News of the World

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Belarus minister who acted as secret go-between with the West 'WAS killed by Kremlin assassins' and 'shaken' dictator Lukashenko now fears for his life

Belarus's foreign minister Vladimir Makei was poisoned in a Kremlin sting operation, extraordinary new reports have claimed.

The veteran diplomat and former spy died suddenly yesterday amid claims he was in secret contact with the West concerning the war in Ukraine and preventing Belarus from being incorporated into Russia by Vladimir Putin.

A video shows Makei, 64, looking healthy on a Belarus military cargo plane last week shortly before he died. He wasn't known to suffer from any chronic illness.

Some reports say he had a heart attack and that his death has 'shaken' president Alexander Lukashenko, who now fears for his own safety.

The tyrant has even replaced his cooks and servants, fearing assassination by Moscow, it is claimed.

Exiled Putin foe and businessman Leonid Nevzlin alleged that Makei 'died as a result of poisoning developed in an FSB special laboratory'.
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'The action was demonstrative and aimed at disrupting Lukashenko's separate negotiations with the West and China.'
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But Belarusian political scientist Aleksey Dzermant denied that Makei was assassinated.

'There are no facts that would give reason to say so. Moreover, he had a sufficient degree of protection and security.

Macron Says Some Biden-Backed Policies Could ‘Fragment the West’

“There is a risk today that we must discuss among friends,” Macron told reporters on Dec. 1 at the French Embassy in Washington. “The risk is that, in the face of the challenges I mentioned, the U.S. looks first to the U.S., which is normal—we do the same.”

Then, the United States “looks at its rivalry with China, and that Europe, and therefore France, becomes a sort of adjustment variable,” he added.

Macron then made reference to the Inflation Reduction Act, a Democrat-backed bill passed along party lines earlier this year, and the CHIPS Act. The Inflation Reduction Act, which includes a grab bag of policies, provides some $400 billion of support to the green energy industry in the United States, while the CHIPS Act bolsters U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.

“The choices made, whose goals I share—especially the [Inflation Reduction Act] or the CHIPS Act—are choices that will fragment the West because they create such differences between the U.S. and Europe,” Macron said.

“These choices can only work if there is coordination between us.”
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European leaders have complained about the legislative package, signed by Biden in August, which offers massive subsidies for U.S.-made products, which they say unfairly disadvantages non-American companies and would be a serious blow to their economies as Europe deals with the fallout from Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the legislation “presents significant opportunities for European firms as well as benefits to EU energy security,” when asked about European concerns.

Appeals Court Stops Special Master Review of Documents Seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Estate

The ruling comes after a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit heard from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Trump’s lawyers on Nov. 22 regarding the government’s motion to remove U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie as special master.

This appointment of a special master by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, barred the DOJ from getting their hands on the documents as they pursued a criminal investigation into Trump “pending resolution” of the review.

The federal appeals court ruled that Cannon had no jurisdiction to exercise what’s known as equitable jurisdiction—or the authority of the court to act in the interest of fairness—in this scenario where an indictment hadn’t been announced and without showing that the seizure of documents was unlawful.
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Exercising equitable jurisdiction should only be “exceptional” and “anomalous,” the judges said. They noted that legal precedent had limited this jurisdiction with a four-factor test. Trump’s jurisdictional arguments “fail all four factors,” they said.
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“The law is clear,” the appeals court judges wrote in their opinion. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”
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Jack Smith, a recently appointed special counsel, tasked with leading the investigation into whether the former president violated the Espionage Act and other federal laws through the handling of certain records, including papers with secret markings, brought the appeals court challenge.

LAPD Issues Search Warrant for Reddit to Identify Who Leaked City Council Racist Remarks

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) issued a search warrant to Reddit Nov. 29 to identify the person responsible for the recent leak of the racially disparaging conversation between former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez and other local officials.
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The probe involves “interviews of persons present and any potential witnesses that have insight into this investigation,” the statement read.

According to Police Chief Michel Moore, since last month the LAPD has been looking into whether the audio recording was produced illegally last year. Under California law, private conversations cannot be recorded unless all parties agree to be taped.
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Besides Martinez, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera and Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León could be heard in the conversation that reportedly happened in October 2021 with racist remarks about a fellow councilor and other ethnic groups.

The recording surfaced just weeks before the Nov. 8 election, but was removed shortly after. Herrera resigned from his position the next day, followed by Martinez a few days later.

Since the leak, protesters have disrupted city council meetings since Oct. 11, calling for Cedillo and de León to resign.

So they care more about how people managed to learn about their council president's racist remarks than what she actually said, treating fellow Latinos as "changitos" or little monkeys.

Supreme Court Keeps Biden’s Student Loan Program on Hold, Agrees to Hear Case

In a brief order, the high court wrote that it would hear oral arguments in February of next year. But in the interim, the Biden administration’s program will remain blocked.

Announced by Biden in August—about two months before the Nov. 8 midterm elections—the plan would cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loan debt. The Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier this year that Biden’s plan would cost around $400 billion, and the Education Department had said it would total about $379 billion.

The forgiveness program included up to $20,000 in loan relief plans for low- and middle-income individuals. About 26 million people already have applied for student loan forgiveness, while about 16 million applications have been approved, according to the Department of Education.

Attorneys general in the Republican-led states of Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina filed a lawsuit against the program. Several groups and individuals have also challenged the proposal.