News of the World

[kyonides]

US NEWS

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Donald Trump Arrested by Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

Trump announced Thursday morning he would surrender himself around 7:30 p.m. local time Thursday evening.
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Footage showed Trump’s plane landing in Atlanta to turn himself in shortly before 7:30 p.m. Aerial footage captured his motorcade transporting him to the Fulton County jail for processing, and then several minutes later, captured Trump’s motorcade leaving after the former president had been processed.
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Trump and 18 others were indicted in a 98-page, 41-count indictment handed down by a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury last week.
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Prosecutors gave Trump and his 18 co-defendants until Friday to surrender themselves into custody. Trump’s surrender comes after several of his co-defendants have turned themselves in this week.

Mugshot photos for Jenna Ellis, Rudy Giuliani, and others were released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office one day after they were booked. Trump had his mugshot taken while officers processed him on Thursday, CNN reported.
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“Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you,” Labat said.
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Trump has been released on a $200,000 bond, the highest amount out of any of his co-defendants. Trump’s release terms are stricter than some of his other co-defendants’ terms. 

Other News

Joe Biden Celebrates Trump’s Arrest as a ‘Great Day’ to Donate to His Campaign

President Joe Biden fundraised online the same day former President Donald Trump was arrested in Fulton County, Georgia, calling it a “great day” to donate to his campaign.
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However, Biden took the opportunity to fundraise for his reelection effort.

“Apropos of nothing, I think today’s a great day to give to my campaign,” Biden tweeted along with a link to his Act Blue donation page that calls on his supporters to “donate to the Biden-Harris campaign to fight back against MAGA Republicans.”
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The Article III Project’s Mike Davis called Biden out for fundraising on the same day “his chief political rival got booked.”

“Biden posted this as his chief political rival got booked. Again. By another Democrat prosecutor in another Democrat hellhole. After colluding with the Biden Justice Department,” Davis posted online.

Davis then called on House Republicans to open an impeachment inquiry on Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Jim Jordan Probes If Fulton County DA Coordinated
Donald Trump Indictment with Jack Smith

Just hours before Trump is expected to be arraigned in Fulton County, Jordan opened an investigation on Thursday into Fulton County’s District Attorney Fani Willis, requesting all records related to the Trump indictment and if Willis communicated with Special Counsel Jack Smith or any federal officials. The special counsel indicted Trump in Washington, D.C., for challenging the 2020 election.

“Your indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated,” Jordan wrote Willis.

“You did not bring charges until two-and-a-half years later, at a time when the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in full swing,” he said. “Moreover, you have requested that the trial in this matter begin on March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday and eight days before the Georgia presidential primary.”

“The timing of this prosecution reinforces concerns about your motivation,” Jordan wrote...

FEMA Puts Workers Up in 5-Star Hotels in Maui
While Thousands Remain Homeless Due to Wildfires

More than 100 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers are staying in five-star hotels in Maui on the taxpayers’ dime while thousands of people are homeless due to the wildfires, according to a report.

James Franey of the Daily Mail broke the news that government bureaucrats are staying at luxurious hotels frequented by Hollywood’s elite — with FEMA officials reportedly budgeted $1,000 a night for each worker. The three high-end hotels are the Fairmont Kea Lani, Four Seasons, and the Grand Wailea Astoria which are all located a “45-minute drive away from the fire-ravaged town of Lahaina,” according to the outlet.
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And there are FEMA 100 [sic] officials staying at the four-star Marriott Wailea Beach Resort for $531 per night, a company insider said, but where rooms currently on offer to the general public start at $749.
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“Shouldn’t they stay closer to the site, instead of staying across on the other side of the island?” he suggested to the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has approved $7 million in emergency funds to assist those displaced by the wildfires to stay in hotels or condos. But according to the Daily Mail, local residents say the federal agency is not allowing volunteer organizations to pass out supplies, allowing only FEMA-approved supplies to be sent to victims.

Biden Administration Mulls Lifting Oil Sanctions
on Venezuela for ‘Free and Fair’ Elections

The administration of American President Joe Biden is holding talks with socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro that could lead to a temporary lifting of oil sanctions in exchange for “free and fair elections” in Venezuela, according to reports published by Bloomberg and Reuters on Wednesday.
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Maduro is poised to seek “reelection” for a second six-year term in the new sham voting cycle, as the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) amended the constitution in 2009 to remove all public office term limits.

Although the election is expected to take place in 2024, Maduro, as well as PSUV vice president and alleged drug lord Diosdado Cabello, have repeatedly suggested this year that the presidential election could take place sooner, sometime in 2023. This week, Cabello asserted that the regime may hold the event as soon as September.

Since December, Maduro and other high-ranking regime officials have repeatedly insisted that there will be no “free and fair” elections in Venezuela until the United States, the European Union, Canada, and other countries first lift all sanctions, a demand they have rhetorically branded “sanctions-free fair elections.”

Maduro claimed last year that the sanctions relief provided by the Biden administration was not “enough.”
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According to Bloomberg, which cited anonymous “sources familiar” with the topic, the Biden administration has suggested temporarily lifting some or all of the sanctions imposed by the United States on the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) oil company in 2019 during the administration of former President Donald Trump.

In exchange, the Maduro regime would have to hold “free and fair” presidential elections in 2024 and release its political prisoners.

The Biden administration has already eased oil sanctions on the Maduro regime. In November, the White House granted a license to California-based Chevron that allows the company to produce and export oil from Venezuela.

As a result, Venezuela went from being 13th in oil-exporting countries to the United States in January to the sixth top oil supplier by May.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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‘A Man of Complicated Destiny’
Vladimir Putin Offers ‘Condolences’
for Wagner Warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made his first comments on the reported death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the oligarch and mercenary warlord who led a mutiny against the Russian armed forces in June...

Putin told journalists at the Kremlin Thursday that Prigozhin was “a man of complicated destiny.”

The Russian dictator reminisced about meeting Prigozhin in the 1990s, after which the onetime hot-dog vendor and restaurant entrepreneur became known as “Putin’s Chef” for winning lucrative contracts to cater to the Kremlin and supply food to the Russian military.

Prigozhin used his profits to co-found a private military company (PMC) called the Wagner Group in partnership with a former Russian special forces operator named Dmitry Utkin, who was also reportedly killed in the plane crash on Wednesday.

“He’d made serious mistakes in his life, but also got results – for himself as well as our common cause, when I asked it of him in these last months,” Putin said, alluding to Wagner mercenaries participating in his bloody invasion of Ukraine. The brutality of Wagner’s forces made them one of the most effective elements of the Russian invasion force.

“It seems that the primary data indicate that employees of the Wagner company were also there. I would like to note that these are people who have made a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine,” Putin said, citing one of the excuses he gave for attacking Ukraine in February 2022.

Other News

Belarus Began Dismantling Wagner Camp
Before Alleged Yevgeny Prigozhin Death

Satellite images taken over Belarus on Wednesday suggest that organizers had begun to dismantle a large tent camp believed to house Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) mercenaries, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported, potentially weeks before the reported death of Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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Wagner forces have protected Russian government interests in Africa and the Middle East
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The tent camp RFE/RL identified, believed to house Wagner fighters, was located in Tsel, Belarus. The U.S.-backed outlet cited the satellite image company Planet Labs as taking photos of the camp on Wednesday, which showed “that of 273 specialized military tents — each of which houses up to 20 people — for personnel, 101 had been dismantled.”

“That would mean space for just over 2,000 Wagner fighters would have been eliminated. Some 5,000 troops were thought to have been settled at the site,” RFE/RL explained, adding that the status of the camp on Wednesday suggested that the dismantling “most likely started on August 1,” not the day of the alleged Prigozhin plane crash.

The images also peculiarly revealed that most of the military equipment the fighters possessed had not been moved from the area. Citing Wagner-affiliated Telegram posts, Radio Free Europe suggested some fighters may be on “vacation” or had left Belarus for Africa, where Prigozhin appeared to resurface in a recruitment video on Monday.

“PMC Wagner … makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa more free,” Prigozhin said in an undated video published on Telegram on Monday. “We’re recruiting real heroes and continue to carry out the tasks that have been set and that we promised to deal with.”

Ukraine Striking Moscow Legitimate, Says Germany
Drone Strikes Launched From Within Russia Itself Says UK

More drones have been shot down over and on their way to Moscow, the Russian Defence Ministry said, a now near-nightly occurrence as Ukraine attempts to bring consequences for Russia’s invasion of their territory to their centre of power.

Russia has long criticised the drone strikes against Moscow as being terrorist acts, part of its attempt at narrative control over their invasion of Ukraine, portraying it as essentially a police action rather than a war. But Germany has defended Ukraine’s attacks as a legitimate act of war on Tuesday, with the Foreign Minister — perhaps best known internationally as of now for the ill-fated attempt the Green politician made to take a VIP jet to Australia — condoning them during a speech in Berlin alongside her Estonian counterpart.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russia attacked Ukraine in the first instance, and the attacks on Moscow are acts of defence “within the framework of international law”, reports Tagesschau.

Kyiv has, as usual, not directly claimed responsibility for the latest drone strikes on Moscow.

NATO-member Norway Follows the Netherlands, Denmark
to Donate F-16 Fighters to Ukraine

Norwegian media outlets made their revelations as Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was visiting the Ukraine capital Kyiv.

AP reports there was no official confirmation of the plan, which was reported by Norwegian broadcasters NRK and TV2.
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Last week, the Netherlands and Denmark announced that they would answer that call and donate F-16 aircraft.

Denmark said it will provide 19 planes, while the Netherlands has not said how many planes it will donate.
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In January, Norway received the first of the 52 F-35s it has ordered. The new fighter jets are to replace the country’s existing fleet of F-16s.