they would face persecution for their newfound faith if deported back to their homeland.

Despite claiming to have read the Bible every day for years, Ezedi was unable to answer basic questions about Christianity, stating for instance according to The Times that the Old Testament was about “Jesus Christ” and that on the third day, God created “Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Resurrection Day.”

Quote:British counterterrorism police have launched an investigation after the stabbing of UK-based Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati, who hosts a programme on the Iran International television network, which has been heavily critical of the Islamist government in Tehran.

According to information reported by The Telegraph, Zeraati was leaving his London home at around 3:15 on Friday afternoon when he was approached by a man who attempted to engage him in conversation. While this was happening, another man came upon him from behind and began stabbing the journalist with a knife.

The two attackers are then reported to have fled with the assistance of a third man, who was waiting in a nearby car. Zeraati was rushed to hospital and was treated for multiple stab wounds. He is believed to be in stable condition.

Speaking to The Sun, the head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, Commander Dominic Murphy said: “While we are keeping an open mind, given the occupation of the victim and our publicised concerns about the threat to employees of that organisation, the investigation is being led by the Counter Terrorism Command.

“I must stress that, at this early stage of our investigation, we do not know the reason why this victim was attacked and there could be a number of explanations for this.

“While we continue to assess the circumstances of this incident, detectives are following a number of lines of inquiry and our priority at this time is to try and identify whoever was behind this attack and to arrest them.”

Quote:150 homes have been evacuated in the town of Ede, the Netherlands where an attacker unknown has taken several people hostage at a popular drinking spot overnight.

UPDATE 1330:  At a press conference following the hostage situation, Chief Officer of the East Netherlands Public Prosecution Service Marthyne Kunst said that the suspect was armed with several knives and had shown them to the hostages. It has also been revealed that the suspect was known to law enforcement, however, no motive for the incident has been revealed.

UPDATE 1200: Local law enforcement and city government officials in Ede have confirmed to Dutch broadcaster NOS that a hostage situation in a cafe has come to an end, with a fourth hostage being released and a man wearing a balaclava being taken into police custody. The motive behind the incident remains unclear at the time of this reporting.

The original story continues as follows…

Large numbers of police, special units including snipers, police robots, and other emergency services personnel descended on the central Dutch town of Ede in the early hours of Saturday morning after patrons at the Petticoat Cafe, a late-night bar that was due to remain open and serving drinks until 0400 Central European Time (2300 EST) this morning, were taken hostage.

Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reports a police spokesman who speaks of a “dangerous person… who could pose a danger to himself or others”, but whether that individual is armed or even inside the bar has not been confirmed. Nevertheless, the fact officers have evacuated 150 nearby homes, shut down the railway running through the town, and surrounded the building with barriers and screens suggests they are mindful of the possibility the situation could impact the neighbourhood yet.

Quote:The European Union intends to fast-track some of its aid money to Egypt using an urgent funding procedure that bypasses parliamentary oversight and other safeguards, according to the president of the bloc´s executive branch.

The 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) intended for this is part of a larger package of 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) in financial assistance to the North African country that the EU announced on March 17.

Egypt has for years relied on cash handouts, often from wealthy Gulf Arab states, as concerns mount that economic pressure and regional conflicts could drive more migrants from the region to Europe´s shores.

The EU package includes three year’s worth of grants and favorable loans for the Arab world´s most populous country. Most of the funds – 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) – are known as macro-financial assistance, or MFA, and would be paid directly to Egypt´s Central Bank.

It’s rare for the EU to sidestep safeguards, but European Parliament elections are due June 6-9 – a timeline that if the checks were implemented, would slow the delivery of that money.

With those polls in mind, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans for “an urgent MFA operation for up to 1 billion euros” for Egypt, noting in a letter to EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola the country´s “rapidly deteriorating economic and fiscal situation.”