News of the World

[kyonides]

Kirstie Alley, ‘Cheers,’ ‘Look Who’s Talking’ Star Dead at 71

“We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered,” the statement read. “She was surrounded by her closest family and felt with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of our never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead,” it added.

“As iconic as she was on the screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother.”
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“Our mother’s zest and passion for life, her children, grandchildren, and her many animals, not to mention her eternal joy of creating, are unparalleled and leave us inspired to live life to the fullest just as she did,” it concluded.
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Alley collected eight Emmy nominations during her career, the first five for playing Rebecca Howe on NBC’s Cheers after effectively taking over in 1987 for Shelley Long, who had quit the Boston-based series. She won in 1991 and worked on the show through its 1993 conclusion.
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She played the accountant Mollie Jensen, a single mother who has a baby (voiced by Bruce Willis), opposite John Travolta in the hit comedy Look Who’s Talking (1989), directed by Amy Heckerling, then returned for sequels in 1990 and 1993.

Bolton: I Will ‘Absolutely’ Run for President in 2024 to Stop Trump

Bolton said, “Donald Trump, if he were to take the oath of office again, God forbid, would either be lying about preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution or maybe he wouldn’t say it at all. You can’t have this kind of approach. It’s not something one can disagree with. This is foundational to the republic.”

He continued, “There’s one thing that would get me to get into the presidential race, which I looked at in prior elections. It would be to make it clear to the people of this country that Donald Trump is unacceptable as the Republican nominee.”
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Bolton said, “Absolutely. I think to be a presidential candidate. You can’t simply say I support the Constitution. You have to say I would oppose people who would undercut it. We used to have a thing in the House of Representatives called the House Un-American Affairs Committee. I think when you challenge the Constitution itself the way Trump himself has done, that is un-American.”

Australia Dismisses Beijing’s Claim it ‘Playing With Fire’ for Taiwan Visit

The Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published an opinion article saying the visit will “cast a shadow” on Australia’s improving relationship with China and shows support for “Taiwan independence.”

The six backbenchers, including former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, Labor’s Meryl Swanson and Libby Coker, and the Coalition’s Scott Buchholz, Terry Young, and Gavin Pearce, arrived in Taiwan on Dec. 5.

They met Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-Chung for talks expected to cover Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agree­ment for trans-­Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), one of the world’s biggest trading blocs.

With support from Taiwan’s foreign ministry, the Australian delegation will also meet President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu during the itinerary.

The visit is Australia’s first parliamentary delegation to Taiwan since 2019 and follows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s breakthrough meeting with Xi Jinping at the sidelines of G20 in Bali last month.
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“We want to make sure that we are both close to mainland China and also close to Taiwan,” the Nationals MP told Sky News.  “We have a strong economic reason to be close to the island of Taiwan, and we want to make sure that we maintain that connection.”

 I don't know how they plan to keep both Chinas happy at all.

North Korea Fires Over 130 Artillery Rounds as Warning Amid US-South Korea Military Drill

North Korea fired more than 130 naval shells into its sea boundaries early on Monday in retaliation for South Korea executing a joint military drill with the United States, according to the Korean People’s Army (KPA).

An unidentified spokesperson for the KPA said in a statement that the barrage of artillery shells was fired between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. local time from multiple rocket launchers off its east and west coasts in what the official described as a “tit-for-tat” move, state-run KCNA news agency reported.

North Korea said it conducted its firing after detecting dozens of “projectiles” fired from South Korea near the shared border of the two Koreas, a claim denied by South Korea.
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South Korea said the artillery launch violated the 2018 inter-Korean agreement designed to reduce hostile military activities between the two Koreas because some of the shells landed within a maritime buffer zone near the sea border.

The 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) was the most substantive deal to come from the months of meetings between leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

In response to the firing, South Korea has sent several warning communications to North Korea, the ministry of defense said in a statement, without giving any further details.
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On Dec. 5, the two allied nations conducted a joint land-based firing drill near the border in Cheorwon County in the middle of the peninsula, which will continue on Dec. 6.

Some time ago, we had learned about China opening and operating secret police stations in several places around the world, including New York City and a couple of places in Canada. Yet, there's something I'd like to emphasize here.

China Operates Over 100 Police Stations Worldwide, Some WITH ASSISTANCE From Host Nations

The rights group Safeguard Defenders has revealed an additional 48 overseas China-run police outposts bringing the total to 102 stations. Some were set up with help from the host countries.
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The report revealed that besides providing ostensibly administrative service, these stations also serve more sinister purposes, such as, tracking down, arresting, and extraditing people wanted by the CCP, including dissidents who disagree with the regime and its leader Xi Jinping.

Two recently discovered local Chinese authorities, in the cities of Nantong and Wenzhou, set up the bulk of the newly reported stations beginning in 2016. Four separate local police jurisdictions have now been identified as having established such an overseas police force, according to the report.

The network has made a presence in 53 nations so far.
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One police network hired 135 staff to be in charge of its first 21 stations, the recent report claims.
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Specifically, the Madrid-based group found a worker hired at a foreign station in Stockholm on a three-year contract.

The group also noted the involvement of Wenzhou station in Paris in at least one illegal “capture and/or persuade to return” operation, and 80 similar cases assisted by the Nantong overseas police system.

“This is in addition to already exposed operations in Spain and Serbia,” the NGO reported.
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Several countries in Europe, including Italy, Croatia, Serbia, and Romania signed police patrol agreements with the communist regime between 2015 and 2019, the report says.

China and Italy marked its security cooperation in 2015 with a series of bilateral deals.
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Italy hosted 11 such Chinese police stations including in Venice and Prato, near Florence, the organization claimed.
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The NGO further pointed to the article on the Nantong government website that reported on police cooperation between that Chinese provincial system and the police department of Dobroesti in Romania, and the similar units in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lusaka, Zambia.
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But Safeguard Defenders stated that despite the fact that Beijing was not directly in charge of the stations, “some statements and policies are starting to show a clearer guidance from the central government in encouraging their establishment and policies.”
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Ireland and the Netherlands have closed the Chinese police stations that were discovered in their countries, and iInquiries are being conducted in Spain. Canada has filed official complaints to the Chinese Ambassador over reports of unofficial Chinese police service stations operating in Canada.