News of the World

[kyonides]

Joe Biden Has Spent 40 Percent of Presidency Away on Personal Trips

President Joe Biden has spent 40 percent of his time as president on personal trips away from the White House, according to data calculated by the Republican National Committee.

The finding that Biden has spent 382 of his 957 days in the presidency away from the Oval Office was corroborated by the New York Post, using White House reports of Biden’s movements.

“We have millions of illegal immigrants pouring across our borders. Violent crime is surging. Inflation is crushing hard-working Americans. Our enemies around the world are emboldened,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told the Post. “Meanwhile, Joe Biden is filmed on the beach with his handlers preventing him from speaking to the media to answer basic questions Americans deserve answers to.”

Biden was also spotted sitting underneath an umbrella reading what appeared to be court documents a day before Devon Archer testified against him, implicating that the president had been involved with son Hunter Biden’s foreign business schemes.

Currently, the president is on vacation with wife Jill Biden for Labor Day weekend at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, the Daily Mail reported.

Biden’s days away from the White House beat out previous idler President George H.W. Bush, who spent 36 percent of his time in office away for personal time. Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump, had spent 26 percent of his presidency away from the Oval Office.

Hawaii Governor: ‘Possible’ Different Decisions Could’ve Prevented Loss
Won’t Say Maui Officials Were Asleep at Wheel

During a portion of an interview with CBS News aired on Friday’s broadcast of “CBS Evening News,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) stated that the fires in Hawaii were “A tragic natural disaster,” and that “if other decisions were made, it is possible that we wouldn’t have had such loss.” But he doesn’t want to say officials were asleep at the wheel or if Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen should resign...

CBS News National Correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti asked, “Is it time for the Mayor to resign? What are your thoughts?”

Green responded, “My first thoughts are, we should really get to all of the facts, whatever they may be, good or bad. That is a deeply personal discussion for any Mayor and his or her constituents to have.”

Vigliotti then asked, “Were they asleep at the wheel?”

Green said, “I don’t know if I should use those words.”

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Biden’s Thinking of Sending Migrants to Smaller City
with Critical Security Operations to Save a Sanctuary City

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) reacted to reported plans by the Biden administration to send migrants to Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township, NJ by pointing out that the plan is to send migrants to a town of 50,000 people to help alleviate stress on New York City, a city with a population of 8.3 million people that chose to be a sanctuary city and noting the security risks of housing migrants at an airport that has both an FAA Technical Center and the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard.
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He continued, “There’s also a national defense issue here. This is a very, very important issue to understand. We have the FAA Technical Center there, [which is] doing very important work, some of which is very significant for the safety of this country and air flight and we have our F-16s that are there as part of our defense as well, as part of the Air National Guard, the 177th Fighter Wing.”

Van Drew added, “We don’t want to be a sanctuary airport. If they want to be a sanctuary city in New York City. That’s up to them. It’s hurting the city tremendously, too.”

Labor Department: Hollywood Strikes Cost Industry 17,000 Jobs in August

The United States added 187,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%, the Labor Department reported Friday. President Biden hailed the job growth during his administration during live remarks from the White House Friday.

The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the August additions to non-farm payrolls were lower than the average monthly gain of 271,000 over the past year while the jobless rate hit 3.8%.

President Joe Biden addressed the jobs report in live stream remarks from the White House Friday.

He said with August’s job report, 13.5 million jobs have been added since he took office.
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Biden said all of the jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic have been recovered while a million over and above that number have also been created.

Biden said the unemployment rate was 6.3% when took office. For 19 months in a row since Biden has been in office America’s jobless rate has been below 4%.

Biden said for women, the unemployment rate is the lowest in 70 years.

He said union jobs, which he is trying to help increase, make a difference for workers.
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In August healthcare added 71,000 jobs, leisure and hospitality over 40,000, nursing and residential care facilities 17,000 and hospitals added 15,000 jobs. Construction added 22,000 jobs.

On the minus side, transportation and warehousing lost 34,000 jobs in August. Couriers and messengers lost 9,000 jobs.

The Labor Department said due to strike activity motion picture and sound recording jobs dropped by 17,000.

The jump in unemployment came as 514,000 Americans lost their jobs in August, bringing the total of unemployed people to 6.4 million. It could be a sign that the job market is weakening amid high interest rates imposed to fight inflation.

Dem Rep. Krishnamoorthi: We Need to Keep Current Tariffs
Including Trump’s, on China

Host Bret Baier asked [relevant exchange begins around 5:05] “So, on the economic front, Congressman, should the tariffs, the current tariffs on China remain in place, or should they be lifted?”

Krishnamoorthi responded, “I think that they should be in place, certainly, for certain industries where they’re just not playing by the rules of the road so to speak. There is economic aggression left and right. And, I think, in other areas, we have to see. But I think that these tariffs provide a space for our industry to thrive and to compete. And so, in that regard, I think that they are necessary.”

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Russia Deploys Intercontinental Ballistic Missile for ‘Combat Duty’

The head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said Friday that the country has deployed an advanced intercontinental ballistic missile that President Vladimir Putin once said will make Russia’s enemies “think twice.”

Agency head Yuri Borisov said Sarmat missiles have been placed on combat duty, according to Russian news agencies.
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The Sarmat is one of several advanced weapons whose development Putin announced in 2018. The silo-based missile, capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, is intended to replace the R-36 ICBMs that are known by the NATO reporting name of Satan.

The Sarmat reportedly has a short initial launch phase, allowing little time for surveillance systems to track it.

In 2022, about two months after sending troops into Ukraine, Putin said the Sarmat would “reliably ensure the security of Russia from external threats and make those who, in the heat of aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country, think twice.”

German Chancellor Declares Nuclear Energy Is a ‘Dead Horse’
Rejects Reopening Closed Plants

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed a suggestion by a junior coalition partner that the country should keep open the option of using its closed nuclear power plants, declaring that atomic energy is a “dead horse” in Germany.

Germany switched off its last three nuclear reactors in April, completing a process that received wide political support after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in 2011. But some argued for a rethink after energy prices spiked because of the war in Ukraine.

Among those who advocated a reprieve were members of the Free Democrats, a pro-business party that is part of Scholz’s governing coalition.

This week, the Free Democrats’ parliamentary group approved a policy statement saying that it wants “to stop the dismantling of the nuclear power plants that are still fit to use” as part of efforts to be prepared for worst-case scenarios. “That is the only way we will remain capable of acting in every situation,” it said.
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Nuclear energy is over,” he said. “The issue of nuclear energy in Germany is a dead horse. Anyone who wanted to build new nuclear power plants would need 15 years and would have to spend 15-20 billion euros ($16.2-21.6 billion) each.”

The chancellor insisted that “the fact is that with the end of the use of nuclear power, dismantling has also begun,” and any talk of resuming the use of atomic energy would imply building new power stations.

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Nobel Foundation Bans Ambassadors
from Belarus, Iran, and Russia from Award Ceremony

Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its position from a year earlier and invited representatives of the three countries to attend, saying it “promotes opportunities to convey the important messages of the Nobel Prize to everyone.”

Some of the lawmakers cited Russia’s war on Ukraine and the crackdown on human rights in Iran as reasons for their boycott. Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Friday called on the Swedish Nobel Foundation and the Norwegian Nobel Committee not to invite representatives of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s “illegitimate regime to any events.”

The Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told media outlets Friday that he wouldn’t have made the decision.

The foundation said Saturday it recognized “the strong reactions in Sweden, which completely overshadowed this message” and therefore it had decided not to invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm.

However, it said that it would follow its usual practice and invite all ambassadors to the ceremony in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded.

Over 100 British Schools Told to Keep Buildings Closed
Amid Risk of Crumbling Concrete

The announcement late Thursday sent school administrators scrambling to find ways to accommodate pupils, with some expected to return to the online instruction used during the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing of the decision, just days before the start of classes, raised questions from parents and school officials about why the government didn’t act sooner.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb told the BBC that a beam collapse over the summer sparked an urgent reconsideration of whether buildings constructed with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete were safe for school children.

The Department for Education ordered 104 schools to keep some or all of their buildings closed when the autumn term begins Monday.
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The aerated concrete, known as RAAC, is lighter and less expensive than standard reinforced concrete and was widely used in schools, hospitals and other public buildings from the 1950s to the mid-1990s. But RAAC is also weaker than other materials and has a useful life of about 30 years, which means many of these structures now need to be replaced.

Britain´s government has been aware of the problem since 1994 and started monitoring the condition of public buildings in 2018.

The Department for Education began a survey of school buildings last year to identify those built with RAAC. More than 50 school buildings had previously been closed due to concerns about such concrete.

Given this, many were angered by the timing of Thursday’s announcement.

Macron Forever?
French President Calls Term Limits ‘Disastrous Bullshit’

During a closed-doors meeting with leaders of opposition parties on Wednesday in Seine-Saint-Denis, the 45-year-old leader reportedly declared:  “Not being able to be re-elected is disastrous bullshit,” participants of the meeting told the Le Figaro newspaper.

Macron, a former Rothschild banker, was initially elected to the Élysée Palace in 2017 and re-elected as president last year. Under constitutional reforms passed by his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, the President of the Republic is currently limited to two consecutive terms in office.

The president was reportedly responding to a suggestion from the leader of the populist National Rally party Jordan Bardella to further amend the constitution to limit the president to a single seven-year term in office.

Responding to his reported comments, former leftist presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon declared that Macron has “cracked”.

French essayist Maxime Tandonnet warned that the comments may indicate that Macron is considering revoking the limit in order to maintain his “authoritarian” grip on power in Paris.

Former Italian PM Claims France Shot Down
Domestic Flight in 1980 in Failed Gaddafi Assassination Plot

A former Italian premier, in an interview published on Saturday, contended that a French air force missile accidentally brought down a passenger jet over the Mediterranean Sea in 1980 in a failed bid to assassinate Libya’s then leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Former two-time Premier Giuliano Amato appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to either refute or confirm his assertion about the cause of the crash on June 27, 1980, which killed all 81 persons aboard the Italian domestic flight.

In an interview with Rome daily La Repubblica, Amato said he is convinced that France hit the plane while targeting a Libyan military jet.

While acknowledging he has no hard proof, Amato also contended that Italy tipped off Gadhafi, and so the Libyan, who was heading back to Tripoli from a meeting in Yugoslavia, didn’t board the Libyan military jet.

What caused the crash is one of modern Italy’s most enduring mysteries. Some say a bomb exploded aboard the Itavia jetliner on a flight from Bologna to Sicily, while others say examination of the wreckage, pulled up from the seafloor years later, indicate it was hit by a missile.

Radar traces indicated a flurry of aircraft activity in that part of the skies when the plane went down.