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At least six bombs were used to cripple the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines and all four of the gas connector’s lines were mined, German newspaper Die Welt has claimed, citing court papers.

The pipelines, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Western Europe, were destroyed by blasts at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in September 2022.

It was previously believed that the sabotage involved four explosive devices, the outlet noted in an article on Tuesday. However, Die Welt said its journalists had reviewed documents from a court case between Nord Stream AG and insurance companies, which suggest at least six bombs were detonated.

According to the paper, two additional damage sites have recently been found on the pipelines. They had not been noticed before because no gas leaked from the areas, the document alleges.

One of the damage sites was photographed by Swedish engineer Erik Andersen, who has investigated the explosions, the article said. One image reportedly captured traces of a blast on one of the lines of Nord Stream 2.

“There was very small damage, barely noticeable at first glance – a piece of concrete flaking off. But this spot also shows that an explosive device had obviously been placed there, probably incorrectly, so it was unable to cause any major damage,” the author of the piece, Ulrich Kraetzer, suggested on Die Welt TV.

Kraetzer also said there was an allegation that Russia may have been behind the destruction of the infrastructure, based on the fact that one of the four pipelines remained intact after the attack. Those behind the claims have reportedly argued that Russia refrained from placing explosives on one pipeline in order to be able to continue selling at least some of its gas to Europe.

“According to what we know, it [the fourth line] was supposed to have been destroyed too, and this makes the theory that Russia might have deliberately left the pipeline intact invalid,” Kraetzer stated.

Moscow has repeatedly said that any claims that it would blow up its own pipeline make no sense.

On Tuesday, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, said that his agency had information about the “direct involvement” of professionals from the US and British special services in the Nord Stream sabotage. Russia built the pipelines “together with constructively minded Europeans, and the Anglo-Americans blew it up,” Naryshkin alleged.

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https://www.rt.com/news/608280-nord-stream-sabotage-germany/

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A whistleblower who worked at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s administration has created a “white glove delivery service” that sees hundreds of migrant children funneled into the hands of criminals, traffickers, and cartel members throughout the United States.

During testimony this month before two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee, Tara Lee Rodas detailed the process by which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) takes custody of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) at the southern border before they are handed over to HHS custody, which then places them with adult sponsors in the U.S.

Rodas worked at HHS in 2021 before blowing the whistle on the UAC program. Since Biden and Harris took office, more than 530,000 UACs have been encountered at the southern border — the majority of whom are teenagers.

“Today, as we speak, children are preparing to work grueling overnight shifts in slaughterhouses, restaurants, and factories,” Rodas said:

Some children may die today in jobs they don’t have the knowledge or skills to do in order to repay never-ending debts to their smugglers and traffickers. Today, children are being sold for sex. Some children, girls and boys, will get sexually transmitted diseases. Some girls – as young as 12, 11, or even 10 years old – will give birth to children of their own. Forced labor and prostitution among underage migrants have more than tripled under [the current Administration]. Today, desperate children will call hotlines, to report they are being abused, neglected, and trafficked. [Emphasis added]

For at least a decade, HHS has been responsible for the suffering of countless children. This assessment is based solely on the information currently available; however, it has been established that the unknown factors significantly outweigh what is known. This must change. [Emphasis added]

According to Rodas, under Biden and Harris, “child trafficking has evolved into an international syndicate of gangs and cartels that is highly organized and very efficient” and HHS “has a 10-year demonstrated record of losing children to sponsors who traffick, exploit, and harm children in unthinkable ways.”

Rodas continued:

Sadly, due to the failed open border policies of the Biden-Harris Administration, we have delivered these unaccompanied children to criminals, traffickers and members of transnational criminal organizations who are using the UAC program as a white glove delivery service of children. These criminal sponsors are defrauding the U.S. government by using the UAC program as the logistical chain of their child trafficking operation. [Emphasis added]

Retired Border Patrol Deputy Agent in Charge J.J. Carrell revealed insider DHS knowledge about the role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in the UAC program and how they make billions aiding the federal government with the resettlement of migrant children across the U.S.

Catholic Charities, Lutheran Family Services, and Jewish Family Services are the main NGOs facilitating the UAC program, Carrell said:

I spoke to a gentleman who works in DHS, he actually sends the electronic fund transfers and I asked him, ‘Sir, tell me, who are you responsible for and how much is the largest check you’ve cut?’ He said, ‘I’m over Jewish Family Services and I cut a check for $600 million.’ And I said, ‘Is that for like three years?’ and he told me, ‘J.J., get in the game, that’s two or three months and it’s renewable.’ That’s one NGO. And I said, ‘Well, Catholic Charities is bigger than Jewish Family Services.’ He said, ‘Yes, they get the same or more.’ [Emphasis added]

You’re talking about billions upon billions of dollars given to NGOs to further the trafficking of all, of everyone crossing the border, including children. [Emphasis added]

Rodas said President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is “aware of this crisis and his talented team is discussing solutions to end this crisis.”

“In the new Administration, there are simple fixes that Border Czar Tom Homan, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and others can do to defend and protect children,” Rodas said.

Among those fixes are requiring DNA testing for UACs and the adults they arrive with at the southern border, prison time for adult sponsors who cannot account for a UAC’s whereabouts, designating child trafficking a terrorist activity, and stopping the release of UACs into the U.S. interior until those who are unaccounted for across the U.S. are found by HHS.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/26/whistleblower-biden-harris-hhs-created-white-glove-delivery-service-giving-migrant-children-to-criminals-traffickers-and-cartels/

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A side bonus of voting for President Trump – order to the universe will be restored.

On January 21, 2025, the day after President Trump’s second Inauguration, SIX PLANETS WILL ALIGN IN A PLANET PARADE in the Sky!

You will be able to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn with the naked eye!

Historic Vids @historyinmemes

January 2025 brings a rare sight: six planets aligning, with Mercury joining for seven. Visible starting January 21 after sunset, you can see Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn without gear. Telescope needed for Neptune, Uranus.

According to Egeberkina:

Most, if not all, locations in the US, Canada and Mexico should be able to see the planetary parade this time around thanks to its long length and limited planetary movement. We checked observatories in California, Texas, Ohio and New York in the US, along with Calgary in Canada and Mexico City, Mexico. We were able to find all six planets at each location, so it doesn’t matter how far north, east, west or south you go, you’ll be able to see it.

In general, the best time to view the planet parade will be after Jan. 21, 2025, and before Feb. 21, 2025.

Ege @egeberkina

Replying to @historyinmemes Will my region see the planet parade?

Most, if not all, locations in the US, Canada and Mexico should be able to see the planetary parade this time around thanks to its long length and limited planetary movement. We checked observatories in California, Texas, Ohio and New York…

Read more,

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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/side-bonus-president-trump-order-restored-universe-january/

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Outgoing President Joe Biden’s Justice Department moved on election night on Nov. 5 to essentially ensure the cover-up of a potentially massive green energy scandal, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

This story has tentacles back through, not just the Biden administration, but all the way back to the Obama administration, and it could be something that jeopardizes the broader green energy agenda and the future of leftist solar projects on federal lands. At least one congresswoman is already formally pressing the DOJ for answers, and more members of Congress are likely to get involved soon. It could even have major implications for the incoming administration’s energy policy.

On Nov. 5, at 5:20 p.m. ET, less than an hour before the first polls closed and when it had become clear from the exit polls that Democrat presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris was likely to lose, an attorney with the Justice Department emailed lawyers for plaintiffs in a qui tam lawsuit aimed at recouping significant losses the taxpayers allegedly incurred from a failed solar plant in Nevada. A qui tam lawsuit is when a private plaintiff sues on behalf of the U.S. Government to recoup taxpayer dollars — often alleging fraud, misuse, or theft of taxpayer dollars.

The email from the DOJ stated what plaintiffs started hearing through the grapevine as the election neared and it became clear the Harris campaign was in trouble. The email said that the DOJ intended to dismiss a lawsuit that it had previously allowed to proceed, thereby undercutting the private push to recoup significant losses for American taxpayers.

“The United States intends to intervene in this case for the purpose of dismissing the qui tam claims under 31 U.S.C. 3730(c)(2)(A),” Anthony Gill, a trial lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division Fraud Section, emailed attorneys for CMB Export, LLC, an EB-5 visa firm that had filed the qui tam lawsuit in question. “The United States has determined that dismissal is commensurate with the public interest and that the matter does not warrant the continued expenditure of government resources. The anticipated discovery and litigation obligations associated with the continued litigation of this case will impose an undue burden on the U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Justice.”

“We intend to file our motion this week,” Gill added in the email, obtained by Breitbart News. “There is not more I can add to the United States’ decision to seek dismissal under 3730(c)(2)(A), but feel free to let us know if you have any questions.”

This decision was shocking to plaintiffs because it represented a major reversal of the position the very same Biden Justice Department had previously taken. The Justice Department had, after years of inexplicable delays, previously declined to intervene in the qui tam suit per a filing on June 1, 2023 — it took the Department years to finally get to this point — and then the case was unsealed finally on Jan. 24, 2024 — eleven months ago — after a battle on that front in court. In laymen’s terms, what the Justice Department formally declining to intervene in a qui tam suit and then the suit getting unsealed by the court means is the plaintiffs in the qui tam suit can proceed with litigation against the defendants.

This story begins back during Obama’s administration, when leftists and environmentalists supercharged a crazed push towards so-called renewable energy sources. The federal government under Obama backed what was called the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project with $737 million in guaranteed loans. The plant was a $1 billion project.

Ostensibly, what Crescent Dunes was building was a 1,600-acre plant in the Nevada desert designed to use mirrors to capture sunlight to heat molten salt in a giant tower to create energy. “The plant was supposed to generate clean energy using more than 10,000 mirrors to heat molten salt in a 640-foot-high tower,” the Las Vegas Review Journal wrote in a 2020 editorial about the project’s failures. “The superheated salt would then boil water, creating steam to produce power. Making this endeavor even more exciting was that salt was supposed to be able to store heat and produce electricity after sunset.”

Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, had talked for years about making the Silver State “the Saudi Arabia of geothermal and solar energy.” This fit the bill. Reid, who has since retired and passed away, now has the Las Vegas airport named after him. While he is gone, the U.S. taxpayer is still allegedly out with what sources familiar with the details of the lawsuit say is more than $200 million, and could be as high as $700 million or even more depending on factors such as depreciation and loan guarantees.

The plant went into bankruptcy in 2020 after years of failing to return any profit, but as of 2021, it was reportedly operating again somewhat under a different ownership structure per a local news report from 8NewsNow in Nevada. That story detailed some of the problems with the technology as well.

“In addition to its struggles to turn a profit, the plant also was criticized because birds were dying in the intense heat produced by the panels. Some reports indicated that birds had burst into flames in mid-flight,” the 8NewsNow report from 2021 from a Las Vegas television station reads. “Another problem surrounded a report that workers were hospitalized after they were exposed to nitrogen dioxide — a gas emitted from the hot salt tank.”

These and other major problems with the technology and operations at the Crescent Dunes plant that significantly delayed its launch — and even took the plant offline for a year — call into question the legitimacy of cash grants, guaranteed loans, and depreciation benefits and whether American taxpayers were essentially bilked out of the cash and are now owed money.

That is what the qui tam lawsuit aimed to rectify, and that is where CMB Export, LLC comes in. CMB’s interest is, as an EB-5 visa firm, they say they are out tens of millions of dollars because of the failed project. So, they began investigating what happened and uncovered these major concerns with regard to how the Obama administration awarded these grants and other taxpayer-funded benefits, which are the basis for the qui tam lawsuit. The Biden Justice Department slow-walked it for years but finally approved the case to move forward procedurally. Everything was going smoothly until just before the election, a couple days out from Trump’s triumph over Harris, when CMB began hearing that the Biden Justice Department may reverse its support for the lawsuit.

Notice of that reversal is what formally came in those Election Night emails from the DOJ official, followed by a filing the next day in court seeking the dismissal of the qui tam case. The timing begs questions regarding why the Biden Justice Department would — from all appearances — seek to cover this up before Donald Trump would win the Presidential Election and Republicans would control both houses in Congress.

There is growing interest in Congress about getting answers from the DOJ.

Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) wrote on Monday to Attorney General Merrick Garland to demand answers about the election night reversal.

“I am writing to express my concern regarding the Department of Justice’s recent decision to intervene and dismiss the qui tam case filed by CMB Export, LLC, under the False Claims Act against Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC, Cobra Energy Investment, and other associated parties,” Miller wrote to Garland in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Breitbart News. “This case, centered on allegations of significant fraud and misrepresentation regarding the Crescent Dunes Project, raises serious questions about the use of taxpayer funds and the federal government’s commitment to holding parties accountable for alleged misconduct. The timing of the Department’s decision to dismiss this case is particularly troubling. After three and a half years of investigation, during which the case was under seal, the Department chose to allow CMB Export to proceed with prosecution as of August 2023. However, on November 6, 2024—just one day after the presidential election—the Department reversed course, intervening to dismiss the case with no clear justification provided beyond vague references to ‘public interest’ and the ‘expenditure of government resources.’”

Breitbart News reached out to Congressman Miller, who gave the following exclusive comment:

On November 5th, the American people rejected the Biden administration’s radical green new deal agenda and voted for affordable energy. If this project isn’t fulfilling its commitment, the DOJ needs to fully investigate. There must be accountability and transparency for every taxpayer dollar spent by the government, and I look forward to hearing from AG Garland.

Breitbart News has also learned that other members of Congress have been made aware of the matter.

There are major implications as well for the incoming Trump administration. Of course, this matter cuts across several federal government departments — from Justice to Interior to Energy to Treasury. The Justice Department is at the center of things, so incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi, will be in position to evaluate the matter and make a decision about how to proceed. Incoming Energy Secretary Chris Wright and incoming Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will also need to look at solar and other green energy policies. Earlier this year, for example, the Biden administration’s Interior Department announced an expanded push for more solar energy projects like Crescent Dunes on federal lands.

“Officials at the federal Bureau of Land Management announced Aug. 29 they had finalized a plan to add Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming to its existing Western Solar Plan – an Obama-era project that expanded permitting for solar projects on federal land,” the Oregon Capital Chronicle’s Alex Baumhardt wrote in September. “When it was first implemented in 2012, it only included Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.”

This expansion includes millions and millions of federal land acres across these major wide-open western states, and it will be critical how Secretaries Burgum and Wright handle all of this.

As for Treasury, incoming Secretary Scott Bessent — just announced last week as Trump’s pick to lead the important Treasury Department — will have to decide if his Department was lied to by the Energy Department when the cash grants were made during the Obama administration.

The newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to be led by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, could also end up weighing in on the bloated bureaucracy and waste of taxpayer resources on projects such as Crescent Dunes.

Trump himself of course has promised to revitalize American energy and has regularly criticized green Leftist projects like this.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/25/exclusive-crescent-dunes-biden-doj-moved-election-night-cover-up-alleged-solar-energy-scandal/

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The Trump transition team shot down a report from a British newspaper claiming that President-elect Donald Trump is planning an executive order that would remove all transgender troops from the military and prevent transgender people from joining the military.

Citing “defence sources,” British newspaper The Times reported that the order could come on Trump’s first day back in the White House. The order would reportedly go further than Trump went during his first administration when he ordered that transgender people could serve, but as their biological sex.

Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the paper and other news outlets:

These unnamed sources are speculating and have no idea what they are actually talking about. No decisions on this issue have been made. No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople.

Trump had reversed a policy put into place by former President Barack Obama in his last year in office, which allowed transgender troops to serve openly, undergo gender reassignment surgery, and formally change their gender in Pentagon systems.

President Joe Biden then reversed Trump’s policy during his first week in the White House.

There have been a number of inaccurate reports about what the incoming Trump administration will do.

The Times, citing unnamed sources “familiar with Trump’s plans” complained that “people will be forced out at a time when the military can’t recruit enough people.

It is unknown how many transgender troops are currently serving in the military, out of 1.3 million active-duty members.

Trump Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth has vowed to rid the military of woke policies and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that flourished over the past decade beginning under the Obama administration.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/25/trump-spox-shoots-down-report-trump-remove-transgender-troops/

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The Times of Israel smeared Rebel News founder and journalist Ezra Levant as a “far-right activist” on Sunday after he was arrested in Toronto, Canada, for filming an anti-Israel protest in a Jewish neighborhood on a public sidewalk.

The Times of Israel reported:

Canadian far-right political pundit Ezra Levant has been arrested at a pro-Hamas rally in Toronto, after he refused police instructions to move away from the demonstration, claiming he was being discriminated against for being Jewish.

In a video of the arrest posted to social media by Levant’s Rebel News platform, officers can be heard telling the conservative activist that his presence at the pro-Palestinian rally was “inciting the crowd.

The officer then tells him he is under “arrest for breaching the peace,” at which point the protesters erupt in cheers and calls of “Zionist” and “loser.”

As the Times of Israel admitted, one protester at the Toronto event was dressed as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, while another held a sign urging Jews to go to Amsterdam, the site of a massive antisemitic riot earlier this month.

Such displays would be offensive to mainstream readers of the Times of Israel, yet it smears Levant as “far-right.”

Video of the arrest, posted by Rebel News — a self-identified conservative news outlet, but not “far-right” — shows Levant being ushered by police away from a group of protesters holding Palestinian flags. A confrontation ensues as police claim Levant is inciting the mob by filming them in public, while Levant says it is the mob that is inciting violence.

After Levant refuses to move aside upon the orders of the police, the police arrest him for disturbing the peace.

Police in Canada have a habit of arresting conservative reporters, so much so that Rebel News is actually suing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) over an earlier arrest of reporter David Menzies for attempting to ask a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government a question as she walked down a public sidewalk.

In the United States, public sidewalks are typically where free speech is at its most free, with few boundaries.

Levant is no more “far-right” than the Times of Israel’s readership. But the online news website often reliable on news in Israel, frequently takes potshots at conservatives in the United States and Canada — as in this egregious example.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/24/times-of-israel-smears-journalist-ezra-levant-as-far-right-activist-after-arrest/

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur fighting deportation from New Zealand to the United States on charges relating to his file-sharing website Megaupload, has suffered a “serious stroke”, a post on his X account said Monday.

“I have the best health professionals helping me to make a recovery. I will be back as soon as I can. Please be patient and pray for my family and I,” the post said.

Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, confirmed to The Associated Press that the contents of the statement were accurate. Rothken would not say whether Dotcom or someone else wrote the post and did not provide further details.

News of his ill health comes during a protracted battle by the U.S. government to extradite the Finnish-German millionaire to the United States from New Zealand to face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.

In August, New Zealand ’s justice minister announced that Dotcom should be surrendered to the United States to face trial, a ruling intended to cap a 12-year legal battle. A date for the extradition was not set, and Paul Goldsmith, the minister, said Dotcom would be allowed “a short period of time to consider and take advice” on the decision.

Rothken at the time wrote on X that Dotcom intended to challenge the order in court through a judicial review, in which a judge is asked to evaluate whether an official’s decision was reached correctly.

The saga stretches to the 2012 arrest of Dotcom in a dramatic raid on his Auckland mansion, along with other company officers. Prosecutors said the once wildly popular Megaupload raked in at least $175 million — mainly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows and movies — before the FBI shut it down earlier that year.

Lawyers for Dotcom and the others arrested had argued that it was the users of the site, founded in 2005, who chose to pirate material, not its founders. But prosecutors argued the men were the architects of a vast criminal enterprise, with the Department of Justice describing it as the largest criminal copyright case in U.S. history.

The men fought the order for years — lambasting the investigation and arrests — but in 2021 New Zealand’s Supreme Court ruled that Dotcom and two other men could be extradited. It remained up to the country’s Justice Minister to decide if the extradition should proceed.

“I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving,” German-born Dotcom wrote on X in August. He did not respond to an AP request for comment at the time, or on Monday.

Two of Dotcom’s former business partners pleaded guilty to the charges they faced and served time in a New Zealand jail, avoiding extradition to the U.S. Prosecutors abandoned an extradition bid against another, who has since died of cancer.

Dotcom did not say in Monday’s statement when he suffered the stroke. Usually a prolific X user, the internet mogul last posted to the site on Nov. 6.

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https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/11/25/internet-mogul-kim-dotcom-suffers-serious-stroke-ahead-of-extradition-to-u-s/

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US State Department employees who can’t handle Donald Trump’s presidential victory should be fired on day one of his administration, Republican lawmakers have argued. The diplomatic corps reportedly organized therapy sessions for people who are upset over the outcome of the recent election.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California accused the department of “catering to federal employees who are personally devastated by the normal functioning of American democracy.”

Issa was referring to a report published earlier this month by the Washington Free Beacon, which cited an internal memo about two therapy sessions on “managing stress during change,” the first of which was on the Friday after the election. A State Department source described the event as a “‘cry session’ over Trump’s victory.”

It was disturbing, Issa said, that “ostensibly nonpartisan government officials would suffer a personal meltdown over the results of a free and fair election.” He suggested that “if foreign service officers cannot follow through on the American people’s preferences, they should resign and seek a political appointment in the next Democrat administration.”

Musk shows interest in purchasing MSNBCRead more Musk shows interest in purchasing MSNBC The letter, which was shared with the Washington Free Beacon, requested that Blinken provide explanations about the therapy sessions and other similar events that it may have held in-house in the past.

A similar rebuke came from Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who fumed that “our diplomacy is too important to be left to children” and called for every attendee of the therapy sessions to be fired “on day one” of the Trump administration.

Trump’s inauguration will take place on January 20. He picked Senator Marco Rubio of Florida to replace Blinken at the helm of the State Department, with no obstacles expected for his confirmation in Congress.

Left-leaning UK newspaper The Guardian offered its employees, particularly those living in the US, free counseling and emotional support following Trump’s victory, according to a memo quoted by Guido Fawkes, a British political gossip blog.

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https://www.rt.com/news/608152-department-state-therapy-trump/

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EAGLE PASS, Texas — Border Patrol agents interdicted a large group of migrants shortly after they waded across the shallow Rio Grande 12 miles north of Eagle Pass on Friday. The large group of 260 migrants crossed into the United States just before daybreak.

Among the large migrant group were Iranian, Egyptian, Angolan, and Bolivian citizens. A source within Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says that multi-national groups of migrants are becoming the norm in the small Texas border city.

According to the source, not authorized to speak to the media, many within the group, including four Egyptian and two Iranian nationals, will ultimately be released into the United States to pursue asylum claims due to difficulties returning them to their home countries. Although a significant surge in border crossings anticipated after President-elect Trump’s recent victory has not materialized, the source says there has been an uptick, and migrant group sizes are growing.

As reported by Breitbart Texas, the surge is being prevented by law enforcement authorities in Mexico, who are still preventing thousands of migrants from using the country’s freight train system known as “La Bestia” or “The Beast” to reach the United States. The source says if that changes, Americans should expect a return to days when seven to ten thousand migrants or more crossed into the United States daily.

The source says Special Interest Alien crossings in the Eagle Pass was once a rarity. Violence in Sinaloa according to the source is one reason migrants from special interest countries may be choosing to enter the United States in Texas. Regardless, the trend is concerning the source told Breitbart Texas.

According to a 2019 DHS fact sheet, the term “Special Interest Alien” is defined as follows:

Generally, an SIA is a non-U.S. person who, based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its interests. Often such individuals or groups are employing travel patterns known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism. DHS analysis includes an examination of travel patterns, points of origin, and/or travel segments that are tied to current assessments of national and international threat environments.

This does not mean that all SIAs are “terrorists,” but rather that the travel and behavior of such individuals indicates a possible nexus to nefarious activity (including terrorism) and, at a minimum, provides indicators that necessitate heightened screening and further investigation. The term SIA does not indicate any specific derogatory information about the individual – and DHS has never indicated that the SIA designation means more than that.

As reported by Breitbart, Texas, authorities have seen an uptick in large migrant group crossings into Eagle Pass after a significant slowdown due to increased election year enforcement efforts in Mexico that significantly slowed the flow of migrants arriving at the United States border. During the first two weeks of November, the Del Rio Sector reported the arrest of nearly 4,000 migrants, most of whom crossed into Eagle Pass.

The pace of migrant entries within the sector, according to the source, is significantly lower than that experienced in November 2023, when more than 40,000 migrants were apprehended within the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector. “All we can do is cross our fingers and hope that the slight increases don’t lead to an all-out border rush in the lead-up to the inauguration in January,” the source added.

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https://www.breitbart.com/border/2024/11/24/exclusive-special-interest-aliens-found-among-260-migrants-crossing-texas-border-in-single-group/

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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law banning the promotion of “childfree propaganda” on Saturday.

The legislation penalizes anyone advocating the refusal to have children. Critics have said that it will not help with Russia’s demographic problems.

The measure targets the spread of childfree ideology through media, films, advertising, and the internet, and aims to prevent the dissemination of materials that encourage the rejection of parenthood.

It imposes fines on those found guilty of promoting the concept. Individuals could face penalties ranging from 50,000 ($480) to 100,000 rubles, while officials could be fined between 100,000 and 200,000 rubles. Legal entities will face steeper costs, with fines of up to five million rubles.

The law also stipulates fines if such propaganda is spread through the media or internet, with penalties for individuals ranging up to 200,000 rubles, for officials up to 400,000 rubles, and for legal entities up to four million rubles. If it is deemed to have affected minors, these fines will be further increased.

In cases where childfree ideology is spread online, website owners will be required to monitor and identify such content, with failure to comply resulting in the website being added to a registry of prohibited information managed by Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.

The bill was unanimously approved by both the State Duma and the Federation Council.

The Kremlin has made the demographic challenge a priority, with declining population figures and a low birth rate seen as pressing national issues.

An exception is included in the law for the promotion of monasticism and celibacy. Under the new provisions, the rejection of childbearing for religious or monastic reasons will not be considered an offense.

While it focuses primarily on domestic media and internet platforms, it extends to foreign nationals as well. Foreigners promoting childfree ideas in Russia will face the same fines and could be expelled from the country or placed under administrative arrest for up to 15 days.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/608110-russia-childfree-propaganda-ban/

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National security advisers and other senior officials from the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden held a meeting with top executives from major telecommunications companies on Friday to discuss what is being described as “by far” the worst breach in the country’s history.

Earlier this month, the US authorities accused alleged Beijing-linked hacking group ‘Salt Typhoon’ of intercepting surveillance data gathered and stored by the telecoms for American law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators allegedly intercepted text messages and audio from an unknown number of calls during a large-scale operation that lasted for months.

Senator Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the breach the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history – by far,” following a hearing this week. “The barn door is still wide open, or mostly open.”

On Friday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger hosted a meeting with the telecommunications industry at the White House, though it is unclear who exactly was present.

“The meeting was an opportunity to hear from telecommunications sector executives about how the US government can partner with and support the private sector in hardening against sophisticated nation-state attacks,” the White House said in a statement.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint statement on November 13, blaming the intrusion on China and admitting that the stolen information had been gathered and stored as part of “legal” surveillance on American suspects.

“Specifically, we have identified that PRC-affiliated actors have compromised networks at multiple telecommunications companies to enable the theft of customer call record data, the compromise of private communications of a limited number of individuals primarily involved in government or political activity, and the copying of certain information that was subject to US law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders,” they wrote.

The scope of the breach is still under investigation. Reports indicate that fewer than 150 victims have been notified by the FBI so far, most of whom are located in the Washington DC area. However, since those affected likely called or texted numerous people, the number of records accessed by hackers could be significantly higher.

An unnamed adviser to the campaign of President-elect Donald Trump is also said to be among those whose conversations were intercepted, according to a report last month by the Washington Post. It remains unclear whether the adviser’s information was also “subject to US law enforcement requests.” In 2016, the FBI used the fabricated Steele Dossier to obtain court permission to spy on Trump’s campaign and undermine his presidency.

Beijing has repeatedly denied hacking allegations and claims by Washington that it is attempting to meddle in the US electoral process. The Chinese Embassy in Washington previously stated that it was unaware of the activities of ‘Salt Typhoon’ and accused the US of fabricating evidence of Beijing’s involvement in cyberattacks to “smear China.”

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https://www.rt.com/news/608114-us-hacked-spying-backdoor/

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Multiple unidentified drones have been detected near three major UK airbases, including RAF Lakenheath, which formerly hosted American nuclear weapons during the Cold War, the US Air Force (USAF) has confirmed.

According to a spokesperson for the USAF’s European Command, small unmanned aerial vehicles were observed between November 20 and 22 over RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, as well as RAF Feltwell in Norfolk.

The number of suspicious drones “fluctuated and ranged in size and configuration,” and it remains unclear whether they posed a hostile threat, the military said.

The Pentagon declined to comment on whether any air defenses were employed against the drones, stating only that they actively monitored the situation to ensure none of the incursions impacted base residents or critical infrastructure.

“To protect operational security, we do not discuss our specific force protection measures but retain the right to protect the installation. We continue to monitor our airspace and are working with host-nation authorities and mission partners to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets,” the spokesman said.

The British Ministry of Defense also refused to comment on the specific security procedures taken against the drones. A spokesperson said the military is taking the threats seriously and maintains “robust measures” at critical defense sites.

RAF Lakenheath was one of three sites in Britain that hosted US nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War, housing 110 American warheads until a drawdown in 2008.

According to earlier media reports, the Pentagon is preparing the base to host nuclear weapons once again. The US military requested $50 million for a new “surety dormitory” at RAF Lakenheath in last year’s funding request to Congress, analyzed by a US think tank and British media. In January, The Telegraph reported that the base is expected to house B61-12 bombs, which are three times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima, citing procurement contracts for the new facility.

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https://www.rt.com/news/608112-uk-us-airbases-drones/

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Despite various debunkings, the Western establishment is still policing Covid-19 narratives nearly five years later – even when the latest bombshell suggests a US national security coverup.

A former head of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is being accused of spreading fake news for making statements that fall outside the acceptable Covid-related dogma that the Western establishment deems etched into history as indisputable fact.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the virologist who served as CDC director during President Donald Trump’s first term, said on a recent podcast that the Covid virus was “intentionally engineered as part of a biodefense program,” and that “the US role was substantial,” citing research funded by the “National Institutes of Health, the State Department, USAID, and the Defense Department.”

He specifically attributed the probable creation of “some of the original viral lines” to a researcher at the University of North Carolina, although conceded that he couldn’t actually prove it. Yeah, well, that’s what hearings with the power to compel evidence and testimony under threat of imprisonment are for – not a podcast. How about getting that researcher on the stand?

“Scientists agree that there is no evidence to suggest that Covid-19 originated in a lab in any country,” Newsweek wrote in reporting on Redfield’s remarks. Actually, there is at least some smoke to suggest a potential fire. In 2021, Newsweek itself contacted Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) during Trump’s first term. Fauci clarified that the research the US “supported in China, where coronaviruses are prevalent, sought to understand the behavior of coronaviruses circulating in bats that have the potential to cause widespread disease. The body of science produced by this research demonstrates that the bat coronavirus sequences published from that work NIH supported were not SARS-CoV-2.”

Fauci added that the US-backed gain of function research wasn’t applied to viruses that could infect humans. Guess it’s just an incredibly wild and unlucky coincidence then that the global epicenter for the outbreak just happened to take place near a lab funded by Washington in China, where they were doing gain of function work on some viruses – just not on the exact virus that happened to cause global mayhem.

And we’re supposed to just take Fauci’s word for it, I guess. We’re talking about the same guy who appeared on TV in a cloth mask covered in the logo of his favorite sports team and told everyone to do the same as though the only thing standing between life and death was a pair of grandma’s pantyhose wrapped around your face. Then he told Americans not to invite unvaccinated family members over for the holidays, despite the fact that it failed to actually prevent transmission or infection.

During the podcast interview, Redfield also reframed China’s responsibility in a way that would likely annoy the Western establishment. “When you look at the accountability for China, their accountability is not in the lab work and in the creation of the virus. Their accountability is not following the international health regulations after they realized they had a problem,” he said, seemingly implying that it was American interests that spearheaded the research project.

Again, why is mainstream America learning about this via some obscure show? This guy even testified at a Covid congressional hearing, but his position was far from audible. “It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative, and that I obviously had a different point of view,” Redfield previously said, according to the BBC. “Science has debate and they squashed any debate,” he added, in a nod to Fauci. The White House has admitted that there isn’t even consensus across the US government on the Covid virus’ origin, yet they seem entirely satisfied with the lack of answers.

Despite the lingering uncertainties, the establishment press is quick to dismiss anyone who doesn’t support the theory that it came from some random bat or other animal that some dude ate in China. The scientific community and the Western establishment gate-keep their Covid-related narratives as consensus, and anyone who dares to deviate is written off as a kook – even if the dissenting view, in this case, is expressed by one of America’s leading health authorities during the Covid fiasco.

This is the same ‘scientific community’ that largely shrugged off the social applications of their ‘science’ when it led to things like surfers wandering along empty beaches alone being chased down and tackled by cops in the interest of public health. It’s the same community that’s equally intolerant of any dissent related to their manmade climate change theory.

Why is debate even remotely controversial when there are still so many unanswered questions? And it’s not like the issue is benign or entirely in the rear-view mirror. Some people are still so traumatized by the tsunami of official government propaganda related to the overwhelmingly survivable (and now largely forgotten) virus that they haven’t stopped regularly running out to top up on their Covid jabs, which have never actually met the time-tested definition of a vaccine.

Recently, some American jurisdictions have even taken action to stop people jonesing for their next injection to treat their state-sponsored psychological trauma a half-decade later. Officials in Texas and Florida have actively blocked jab promotion and marketing campaigns. A regional public health authority in Ohio has recently blocked it from even being available.

Last year, the House Oversight Committee identified a “highly credible” senior CIA officer who told them that the CIA had offered financial incentive to a group of analysts working on the Covid origin question to support the natural transmission theory over the lab leak theory. If CIA involvement can’t be dismissed, then why ignore the possibility of other related national security agencies’ involvement?

Achieving greater transparency on the discreet role of government agencies in the Covid debacle sounds like the perfect job for Trump’s new nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long suspected the involvement of the CIA in the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, citing the former president’s refusal to send troops to Vietnam.

Western governments from the US to France have classified Covid-related information and deliberations. Sounds like it would be a good time to reopen the conversation, starting with the public release of any secret ‘Covid files’ – all in the interest of science, of course.

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https://www.rt.com/news/608068-covid-cdc-lab-leak-us/

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Ukraine could be extremely useful to the US because it is brimming with valuable natural resources and is willing to negotiate an agreement with Washington on extraction, Senator Lindsey Graham has said.

The Republican senator from South Carolina told Fox News that the Ukraine conflict is ultimately “about money.” An extract of the interview was published on the senator’s YouTube channel on Wednesday. “You know that the richest country in all of Europe for rare earth minerals is Ukraine?” he said, estimating the worth at 2 to 7 trillion dollars.

Graham added that Ukraine is ready to “do a deal with us,” but not Russia. “So it’s in our interest to make sure that Russia doesn’t take over the place,” he said, describing Ukraine as the “breadbasket of the world.”

“We can make money and have an economic relationship with Ukraine. It would be very beneficial to us, with peace,” Graham went on to say. “Donald Trump is going to do a deal to get our money back, to enrich ourselves with rare earth minerals. A good deal for Ukraine and us.”

The president-elect, he added, will also help settle the conflict by concluding an “honorable deal” that would avoid “humiliating” Russian President Vladimir Putin and setting the stage for another conflict.

“Donald Trump knows how to end wars. All Joe Biden knows how to do is start wars,” he said.

Graham is known for his hawkish stance on aiding Ukraine and containing Moscow. In February, he was added to Russia’s list of ‘terrorists and extremists’, after the senator advocated for designating Russia as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’. In 2023, Moscow expressed outrage over Graham’s remarks during a meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, when he said: “The Russians are dying. The best money we’ve ever spent.”

In mid-October, Zelensky presented his ‘victory plan,’ which stated that Kiev is ready to sign with its Western backers “a special agreement on the joint protection of the available critical resources” in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Mikhail Podoliak, a top adviser to Zelensky, also stressed that Ukraine has “deposits of rare minerals, such as lithium and titanium, which we can exploit together [with the US].”

Trump has vowed to quickly end the Ukraine conflict. Media reports have suggested that he may try to force Ukraine to drop its NATO ambitions and negotiate a freeze of the conflict. Moscow has ruled out a freeze along the current front line, insisting that all the objectives of its military operation must be achieved.

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https://www.rt.com/news/608128-ukraine-can-make-america-rich/

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Migrants tied to criminality, sex traffickers, and fraudsters have used President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s parole pipeline to get into the United States, a bombshell interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee reveals.

The report details the fraud and abuse plaguing the administration’s CHNV program — designed to get Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans into the U.S. by having them bypass the southern border and, instead, fly into domestic airports.

Since January 2023, the CHNV program has welcomed 531,620 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to American towns.

“Since January 2021, President Joe Biden and border czar Vice President Kamala Harris have welcomed 7.7 million illegal aliens into the United States, including at least 1.9 million known illegal alien ‘got-aways,'” the report begins:

To mask the border crisis and artificially decrease historically high border encounters, President Biden and Vice President Harris implemented programs and policies that allowed aliens to bypass the southwest border so they would not be included as encounters in Border Patrol data. In particular, the Administration created, without Congressional authorization, what it called “lawful pathways” for illegal aliens to enter the U.S. One such avenue is the Biden-Harris Administration’s categorical parole program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV). [Emphasis added]

Through CHNV, each month up to 30,000 aliens, who otherwise have no basis to enter the country and who have “a supporter” in the United States, can bypass the U.S. border and fly directly into the country “on commercial flights” to be “granted parole” for a period of two years by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As of “the end of September 2024, more than 531,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans” had done so. The CHNV supporter must “file a Form I-134A, Online Request to be a Supporter and Declaration of Financial Support” (Form I-134A) with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and must agree “to provide [the CHNV beneficiary] with financial support for the duration of their parole in the United States.” The CHNV alien then arrives at a U.S. airport where a DHS official paroles the alien into the country. Once paroled, the alien can apply for a work permit. [Emphasis added]

In particular, the report suggests that Biden and Harris have “enabled fraud, undermined national security, and endangered public safety, all in favor of ensuring that hundreds of thousands of otherwise illegal aliens can come to the U.S. through CHNV.”

According to the report, fraudulent documents have been used by CHNV applicants to claim that they have the financial means to get to the U.S. Likewise, some applicants admitted that the income listed on their application may have derived from criminal activities.

In some cases, migrants were admitted to the U.S. through the CHNV program despite not residing in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, or Venezuela — the four nations that the program was designed to aid.

The report also found that “sex traffickers have potentially used CHNV to exploit women and girls,” detailing that “a fraud analysis of CHNV applications revealed that some applications that were sent from the same IP addresses were submitted on behalf of a high proportion of female CHNV aliens.”

“In one such case, 21 supporter applications were submitted from the same IP address on behalf of 18 females and only three males,” the report states. “At least six of the females were under the age of 18.”

In August, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas temporarily shut down the CHNV program over reports of fraud and abuse. Only weeks later, though, Mayorkas announced that the program would be restarted despite warnings from Congress.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/22/bombshell-house-judiciary-report-criminals-sex-traffickers-used-biden-harris-parole-pipeline-to-get-into-u-s/

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Ukraine did not receive as much foreign aid as claimed by the administration of US President Joe Biden, and a lot of whatever help it did get was embezzled, a former Polish deputy minister has claimed. Up to a half of the funds that reached Kiev was stolen by Ukrainian officials, Piotr Kulpa has alleged.

The political commentator previously held several posts in the Polish government, serving as deputy labor minister in the mid-2000s, and is currently a regular contributor on Ukrainian online shows. Kulpa is a vocal supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, as evidenced by his remarks to Ukrainian journalist Lana Shevchuk on Thursday.

“Everyone understands that war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine, but also the supplier nation,” he said. “Who would ever believe that the US burned through $2 trillion in Afghanistan? It’s delusional!”

US aid programs are a mechanism to “write off large sums of money that finance shady systems under the Democratic Party’s control,” he alleged. The incoming Trump administration could review government finances and discover the truth that “Ukraine got very little” compared to the amounts mentioned in public statements, Kulpa claimed.

“But they will also find something else: that a huge portion of the funds was stolen in Ukraine. From 30% to 50%, regardless of the nature of the aid,” he added.

If Kiev were to recover all the embezzled money for the Ukrainian budget, the country would have enough for a year, Kulpa said. He denounced senior Ukrainian officials, whose regular salaries and bonuses he believes are outrageously high.

“It’s a spit in the face of every Ukrainian,” the former minister asserted. “To every European and American taxpayer. This system is criminal from start to finish.”

Trump and his allies have been highly critical of the amount of assistance that the Biden administration has sent to Kiev. The president-elect has argued that EU nations should assume the burden of propping up Ukraine, while the American government should focus on its own priorities.

US concerns about graft in Kiev have been reflected in some government documents, such as a report that Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch’s office released last week. It said corruption “continues to complicate Ukraine’s efforts to achieve its EU and NATO aspirations.”

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https://www.rt.com/russia/608059-ukraine-graft-democrats-trump/

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The latest round of US sanctions against Russian financial institutions, which specifically target Gazprombank, is an attempt to block Russia’s gas supplies to the EU, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday. The lender is Russia’s primary bank for energy-related transactions.

Peskov warned that Moscow would respond to restrictions with countermeasures, though he did not specify what they would entail.

The Kremlin spokesman’s remarks follow an announcement by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday, which said Gazprombank and six of its international subsidiaries had been added to its sanctions blacklist. Gazprombank had already been sanctioned by the UK and Canada shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. However, the US had previously avoided placing restrictions on the lender as it was used by EU states to pay for Russian gas.

When asked whether the Kremlin viewed sanctions on Gazprombank as an attempt to jeopardize supplies of Russian gas to Europe, and whether Moscow planned any response, Peskov replied: “The answer is ‘Yes’ to both questions.”

He noted that Russian authorities were already working on ways to alleviate the problems that the new restrictions could cause Russia and its foreign gas buyers.

“Of course, we’ll find options. It is impossible to introduce completely blocking measures against a country like Russia. It may take some time, but a solution will still be found,” Peskov said.

The new measures mean Gazprombank can no longer carry out transactions that involve the dollar-based financial system. Gazprombank earlier said that sanctions would not affect its operations within Russia, but warned that its UnionPay cards may stop working outside the country.

Apart from Gazprombank, the new US restrictions also targeted more than 50 small-to-medium Russian lenders, some 40 securities registrars, and 15 financial officials.

After the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the EU declared the elimination of its reliance on Russian energy to be its top priority. Many member states, including Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark, voluntarily halted their imports. However, several EU nations, including Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Italy continue to rely on Russian gas to meet their energy needs, and have not stopped buying the commodity despite pressure from peers within the bloc.

Moscow has slammed Western sanctions as illegal, and noted that they keep backfiring on the countries that impose them. Russia has also been gradually moving away from the dollar in trade, switching to transactions using national currencies with most of its international partners.

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https://www.rt.com/business/608060-us-sanctions-russian-gas-eu/

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An American financier and investor has asked permission from the US government to buy the sabotaged Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if it is put up for auction, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Stephen Lynch requested authorization in February from the US Treasury Department to bid on the pipeline if it is auctioned next year, the paper wrote on Thursday, citing a letter from the financier’s lawyers that it saw.

The investor, who had reportedly spent two decades doing business in Moscow, told the outlet that US ownership of the pipeline would give the government a tool to exert pressure in any peace negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine conflict and would serve long-term US interests.

“The bottom line is this: This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for American and European control over European energy supply for the rest of the fossil-fuel era,” Lynch told the WSJ.

The pipeline, which was designed to increase Russian gas supplies to the EU, was damaged by sabotage in September 2022 and now stands idle as its Swiss-based operator is scrambling to avoid insolvency.

Moscow has argued that the US benefited from the attack due to its position as a supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe, and pointed the finger at Washington as a possible culprit. American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has blamed the act of sabotage on the CIA, alleging that the agency carried out the attack with the help of the Norwegian Navy under direct orders of the White House.

Lynch reportedly believes he can buy the Nord Stream 2, which has been valued at around $11 billion, for pennies on the dollar, the WSJ wrote, citing people familiar with the matter.

In a letter to the Treasury, Lynch reportedly said that in January 2025, during the bankruptcy proceedings of Nord Stream 2 AG – the pipeline’s operator and a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom – its debt will either be restructured or the company will be liquidated.

According to the article, Lynch, who was a large contributor to US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, is seeking a license from the Treasury that would allow him to negotiate with entities sanctioned by the US.

Lynch argued that after the end of the Ukraine conflict, it will be “tempting for both Russia and its former customers in Germany and Europe to turn on the pipeline, regardless of who owns it,” the WSJ wrote.

The Miami-based investor is also known for obtaining a license from the Treasury Department to complete the acquisition of the Swiss subsidiary of Sberbank in 2022, after the US imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest lender.

Switzerland’s m3 Groupe took control of a majority stake at the time, and Lynch became a minority shareholder.

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https://www.rt.com/news/608041-us-investor-eyeing-nord-stream-purchase/

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Officials in Germany were provided with intelligence detailing a Ukrainian plot to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines months before the attack took place, but the warnings were ignored and no preventative measures were taken, an investigation has claimed.

In what may become to be seen as a major intelligence failure by the German state, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government allegedly failed to make any preparations to prevent the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines despite purportedly receiving intelligence of a Ukrainian plot to destroy the energy import infrastructure.

According to a report from Germany’s Der Spiegel news magazine, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) received an encrypted, top secret cable in June of 2022 from Dutch military intelligence, which was also reportedly shared with the CIA, warning of a plot organised by then-Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi to dispatch six Ukrainian commandos traveling under false identities to rent a boat and dive to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and blow up the pipelines.

The intelligence indicated that the sabotage was planned to take place during the NATO ‘BALTOPS’ military exercise, which took place between 5 and 17 June 2022. After the exercises were complete and the attack did not materialise, the German government decided that the intelligence was false and therefore made no preparations to prevent the attack, and failed to even warn the federal police, the navy, or federal and state counter-terrorism centres of the potential threat.

If true, this failure to act turned out to be a miscalculation, and one which allowed the attackers on a budget of less than $300,000 to destroy the two pipelines on September 26th, 2022, and put Germany’s long-term energy supply in doubt.

“It was a crazy plan that only succeeded through fierce determination and enormous luck, but was also aided by incompetent security agencies and political intrigue,” Spiegel commented.

The leading German news magazine has claimed to have identified most of the members of the Ukrainian crew involved in the attack and have since gone underground. Yet Spiegel said that it would not disclose their names publicly as it could result in them becoming the target of “Russian assassination squads” or even of the “Ukrainian security apparatus”.

“Some are civilians, others soldiers. They were hired and trained by a group that had been planning and carrying out secret operations for the Ukrainian security apparatus over the years. Some of the perpetrators have long-standing ties to the CIA,” the magazine reported.

Despite some of the attackers allegedly having ties to the U.S. intelligence service, and President Joe Biden’s public threats to destroy the pipelines, the report claims that in June of 2022 the CIA’s representative met with Volodymyr Zelensky at the presidential palace in Kyiv to demand that the plan be called off. Zelensky has claimed that he had no foreknowledge of the plot, however, Spiegel claims that he at least was made aware during the meeting with the CIA official, months before the actual attack.

The report also claimed that “U.S. agents” made direct contacts with members of the Ukrainian attack squad — alleging that “they knew each other” — to demand they call off the plot. After becoming aware that Western intelligence had become aware of the plot, then-Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi is reported to have told the commando team that if they didn’t abandon the plan, everyone involved would likely go to prison.

However, Spiegel says that this was not interpreted as a direct order to call off the strike, and with the operation being almost impossible to carry out on the Baltic Sea during the Autumn or Winter months, they decided to go ahead for fear of being delayed until the following Spring.

The claims from the widely circulated news magazine alleging the German government was made aware of the plot to destroy critical energy infrastructure, which as of 2021 accounted for half of Germany’s annual natural demands, comes two weeks after the collapse of the ‘traffic light’ coalition government of Olaf Scholz and just months before Germans will head to the polls to select a new government.

Beyond the broader questions over whether the report is indeed factual, it is also unclear if Chancellor Scholz was made personally aware of the Nord Stream plot, the apparent failure of his government to act on key intelligence may serve to further damage his already waning popularity, given the economic and energy crises that befell Germany following the sabotage of the pipelines.

The report may also call into question Berlin’s continued support for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia as countries like Germany, France, the UK are said to be plotting on how to keep funding for the war going if incoming U.S. President Donald Trump cuts off American aid as he seeks to broker a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.

Politicians on the left and the right of the political spectrum in Germany, such as leftist-populist Sahra Wagenknecht and the AfD’s Alice Weidel, have already called for the cessation of German aid to Ukraine over Kyiv’s alleged involvement in the Nord Stream plot.

There have also been demands for the German parliament to investigate the government over what it knew about the sabotage scheme.

Wagenknecht said in August: “If it turns out that German authorities knew about the attack plan in advance, then we would have a scandal of the century in German politics.”

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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/11/21/german-govt-ignored-intelligence-warnings-of-ukrainian-plot-to-blow-up-nord-stream-pipelines-report/

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The San Jose State University (SJSU) women’s volleyball team could win the conference championship if other teams forfeit due to the presence of a transgender player.

San Jose State women’s volleyball has been a source of extended controversy this season for including transgender player Blaire Fleming in its roster, which caused several teams to boycott or forfeit games in protest. As Breitbart News reported recently, Fleming, a biological man, has been breaking several records that were once set by women:

Transgender player Blaire Fleming is steadily breaking women’s volleyball records at San Jose State despite the growing number of opposing teams that have boycotted games in which he has played.

For instance, despite SJSU’s loss to San Diego State on Saturday, Fleming achieved his 250th kill shot, a record that puts him in the upper reaches women’s volleyball, the Daily Mail reported.

This is not the first season that Fleming has hit the 250 mark. He achieved that record in 2022, as well, during his first year with the team.

Going into the upcoming Mountain West Conference tournament, SJSU could win the championship, putting themselves on track for a possible spot in the NCAA tournament if teams forfeit in protest. A conference spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that organizers are prepared to award SJSU the championship by default should the boycotts continue.

“If we get to a championship game, and it’s San Jose State vs. whoever, if that institution forfeits the game, then San Jose State wins that match, and then they are tournament champions. And they would be the automatic qualifier out of the Mountain West,” the spokesperson said.

An emergency hearing on Thursday could spell different news should a judge rule against San Jose State.

“An emergency hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in Denver. A judge will determine whether to grant an injunction that seeks to disqualify San Jose State from competing in the conference tournament, disqualify Blaire Fleming from competing in the conference tournament, and/or remove losses from the records of teams who protested by not competing against SJSU,” noted Fox News.

“The conference spokesperson confirmed the conference could have to discard its plan pending the outcome of the hearing,” added the outlet.

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https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2024/11/20/san-jose-state-womens-volleyball-could-win-conference-championship-if-other-teams-forfeit-over-trans-player/

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A federal court has denied a motion by anti-Trump pundit Andrew Weissmann to dismiss a defamation suit by former White House lawyer Stefan Passantino over false claims that he had coached a January 6 Committee witness to lie.

As Breitbart News reported in September 2023:

Former Trump White House attorney Stefan Passantino filed a defamation lawsuit against MSNBC’s Andrew Weissmann, who served as lead prosecutor for former special counsel Robert Mueller, over Weissmann’s claims that Passantino coached discredited January 6 Committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson to lie on the stand.

“Hutchinson’s third-hand testimony that Trump grabbed the wheel of his presidential limousine in an effort to force it to drive to the Capitol was rejected by the people she claimed had told her about it,” Breitbart News reported.

Passantino represented Hutchinson at the time of her testimony before the committee. Many members of the media falsely claimed he coached her to lie on the stand, a claim he has repeatedly denied.

The Federalist reported Wednesday:

In September, U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan denied a motion from MSNBC legal analyst and attorney Andrew Weissmann to dismiss a complaint filed by Stefan Passantino, who represented former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson before she became the Jan. 6 Committee’s star witness.

“This is an insidious lie,” Passantino’s lawsuit reads. “Ms. Hutchinson even testified, under penalty of law: ‘I want to make this clear to you: Stefan [Passantino] never told me to lie. … He told me not to lie.”

Hutchinson’s testimony can be found on page 42 of the publicly available transcript from her Sept. 14, 2022, interview with the Jan. 6 Committee. Passantino, instead, coached her as a standard fact witness to only answer questions she could recall. Passantino represented Hutchinson through her first three interviews with the committee before she changed counsel and appeared publicly. None of the transcripts dated Feb. 23, 2022, March 7, 2022, or May 17, 2022, show Passantino obstructing Hutchinson’s testimony. While the transcripts were also recorded, the Jan. 6 Committee destroyed the video.

Weissmann is known for his hostility to Trump and his enthusiasm for “lawfare” efforts to target the President-elect.

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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/20/federal-court-rules-defamation-suit-against-msnbcs-andrew-weissmann-can-proceed/

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A possible financial review under the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump must be a cause of alarm for Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Russia's envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has said.

Trump’s election victory earlier this month, having made a critical approach to Ukraine part of his platform, poses a threat to Zelensky, because he could force an unfavorable peace deal on Kiev in order to deliver on his promise to end the fighting.

Commenting on Monday at a UN Security Council meeting dedicated to Ukraine, Nebenzia said officials in Kiev likely have more personal reasons to be concerned.

“The new authorities might want to check all the money that was sent to Ukraine and conduct a full audit of the assistance already provided,” the Russian envoy stated.

“This scenario… is much more frightening for Zelensky, because a significant part of the aid has been simply plundered and misappropriated by [him] and his entourage,” he added.

Nebenzia cited media reports that Ukrainian officials had gone into panic mode after news of Trump’s victory. All Western support for Kiev is inherently vulnerable to graft, he claimed, stating that “the scale of the corruption is something we can only guess.”

Trump has called Zelensky the “greatest salesman ever” over the Ukrainian’s repeated extraction of aid money from the incumbent Democratic US administration.

Government graft has been consistently named by observers as a major problem for Ukraine since it gained independence in the 1990s. Transparency International last year ranked it 104th among 180 nations for which the West-sympathetic organization calculates its corruption perception index.

The Zelensky government claims that it has made great strides in tackling the problem. Kiev has reportedly complained about US Ambassador Bridget Brink, maintaining that she creates “unnecessary tensions” with Washington by pressing the corruption issue.

Contrary to the assurances, the problem seems acute, Time magazine reported last November, citing a source claiming that Ukrainian officials are “stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”

Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch reported this week that “corruption continues to complicate Ukraine’s efforts to achieve its EU and NATO aspirations,” particularly due to multiple scandals in the Defense Ministry.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/607880-zelensky-corruption-audit-trump/

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Danish lawmakers on Monday agreed on a deal to plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest and natural habitats over the next two decades in an effort to reduce fertilizer usage.

The government called the agreement “the biggest change to the Danish landscape in over 100 years.”

“The Danish nature will change in a way we have not seen since the wetlands were drained in 1864,” said Jeppe Bruus, head of Denmark’s Green Tripartite Ministry, created to implement a green deal reached in June among farmers, the industry, the labor unions and environmental groups.

Under the agreement, 43 billion kroner ($6.1 billion) have been earmarked to acquire land from farmers over the next two decades, the government said.

Danish forests would grow on an additional 250,000 hectares (618,000 acres), and another 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres), which are currently cultivated on climate-damaging low-lying soils, must be converted to nature. Currently, 14.6% of land is covered by forests.

The deal was reached by the three-party Danish government – made up of the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the center Moderates – and the Socialist People’s Party, the Conservatives, Liberal Alliance and the Social Liberal Party.

A vote in parliament on the deal is considered a formality.

In June, the government said livestock farmers will be taxed for the greenhouse gases emitted by their cows, sheep and pigs from 2030, the first country to do so as it targets a major source of methane emissions, one of the most potent gases contributing to global warming.

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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/11/18/denmark-set-to-convert-10-per-cent-of-countrys-farmland-into-forrests/

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Support of an “assault weapons” ban is falling below levels seen in two previous surveys and support for a handgun ban is “statistically tied” with record low support levels, results posted by Gallup on Monday reveal.

The survey was taken October 1-12, 2024.

Gallup noted that 52 percent of American adults support an “assault weapons” ban, and that percentage is “significantly lower…than it was in Gallup’s initial reading in 2019 (61%) and is down slightly from 55% in 2022.”

The outlet pointed out that Democrats remain the driving force behind “assault weapons” ban, with 82 percent of Democrats supporting the gun control while only 27 percent of Republicans do.

The support for a handgun ban has fallen to 20 percent. Thirty-three percent of Democrats support such a ban vs. six percent of Republicans.

The 33 percent of Democrat support is a record low for Democrats.

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https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2024/11/18/gallup-support-declines-for-handgun-assault-weapons-bans/

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Oprah Winfrey’s production company was reportedly paid more than double the previous estimate for hosting its September livestream event with Kamala Harris — the latest embarrassing revelation about the campaign’s sprendthrift habits in its pursuit of celebrity endorsements.

Harpo Productions was paid $2.5 million to put on the celebrity-packed event, with the previous estimate having been $1 million, according to a report from the New York Times, which cited two unnamed sources who were briefed on the details.

The livestream event — which many have likened to a glossy infomercial — featured a luxurious set that accommodated a live studio audience as well as impressive graphics that allowed Hollywood stars including Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep to participate virtually.

Oprah Winfrey has publicly denied that she personally received any money from the Harris campaign, but has acknowledged that her company was paid for putting on the show.

The revelation comes as the Kamala Harris campaign is facing a $20 million budget deficit after having blown threw its $1 billion war chest, which it raised from donors. Campaign leaders, particularly campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, are facing mounting questions about who authorized the payments and why so much was spent on celebrities.

As Breitbart News reported, the campaign splurged big time on a series of election-eve concerts featuring Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, and more. The concerts, which were held in crucial swing states, were intended to encourage low-propensity voters to turnout for Kamala Harris.

In the end, President-elect Donald Trump won all seven swing states — and came in under budget.

The Kamala Harris campaign relied heavily on celebrities, especially in its closing weeks, releasing a blitz of celebrity endorsements to create the appearance of a surge of support.

But following Kamala’s loss to Trump, the campaign is facing a barrage of criticism for prioritizing Hollywood elites over the concerns of ordinary Americans.

In addition to the expensive livestream, Oprah Winfrey stumped for Kamala Harris at a rally in Philadelphia on the day before the election., telling women if they did not show up to vote they might never get the chance again.

Winfrey also appeared at the Democrat National Convention in August, where she touted Harris by shouting “Joooooyyyyy!” to the cameras during a primetime speech.

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https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/11/18/report-real-cost-of-oprah-winfrey-townhall-with-kamala-harris-was-2-5-million/

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