News of the World

[kyonides]

Regarding the article on how Maryland Bill Would Require Embedded Tracker on Most Guns a local weapon dealer stated:

When one sells a long-gun, be it either a rifle or shotgun, they must contact the FBI for a FBI NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check) background check. The store itself must log the customer and firearm sale in case it is required by the ATF, FBI and/or State and County Governments. This is Federal law, so statements by politicians that such firearms are sold without a criminal check is a blatant lie.

When they sell any handgun or a receiver, they must file the paperwork with the State Police Barracks so the pistol is already known to the Police for that individual customer.  This includes the unit's brand, make, model, calibur and serial number, as well as the name, contact information and state ID number of the customer. In fact, the customer must create an account in the State Police barracks website itself for the purchase. During a required 7-day wait, the State Police themselves contact the FBI for the NICS check.  And again, the information for the sale must be logged in for the ATF, FBI... etc and so on.

And if a firearm of any sort is purchased online, the online stores will "NEVER" send a firearm to the private individual. The firearm must be sent to a store with a proper FFL (Federal Fiream License) to handle the above paperwork, and perform the requisite background checks for that state... This is law for any state.

In all instances, a Federally mandated background check is required for every firearm sale... again, pointing out that politicians saying sales are done without background checks is false. Even online purchases are checked at the stores where the firearms are sent for pickup. And insofar as receivers and all handguns, the serial numbers are already being supplied to the state.  This serial number 'is' a trackiing number already in use by both the FBI, ATF and all agencies I have stated before.

I am fully aware of the legal requirements for firearm sales in the State of Maryland, having handled such transactions.  Stores with FFL licenses are audited semi-annually by the State police and annually by the ATF. And to the dismay of ONE sheriff, I was able to identify the location of firearm's serial number which the officer had himself been unable to find during one such audit.  A firearm audit includes examining each and every firearm in the store's possession as well as all sales performed during that period.

This bill is nothing more than one to force more burdens upon the FFL dealers that already comply with both State and Federal authorities.  Rather than penalize those following the law, it would make more sense to enforce laws already on the books that are not being enforced, and punish those violating existing laws.

Quebec tells Eric Adams to stop buying NY migrants bus tickets

The government of Canada’s second-most populated province is demanding that Mayor Eric Adams “immediately” stop helping migrants illegally enter the Great White North, as recently revealed by The Post.

“Any form of assistance to migrants crossing the border where it is strictly forbidden to do so should stop immediately,” a spokesperson for Quebec Premier Francois Legault said.

“We understand that the situation of migrants in New York poses major challenges, but the situation in Quebec and particularly in Montreal is even worse and constitutes an important humanitarian issue.”
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As many as 250 migrants use the Roxham Road crossing to illegally enter Canada each day, with nearly all of them settling in Montreal, Quebec’s biggest city, Legault spokesperson Ewan Sauves said.

The situation has overwhelmed Montreal’s ability to provide housing and other public services, with the flood of new students alone equivalent to the opening of 13 new schools, he said.

Last year, 39,161 people used Roxham Road to illegally enter Canada, comprising 99.1% of all such border crossings, Sauves said.

By comparison, the latest figures released by City Hall on Monday showed that officials have processed more than 45,600 migrants since the spring, with about 29,100 housed in 91 emergency shelters as of Sunday.

China Set To Sign Another Massive LNG Deal With Qatar

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest gas importer in the country, is in the late stages of finalizing a huge long-term LNG import deal with Qatar, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

This would be a second such massive agreement of a Chinese energy giant with QatarEnergy in just a few months. 

"CNPC has agreed on the major terms with Qatar in a deal that will be very similar to Sinopec's," a Beijing-based state energy official told Reuters.

In November, Qatar's state firm QatarEnergy signed the longest-term contract in the history of the LNG industry in a deal to supply LNG to Chinese state energy giant Sinopec for 27 years.

QatarEnergy will supply China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) with 4 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG to China from the North Field East (NFE) expansion project.

Air Force jets intercept Russian aircraft near Alaska

Four Russian aircraft, including a fighter jet and bomber, flew into a buffer zone of international airspace near Alaska Monday, according to a release from the North American Aerospace Defense Command on Tuesday, prompting a handful of U.S. Air Force jets to scramble and intercept them.

The activity was “routine,” according to NORAD, one of half-a-dozen yearly interactions between Russian and NORAD aircraft in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone

“Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” the release said. “This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative. NORAD had anticipated this Russian activity and, as a result of our planning, was prepared to intercept it.”

The aircraft included the Tu-95H Bear bomber and Su-35 fighter, according to the release. Two F-16s, two F-35As, an E-1 Sentry and a KC-135 Stratotanker responded.

US Military Recovers ‘Priority Sensors,’
Electronics From Downed Chinese Spy Balloon

“Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure,” the U.S. Northern Command said in a statement.
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Beijing insists that the balloon, which flew over sensitive military sights, was merely a civilian meteorological balloon that had been blown off course due to weather-related issues.
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Washington, however, says it was likely a sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle conducting surveillance over sensitive U.S. military sights, including nuclear bases in Montana, the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), and a base that hosts nuclear bombers in Missouri.
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According to a statement from a senior State Department official, the balloon was furnished with high-tech equipment and “multiple antennas” as well as other equipment that was “clearly for intelligence surveillance” and was “likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.”
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Elsewhere, amid increasingly strained tensions between Beijing’s comrades and the U.S.’s allies, China on Monday claimed that 10 U.S. high-altitude balloons have flown into its territory throughout the past year without its permission.

That claim has been called “false” by U.S. officials.

White House Says Mystery Objects Likely Private Craft Not Tied to Spying

The White House provided more details about the objects that were shot down in North American airspace in recent days, saying that a leading theory is that they were commercial balloons.

“The intelligence community’s considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, told multiple news outlets on Tuesday. Kirby further asserted that unidentified objects that were downed in Alaska, the Yukon, and over Lake Huron were not tied to spying efforts, unlike the high-altitude balloon that was shot down earlier this month over the Atlantic Ocean.

He added, “I want to caveat that we haven’t found the debris. We’re still doing the best we can with the observations that were made by the pilots, with the flight profile data that we’ve tried to collect.”

Efforts to retrieve debris from the objects have been hampered due to “pretty tough conditions,” including Arctic weather conditions in Alaska, the wilderness in the Yukon Territory, and geographic challenges around Lake Huron.
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Kirby warned reporters that “it could be some time before we locate the recovered debris” and said that Lake Huron is deep. Weather conditions near where that balloon was shot down there are also poor, he noted.

Balloon With 3 Hypersonic Missiles Tested by China in 2018

Chinese state-owned television aired footage of a high-altitude balloon dropping hypersonic weapons in 2018.

The stunning footage displays a high-altitude balloon, not dissimilar from the one that recently traversed the United States, carrying three hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) into high altitude and dropping them for testing.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on the weapons test in September 2018. The footage has since been deleted from Chinese media, but photographs and short clips can still be found online.

In one post from 2018, a Twitter user shared footage from Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, that shows the balloon lifting the three HGVs from the ground.

HGVs are generally launched by rockets in a similar manner to traditional missiles. Upon reaching orbit, however, HGVs detach from the rocket and fly through the atmosphere using their own momentum.

Such weapons are much faster than other missiles while they’re in low orbit, but become much slower upon hitting the dense air of the atmosphere, as they have no jets to power them. The three HGVs dropped by the balloon in the footage appear to have been designed to test this phenomenon.

The balloon-dropped HGVs were part of an effort to develop precision warheads for hypersonic weapons, which would give the Chinese military an “unstoppable nuclear-capable weapon,” according to the South China Morning Post.

Fury in Ukraine as Elon Musk’s SpaceX limits Starlink use for drones

A senior Ukrainian presidential aide has reacted with anger after Elon Musk’s SpaceX said it had taken steps to prevent its Starlink satellite communications service from controlling drones, which are critical to Kyiv’s forces in fighting off the Russian invasion.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s chief operating officer, said at a conference in the US that the surprise decision had been taken because it had never been the company’s intention to allow Starlink to be used “for offensive purposes”.

That prompted an immediate complaint on Thursday morning from Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, who argued that Musk’s business had failed to recognise Ukraine’s right to self-defence.
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Ukrainian forces use Starlink to help control their large network of surveillance drones, critical to monitor Russian troop concentrations and military movements, at a time when Moscow’s forces are on the attack across large parts of the eastern front.
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Space X’s unilateral announcement also flies in the face of western nations, who are stepping up their military aid to Kyiv to help it resist, agreeing last month to provide tanks. Now they are considering whether to supply combat jets, in response to a pleas made by Zelenskiy on a trip to London, Paris and Brussels this week.

Shotwell said Starlink was “never, never meant to be weaponised” by Ukraine, although it cannot come as a surprise to the company as Kyiv’s military has been using it to pilot drones for months. “Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement,” she added.

She said SpaceX was able to take measures to curb Ukraine’s use of the technology to pilot drones, although it was not immediately clear what those were and whether Kyiv’s military could work around them.