News of the World

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US NEWS

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Car Plows into Parked SUV in Joe Biden’s Motorcade

A car reportedly plowed into a parked SUV in President Joe Biden’s motorcade on Sunday as he was leaving his Delaware campaign headquarters.

The president and first lady Jill Biden were unharmed. According to the Associated Press (AP), the Secret Service rushed the sedan that hit the motorcade vehicle and “instructed the driver to put his hands up.

“While Biden was walking from the campaign office to his waiting armored SUV, a sedan hit a U.S. Secret Service vehicle that was being used to close off intersections near the headquarters for the president’s departure,” noted the AP.

“The sedan then tried to continue into a closed-off intersection, before Secret Service personnel surrounded the vehicle with weapons drawn and instructed the driver to put his hands up,”

The president was immediately ushered into his vehicle where the first lady was already seated. They were subsequently driven to their Delaware home and the president’s schedule remained unaffected.

Other News

Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion deal for US Steel sparks criticism

Japan’s Nippon Steel agreed to buy US Steel Corp for $14.1 billion, the companies announced on Monday, sparking criticism about the firm’s ownership in an industry crucial to US national security.

A major US steelworkers’ union and a top US politician came out against the Japanese conglomerate’s all-cash agreement to acquire the US firm for $55 per share.

The deal price marks a 40 percent premium on US Steel’s closing price on Friday and represents an equity value of about $14.1 billion, the companies said in a statement.

Nippon will also assume the US firm’s debt, taking the total value of the agreement to $14.9 billion.

The US company’s share price finished the trading day up more than 26 percent on Wall Street following the announcement.

13K ‘Special Interest Aliens’ from Countries that Support Hamas Cross U.S. Border Since October

According to a source within Customs and Border Protection, more than 13,000 migrants the agency considers “Special Interest Aliens” have been apprehended by the Border Patrol since October. These migrants include foreign nationals from Turkey, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and Russia. According to the source, most have been released into the United States to pursue asylum claims.

The source says nearly 4,000 citizens of Turkey have been encountered as they surrendered to Border Patrol agents along the southwest border in less than the first three months of the new fiscal year.
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The source says more than 1,300 Special Interest Aliens from Afghanistan are also included in the more than 13,000 apprehended since October 1. Hamas and the Taliban in Afghanistan have a long-standing relationship rooted deeply in the mutual opposition to the United States and Israeli influence in the Middle East. In 2021, Hamas openly praised the Taliban for their victory in forcing an end to the United States occupation of Afghanistan after the Biden administration’s hasty withdrawal from the country.

More than 600 Russian nationals were also among the group of Special Interest Aliens apprehended since October 1. Like Turkey’s Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin has also played host to senior Hamas leadership since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Putin likely welcomes the continued conflict in Gaza as it shifts international focus from his invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war there.

The source told Breitbart Texas more than 300 Sudanese nationals were also among the group of Special Interest Aliens apprehended along the southwest border since FY24 began in October. Just two days after the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, Sudan reinstated diplomatic ties with Iran.

Entertainment

Marvel Star Jonathan Majors Found Guilty in Domestic Assault Case Involving Ex-Girlfriend

Disney’s Marvel actor Jonathan Majors was found guilty by a New York jury on Monday on charges that he attacked his then-girlfriend in the back of a car.

A jury composed of three men and three women convicted the rising Hollywood star following a two-week trial in a state court in Manhattan.

Prosecutors argued that Jonathan Majors assaulted Grace Jabbari in a car in New York in March, leaving her with a broken finger and swollen arm and ear. The actor was facing charges including two assault counts and two harassment counts —  all of which were misdemeanors.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 6. Majors could be sent to jail for up to one year.

The actor has maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal, and even accused Jabbari of assaulting him. But New York prosecutors led by Soros-funded Alvin Bragg declined to file charges against her, without disclosing their reasons.

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Ukraine Discovers Their Military Chief Was Bugged, Other Devices Found

Army Cmdr. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi commented to local media about Sunday´s revelation by Ukraine´s Security Service that during a routine sweep a bug was found in a room he used. The device wasn´t working, the agency said.

Suspicion immediately fell on Russia amid the almost 22-month war between the two countries that is set to grind on into another year.

“I have several offices where I work. This happened in one of them,” Zaluzhnyi said. “We checked (the room) and found (the device),” he said.

He added that listening devices were not only found in the office where he worked, but he didn´t provide further details and left it unclear whether more than one device was found in the Ukraine General Staff premises.
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Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has survived 10 assassination attempts carried out by the Russian state security service, or FSB, according to Ukrainian authorities. Last month, his wife underwent hospital treatment after being diagnosed with heavy metals poisoning.

Ukraine´s spy agency, meanwhile, reportedly has been active in sabotage operations far behind the front line.

Eurocrisis

Farmers Protest Against German Govt Increasing Taxes on Agriculture

German farmers gathered in Berlin on Monday to protest against planned cuts to tax breaks for diesel used in agriculture, part of a deal reached by the government to plug a hole in the country´s budget.

Leaders of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition last week agreed on measures to fill a 17 billion-euro ($18.5 billion) hole in next year’s budget, saying they would achieve that by reducing climate-damaging subsidies and slightly reducing some ministries’ spending, among other measures.

That was necessary after Germany’s highest court annulled an earlier decision to repurpose 60 billion euros originally meant to cushion the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic for measures to help combat climate change and modernize the country. The maneuver fell foul of Germany´s strict self-imposed limits on running up debt.

As more details of the deal have emerged, so has discontent, notably over a plan to cut tax breaks for agricultural diesel and scrap an exemption from car tax for farming vehicles.

Even Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir has protested. He told ARD television that farmers have “no alternative” to diesel.

Conscription on the Table as European Militaries Dwindle

The British Army is now the smallest it has been in 200 years, as more defence personnel continue to leave than join, while in Germany the military recruitment crisis is so acute the defence minister speaks of bringing back conscription.

The number of serving personnel in the British armed forces including all three services and the reserves fell by a further 3.9 per cent to just 184,865 this year. Of those, just 75,983 are regular soldiers.

Some 16,260 people left the armed forces in the past year: subtracting new recruitment the net loss of troops was 7,440 personnel.

According to an analysis by British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, this fall means the British Army is now at the smallest size in 200 years, no mean feat given the population of Britain in 1820 was only a little over 20 million souls, while it rapidly approaches 70 million today.
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Speaking to the national newspaper of record Die Welt at the weekend, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that while the government was working on plans to stabilise the armed forces through a series of changes, if these measures failed ultimately there are other options on the table to make sure the military doesn’t collapse for want of soldiers. When asked if one of those options is compulsory service, Pistorius said he is considering “all options”, calling the decision to suspend conscription in 2011 “a mistake”.

While conscription is still provided for in the German constitution and is legal — the system was simply put into abeyance in 2011 — Pistorius acknowledged restarting it would be politically difficult now, and that any such move couldn’t go ahead without broad political support.

ASIAN NEWS

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2 Articles

China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia Recommit to Each Other in Beijing Meeting

Beijing hosted the deputy foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia this weekend for a meeting the Chinese Foreign Ministry described on Monday as a sign of the Communist Party’s commitment to “play[ing] a constructive role” in the Middle East.
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China has increasingly attempted to elevate its geopolitical profile in the Middle East both as an attempt to expand its economic influence in the region and to support anti-American interests in the region. The Communist Party has been a vocal supporter of the jihadist terror organization Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 atrocities committed against Israel, which left 1,200 people dead and involved gang rape, the gruesome killing of babies, and desecrating corpses.

According to a report on Sunday by the Iranian outlet Tasnim News, Israel’s self-defense operation in Hamas-dominated Gaza was one of several topics discussed by the Iranian and Saudi officials in Beijing. China’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, hosted Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri and Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Abdulkarim El Khereiji to reportedly discuss both cooperation among the three parties and unity on message against Israel for attempting to prevent a repeat of October 7.
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The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s description of the meeting between the three diplomats on Monday matched Tasnim’s reporting. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin added the detail that Wang Yi presented his guests with a “three-point suggestion” plan for ensuring durable peace between the two.

“Director Wang Yi had a group meeting with the delegations from the two countries and put forward a three-point suggestion on the improvement of Saudi Arabia-Iran relations,” Wang Wenbin listed, “first, stay committed to the strategic choice of reconciliation; second, advance the process of improving relations; and third, reject external disruption.”

“The three parties also discussed the trilateral cooperation in various fields and stated their common positions on regional hotpot issues including Palestine,” he added.

‘Islamic Scholars’ Suggest Threats from Nuclear Pakistan to Help Hamas Destroy Israel

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated remarks from a conference in Islamabad last week during which leaders of the Hamas terrorist group and Islamic scholars agreed Pakistan could end the Gaza war by threatening Israel with nuclear annihilation.

MEMRI noted that Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mash’al are frequent virtual guests at “anti-Israel” events in Pakistan. One such event was held in Islamabad on December 6, featuring a telephone address from Haniyeh as the headline speaker, plus a Hamas official named Naji Zuhair in attendance. The theme of the conference was restoring the “sanctity of Jerusalem” – by getting rid of the Jews who currently live there.

MEMRI translated several reports from Pakistani media that said the conference rejected the notion of a “two-state solution for Palestine” as “unacceptable.” Instead, the gathered Hamas leaders and Islamist clerics wanted a one-state solution achieved by ethnically cleansing the Israelis – or maybe a zero-state solution from nuking the whole country.

Hamas speakers at the conference called on Pakistan to throw its nuclear weight around to protect the “defensive jihad” waged by the Palestinian terrorist organization.

“If Pakistan Threatens Israel, Then the Gaza War Can Stop; Jews Are the Muslims’ Greatest Enemy in the World,” read one characteristic headline from Pakistani media.

“Pakistan is a strong country. If Pakistan threatens Israel, then the war can stop. We have lots of expectations from Pakistan. Pakistan can force Israel to retreat,” explained Haniyeh, who has a penchant for commanding other people to die for his causes while he lives large in Qatar on a billion-dollar pile of pilfered humanitarian aid money.