News of the World

[kyonides]

US NEWS

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Joe Biden Announces Executive Office to ‘Intensify’ Gun Control Push

While announcing the launch of the executive Office of Gun Violence Prevention, President Joe Biden pledged to use the office to “centralize, accelerate, and intensify” his administration’s gun control push.

Biden noted that he has chosen Vice President Kamala Harris to oversee the office.

A report by the Washington Post makes clear coordination in the office is expected between the “White House, the Community Justice Action Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety.”

After Biden announced the launch of the new office on Friday, he then called for an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, and universal background checks. He also called for Congress to take action for more gun restrictions then he pledged to use the office to “centralize, accelerate, and intensify” his administration’s gun control push.

Biden secured the Bi-Partisan Safer Communities Act in the summer of 2022, thanks to help from Sen John Cornyn (R-Texas), who worked with Democrats to get the legislation passed.

That move makes me think he doesn't care about the law at all.

Federal Judge Blocks California
‘High-Capacity’ Magazine Ban for Second Time

U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez blocked California’s ban on ammunition magazines holding more than ten rounds on Friday.

This is the second time Benitez has issued a decision against the ban.

On June 29, 2017, Breitbart News reported that Benitez blocked the ban to prevent “otherwise law-abiding” citizens from being criminalized.

He noted that the ban takes away Second Amendment rights “and amounts to the government taking people’s private property without compensation.”

On Friday, Benitez issued a decision against the ban again by following the Bruen (2022) framework, which requires tradition to be on the side of the gun control in question.

KQED quoted Benitez noting, “There is no American tradition of limiting ammunition capacity.”

He noted that, historically speaking, detachable magazines “solved a problem with historic firearms: running out of ammunition and having to slowly reload a gun.”

He added, “There have been, and there will be, times where many more than 10 rounds are needed to stop attackers,” Benitez wrote. “Yet, under this statute, the State says ‘too bad.’”

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Prosecutors: $480k Cash, Over $100k in Gold Bars Found at Menendez Home

Cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes Benz – totaling more than $710,000 collectively – were recovered between the home and safety deposit box of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife, Nadine Menendez, during an investigation into bribes they allegedly accepted from New Jersey businessmen, federal prosecutors say.

The indictment, brought by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, accuses Menendez and his wife of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes” from three New Jersey businessmen – Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes – “in exchange for his influence and power as a Senator to seek to protect and enrich” them and “benefit the Arab Republic of Egypt.”

It notes prosecutors searched the Menendezes’s residence in June 2022. During the search, federal agents located some $480,000 in cash, including in envelopes stuffed in jackets embroidered with “Robert Menendez” and “Senator Menendez” on the chest, per the filing. Some of the envelopes were recovered from “clothing, closets, and a safe,” and some of them yielded DNA and or fingerprints from Daibes or his driver, the filing said. Upwards of $70,000 in cash was also discovered in a safety deposit box in Nadine Menendez’s name.

The indictment alleges Daibes or Hana gave the Mendezes the gold bars authorities recovered from the residence, which totaled more than $100,000 in value. According to the indictment, Menendez “agreed to attempt to influence and attempted to influence the pending federal prosecution of” Daibes in exchange for “cash, furniture, and gold bars” between December 2020 and early 2022. 

On March 31, 2022 – months before the search of his residence – prosecutors say Nadine Menendez gave a Manhattan jeweler “two one-kilogram gold bars to be sold,” which allegedly previously belonged to Daines.

The serial numbers on the bars indicate they were once under Daibes’s ownership, the indictment declares. A day earlier, prosecutors say Daibes and she got lunch with her later texting, “THANK YOU Fred,” with emojis of prayer hands, a heart, and an “X,” an “O.”

Additionally, The couple’s third codefendant, Uribe, is accused of providing a Mercedes Benz worth upwards of $60,000 to the couple in 2019. This was allegedly in exchange for Menedez’s alleged help in interfering in a New Jersey criminal investigation into a Uribe associate.

Keep in mind that Menendez is a Democrat.

‘Deeply Disturbing’: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy Urges
Sen. Robert Menendez to Resign

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has joined the small, but growing chorus of Democrats urging Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to resign from the U.S Senate after the fellow New Jersey Democrat was indicted on federal bribery charges Friday morning.

Murphy, in a statement reported by CBS News, branded the bombshell claims against Menendez “deeply disturbing,” adding that the claims “implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system.”

“Under our legal system, Senator Menendez and the other defendants have not been found guilty and will have the ability to present evidence disputing these charges, and we must respect the process,” Murphy stated, according to the news outlet. “However, the alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”

Las Vegas Teen Accused of Mowing Down Retired Cop
Boasted in Front of Police — ‘I’ll Be Out in 30 Days’

The teenage driver accused in the fatal hit-and-run of a retired policeman in Las Vegas apparently believed he would not be in custody for very long.

Jesus Ayala, who recently turned 18, was allegedly driving the stolen car in August when he hit and killed 64-year-old Andreas Probst who was riding his bike on the side of the road, the New York Post reported Friday.

Vegas teen told cops ‘I’ll be out in 30 days’ after he was nabbed in killing of retired top cop chief in hit-and-run...

Sixteen-year-old Jzamir Keys was also inside the car during the incident. According to Breitbart News, the teenagers will face charges as adults.

Video footage shows the teens nearing the victim, who is wearing a red t-shirt and black shorts, as he pedaled along the roadway. At one point, one of them says, “Hit his ass,” and moments later the car slams into the victim who is left laying on the side of the road as the pair drive away.

Illinois Cashless Bail Releases Man Accused of Leaving Dead Wife on Road

An Illinois man accused of leaving his dead wife’s body on the side of the road has been released thanks to the state’s new cashless bail system.

Alona Muryn, 29, was found dead at the side of the road after Inverness police received a call around 1:30 a.m. Monday.

Police believe Muryn got into an argument with her husband, who was driving. “The woman removed her seatbelt, opened her car door, and fell from the vehicle,” per CWB Chicago. “Police said she was struck by the car after falling out.”

According to the allegations, her husband, Ivan Muryn, then “stopped, checked on Alona, and “fled the scene without calling for help.”

He turned himself in later in the day. He is also a citizen of Ukraine. But he was only told to surrender his passport, not to drive, and placed on an electronic monitoring system. Murwyn could not be held because he is “not charged with a domestic crime.” Additionally, per the report, he “does not qualify to be jailed before trial because the charge he faces is not considered a forcible felony and because it could result in probation upon conviction.”

 So being the main suspect in a murder case no longer matter in Illinois?
 Even a fictitious character like Sherlock Holmes would strongly disagree with them.

Biden’s DHS Gives ‘Temporary’ Amnesty
to 18K Afghans Despite Vetting Failures

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the extension and redesignation of temporary amnesty status for nearly 18,000 Afghans living in the United States despite their initial entry being plagued by document vetting failures.

On Friday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for close to 18,000 Afghans who were admitted to the U.S. after the withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan in August 2021.

The massive resettlement operation brought nearly 100,000 Afghans to American communities in a matter of months — often without having been interviewed in person.

So they don't even know what kind of people they are, and still, they're getting permission to enter US soil?
Is the DHS now looking to invite MORE TERRORISTS to become legal residents of the US??

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Russia’s Diesel Export Ban Highlights the Weakness of Biden’s Financial War

These were brought to mind by the announcement on Friday that Russia was banning exports of diesel fuel. An updated version of the Russian reversal might go something like this: “In America, you sanction oil. In Russia, the oil sanctions you.”

When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the Biden administration forecast that its sanctions would be crippling. Daleep Singh, the deputy national security adviser for international economics who is said to have designed the sanctions, estimated that Russia’s economic output would be cut in half.
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“Never before has such a large, modern economy been cut off so quickly from most of the world.”

To put it mildly, this has not worked out as planned. The sanctions did succeed in making Russia officially the most sanctioned country in the world. That just proved not to matter as much to Russia’s economy as many of the experts in financial warfare were forecasting.

The Russian economy shrank 2.1 percent in 2022. That’s a serious recession but not exactly the economic devastation that the U.S. said would be visited upon the country in retaliation for the invasion. In July, the IMF said that it expected Russia’s economy to grow 1.5 percent this year. Russia is now projecting that its economy will grow by more than two percent this year.

The professional Western critics of Putin’s regime warn that we should not trust Russia’s official economic figures, much less the forecasts of its state economists. They say the numbers are inflated to dishearten the West and that they are just part of Putin’s propaganda war against the United States. But even if the Russian economy is not growing as much as its finance ministers say, there’s little room for doubt that its economy is growing.

What’s more, Russia has become a leader in the campaign by the OPEC+ group to raise the price of oil by limiting its production. While much of the world that is most susceptible to U.S. influence attempted to limit Russia’s ability to buy and sell goods and services, Russia has shown that it is perfectly happy to limit its own largest exports—petroleum and gas.

On Friday, after Russia announced an indefinite ban on diesel exports, the price of Brent Crude rose to $93.55 a barrel. With the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve badly depleted after the Biden administration used it to push down oil prices last year and then failed to replenish the stockpile when oil was much cheaper, there’s no ready source of new supply to keep prices from rising even further.

If Russia were starved for foreign capital, it would be exporting everything it could. Instead, it is more concerned about shoring up domestic supply to prevent inflation.

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EU Member Calls on Bloc to Designate
Areas of Syria Safe to Return Migrants

Cyprus has formally called on the European Union to re-evaluate which areas of Syria can be declared safe and free from armed conflict so that Syrian migrants can eventually be repatriated there, the Cypriot Interior Ministry said Friday.

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou was the sole official to raise the issue during July’s informal gathering of his EU counterparts in Spain. No other EU nation has taken a formal position on safe zone re-evaluation, the Interior Ministry told The Associated Press.

Cyprus is fronting the re-evaluation bid because it says its proximity to the region has now made it a prime destination for Syrian migrants.

Ethnically divided Cyprus, with a population of nearly a million in the southern, internationally recognized part where migrants seek asylum, says migrants now comprise 6% of its population – much higher than the average in other EU member countries.

War-torn Syria has for the past 12 years has been designated as an unsafe country where indiscriminate violence poses a real risk to the safety of its citizens. The threat makes them eligible for international protection status which enables them to live and work in third countries.
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The government of Cyprus is proposing that the EU initially re-examines whether conditions on the ground in Syria – or parts of the country – have changed enough for Syrians to be safely repatriated.

The practicalities of how such repatriations would take place could be decided at a later stage. One possibility would be to start repatriations of Syrians who hail from the declared safe zones, according to the Cypriot Interior Ministry.

Zelensky Concedes: ‘Nobody Knows’
if Ukraine ‘Counteroffensive’ Will Work This Year

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a basically upbeat assessment of Ukraine’s long-awaited “counteroffensive” against invading Russian forces but conceded “nobody knows” if there will be a major breakthrough this year in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.

Zelensky added that he thinks “we will have more success” in the coming year, following a slower-than-expected start for the big counteroffensive. As in several other recent interviews, he disputed criticism that Ukraine’s push has deteriorated into a stalemate, pointing to gains made by his forces in the east of the country.

Ukraine’s timetable to begin producing strategically significant results might not be as long as Zelensky would like. Two weeks ago, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley warned there are only “about 30 to 45 days left” of decent weather for military operations this year.

“I said at the very beginning of this that this was going to be long, slow, hard, and high-casualty-producing, and that’s exactly what it is,” Milley said.

Zelensky told CNN on Tuesday that more advanced weapons, such as American long-range missiles and Patriot air defense systems, would be crucial to breaking Russia’s defenses. Without those weapons, he predicted “more casualties on the battlefield and elsewhere.”

“We are on the finishing line. I’m sure of that,” he said.

Asked about growing skepticism in Washington for continued heavy funding of the Ukrainian war effort when it seems unable to make significant gains against the Russians, Zelensky said it was “difficult” for outsiders to understand the realities of the battlefield.

Ukraine Missile Strike Hit
Russian Black Sea Fleet Headquarters
Kremlin Claims

Ukraine carried out a fiery missile strike Friday on the main headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a Russian official said. Videos and photos showed large plumes of smoke over the building in Sevastopol in annexed Crimea.

The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said there was no information about casualties. He said firefighters were battling a blaze, and more emergency forces were being brought in, an indication that the fire could be massive.

A stream of ambulances were arriving at the fleet’s headquarters and shrapnel was scattered hundreds of meters (yards) around, the Tass news agency reported.

Razvozhayev initially warned Sevastopol residents that another attack was possible and urged them not to leave buildings or go to the city center. He later said there was no longer any air strike danger but reiterated calls not to go to the central part of the city, saying roads were closed and and unspecified “special efforts” were underway.

Ukrainian officials, who have claimed responsibility for a series of other recent attacks on Crimea, didn’t immediately announce Kyiv launched the strike.

Sevastopol residents said they heard explosions in the skies and saw smoke, Russian news outlets reported. Images circulated in Ukrainian Telegram channels showed clouds of smoke over the seafront. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the videos.

Poland Announces It Will Stop Supplying Weapons to Ukraine

Poland on Wednesday announced it will stop supplying weapons to Ukraine in order to prioritize its own defense, according to local reports.

Local outlet TVN24 reported that Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that Poland will no longer transfer weapons to Ukraine and will “now arm [themselves] with the most modern weapons.”

“We know perfectly well that Ukraine is defending itself against the brutal Russian attack. We won’t jeopardize her safety. Our hub in Rzeszów, in consultation with the Americans and NATO, still plays the same role,” he reportedly said in an interview with Polsat News in reference to the Polish city where international weapons shipments come in and depart for Ukraine.

The announcement prompted shock throughout the international community, as Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters after Russian forces invaded it in February 2022.

However, Polish-Ukrainian relations have been strained in recent weeks after Poland banned Ukrainian grain imports to safeguard its own farmers.

13-Year-Old Boy Shot in the Head
a Victim of Stockholm’s Deadly Gang War
Says Swedish Prosecutor

A 13-year-old boy from the suburbs of Stockholm who was found dead in woods near his home earlier this month, is the latest victim of a deadly gang war in Sweden, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Milo, who was only identified by his first name, had been shot in the head in a chilling example of “gross and completely reckless gang violence,” prosecutor Lisa dos Santos said. He is believed to have been shot in Haninge, south of Stockholm. She declined to give further details due to the ongoing investigation.

Swedish media, which have published photos of Milo with the permission of his family, said the body had been moved to the woods after the boy – who was not known to the police – was killed. He was reported missing on Sept. 8 and his body was found by a passer-by three days later.

Criminal gangs have become a growing problem in Sweden in recent decades, with an increasing number of drive-by shootings, bombings and grenade attacks. Most of the violence is in Sweden’s three largest cities: Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmo.

As of Sept. 15, police had counted 261 shootings in Sweden this year, of which 34 were fatal and 71 people were wounded.

In September alone, the Scandinavian country saw four shootings, three of them fatal, in Uppsala, west of Stockholm, and in the Swedish capital. One of the victims was the 13-year-old Milo.

ASIAN NEWS

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China’s Climate Envoy: ‘It Is Unrealistic to Completely Phase Out Fossil Fuel’

“It is unrealistic to completely phase out fossil fuel energy,” China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said at a press conference Thursday.

China is by far the world’s worst polluter and largest consumer of fossil fuels, conspicuously including prodigious amounts of coal burned in its steadily growing number of coal-fired power plants.

Xie’s comments appeared to be a definitive dashing of hopes that China might get more serious about reducing its carbon emissions at the upcoming COP28 U.N., climate conference in Dubai this November.

Reuters reported Xie saying China is “open to setting a global renewable energy target as long as it took the divergent economic conditions of different countries into account” – which means, of course, that China and its client states will not be expected to make the kind of sacrifices demanded of Americans and Europeans.

The China-led BRICS economic bloc made this explicit at its summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August. The BRICS group views climate change as the responsibility of the wealthy industrialized nations of the West, and has no intention of compromising their own industrial goals in favor of expensive and unreliable “green energy.”

Xie “welcomed pledges made to him by his U.S. counterpart John Kerry that a $100 billion annual fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change would soon be made available,” indicating that Chinese Communist still love to talk about climate change, especially when America is making gigantic commitments to pay for it.

On the other hand, Xie was irate at what he described as “protectionist” U.S. trade sanctions on Chinese solar panels, lecturing the U.S. about “politicizing” green energy and warning of price increases as high as 25 percent on solar panels from the trade sanctions.

U.S. imports of Chinese solar panels picked up in March after a slowdown caused by the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA), which requires companies to prove their Chinese supply chains are not tainted with slave labor from the Uyghur Muslims.

China Threatens Taiwan
Insists Human Rights Are Relative in U.N. Address

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng promised the United Nations General Assembly during his address on Thursday afternoon that his Communist Party would never practice “hegemony and expansion” and promote dialogue and peace – before threatening the nation of Taiwan with the “firm resolve, strong will, and the power of the Chinese people.”

Han asserted that Taiwan, a sovereign country that has never been governed by a state based in Beijing, had been part of China since “ancient times,” and warned that “no one should ever underestimate” how far Xi Jinping’s genocidal regime would go to realize “complete reunification.” He also vowed that his country would always promote “peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom.”

...Despite being a country, Taiwan is never invited to the event – or allowed membership in any United Nations agency, from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to UNICEF – as a result of severe Chinese government pressure on the United Nations.

The United Nations recommends, though does not mandate, that speeches be loosely tied to a theme. This year’s theme is “Rebuilding Trust and Reigniting Solidarity.”

Xi was one of several leaders of rogue regimes who did not risk the trip to New York. Chinese state media did not dwell on Xi’s aversion to travel, criticizing American President Joe Biden’s allegedly “cliché” speech on Tuesday, instead.

“We should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and observe the purposes and principles of the U.N. charter,” Han asserted during a segment of his speech meant to condemn countries that refuse to do business with serial human rights criminals. He then pivoted to a call for the full elimination of Taiwan’s sovereignty.

“There is but one China in the world. The government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China and Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China’s territory since ancient times,” Han incorrectly asserted. “No one, no force, should ever underestimate the firm resolve, strong will, and the power of the Chinese people to safeguard their sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Syrian Dictator Bashar Assad Visits China
for First Time Since Civil War Began

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad on Thursday traveled to China with his wife Asmaa and a delegation of senior officials, making his first visit to the authoritarian superpower since the beginning of Syria’s civil war 12 years ago.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Assad’s visit was intended to “further deepen political mutual trust and cooperation in various fields between the two countries and push bilateral relations to a new level.” His agenda included meeting with his opposite number, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, and attending the opening ceremony for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Xi also came to Hangzhou for the Asian Games, and to meet with an assortment of China’s business partners and allies, including the heads of state from Cambodia, Kuwait, and Nepal. Xi’s business with Assad was the most serious of all, as China is angling for a plum and profitable role in Syria’s postwar reconstruction projects.

Syria formally joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in January 2022, all but guaranteeing China a dominant position in reconstruction. The Assad regime celebrated its induction into BRI as support for the legitimacy of the dictatorship, and a signal that Assad retained full control of his country after winning the long and brutal civil war with Russian and Iranian assistance.

BRI was also Syria’s ticket to shrugging off the effects of Western sanctions, setting up the first great project of the China-Russia-Iran axis of tyranny.