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Freemasonry is returning to Syria after being banned for over 50 years, according to a statement attributed to the Presidency of the Supreme Council of the Grand Syrian Orient Lodges, which was published in several media outlets over the weekend. The group declared that the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government had created an opportunity for its re-establishment.

Assad was ousted in December 2024 after his forces lost control to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and other opposition groups. The new authorities, mainly Islamist factions, have promised governance reforms, although political uncertainty remains.

”For the past five decades, the Free Masons’ lodges have been officially absent from the Syrian arena due to the security and political conditions imposed by the authoritarian regime,” the statement said. It accused the previous government of suppressing “any organizations or intellectual or cultural trends that might pose a threat to its secure control over Syria and its people.”

The organization described its return as part of Syria’s reconstruction, stating, “the sun of freedom shines on our homeland and our forums once again, announcing the beginning of a new era that allows the Syrian people to regain their civil and intellectual freedoms.”

It also distanced itself from politics, emphasizing, “We assure the Syrian people and the Syrian leadership that we are not a political organization and do not seek to interfere in political affairs or participate in political, union, or party work.” Instead, it said its role was to promote “the values of tolerance, brotherhood, cultural openness, education, charitable work, and the advancement of society.”

Freemasonry, a fraternal society with secretive traditions, has historically been controversial. Critics have accused it of elitism and having undue influence in political and economic affairs, while some religious groups have alleged that its members worship the devil. The organization has also been the focus of conspiracy theories, often linked to globalist agendas or covert political control.

Syria’s Ba’ath Party branded freemasonry an “illegal secret society” and banned it in 1965 during the presidency of Amin al-Hafiz. Like other Middle Eastern governments, Syria associated the fraternal organization with Western influence and Zionism, leading to its prohibition.

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https://www.rt.com/news/611475-freemasons-anounce-return-syria/

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The globalist “managerial” philosophy favoured by the European Union has lost, and Trump has “won”, a panellist at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos admitted.

A sombre mood appears to have descended upon the Swiss ski resort town. While the WEF typically hosts an orgiastic celebration of international elitism, this year’s festivities sit in the shadow of the inauguration of President Donald Trump and the rejection of neo-liberalism by the American people.

In a WEF panel discussion on the incoming administration, Yale University Professor Walter Reed said that the Davos class needs to understand “who’s won, which is Trump, but who’s lost, which is to say us.”

“Who is losing here is Europe. The European Union, and by and large, it’s member states, have misread the direction where events were going.”

“The causes that it is interested in; climate, human rights, some others, as well as the methods of diplomacy that it prefers, are simply being gradually kind of marginalized as something new — not necessarily something better — but something new, moves into the centre.”

Professor Reed pointed to a general failing at the heart of the globalist philosophy, that modern man had somehow reached the “end of history” and, therefore, merely needed a group of international bureaucrats to manage and tinker with “incremental shifts”.

“That’s not how things work and especially not how things work at this kind of moment when a technological transformation is really biting into the economy on all kinds of levels in a transformational way,” he said.

Fellow panellist Graham Allison, a political scientist and Professor of Government at Harvard University, said, “Trump has done something no person in the world has ever done before; a dead man, a dead politician has risen.”

“This is the greatest comeback in political history of a politician and then, therefore, he thinks he can do anything. There’s a supreme confidence about that,” Prof Allison said.

“This is a phenomenon that we shouldn’t try to understand only in the terms that we’re traditionally accepting. We should say something strange, new, and amazing is happening here, and we should study it.”

Although Davos is usually the hot ticket for world leaders in January, Trump also undercut the WEF by becoming the first American president to invite international leaders to attend his inauguration in Washington, D.C., this week.

While rising right-wing political stars such as Argentine President Javier Milei and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attended the swearing-in ceremony, other leaders of American ally nations were not as fortunate.

One such leader who did not receive an invite was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose leftist government collapsed the day after Trump’s victory in November and who is widely expected to be removed from power following the federal elections in February. Adding insult to injury, in another apparent slight to Scholz, Trump did invite top members of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

This left the German Chancellor with the consolation prize of an appearance in Davos, during which he demonstrated his censorious leanings and chastised X boss and Trump ally Elon Musk for expressing his political opinions about Germany and Europe.

“We have the freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany. Everyone can say what he wants, even if he is a billionaire. And what we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme-right positions,” Scholz said at the WEF on Tuesday.

However, it is unclear how much sway the likely outgoing Chancellor has, with a reporter from leading German newspaper Welt Holger Zschaepitz sharing a picture seeming to show the audience at Scholz’s Davos appearance being half empty.

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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/22/world-economic-forum-davos-attendee-admits-trump-won-and-globalists-lost/

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French authorities have arrested nearly a hundred people in connection to an immense international child pornography ring following an investigation launched last year by the National Gendarmerie.

Gendarmes, the police force responsible for fighting cyber crimes in France, revealed Thursday that they have seized some 122 computers, 152 smartphones, and 330 other digital media devices containing 375,000 photos and 156,000 videos totaling 217 terabytes of data as it dismantled a large-scale international child pornography operation.

So far, 95 people have been arrested in France in connection to the case, notably including the director of a youth organisation, a sports instructor, and even a deputy mayor, Le Figaro reports. According to the paper, the majority of suspects have already admitted to their guilt in the case.

Of those arrested, 36 were already known to police for having previously committed sexual offences against children or having visited websites featuring child pornography. All of the suspects were men between the ages of 18 and 74, except for one 16-year-old minor.

The investigation, launched in December of last year, was prompted after a search of an individual’s phone revealed several discussion groups on child pornography on the encrypted messaging application Signal.

Colonel Hervé Petry of the National Cyber ​​Unit (UNC) said: “What is hidden behind these forums is this whole galaxy of child criminals who potentially can be extremely dangerous because they can also be predatory.”

“The fight against child crime is an area in which the gendarmerie, for decades, has been very invested, very committed. Thanks to the rise of social networks, this has taken on a truly extremely worrying dimension since it has exploded: before social networks, it took several years for these people to be able to access this type of images. And even more so when approaching children,” he explained.

Petry continued: “Today, with social networks, there is an ‘increase in supply’ since images and videos can be exchanged extremely easily.”

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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/12/21/french-police-arrest-95-in-major-child-pornography-ring-bust/

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Favorite line from the rally,

"You're going to have a lotta fun watching tv tomorrow."

President Trump - 01/19/25

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https://www.youtube.com/live/I7k1eJ76H0I?si=XyY6Sf4UEGrMcP8m

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President-elect Donald Trump’s “official” meme coin, TRUMP, has surged to a near $14 billion market capitalization within hours of its launch, according to cryptocurrency trackers. The Solana-based meme token was unveiled early on Saturday, two days before Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.

The token started trading at an opening price of $0.1824, but within five hours had jumped over 8,000%, trading at roughly $14.4 as of 08:00 GMT, according to Dexscreener. Its market cap stood at $14 billion at the time. Over 66,000 buyers have so far bought the token, outpacing the nearly 18,000 sellers. Liquidity also surged, topping $388 million.

Trump announced the launch of the coin on his official Truth Social and X accounts.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW. Go to http://gettrumpmemes.com — Have Fun!

The crypto community initially voiced concerns about the token’s legitimacy, with some warning of a possible hack or social engineering scheme. Pseudonymous blockchain engineer cygaar noted on X that the project’s official website mirrors those of Trump’s previous NFT collections and suggested that “either this is the greatest cyber heist of all time, or this is legitimate.” However, as Trump’s posts remained online, and with Polymarket data suggesting only a 10% chance of account compromise, skepticism began to subside, pushing the price of the token further up.

The token’s explosive growth has also drawn concerns regarding its allocation.

“80% of the token supply is locked in a multisignature wallet, amounting to $3 billion controlled by the creator, who also added $40 million in liquidity,” Conor Grogan, head of product business operations at Coinbase, said in a post on X, adding that the project was seeded with millions of dollars of funds from Binance and Gate, two exchanges that don’t serve US customers. Other analysts noted that 80% of the token’s circulating supply is allocated to Fight Fight Fight LLC and CIC Digital LLC, entities linked to the Trump Organization, with only 20% of the supply split equally between public investors and liquidity.

The launch of TRUMP comes as the president-elect continues to align himself with cryptocurrency initiatives. Once an outspoken crypto-skeptic, he made a U-turn during his election campaign and pledged to reshape the US cryptocurrency landscape to make the country the “crypto capital of the planet.” Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is expected to spearhead these efforts. A known crypto advocate and former SEC commissioner, Atkins will replace Gary Gensler, who has been criticized for his crackdown on the industry.

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https://www.rt.com/news/611125-trump-official-crypto-coin-soars/

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Tanzania’s Ministry of Health has denied the presence of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in the country, confirming that laboratory tests of suspected cases of the lethal disease in the Kagera region were negative. This follows reports by the World Health Organization (WHO) of suspected cases.

The country’s health minister said in a statement released on Wednesday that “all suspected individuals were negative for Marburg virus.”

The WHO had highlighted that individuals in the Kagera region had shown symptoms consistent with the Marburg virus, including fever, vomiting blood, and external bleeding.

During a virtual press conference held in Geneva on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Tanzania to submit the collected samples to international reference laboratories and gather additional samples in line with standard procedures.

In response to the WHO’s concerns, Tanzania emphasized having strengthened its health surveillance systems to detect and respond promptly to threats.

The Kagera region had previously experienced a Marburg virus outbreak in March 2023. That outbreak resulted in nine confirmed cases and six deaths.

The Marburg virus, formerly known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever was first identified in 1967 following simultaneous outbreaks in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. It is a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola that stems from contact with bodily fluids or contaminated surfaces.

Rwanda recently confirmed that bats are the likely source of its first recorded cases of Marburg virus.

In 2023, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea reported cases of the disease, following outbreaks in Ghana in 2022 and Uganda in 2017.

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https://www.rt.com/africa/611089-tanzania-denies-marburg-virus/

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Africa’s fourth-largest economy and the world’s sixth-most populous nation with over 228 million people, Nigeria, has been formally welcomed into the broader group of BRICS partner states, according to Brazil, the bloc’s current rotating president.

The Foreign Ministry of Brazil announced on Friday that Nigeria has become the ninth official BRICS partner, joining Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan.

“In exercising its pro tempore presidency of BRICS, the Brazilian government announces today, January 17, 2025, the formal admission of Nigeria as a partner country of the grouping,” the ministry stated.

The Brazilian government praised Nigeria for its “convergent interests with other members of BRICS” and its “active role in strengthening South-South cooperation and in reforming global governance.”

BRICS was established in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011. Originally envisioned as a platform for mutual investment and financial stability, the group has since expanded its agenda to include security and global governance.

In 2024, the bloc extended its full membership to Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. In January 2025, Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country with over 270 million people, also became a full BRICS member.

The new ‘partner country’ status was approved at the BRICS summit in October, hosted by Russia in Kazan, and is intended to serve as an alternative to membership after more than 30 nations applied to join the organization.

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https://www.rt.com/africa/611117-nigeria-becomes-brics-partner/

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More and more members of the House are lining up to co-sponsor Rep. Eric Burlison’s (R-MO) push to abolish the ATF.

Burlison announced H.R. 221 on January 7, 2025, and thanked his original supporters:

Rep. Eric Burlison @RepEricBurlison

Huge shoutout to these patriots in the House of Representatives who are supporting my ABOLISH THE ATF ACT (H.R.221)!

On January 9, 2025, TNND quoted Burlison saying, “The ATF is emblematic of the deep-state bureaucracy that believes it can infringe on constitutional liberties without consequence. If this agency cannot uphold its duty to serve the people within the framework of the Constitution, it has no place in our government.”

On January 13, 2025, Breitbart News pointed to other statements from Burlison, including his claim that the agency uses tax money to violate Americans’ rights. In a post to X, he wrote, “The ATF uses your tax dollars to violate your constitutional rights. Does that sound like freedom to you?”

The Idaho Dispatch noted, “Fulcher’s support for H.R. 221 makes him the first Idaho congressional delegate to support the abolition of the ATF, which gun owners in Idaho have grown frustrated with for decades now.”

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https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2025/01/17/co-sponsors-lining-up-behind-rep-burlisons-push-abolish-atf/

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President Joe Biden, 82, “is totally dejected” and the White House feels “like a morgue” with a “glum atmosphere” due to President-elect Donald Trump’s imminent triumphant return, NBC News reported based on people who recently met with officials.

The mood at the White House reflects the state of the Democrat party, which is reeling from a landslide defeat to Trump and Republicans, who control Congress as well.

The shattered party does not appear to know why Trump won or how to prevent further Democrat defeats. It is in the middle of revamping its nine-year-old talking points that claimed without evidence that Trump and Republicans were racist, bigots, and misogynists.

In recent weeks, the bewildered party does not seem equipped to mount a strong resistance to Trump’s cabinet nominees, most of whom appear to be on a glide path to confirmation, although Senate Democrats might try delay tactics, moves that are expected but can be overcome with strong Senate Republican leadership.

NBC News reported on Biden’s mood at the “morgue’:

In the White House, the mood feels “like a morgue,” according to a person who recently met with officials there. Biden leaves office feeling he contributed significant wins for the country that Americans don’t appreciate. Privately, he has vacillated from feeling melancholy to resigned to angry to wistful as he reflects on his legacy, two people close to him said.

“He’s totally dejected and the people around him are, as well,” another person close to the president said. One White House official attributed the glum atmosphere to Trump’s impending return to the Oval Office and noted that Biden’s aides warmly reacted with cheers when he surprised them at a staff party earlier this week.

Another White House official depicted personnel as holding back on emotions until Jan. 20 actually arrives.

“It’s hard to reflect, it’s hard for it to sink in that we’re done here — until we’re actually done and out the gates with our stuff,” the official added. “That’s their mood … it hasn’t sunk in for people who are still here yet because we’re working until the last minute.”

Trump’s return to power is the greatest political comeback in American history. He overcame political opponents who tried to imprison him, bankrupt him, remove him from the ballot, and make him politically irrelevant by introducing a partisan committee to investigate January 6 — and whose inflammatory rhetoric created a ripe environment for two assassination attempts.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/17/report-white-house-feels-like-morgue-glum-atmosphere-trumps-imminent-return/

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The US played a crucial but secret role in helping Ukraine develop its drone industry following Kiev's disastrous counteroffensive in 2023, officials have told the New York Times, citing information that has been declassified by the administration of President Joe Biden.

Washington reportedly provided financial and technical assistance to Kiev's drone program, the sources have told the outlet. While the US had publicly admitted sending billions of dollars in missiles, air defense systems, tanks and training, details about support in other areas remained under wraps.

A tranche of some $1.5 billion paid in September 2024, reportedly allocated direct financial aid to drone manufacturers, intelligence-sharing, and collaboration between American technology firms and Ukrainian producers.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also said in a statement on Thursday that US involvement had “a real strategic impact” on the battlefield, as drones have become central to Ukraine’s defense strategy.

The funding reportedly began after Kiev’s first counteroffensive in fall 2022 and intensified after the 2023 effort, which ultimately failed due to Russia’s extensive defensive use of mines, artillery, and drones.

US officials reportedly said that the losses incurred by Kiev pushed them to rapidly increase support to Ukrainian drone makers.

People familiar with the matter told the New York Times that the US effort also included sending American intelligence officials to Ukraine to help build its drone program. However, CIA Director William J. Burns has so far only indirectly acknowledged this, stating earlier this week that US intelligence support extended beyond information-sharing to assisting with key defense systems.

Last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed that Washington has provided around $100 billion in financial aid and military assistance to Kiev since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Kiev’s other backers, meanwhile, have “spent about $150 billion,” he said.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the West’s continued military aid to Ukraine, arguing that it makes it party to the conflict. Russia has also argued that no amount of Western aid will change the ultimate outcome or prevent Moscow from achieving the goals of its military operation.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/611108-us-invested-ukraine-drones/

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Pastor Brandon Biggs, who gained nationwide attention after accurately predicting the assassination attempt on Donald Trump months before it occurred, has sounded the alarm once again.

This time, the stakes are even higher, as he claims to have received visions of a sprawling, orchestrated attack targeting Trump, his properties, and key U.S. landmarks.

Biggs first gained attention when his detailed vision of an attempt on Trump’s life came true, as previously reported by The Gateway Pundit.

Biggs, at the 11-minute mark of the video, posted three months before Trump’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, said, ” I saw Trump rising up, and then I saw an attempt on his life. This bullet flew by his ear and it came so close to his head it busted his eardrum.”

“He fell to his knees during this timeframe and started to worship the Lord,” added Biggs.

Biggs continued, “He got radically born again during this timeframe; people saying he’s saved now. But he becomes really on fire for Jesus.”

Now, Biggs has issued an even graver warning: a series of coordinated, catastrophic events planned to coincide with Trump’s inauguration and targeting his iconic properties.

According to the video posted on YouTube by Biggs, these attacks are not isolated acts of terrorism but are instead state-sponsored efforts designed to dismantle symbols of Trump’s influence and leadership.

The pastor described seeing “massive dump trucks” armed with armor plating and packed with fertilizer-based explosives, echoing the devastating Oklahoma City bombing of the 1990s.

The attacks, Biggs warns, aim to cripple Trump’s iconic properties, such as Trump Tower and golf courses, and disrupt national symbols of power, including the Capitol.

He alleges that a network of operatives spread across ten major U.S. cities, with each city hosting 100 attackers—trained and funded by foreign governments, possibly Iran—has infiltrated the United States through underground tunnels along the southern border.

Biggs:

The vision was putting all out in front of me. I saw farming equipment. I saw massive farming equipment that was… It looked like on the East Coast, this farming equipment was. There were silos. The Lord said, I want you to focus on fertilizer.

I saw massive dump trucks with separation in the back of these dump trucks, separation with 50 20-gallon drums, all filled with different chemicals to make what was happened in Oklahoma City back in the ’90s. This happened in the ’90s. It was a massive thing, not black powder, but this fertilizer stuff. I saw fertilizer in a big dump truck. The dump truck was like a big diesel. They looked like construction workers. They had purchased a massive construction vehicle, like dump truck thing.

They put all this in so that it would cause a major catastrophic event. They made the front of it armor proof, bulletproof. You could not shoot it and to make it stop it. Very, very strong armor was on the front of this truck underneath it. It wasn’t able to be seen really well. I saw these men, and this is going to go a lot of different places, so you have to just listen to what I’m trying to tell you all. I saw these men with these vest on in the front cab of the truck.

Vest on. They had explosives on these vests. There was two men in the truck. They took the truck and they used it to go through police barricade and military barricades in Washington, DC. When they did this and they tried to stop them because they were trying to do it at a checkpoint to stop them, they pushed through the barricade because the truck was very strong.

Then they got them, they surrounded them, and they ignited their vest, and they took out everybody. When this happened, it was a massive crater in the dirt, in the ground, and all the buildings were completely wiped out, and they tried to get as close as they could to the capital. I saw them trying to get as close as they could to the capital, to major landmarks of Washington, DC.”

The internet can’t help but connect Pastor Biggs’ vision with a recent alarming development: about 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate—a chemical used both as fertilizer and as an explosive—is missing after disappearing during a rail trip from Wyoming to California.

According to an incident report filed by explosives manufacturer Dyno Nobel, the rail car carrying the ammonium nitrate left a plant in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on April 12, 2023. The chemical was discovered missing after the car arrived in Saltdale, California, more than 1,000 miles away.

The report stated the substance was “released due to an unknown cause,” but by the time the car reached its destination, it was completely empty and en route back to Wyoming.

The chemical was reported missing from the shipment two weeks later, and no one knows what really happened.

On May 10, the company Dyno Nobel notified the federal government’s National Response Center, also known as the NRC.

California officials launched four separate investigations to determine the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the chemicals.

"The Lord said, This is not terrorism per se. This is an act of war per se," said Biggs.

"This is a government of another country coming against America, making it look like it's terrorist. You will see in the days ahead a great shaking still to come because of past administrations not doing their job, securing the border. Not just on the Southern, but this is about the Northern border also. I warn you to pray so that we can pray, not a call to fear, but a call to prayer. I saw great plans and great plots from these men to try to disrupt the inauguration."

While the message is alarming, Pastor Biggs insists it is not meant to incite fear but to galvanize Americans into prayer and vigilance.

"We pray against this for what I've seen coming. That's our job. I pray protection over your families. I pray protection over our President, over the capital of America. We pray for the White House. We pray for all kinds of things because this was very dark what they were trying to do."

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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/pastor-who-precisely-prophesied-trump-getting-shot-ear/

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A massive fire broke out at a Californian power plant early Friday morning, threatening one of the largest battery energy storage facilities in the world.

The blaze began in a building containing lithium-ion batteries hours earlier, an official at the Monterey County Sheriff’s office told the BBC.

The Moss Landing power plant, run by Vistra Corp, was evacuated, as were people in the surrounding area. No injuries were reported.

Officials are not actively fighting the fire, the Monterey Sheriff spokesperson said, and are instead leaving the building and the batteries to burn on the advice of fire experts.

Hundreds of people have been ordered to evacuate and part of Highway 1 in Northern California has been closed.

The Moss Landing Power Plant, located about 77 miles south of San Francisco, is owned by Texas-based company Vistra Energy and contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries, the Independent reports.

The batteries are important for storing electricity from such renewable energy sources as solar energy, but if they erupt in flames the blazes can be extremely difficult to put out.

“There’s no way to sugar coat it. This is a disaster, is what it is,” Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church told KSBW-TV. But he said he did not expect the fire to spread beyond the concrete building it was enclosed in.

North Monterey County Unified School District announced that all schools and offices would be closed Friday due to the fire.

Officials said the fire is not connected with any of the current spate of wildfires in Los Angeles or other parts of the state.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/17/evacuations-road-closures-begin-as-fire-engulfs-worlds-largest-battery-plant-in-california/

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US President Joe Biden has commuted the prison terms of nearly 2,500 non-violent drug offenders, setting a record for the most pardons and clemencies issued by an American president.

The commutations will apply to individuals “who are serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice,” the White House said in a statement on Friday.

The majority of these people were given lengthy sentences based on distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, and “outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes,” the statement explained. The crack cocaine distinction was eliminated by the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, while the 2018 First Step Act lowered mandatory minimum sentences for serious drug felonies.

The Fair Sentencing Act was signed into law by Barack Obama, while the First Step Act was signed by Donald Trump, who returns to the White House for a second term next week.

“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in US history,” Biden said on Friday.

American presidents have extensive powers of pardon and commutation, and typically use these powers during their final days in office. Last month, Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners to life in prison without parole, commuted the sentences of 1,500 others, and pardoned 39 more – mostly non-violent drug offenders.

Biden’s most controversial pardon was granted to his son, Hunter, who was convicted last year of breaking federal gun and tax laws. However, the pardon covered offenses which Hunter “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024,” a period that extends far beyond the time the gun and tax offenses took place and encompasses Hunter’s time on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm.

Citing a trove of emails and messages found on Hunter’s laptop in 2020, Republicans maintain that Hunter used this position to enrich the Biden family by selling access to his father, who was vice president of the US at the time.

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https://www.rt.com/news/611084-biden-pardon-drug-offenders/

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https://www.youtube.com/live/5steknfDDhI?si=g9aiKNEMrRc-k4zr

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The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has added the Moon to its list of threatened historic sites for the first time, citing the risk posed by commercial space travel to the landing sites of the first lunar missions.

Every two years, the WMF publishes a list of 25 sites at risk from climate change, tourism, conflict, and natural disaster. The organization’s activism has led to the construction of improved flood defenses in Venice, the refurbishment of the Mahadev Temple in Nepal, and the protection of several temples in Cambodia’s Angkor Wat complex.

Published on Wednesday, the latest edition of the list features sites in 29 countries, including the largely-destroyed urban landscape of Gaza and the Swahili Coast, which spans four East African countries. It also includes the first-ever extraterrestrial heritage site.

“As a new era of space exploration dawns, the physical remnants of early Moon landings are under threat, jeopardizing these enduring symbols of collective human achievement,” the organization said on its website. “On July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 mission landed in the Sea of Tranquility, 650 million people on Earth watched humans walk on the Moon’s surface for the first time.”

The Apollo 11 astronauts left behind 106 artifacts at the Tranquility Base landing site, including the landing module, scientific instruments, and Neil Armstrong’s iconic boot print.

“Tranquility Base is one of over 90 historic landing and impact sites that mark humankind’s presence on the Moon’s surface and testify to some of our most extraordinary feats of courage and ingenuity,” the WMF said.

While these sites have been preserved in relatively stable condition due to the absence of wind and flowing water on the Moon’s surface, “a recent resurgent interest in human activity on the Moon, including a burgeoning commercial space industry” places them at risk, the organization warned.

SpaceX launched two lunar landers on Wednesday, while humans are set to return to the Moon when NASA’s repeatedly delayed Artemis III mission takes place in 2027. The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program plans three uncrewed missions between 2025 and 2028, while the China Manned Space Agency aims to conduct crewed lunar landings by 2030.

While no commercial tourist landings are planned, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin have all declared their interest in taking paying customers to the Moon.

”Exploitative visitation, souveniring, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could eventually compromise this truly unique cultural heritage, removing artifacts and forever erasing iconic prints and tracks from the Moon’s surface,” the WMF said.

There is currently no dedicated international agreement addressing lunar heritage protection. However, a group of archaeologists and scientists formed the International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage in 2023 to promote the preservation of what they called “humanity’s tangible and intangible aerospace heritage.” The organization has called on world leaders to draft a formal treaty protecting lunar sites from commercial exploitation.

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https://www.rt.com/news/611028-moon-endangered-sites-list/

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Chinese officials and car manufacturers could buy German factories that are expected to shut down, and are particularly interested in plants belonging to Volkswagen, according to a source with knowledge of Beijing’s assessment of the situation, as quoted by Reuters.

Beijing believes launching local production in Germany will help it boost its influence in the country’s highly-rated automotive sector, the source told the news agency on Thursday. Moreover, Chinese producers of electric vehicles (EVs) would be able to avoid import tariffs when selling cars in the EU, Reuters noted.

In October 2023, the European Commission initiated an anti-subsidy probe into imports of passenger battery electric vehicles from China. A year later, the bloc’s executive branch hiked import duties on these vehicles to more than 45%.

In response, Chinese authorities introduced provisional tariffs on EU-origin brandy and threatened higher tariffs on fuel-powered cars with large-displacement engines. Beijing has also filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO), alleging Brussels was engaging in “trade protectionism.”

Chinese businesses have invested across a wide range of sectors in Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, ranging from telecommunications to robotics. Mercedes-Benz currently has two major shareholders from the People’s Republic.

The source told Reuters that investment decisions would hinge to a great degree on the new German government’s stance towards China following the election scheduled for February 23.

Last year, Volkswagen announced plans to shut down at least three of its production sites in its home country, lay off thousands of workers and cut pay by 10%. Later, the world’s second-biggest automaker by output and German union IG Metall reached a deal to avoid involuntary redundancies and plant closures in the country until 2030.

At the time, Daniela Cavallo, Volkswagen’s works council head, urged the German authorities to come up with a plan to ensure that the country’s economy does not “go down the drain.”

The carmaker, along with other companies across the EU, has been hit by the global economic slowdown that sent demand for their products falling, as well as the transition to green technologies.

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https://www.rt.com/news/611017-china-volkswagen-plants-germany/

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The conservative government of Sweden announced plans to further tighten citizenship requirements as the Nordic nation continues to reverse course on the previous open borders policies that radically transformed the country.

Following a report from Stockholm’s immigration investigator Kirsi Laakso Utvik, the conservative coalition government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s Moderates and the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats said that by June of next year, becoming a Swedish citizen will become more difficult.

One of the chief measures set to come into force will be increasing the years lived in the country before being eligible to apply for citizenship, from the current standard of five years to eight, Swedish daily Aftonbladet reports.

Additionally, the government is planning on introducing a requirement for monetary self-sufficiency as well as “honest way of life” mandates, which will include prohibition against applicants with criminal records or large debts, both in Sweden and abroad, according to The Times.

Migration Minister Johan Forssell said upon the announcement that “becoming a Swedish citizen should mean something.”

“It should be something to strive for, it should be proof that you work and contribute to society. Something you deserve, quite simply,” he said.

While the government did not take up the suggestion from the coalition partner Sweden Democrats to require a “declaration of loyalty to the nation” upon taking the oath of citizenship, the populist party said that it was satisfied for now with the outcome, saying that requirements on income were the most important measure to them.

The move to restrict citizenship comes amid a broader effort to clamp down on immigration by the conservative-populist government in Sweden, which swept to power in 2022 amid growing realisation of the error that was the decision in 2015 to open the floodgates to mass migration.

Additionally, the government is planning on introducing a requirement for monetary self-sufficiency as well as “honest way of life” mandates, which will include prohibition against applicants with criminal records or large debts, both in Sweden and abroad, according to The Times.

Migration Minister Johan Forssell said upon the announcement that “becoming a Swedish citizen should mean something.”

“It should be something to strive for, it should be proof that you work and contribute to society. Something you deserve, quite simply,” he said.

While the government did not take up the suggestion from the coalition partner Sweden Democrats to require a “declaration of loyalty to the nation” upon taking the oath of citizenship, the populist party said that it was satisfied for now with the outcome, saying that requirements on income were the most important measure to them.

The move to restrict citizenship comes amid a broader effort to clamp down on immigration by the conservative-populist government in Sweden, which swept to power in 2022 amid growing realisation of the error that was the decision in 2015 to open the floodgates to mass migration.

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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/16/sweden-to-step-up-restrictions-for-citizenship-as-approved-asylum-permits-fall-to-40-year-low/

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A report from the National Sports Shooting Foundation (NSSF) shows the number of firearms in civilian possession topped 490 million in 2022.

According to the NSSF, “The estimated total number of firearms in civilian possession from 1990-2022 is 491.3 million.”

Moreover, the NSSF pointed out more than ten million firearms were domestically produced in 2022 alone. The domestically-produced firearms, combined with those which were imported, resulted in “16,045,911 total firearms were made available for the U.S. market” in 2022.

Handguns dominate the firearms available in the U.S. market.

For example, of the 16,045,911 firearms that were available in 2022, “9,873,136 were handguns, 4,195,192 were rifles and 1,977,583 were shotguns.”

Handgun availability/production correlates with the concealed carry/self-defense market in the U.S.

All 50 states have permitted concealed carry and 29 of those states have constitutional carry, which allows law-abiding citizens to forgo a permit and still carry a handgun daily for self-defense.

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https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2025/01/16/report-number-of-firearms-in-civilian-possession-tops-490-million/

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The Dutchman must be the first priority for the Dutch government, says populist leader Geert Wilders, as he decries ringfenced spending for Ukraine and the climate that could stop him cutting taxes to put more money in the voter’s pocket as he wishes.

“I want us to finally put the Dutch first,” says populist leader and power behind the throne of the Dutch government Geert Wilders, as discussions get underway for the Spring budget.

The Dutch government that followed the 2023 electoral victory of Mr Wilders and his Party for Freedom is a coalition of four parties, which, beyond his own, includes the centre-right establishment-conservative VVD, the pro-political reform NSC, and the pro-agriculture BBB. While most coalition members agree now is the time to cut taxes, the VVD — who control the finance ministry — are opposed.

As stated by Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, the establishment VVD party acknowledges that the national budget is presently balanced but preaches fiscal probity now because there’s a possibility they may not be in the future. The party also stands by its commitment to protect government spending on the Ukraine War and climate change.

These “left-liberal” obsessions are standing in the way of the government doing something good for its own people, Wilders blasted this week. Wanting to cut taxes to compensate taxpayers for soaring inflation — energy taxes are particularly in his sights, it is stated — Wilders took to social media on Wednesday to declare: “I want us to finally put the Dutch first. Many are struggling, life is getting more expensive. Helping people is our priority over extra billions for left-liberal hobbies like climate!”

“I’m done with it”, he stated, saying it was time for “extra money for the wallet instead of even more money for climate and Ukraine.”

The priority of the government should be its citizens, he said, stating it is wrong to “leave the Dutch out in the cold” while spending money on Ukraine. According to a December report, the Netherlands — a country of 18 million — is giving in the region of $10 billion in support to Ukraine.

There are weeks left yet before decisions are to be taken for the Spring compact, but such a faultline in the Dutch coalition risks instability. If the PVV walks away from the government, the remaining parties would not have enough votes in Parliament to pass bills, opening the door to a potential left-wing coalition or fresh elections.

While Wilders’ populists continue to enjoy a healthy lead in national polling, the latest results put them as having fallen from a recent high of commanding nearly half of support in the country, making a snap election a less appealing prospect. Nevertheless, the party is still polling around as well as its performance in the 2023 national elections in the high 30s, even if its coalition partner, the NSC, has been in freefall ever since, meaning building another governing coalition could be difficult.

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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/15/put-the-dutch-first-geert-wilders-demands-ukraine-and-climate-spending-slashed-in-favour-of-domestic-tax-cuts/

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Marco Rubio

https://www.youtube.com/live/r3sl7TtBUjI?si=cXeDmYKW1SgHkjiE

Pam Bondi

https://www.youtube.com/live/EGAIKA_5tJg?si=fNrmRS4CS6o606EM

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