The largest national German farmers’ group will pause its protests temporarily this week after agreeing to talks with the traffic light coalition. Negotiations between the Deutscher Bauernverband (DBV) and the government began on Monday
In other news, more than 350 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK yesterday, traveling in eight separate boats.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, JW, LP, McN, MM, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
$10,000 in Firefighting Equipment Stolen Off Tacoma Firetruck
Firefighters in Pierce County, Washington are missing life-saving equipment after criminals ransacked their firetruck while it was parked at a grocery store.
According to KOMO News, firefighters of Pierce County Fire District 13, serving Browns Point and Dash Point, parked the fire engine at the QFC on 49th Ave NE on Monday when the theft occurred.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“We’re in the Middle of a War” — Vivek Shoulder-to-Shoulder With Trump to Battle the Deep State
Vivek Ramaswamy knocked it out of the park in a Monday night speech. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Donald Trump (after Trump called him a scam artist 48 hours earlier — so, obviously water under the bridge), Ramaswamy kept his promise to campaign for the former president after dropping out of the race.
“We are in the middle of a war in this country,” said Ramaswamy (via modernity.news), adding “That’s what this is. It’s not a war between black and white. It’s not between Democrat and Republican, even in a deeper sense, it’s between the permanent state and the everyday citizen, between those of us who love the United States of America and a fringe minority who hates this country and what we stand for.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
3 Gun Rights Cases Before the Supreme Court You Should Know About
Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
Both sides of the Second Amendment debate will be watching the U.S. Supreme Court closely in 2024 as it applies the standards from previous decisions to new high-profile cases.
In the 2022 New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen decision, the Supreme Court ruled that, to be constitutional, new gun laws must match the plain text of the Constitution and the “history and tradition” of the United States.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anthony Fauci Exposes Yale’s Gregg Gonsalves as Academic Activist Who Fakes Data Claims
Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The Disinformation Chronicle
Update: Gonsalves (aka ‘4G’) has been scalped, and has deleted his account since this article was originally published.
Former White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted in a congressional deposition last week that the federal government’s COVID guidance for six-feet social distancing was not based on scientific evidence, stating under oath “it sort of just appeared.” Fauci’s testimony came during the second day of his closed-door deposition before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, and echoed a similar comment made by former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb.
“The six feet rule was arbitrary in and of itself,” Dr. Gottlieb said during a September 2021 appearance on “Face the Nation” while discussing COVID guidance. “Nobody knows where it came from. The six feet is a perfect example of sort of the lack of rigor of how CDC made recommendations.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore-Philadelphia in “Hammer Zone” of Next Winter Storm
A winter storm earlier this week ended a nearly two-year snow drought in cities including Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New York City. Another storm threatens metro areas along the I-95 Corridor on Friday morning.
Private weather forecaster NY NJ PA Weather wrote on social media platform X that a “winter storm is developing from Philadelphia to the New Jersey coast.”
“Tranquil and cold conditions today will give way to a significant winter storm by tomorrow for the Philadelphia metropolitan areas to the New Jersey Coast,” the weather firm said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Group Hires Hillary Clinton Fixer to Shut Down Third-Party Challengers
A group aligned with Democrat President Joe Biden has just hired a former Hillary Clinton lawyer to help shut down third-party challengers.
The Democrats’ top opposition research group is setting its sights on suppressing third-party presidential challenges they fear could hamper Biden’s re-election effort.
The group, American Bridge, recently hired Mark Elias.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan partially granted 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s request to halt new substantive filings in the January 6 case while the case is on hold pending a decision by an appellate court on whether Trump has presidential immunity.
Chutkan wrote in a six-page order, “the parties shall not file any substantive pretrial motions without first seeking leave of court,” according to The Messenger.
Chutkan did not grant Trump’s request to hold special counsel Jack Smith in contempt for recent filings that were made during the pause in the case.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Washington State Judge Blocks Effort to Remove Trump From Ballot
Former President Donald Trump will remain on the ballot in Washington State, a judge has ruled.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Mary Sue Wilson rejected the effort that had been led by eight Kitsap County residents on Thursday, according to the Yakima Herald.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: President Trump Urges SCOTUS to Bring ‘Swift and Decisive End’ to Ballot Challenges
On Thursday, 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling that removed him from the Colorado primary ballot, citing a “dubious interpretation” of the Fourteenth Amendment as the basis for the decision, according to The Hill.
The Colorado Supreme Court voted in December to remove Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, ruling that the former president had violated a US constitutional provision in the 14th Amendment that prevents individuals who have participated in “insurrection” from holding federal office.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CEO of Center for Democracy and Technology Alexandra Reeve Givens is one of those who have tuned up at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF), apparently well equipped and eager to promote state censorship, and throw a couple of red herrings in there, presumably for the sake of “credibility.”
Givens, whose group has made it to Spotify’s “safety advisory council” and was keen to see the Biden administration set up an online “disinformation” task, has spoken at one of WEF panels to lament an injunction that aims to stop the current White House from further pressuring Big Tech on speech issues.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A federal report investigating the police response to the May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, found multiple failures by officers that allowed the attack to continue even as police were at the school.
The report, conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing, known as the COPS Office, looked at thousands of pieces of data and documentation and relied on more than 260 interviews, including with law enforcement and school personnel, family members of victims, and witnesses and survivors from the massacre. The team investigating visited Uvalde nine times, spending 54 days on the ground in the small community.
In a press conference after the release of the report, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said the law enforcement response was an “unimaginable failure,” and “a lack of action by adults failed to protect children and their teachers.”
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Fani Under Pressure: Judge in Trump-Georgia Case Orders DA to Explain Misconduct Allegations
The judge in the Trump-Georgia case has ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) to answer to accusations that she hired her romantic partner as a top prosecutor on the case.
Judge Scot McAfee on Thursday ordered Willis to respond to the allegations in writing by Feb. 2, and has scheduled a hearing on the matter for Feb. 15.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
George Soros Groups Helping Sneak Longtime Dem John Rust Into Indiana GOP’s Senate Primary
Two George Soros-funded voting rights groups are supporting a longtime Democrat and his lawsuit to get on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Indiana after he did not qualify for the Republican ballot due to the state’s election law, the Daily Caller has learned.
Indiana election law requires candidates to have voted in the party primary they’re running in for the last two primaries they cast a vote in. John Rust, who is a longtime Democrat voter, only voted in one GOP primary and did not qualify for the Republican ballot. However, Rust sued the state in September to overturn the election law, won and the lawsuit is now headed to the Indiana Supreme Court on appeal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A black female Muslim activist who went viral online for making claims that she had been assaulted by a man with a brick in Houston has been accused of raising thousands in a GoFundMe scam. On her TikTok profile, she shows off designer clothes and weaves.
Roda Osman, 33, was charged with theft by deception after she raised over $42,000 with a fraudulent GoFundMe page online after claiming she was hit by a man with a brick while walking on Schumacher Lane in Houston, Texas.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hunter Biden Attorney Kevin Morris Sits for Closed-Door Interview With GOP-Led House Committees
Hunter Biden’s attorney and Democratic donor Kevin Morris appeared on Capitol Hill on Thursday to be questioned by members of the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committees.
The closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill is part of the Republicans’ ongoing impeachment inquiry into the President, and was set to focus on Morris’ well-documented financial relationship with the younger Biden.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Kamala Harris Compares Ferguson Riots to Battle of Gettysburg in MLK Day Speech
While addressing a crowd in South Carolina on Martin Luther King Day, Kamala Harris compared the Ferguson riots with the Battle of Gettysburg.
The vice president said both events were examples of Americans fighting to “make the promise of freedom real.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi’s Head of Security Committed Perjury During Jan 6 Trial of Oath Keepers Members, Video Shows
Video footage has emerged that appears to prove the head of security for Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has committed perjury.
It has long been suspected that Pelosi and others within her circle have lied about what really happened during the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Now, recently released surveillance camera footage from that fateful day seems to strongly suggest that the head of Pelosi’s security detail, U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus, committed perjury on the stand while testifying against members of the Oath Keepers organization, according to The Western Journal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Revealed: Fox Shut Down Antifa-Themed Wrestling Group on WWE Broadcasts
It has been revealed that WWE’s plan to model one of its acts as an Antifa-inspired crew was shot down by Smackdown broadcaster Fox out of fears it would be too political.
The pandemic-era group “Retribution” engaged in tactics not dissimilar to members of the masked far-left group, laying waste to the ring or setting fire to props, complete with black bloc attire. It was formed in 2020 and disbanded in 2021 after failing to garner support.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Revealed: Biden’s DHS Paid Over $700,000 to Activist Organizations to Create ‘Counter-Propaganda’
Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been paying activist organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars to create “counter-propaganda” surrounding issues such as immigration and racial justice at the cost of US taxpayers, according to reports.
A letter sent to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) accuses the Biden administration of utilizing federal funds for an “outrageous” abuse of power.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rumble Introduces Livestream Financial Contributions for US Federal Political Campaigns
Rumble has broken new ground in the landscape of digital politicking. With the aim of providing vigorous support to free speech, the video tech firm is extending an exciting feature to allow federal campaign contributions.
Rumble’s channels, allied to any candidate seeking to serve in US federal office, are permitted to receive financial assistance from fans. These donations, known as “tips,” can be made during livestreams conducted on Rumble’s platform.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Senator Drops Bombshell Data: COVID Shots 55 Times Deadlier Than Flu Vaccines
Republican Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has just gone public with explosive federal government data showing the alarming death rates associated with Covid mRNA injections.
Sen. Johnson and his team have been investigating the links between Covid shots are the soaring sudden deaths and major health complications that have been spiking across the country.
Johnson’s investors conducted an in-depth analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
According to Johnson, the data indicates that the COVID-19 injections are “significantly” more deadly than the flu vaccine.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Student Loan Borrowers ‘Boycott’ Payments to Pressure Biden Admin to Wipe Debts
Some student loan borrowers have started to “boycott” their payments in the hope that Democrat President Joe Biden and his administration will agree to wipe all of their debts.
The effort was revealed in a new survey from Intelligent.com.
According to the survey of 1,000 federal student loan borrowers, about 25 percent said they had not made any payments.
9% of those who had not paid at all said they were not paying to pressure the government into canceling their debt.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Suspect Arrested in NYC Stabbing Spree; Charged With Attempted Murder, Police Say
A suspect is in custody in connection with a random stabbing spree that occurred in the Queens borough of New York City, police said.
The suspect — identified as 27-year-old Jermain Rigueur of Queens — was arrested Wednesday evening for four assaults that occurred over the past two days.
He has been charged with three counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault, one count of attempted assault and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to the New York City Police Department. An investigation is ongoing.
The development came hours after police said they were searching for a suspect in what NYPD Police Commissioner Edward Caban called “senseless, unprovoked attacks.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said a “distinctive” lanyard seen on the assailant during some of the assaults helped lead detectives to Rigueur. The lanyard contained an ID card that showed he was an employee of Woodhull Hospital, he said.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Teen Vogue Says Biden, Dems Losing GenZ Support — Claims They May Not Vote at All
Teen Vogue has said support for President Joe Biden and the Democrat Party has taken a sharp nosedive among Gen Z voters.
The left-leaning magazine claims that Americans belonging to Gen Z might not be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election, saying that some would rather abstain from voting than vote for a candidate and system they “cannot support.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A thug made a fatal mistake when he tried to rob a man by luring him into a Facebook Marketplace meetup trap.
The man and a friend had responded to a Facebook Marketplace ad for a vehicle sale in Peoria, Illinois.
Assuming the ad was genuine, they went to view the vehicle on Monday.
They met with a group of people in an alley around 5 pm, WMBD reported.
However, the meeting turned out to be a trap and the armed group of criminals tried to rob the mark.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ubisoft Executive Says People Need to Get “Comfortable” Never Owning Games
As the gaming industry increasingly leans towards online subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, Ubisoft’s director of subscriptions, argues for the need to accept the absence of physical game ownership for these services to thrive. Ubisoft has ventured into this domain with Ubisoft+ Premium and Ubisoft+ Classics.
Tremblay, speaking with GI.biz, acknowledges the nascent stage of this model, noting its expansion, especially on consoles with major players like PlayStation and Xbox, and trends on the PC front. Yet, for gaming subscriptions to grow, he believes consumers must adapt to not having physical copies, a shift akin to the evolution from CDs and DVDs to streaming in music and film.
This view, however, overlooks significant drawbacks of abandoning physical ownership.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Democrats Want to Make Armed Self-Defense Illegal at Dangerous Bus Stops
While violent criminals in Seattle have no compunction about carrying weapons wherever they go, Washington Democrats want to strip law abiding citizens of the ability to match force in self-defense in various public places.
As journalist Jason Rantz notes;
Their newest bill bans weapons, including legally purchased guns and knives, at bus stops and transit centers.
SB 5444 isn’t just an overreach; it’s a direct attack on law-abiding citizens. And it disproportionately affects those demographics the Democrats always claim to champion. The irony is as thick as it is infuriating.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watchdog Obtains Documents Revealing Hunter Biden’s Secret Service Suspension in 2016
A Washington D.C. watchdog group has obtained sealed documents that reveal Hunter Biden’s Secret Service detail was suspended in 2016 while his father was still serving as vice president.
The documents have raised new questions about how and why Democrat President Joe Biden’s son was able to make a foreign trip without his Secret Service detail.
The information was obtained by the watchdog organization Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to Just The News.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
When ‘Law Runs Out’, the Government Runs Out
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday morning in two cases to decide whether to overrule the Chevron doctrine. It should do so.
The rule adopted in the 1984 Chevron case was a well-intentioned effort to free the executive branch from judicial micromanagement. Specifically, the Court was then concerned to prevent activist liberal judges from preventing new administrations from changing their policies in a deregulatory direction. There are, in fact, always some policy questions left by Congress to the executive’s discretion. But Chevron proved a cure worse than the disease.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rumble, a rising competitor in the video sharing platform space, has been facing significant hurdles due to actions taken by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. This issue revolves around the YouTube Sync feature, a tool designed to streamline the transfer of content from YouTube to Rumble. This feature is critical for content creators seeking flexibility and broader audience reach by sharing their videos on multiple platforms.
Originally, Rumble approached YouTube in the summer of 2021 to discuss the implementation of an automated synchronization feature. This initiative aimed to facilitate the transfer of large content libraries from YouTube to Rumble, eliminating the need for a tedious manual process. Rumble has been offering a similar feature for transferring videos from its platform to YouTube, emphasizing its commitment to creator convenience and platform interoperability.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Following the denial of his legal appeal, prominent psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson launched a vigorous public response in Canada this week. His appeal contested mandatory social media training imposed by the College of Psychologists of Ontario.
Peterson is now being mandated to participate in educational programming as a punishment for his online speech.
The psychologist’s defiance against Ontario College’s directive had not just threatened the potential loss of his professional accreditation but consequently led to its attempt to re-educate him.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“Stop Stalling!” Transparency Commissioner Under Pressure to Release Key Slovenia Documents
Did European Commissioner Vera Jourova influence a court decision making it possible for Slovenia’s Brussels-aligned government to take over the country’s public broadcaster? Top officials from the previously ruling Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), including MEP Milan Zver, believe it is quite likely that she did—and that the Commission may be trying to cover it up.
This week, the European Ombudsman Office—watchdog of the various EU institutions—called on the European Commission to provide documents relating to a 2023 visit by the apparently grotesquely mistitled Transparency Commissioner Vera Jourova to Slovenia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“You’re Big Brother:” EU Parliament Votes to Make Hate Speech an EU Crime
Sparking intense criticism from conservatives, the left-leaning majority of the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the extension of the EU crime list to include hate speech and hate crimes, which would allow the European Commission to introduce binding minimum penalties for all member states.
The vote, that took place on Thursday, January 18th, passed with 397 for and 121 against, with only 26 abstentions—the latter mainly coming from a handful of dissident leftists concerned that the law may be used to silence anti-Israel voices. As always, only the two conservative blocs, ECR and ID, voted against it while all leftist parties and the center-right EPP supported the report.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
While Germany slips into deindustrialization, punishes working-class farmers, and faces a growing budget crisis, calls to ban the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party are growing stronger and stronger as the party soars in the polls.
However, the idea is so dangerous that intellectuals, politicians, and journalists from across the political spectrum are warning against such an action, which would destroy democracy forever in Germany. One commentator, Harald Martenstein, who routinely writes for the Welt newspaper, arguably the most popular newspaper in the country, has just described it as “one of the stupidest ideas ever:”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Bundestag will soon decide whether Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke should be stripped of his basic civil rights, which would end his right to vote and run for office. However, just as with the much-discussed potential ban on the entire AfD party, the questions surrounding Höcke have sparked substantial conflicts within German society. Now, some on the left are raising the alarm about such a move.
One of the most unlikely papers to defend Höcke is the left-wing taz newspaper, which is based out of Berlin. The paper’s legal correspondent, Christian Rath, has written a piece highlighting the dangers of such a move against the AfD politician. Rath’s editorial piece is not designed to defend Höcke’s views, but instead his right to have them. The journalist also highlights that the left may be on the path of becoming the very authoritarians that they rail against.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: NATO to Launch Largest Drills in Decades With Some 90,000 Troops
Approximately 90,000 troops will take part in NATO’s largest exercise for decades, known as Steadfast Defender 2024, according to reports.
The drill is scheduled to start next week and will continue into May, according to the alliance’s top commander Chris Cavoli.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
British Children Under 10 ‘Self-Generating’ More Sexual Abuse Imagery Than Ever
Online watchdogs are having to remove more child sexual abuse imagery from the internet than ever before as paedophiles are able to gain easy access to minors who are in the supposed safety of their own homes.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said on Wednesday that it found 275,655 web pages containing child sex abuse imagery last year alone—an 8% rise on the 2022 figure. It added that each of these “can contain hundreds, or even thousands, of images or videos of child sexual abuse.”
Officials noted that the vast majority (92%) of these web pages contained “self-generated” images, and that more than one in five (54,250 in total) contained the most serious, Category A abuse. Well over 100,000 of these sites containing “self-generated” images also featured imagery of children younger than 10—a massive 66% increase on the year before.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Conservative MEPs Rebel Against Moves to Strip Hungary’s Voting Rights
Eurocrats came under heavy fire from a transnational coalition of right-wing MEPs at a plenary session of the European Parliament Wednesday morning as Commission President Ursula von Leyen was lambasted for the EU’s continued pursuit of the sovereigntist Hungarian government.
MEPs are preparing to vote Thursday on plans to strip Hungary of its voting rights at an EU Council level in response to the release of €10.2 billion worth of frozen funding in December last year. Leftist and federalist politicians are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to prevent Hungarian PM Viktor Orban from becoming interim Council President in the wake of Charles Michel’s resignation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský is in Davos, for the World Economic Forum (WEF). There, he offered his two-euro-cents about “misinformation” and democracy — albeit referring to the former as “false content.”
Davos is just the right place for the minister to try to press home the “mantra” of “global solutions.”
In this case — “a global solution […] and to have a global discussion about the way [sic] how we communicate.”
“How we communicate?” There may be a bit of a language barrier here, but is Mr. Lipavský actually talking up the merits of speech control, by any other name?
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In an interview with the newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna spoke in favor of abolishing the unanimity rule in the European Union Council on foreign policy issues. Szejna addressed the “particular controversies” raised by Germany’s proposal to eliminate the veto power in the EU Council on foreign affairs, expressing support for the German initiative.
He argued that the EU must be able to respond to challenges related to the formation of a new international order without being paralyzed by the stance of a single country, citing the recent example of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s obstruction in matters concerning Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Citizenship: Parliament Calls for ‘Mobile Citizens’ Voting Rights
In what is just the latest push toward creating a centralized superstate by weakening member states and transferring their competencies to Brussels, the European Parliament adopted two resolutions on Wednesday, January 17th, both disguised as noble efforts to strengthen sovereignty and subsidiarity—yet they are anything but.
One of the resolutions calls for strengthening the role of national parliaments (as opposed to governments) in the EU decision-making, while the other puts forward the creation of an EU citizenship that would grant voting rights to “mobile citizens” in the country of their residence, a measure that could be expanded to third-country national as well.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Corruption Scandal: European Court Rejects Socialist MEP Eva Kaili’s Immunity Request
In an order issued on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice dismissed the immunity request brought by MEP Eva Kaili, a former vice-president of the European Parliament accused of corruption.
The case comes after Laura Kövesi, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’s chief prosecutor, submitted a request on Dec. 15, 2022, to President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola to waive the parliamentary immunity of Kaili following an investigation into the handling of MEPs’ allowances as part of an investigation into a corruption scandal in the European Parliament.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ever-Closer Union: Brussels Plots Federalist Reforms
Eurocrats are preparing an extensive overhaul of the EU’s existing internal rules, aiming to modify its entire decision-making structure by 2030. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen presented the comprehensive reforms as the ‘technical’ process necessary to accommodate a European Union with at least 30 member states. ‘Reform,’ of course, is simply Brussels-speak for more centralized federal control, removing individual member states’ right to veto, and imposing EU taxes.
The political intertwining of enlargement and reform is not incidental. It is designed to incentivize countries supportive of enlargement but hesitant about reform—notably the Nordics and Baltics—to actively endorse EU reforms. Ultimately, the EU Commission will deliberately present these reforms as a moral issue: rejecting centralization equals rejecting enlargement—which amounts to nothing less than betraying Ukraine and siding with Russia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Former Polish Minister Arrested After Cash-for-Visas Scandals
Former Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk was arrested based on the prosecutor’s decision after CBA agents searched his apartment to find physical evidence that could be significant in the ongoing preliminary proceedings.
The court imposed a non-custodial preventive measure on the politician in the form of bail of 100,000 zloty (€23,000). So far, nine people have been arrested in the investigation concerning the visa scandal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Macron’s Relaunch Press Conference Falls Flat
In a bid to reinvigorate his mandate, and following the change of prime minister, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a press conference on Tuesday, January 16th in which he presented his priorities for the months ahead. His speech, however, was a scattershot series of announcements, characterised by proposed measures unlikely to make an impact.
Although Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to remain at the helm of France for another three-and-a-half years, there is already an end-of-reign atmosphere in the country, which the president is trying to ward off. The cabinet reshuffle at the beginning of January was intended to inject a little energy into a political life that had run dry.
At the lengthy press conference, the president announced the top priorities—but only vague plans—for his remaining term of office: economic growth, health, and education.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Retirement-Age Voters Favour Le Pen Party in EU Election Polls
The latest French poll for the European elections confirms the dominance of the Rassemblement National (RN), with an observable change in the age of supporters of the National Right party. Retired people, until now loyal to Emmanuel Macron, are becoming increasingly interested in Marine Le Pen’s and Jordan Bardella’s party.
The change of government and the arrival of Gabriel Attal as prime minister is not yet changing the dynamic of the European elections. The poll conducted by the ELABE institute on January 13th for La Tribune Dimanche confirms a ten-point lead for the Rassemblement National, with 28.5% of voting intentions—well ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, which only has 18% of voters.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Mario Voigt is the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the eastern German state of Thuringia, and the party’s candidate for prime minister at the state elections to be held this autumn. CDU led Thuringia from the start of Germany’s reunification until 2014, but parties to the left and right of mainstream political forces have increasingly strengthened in the eastern states in the last decade, leading to hard-left Die Linke leading the previous and current government in Thuringia, and opposition right-wing AfD becoming the most popular party, according to the latest polls.
The recent debacle surrounding the federal budget and the farmers’ protests are the latest signs of growing frustration with the left-liberal federal government’s policies. The so-called traffic light coalition (named after the colours of the parties involved, the social democrats, the greens, and the liberal FDP) has failed to address the cost-of-living crisis and the migration crisis while delivering an unpopular green agenda and forcing through its gender ideology laws. All these issues have seeped through to the state level, and locals in Thuringia recently talked to us about their frustrations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Farmer Protests Paused as Talks Begin
Protests by German farmers will pause temporarily this week after their primary organisation agreed to talks with the ruling coalition. This follows a successful rally in central Berlin, the culmination of a week of public blockades, demonstrations and even a plan to dump manure outside government buildings in the capital.
Negotiations between the Deutscher Bauernverband (DBV) and the government started on Monday. On Wednesday, DBV President Joachim Rukwied said in an interview: “I rely on the common sense of politics. … The [government’s planned subsidy reduction for agricultural diesel] proposal must be taken off the table.” Otherwise, Rukwied did not rule out further protests and demonstrations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Man Dies in Explosion at Dublin Homeless Hostel
A man has died following an explosion inside a homeless hostel in Dublin city centre.
Gardaí are investigating the cause of the blast, which happened in one room in the building.
None of the other residents were injured and the hostel’s operator, Depaul Ireland, has described it as a localised incident.
The incident happened at around 3.30pm at the Supported Temporary Accommodation on Little Britain Street.
The Garda Technical Bureau carried out a technical examination of the scene.
The ESB and Gas Networks Ireland also attended the scene.
Residents reported hearing a bang and then seeing smoke before they were evacuated from the premises.
A number of residents were seen standing outside the building wrapped in foil sheets.
They have been sent to a nearby homeless facility for temporary shelter.
| — Hat tip: McN | [Return to headlines] |
In a shocking twist, five police officers are being forced to pay a fine to a Syrian migrant who was convicted for severely injuring one of them during riots related to a Quran burning during Easter of 2022.
The officers will have to pay out a total of 12,650 Swedish crowns (€1,122) from their own pockets to the 45-year-old convicted Syrian who has been sentenced to two years and seven months for his role in the riots.
The officers have reacted with near disbelief over the outcome of the case.
“It feels like something has gone terribly wrong in the legal system here. We are there and doing our job, yet individual police officers must be forced to pay out of their own pockets to people who really wanted us dead,” says Aleksandar Jeremic, who is a group leader in a civil suit involving the Botkyrka local police area and is now one of the five police officers ordered to pay court costs to the foreign national, according to Danish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Labour Goes Quiet on Green Pledge as British Teens Question Climate Doctrine
The British Labour’s Party’s pledge to borrow billions of pounds for green investment has been omitted from a new ‘campaigning bible’—a 24-page document designed to help current and prospective Labour MPs win votes—but it is still very much alive. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled the original pledge, which would involve investing £28 billion (€32.6 billion) every year in as-yet undefined low-carbon infrastructure, in 2021, declaring that she would be Britain’s first “green chancellor.”
The omission likely stems from Labour’s desire to focus its campaign on economic growth, which the document describes as its “number one priority.” In particular, the party believes that after years of decline, voters will no longer look almost exclusively to the Conservatives for economic competence, a theme they previously monopolised.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Moroccan woman has been ordered to repay nearly €200,000 in pension benefits swindled from the French state after failing to declare her mother’s death back in 1998.
At the Rouen Court of Appeal on Monday, magistrates sentenced the fraudster, who has not been named, to 15 months in prison, suspended for three years, effectively reducing the immediate custodial sentence of 8 months initially imposed by the Évreux Criminal Court in June last year.
The convicted woman, believed to be aged 78, received €840 every month for over 21 years after her mother died, raking in thousands of euros in state benefits illegally after choosing not to report her death to the relevant authorities.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Politicians from the conservative opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) staged a protest against the arrest and incarceration of two of their colleagues during a session of Parliament, with the wives of the two arrested MPs appearing in the public gallery in support of the action.
PiS MPs chanted “Free our MPs,” which led Speaker Szymon Holownia to suspend proceedings. During the interval in the session, the national anthem was sung and PiS MPs began chanting: “No to communism!”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Constitutional Expert Slams Tusk Government’s Lawlessness
Prominent constitutional lawyer prof. Ryszard Piotrowski from the University of Warsaw, has criticized the dismissal of the national prosecutor Dariusz Barski by Justice Minister Adam Bodnar. He points out that the opinions gathered by the minister to justify the dismissal “in no way allow him to avoid seeking the consent of the head of state for the dismissal.”
Piotrowski said he believes that the behavior of the Tusk government is reminiscent of what its predecessors, Law and Justice (PiS), did when they ruled that the previous parliament’s decision to appoint three justices to the Constitutional Tribunal was invalid and elected three other appointees in their place. This, recalls the professor, was the beginning of the constitutional crisis in Poland, and we are now seeing it deepen.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Lawmaker Loses Immunity After Extinguishing Hanukkah Candles in Parliament
The lower house of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, removed the immunity of Confederation MP Grzegorz Braun on Wednesday. The Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office intends to press seven charges against him, related to incidents spanning 2022-2023. Notably, this includes the extinguishing of Hanukkah candles in the Sejm with a fire extinguisher.
The motion to strip the Confederation politician of his immunity was presented during the session by the Warsaw District Prosecutor, Mariusz Dubowski.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poll Predicts Total Wipeout for UK Tories in Next Election
New polling now suggests that the Conservative Party would lose this year’s general election by a far larger margin than expected. The YouGov survey of more than 14,000 people—described by its publisher as “the most authoritative opinion poll in five years”—suggests that if a general election was held today, the Tories would suffer their largest wipeout in decades.
Tory failures on immigration drive this catastrophic polling. After the party promised Westminster would “take back control” of the nation’s borders following Britain’s exit from the EU, record numbers of both legal and illegal new arrivals have become more difficult to defend. Its failures have also become more humiliating, to the extent that even Labour, which is itself responsible for getting the ball rolling on mass migration the last time it was in office, is now able to properly mock the government for its mess-ups, as costly as they are consistent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Real Estate Market in Poland Heats Up as Housing Prices Continue to Soar
In the face of an ever-evolving real estate market, Poland is witnessing a substantial escalation in housing prices, often matching the highest in the European Union. This trend has continued unabated, with prices showing no signs of stabilizing.
According to the latest data released by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, home prices in the EU rose by 0.8 percent in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the second quarter of the same year. However, when compared to the third quarter of 2022, there was a 1 percent decline.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Slovak PM Vows to Oppose EU Curtailing of National Sovereignty
Viktor Orban can count on Slovakia’s support as Brussels increases its attempts to thwart Hungary at every turn—that appears to be the conclusion after the prime ministers met in Budapest earlier this week.
Relations between Hungary and Slovakia have never been as good as they are now—the two countries’ interests coincide with each other in “99 percent” of the cases, and both nations cherish sovereignty, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday, January 16th after holding talks with his Slovakian counterpart, Robert Fico.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The European Parliament’s Newest Target: Slovakia’s Robert Fico
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday, January 17th, condemning Slovakia, in yet another move by the federalist elite in Brussels to attack anti-globalist, sovereigntist governments in Central Europe.
With 496 votes for, 70 against and 64 abstentions, the left-liberal majority of the European Parliament adopted a resolution questioning Slovakia’s ability to fight corruption and protect the EU budget should the reform of the criminal code proposed by the new administration of Robert Fico be adopted.
The latest resolution condemning Slovakia stems from political bias while going through the motions of concern for ‘rule-of-law.’
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trucker Protest on Polish-Ukraine Border Suspended
Blockades at border crossings with Ukraine in Korczowa, Hrebenne and Dorohusk, in south-eastern Poland, are suspended until March 1 under an agreement signed by representatives of Polish road carriers and the Infrastructure Ministry.
Polish truckers, who started their protest on Nov. 6, had been complaining about unfair competition from their Ukrainian peers and demanding the introduction of commercial permits for Ukrainian companies carrying goods.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Tories Bracing for More Splits Over Rwanda Bill
Two top Tories have quit rather than support Rishi Sunak’s ‘flagship’ Rwanda Bill in Parliament. Lee Anderson—whose initial appointment was designed to retain ‘Red Wall’ working class former Labour voters—resigned as Deputy Chairman, as did fellow Deputy Chairman Brendan Clarke-Smith, who called the need for tougher legislation an argument “I have consistently made and will continue to make.”
Anderson and Clarke-Smith were joined by Jane Stevenson, stepping down from her post as a parliamentary private secretary in the Department for Business and Trade. All three quit paid cabinet roles, but continue for now to work as members of Parliament.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The moment an anti-ULEZ ‘blade runner’ chopped down one of the hated London enforcement cameras with an angle grinder has been caught on film.
It is one of the latest acts in a wave of vandalism to sweep the capital, with the Met reporting traffic lights and cameras being damaged across Orpington in the south east.
Officers this morning shared photos of a downed traffic light pole, which appears to have ULEZ camera attached to it, following an incident in Petts Wood, Orpington.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Funds: EU Considers “Emergency Brake” to Defeat Demand for Yearly Review
EU leaders will aim to reach a unanimous agreement on the ‘Ukraine Facility’—the multi-annual financing scheme worth €50 billion—at a special European Council summit on February 1st. They are now considering the introduction of an “emergency brake” into the funding mechanism that would allow any member state to temporarily suspend the payments to Ukraine.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is confident in reaching a final agreement, by reshaping negotiations to include a set-up similar to the one built into the pandemic recovery package. In contrast, Hungary has proposed annual reviews of the Facility to ensure that Ukraine won’t misuse the massive assistance. Each review would then mean that subsequent, unanimous approvals from the European Council would be needed to resume spending.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Von Der Leyen: EU Can Send Ukraine Aid Package Without Hungary
Speaking to Euronews in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that member states could decide on the Ukraine aid package without Hungary if need be.
“The European Commission is prepared to help Ukraine in the future without Hungary if Viktor Orban continues to block the deal,” the EU commission president told a reporter.
However, she did not say what form the financial package for Ukraine would take without Hungary. It was originally planned to be financed from the seven-year EU budget, but as is known, Hungary said no to this proposal at the EU summit in December.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Von Der Leyen: EU Will Continue to Block €20 Billion From Hungary
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a parliamentary debate that the EU will withhold €20 billion in funding from Hungary.
Von der Leyen warned: “They are suspended for reasons that include concerns on LGBTIQ rights, academic freedom and asylum rights. Some are blocked under the conditionality mechanism. And they will remain blocked until Hungary fulfils all the necessary conditions.”
“These are the rules,” she said. “We have all agreed to them, and we will follow them. This is what makes the rule of law stand out from arbitrary power.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu Says He Has Told U.S. He Opposes Palestinian State in Any Postwar Scenario
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between the close allies three months into Israel’s assault on Gaza aiming to eliminate its Hamas rulers.
The U.S. has called on Israel to scale back its offensive and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the “day after.”
But in a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realizes a “decisive victory over Hamas.” He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans.
“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan,” Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?”
“The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends,” he added.
| — Hat tip: JW | [Return to headlines] |
‘War-Like’: Cross-Border Strikes a Major Escalation in Long-Running Iran-Pakistan Row
Iran and Pakistan have been battling insurgencies in a large swathe of desolate territory along their 900-kilometer-long shared border for decades.
The two neighbors have occasionally attempted to cooperate. But more frequently they have accused each other of sheltering militants who carry out deadly attacks on the other country.
In a major escalation, Tehran and Islamabad both launched deadly cross-border attacks this week in the worst-ever flare-up of violence involving the two countries.
The tit-for-tat strikes have plunged relations between Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan into crisis and threatened to ignite a full-scale war in the volatile region, experts said.
“The situation after the attacks is war-like,” said Kiyya Baloch, a Pakistani journalist and commentator who tracks militancy in the region. “It will have grave consequences.”
Iran carried out a drone and missile attack on Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan late on January 16, killing two children. Tehran said it had targeted Jaish al-Adl, a Baluch militant group believed to be operating out of Pakistan.
In response, Islamabad said it conducted air strikes on January 18 in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan targeting the hideouts of the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), two separatist groups suspected of hiding out in Iran.
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Rejects U.S. Arms Control Talks, Citing U.S. Support for Ukraine
Russia on January 18 rejected U.S.-Russian arms control talks because of U.S. support for Ukraine, a stance Washington said cast doubt on Moscow’s openness to a successor to the last treaty limiting their strategic nuclear arsenals. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Washington had proposed separating the issues of Ukraine and the resumption of talks on arms control. Lavrov said the proposal was unacceptable to Russia because of the West’s backing of Ukraine and accused the West of conducting a “hybrid war” against Moscow. However, he did not rule out the possibility of future arms control talks.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Lab Sequenced COVID-19 Weeks Before Beijing Disclosed Data
Once again the timeline surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted — this time with the revelation that a researcher based in Beijing had already mapped the COVID-19 sequence two weeks before the CCP revealed its details to the world, raising questions over what other critical information China may have obscured from view — and why.
The sequence came from a 65-year-old Chinese deliveryman who was hospitalized with high fever and coughing on Dec. 18, and became critically ill four days later.
According to documents released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Ren Lili — a current Beijing-based recipient of US federal grants via US nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance, uploaded the COVID-19 sequence into an NIH US government genetic database on Dec. 28, 2019 — when Chinese official were still calling the disease an unknown pneumonia, and ordered health workers not to spread any information about the disease or face harsh penalties.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Latest data shows the number of residents in China fell by 2million last year, marking the second year in a row that its population has shrunk.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Daily Mail Sports Reporter Drops Dead at Australian Open
The Daily Mail’s veteran tennis correspondent Mike Dickson has dropped dead while covering the Australian Open, according to reports.
The esteemed sportswriter collapsed and died suddenly in Melbourne while covering the tennis championship, his family has announced.
He was 59 years old.
Dickson has been a popular figure in press boxes for 38 years.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Evie, which operates more than 200 charging stations nationwide, has hiked its prices by up to 43 per cent.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Worsening Situation in Cuba Sees Dictatorship Crack Down, Economy Crumble
Advocates of a free Cuba and the release of its political prisoners are reminding Europe not to forget about the poverty and oppression Cubans suffer at the hands of the long-standing communist regime.
“The European Union should read beyond the narrative exported by the propaganda of the Castro regime,” Carolina Barrero, a writer and activist self-exiled in Spain after participating in demonstrations in 2021, told The European Conservative.
Barrero notes that under the Political Dialogue and Cooperation agreement, the EU sends millions of euros to Cuba every year that end up going directly into the coffers of the regime. Only Lithuania and Sweden have opposed the ongoing agreement, according to Barrero, despite Cuba sending troops to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Channel Crossings Back to Full Flow as UK Parliament Passes Migration Bill
Parliament isn’t too far from the Port of Dover, but it feels as though it’s on another planet. While Tory ‘rebels’ again laid down their knives on Wednesday to back a bill designed to deter illegal migration, around 200 people crossed the English Channel in small boats in challenging conditions.
Rishi Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill passed comfortably in the House of Commons last night, with just 11 Tory MPs voting against, despite many more complaining that it is nowhere near tough enough. The bill, which will now be sent to the House of Lords for further scrutiny, is designed to overturn legal objections to sending illegal migrants to Rwanda for processing by declaring the African nation “safe.” The government succeeded in fighting down amendments which would have made it more difficult for future deportations to be blocked in the courts.
This is a definite victory for the prime minister and should stave off talk on the need for new Tory leadership, for now. But it is unlikely to have any real impact on the continuing Channel crisis, which Migration Watch UK Chairman Alp Mehmet, told The European Conservative will carry on regardless.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Almost half of all illegal border crossings into the European Union last year were from citizens of non-warring sub-Saharan African nations, the EU’s border agency Frontex has revealed.
In a report published on Tuesday, Frontex wrote it had recorded a “noticeable increase in African migrants, particularly from West Africa, who now represent nearly half (47 percent) of all detected migrants.”
Irregular border crossings into the European Union increased in 2023 by 17 percent over the previous year, with 380,000 recorded cases. This is a conservative estimate and does not account for those who evaded the authorities to enter the bloc.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Rep Calls for Statue of Liberty Torn Down to Protest GOP’s ‘Bigoted’ Immigration Law
A radical Democrat congressman has called for the Statue of Liberty to be torn down in protest of the Republicans’ border security bill.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) is demanding that one of the nation’s greatest monuments be removed to protest the House GOP’s H.R.2, also known as the Secure the Border Act.
The comprehensive border security and immigration bill was passed in May last year.
On Wednesday, Frost told Republicans to pass a bill to remove the Statue of Liberty along with their “bigoted” immigration law.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 6,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn have gone missing in the UK, ministers have admitted.
The migrants ‘remain in the UK and the Home Office is taking steps to urgently re-establish contact with them’, the disclosure to MPs revealed.
It comes as the department was rebuked by the statistics watchdog after the Government was accused of lying about meeting a target to clear part of the asylum backlog, with the body’s boss warning this could affect ‘public trust’.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Journalist Uncovers “Shadowy Network” of NGOs Facilitating US Border Invasion
Journalist James O’Keefe uncovered a “shadowy network of secretive nonprofits” (some of which are funded by taxpayers) that are facilitating the invasion of illegals on the southern border.
O’Keefe said “Alita’s Angels” is a “brand-new nonprofit with no tax records on file” that operates inside an old Bank Building in the Arizona border town of Nogales.
We just followed the trail of the migrant vans right to the source, visiting the Arizona border town of Nogales, where we encountered some rude and suspicious “Alita’s Angels” NGO (@alitasangels) workers who once again called the police on us.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The migrant crisis in Denver has plunged the city’s main public hospital deep into the red after patients received $136 million in treatment they couldn’t pay for.
Denver Health lost $2 million in 2022 — but that was substantially-reduced by a $20 million cash injection from the state.
In 2022, the hospital system lost $35 million, with bosses warning of ‘dire consequences’ for the hospital if 2024 is as bad as the previous two.
The rise in costs has coincided with the unprecedented number of immigrants who crossed America’s border and arrived in Denver. Around 36,000 have arrived so far — many of them bused from Texas — with 18,000 deciding to stay.
Denver Health CEO Donna Lynne said that 8,000 migrants who came to the city from Central America made around 20,000 visits to the health system.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
— As charity reveals boy, 14, was one of five migrants who drowned when boat capsized in the Channel
Footage has captured the moment French coastguards and police stood by and watched as a boat of migrants left a beach bound for Britain.
Good Morning Britain was filming from the beach in northern France as dozens of migrants boarded an overloaded dinghy in broad daylight. Two policemen eventually arrived and began shouting from the shore in view of the news camera.
Meanwhile, the coastguard in the distance made no effort to stop the dinghy as it drifted across the Channel on its way to the UK. The GMB reporter spoke to three men who said they were from Iran and Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More than 350 migrants arrived in Dover after crossing the Channel yesterday — the highest figure in nearly seven weeks.
Eight boats were intercepted in the Channel by Border Force before 358 people onboard were escorted to shore. The latest arrivals bring the total in 2024 to 621.
Before January 13 — when 124 migrants arrived — there had been a 26-day break in crossings, potentially due to poor weather.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Haitian illegal immigrant that was charged with raping a disabled person was let out of jail in Boston after the Dorchester District Court chose not to honor an immigration detainer from the city.
The illegal migrant was arrested again just recently by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) of Boston on Jan. 9.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Passes Stopgap, But House Freedom Caucus Insists on Border Measures
The Senate on Thursday passed a stopgap government funding bill by a vote of 77-18 that will extend a two-tiered shutdown from Jan. 19 and Feb 2, to March 1, and March 8.
The bill, which still has to pass the House, may be held up by demands from the House Freedom Caucus — which has made a last-minute appeal to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to add an amendment vote on border and migration policy measures.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Sudanese migrant convicted of attempting to kidnap three minors in separate incidents has been jailed in France after claiming he just wanted to “have fun” with children.
Bakri I., 35, was sentenced to just 18 months in prison following a hearing at the Évry-Courcouronnes criminal court on Tuesday.
He was charged with three separate attempted kidnaps for incidents that occurred during a 12-day window in November and December last year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants are being arrested in Texas before they have had a chance to surrender to US immigration agents, state officials have confirmed as a standoff between the state and the federal government escalates in the town of Eagle Pass.
‘Under the authority of Gov.@GregAbbott_TX’s Border Disaster Declaration, @TxDPS Troopers are arresting illegal immigrants for criminal trespass at #ShelbyPark in Eagle Pass,’ Texas Department of Public Safety Spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez tweeted late Wednesday night.
‘Troopers are enforcing criminal trespass on single adult men & women. The State of #Texas will maintain a proactive posture in curbing illegal border crossings between the ports of entry.’
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Word Police: Flemish MEP Investigated for Calling EU Migration Policy ‘Repopulation’
The European Parliament has opened an investigation against a Flemish nationalist MEP for ‘hate speech’ after he referred to EU asylum policy as a form of “organised replacement” at a plenary debate.
Tom Vandendriessche of Vlaams Belang, who has represented the Flemish separatists since 2019, made the comments at a Strasbourg debate marking the start of the Belgian presidency of the European Council on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: New X Policy Prohibits Openly Displaying, Promoting Adult Content
X has announced significant changes to its advertising policy, specifically addressing adult content and sensitive media. The new policy applies to both monetization on X and the platform’s paid advertising products.
Under the updated guidelines, X now prohibits the promotion of adult sexual content globally. This includes a range of content such as pornography, full and partial nudity, penis enlargement and breast enhancement services, sexualized clothing, sex toys, and dating/matching services focused on facilitating monetized sexual encounters or infidelity.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Florida Permanently Bans Funding for State Schools With Marxist DEI Programs
The state of Florida has announced that it is permanently banning taxpayer money from being used to fund schools with Marxism-rooted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
On Wednesday, Florida’s State Board of Education announced “strict regulations” for the state college system.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
For the second year running, the Aussie Grand Slam will do nothing to mark the arrival of the First Fleet on January 26. The move comes amid continuing controversy over the national day.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Jan Lipavsky of Czech republic posed for photo with Alex Soros, who is obviously pulling his strings. The next new thing is stamping out disinformation. Frightening people with climate emergency and Pandemic x (still being developed by them) doesn’t seem to be working well enough to control the “herd”.
The whole Czech government is currently run by globalist socialists of the Soros types, and Lipavsky is one of the worst.
Lipavsky is so stupid he could be a comix character, of an useful idiot that he is… A young mama boy with no experience but plenty of narcissism. He is unqualified for any serious position in the government by his mama boy face and manners – so he does foreign affairs minister for our Protectorate Bohmen und Mahren.
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Paludan suspended from the internet and threatened with prison
Published 2024-01-18
The Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan had his website “Voice of Freedom” suspended on Wednesday by order of the Danish police. He tells this in an email to Samnytt.
The reason is that Paludan published an anonymized lawsuit regarding the so-called Corsair man – Danish Philip Westh – who is charged with, among other things, murder, kidnapping and rape where the victims are three young girls.
Samnytt wrote about the 33-year-old serial sex offender in April last year in connection with his kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl. Since then, he has been linked to further sexual assaults; rape and murder of 17-year-old Emilie Meng in 2016 and an attempted kidnapping against a 15-year-old girl in 2022.
The case has shocked all of Denmark, and Danish media have been ordered to keep the identity of the accused a secret. Westh’s identity nevertheless became known early on when his relatives chose to make it public.
READ MORE:
Danish Filippa, 13, was kidnapped and raped
“The police don’t read the penal code very well”
When Paludan published the indictment, he anonymized everyone involved. Despite this, the Danish police considered that he acted criminally by “unwarrantedly disseminating information or images concerning another’s private circumstances”.
The police in South Zealand and Lolland-Falster, which are investigating the case of the 33-year-old sex offender, contacted the web hosting company Paludan uses and ordered that Frihedens stemme be closed. During Thursday, however, the site is up and running again since the article in question has been deleted.
Paludan says in a comment that “the police do not read the penal code very well”, and believes that the publication of a general indictment cannot be considered “information concerning someone else’s private circumstances”. The legal text the Danish police refer to also covers privacy-infringing images, but Paludan has not published any images.
Rasmus Paludan has been formally served with suspicion of crime and risks if he is sentenced to a fine or up to six months in prison for his allegedly illegal article.
Author of the text
Matthias Albinsson
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TREMENDOUSLY
MORE WEAPONS ARE NEEDED……
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Stoltenberg:
More arms to Ukraine is the way to peace
Published 2024-01-17
Send more weapons to Ukraine – for the sake of peace. That is the message from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
– Sooner or later, President Putin must understand that it costs too much to continue this war, he says.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) began in Davos on Monday. Thousands of attendees – an elite of influential people and countless joy girls – flock to the Swiss city for an annual event that runs until Friday.
Among them about 60 heads of state and government, another 300 public officials and 1,600 business leaders, not to mention the number of journalists and lobbyists who always attend such stunts.
One of the participants and mainstays of the summit, which is chaired by the German national economist Klaus Schwab, is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
NATO: Extremely difficult situation
It is perhaps no surprise that one of the hottest topics when the WEF gathers, once again, is the war in Ukraine. And perhaps even more: An increasingly frustrated fight against the enemy Russia.
On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed that frustration during a speech in which he admitted that the war did not go as planned.
– The situation on the battlefield is extremely difficult. The Russians are now pressing on several fronts, he says and continues:
– And of course the big offensive that Ukraine launched this summer did not produce the result we were all hoping for.
The leader of the military alliance NATO warns in his speech not to underestimate Russia, but at the same time thinks there is reason to feel optimism. After all, Ukraine has not fallen, as many feared would happen in February 2022.
The solution: More guns
The solution to the deadlock in Ukraine is spelled out, according to the NATO summit, more weapons. It is, he believes, the only way to save the war-torn country.
– The paradox is that if you want it to happen, a peaceful just end to this war, the way there is more weapons for Ukraine. The more credible we are in our military support, the more likely it is that our diplomats will succeed, says Jens Stoltenberg.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyi has previously banned negotiations with Russia, but the NATO chief nevertheless believes that the ball is in the Russian president’s court.
– Sooner or later President Putin must understand that it costs too much to continue this war, says Jens Stoltenberg.
– There are no indications that Putin is planning for peace now, but he will when he realizes that we are not giving up, that we have the military strength to support Ukraine. Then he will sit down so that the diplomats can take over.
“…that we have the military strength to support Ukraine.”
Really. The Ukrainian population has been nearly halved. Something north of 300,000 KIA. Press gangs roaming the streets. Drafting women. No NATO military hitting 100% of minimalist recruiting goals. It all brings to mind Stalin’s famous quip when told that his methods didn’t meet with the Pope’s approval, “How many divisions has the Pope got?”
The NATO Secretary General technically possesses no divisions, he is a politician without actual authority beyond the purely administrative. He doesn’t go to the can without express permission from Washington.
“Then he will sit down so that the diplomats can take over.”
Russia has tried that. The District of the Capital (DC) has explicitly stated that they will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender. Putin has reluctantly accepted their terms. Territorially Ukraine will be no more that a rump district of Poland and Europe a poverty stricken husk before DC is satisfied.
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It’s time to take politicians at their word when they declare that some true Swedish areas are no longer desirable in Sweden. Do you want to be part of their social experiment or are you prepared to roll up your sleeves and be part of a Swedish endeavor?
One concern that plagues our Swedish endeavor is that many Swedes do not fully realize how cynical and indifferent the architects of society, or rather the destroyers of society, can be to the consequences of their actions. It is made worse by the fact that even those in the opposition often cannot handle or fully understand the effects of their plans. This makes it difficult to quickly assemble a strong counterforce with the potential to challenge and overthrow the current power.
Recently, news broke that the red-green government in Stockholm intends to merge the Swedish neighborhood of Bromsten with the neighborhood that for decades has been the prime example of anti-Swedishness: Rinkeby. Mayor Karin Wanngård (S) says to DN:
– Near multi-family houses we will build more terraced houses, near villas we will build more multi-family houses. All Stockholmers should be able to live throughout the city. We have a segregated city today.
I think I can hear the tone of her voice, a bit superior and signaling “there you go”. She knows better, doesn’t she? She and other politicians. They know better than “ordinary people” how to live; who to have as neighbors; how to manage their money and how to raise their children.
This is the plan for the whole country
I see how the residents of Bromsten resent this. But not only them, other residents in Stockholm are asking what is going on. Rinkeby, as I said, if you have a little knowledge, you know that it is an area you stay away from as a Swede.
I want to ask those who live in Bromsten and similar areas in the big cities: Did you think you could segregate the city on your own? Did you not think that the politicians were serious about everything they said?
Neighborhood after neighborhood the politicians are tearing apart without a thought for the consequences. That’s not going to change. Look at Seattle in the US or all of California. Or London. Or Berlin. If you are a national in the city, you are in an overwhelming minority. And the possibilities to organize a local resistance are therefore very limited.
To live in one of our big cities is to choose to be one of the subjects of social destruction. If you have children, it is also a choice you make for them. You have to be aware of this and the consequences it entails.
“The economic, ethnic and linguistic segregation needs to be broken at a structural level, which requires mixing the population. Society will need to take action on a scale not previously seen.”
The above is from the Social Democrats’ new social analysisIncreased community cohesion through sharing a common language and it is clear that what they intend to do with Rinkeby-Bromsten is just a taste of what is to come.
Cities in the spotlight
The Social Democrats, and other pro-integration parties, will speed up the implementation of this policy. In places where the S is in power (together with other left-wing parties, including the Centre Party) they will force this. In Sandviken we saw the forced integration of the school, in other places there are other strategies. But they all aim to “implement actions we have not done before, on a scale we have not seen before” to mix the population.
It is in the cities that efforts will be primarily focused. That goes without saying. The opportunities are greater there than in depopulated rural areas. Certainly, the central towns will be affected, but many towns and villages cannot be reached because there is no space.
It is also the case that in these towns and villages a handful of nationalists can act on their own and achieve results that are impossible in the big cities. This is crucial. Here everyone must choose how they want to serve our Swedish aspirations.
Either by working, living and acting within the framework of the opportunities offered by the big cities, but then also having to accept the worries that come and the vulnerability that the children will grow up in.
Or by becoming part of a local national effort where together we actually create a Swedish area in the countryside, in places where the opportunities exist. This work is ongoing in Älgarås, Västra Götaland, where the first Swedes’ house is located.
Our association extends throughout the country, with members in both large cities and rural areas. These members work tirelessly to create better living conditions for themselves, their children and the Swedish people.
The most fundamental thing is to never become passive, to always do what you can for our common endeavor.
Magnus Söderman
Board member
Det fria Sverige (DfS)
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(from Swedish by LN)
Just figured that out, huh?
“We are in the middle of a war in this country. That’s what this is. It’s not a war between black and white. It’s not between Democrat and Republican, even in a deeper sense, it’s between the permanent state and the everyday citizen, between those of us who love the United States of America and a fringe minority who hates this country and what we stand for.” —Vivek Ramaswamy (15 Jan 2024)
Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlE-8x_vGCQ
HERE—–HERE—–HERE—–HERE—–HERE—–HERE—–HERE—–HERE!
DAVOS JUST NOW
From http://WWW.SNAPHANEN.DK
19/1-24 AT 1457
Davos is a parallel world government of oligarchs –
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https://rumble.com/v47lxn9-welcome-to-davos-home-of-the-condescending-oligarchs-who-rule-from-the-shad.html
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– and they don’t like being interviewed by real journalists.
It seems pretty clear that Rebel News are the only real, unpaid journalists present in Davos. This is evident in all the interviews Ezra & co. try to do with them. There are no Danish politicians present this year who openly want to show that they are corrupt and serve a different form of government than the one Denmark officially professes. Only business leaders.
There are more rebel interviews than the ones I just show here, but these are some of the most important ones. “An oligarch is a member of a few people, an oligarchy, which is a form of government in which political power is concentrated in a small number of rich and powerful businessmen”, says Den Store Danske. Possibly combined with a smaller number of politicians. Incidentally, this is closely related to the definition of fascism. Some argue that the WEF has no influence, but they overlook that after they started working through the EU and the UN/WHO, they have significant influence.
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https://rumble.com/v47ivwr-whos-dr.-tedros-confronted-at-davos-on-disease-x-covid-lockdowns-and-vaccin.html
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https://rumble.com/v47n8r2-meta-executives-evade-questions-on-censorship-and-political-interference-at.html
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https://rumble.com/v47nnei-prickly-cnn-anchor-couldnt-believe-we-pressed-him-at-wef.html
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https://rumble.com/v47kpbe-elons-got-his-opinion-state-street-ceo-stands-by-commitment-to-esg.html
“Israel Must Control ‘All The Land Which Is West Of The Jordan River’” —Benjamin Netanyahu (Leader of the Free World) (19 Jan 2024)
By Jove, I think he’s got it now.
“Far too much time, energy and blood has been expended in the Middle east. It’s time to take decisive action. We need to take out the terror regimes in Iran, Iraq and Syria. Then say to the Palestinians: “You have two choices: You can live as civilized citizens or you can be next.”” —”Terrorism Isn’t Rocket Science” (2002)
http://www.triumphpc.com/psst!/jul02/rocket1.shtml
Remember: the only thing a terrorist/thug respects is a terror G-R-E-A-T-E-R than his own (think: Nagasaki)
Would someone please enlighten me. If a nation had the population of one person, in order to survive, the person would have to provide for himself. If that cannot be done, then he dies. If a nation has a hundred people, then they would have to work in order to support a hundred people. If they can’t do that, then they die.
Isn’t this how nature works?
People keep complaining about the reduction of population and claiming that if it occurs, everyone will starve, but with a smaller population, there are less people to feed. And if production cannot match population (regardless of the actual amount), they won’t survive.
So what are they actually claiming? Here is the answer.
The elites are a parasitical class. If their host is diminished, then they must do with less. So the decrease in population is only a problem for the elites.
In a true capitalistic economy, the economy simply adjusts to the current population. However, with socialism, this is not the case.
Like Margaret Thatcher said: Socialism works until you run out of other people’s money.
“The elites are a parasitical class.”
Yup. For details, see “Zardoz”.