USA

Trump says Russia-Ukraine peace deal ‘closer than ever’ but adds talks could ‘also go poorly’

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace deal as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort, but he acknowledged that negotiations could still break down and leave the war dragging on for years.

The president’s statements came after the two leaders met for a discussion that took place after what Trump described as an “excellent,” two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine launched the war four years ago. Trump insisted he believed Putin still wants peace, even as Russia launched another round of attacks on Ukraine while Zelenskyy flew to the United States for the latest round of negotiations.

“Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Trump said during a late afternoon news conference following a meeting with Zelenskyy, whom he repeatedly praised as “brave.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia", USA

How Long Before Tim Walz Is Indicted?

The big question on everyone’s mind right now must be, “When will Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) face indictment for the fraud that didn’t merely take place on his watch, but was allegedly allowed to continue unchecked?” It’s a fair question to ask, given the circumstances. The political ground beneath Walz is looking increasingly shaky. Between mounting scrutiny and unresolved allegations, things are not breaking in his favor.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

U.S. Implements Broad Facial Recognition Mandate for Noncitizens at All Points of Entry

A sweeping new policy requiring the collection of facial recognition data from all noncitizens entering and leaving the United States went into effect on Saturday.

The policy takes effect as U.S. airports handle a massive influx of holiday travelers. The Transportation Security Administration estimates more than 44 million travelers will pass through airports between December 19 and January 4.

The Department of Homeland Security says the measure is designed to curb visa fraud, identify criminals, detect overstays, and prevent illegal reentries.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", USA

America’s free speech tsar: ‘We reject Brits who censor the US’

Eurotrash Censorship Weenies

As most of the country wound down for Christmas, the Trump administration had other ideas. On Tuesday night, the State Department announced sanctions against five Europeans. The charge? Not corruption, terrorism or espionage. Instead, it was crimes against freedom of speech.

After Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, announced the sanctions, Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, followed up with details of the five individuals, who include the former European commissioner, Thierry Breton, and two British citizens, Imran Ahmed and Clare Melford.

She said Ahmed, head of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, and Melford, chief executive of the Global Disinformation Index, were guilty of “extraterritorial censorship of Americans”. “Our message is clear,” she said: “if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, USA

Proof the Border Is Historically Secure Can Be Found in CBP’s Monthly Stats

Lost in the din of a violent week is CBP’s release of its statistics for agency “encounters” for the month of November. They reveal that not only is the border secure, but historically secure and becoming more so. Illegal migrant “travel season” starts in February, however, and we’ll soon see how long it lasts, but for now the greatest border accomplishment of Trump II can be measured in the record low number of alien children who are attempting to cross illegally – news you likely won’t hear about anywhere else.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints, USA

From an Olympic Snowboarder to an Accused Drug Kingpin and Killer

The target was a drug trafficker turned F.B.I. informant who didn’t stand a chance. As he had lunch with friends at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, a hit man in a dark hoodie sneaked up behind him and shot him five times in the head.

The man who had ordered the hit quickly received a photograph of the body, the authorities said. He reshared it widely — boasting that he had killed “the rat.”

The man behind the killing was Ryan Wedding, a Canadian who rose to fame as an Olympic snowboarder two decades ago, only to become what the authorities describe as one of the world’s biggest drug lords. “El Jefe,” as he was known, ran a drug-trafficking empire out of Mexico and was now one of the most wanted fugitives in the world.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Mexican drug cartels, Mexico, USA

Canadians travelling to U.S. will be photographed upon entry and exit starting Boxing Day

All individuals traveling to the United States will now be photographed before entering or leaving the country starting Friday, according to a new regulation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In some cases, U.S. customs officials will also be able to capture travelers’ fingerprints.

These requirements take effect on Dec. 26 and apply to all non-U.S. citizens, including Canadian travelers and diplomats.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan wears hijab in solidarity with Somalis as feds probe multibillion-dollar fraud scandal

WASHINGTON — Minnesota’s lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan donned a hijab to express solidarity with Somalis in a local TV appearance amid federal and congressional investigations into fraudsters in their refugee community who bilked taxpayers out of as much as $9 billion.

“I am incredibly clear that the Somali community is part of the fabric of the state of Minnesota,” Flanagan said at Karmel Mall in Minneapolis alongside local officials in a video released by Somali TV of Minnesota on Thursday.

h/t Patti Jo

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West, USA

Pentagon report: Chinese military buildup and shift in nuclear force doctrine threatens US homeland

China’s military buildup is making “the U.S. homeland increasingly vulnerable,” according to the Pentagon’s annual China military power report.

This is the result of a combination of their decades-long arms buildup and a shift in nuclear force doctrine. “China maintains a large and growing arsenal of nuclear, maritime, conventional long-range strike, cyber and space capabilities able to directly threaten Americans’ security,” according to the report.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", USA

AI Effect on Voting Intentions Three Times Greater in Canada Than in US: Study

Conversations between humans and AI chatbots can significantly influence voters’ decisions, with the impact in Canada potentially three times greater than in the United States, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Dec. 4.

The study, conducted by researchers from MIT and other universities in Canada, Poland, and the United States, analyzed how conversations with AI chatbots could persuade people to change their voting intentions more effectively than traditional political advertisements.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA, WTF?

Trust issues: ‘Islamic State’ supporters in the Syrian army?

The attack on US troops by a Syrian security forces member who was a supporter of the extremist “Islamic State” group in mid-December has consequences well beyond the four deaths that resulted.

One question continues to arise after the recent killing of two US soldiers and a civilian translator in central Syria by a follower of the extremist “Islamic State” group.

The killer had infiltrated the Syrian security forces. How many others in the Syrian security forces might hold similarly extreme opinions?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Syria, USA

One year into Trump 2.0: Here’s how much America has radically changed on his watch

U.S. President Donald Trump has been a disruptive force since he burst onto the political scene a decade ago — but the pace of change in the first year of his second presidency is unlike just about anything seen before in the nearly 250-year history of the American republic.

Since his inauguration in January, Trump has upended the global trade order with a sweeping new tariffs scheme, radically curtailed immigration while deploying enforcement agents to round up migrants en masse and issued pink slips to federal public servants at a scale unmatched in the modern era.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA