Explosion Rocks Nashville: ‘Intentional’ but Meant to Limit Casualties

Update — 5:24 P.M. EST: Authorities have found human remains near the explosion site in downtown Nashville, sources tell the Associated Press. Read Breitbart News’ full report below:

The explosion that rocked a mostly empty street in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, early on Christmas Day seems to be both intentional and meant to limit casualties, officials say.

The bomb went off at around 6:30 a.m. on Friday in what FBI and local officials confirmed was an “intentional act,” Fox News reported.

According to authorities, gunfire was heard ahead of the bomb blast outside an AT&T building in Nashville’s downtown area between First and Second Avenues. The shots fired call came in about an hour before the blast.

Once police arrived on the scene, officers heard a loudspeaker blasting a message from a van warning, “If you can hear this, evacuate now.”

Surveillance video of the explosion seems to reveal the pre-recorded message warning people to evacuate the area:

Police began going door-to-door to alert people to flee the area before the blast went off. At least two officers were injured by the bombing, one slightly and a second experiencing hearing loss.

The early timing of the explosion coupled with the pre-recorded warning shows that the event was planned to keep casualties to a minimum and result mostly in property damage, as opposed to death.

The Nashville police immediately brought bomb-sniffing dogs to the area to look for more bombs, but none were found.

“We’re putting everything we have into finding who was responsible for what’s happened here today,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matt Foster said during a press conference. Nashville Police Chief Drake added that his investigators “don’t feel there’s any concern to the downtown area” anymore.

There have been no casualties reported by local hospitals.

NBC noted that President Trump is being kept informed about the investigation:

Video makes the street at ground zero of the blast look like a war zone:

Nashville Democrat Mayor John Cooper is already taking heat for joking about the incident. Cooper told the media that authorities were on the scene to “make sure this is the only explosion that’s gonna happen in Nashville today,” and then laughed that the gushing water mains lend a dramatic flair to the scene.

The Nashville Police also released a photo of the RV they think was used to transport the bomb to ground zero.

https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2020/12/25/explosion-rocks-nashville-intentional-meant-limit-casualties/

U.S. to Require All UK Travellers to Provide Negative Coronavirus Test Within 72 Hours of Departure

Is US expecting something from UK?

All travellers from the United Kingdom will be required to provide a negative coronavirus test before boarding flights to the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday.

The restrictions on UK travellers will come into place on Monday, forcing Brits to test negative for the coronavirus within 72 hours of the time of flight departure.

“This additional testing requirement will fortify our protection of the American public to improve their health and safety and ensure responsible international travel,” the CDC said in a statement.

The move was prompted by the announcement from the British government that two new strains of the coronavirus have been detected within the country.

The CDC said that the new variant of the coronavirus may have mutated “by chance alone”, or it is possible that its emergence is “because it is better fit to spread in humans.”

The British government has claimed that one of the variants may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the previous iteration of the Chinese virus.

“This rapid change from being a rare strain to becoming a common strain has concerned scientists in the UK, who are urgently evaluating the characteristics of the variant strain and of the illness that it causes,” the CDC said.

Travel from the UK to the United States has already been greatly diminished this year. While the United States stopped short of banning all travel from the UK, around 50 countries have enacted travel bans on the country following the discovery of the supposedly new coronavirus variants.

On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he would be sending police officers to every “home or the hotel” of travelers from the UK to ensure that they are abiding by quarantine orders. Those found in violation of the quarantine face $1,000 fines for each day of non-compliance.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/12/26/all-uk-travellers-required-to-provide-negative-coronavirus-test-before-flying-to-united-states/

Pardon if posted already

Martel: World Prepares for Return of Obama-Era Chaos Under Biden

One of the many reasons he will never be president

President-elect Joe Biden has made clear in his staffing plans and public remarks that he intends to return America to many of the foreign policy positions championed by his former boss, President Barack Obama.

While American mainstream media has largely cheered this – and glowered at President Donald Trump for defending his achievements by making regression more difficult under Biden – many of America’s allies, and some of its foes, around the world are making moves suggesting they expect a full return to the state of global affairs in 2016.

The Obama administration’s foreign policy was defined by the tension between the president’s message, repeated routinely over the years, that America’s involvement in geopolitics made the world worse, and his regular, violent interventions abroad. His apologetic words – “America has shown arrogance” to its neighbors, “We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect” – clashed dramatically with his routine drone strikes on civilian targets, the invasion of Libya, and the widespread arming of Syrian “rebels” that ended up handing those weapons to jihadists.

The approach produced widespread death and chaos, perhaps most emblematically in the eruption of the “Arab Spring” a decade ago. What began as a reaction to a Tunisian merchant setting himself on fire resulted in the election (and violent removal) of a Muslim Brotherhood extremist in Egypt, open-air slave auctions in Libya, and the bloody rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Closer to home, communist and socialist dictators used Obama’s carte blanche to violently repress citizens. Venezuelan protests beginning in 2014 against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro resulted in thousands of casualties, including the deaths of many children at the hands of state security. In Cuba, the Castro regime took advantage of a windfall in tourism profits following Obama’s “thaw” policy – despite the fact that U.S. tourism to Cuba remains technically illegal – to commit about 10,000 politically-motivated arrests in 2016.

Under Obama, American enemies like China, Russia (which annexed a giant chunk of Ukraine with impunity), and Iran expanded their global influence. Allies that could have played a role in mitigating the advance of American rivals were told to “share the neighborhood” or otherwise snubbed. Taken by surprise during Obama’s term, it appears that at least Saudi Arabia, Japan, Taiwan, and India are preparing for a third Obama term.

Saudi Arabia – Iran’s biggest geopolitical rival – took no time following Biden’s electoral victory to declare that, if Biden’s policies result in Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon, Riyadh would immediately launch its own nuclear program.

A Saudi nuclear weapons program, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said in November, was “definitely an option” under Biden. Al-Jubeir had made similar remarks in the past.

“If Iran acquires nuclear capability we will do everything we can to do the same,” al-Jubeir said in 2018, shortly after Trump withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Riyadh has accompanied its tough talk with action. A report in Al-Monitor, a pan-Mideast outlet, this week detailed that Saudi officials have begun mending fences with Qatar and Turkey – both increasingly strained relationships due to Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s campaign to become the leader of the Muslim world, in the latter case, and due to close ties with Iran, in the former. Under Trump, the Saudi government felt it could rely on Washington for support against extremist governments in the region, a luxury it cannot expect to have during Biden’s term, just as it did not with Obama.

Iranian officials appear to agree with the tacit concern that Saudi Arabia has exhibited about the return of the Democrats to the White House.

“I have no doubt that the heroic national resistance of Iran is going to compel the future U.S. government to bow … and the sanctions will be broken,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani proclaimed last week. “We are very happy to see Trump leave.”

In Asia, Japan – which has longstanding territorial disputes with China and no official military, only a “self-defense force” – prepared for the incoming Biden administration by passing the largest defense budget in its history on Monday. Japan will spend $51.6 billion on defense spending in 2021. Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, specified that the money will go to combatting “security challenges posed by China.”

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/12/25/martel-world-prepares-for-return-of-obama-era-chaos-under-biden/

Dem Rep. Dingell: ‘These Next 26 Days Are a Very Scary Time for This Country’

Jeff Poor25 Dec 2020

1:01

Friday, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) reacted to the next wave of pardons that could be coming from outgoing President Donald Trump between now and Inauguration Day.

Dingell expressed her concern to MSNBC’s Christmas Day viewers and asked to think about what his legacy could be, which she said could be defined over the next month.

“I think there are a lot of good lawyers studying it,” she said. ‘Nothing would surprise me. I think these next 26 days are a very scary time for this country because we don’t — I would look at the president and say to him,‘Mr. President, this is about your legacy, and right now, there are a lot of people that believe in you. They voted for you. please think about what your legacy is going to be, and this last month could define you and could define what our democracy is.'

Seriously bitch his legacy is always to keep on fighting, plus you even saying that is an insult when all you’ve done with you evil party is to condemn him. Go to hell with your husband, this BS won’t work on patriots! You want his legacy to be a loser, you don’t know POTUS!

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/12/25/dem-rep-dingell-these-next-26-days-are-a-very-scary-time-for-this-country/

Tom Selleck Tips Server $2,020, Joining the ‘2020 Tip Challenge’

thought I’d drop an uplifting story. I really didn’t know you could eat in NY for $206.00. But wait, aren’t all the restaurants closed there?

Actor Tom Selleck tipped a restaurant server $2,020 on a $204.68 tab at the Italian restaurant Elio in New York City. The Blue Bloods star’s generosity was part of a “2020 Tip Challenge” that has become a growing trend in what has been a tumultuous year.

“I found out that my TV Dad #TomSelleck has generously accepted the #2020TipChallenge at Elios Upper East Side!” tweeted actor and Selleck’s Blue Bloods co-star Donnie Wahlberg. “I didn’t start it but I’m proud to be part of it. To those who gave even the smallest extra amount this year — THANK YOU,” Wahlberg added, along with the hashtag, “spread love and love will spread.”

In his tweet, Wahlberg included a photo of the receipt and a note that Selleck left for the server, which read, “I am honoring my friend Donnie Wahlberg’s tip challenge with my sincere hope for a better 2020.”

Wahlberg told People that Selleck, who dined at the Italian restaurant in November, didn’t tell anyone that he had tipped $2,020 for weeks. “Tom never mentioned it to me,” Wahlberg said. “We’ve done three [Blue Bloods] dinner scenes since he did it and he never told me.”

Selleck told People in April that he is “a fairly private person.”

Back in January, Wahlberg and his wife reportedly kicked off the new year by leaving a $2,020 tip for an IHOP server in their hometown of St. Charles, Illinois.

“[Donnie Wahlberg] starting 2020 off like the amazing man he is,” tweeted Wahlberg’s wife in January, along with a photo of the receipt, and the hashtags, “#ihop” and “#2020tipchallenge.”

Wahlberg later repeated his act of kindness in November by leaving his server at Marshland restaurant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a $2,020 tip on a $35.27 bill.

“A very special thank you to our friend [Donnie Wahlberg]! When asked about it all he said was ‘who’s up next?!'” wrote the restaurant on Instagram.

“Donnie has been here before in the past and he always asks for [Denise],” said Marshland restaurant owner Marty Finch to PEOPLE of Wahlberg’s November tip. “He had his normal order: steak tips with some grilled asparagus and some poached eggs. She always knows what he wants.”

“When he left he just said, ‘Denise, you’re all set. The payment is on the table,'” added Finch. “She always says he’s a very good tipper anyway but her jaw dropped, to say the least, when she saw that amount of tip.”

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/12/25/tom-selleck-tips-server-2020-joining-the-2020-tip-challenge/

7 Completely Wild News Stories That Would Have Dominated Any Other Year but 2020

The Chinese coronavirus pandemic – which global health authorities first warned the world of in January, months after the virus first began circulating in China – will forever mark 2020 as a historic year. The pandemic, the authoritarian policies spawned in reaction to it, and the herculean work of medical researchers to develop a vaccine against it have dominated the American consciousness – even in an election year. But 2020 was full of surprises, including news event with major historical significance now doomed to be footnotes in the currently concluding chapter of current events.

Below, seven game-changers that struggled to get significant ink in American media in 2020.

Trump Assassinated Iran’s Top Terrorist Mastermind

The fatal drone strike against Major General Qasem Soleimani – the head of the Quds Force, a global terrorism unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – was the biggest story of the year when it happened: in January, before the pandemic had impacted most of the United States. As head of the Quds Force, Soleimani was arguably the most important military mind in the Iranian armed forces, responsible for organizing terrorist attacks around the world and maintaining relations with rogue actors across the globe, from Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

India and China Went to War – with Rocks and Sticks

Two of the world’s largest and most powerful armies came to blows in June – literally, as the two had agreed not to arm soldiers with firearms along the border. Tensions between India and China along their mutual border, known as the “Line of Actual Control,” boiled over in June in an Indian region known as Ladakh, where Indian Army troops found People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers erecting tents on Indian territory. According to the Indian government, the Indian soldiers approached the PLA troops to inquire as to why they had established themselves on sovereign Indian land. In response, the Chinese attacked, reportedly with rocks, sticks wrapped in barbed wire, and other rudimentary weapons. Fist fights featuring dozens of soldiers erupted, resulting in some dying from hypothermia and falls down steep Himalayan cliffs.

Jihadists Beheaded a Schoolteacher over Cartoons – In a Paris Suburb

While mostly overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, the beheading of Samuel Paty, a French schoolteacher, captured enough international attention to result in thousands of people rioting – to protest French President Emmanuel Macron’s support of Paty, not the beheading.

Peru Ousted Two Presidents in Five Days

The constitution of Peru allows Congress to remove an elected president if they find that he is “morally” or physically unfit to serve. It does not require an impeachment trial or explanation why, so Congress tries to oust the president every time the opposition attains a majority there. In November, Congress succeeded in ousting Martín Vizcarra on vague corruption charges that Vizcarra denies any evidence exists for.

The First Arab Nation in 26 Years Normalized Relations with Israel. Three More Followed

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) becamethe first Arab state since Jordan in 1994 to normalize relations with Israel this year, resulting in the acceptance of Israeli passports and the opening of full economic and diplomatic relations. The move would have already been a historic geopolitical success for the Trump administration without three more members of the Arab League – Sudan, Bahrain, and Morocco – also recognizing Israel as a state and signing a peace agreement shortly thereafter.

China Is Developing Facial Recognition Technology that Knows What Ethnicity You Are

A late entry in extraordinary 2020 news, a report by IPVM, an independent investigative firm, revealed in December that it had evidence that at least two Chinese mega-corporations – telecommunications giant Huawei and online merchant Alibaba – had developed facial recognition technology that could tell a user if the face being analyzed belonged to a member of China’s ethnic Uyghur minority.

Kim Jong-un Cries

North Korea claims to have not documented a single case of Chinese coronavirus within its borders, despite its proximity to China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan, all of which have endured significant local outbreaks. This story is tangentially a pandemic story – tangentially because Kim Jong-un has not directly admitted his failures have any relation to the pandemic – but a dramatic one nonetheless.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/12/26/7-completely-wild-news-stories-that-would-have-dominated-any-other-year-but-2020/

>>12189519

Kek

>>12189563

Interesting I think I

Read they all had to show up, but I’ve read so much I’m confused

>>12189655

Ok they are expecting people to come with that new strain, intentional or not?

>>12189737

I’m keeping that, nice visualization

>>12189742

It’s been posted a couple of times today I think anons it working on it