News of the World

[kyonides]

US NEWS

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‘That ’70s Show’ Star Danny Masterson Gets
30 Years to Life in Prison for Rape of Two Women

A judge sentenced “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison Thursday for the rapes of two women two decades ago.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo handed down the sentence to the 47-year-old Masterson after hearing statements from the women about the trauma they experienced and the suffering caused by the disturbing memories in the years since.

The actor, who has been in custody since May, sat in court wearing a suit. Masterson watched the women without visible reaction as they spoke.

“When you raped me, you stole from me,” said one woman who Masterson was convicted of raping in 2003. “That’s what rape is, a theft of the spirit.”

“You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent,” she said. “The world is better off with you in prison.”

The other woman Masterson was found guilty of raping said he “has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused.” She told the judge, “I knew he belonged behind bars for the safety of all the women he came into contact with. I am so sorry, and I’m so upset. I wish I’d reported him sooner to the police.”

After an initial jury failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape in December and a mistrial was declared, prosecutors retried Masterson on all three counts earlier this year.

Democrats Try to Slip Amnesty
for Millions of Illegal Aliens into DHS Funding Bill

Reps. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Lou Correa (D-CA), and Yvette Clarke (D-NY) have filed an amendment to the $91.5 billion DHS funding bill that would see the American Dream and Promise Act become law.

The DREAM Act-style amnesty, which has repeatedly failed to pass the House and Senate in prior years, would give green cards and a path to naturalized American citizenship to about 4.4 million illegal aliens in the United States.

The Heritage Foundation Director of the Border Security and Immigration Center Lora Ries told Breitbart News that the amnesty attempt should be expected from Democrats.

“The Left’s tactic: Never let a crisis go to waste, especially an intentional, Biden administration-made border crisis, to seek amnesty for illegal aliens,” Ries said. “The Left needs to stop treading on Americans with border and national insecurity. Just ask New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New Yorkers, and south-side Chicago residents.”
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Notably, the amnesty is backed by some of the nation’s biggest multinational corporations as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — all of whom regularly advocate for a constant flow of foreign workers into the labor market to help keep wages down.

In 2021, while Durbin was pushing the amnesty, the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Facebook, Verizon, Visa, Marriott International, and Apple, among others, threw their support behind the bill.

So why did they mention Eric Adams on the article above?
Here's why they did it. 

Mayor Eric Adams Declares
Illegal Immigration ‘Will Destroy’ NYC
‘It’s Going to Come to Your Neighborhoods’

During a townhall on the Upper West Side on Wednesday, a visibly frustrated Adams said the arrival of 110,000 border crossers and illegal aliens since the spring of last year will lead to the destruction of New York City as waves of illegal immigration have continued unabated under President Joe Biden’s watch.

Let me tell you something New Yorkers: Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this. I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City, destroy New York City. We’re getting 10,000 migrants a month.

One time we were just getting Venezuela, now we’re getting Ecuador, now we’re getting Russian-speaking coming through Mexico, now we’re getting Western Africa, now we’re getting people from all over the globe have made their minds up that they’re going to come through the southern part of the border and come into New York City.

And everyone is saying, ‘It’s New York City’s problem.’ Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We have a $12 billion deficit that we’re going to have to cut every service in this city is going to be impacted. All of us.

t’s going to come to your neighborhoods. All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000. I’m telling you now with 110,000. The city we knew, we’re about to lose.

AFRICAN NEWS

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Africa Climate Summit Demands Reparations
via Global Tax on Fossil Fuels, Aviation, and Maritime Transport

The first Africa Climate Summit ended Wednesday with a demand for global leaders to initiate a global carbon tax on fossil fuels, aviation and maritime transport, all while reforming financial systems that force African nations to pay more to borrow money.

AP reports the call came in a declaration backed by the leaders of the continent which looked to the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases and its richest countries to fulfill a pledge of delivering $100 billion annually to developing nations in climate finance.

“No country should ever have to choose between development aspirations and climate action,” the declaration says, following other calls made in the past to impose taxes that could be redistributed to poorer nations.
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The statement went on to call for Africa’s vast mineral wealth to be processed on the continent, noting that “decarbonizing the global economy is also an opportunity to contribute to equality and shared prosperity.”

The call for reparations comes after Kenya’s President William Ruto said a global tax on carbon emissions can help redress Africa’s chronically low Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rates, as Breitbart News reported.

He pointed to “climate change” driven by successful, dynamic economies in Europe, North America and Asia, as a drain on Africa’s economic progress and it’s time to have a global conversation about a carbon tax on the world’s richest nations.

Guys, just in case some of you haven't noticed it yet, such taxes serve no other purpose but charging for breathing and working like you normally do.

U.S. Imposes Human Rights Sanctions on Sudanese Paramilitary Leader

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions for human rights violations against Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, a senior commander in Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a brutal paramilitary force led by Dagalo’s brother Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.

The RSF was part of the junta that overthrew Sudan’s transitional government in 2021, but broke away from the Sudanese army in April 2023, launching a vicious battle for power that has killed and displaced thousands of civilians.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) described the RSF as “an entity whose members have engaged in acts of violence and human rights abuses, including the massacre of civilians, ethnic killings, and use of sexual violence.”

“Since the beginning of conflict between the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on April 15, 2023, both sides have failed to implement a ceasefire, and the RSF and allied militias have been credibly accused of extensive human rights abuses in Darfur and elsewhere,” OFAC said.

The Treasury statement accused the RSF of deliberately targeting women, children, and other civilians for “killing, maiming, torture, or rape” as well as abduction and forced displacement from their homes. The RSF has attacked “schools, hospitals, religious sites,” and other “locations where civilians are seeking refuge.”

LATIN AMERICAN NEWS

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Venezuela: Maduro Regime Seeks
Chinese Money to Refurbish Run-down Oil Industry

The socialist Maduro regime sent a delegation to China seeking investments to reactivate and boost Venezuela’s run-down oil industry, according to a report published by Bloomberg on Tuesday.

The report, which cites two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, states that the pursuit of Chinese funds is part of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s efforts to revive the nation’s crumbling economy ahead of next year’s “free and fair” presidential election. Maduro will seek to be re-elected for a third six-year presidential term after clinging to power through a sham presidential election in 2018.

The Venezuelan delegation, led by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Oil Minister Pedro Tellechea, arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday — the first high-level Venezuelan delegation of its kind to visit China in five years.

Rodríguez and Tellechea are reportedly discussing possible joint ventures between Chinese companies and the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) oil company:

#EnVideo || En nombre del Presidente @NicolasMaduro, la Vicepresidenta Ejecutiva de la República @delcyrodriguezv, llegó a la ciudad de Shanghái #China para una visita oficial, fortaleciendo así las relaciones entre ambos países.#5Sep pic.twitter.com/rGutJ4KYnw

— Vicepresidencia Vzla (@ViceVenezuela) September 5, 2023

#OnVideo || In the name of President @NicolasMaduro, the Executive Vice President of the Republic @delcyrodriguezv, arrived at Shanghai city, #China for an official visit, thus strengthening the [international] relationship between both nations. #SSep — Office of the Vice Presidency of Venezuela (@ViceVenezuela)

Argentine Priests Defend Pope Francis
Against ‘Shameful’ Insults
from Presidential Front-Runner Javier Milei

A group of more than 20 Argentine Catholic priests celebrated a joint “Mass of Atonement” in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, to defend Pope Francis and respond to statements issued by libertarian economist, lawmaker, and presidential front-runner Javier Milei in 2020.

In those remarks, Milei accused the Pope of being an “imbecile who defends social justice,” a “son of a [b*] preaching communism,” and “the representative of the evil one on Earth.” Milei remains outspokenly critical of Pope Francis, although his tone has moderated since he took the lead in the October election.

The “Mass of Atonement” event was organized by the Curas Villeros (“Villager Priests”), a group of Argentine Catholic priests established in the late 1960s who live in Argentina’s slums or shantytowns.

“This Mass is to reject insults and in support of Pope Francis,” priest Jose “Pepe” Di Paola said. Di Paola worked closely with the pope when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio prior to becoming Pope Francis in 2013.

 Well, now that he mentioned it, the pope has been quite vocal about accepting migrants in the US and several European countries. Curiously, I've never seen a single case of a migrant being accepted as a citizen or even as a resident of the Vatican City.

Guatemala's Relations With US, Taiwan Uncertain
as President-Elect Plans Deeper Ties With China

When little-known politician Bernardo Arévalo was announced the winner of Guatemala's presidential run-off vote on Aug. 20, it ended more than a decade of conservative leadership. But in the wake of Mr. Arévalo's surprising win, analysts are expressing concern about the progressive president-elect's goal to strengthen ties with China.

This could be especially troublesome for the United States—Guatemala's top trade partner—and the politically embattled Taiwan. Guatemala is one of just 13 nations that diplomatically recognizes Taipei over Beijing. It's also one of Taiwan's two remaining allies in Central America.

On Aug. 21, just one day after Guatemalan officials announced the election results, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, expressed the desire for Guatemala's new head of state to "make the right decision" and establish formal diplomatic ties with China.

“Lately, people from various sectors in Guatemala have expressed in interviews their hope that their country will soon establish diplomatic ties with China, which fully indicates that developing relations with China ... is what serves the fundamental interests of Guatemala,” Mr. Wang said in a statement initially reported by the Chinese state channel CCTV.

Mr. Arévalo swiftly rose to popularity on the campaign trail because of his tough stance on crime and internal corruption, which has plagued Guatemala for decades. But while his rhetoric focused on ending duplicity within the state, he also wasn't subtle in asserting that Guatemala needs to do more business with China.

US Consulate in Mexico Border Town Tells
Staff 'To Shelter in Place' Amid Violence

The U.S. Consulate in the northern Mexican border town of Matamoros on Monday said its "employees are currently under a shelter in place order" due to gun violence in the city.

In recent years Matamoros, which borders the southern U.S. city of Brownsville in Texas, has been racked by violence linked to drug trafficking.

"We recommend you shelter in place and stay tuned to local news for updates in your area," the U.S. Consulate General said on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Earlier this year two Americans were killed when members of a drug cartel kidnapped four people in Matamoros in a case of apparent mistaken identity, an incident that threw a harsh spotlight on violence in Mexico and sparked angry reactions from some U.S. lawmakers critical of Mexican efforts to fight crime.

And they were not the only ones killed in Mexico. Another American was killed after some Mexicans argued with him concerning a car sale.

ASIAN NEWS

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Legal Scholars Predict ‘Endless Harm’
from Chinese Law Against Insulting ‘National Spirit’

China is preparing to impose yet another in a long series of increasingly draconian “national security” laws, this time criminalizing anything that “undermines” China’s “national spirit” or “harms the feelings” of the country as a whole. Legal scholars quickly pointed out that such a vague and open-ended law would give every official in China’s vast bureaucratic army the power to punish anything that offends their personal sensibilities.

The “national spirit” amendments to security law were revealed to the public as part of what the Chinese government presents as a public commentary or “soliciting opinion” process. China is ruled by a dictatorial Communist regime, so the public’s opinion is not actually of interest to the ruling class, but sometimes there is enough controversy to draw the Politburo’s attention.

This could be one of those times, as an unusually large number of negative comments were swiftly registered with the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp legislature. Many of those criticisms came from legal scholars, as Reuters noted Thursday.
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Other critics noted the draft law covers clothing that might “hurt the feeling of the Chinese nation,” and made some sarcastic guesses about precisely what clothing might be deemed hurtful.

“Will wearing a suit and tie count? Marxism originated in the West. Would its presence in China also count as hurting national feelings,” asked a Weibo user quoted by the BBC.

The BBC report mentioned an incident from last year in which a Chinese woman wearing a Japanese kimono was accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” China’s all-purpose excuse for arresting its citizens.

“To wear a kimono is to hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation, to eat Japanese food is to jeopardize its spirit? When did the feelings and spirit of the time-tested Chinese nation become so fragile?” one Chinese commentator observed.

Thus the "cultural appropriation" issue that is perpetuated by the hard left has been demonstrated here to be nothing but a Marxist concept.   And you can be punished for it in China.