ICE Agents Ordered to Free All Illegal Aliens in Custody: ‘Release Them All’

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, tasked with enforcing federal immigration law, are being instructed to free all detainees in their custody, as President Joe Biden’s administration halts deportations.

An internal January 21 ICE memo, independently reviewed by Breitbart News and first reported by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, orders agents to “stop all removals,” including land and air deportations.

In addition, the memo tells agents that “all cases” of detainees in ICE custody are now to be considered “no significant likelihood of removal in foreseeable future” — suggesting all detainees will need to be released.

“Release them all, immediately,” the ICE official wrote to staff in the memo. Typically, if detainees do not have sponsors in the United States, agents can hold an individual in their custody. The memo, though, states that is no longer the case and that even detainees without sponsors must be released.

It is unclear if ICE is currently carrying out the mass release of all 14,195 detainees in its custody, 71.45 percent of whom are convicted criminals or have pending criminal charges. These detainees are currently held in approximately 138 facilities across the United States.

ICE has halted all deportations, regardless of the criminal convictions of an illegal alien, as a result of Biden’s executive order stopping removals for at least 100 days. The initiative is a long-term goal of the open borders lobby, which has sought a permanent end to deportations.

ICE officials have not responded to a request for comment in time for this publication.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/23/ice-agents-ordered-free-all-illegal-aliens-custody-release-them-all/

Foreign investors flooded China’s stock market in 2020, adding about 1.5 million new accounts a month

The number of new investors on China’s mainland stock market increased by 18.02 million last year to 177.77 million, according to China Securities Depository and Clearing. Some Chinese stocks were the best performing in the world.

Data from the organization, which handles trades for the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, showed that around 1.5 million new accounts have been added a month. In December alone, the mainland stock market recorded 1.62 million new investors – double the 809,300 reported a year ago.

The surge of interest came as people around the world turned to stock trading while being stuck at home due to the Covid lockdowns.

China’s Shenzhen component surged 38.7 percent and the CSI 300 Index, which tracks the top-300 stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, rose by 27.2 percent in 2020. To compare, the S&P 500 Index, which measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States, saw a 16.26 percent gain.

According to Ernst & Young, mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 40 percent of the world’s initial public offerings last year. The Shanghai Stock Exchange ranked first in the world, with 233 IPOs, it said.

Investors were also eager to buy stocks in Hong Kong, where many of China’s biggest and most popular companies, like Tencent, are listed. Chinese markets continued to see strong gains this year, with the Shanghai composite hitting a five-year high on Thursday.

The Shenzhen component climbed another seven percent this year from its 2020 gains and the CSI 300 has soared to levels not seen since January 2008.

https://www.rt.com/business/513216-china-stock-market-millions-investors/

State Dept Docs Reveal Pence Chief Of Staff Referred Biden Bud Frank Luntz For Secretary Role.

A leaked document from the U.S. State Department and seen by The National Pulse appears to show former Vice President Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff Marc Short recommending Frank Luntz – whose close relationship with Hunter Biden was exposed via the President-Elect’s son’s hard drive – for the role of Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

Luntz was recommended for the position, which aims to “lead America’s public diplomacy outreach, which includes messaging to counter terrorism and violent extremism” by Short, whom President Trump viewed as partly responsible for Pence’s certification of electors on January 6th and saw his White House access revoked in response.

The revelations come from a leaked “highly confidential” State Department document, which outlines Short’s rationale for the position was Luntz’s previous work in “PR” and as a “GOP Political Pollster.”

“Support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and [missing] by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and Government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world,” the document adds as the “key issue” for the position.

The recommendation was ill-advised, as Luntz has especially strong ties to the Biden family.

Emails from Hunter Biden’s hard drive – which Luntz infamously downplayed the severity of – reveal Luntz begging the then-Vice President’s son for access.

On October 31st, 2012, Luntz emailed Hunter Biden the following:

Because your dad hasn’t said word one to me since the moment he was nominated for VP. Zero. Zip. Nothing. That’s why. Fair-weather friends get fair-weather treatment. And Beau knows I feel this way. That’s not how I treat anyone in politics or in life. and by the way, I declared your dad the winner of his debate against Paul Ryan even though Ryan is an actual current client.

Hunter Biden responded roughly two hours later, noting he and his brother Beau “loved” him:

I love you… beau loves you— but how can you go on TV and not mention the Jeep ad— just in fairness- moving Jeep to China???? That’s not worth talking about as one of the most outright fabrications ever paid for on television? Again, think you are smarter than anyone in politics…but if you are doing a piece on ads in the last days— leaving that one out is just…

https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/state-dept-doc-secretary-rec/

After Destroying Thousands of Jobs, Biden Raises Minimum Wage To $15… But Only For Federal Workers

Federal workers will see a nice raise while blue collar energy workers are headed to the unemployment line.

In his flurry of executive orders, Joe Biden raised the federal workers’ minimum wage to $15 per hour. Biden, apparently seeking to make good on the Democrat wish to see the federal minimum wage raised, may have caused confusion, as instead of raising the federal minimum wage through Congress, Biden simply raised the minimum wage for federal workers, in a tricky series of linguistics.

The Epoch Times reports that Biden signed the executive order on Friday, January 22. The order demands federal employees – like post office employees – be paid $15 per hour, and gives them emergency paid leave.

The order also is not unilateral. It simply “instructs the Office of Personnel Management to develop recommendations to agencies that would ensure as many employees as possible get a $15 per hour minimum wage.”

Biden also erased an early move made by President Donald Trump, which created a classification of federal workers penned Schedule F, which made low level government employees easier to fire, and caused those employees designated Schedule F to lose most of their civil service protections.

The Epoch Times reported:

The new order also overturns a series of executive orders signed by former President Donald Trump in May 2018. Those previous orders made it easier for the federal government to fire poor performers, further limited official time the federal employees can use to conduct union activities, and directed agencies to renegotiate collective bargaining agreements with federal unions under stricter parameters.

Under the newly-signed order, agencies will no longer have to follow those Trump-era labor relations policies.

This comes after Biden instantaneously destroyed tens of thousands of blue collar American jobs with his anti-energy independence decision to unilaterally shutter the Keystone XL Pipeline.

To make matters worse, Biden’s move destroyed jobs in Canada as well, leading the Premier of Alberta to threaten to sanction the United States.

https://nationalfile.com/after-destroying-thousands-of-jobs-biden-raises-minimum-wage-to-15-but-only-for-federal-workers/

Biden’s Border Security Director Tapped From UN ‘Open Borders’ Agency

President Biden’s pick for his National Security Council’s Senior Director for Transborder Security is Katie Tobin – an alum of the globalist, pro-open borders United Nations.

Tobin formerly served as the External Relations Officer for the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) after working as the agency’s Head of Office in Belize from 2015 to 2016. The United Nations – decried by President Trump for its “open borders activism” – routinely peddle policies that would increase the number of migrants and refugees the U.S. accepts.

Tobin, while speaking to a local news outlet in Belize, appear to affirm the organization’s immigration stance:

It is something that UNHCR proposed to the government of Belize [Costa Rica, not Belize, finally agreed to it]. It’s a new initiative, part of UNHCR regional strategy, something we’re really excited about, it’s an innovative mechanism that will hopefully save lives for some of the most vulnerable people in the Northern Triangle, people that are facing severe persecutions, their lives are at risk but they’re not able to access protection in their country, for instance in El Salvador, Honduras … . And so we’re looking to be able to transfer them out of their country for temporary stay in Belize while they will be processed for resettlement in a third country, countries like the United States and potentially Canada. So, UNHCR is really excited about this program because like I said we think it’ll save lives.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Tobin also worked as an Immigration Associate for a Chicago-based law firm, providing “legal representation to individuals and families in a variety of immigration matters, including affirmative and defensive asylum, cancellation of removal and other forms of removal defense, U visa and VAWA petitions.”

“While in that position, she “served in various roles in the Chicago Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), including co-chair of the Advocacy Committee; panel speaker on U.S. refugee policy at the AILA Annual Conference; [and] committee member for the AILA Chicago Chapter Asylum Committee and Advocacy Committee,” a summary notes.

https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/biden-border-director-un/

‘Emotionally Manipulative Propaganda’: UK Govt Releases ‘Stay Home’ Coronavirus Scare Video

In what has been described as “emotionally manipulative propaganda”, the British government has released a high-production lockdown ad campaign, attempt to guilt the public into obeying the country’s lockdown restrictions.

On Saturday, the official Number 10 Downing Street account for the office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter published a dramatic video of sickly coronavirus patients and National Health Service (NHS) workers, demanding that Britons “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives”.

As ominous Hollywood-esque piano plays in the background, the video pans in close to the eyes of coronavirus patients, and the narrator says: “Look them in the eyes and tell them you’re doing all you can to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

The shock ad was accompanied by the message: “COVID-19 hospital admissions are higher than ever. It’s likely someone near you has it. So only go out if it’s essential. Sticking to the rules stops the spread.”

The video was released alongside campaign pictures of morose-looking elderly people wearing oxygen masks, with text saying: “Look him/her in the eyes” and tell them “you never bend the rules”, “you always keep a safe distance”, or “that the risk isn’t real”.

London mayor candidate David Kurten lambasted the latest lockdown campaign, urging Britons to “resist the Johnson Regime’s malevolent behavioural psychology [and] emotionally manipulative propaganda.”

“Lockdowns and business closures are unnecessary and disproportionate,” Kurten claimed.

“Stand up for civil liberties,” the lockdown sceptic candidate pronounced.

COVID-19 hospital admissions are higher than ever.

It’s likely someone near you has it. So only go out if it’s essential.

Sticking to the rules stops the spread.

Find out more at https://t.co/6oXW28nKGq#StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/vys55FYeiP

— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) January 23, 2021

Conservative Party MP Craig Mackinlay also took aim at the lockdown campaign, likening it to the dire warnings promulgated by the anti-Brexit ‘Project Fear’ campaign during the 2016 EU referendum.

“It seems to me we are now being held hostage to a zero Covid policy which is completely unattainable – or if you do attain it we are going to be in lockdown for an incredibly long period. That just cannot be,” Mackinlay told the Daily Mail.

“The next thing will be ‘oh dear, this new variant from Timbuktu is not responsive to the vaccine’, or ‘the vaccine doesn’t work against it’,” he warned.

The new adverts warning people to stay home pic.twitter.com/erIn70vtTL

— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) January 22, 2021

The use of scare tactics from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government comes as the British healthcare establishment has claimed that the so-called ‘Kent’ mutation of the virus is up to 30 per cent deadlier than previous strains of the Chinese virus.

Just over a week ago, the government also warned Brits that buying a coffee or seeing friends could “cost lives“.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/23/emotionally-manipulative-propaganda-uk-govt-releases-scare-tactic-pro-lockdown-video/

Senior MP: British Public Will "Rise Up And Bring Down" Lockdown If Exit Plan Isn't Outlined

British MPs within his own party are demanding that Prime Minister Boris Johnson outline some sort of exit strategy for the nationwide lockdown in the country, with one senior minister warning that if he doesn’t people will begin to “rise up and bring it down”.

Speaking to Talk Radio, Sir Desmond Swayne, the MP for New Forest West, warned that the “goalposts keep moving” on the lockdown timeframe, and “We have to focus on hospital admissions and keep that focus rigorous…[or] at some stage people have got to rise up and bring it down.”

"People have to got to rise up and bring it down!"

Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne says the idea people will accept endless lockdown restrictions and "go on living like troglodytes is absurd."

📺 Watch the show ► https://t.co/qxuMRoepGw@JuliaHB1 | @DesmondSwayne pic.twitter.com/KjCXnTZ7xG

— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) January 22, 2021

Swayne’s comments echo those of West Midlands Police commissioner David Jamieson, who warned back in October at the start of the second lockdown that “We’re sitting on a time bomb here.”

“We’re getting very near the stage where you could see a considerable explosion of frustration and energy,” Jamieson noted, adding “Things are very on the edge in a lot of communities and it wouldn’t take very much to spark off unrest, riots, damage.”

Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that it is ‘too early’ to say when restrictions will be lifted, while suggestions for easing the lockdown by other government figures keep moving to later and later in the year, with the Summer or beyond now being touted as a possible timeframe.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/senior-mp-british-public-will-rise-and-bring-down-lockdown-if-exit-plan-isnt-outlined

Sweden: Child Rapes Drove Overall Rape Increase in 2020

Total reported rapes in Sweden increased last year, and the change was driven by a surge in the number of sex attacks against children, according to National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) statistics.

According to Brå, the number of reported rapes in which women were victims remained largely the same as in 2019, but the number of child rapes in which the victim was under 18 increased by 16 per cent.

A total of 3,950 rapes against children were reported in 2020, with investigator Linn Brandelius telling Swedish broadcaster SVT: “When rape against children increases, there are usually large cases that are behind the change, where it may be the same victim and the same perpetrator, but crime has been going on for a long time.”

However, Brandelius admitted that “this year we have not uncovered a big case, so we do not know what the increase is due to.”

In total, the statistics show a one per cent rise in total criminality in Sweden in 2020, despite the restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. Drug offences saw an increase of ten per cent last year, and vandalism attacks increased by 14 per cent.

The release of the figures comes just days after several Afghan migrants were accused of filming sex acts with underage girls, some as young at 13, and using the videos to blackmail their victims.

According to investigators, the Afghans were also sharing the pornographic videos on social media.

Last year saw several cases of child rape attacks with migrants as the suspected perpetrators in the Scandinavian country, including a case in the municipality of Österåker in which a migrant lured a 12-year-old to an asylum home and raped her.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/23/sweden-child-rapes-drove-overall-rape-increase-in-2020/

China Caught Importing 'Doctored' & Rebranded Venezuelan Oil To Evade US Sanctions

It's no secret that Maduro's Venezuela has long gone to extraordinary lengths to bust through the US oil export blockade and sanctions designed to choke the socialist country. This past summer, and in recent months, Iran emerged as Venezuela's chief trading and sanctions-busing partner, with at one point US authorities seizing and later auctioning off over 1.1 million barrels of fuel taken from Iranian tankers bound for Venezuela.

As we and other have noted before, methods often employed to evade sanctions involve Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, gaining the assistance of third party shell companies to change names and paperwork of vessels during export. "Ghosting" has also been a common tactic, which involves a tanker switching off its transponder in sensitive areas of a voyage to conceal its identity.

A new investigative report in Bloomberg details another dodge method being employed, namely "doping" the oil being transported with chemical additives while doctoring the accompanying paperwork, so that it can be "sold as a wholly different crude without a trace of its Venezuelan roots."

Much of this embargoed Venezuelan crude is ending up in China under different names and paperwork intended to conceal its origin, as the report details:

Invoices and emails reviewed by Bloomberg show the lengths to which some traders will go to disguise the crude’s origin and get it to Asia, making Chinese refineries an essential lifeline for Venezuela’s battered oil industry. U.S. officials, of course, can’t ban Chinese or any international companies from buying Venezuelan oil. They can financially squeeze them, though, by prohibiting them from then doing any business with American companies. That is why such intricate steps are taken to disguise the origin of the crude.

This appears to be based on a trove of leaked emails containing the communications of industry insiders.

This likely represents the "tip of the iceberg," the report underscores, while featuring examples like the following:

In one email seen by Bloomberg, a Swissoil trader marketing "Singma" urged a counterpart to violate a standard industry practice by keeping the original loading paperwork off a tanker. "Putting original BL on board of a vessel is insane, do not do it," the trader said, referring to bills of lading. "You do not understand the problem you are getting into."

In an email responding to questions, Swissoil’s attorney said, "Swissoil Trading SA is not marketing and has not marketed crude oil from Venezuela."

Bloomberg saw documents for at least 11.3 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that were sold by Swissoil and delivered to China last year under the guise of other names.

It remains that on an official level China supposedly hasn't imported Venezuelan crude in a year-and-a-half.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/china-caught-importing-doctored-rebranded-venezuelan-oil-evade-us-sanctions

CBP to Build New Migrant Entry Center in Advance of Biden Policies

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced the approval to build a new soft-sided processing center. The announcement comes as President Joe Biden announced the cancellation of Trump administration policies that are now expected to create a surge in illegal immigration.

Former CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan told Breitbart Texas the building process began “in anticipation of potentially losing Title 42 and/or the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP)” when Biden took office. The new administration’s stated goals combined with “the increased flow of migrants trying to illegally enter due to the perception related to Biden’s open border policies,” he stated.

“We knew our facilities would become overwhelmed like they were in 2019,” the now-former commissioner explained. “Bottom line — we’re getting ready for another illegal immigration surge.”

“CBP is moving forward with plans for the mobilization of soft-side facilities (SSF) in Donna, Texas,” CBP officials said in a written statement. “A lease with the city of Donna was awarded on January 15, 2021.” The agency received a notice to proceed on the day before Biden’s inauguration. The official reported the “processing facility” should be completed in about 30 days.

During President Biden’s first day in office, he signed executive orders to end the MPP program that allowed officials to return “asylum-seekers” to wait in Mexico for a future hearing date.

Morgan said the MPP program effectively ended the catch and release program of the Obama administration. “Without the remaining Title 42 protocols, the current levels of border crossings would become a crisis overnight.”

The Title 42 Coronavirus protection protocols put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorize Border Patrol agents to return illegal border crossers back to Mexico or their country of origin. Morgan previously told Breitbart that 90 percent of apprehended migrants are returned within two hours of their arrest.

Breitbart reached out to CBP and the CDC on Thursday to inquire about MPP and Title 42. Both agencies referred questions to the White House and did not respond as of press time.

CBP officials did say the new Donna processing center will be about 20 miles from the Rio Grande Valley Sector’s existing processing center.

Currently, Guatemalan officials are waging an all-out effort to stop nearly 10,000 mostly Honduran migrants from making their way through that country to Mexico. The migrants illegally pushed their way into Guatemala over the weekend and faced a massive effort by Guatemalan security forces to stop them.

Guatemalan officials reported that some of the Honduran migrants presented fake COVID-19 test results as they attempted to enter the country.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/01/22/cbp-to-build-new-migrant-entry-center-in-advance-of-biden-policies/

US Backs Al-Qaeda in Yemen while Dubbing Its Houthi Enemies ‘Terrorists’

The US State Department designated Yemen’s Houthi movement — the most effective force in fighting al-Qaeda — as a “terrorist” organization. Meanwhile Washington and Saudi Arabia have supported al-Qaeda.

***

The United States government has designated the main enemy of al-Qaeda in Yemen, the Houthi movement, as a terrorist organization, after spending years backing al-Qaeda in the country.

Like the US-led wars on Syria, Libya, former Yugoslavia, and 1980s Afghanistan, Yemen represents an example of an armed conflict where Washington has supported al-Qaeda and similar Salafi-jihadist extremists in order to foment regime change and extend its hegemony.

Since March 2015, the United States has helped oversee a catastrophic war on Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, aiding Saudi Arabia as it launched tens of thousands of air strikes on its southern neighbor, bombing the impoverished nation into rubble — and unleashing the largest humanitarian crisis on Earth.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have died in this US-backed war. Tens of millions of civilians have been pushed to the brink of famine, as a result of intentional US-backed Saudi targeting of food production. Yemen’s health infrastructure was ravaged by the Western-sponsored bombing, precipitating the worst cholera outbreak in recorded history.

Throughout the war, al-Qaeda and other Salafi-jihadist groups have metastasized across the south of Yemen. The spread of these dangerous extremists is not a mere coincidence; it is the result of US government policy choices.

For years, forces in Yemen backed by the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have fought in alliance with al-Qaeda. (And it is not the only ongoing conflict in the Middle East where the terror group has been allied with Washington. Former top Hillary Clinton advisor Jake Sullivan, now Joe Biden’s national security advisor, chirped in a 2012 email, “AQ is on our side in Syria.”)

There is overwhelming evidence exposing this de facto alliance between Washington and al-Qaeda. It has been documented even by mainstream corporate media outlets, from the Associated Press to the Wall Street Journal.

Why US troops may fight alongside al-Qaeda in Yemen against Houthi/Saleh forces, as Trump escalates https://t.co/yV6Pyi05vY

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 5, 2017

Western governments and Gulf monarchies are allied with al-Qaeda in Yemen because they share a common enemy: the Houthis, an indigenous, politically orientated Shia movement that emerged out of local struggles to resist Saudi Arabia’s extremist Wahhabi influence in the northern border area of Yemen.

The Houthis, who officially call themselves Ansar Allah, govern the northern regions of Yemen, where the majority of the population lives. They took control of the country after overthrowing an unelected and deeply corrupt US-backed authoritarian regime on September 21, 2014, in what they dubbed the September 21 Revolution.

Since March 2015, the United States and its allies Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have proven unable to dislodge Ansar Allah from power. In desperation, the coalition has collectively punished the entire Yemeni civilian population, destroying much of the country around them in the process.

More

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-backs-al-qaeda-yemen-dubbing-houthi-enemies-terrorists/5735074

MyPillow CEO Hires Gawker-Killing Lawyer to Go After Daily Mail for Jane Krakowski Affair Story

The tabloid story “damaged my integrity as a Christian,” Lindell said to The Daily Beast in confirming he has retained the Trump lawyer most infamous for taking on media outlets.

MyPillow CEO and staunch Trump ally Mike Lindell has retained celebrity attorney Charles Harder to go after the Daily Mail over a story claiming he had a secret affair with 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star actress Jane Krakowski, The Daily Beast has learned.

“Charles Harder is the attorney,” Lindell confirmed in a brief interview on Friday evening. “I never met this lady in my life and have never been to West Village and the Hamptons, where they said I was in the hit piece.”

Lindell added: “They’ve done so much damage to my reputation… I’m not just going for a demand letter or a retraction, I want to go after them with a lawsuit because they have damaged my integrity as a Christian and my network to help addicts everywhere.” He said that he has already discussed this with Harder, who he’s just retained, and said that the lawyer was working on the legal paperwork.

“Mike Lindell has never met Jane Krakowski. The Daily Mail asked him to comment on a possible story that the two had secretly dated. He immediately told them he had never heard of her, and it was a ‘fake news story.’ The Daily Mail then recklessly published its false story, and defamed him in the process—falsely saying he gave her champagne and liquor. He is a recovering addict, and runs Lindell Recovery Network. Mr. Lindell plans to sue the Daily Mail,” Harder told The Daily Beast.

Lindell said he believed the Mail story to be another “hit job” that was written because he “won’t let up on the…machine election fraud,” regarding the Trump-Biden presidential election.

A rep for the Daily Mail did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday night.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mypillow-ceo-mike-lindell-hires-charles-harder-to-go-after-daily-mail-for-jane-krakowski-affair-story

Biden administration fires the heads of three US-funded international broadcasters - including Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks - for 'turning stations into pro-Trump propaganda machines'

The heads of three federally funded international broadcasters were abruptly fired late Friday as the Biden administration completed a house-cleaning of Donald Trump-appointees at the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Two officials familiar with the changes said the acting chief of the USAGM summarily dismissed the directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks just a month after they had been named to the posts.

The changes came a day after the director of the Voice of America and his deputy were removed and the chief of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting stepped down. The firings follow the forced resignation of former President Donald Trump´s handpicked choice to lead USAGM only two hours after Joe Biden took office on Wednesday.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2021/01/biden-administration-fires-heads-of.html

Google made $3.7B off Australia and paid $46M in taxes. That’s a tax rate of barely more than 1%. And now that the Australian govt is demanding more than 1%, Google is threatening to cut off services.

This is the reality of how these companies operate and why laws need to be changed on how they’re viewed.

About 95% of traffic from Australia goes through Google.

Most small businesses use their ad features for their livelihood.

This ridiculous idea that you can “just make your own” needs to stop being thrown around unless people temper that huge idea with reality.

You could make your own Google. If you had Elon Musk’s wealth, a giant team of software engineers, and a decade of your life to spare.

It’s unrealistic. On top of that we know that these battles have already been waged and won.

There were other search engines, Google pretty much beat them all.

Then Google tied all sorts of things to it’s services like gmail and youtube.

And that’s the crux of the issue. Google actually does provide a good product for ‘free’.

But they sell your data and use your info.

That’s the key issue here. Google was using articles from news outlets in Australia to generate wealth.

The Australian govt said that Google should pay more since it’s making an insane amount of money off of Australians.

And because they dared to ask for more than 1%, Google threatened to remove their services.

First off look at how much Google makes off of ads and taking people’s data. 3.7B in Australia alone.

They only paid about 1.2% of that back to the govt.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/google-made-3-7b-off-australia-and-paid-46m-in-taxes-thats-a-tax-rate-of-barely-more-than-1-and-now-that-the-australian-govt-is-demanding-more-than-1-google-is-threatening-to-cut-off-services/

Facebook goes down: Thousands of users across the U.S. and Europe are locked out of the site while others report PORN in their video feeds amid fears it has been hacked

Facebook has gone down for thousands of users in the United States and Europe on Friday night, with some unable to access the site and others reporting that porn had flooded their video feeds.

Downdetector.com which measures website problems saw the problems start to occur around 10pm EST. At least 4,800 users in the U.S. reported on Downdetector that they were unable to log in.

The most common issue appeared to revolve around those attempting to log in to the site - which they were unable to do.

Those attempting to open their Facebook app on their phones were signed out and upon attempting to sign in.

Some users reported their video feeds were full of pornographic videos.

http://www.yourdestinationnow.com/2021/01/facebook-goes-down-thousands-of-users.html

In a first for Spain, Jesuits admit to decades of sex abuse

The first comprehensive internal inquiry on sex abuse allegations by a religious order in Spain has identified 81 children and 37 adult victims of 96 Jesuits since the late 1920s

MADRID – The first comprehensive internal inquiry on sex abuse allegations by a religious order in Spain has identified 81 children and 37 adult victims of 96 Jesuits since the late 1920s, a much higher number than the cases that had so far been publicly known.

Associations of victims are welcoming the disclosure, but they see it falling short since the names of perpetrators or those who covered up the abuses weren't disclosed. They also want the Jesuits' inquiry to lead to proper criminal cases against the few abusers that are still alive and a detailed plan to compensate their victims.

“It's a timid measure that goes in the right direction, but it falls too short,” Miguel Hurtado, a spokesman with the Stolen Childhood Association, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Jesuits is how members of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order formed in 1540 by Ignatius Loyola, are commonly known. According to its website, the order runs 68 schools with some 75,000 students in Spain as well as half a dozen universities and high education centers.

The Society of Jesus in Spain said in its report published Thursday that the internal probe confirmed that 96 members had been accused of sex abuses since 1927, the year of the first recorded case. For 65 of the Jesuits, the accusations involved underage victims. The report nevertheless highlighted that the accused Jesuits make up just over 1% of the 8,782 members admitted in the order during the past 93 years.

The disclosure by the Spanish Jesuits comes as Pope Francis, the church’s first Jesuit pope, has tried to sensitize the church around the globe to the problem of clergy abuse and passed laws to hold the hierarchy accountable for covering it up.

As with other religious groups that specialize in education, the report shows that Jesuit-run schools became ripe hunting grounds for predator priests given that they provided a steady supply of victims. Most of the abuse found had taken place in or was related to schools, the Spanish Jesuits said.

Only 17 of the perpetrators involving minors are alive and the 13 of them that remain linked to the Jesuits have been either punished or are awaiting results of criminal or internal investigations, and all have been relocated to positions away from children, the order said in its report.

The cases recorded stem from allegations, witness accounts and media reports, it said, and range from inappropriate verbal remarks to instances of sexual abuse and rape.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/spain-jesuits-admit-decades-sex-abuse-75427837

Continuity of Government under Insurrection Act active with DEFCON 2 and Trump/military in charge? Corrupt USA Inc. dissolved? Powerless Biden/Congress/Media targeted for removal? Gene Decode videos +

https://carlbherman.blogspot.com/2021/01/continuity-of-government-under.html

Biden tells Mexican president he will end Trump's 'draconian' immigration policies

Biden has enacted a flurry of immigration orders in his first week in office.

President Biden on Friday told Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that he will reverse the Trump administration’s "draconian" immigration policies – in a week in which the new U.S. president has signed a flurry of immigration orders.

A readout from the White House said that Biden spoke with Lopez Obrador to "review bilateral cooperation on a range of bilateral and regional issues, particularly regional migration."

"The President outlined his plan to reduce migration by addressing its root causes, increasing resettlement capacity and lawful alternative immigration pathways, improving processing at the border to adjudicate requests for asylum, and reversing the previous administration’s draconian immigration policies," the statement said.

Biden campaigned on ending the Trump administration’s stricter immigration policies and has made it a priority since being inaugurated.

On Wednesday, Biden signed an order halting construction of the wall at the southern border while the administration studies whether it can redivert money that has been assigned to the project.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-mexican-trumps-draconian-immigration-policies

Iran’s Zarif Calls on Biden to Lift Sanctions

Zarif said Iran will not make additional concessions before sanctions relief

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called on President Biden to unconditionally lift sanctions on Iran if the new administration is serious about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

Writing in Foreign Affairs, in an article titled, “Iran Wants the Nuclear Deal It Made,” Zarif lays out Tehran’s position.

“The administration should begin by unconditionally removing, with full effect, all sanctions imposed, reimposed, or relabeled since Trump took office,” Zarif wrote. “In turn, Iran would reverse all the remedial measures it has taken in the wake of Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal.”

Zarif makes it clear in the article that Biden will not get any additional concessions out of Iran until sanctions are lifted.

How the Biden administration will approach Iran is not exactly clear yet. Throughout his campaign and the transition period, Biden said he would work with Iran to return to the JCPOA and negotiate a follow-on deal after the fact. However, some of Biden’s new cabinet members said during Tuesday’s confirmation hearings that “we are a long way” from returning to the JCPOA.

Reporters asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday night if President Biden planned to return to the JCPOA. “The president has made clear that through follow-on diplomacy, the United States should seek to lengthen and strengthen nuclear constraints on Iran and address other issues of concern,” she said.

“Iran must resume compliance with significant nuclear constraints under the deal in order for that to proceed,” Psaki added.

Judging by Psaki’s comments, it’s still not clear what Biden’s move is on Iran. With opposition to the JCPOA from Republicans in Congress, some Democrats in the Senate, and regional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, it will take a strong move from Biden to quickly lift sanctions on Iran to revive the deal.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/01/22/irans-zarif-calls-on-biden-to-lift-sanctions/

With Border Wall Funding Cut, New SecDef Must Decide Whether to Withdraw Troops

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived at the Pentagon on Friday to take on a lengthy national security to-do list, including a decision on whether to pull thousands of troops from backup duty at the border wall.

President Joe Biden, shortly after taking the oath of office Wednesday, issued a proclamation to halt funding and construction of the border wall and lifted the national emergency declared by former President Donald Trump that has allowed the deployment of thousands of active-duty and National Guard troops to southwestern states since April 2018.

In ending the national emergency, Biden set the stage for the eventual withdrawal of troops that have been assisting the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, said Dr. Robert Sanders, chairman of the National Security Department at the University of New Haven.

"It's not instantaneous," said Sanders, a retired Navy captain and judge advocate general who served in Afghanistan. "[But] they're going to ultimately pull them off."

There are currently about 4,000 National Guard troops from 22 states and Puerto Rico on the border under Title 10 active-duty status, U.S. Northern Command said last week.

Their status going forward will be determined by the requirements of Homeland Security and CBP, a NORTHCOM spokeswoman said.

However, the end of the national emergency will result in the Defense Department "pulling them off Title 10 and redeploying them home," Sanders said.

Since taking office, Biden has issued a series of proclamations and executive orders reversing Trump administration policies on issues from climate change to immigration, including funding for the border wall.

Biden's proclamation on the wall directs the "termination of [the] emergency with respect to the southern border of the United States and redirection of funds diverted to border wall construction."

Border protection is in the national interest, according to the proclamation, "[but] building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution. It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security."

National Guard troops have been on the border since April 2018. In October of that year, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, at Trump's direction, deployed 5,200 active-duty troops to the border to assist CBP and Homeland in warding off what the president called "caravans" of migrants heading north from Central America.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/23/border-wall-funding-cut-new-secdef-must-decide-whether-withdraw-troops.html

'A Trap?' Clinton's Russia collusion research started much earlier, made Steele nervous

First dossier written in April 2016, efforts included buying possible foreign video footage, declassified FBI memos state.

'A Trap?' Clinton's Russia collusion research started much earlier, made Steele nervous

First dossier written in April 2016, efforts included buying possible foreign video footage, declassified FBI memos state.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/trap-clintons-russia-collusion-research-started-much

Calls grow for 9/11-style panel to probe Capitol attack

Momentum is growing on Capitol Hill for an independent 9/11-style commission to investigate why law enforcement agencies were not better prepared on Jan. 6 when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, breached the building and threatened to assassinate the nation’s top leaders.

Rank-and-file House Democrats are calling for a bipartisan commission that would more broadly focus on the growing threat of domestic terrorism and violent extremism after this month’s insurrection. And top Republicans on the House Administration, Homeland Security and Oversight committees — Reps. Rodney Davis (Ill.), John Katko (N.Y.), and James Comer (Ky.) — have rolled out legislation creating a Jan. 6 commission that would be comprised of five Democrats and five Republicans.

The effort got a big boost this week when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was all but inevitable that Congress would create a commission.

“We will have an after-action review; there will be a commission,” declared Pelosi, who had served on a special joint House and Senate committee that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a precursor to the more famous, independent 9/11 commission.

But Pelosi, who cut her teeth serving on the House Intelligence Committee, made clear her immediate focus is on evaluating and shoring up the current security at the Capitol complex, which includes the Capitol itself and a handful of surrounding buildings that house lawmaker offices and committees. The Speaker said she has been in close contact with Ret. Gen. Russel Honoré, whom she tapped to lead a rapid review of Capitol security to thwart a future attack on the seat of democracy.

Honoré, who coordinated the military’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was expected to complete an initial security review by this weekend and issue a preliminary report in the coming days that would address how exactly to fortify the Capitol once emergency security measures put in place to protect Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration are removed.

It’s unclear when the thousands of National Guard troops protecting the sprawling complex will be recalled or the massive concrete and steel perimeter barriers will come down, but leaders have indicated they will not be permanent fixtures — especially amid a bipartisan outcry over the troops’ abysmal lodging conditions and a COVID-19 outbreak among them.

“In the near future, Congress needs to smartly transition to a more sustainable security presence,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Friday. “Keeping the Capitol safe cannot and will not require huge numbers of uniformed troops and vast systems of emergency fencing to remain in place forever.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/535482-calls-grow-for-9-11-style-panel-to-probe-capitol-attack

Military Situation In Syria On January 23, 2021 (Map Update)

A brief overview of the recent developments in Syria:

On January 22, Russia reported that Idlib militants violated the ceasefire regime in Greater Idlib 21 times: 7 – in Idlib province, 3 – in Latakia province, 7 – in Hama province, 4 – in Aleppo province;

On January 22, SAA artillery shelled positions of Turkish-backed forces in Kansafra village;

On January 22, the SDF reportedly repelled attacks of Turkish-backed forces on the M4 highway near Ain Issa;

On January 22, a Turkish UAV targeted Memite neighborhood in Ain al-Arab city wounding several people.

https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-syria-on-january-23-2021-map-update/

NATO Is No Beacon of Democracy

The Capitol riots are a result of Trump’s encouraging violence as legitimate protest, similarly to how NATO’s narrative undermines democracy through foreign intervention.

The storming of the Capitol earlier in January elicited several reactions, perhaps none as hypocritical as that of NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “Democracy must always prevail over violence, and I’m confident that the democratic institutions of the United States will handle this challenge,” Stoltenberg remarked.

Democracy must prevail over violence, except when violence must prevail to purportedly bring about democracy, as NATO has demonstrated repeatedly, whenever the War on Terror or the Arab Spring narratives have determined the necessity of foreign intervention. A military alliance that uses violence to prevent violence is what NATO is about, briefly. Under a collective agreement to use force, NATO has manipulated the meaning of democratic.

Which is why Stoltenberg’s comments in relation to the happenings at the Capitol, deemed “shocking and unacceptable”, cannot be taken seriously in terms of the alliance’s record of creating failed states which require perpetual foreign presence – all in the name of democracy.

Early in his tenure, the former U.S. President Donald Trump declared NATO “obsolete”, causing a rift between the U.S. and its European allies. With the Biden Administration, Stoltenberg will seek the U.S.’s return to full cooperation – a feat that should not prove too difficult to achieve, given U.S. President Joe Biden’s communicated priorities: “Day One, if I will I’m going to be on the phone with our NATO allies saying, ‘We’re back.”

Highlighting Trump’s contempt of democracy is an easy feat. Trump’s policies, as despicable as they were, on issues such as migration, Palestine and Latin America, to name a few, exposed the dynamics of U.S. politics. The scenes at the Capitol, described as shocking, exposed a fragment of the U.S.’s political violence, as well as the oblivion which U.S. society is shrouded in. A taste of violence on one’s homeland is shocking – U.S. violence on other sovereign countries has been normalised as an alleged expression of democracy.

Stoltenberg’s most recent address speaks of the importance of European and U.S. unity against “adversaries”. A NATO narrative of adversaries singled out the Cold War as a premise to highlight a distinction in diplomacy and the constructed enemies. Today, Stoltenberg states, “there is a more blurred line. We need to deal with multiple threats. Coming from state and non-state actors.” The underlying message is a call for a globalised NATO which, in turn leads to a globalisation of war. If NATO manages this strategy, it will also have cemented its impunity when an enemy is identified in the next chapter of building “a community of democracies”.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/01/23/nato-is-no-beacon-of-democracy/

Anti-Putin Demonstrations Erupt Across Russia

Demonstrators gathered in dozens of cities across Russia to protest the detention of anti-corruption crusader Alexey Navalny and call for President Vladimir Putin’s ouster.

Some protesters in far-eastern cities protested in temperatures as low as 63 degrees below zero. Riot police were out in force across the country, which may have kept the turnout low.

Still, thousands of people gathered in Moscow. Not among them was Navalny’s wife Yulia, who was detained by police at a Metro station where protesters were gathering. Several of Navalny’s aides and close associates were also detained this week as Putin tried to stop the demonstrations before they started.

It didn’t work.

ABCNews:

In Moscow, authorities sealed off Red Square and deployed riot police. Problems were reported with mobile internet connection and Twitter, and activists alleged authorities jammed the internet. On the central Pushkin Square, where a demonstration is planned, workers began abruptly re-laying the pavement, a frequent tactic used by authorities to disrupt protests.

Ahead of the protests, authorities launched a wave of arrests, detaining activists at their homes, including several of Navalny’s top lieutenants. The prosecutor general’s office issued a warning that anyone attending the protests risked arrest, and opened a broad criminal case on charges relating to unauthorized public events.

A human rights group, OVD-Info, says the number of people arrested nationwide is more than 1,000.

This video is from Vladivostok where riot police charged the protesters.

Navalny’s supporters gathered in often bitingly cold temperatures. In Omsk, where a crowd of several hundred demonstrated, the temperature was -20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Navalny has traditionally had little pull in Russia’s vast regions outside Moscow and previous calls for nationwide protests have previously seen only small crowds of a few hundred in most of the large regional cities. The marches on Saturday appeared larger than usual.

Navalny has been under constant threat from authorities for exposing Putin’s corruption in his popular blog and his writing and speaking engagements. His most recent exposé may have been his best yet. He uncovered a “secret” $1.4 billion palace built by Putin.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/01/23/anti-putin-demonstrations-erupt-across-russia-n1406719