News of the World

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US NEWS

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Jim Jordan: Entire House GOP Approving Biden Impeachment Inquiry Will ‘Help Us in Court’

The entire House Republican conference voting in favor of opening a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden will help the case in court, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.

The House formally voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry into Biden on Wednesday in a vote that was 221 to 212. In other words, this was a unanimous vote, as Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who previously hinted that he would oppose the effort, voted alongside his GOP colleagues.
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“This is a power that resides solely under our constitution with the House of Representatives, and when the full House goes on record, and a majority of the House of Representatives says we are now in a formal phase of our oversight duty and impeachment inquiry, I think that’s significant, and it’s going to help us in court,” Jordan said, adding that he believes that the unanimous decision will also help get witnesses in as well as additional documents.

“So that’s why it’s significant. And I think it was a pretty important day, and we’ll continue to do our work, and then at some point, we’re going to make a decision on whether we actually think Articles of Impeachment are warranted,” he added.

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Democrat Arizona Governor Sending National Guard to Border

One week after sending a letter to President Biden, critiquing his administration’s handling of the border within her state, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D)announced she will send the state’s Army National Guard to the border. The soldiers will assist the Arizona Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies with security operations to include fentanyl interdiction, analytical support, and to suppress human trafficking.

On Friday, Hobbs signed an Executive Order mobilizing the soldiers as part of Arizona’s Operation SECURE. Launched in December, the operation created a new Border Security Office within the State’s Department of Homeland Security. The office will be financed for the first year with $2 Million from American Rescue Plan funding. The move to mobilize the National Guard and create a new border security office comes as waves of migrants have flooded Arizona border cities in recent weeks.
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As reported by Breitbart Texas, an increase in migrant crossings near Lukeville, Arizona, led to the closure of that city’s only international port of entry on December 4. The closure resulted in financial losses on both sides of the border as commercial businesses shuttered or reduced their hours of operation due to eliminating cross-border traffic. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to staff the port of entry have been redirected to assist the Border Patrol in processing and transporting the thousands of migrants crossing into Arizona daily. According to Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent John R. Modlin of the Tucson Border Patrol Sector, more than 37,000 migrants were apprehended within the Sector during the course of the first 14 days of December.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Celebrates ‘Breaking Down Barriers’ with ‘No Whites’ Holiday Party

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) proudly posted a photo from her no-whites-allowed “Electeds of Color” holiday party amid backlash over the exclusionary event.

Wu, the city’s first Asian-American mayor, posted an image to her Instagram account Friday, showing a group of smiling colleagues at the dinner party. No white people, including Wu’s white husband, were pictured.
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The segregated party, which took place Wednesday, came under fire when emails leaked showing how white elected officials were accidentally invited, then uninvited from the “of color” only gathering.

According to the Boston Accountability Network, Wu had even scheduled the “Electeds of Color” party for the same day as the city council’s holiday party that included all races.

While Wu apologized for the “honest mistake” of the missent emails, the mayor did not express regret for excluding white city leaders in the first place.

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Orban Says he Can Still Block Ukraine EU Membership Despite Last-Minute Veto Climbdown

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday his country will have plenty of opportunities in the future to interrupt Ukraine's process of joining the European Union, a day after the right-wing leader's stunning turnaround allowed an EU summit to move forward on bringing the war-torn country into the bloc.

Orbán had spent weeks vigorously declaring that his country would not consent to the EU beginning talks with Ukraine on its eventual membership, arguing such a decision would be catastrophic and that Kyiv was unprepared to begin the process.

But in a dramatic reversal in Brussels on Thursday, Orbán left the room where the leaders of the EU’s 27 member nations were debating the measure and allowed a unanimous vote of 26 to approve the start of accession talks for Kyiv.

In an interview Friday with Hungarian state radio, Orbán said that EU leaders told him he would “lose nothing” by dropping his veto since he'd have chances in the future to block Ukraine's accession if he chose to – something he vowed to do if it appeared Hungary’s interests were at risk.

More News

Russia’s Putin and France’s Macron Both Say They Are Open to Restarting Talks on Ukraine War

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he would still consider talking with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin if it helps creating a sustainable peace between Ukraine and Russia.

Macron and Putin enjoyed a good working relationship before Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. In weeks preceding the start of hostilities, Macron’s diplomatic efforts failed to stop the war but he then kept open a line of communication with the Russian president for months.
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Putin was asked Thursday during his year-end news conference by a journalist from the French channel TF1 about his views on France and Macron.

Putin said: “At some point the French president stopped the relationship with us. We didn't do it, I didn't. He did. If there's interest, we're ready. If not, we'll cope.”

Speaking in Brussels at the end of a summit where EU leaders decided to open membership negotiations with war-torn Ukraine, Macron said he remained open to dialogue with Putin on finding a peaceful solution if the Russian leader reaches out to him.
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Putin said this week there would be no peace until Russia achieves its goals, which he says remain unchanged after nearly two years of fighting.

Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny Disappears from Prison, Whereabouts Unknown

His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Monday that his whereabouts are still unknown.

Yarmysh posted about Navalny’s disappearance on Twitter after Navalny failed to appear in a court video conference.

“It is already the sixth straight day that we don’t know where Alexei is and what is happening to him,” she wrote.

Yarmysh said Navalny’s lawyers attempted to contact two prison colonies he might have been transferred to. Their communications were ignored for several days but on Monday both prison colonies told the lawyers that Navalny was not one of their inmates.

Officials at the jail in Melekhovo where Navalny has been held since last year told Yarmysh there were “electricity problems” at the facility which prevented Navalny from attending his scheduled video conference with the court.

European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell Fontelles said on Tuesday that Navalny’s disappearance is “highly worrying.” He stressed that the Russian government is responsible for Navalny’s “safety and health in prison.”

ASIAN NEWS

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Britain, Japan, Italy Sign Agreement to Build Next-Generation Jet Fighter Together

The defense ministers of Japan, Britain and Italy signed an agreement on Thursday to establish a joint organization to develop a new advanced jet fighter, as the countries push to strengthen their cooperation in the face of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.

The three countries had agreed last year to merge earlier individual plans – for Japan´s Mitsubishi F-X to succeed the retiring F-2s developed with the United States and Britain´s Tempest – to produce the new combat aircraft for deployment in 2035.

Japan, which is rapidly building up its military, hopes to have a greater capability to counter China´s rising assertiveness while welcoming Britain’s bigger presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
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Under the plan, a joint body called the GCAP International Government Organization will manage the private sector joint venture – which includes Japan´s Mitsubishi Heavy, Britain´s BAE Systems PLC and Italy´s Leonardo – to oversee the aircraft’s development. The organization, which will be staffed by several hundred people from the three countries, is tasked with distributing work in different areas, such as the engine and avionics.

The organization will be headquartered in Britain and headed by a Japanese official, and the joint venture will be led by an Italian representative, Kihara said. The top posts will rotate every few years, Japanese defense officials said.

The project, however, hinges on Japan easing its postwar ban on exporting jointly developed lethal weapons to third countries. It said before Thursday’s signing it was working to do so, but the process has been delayed.

India Will Resume Buying Oil from Venezuela After Biden’s Sanctions Relief

Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced on Friday that India will resume purchasing Venezuelan oil now that the Biden administration has lifted oil and gas sanctions on the rogue socialist country.

India is the world’s third-largest oil buyer, importing roughly 80 percent of its crude oil from international markets. India stopped importing Venezuelan oil in 2020 after the United States, during the administration of former President Donald Trump, imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) oil company in 2019. The sanctions were a response to years of continued human rights violations by socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his regime against their own people.

The Biden administration granted a broad oil and gas sanctions relief package to the Maduro regime in October that allows PDVSA to once again sell Venezuelan oil in American and international markets. The relief was awarded after representatives of the socialist regime and the Venezuelan “opposition” Unitary Platform signed an agreement in Barbados with vague promises about holding a “free and fair” presidential election next year.

Over the past two months, and despite being a crucial condition of the sanctions relief package deal, Maduro and his socialist regime have shown no sign of committing to a “free and fair” presidential election in 2024.

China Starts to Openly Discuss Bailing Out Real Estate Developers

Deputy Chief of China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Dong Jianguo said at an economic seminar on Wednesday that the government will “implement policy support” to “meet the reasonable financing demand of developers” and “support developers with short-term cash flow troubles.”

His remarks were among the first signals that China is planning a bailout for its beleaguered real estate industry.

China’s state-run Global Times carefully avoided words like “bailout” but said the regime in Beijing is paying “intense attention to defusing financial risks in the sector.”

Dong spoke of programs to keep honest real estate developers operating even after they default on their debts, which is just another way of saying “bailout”:

During the annual meeting, Dong noted that developers that have violated the law, defaulted on debt or been unable to keep operating, should be eliminated in accordance with market rules, which is the result of the survival of the fittest in the market.

“However, it was inaccurate to call debt defaults of some developers ‘collapses’ or ‘cash flow problems,'” he noted.

MIDDLE EASTERN NEWS

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Israel, Arab States Create Overland Trade Route to Avoid Houthi Attacks

The Israeli logistics company Trucknet has successfully brought ten trucks across a new 2,550-kilometer overland route between the port of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, across Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and into Israel, it was revealed on Saturday.

The Israeli news website Walla reported that the pilot project was the result of a deal with Emirati shipping company Puretrans FZCO, and the Dubai port operating company DP WORLD, to transport goods from Dubai to the Israeli port of Haifa, and back.

The new, overland route could emerge as an alternative to traditional shipping through the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, where international shipping is currently under regular missile attack from Iranian-backed Houthi rebel forces in Yemen.

“The price is about 1.2 dollars per km, a little more expensive than sea freight on normal days, but cheaper than the freight prices now,” Walla reports, noting that the journey takes two days. A shorter 1,700-km route from Bahrain may also be possible.

The journey may also save time: it takes at least ten days to make the same journey via ship through the Suez Canal, and a month when avoiding the Red Sea and traveling around the African continent.

The attacks by the Houthi rebels could, ironically, therefore boost dormant peace efforts by Israel and Saudi Arabia, which were said to include a potential overland trade route.