News of the World

[kyonides]

US NEWS

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Doctor Clears Mitch McConnell for Duty After Appearing to Freeze

Capitol attending physician Dr. Brian Monahan medially cleared Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to return to work after he appeared to freeze again during a public event Wednesday.
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New: Capitol attending physician Dr. Brian Monahan says he talked with McConnell & his neurology team. He says McConnell is “medically clear” to keep his sked

“Occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration.” pic.twitter.com/Ti35frbWXn
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In March, McConnell, 81, was rushed to the hospital upon suffering a concussion after tripping at a reception. He was cleared to return to work in April.

On Wednesday, McConnell froze during a press gaggle in Kentucky, his second scary moment in just over a month after a similar incident occurred at the U.S. Capitol.

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Illegal Alien, Wanted for Murder in Mexico
Among 1.6M Got-Aways in U.S. Since Biden Took Office

An illegal alien wanted for murder in Mexico is just one among nearly 1.6 million illegal aliens who are known to have successfully crossed the United States-Mexico border since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

This month, 24-year-old illegal alien Juan Pablo Ortiz-Herrera was deported to Mexico and turned over to local authorities for homicide charges. Ortiz-Herrera was only discovered living in the United States when he was arrested for misdemeanors in Nampa, Idaho, in June.

From there, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents issued a detainer for Ortiz-Herrera with Canyon County officials and he was quickly turned over to them for arrest. In July, Ortiz-Herrera was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge.

Ortiz-Herrera is known to have successfully crossed the southern border some time after April of last year, as he had been expelled from the United States four times prior thanks to Title 42 — the border control that has since been ended by the Biden administration.

The illegal alien fugitive is just one of nearly 1.6 million known got-aways who have entered the United States through the border undeterred by Border Patrol, according to the latest figures published by the Center Square.

This is a foreign population the size of Phoenix, Arizona.

Chicago’s Budget Rose $5.7 Billion in Four Years
but Mayor Brandon Johnson Wants More

Chicago’s budget skyrocketed by $5.7 billion since 2019 and now totals $16.4 billion in 2023, yet recently elected “progressive” Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) is proposing a long list of higher taxes because he wants even more money from the Windy City’s beleaguered residents.

Even as businesses and citizens alike flee Chicago, the city’s self-styled “progressive” mayor is looking to dole out another $1 billion in “investments,” according to Wirepoints.

Illinois, in general — and Chicago, in particular — have suffered some of the highest outward migration in the country, with Chicago coming in third for losing the most citizens in 2022, according to moving company Pods. Only Los Angeles and San Francisco rank higher in the number of people who have fled their city.

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, 32% of the state’s 104,437-person loss came from Chicago. The Windy City has lost population for nine years running, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Wirepoints also noted that Illinois suffered the nation’s third worst loss of businesses in 2021, as companies closed shop and moved out.

But according to Wirepoints, Johnson is seeking yet another hike with his $16.377 billion budget — a $5.7 billion increase over former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) 2019 budget, which came in at $10.67 billion. Lightfoot’s budget was an increase over former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s (D) $9.23 billion budget in 2015.

Proud Boys Leader Jailed for 17 years Over U.S. Capitol Attack

A leader of the Proud Boys militia who called for a “war” to keep Donald Trump as president was sentenced to 17 years in prison Thursday, one of the longest sentences yet over the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Prosecutors said Joe Biggs was a key figure in a “seditious conspiracy” to forcibly overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, leading Trump supporters in the January 6 military-style assault.

His sentence was one year short of the longest in the hundreds of convictions in the Capitol attack, an 18-year sentence given to Stewart Rhodes, the founder of another far-right militia central to the Capitol siege, the Oath Keepers.

But it was only half of the 33 years urged by prosecutors, as Judge Timothy Kelly said it was not a mass-casualty event and that Biggs had not intended to kill anyone in the uprising.

Nevertheless, Kelly said, “There is a need for deterrence.”

The assault “broke our tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, which is one of the most precious things that we had as Americans,” the judge said.

Before sentencing a tearful Biggs expressed regrets, saying he would have nothing more to do with the Proud Boys and would focus on his wife and daughter’s welfare.

Well, pretty much no police officer died that day, and no military force of any kind had to be deployed back then. So calling it an actual attack is a tremendous overstatement for sure. Right now I can only recall a single civilian getting killed, namely Ashley Babbitt. And her murderer isn't in jail nor has been prosecuted as expected...

Maui Resident: More Than 450 Bodies
Allegedly Recovered from Wildfire
and ‘Lot of Kids’ Still Missing

Maui search crews have allegedly found over 450 bodies, according to a local resident who is leading a grassroots relief effort to aid victims of the fire that decimated the town of Lahaina earlier this month.

“I guarantee you right now, from what has been seen, the number is over 450 and it’s gonna get — it’s gonna get closer to 1,000,” Maui resident Dale Hermo-Fernandez, who has close contacts inside local recovery efforts, said in a recent exclusive interview with Breitbart News.

“They’re not giving the number until they toe-tag them and identify them, which is understandable,” he said. “It’s guaranteed in the four hundreds. More than likely you’re going to get to 850 or 900 — with 40 percent being kids,” he said.

He said he did not want to discuss the children too much, out of respect for parents holding out hope.

“What I’m telling you right now is there’s a lot of kids. There’s a lot. There’s so much. And that’s the thing right now. The real disaster hasn’t even happened to the fullest,” Hermo-Fernandez said.

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Europe Importing Record Levels of LNG Gas From Russia

At present trends Europe is set to import more Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from Russia than ever before this year, an NGO claims, with billions of dollars spent buying energy from Russia despite attitudes towards their Ukraine war, and the sanctions regime.

While European nations placed sanctions on the gas piped directly from Russia to Europe after its invasion of Ukraine last year, that regime did not apply to gas that comes by boat which is cooled and compressed into liquid form, known as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Those imports have soared despite principled talk about starving Russia of foreign trade, and so far this year Europe has bought over half of all Russian LNG exports.

While China is the largest single national customer for Russian LNG, Belgium and Spain come in second and third, and Europe is by far the largest destination for it overall. Europe’s imports from Russia are up 40 per cent this year compared to the same period in 2021 and is on track to be the biggest year for Russian LNG ever, an NGO called Global Witness claims, citing market analysis by Kpler, the Financial Times reports.

This year, Russian imports of LNG have accounted for 16 per cent of European acquisitions, second only to the United States as a source.

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Wagner Warlord Prigozhin Cited
‘Rumors About Wiping Me Out’
in Video Before Plane Crash

Social media accounts linked to Russia’s notorious Wagner Group on Thursday circulated a video clip that is reputedly the final recording of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner co-founder allegedly killed in a mysterious plane crash last week.

In the video, Priogzhin discussed “rumors” he would be eliminated for his role in leading a mutiny against the Russian military, but assured his fans that “everything is fine.”

The short video clip shows Prigozhin seated in a rapidly moving armored vehicle, which he said was speeding through Africa. He said he recorded the video for the benefit of people who are “debating if I’m dead or still alive.”

“I’m in Africa. So to those who like to spread rumors about wiping me out, my private life, my income or something like that I can say: everything is fine,” he said.

Prigozhin said he was recording this message on a “weekend” in the “second half of August 2023,” which would most likely mean before the August 23 plane crash en route to Moscow that reportedly killed him along with Wagner co-founder Dmitry Utkin, several top Wagner commanders, two pilots, and a flight attendant.

Some Wagner fans nevertheless speculated the video means Prigozhin is still alive today. A popular conspiracy theory holds that his “body double” died in the plane crash so that Prigozhin could either disappear into retirement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s blessing or secretly plot revenge against those who tried to liquidate him.

Yeah, what a great timing.  I guess somebody didn't want those videos to be released to the public. Even so, this would demonstrate that everything was NOT fine at all.
But there are always people claiming that Elvis is alive, that JFK never got killed, etc.

German People Would Rather The Government Fixed the Roads
Than Try to Solve Climate Change

Bad news for Germany’s left-green coalition government: research finds a clear majority of Germans would rather the state just got on with fixing potholes, and building new roads so they can drive their cars more.

Polling for one of Germany’s major newspapers has found strong feelings among German voters on government policy, showing a strong deviation from the aspirations of the influential coalition partner the Greens Party in the land of the Autobahn.

When asked which route they would prefer the government to take, 62 per cent of Germans said they wanted to see “renewal and further expansion of the motorway and road network”, an obvious rejection of the present zeitgeist for spreading limits on road access through congestion charges and road taxes. A big majority also said they preferred petrol and diesel cars to electric.

Just 33 per cent, in comparison, said repairing the roads that already exist and building new ones “should be avoided in favor of environmental and climate protection” reports Die Welt, citing research performed for them by a pollster. While approval for expanding roads rather than curbing road building for the environment varied by region and age, every demographic category still showed majority support.

EU Considers Whether Training Local Armies
to Fight al-Qaida is Linked to African Military Coups

European Union ministers expressed deep concern Thursday at the growing number of military coups across Africa as the bloc draws up sanctions targeting the junta in Niger which overthrew an elected government a month ago.

On Wednesday, the oil-rich nation of Gabon became the eighth Central or West African country to be hit by a military takeover in the last three years. The EU has not been training Gabon’s armed forces — although French troops have — but it has funded and taught troops in Mali and Niger.

The military training has focused mainly on the volatile Sahel region to combat extremism, particularly groups linked to al-Qaida. Many Europeans worry that instability in Africa will drive more people to flee, and the 27-nation bloc is already divided over how to cope with large numbers of migrant arrivals.

Some European countries have strong economic interests in Africa, notably France with its need for Niger’s uranium. The growing influence of Russia through the Wagner mercenary group, and the economic might of China are also forcing the bloc to rethink its policies.

“It´s clear that things haven´t gone well given the proliferation of military coups and the presence of Wagner gangs in the Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said,

Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said that “we do need to evaluate our approach to Africa in the light of what has transpired.”

Talking to reporters in Toledo, Spain, where EU foreign ministers were meeting, Martin said training and supporting armies in Africa that might later turn on their governments “does present a very significant dilemma.”

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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Jaden Smith Skips China Events
After State-Controlled Social Media Calls Him Racist

Actor and singer Jaden Smith suddenly canceled a spate of events scheduled in multiple cities in China, the state propaganda outlet Global Times confirmed on Monday, after a mysterious user of a regime-controlled social media application accused Smith of shouting racial slurs at Chinese and other Asians on a train in Japan.

It remains entirely unknown at press time who made the accusation — the Global Times claimed to be unable to find the person — and the accuser presented no proof of his or her claims. An English-language translation of the original post attacking Smith circulating on social media does not make it clear if the person was even accusing Smith, or merely someone in his entourage, of the outrageous behavior.

The saga began on Xiaohongshu, a social media application used in China often compared to Instagram. Xiaohongshu, like all Chinese social media applications in the country, employs strict censorship protocols to silence anything that could be interpreted as anti-communist sentiment or any posts that the Communist Party may disapprove of. Not only did the government not censor the post against Smith, but the Global Times amplified the controversy by reporting on it.

According to the Global Times, the original Xiaohongshu post claimed that the accuser was on a Shinkansen train from Kyoto to Tokyo on August 19 along with Smith and his entourage.

“Someone asked Jaden his opinion on different countries including China. Jaden replied with ‘F*** China.’ Smith repeatedly made derogatory remarks about China,” the post read, according to the Global Times, though these lines do not appear on other, unverified translations of the post circulating online.

 Now they accuse a black guy of being... racist? The same  CCP that discriminates anybody that does not belong to the Han majority in China!?

Now on our next topic, we first learned about Sudan's civil war, only to be followed by the crisis in Niger. But that was not enough for this region because there's just another military coup taking place over there.

Gabon Military Seizes Power, Marking Eighth African Coup in 3 Years

Top military officials in Gabon, central Africa, appeared suddenly on national television on Wednesday and announced they had ended the regime of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has ruled the country since 1967.

The soldiers, identifying themselves as “The Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions,” condemned Bongo for holding what they deemed a fraudulent election on August 26 and claimed they were compelled to address Gabon’s “serious institutional, political, economic, and social crisis” by placing Bongo under house arrest and putting the nation “on the road to happiness.”

“Added to this is irresponsible and unpredictable governance, resulting in a continuing deterioration in social cohesion, with the risk of leading the country into chaos,” the soldiers said in their televised statement, according to a translation from the original French published by Nigeria’s Daily Trust. “Today, 30 August 2023, we … on behalf of the people of Gabon and as guarantors of the institutions’ protection — have decided to defend peace by putting an end to the current regime.”

“All the institutions of the Republic are dissolved: the government, the Senate, the National Assembly, the Constitutional Court, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council and the Gabonese Elections Centre,” the statement continued. “We call for calm and serenity from the public, the communities of sister countries settled in Gabon, and the Gabonese diaspora. We reaffirm our commitment to respecting Gabon’s commitments to the national and international community.”

“People of Gabon, we are finally on the road to happiness,” the soldiers promised.