News of the World

[kyonides]

US asks Iran to stop selling drones to Russia-FT

U.S. is pushing Iran to stop selling armed drones to Russia as part of discussions on a broader unwritten understanding between Washington and Tehran to de-escalate tensions, the Financial Times said on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

The U.S. is pressing Iran to stop selling armed drones to Russia, which Moscow is using in the war in Ukraine, as well as spare parts for the unmanned aircraft, the report said, citing an Iranian official and another person familiar with the talks.
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The news comes as Washington and Iran are trying to ease tensions and revive broader talks over Iran's nuclear program. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that he would welcome any Iranian steps to de-escalate its "growing nuclear threat."

These discussions have taken place alongside the negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal last week, the newspaper said. Iran allowed four detained U.S. citizens to move into house arrest from Tehran's Evin prison while a fifth was already under home confinement.

North Korea says Travis King wants refuge from mistreatment in US Army

North Korea said that Travis King confessed to crossing into the North because of "inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the US Army," state media reported on Wednesday, the first public acknowledgement of the incident by Pyongyang.

The soldier, Private Travis T. King, dashed into the North while on a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas. US officials have said they believe King crossed the border intentionally.

North Korean investigators have also now concluded that King crossed deliberately and illegally, with the intent to stay in the North or in a third country, state news agency KCNA said.
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"He also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society."

KCNA said King was "kept under control by soldiers of the Korean People's Army" after his crossing and the investigation is still active.
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The Pentagon said it could not verify King's comments as reported by KCNA, and remains focused on his safe return. It did not address whether it had heard more details from North Korea.

A spokesman for the United Nations Command (UNC), which oversees the border village where King crossed, said he did not have anything to add to previous statements.

Fulton County Court Publishes, Removes Trump Indictment
‘Due Process Violation’

The official court website of Fulton County, Georgia, published what appeared to be an indictment against former President Donald Trump on Monday before deleting it — a bizarre, unexplained act that at least one critic says violated Trump’s constitutional rights to due process of law.

Reuters first reported that the document had been filed, then had to update its report when the document was removed from the court website and the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis denied that an indictment had yet been issued.

Yet Reuters preserved the initial document, which lists 39 charges against Trump, including the “serious felony” of racketeering. All of the other 38 charges — solicitation of the violation of an oath, false statement, and conspiracy charges — are felonies.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s office said in a statement that no charges had been filed against Trump.

The document was dated Aug. 14 and named Trump, citing the case as “open,” but is no longer available on the court’s website. Reuters was not immediately able to determine why the item was posted or removed.”The Reuters report that those charges were filed is inaccurate. Beyond that we cannot comment,” a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office said.
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[Vivek] Ramaswamy advised Trump to file for the immediate dismissal of the charges and the grand jury investigation.

Kanye West’s Former Publicist Among Those Indicted
with Trump by Fulton County DA

Trevian Kutti, a Chicago publicist who has worked for Kanye West and other hip-hop artists, was hitherto not known to be associated with Trump or his campaign. Nevertheless, she has found herself swept up in the dragnet orchestrated by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D).

Kutti stands accused of having tried to pressure Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman to report election fraud.

The indictment alleges Kutti was sent to Georgia by a pastor, Stephen Cliffgard Lee, though there is no evidence that the pastor coordinated with others. In addition, Kutti is said to have spoken to the election worker in the presence of police personnel, indicating she probably did not think she was doing anything illegal.

It remains unclear when Kutti worked for Kanye West.

A spokesperson for West said in a statement in 2021 that “Trevian Kutti was not associated with Kanye West or any of his enterprises” at the time in question.

The Fulton County DA’s indictment of Trump hit a major snag Monday after someone posted the official charges online before the grand jury had concluded deliberations.

China Celebrates Taliban Victory Anniversary
‘A Historic Achievement’

The Taliban stormed into Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on August 15, 2021, after launching a national campaign to oust the government of then-President Ashraf Ghani. The Taliban had originally agreed to a deal with the government of former American President Donald Trump to not attack American assets or maintain ties to other terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda if U.S. troops withdrew from the country by May 1, 2021, but current President Joe Biden violated the deadline and extended the 20-year Afghan war into August, prompting the Taliban to attack.

The Taliban conquered Kabul bloodlessly, as Ghani immediately got on a helicopter out of the country and has yet to return at press time.

Taliban leaders celebrated the anniversary on Tuesday with mass events bringing together the terrorists for poetry, jihad speeches, and other celebrations. While the group canceled a previously scheduled parade in Kandahar, crowds of men supporting the jihadists stormed most major cities, chanting “death to Westerners” and taking over sites that were once occupied by American officials.
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The Chinese Communist Party was among the first to do so and celebrated the Taliban’s return to power almost immediately after it occurred, lauding the “sunny day in Kabul” through its government propaganda outlets.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry shared the same positive outlook towards the radical Islamist terror group in remarks during its regular briefing on Tuesday.

“Two years on, with the active support of Afghanistan’s neighbors and other countries in the region, the transition in Afghanistan has been generally stable, and the future of the nation is back in the hands of its people — a historic achievement,” spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters. “The interim government [the Taliban] has taken a number of practical measures in recovering its economy, improving people’s livelihood, prohibiting narcotics, fighting corruption and safeguarding security.”

China Hides Its Youth Unemployment Problem

China announced on Tuesday that it had arrived at a novel solution to the problem of burgeoning unemployment among its young men and women. The jobless rate for China’s young, between the ages of 16 and 24, has been rising steadily for six months. In June it officially hit 21.3 percent, up from 12.2 percent before the pandemic. The unemployment rate was expected to climb even higher as millions of graduates hit the job market in the coming months.

China’s authorities have responded by suspending the publication of data on youth unemployment. Like the old riddle which posits that a tree falling in the forest cannot make a sound if there is no one there to hear it, youth unemployment in China presumably cannot continue to rise if there is no one counting it.

Although this particular application is new, this is really just the latest version of a not uncommon response by China’s authorities to inconvenient facts: conceal them.
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Many China-watchers already believed unemployment was higher than the official statistics revealed. Zhang Dandan, a Peking University economist, estimated back in March that the unemployment rate was 46.5 percent if you counted the youngsters who had dropped out of the workforce.

...it is doubtful that even sending out consumer stimulus checks would do very much to increase consumption. While much of the rest of the world is battling inflation, China is locked in a deflationary spiral.

Gang of Thieves Ransack East Los Angeles Nike Store

A gang of thieves ransacked an East Los Angeles Nike store over the weekend, stealing an estimated $1,000 in merchandise.

The theft occurred this past Sunday evening when a man and two women entered the Nike Community Store on Whittier Boulevard. The gang began grabbing every piece of merchandise within reach as staff and customers helplessly looked on.
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At least one of the suspects is seen carrying a trash bag filled with boxes. At one point, he drops the bag and quickly puts the items that spilled out back into it before following two other suspects out of the store.

Police described the suspects as a black male and two black females; all three remain at large.

The theft came just a day after a flash mob ransacked a Nordstrom in the Los Angeles Topanga Mall, making out with over $300,000 in merchandise. Police said that up to 25-50 suspects were involved. The thieves even went as far as to bear spray security before grabbing designer purses and luggage items.

Brazil’s Lula Asks America for More ‘Green’ Funds
After Snubbing Biden at Amazon Summit

Brazilian radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Monday that he hopes to see more American investments in Brazil’s green energy projects one week after failing to invite President Joe Biden to an environmental summit despite Biden pledging $500 million to Lula’s Amazon fund.

Lula said that he expected U.S. “green” investments to help both countries “drive the energy transition forward.”

The Brazilian president made his remarks during the latest issue of Conversa con o Presidente (“Talk with the President”), a weekly show broadcast through the state-owned Canal Gov television channel and on both Lula’s and the Brazilian government’s social media accounts.

“[Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando] Haddad showed us that it is possible, through a very strong energy and climate transition, to bring money from abroad for investment here in Brazil,” Lula said. “I hope that the United States is also embedded in this idea.”

Last week, Lula launched the “Growth Acceleration Plan” (PAC), an ambitious program that seeks to attain upwards of 1.7 trillion Brazilian reais ($347.5 billion) over the next four years in Infrastructure works to “fulfill the role of putting the State’s capacity at the service of the Brazilian population’s dreams of a better life.” The program also includes provisions towards Brazil’s “green” energy transition.
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The PAC program allows foreign financing of works that encourage the expansion of clean energy use in the South American country.
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“This is the will of many people, both in European countries, in Saudi Arabia, and in the United Arab Emirates,” Lula said.