News of the World

[kyonides]

South Africa May Soon Take Land Without Compensation

South Africa’s National Assembly passed legislation on Sept. 28 that would allow the government to seize land without paying the owners, a practice known as “expropriation without compensation.”

“This thing is emotional. We cannot deny it,” South African farmer Herman J. Roos said in a Sept. 29 message to The Epoch Times.

He noted that the law wouldn’t change Article 25 of South Africa’s constitution—a more radical move that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has frequently advocated.

The Expropriation Bill, the latest effort toward land reform in a racially and economically divided nation, is still awaiting approval from the National Council of Provinces.

It would then need the signature of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has publicly supported expropriation without compensation for years.

The legislation passed over the objections of several minority parties.

Notably, the National Assembly is dominated by the country’s ruling party, the left-wing ANC.

 Now I know why Elon Musk lives in the US and not in South Africa.

White House, Pentagon Officials Traded Chinese Stocks While Mulling Blacklist

High-ranking Pentagon and White House officials traded in Chinese stocks even as their offices were tasked with considering the companies for blacklisting, according to a new report.

More than 2,600 government employees owned or traded stocks whose prices would rise or fall depending on their actions, according to a new investigative report by The Wall Street Journal, which analyzed 31,000 financial disclosure forms from 12,000 senior government employees and political staffers.

Of those 2,600 federal officials, more than 400 owned or traded in Chinese stocks, including in the Department of Defense, Department of State, and White House, the Oct. 11 report said.

“The Defense Department was among the federal agencies with the most officials who invested in Chinese stocks, even as the Pentagon in recent years has shifted its focus to countering China,” the report said.
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Notably, officials in the Pentagon, State Department, and White House were found to have traded in numerous Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, and the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, also known as Sinopec.

ICE Issues Smartphones to 255,602 Illegal Border-Crossers; Cost Is $89.5 Million a Year

U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies issued more than 255,000 smartphones to illegal aliens during fiscal year 2022, according to data on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website.

The phones are trackable and the individual is responsible for checking in with ICE on a regular basis, often by sending in a geo-tagged photo of themselves.

The cost for the 255,602 phones and their accompanying technology is $245,377 per day. Over a year, that’s $89.5 million.

The majority of the phones were issued to single adults.

ICE has failed to provide any data on the compliance rate of the smartphone program or on how many aliens have absconded from it, despite repeated requests by The Epoch Times.

ICE began issuing the smartphones within the past year as border stations became overwhelmed. Agents started processing illegal aliens under a newly created category called “Parole+ATD.” ATD is an “alternatives to detention” program, which acts as a workaround for the legal requirement to detain illegal aliens.

By law, parole is designed to be used on a “case-by-case basis” and for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” according to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

So now they reward illegal immigrants by granting them  cellphones!?

China Conducting ‘Race-Baiting’ Social Media Campaigns to Polarize Americans: Former CIA Officer

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is actively working to erode trust in the U.S. political system and to increase political polarization among Americans by inflaming racial tensions on social media, according to Nicholas Eftimiades, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

I thought that was Biden's job indeed.

Race-baiting refers to the encouragement or coaxing of racism or anger about racial issues for political gain.

Eftimiades, who previously worked in the Central Intelligence Agency, State Department, Diplomatic Security Service, and Defense Intelligence Agency, said that the CCP maintained several organizations that carried out overseas information operations and could promote such campaigns.

Among these, he said, were the CCP’s propagandistic United Front work department, the intelligence-focused Ministry of State Security, and the People’s Liberation Army, all of which have conducted covert influence operations in foreign countries.

Often, Eftimiades said, CCP social media campaigns were short-lived because they were found out by security professionals employed by the social media companies.
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The purpose of the campaign appeared to be to inflame tensions and increase polarization among Americans on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Eftimiades said that this phenomenon presented an evolution in CCP information tactics, as the regime previously focused on swaying opinions about Americans abroad rather than interfering with its people internally.