In The News Today:12/26/2022.

US News, World News, Politics, Commentary.

US. News:

U.S. Aid to Ukraine Eclipses Most World Military Budgets

Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Efrem Lukatsky/AP

The passage of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill grants Ukraine $45 billion in military and economic aid, making the total to date $113 billion.

The Quincy Institute reported that aid to Ukraine eclipsed:

  1. American aid to any country in one year since “at least” the Vietnam War
  2. Russia’s 2023 $84 billion military budget
  3. Every country’s military budget except for China and the United States
  4. American aid for communities affected by drought, hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, and natural disasters — by $4 billion

American aid to Ukraine also nearly matches the combined baseline spending for the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security combined.

It is almost as much as the $118 billion “the United States will spend on medical care for all U.S. military veterans.”


NYC man charged in Harlem park slashing spree that left doctor dead

Roland Codrington, 35, was nabbed on Christmas Eve.
Roland Codrington, 35, was nabbed on Christmas Eve.

A violent ex-con has been charged with a slashing spree that left two people dead — including a hard-working pediatrician found with his throat slit at a Harlem park, NYPD officials announced Monday.

Roland Codrington, 35, was driving the black Mercedes Benz of beloved Manhattan pediatrician Bruce Maurice Henry — whose bloodied body was found at Marcus Garvey Park Friday — when he was nabbed on Christmas Eve, cops said.

He’s also accused of stabbing patrons at an Upper East Side bar and of the slashing death of a 51-year-old man on the Lower East Side, according to police.


Authorities Identify Mall of America Shooting Victim

Security officers speak inside a store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., after reports of shots fired on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Security officers speak inside a store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., after reports of shots fired on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Sunday that Johntae Hudson of St. Paul died of multiple gunshot wounds just before 8 p.m. Friday at the mall in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Police arrested five teenagers in connection with the shooting at a home in St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb, on Saturday.

Police Chief Booker Hodges said two of the teens are 18 and three are 17. Hodges said one of the older teens was the shooter but another also may have opened fire.

The chief told the Star Tribune on Sunday that all five will be charged on suspicion of second-degree murder Tuesday.


Title 42 policy could end tomorrow

National Border Patrol Council VP Jon Anfinsen discusses the border crisis as officials prepare for Title 42 potentially ending Tuesday.


Twitter Files expose government influence on suppressing COVID messages that contradicted WH

In a lengthy Twitter thread, The Free Press writer David Zweig cited “[i]nternal files” from Twitter that showed how the social media giant “rigged the COVID debate” at the behest of the federal government.

“The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19,” Zweig said.

Zweig claimed that the documents showed that both the current and previous administrations “directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.”

The Trump administration, he wrote, was concerned about suppressing messages about “runs on grocery stores” that they feared would lead to “panic buying” in the early months of the pandemic. They held meetings with Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and others, according to Zweig.

The Biden administration, Zweig reported, was concerned about vaccine-related information and “anti-vaxxer accounts” like former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson. Documents reportedly showed that the Biden administration was upset that Twitter was not doing more to take action against a number of accounts.


Trans Against Groomers director SUSPENDED from Twitter after saying trans is a ‘mental disorder’

The tweet in question reads, “it is a mental disorder. I mean when some wiring in your brain makes you feel more comfortable as the opposite sex, that’s an illness. Which I don’t think we should stigmatize mental illnesses either.”

Higdon said in a statement to The Post Millennial, “I thought the idea was that we need to destigmatize mental illnesses. So by denying that Gender Dysphoria is a mental illness, doesn’t that alone stigmatize other disorders. And when a trans woman can’t even acknowledge her own illness for what it is, then how are we supposed to have a meaningful conversation on the matter.

“This also shows that there is some cleaning up Elon has to do over at twitter. This is my first ever timeout and it’s after he took over,” Higdon said.


It’s starting, Bill Gates announces the next pandemic date and outbreak location | Redacted News

Well Bill Gates and the WHO have ran a simulation of the next pandemic, coming soon to a government near you in 2025.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation conducted another pandemic tabletop exercise in Brussels, Belgium, on October 23, 2022.

The phenomenon is dubbed SEERS, Severe Epidemic Enterovirus Respiratory Syndrome 2025.


Thousands of people trapped in San Diego Airport due to flight cancellations


List crowns 2022’s ‘Worst of the Woke’ companies

‘The Gray Lady Winked’ author Ashley Rindsberg weighs in on the ‘Worst of the Woke’ corporate award winners and the mainstream media gushing over Kamala Harris in year-end interviews.


Traffic chaos as snowfall blankets New York

A blizzard blanketed parts of New York state on Sunday (December 25) and trapped hundreds of motorists, with National Guard troops called in to help with rescues complicated by white-out conditions and drifting snow.


Fentanyl seizures at the border continue to spike and shatter records in 2022

Fentanyl seized in Nogales, Arizona. (CBP)
Fentanyl seized in Nogales, Arizona. (CBP)

Grossman’s comments came as the Justice Department revealed that ports of entry in San Diego and Imperial counties in Southern California were at the center of a surge in fentanyl seizures at the border, accounting for roughly 60% of seizures of the deadly drug in 2022.

However, that rise has been seen at ports across the border, with law enforcement agencies on both the Mexican and American sides making record-setting busts in 2022. Here are just a few of the border fentanyl busts that made headlines in 2022.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez announced earlier this month that Border Patrol agents in the sector had made the “largest” bust of liquid fentanyl in U.S. history.


Massachusetts Man, Son of Famous American Painter, Convicted on Four Charges in Jan. 6 Protests

Vincent Gillespie, 61, was found guilty of the following four charges: assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, civil disorder, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, and an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.

The Athol, Mass. native was interviewed by the AP during the attacks that day and the video was used as evidence in the trial against him. In the video, a flushed Gillespie is seen outside the Capitol speaking defiantly about his role. He also expressed disappointment that more like-minded individuals didn’t show up to the Capitol.

“We were almost overpowering them,” Gillespie told the AP with blood visible on his scalp. “If you had like another 15, 20 guys behind us pushing I think we could have won it.”


Obama DOJ Official Urges Durham Report ‘Pause,’ Claims Findings May ‘Tarnish’ FBI Officials

An Obama-era spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice claims that Special Counsel John Durham should not have the final say in his own investigation into alleged misconduct in the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.

Matthew Miller, who served as the director of the department’s public affairs office from 2009 to 2011, argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland, or another high-ranking official within the department, should review the report before it is shared with Americans.

“John Durham, the special counsel investigating potential misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe, has spent at least $6.5 million on his inquiry, including $2 million this year, according to financial documents released Friday by the Justice Department. 

CNN has reported that Durham’s investigation is now in its final stages as his team finishes up its written report, which will be sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland. The attorney general and other top Justice Department officials will decide how much of the report to make public. Garland has previously said he wants to release “as much as possible.”

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson recently revealed that Durham’s investigation has “hindered Congress as lawmakers seek to root out FBI misconduct and examine the shady business dealings of Hunter Biden.”


Texas flight attendant pleads guilty to smuggling fentanyl in California

Michael Ball, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Michael Ball, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Terese L. White, 41, pleaded guilty in federal court, admitting she used her privileges as a flight attendant to get through Transportation Security Administration screening to smuggle fentanyl.

The Department of Justice said White admitted that on Oct. 4, 2022, she was off-duty and flew from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to San Diego International Airport.

She exited the secure area of the airport after arriving, and when she returned to catch a scheduled flight to Boston, Massachusetts, White attempted to bypass regular TSA screening using the Known Crew Member queue.

The packages, the DOJ said, contained more than 3 pounds of fentanyl.


Winter’s wrath: Dozens dead nationwide as brutal storm blasts U.S. with frigid temperatures

At least 37 people are dead nationwide from a brutal winter storm as the United States continues to be blasted with frigid temperatures. 

Up to 43 inches of snow cover parts of western New York as the area is drowning in a so-called “lake effect” snow, which is created when cold air crosses the warm Great Lakes water. At least 17 people were killed by Sunday evening in the state, CNN reported.

Even emergency vehicles were stuck in the snow in Erie County, New York, which includes Buffalo.


Joe Rogan guest exposes the “heart-wrenching” reality of the battery mining industry.


Elon Musk: “Almost every conspiracy theory that people had about Twitter turned out to be true”


Florida man allegedly beat roommate’s raccoon with hammer, threatened to kill neighbor with sewing needle

Tevin Williams (Lake County Sheriff’s Office)
Tevin Williams (Lake County Sheriff’s Office)

Tevin Williams, 31, had held a sewing needle to his neighbor’s neck and threatened to kill him before repeatedly hitting the raccoon and shooting it with a BB gun on December 14.

The roommate said when she arrived home from work, Williams hopped off his scooter, approached her car and began punching the vehicle while also telling her, “I’m going to kill you,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Law & Crime.

She was able to get out of her car and over to a neighbor’s house. A neighbor then informed her that Williams had killed her pet raccoon.


Commentary:

Radical Leftist Turned Conservative Activist | Amala Ekpunobi | #317

Raised in a far-left activist household, twenty-two-year-old Amala Ekpunobi was once a student organizer for the left. Unanswered questions–and a search for the truth–led her to a complete ideological transformation.

Passionately sharing her new conservative values online, Amala became a viral social media sensation.

Now the host of PragerU’s popular show “Unapologetic with Amala,” she inspires millions of young people every day to discover the truth, defend their values, and lead better lives.


Carl Sagan – Science and Skepticism

Scientist Carl Sagan was concerned about America’s future when citizens lack the scientific and technological understanding to make informed decisions. libertypen.substack.com


These are the 8 most annoying people of the year

Ah 2022, we’ll miss you. But we won’t miss the people on this list. Hopefully, the new year will push all of them to the sidelines where they can be replaced by new, equally annoying media monsters. 

What’s remarkable is who isn’t on the list. I’m thinking about former presidential timber Michael Avenatti (complete with termites), presidential black-sheep son Hunter Biden and the annoying divorced duo of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. They just weren’t annoying enough. (Imagine!) 

The rules for the list are easy – be in the media and be someone easily recognizable as annoying. Here are the winners (or losers):  


World News:

2022: A year of retreat and surge | Year Ender 2022

The year 2022 has been the year of so many events. Inflation surge, job losses, hybrid work model and then its eventual ending.

Year 2022 witnessed its own share of ups and downs, teaching us the ways of life. One of the most remarkable events was the Russia-Ukraine war that started in beginning of the year.

It impacted economies and hammered stock markets in 2022. The Boom in crypto market has also come to an end.


Putin Vows to Destroy ‘Fairly Outdated’ US-Made Patriot Missile Systems Promised to Ukraine

FILE PHOTO: Patriot missile defence system is seen at Sliac Airport, in Sliac, near Zvolen, Slovakia, May 6, 2022. REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa
FILE PHOTO: Patriot missile defence system is seen at Sliac Airport, in Sliac, near Zvolen, Slovakia, May 6, 2022. REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he’s very confident Moscow will destroy the Patriot air defense systems that the United States had promised Ukraine to include in a new security assistance package.

“Of course, we’ll take them out, 100 percent!” Putin said during an interview with Rossiya-1 TV anchor Pavel Zarubin, Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS reported, noting that Ukraine does not have such systems yet.

A day after the U.S. State Department announced a new $1.85 billion aid package for Ukraine, bringing the overall financial support to about $22 billion, Putin said “the Patriot is a fairly outdated system” and an “antidote” to these systems will be found.


Ukraine aiming for peace summit at UN by the end of February – foreign minister

AP /Efrem LukatskyUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 26, 2022.
AP /Efrem LukatskyUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 26, 2022.

“Every war ends in a diplomatic way,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told AP News. “Every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”

Kuleba emphasized that Kyiv will still do everything in its power to win the war that started in 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and was subjected to a major escalation on February 24 earlier this year when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” that sent Russian tanks rolling across the border. 

Kuleba added that Russia would have to face a war crimes tribunal before being invited to the summit, which would ideally take place at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as a possible mediator.

“The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit, because this is not about making a favor to a certain country,” he said. “This is really about bringing everyone on board.”


China launches its largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defence zone

Aircraft of the Eastern Theater Command during a prior drill near Taiwan in August. Pic: Xinhua /AP
Aircraft of the Eastern Theater Command during a prior drill near Taiwan in August. Pic: Xinhua /AP

More than 70 Chinese aircraft, including fighter jets and drones, entered the zone in the past 24 hours, and 43 of them briefly crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line.

The median line is an unofficial buffer between the two sides, but one that Beijing has never officially recognised.

Seven Chinese navy ships were also detected near Taiwan, the country’s defence ministry said.

Shi Yi, spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Eastern Theatre Command, said: “This is a firm response to the current US-Taiwan escalation and provocation.”


Clip, Moderna expands, UK, Canada and Australia plants


Taliban bans Afghan women from jobs with NGOs | National Report

Jerusalem Correspondent Daniel Cohen reports on how life for Afghan women worsens under Taliban rule.


Cops hunt ‘disgusting’ tourist filmed having sex on busy road after Christmas bender in ‘Sin City’

ViralPress
ViralPress

In what appears to be the tawdry trend of 2022, a blond tourist was filmed romping roadside with the paid sex worker around 4 a.m. Christmas Day in Pattaya. The Thailand resort town is known as “Sin City” because of its bawdy bars and massage parlors.

Shocking security camera video shows the horny holiday-maker getting down and dirty by the side of a busy road — with the pair appearing unbothered by passing traffic. The woman was also seen performing oral sex on the man as multiple cars zoomed by their offensive al fresco antics.

At one point, the blond tourist even waved to the bystander who had stopped to film the salacious sexcapade on his phone, resulting in now-viral footage released by the local Viral Press.

Meanwhile, the uninhibited pair was also spotted by an outraged homeless man who immediately reported the incident to the police.


Penny Wong condemns Taliban ban on women

The Taliban administration ordered NGOs to stop women from working just days after it forbid universities from accepting female students.


Kurds in Paris march for shooting victims

Hundreds of members of France’s Kurdish community on Monday (December 26) took part in a peaceful march to pay tribute to the victims of Friday’s (December 23) deadly attack.


Holy Land fight: Israeli lawmakers condemn EU’s ‘illegal’ actions on biblical land

Forty Israeli lawmakers accused the EU of carving out land from Israel in order to create a Palestinian state. (Courtesy: Regavim)
Forty Israeli lawmakers accused the EU of carving out land from Israel in order to create a Palestinian state. (Courtesy: Regavim)

JERUSALEM—In a blistering letter sent to three top European Union officials, 40 members of Israel’s parliament, Knesset, accused the European body of working against the Jewish state in connection with a leaked EU document showing how it is seeking to illegally carve out territory for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The letter stated, “We learned of an official policy document of the European Union, a document the gravity of which cannot be overstated, one that leaves no room for doubt as to the one-sidedness and animosity of the EU towards the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The document completely ignores our people’s historical affinity to our homeland, completely ignores the political agreements and the status of the State of Israel in Area C and seeks to establish the 1949 borders as Israel’s final-status permanent borders – in complete disregard of the Jewish communities in the area.”

Israel’s Chanel 13 TV station first broke the story last week about the leaked six-page document titled “European Joint Development Programme for Area C.” 

The spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, Ambassador Emmanuel Nahshon, sent Fox News Digital a statement and noted, “In our understanding, this is an internal document of the European Union.

It presents a series of positions that are unacceptable to Israel, including in relation to Area C. Israel made this clear to the [European] Union in a series of contacts with its representatives at all levels.”


China Sets Strict Definition for Death by COVID-19

Tomas Roggero, https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasdev/5890291803
Tomas Roggero, https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasdev/5890291803

At a press conference on Dec. 20, Wang Guiqiang, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, indicated that only “respiratory failure caused by COVID” will be counted as a COVID-19 death.

Wang claimed that the main cause of death from COVID-19 infection was the underlying chronic illnesses of the elderly; the direct cause of death by respiratory failure from COVID-19 infection is few.

Therefore, deaths caused by illnesses such as “cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, myocardial infarction and so on are not classified as COVID deaths,” Wang said.

Current affairs commentator Hui Huyu said that the strict definition would reduce the deaths officially attributed to COVID-19. “It’s to avoid the repercussions and condemnation when the many COVID deaths are revealed,” he said.


Calling For Iranian Regime Change And Accountability

MEK 2017 Human Rights Day rally
MEK 2017 Human Rights Day rally

Going into its fourth month after Amini’s death, Iranians from all walks of life inside Iran are rallying for an end to the mullahs’ reign for its brutal repression with slogans of “Women, Life, Freedom” and “Death to Khamenei.”

The Iranian Resistance, the PMOI/MEK, has suffered for 40 years with over 120,000 executed by the brutal Islamic regime as they fight to overthrow tyranny. Thousands of young MEK members, mostly women, have recently been slain by the mullahs.

From afar, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Iranian Empress Farah Pahlavi have taken an active role in supporting the protests from outside the country and have called upon the international community to apply further pressure against the regime. 

Iranians globally stand in solidarity with the protestors and have called for condemnation, further sanctions and to abandon the nuclear agreement. The U.S., Canada, the European Union and the United Nations have taken such measures. 


South Korea fires warning shots, scrambles aircraft after North Korean drones cross border

FILE - A suspected North Korean drone is viewed at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on June 21, 2017. South Korea said Monday, Dec. 26, 2022, it fired warning shots after North Korean drones violated the South’s airspace. (Lee Jung-hoon/Yonhap via AP)
FILE – A suspected North Korean drone is viewed at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on June 21, 2017. South Korea said Monday, Dec. 26, 2022, it fired warning shots after North Korean drones violated the South’s airspace. (Lee Jung-hoon/Yonhap via AP)

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said several North Korean drones were detected in its territory after crossing the inter-Korean border on Monday morning, prompting broadcast warnings from the South’s military.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported the drones were spotted flying in Gimpo, Ganghwa Island and Paju, which led to temporary suspensions of civilian flights.

Warning shots were fired by South Korea before the country launched fighter jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the drones. It was not immediately clear if the drones were shot down or not.

A KA-1 light attack aircraft was also deployed in the response, but it crashed in Hoengseong County, about 140 kilometers east of Seoul, at 11:39 a.m., according to the Yonhap News Agency. Both of the pilots escaped safely.


Politics:

Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County Ask Judge for Sanctions Against Kari Lake, Her Lawyers

(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The Arizona Secretary of State’s office and Maricopa County on Monday petitioned a judge to sanction GOP candidate Kari Lake after her election-related lawsuit was rejected by a judge over the weekend.

On Monday, the two parties filed a motion in the Maricopa County Superior Court against Lake and her legal team.

“Courts are established by Arizona’s Constitution and statutes to resolve actual disputes between parties,” Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Thomas P. Liddy wrote Monday in a 15-page memo (pdf), asking Judge Peter Thompson for the sanctions and attorneys fees. “They do not exist so that candidates for political office can attempt to make political statements and fundraise. And they should not be used to harass political opponents and sow completely unfounded doubts about the integrity of elections. All of those things happened in this matter.”


Rand Paul’s Annual ‘Festivus’ Report: $482,276,543,907 in Government Waste

Paul’s 2022 Festivus report highlights $482,276,543,907 in government waste and includes $2.3 million used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for an experiment involving injecting puppies with cocaine, $202,000 used by the Department of Defense (DOD) on Starbucks espresso machines, and $3 million for the construction of a Gandhi museum.

According to Paul, the DOD wasted millions this year, including $28 million on “camouflage” uniforms that did not work.

The NIH also wasted a significant amount of money. That includes $2.1 million on encouraging Ethiopians to wear shoes, $2.3 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, $1.1 million on “training mice to binge drink alcohol,” over $519,000 using mice to study racial aggression, and $187,500 on “verifying that kids love their pets.”

According to the report, the pet grant went to Kent State University, which used the funds to apparently “verify that the relationship between pets and children is beneficial to mental health.”


J6C: The Counterfeit Committee | Mark Revisits January 6th

Congress is not authorized to conduct criminal investigations, but that hasn’t stopped the January 6 committee from doling out opinions, interrogating Trump’s allies, and raining down slanderous allegations on supposed insurrectionists. Mark revisits the continuing narrative of this sleazeball panel and its despicable members.


Biden’s climate czars want to fly private, live like kings, while you shiver in the cold

Natural gas prices have spiked 28%. FILE: Well producing natural gas on Jonah Field in Wyoming. (Matt Leach/Fox Digital)
Natural gas prices have spiked 28%. FILE: Well producing natural gas on Jonah Field in Wyoming. (Matt Leach/Fox Digital)

Fossil fuels are integral to almost every part of our lives, from their obvious use in transportation to their behind-the-scenes role in products we use every day — like clothes, cleaning products, phones, pharmaceuticals … and even football helmets. 

We are nowhere near a world in which we can live without fossil fuels. Anyone who says otherwise, or promotes ideas that we can significantly curb our use in the next decade, is not living in reality. Unsustainable “green” policies and the relentless pursuit of eliminating fossil fuels are suffocating the American energy sector and increasing our reliance on foreign crooks and criminals for energy and oil. 

The Biden White House recently announced it will allow Chevron to resume the production and export of oil in Venezuela, a country led by a brutal communist regime. This dirty deal with a dictator will do almost nothing to ease the pain at the pump for Americans. And Venezuela’s oil fields are among some of the worst for the environment in the world, leaving many Americans to question the rationale for the policy shift. 

This follows administration policies over the past two years that have undermined our domestic energy industry — one of the cleanest in the world.


How irresponsible government spending has gone to the next level

American Majority founder Ned Ryun and Hoover Institute senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson express grievances about big government on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’


Don Jr. on Elections: Issues Don’t Matter If We Don’t “Play the Game at the Ballot Box”

“We have to be playing the game the way the Democrats do,” said Donald Trump Jr. to Breitbart’s Alana Mastrangelo at Turning Point USA’s AMERICAFEST in Phoenix, Arizona, about how Republicans need to address issues with the election process first and not be afraid to use strategies the Democrats use.



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