Jacinda Ardern has announced her shock resignation as New Zealand Prime Minister, while also calling an election on October 14.

Ms Ardern choked back tears on Thursday as she said she did not have the energy to seek re-election.

She said her final day in office will be February 7.

"I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice," she said.

Ms Ardern said she had the support of her family to continue, but they were also on board with her decision.

She said she would be there when her daughter Neve started school next year, and to her husband added: "To Clarke, let's finally get married."

Ms Ardern has been New Zealand's Prime Minister since 2017.

"It’s one thing to lead your country through peace time, it’s another to lead them through crisis. I had the privilege of being alongside NZ in a crisis and they placed their faith in me," she said.

"I have never led on my own,” Ms Ardern said, stating that she has always relied on her team.

With regards to the upcoming elections in October, Ms Ardern said she still believed New Zealand Labor would win, but signalled that Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson would not put himself forward for a run at the party leadership.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-19/jacinda-ardern-will-not-seek-re-election/101871232

Joe and Hunter Biden Seen Arriving at Delaware Home 4 Days before Documents Reportedly Retrieved by Personal Attorneys

FOX News played video on Wednesday night showing Hunter Biden and Joe Biden arriving at the family home in Delaware four days before attorneys retrieved classified documents at the home.

There were no visitor logs kept for Biden’s Delaware home where Joe Biden spent at least one-quarter of his presidency.

Kash Patel believes the investigation into Joe Biden’s classified documents started in the summer of 2022 and the FBI likely discovered them as a result of their investigation into Hunter Biden.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/breaking-joe-hunter-biden-seen-arriving-delaware-home-4-days-documents-reportedly-retrieved-personal-attorneys/

Zhao Xintong among 10 Chinese snooker players facing match-fixing charges as corruption scandal grips World Snooker Tour

Plunging the sport into its biggest corruption scandal, 10 Chinese snooker players have been charged over their alleged roles in match-fixing.

Key points:

Snooker's governing body says there will be a formal hearing, followed by an independent disciplinary tribunal for the suspended players

Two of the biggest-name players have been charged with fixing matches and betting on the games

In China, snooker has exploded in popularity over the past decade, but there have been no tournaments there since the outbreak of COVID-19

An investigation by the integrity unit of snooker's governing body has resulted in some of the biggest names in the sport — including 16th-ranked Yan Bingtao and ninth-ranked Zhao Xintong — being accused of corrupt activity, such as fixing matches, approaching players to manipulate matches and betting on matches.

The 10 Chinese players have been suspended and banned from competing on the World Snooker Tour until the conclusion of the case, the sport's governing body said.

There will be a formal hearing, followed by an independent disciplinary tribunal.

Liang Wenbo — a former finalist in the UK Championship — was the first player to be suspended, in October.

He has been charged with "being concerned in fixing matches and approaching players to fix matches on the World Snooker Tour, seeking to obstruct the investigation and failing to cooperate with" the investigation by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

Nine more players were suspended over the following two months, with Yan (the 2021 Masters champion) and Zhao (the UK Championship winner from the same year) among them.

The Masters and the UK Championship are traditionally the two biggest events on the snooker schedule after the World Championship.

Bingtao has been charged with "fixing matches … and betting on snooker", while Xintong has been charged with "being concerned in fixing matches … and betting on snooker".

They were both barred from competing in the Masters last week.

Other players charged are Li Hang, Lu Ning, Zhang Jiankang, Chen Zifan, Chang Bingyu, Zhao Jianbo and Bai Langning.

'We will move on'

Snooker has exploded in popularity in China over the past decade, mainly thanks to the success of Ding Junhui, who has won the Masters and the UK Championship and been runner-up in the World Championship.

Many Chinese players are based in an academy in the English city of Sheffield, where the World Championship is held every year.

"The whole process has been very upsetting and, potentially, life-changing for people," World Snooker chairman Jason Ferguson said.

"It's very damaging but I do think the damage is short term. We have to deliver world-class live entertainment and know the sport is clean. We will move on."

There have been no tournaments in China since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's a big commercial market for snooker," Mr Ferguson said.

"Despite this ongoing issue, the mood about our events is very positive. Our return to China is inevitable."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-19/chinese-players-match-fixing-charges-world-snooker-tour-xintong-/101870390

Germany Says US Must Lead Way On Tanks For Ukraine, As GOP Also Piles On Pressure

Germany just upped the pressure on the Biden administration regarding growing calls to send Ukraine M1 Abrams tanks, which the White House has thus far resisted, fearing further escalation with Russia.

It comes as Germany just appointed a new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, after scandal-plagued Christine Lambrecht resigned the day prior, after also long being accused of representing weakness on arming Ukraine. The Scholz government said it will be up for the new defense minister to mull the question of tanks for Ukraine, as Kiev's pleas grow louder.

"Germany won’t allow allies to ship German-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia nor send its own systems unless the U.S. agrees to send American-made battle tanks, senior German officials said on Wednesday," according to fresh Wall Street Journal reporting.

Multiple NATO countries have now expressed their willingness to send the highly sophisticated German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine, namely, Poland, Denmark and Finland - but Berlin has to sign off on it first.

This month has witnessed for the first time in the 11-month long war growing political momentum to ship Western-made heavy tanks to the Ukrainian battlefield, instead of the infantry carriers and Soviet tanks thus far supplied.

The German reluctance in approval comes after the opening months of the Russian invasion triggered an about-face in German foreign policy, as Berlin has now abandoned its historic neutrality. "One can’t differentiate between direct exports (of German-made tanks) and exports by third countries," a senior German official was quoted in the WSJ report as explaining of Berlin's stance.

But it seems Germany is now clearly signaling that Washington must lead the way in opening the flood gates of a heavy weapons system as significant as tanks onto the Ukraine battlefield. But perhaps it's also calling a US bluff of sorts, essentially telling Biden: 'wanna talk big on Ukraine?… you first'.

The timing of the WSJ's German tank story is interesting, also given the same day top Republican committee chairs in Congress are ramping up the pressure on Biden, demanding that the US approve what are widely seen as 'weapons needed to win' against Russia.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/germany-says-us-must-lead-way-tanks-ukraine-gop-also-piles-pressure

Defense Contractors Rake in Millions as U.S. Seeks to Supply More Weapons to Ukraine

Defense contractors are raking in millions of dollars as the Biden administration pledges to continue supporting Ukraine for “as long as it takes.”

The U.S. Army announced in December it awarded an $84 million contract to Raytheon Missiles and Defense for more than 1,000 Excalibur 1B precision munitions to replenish those sent to Ukraine.

Just weeks before, the Army awarded a $432 million contract to Lockheed Martin to replenish High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers that the U.S. and allies sent to Ukraine, according to Defense News. The Army also awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Raytheon for six National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) batteries for Ukraine.

This week, the Biden administration is expected to announce more military assistance to Ukraine when U.S. defense leaders meet with their counterparts in Germany for the eighth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

The U.S. pledged $400 million in military equipment at the group’s last meeting on November 23. CNN reported on Wednesday that the administration is putting together one of its largest aid packages ever.

So far, the U.S. has allocated $113 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes $24.2 billion in security assistance since the conflict began in February 2022.

Much of what the U.S. has supplied to Ukraine has come from its military’s own stocks. The Biden administration has dipped into those inventories 29 times, using what is known as “Presidential Drawdown Authority,” or PDA.

But now the flow of weapons is running up against current supplies and the production capacity of the defense industry.

For one thing, the U.S. military needs to keep enough weapons for its own war plans, as well as for its units to continue training and maintaining.

U.S. military and defense officials have “repeatedly” told members of Congress and their staff that they must keep a certain amount of weapons mandated by Pentagon war plans, Foreign Policy reported last month. Those weapons reportedly include Stingers, Javelins, 155 mm artillery, and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) munitions.

Second, some weapons in high demand in Ukraine had stopped being produced or were being made in only very limited supplies.

For example, Raytheon closed its Stinger production line in December 2020, only several months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In July 2021, the company won a contract to manufacture more but mainly for international governments, according to Reuters.

Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said during an April 2022 conference call that the Pentagon had not purchased a Stinger in 18 years and that some of the components were no longer commercially available. “So we’re going to have to go out and redesign some of the electronics in the missile of the seeker head. That’s going to take us a little bit of time,” he said, according to the report.

In addition to continuing to supply Ukraine, the U.S. military is trying to backfill what it has already sent, and it will apparently cost the American taxpayer more to keep both endeavors going.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/18/defense-contractors-rake-in-millions-as-u-s-seeks-to-supply-more-weapons-to-ukraine/

California: 10.8 Million Mail-In Ballots ‘Unaccounted For’ in 2022 Elections

More than 10.8 million mail-in ballots went “unaccounted for” in California’s midterm elections last year, data published by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) reveals.

In 2022, California election officials mailed out more than 22.1 million ballots to registered voters, the data published by PILF shows. Of those, more than 10.8 million went “unaccounted for” as researchers said election officials can only make assumptions as to what happened with the ballots.

“Typically, when a polling place opens and closes, there is an accounting of all election materials. Significant issues arise when incidents occur such as ballots disappearing at poll closing time. With mass mail elections, problems accumulate,” PILF researchers state:

After accounting for polling place votes and rejected ballots in November 2022, there were more than 10 million ballots left outstanding, meaning election officials do not know what happened to them. It is fair to assume that the bulk of these were ignored or ultimately thrown out by the intended recipients. But, under mass mail elections, we can only assume what happened. Mail voting practices have an insurmountable information gap. The public cannot know how many ballots were disregarded, delivered to wrong mailboxes, or even withheld from the proper recipient by someone at the same address. [Emphasis added]

Meanwhile, more than 226,000 mail-in ballots were rejected in the 2022 primary and general midterm elections in California, including more than 120,000 mail-in ballots that were thrown out in the general election.

The data published by PILF finds that more than 800 mail-in ballots were rejected after California election officials discovered the person who cast them had already voted.

Likewise, more than 57,000 mail-in ballots were rejected for arriving late, nearly 48,000 for not having a matching signature, nearly 12,000 for having no signature, and 660 for refusing to provide any identification.

“Mail ballots disenfranchise,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement.

“There are many reasons mail ballots fail ultimately to count. No one casting a ballot at home can correct an error before it’s too late,” Adams said. “California’s vote-by-mail demonstration should serve as a warning to state legislators elsewhere.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/18/california-10-8-million-mail-in-ballots-unaccounted-for-2022-elections/

>>18171222

Trips to boot

CNBC Host Congratulates Moderna CEO for Developing COVID Vaccine Before the Disease Even Hit America’s Shores

The CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bancel, appeared on Wednesday’s episode of ‘Squawk Box’ to talk about the company’s recent successes and the forthcoming release of an RSV mRNA vaccine.

During the discussion, CNBC host Rebecca Quick revealed that Bancel told her during a WEF meeting in 2020 that Moderna was already working on a COVID-19 vaccine, even though the disease did not yet exist at the time. Quick was so amazed at how Moderna was so early in developing the vaccine.

“The last time we were here in Davos in the winter was January 2020. And I saw you at that point, and we were at breakfast right over here. I remember, and you came up to me in this small room, and you were talking about how you had actually you were working on a vaccine for COVID. And at that point, COVID-19 didn’t even really exist in our minds,” Quick told Bancel.

Bancel responded, “I think there was no name at that time.”

“It’s amazing how much you’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time,” Quick said.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/must-see-cnbc-host-congratulates-moderna-ceo-developing-covid-vaccine-name-disease/