DOJ’s Dirty Deeds - Clarice Feldman

 

by Clarice Feldman

More examples of DoJ malfeasance

It has been a week of scandalous doings on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s watch.   Congress seems paralyzed to intervene with more than hearings, and so far, only federal district court Judge Maryellen Noreika has tried. As I explain, it’s questionable whether her conduct will prevent the Justice Department from exonerating Hunter Biden from laundering what may be as much as $50 million in bribes from countries, including China, Ukraine, and Romania, into his family’s pockets. Through Jack Smith, it has corralled President Trump’s valet and the Mar-a-Largo maintenance worker into the ridiculous documents case. Finally, it dropped another case against crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried, who contributed as much as $90 million dollars of ill-gotten funds almost entirely to Democrat candidates and their action committees.

Hunter Biden and the No-good, Dirty Deal

Ferried to the courthouse by a substantial (obviously taxpayer-paid) motorcade, Hunter appeared chipper, obviously believing that his very significant tax avoidance and FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) violations were going to be wiped off the prosecution table if he pled guilty to two misdemeanor charges for unrelated offenses.

The tables quickly turned. It was alleged that counsel for the defense had misled the court clerk into believing she was acting for the government in requesting the amicus brief filed by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith be removed from the docket. Upon learning of the impersonation deception, the Judge threatened sanctions against Hunter’s team. It’s not clear whether or not she accepted the explanation offered, ("an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication”), but on Friday, she entered an order that reads in relevant part:

“Any such issues and inquiries shall be submitted in writing and placed on the docket. To the extent that the rare instance arises in which a writing is not practicable, a phone call may be made to my Chambers by an attorney who represents one of the parties in these cases or an interested third party.”

The case went downhill after that when it appeared the government and defense counsel had tried to pull the wool over her eyes about the full extent of the plea deal. The plea on its face seemed to recommend probation after Hunter admitted guilt on two misdemeanor charges that he failed to pay over $100,000 in taxes on income earned in 2017 and 2018 and would avoid consequences for a felony gun charge. The devil was in the details: A side pretrial diversion agreement, the most important portion of which (paragraph 15) had just been handed to the judge before she entered the courtroom. The judge needed clarification of it as it appeared to give Hunter immunity from a firearm offense as well as tax and other tax crimes. 

"Have you ever seen a diversion agreement where the agreement not to prosecute is so broad that it encompasses crimes in a different case?” she asked assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise.

Mr. Wise replied that he had not.

Questioning why such promises were made in the diversion agreement -- an agreement she could not rule on [by its very terms] -- the judge said: “It seems to me like you are saying ‘just rubber stamp the agreement, Your Honor.’ …This seems to me to be form over substance.”

Ultimately, the judge deferred action on the plea deal, declaring that she could not accept it as is.

The DoJ has been insisting to congressional investigators that it could not respond to inquiries about the Hunter case in those matters still under investigation, but the diversion agreement, of course, would render that claim and any “investigation” baseless. In any event, when pressed, the prosecution team denied that accepting the plea deal would grant Hunter criminal immunity in perpetuity, at which point the deal fell apart because Hunter’s counsel quite reasonably believed that would be the effect. Hunter responded, “not guilty,” and the hearing ended. I think it is beyond debate that the government backed off what criminal lawyers call a “global agreement” because it stunk of a partisan cover-up, mostly to protect the “big guy,” President Biden.

“In Hunter’s case, according to what folks in the courtroom have told me, Hunter’s plea was structured under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(c)(1)(B), which is usually just a plea in return for a joint sentencing recommendation only, and contained no information on its face about other potential charges, and contained no clear agreement by DOJ to forego prosecution of other charges,” Will Scharf said.

“Instead, DOJ and Hunter’s lawyers effectively hid that part of the agreement in what was publicly described as a pretrial diversion agreement relating to a § 922(g)(3) gun charge against Hunter for being a drug user in possession of a firearm,” Scharf said.

The lawyers slipped Hunter’s blanket immunity in the pre-trial diversion agreement so the judge could not accept -- or reject -- the blanket immunity part of the deal.

However, the judge smelled a rat and blew up the entire plea deal!

“So, they put the facts in the plea agreement, but put their non-prosecution agreement in the pretrial diversion agreement, effectively hiding the full scope of what DOJ was offering and Hunter was obtaining through these proceedings. Hunter’s upside from this deal was vast immunity from further prosecution if he finished a couple years of probation, and the public wouldn’t be any the wiser because none of this was clearly stated on the face of the plea agreement, as would normally be the case,’ Will Scharf said. 

It’s as yet unclear to me what the next step by the prosecution will be. I understand that the first thing Hunter did when he entered the courtroom was to sign the diversion agreement. Former Deputy Independent Counsel Sol Wisenberg tweeted it was of no effect because it was conditioned on a plea agreement that was not accepted by the Court. Will Hunter’s counsel argue that is an independent agreement that does not require court approval to be effective? Would that work?

New Charges in the Trump Document Case

As if admitting the prior charges were weak, this week, Jack Smith added charges against Trump’s valet and the Mar-A-Lago maintenance man, accusing them of concealing documentation by deleting security tape footage in the storage room. They tried that gambit earlier before Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida, where they were forced to admit they only needed to see the video from May 24 until June 2, which they were already given.

Sam Bankman-Fried

You may recall Sam, the son of two Stanford University professors:

who was accused of misusing customer deposits and who made $90 million in campaign contributions to around 300 predominantly left-wing political candidates or action committees (PACs).

Prosecutors argued the United States “mishandled” the process of extraditing Bankman-Fried from the Bahamas, writing a letter stating, “In keeping with its treaty obligations to the Bahamas, the government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count.”

Bankman-Fried, who had a net worth of around $26.5 billion at his peak, ranked behind only George Soros in donations to the Democrats last year. He also donated to some Republicans through what he described as ‘dark’ channels. [snip] 

Bankman-Fried was the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX but resigned last November after the company’s collapse, costing customers and lenders billions of dollars. He was subsequently arrested and released after paying a $250 million bond: the largest in American history.

There remain other charges for fraud involving banks and customers. It will be interesting to see if the Justice Department conjures up another catch-us-if-you-can phony baloney diversion agreement.

To sum up, this week, in two cases -- Hunter and Bankman-Fried -- the Department of Justice went out of its way to hide evidence of millions of dollars of overseas money being funneled to Democrats and in a third, it is resurrecting stale, paltry charges against the likely Republican challenger for president.

 
Clarice Feldman

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/07/dojs_dirty_deeds.html

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Rand Paul announces 'official criminal referral,' claims email shows Fauci COVID testimony 'absolutely a lie' - Danielle Wallace

 

by Danielle Wallace

Paul argues a newly unredacted email 'directly contradicts' Dr. Anthony Fauci's past testimony about COVID-19 gain-of-function research.

 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced an "official criminal referral" to the Department of Justice regarding Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Paul pointed to an email from February 2020 in which Fauci detailed a call with British medical researcher Jeremy Farrar, who was director of the Wellcome Trust at the time. According to Fauci, those on the task force call, including Francis Collins, former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and other "highly credible" scientists with expertise in evolutionary biology, expressed concern about the "fact upon viewing the sequences of several isolates of the nCoV, there were mutations in the virus that would be most unusual to have evolved naturally in the bats and that there was a suspicion that this mutation was intentionally inserted." 

"The suspicion was heightened by the fact that scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine the molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan," Fauci wrote, according to a screenshot of the newly unredacted email shared by RealClearPolitics White House reporter Philip Wegmann. 

RAND PAUL TORCHES DOCTORS WARNING OF 'S--- SHOW' IF CHINA ACCUSED OF COVID RELEASE: 'THE BUSINESS OF SCIENCE'

Sen. Rand Paul questions Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing about the federal response to monkeypox, on Capitol Hill, Sept. 14, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

"This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it’s absolutely a lie. That’s why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ," Paul wrote on "X," formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday. 

In July 2021, Paul reminded Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and medical adviser to the president, that lying to Congress is a federal crime, suggesting the NIAID director had done so regarding COVID-19 gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci responds to questions from Sen. Rand Paul during a Senate hearing regarding the federal response to COVID-19 on Jan. 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

During a heated exchange, Fauci insisted he had "never lied before Congress" during a prior testimony that May, telling Paul, "you don't know what you're talking about." Fauci further denied the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded gain-of-function research, despite Paul citing a journal article titled, "Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses." 

RAND PAUL BLASTS FAUCI AS JUDGE DEMANDS MISINFORMATION EMAILS

Paul noted how the paper’s author credits the NIH and lists the actual number of the grant given by the NIH. The author took two bat coronavirus spike genes and combined them with SARs related backbone to create new viruses that are not found in nature. The lab-created viruses were then shown to replicate in humans, Paul, who graduated from Duke University School of Medicine and was a practicing doctor before being elected to Congress, surmised of the article during the congressional hearing. 

 "Viruses that in nature only infect animals were manipulated in the Wuhan lab to gain the function of infecting humans," Paul said. 

Sen. Rand Paul questions Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill on July 20, 2021. (J. Scott Applewhite/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Fauci said the paper Paul referred to "was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function."

"Let’s read from the NIH definition of gain of function. This is your definition that you guys wrote. It says that ‘scientific research that increases the transmissibility among mammals is gain of function.’ They took animal viruses that only occur in animals, and they increased their transmissibility to humans," Paul said. "How you can say that’s not gain of function – it’s a dance, and you’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for 4 million people dying around the world from a pandemic."

 

Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rand-paul-announces-official-criminal-referral-claims-email-fauci-covid-testimony-absolutely-lie

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In the Name of Climate Change: Travel Restrictions and the Great Reset - Janet Levy

 

by Janet Levy

COVID was a smokescreen. In the name of a recovery plan, radical steps were initiated to restructure the world economy and usher in an extreme environmentalist and statist framework of governance as the new norm.

If you experienced unprecedented delays during air travel this summer, the airlines likely blamed it on the weather.  You might have been surprised, for bad weather wasn’t reported in the news.  But here is what should surprise and shock you even more.  The real reason – a shortage of pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCs) – is linked to the Great Reset, the agenda to control people and restrict freedom conceived by the global elite and being implemented through leftist groups and their sympathizers.

It is now well known that Klaus Schwab, chief of the elitist World Economic Forum (WEF), set the Great Reset in motion during the pandemic, calling it an opportunity to “reflect, reimagine, and reset the world.” The COVID lockdown also connects to the story of the recent flight delays, because it was during the pandemic that travel restrictions were imposed worldwide and pilots and ATCs were laid off.  At London’s Heathrow, alone, for example, traffic plunged 88% – from 80 million passengers daily to about one million.  The ostensible reason for limiting travel was to curb contagion and virus mutation.  But a sinister agenda was afoot.

The travel restrictions, quarantines, vaccine passports, social distancing, the lockdown itself, and other measures were not so much for disease control as for imposing the dystopian New World Order.  COVID was a smokescreen.  In the name of a recovery plan, radical steps were initiated to restructure the world economy and usher in an extreme environmentalist and statist framework of governance as the new norm.

As the lockdown progressed beyond a few months, proponents of the climate agenda and the Green New Deal claimed an intersection between the pandemic and a furtherance of their goals.  These ‘progressives’ deployed a double-edged sword: they said decreased air and car travel was contributing to a healthier planet; simultaneously, they warned that global warming would contribute to health problems and even start more pandemics.  So, the pandemic became a convenient excuse to justify far-reaching policy changes that would control and direct everything from the utilization of natural resources to the movement and monitoring of people.

The implementation of movement restriction measures called for in the Great Reset has already manifested in several ways.  Air travel is being discouraged with the inconvenience of delay, cancellations, and staff shortage.  Other movement is being checked by a policy thrust toward banning gas-powered cars, instituting congestion pricing, and developing the impractical idea of so-called 15-minute cities.  These policies also call for car-free cities, limiting airline travel, and a 'global tax' on airlines; that is, the more you fly, the more you pay.  In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the Air Resources Board to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035, linking heatwaves, wildfires, and droughts to “climate change.” Seventeen states that have vehicle emission standards tied to California rules are weighing similar mandates.

In 2022, the 193-member nation International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO), a U.N.  agency, agreed to a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.  Ironically, the call to reduce the use of aviation fuel is accompanied by a boom in private air travel, as airline travel becomes more difficult.  Private jets constitute 25% of U.S.  flights and increased by 17% in the first half of 2022.  Clearly, despite purported concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the Great Reset does not restrict travel for the elite.  The agenda obviously has more to do with politics and control than science.

This year, summer air travel was subjected to massive delays.  More than 11,000 flights were delayed or cancelled on June 25; some 8,000 on June 26; and there were 35,000 flight delays and 7,000 cancellations on July 4.  Candid airline employees confessed this had nothing to do with the weather, and that pilot and ATC understaffing was responsible for the chaos.  In late June, I found myself stuck in New York for three days with no available flight options to the West Coast.  I was also trapped in Reykjavik for four nights because of the cancellation of flights to Ilulissat, Greenland.  An Icelandair captain revealed the reason: a tower at an adjacent airport, required for potential flight diversions, was unmanned because of an ATC shortage.

Despite the shortage of aviation personnel, Congress rejected an amendment to HR 3935, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, that would have required airlines to reinstate pilots who were fired or stepped down because of vaccine mandates.  Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who introduced the amendment, said, “Hundreds of pilots were forced out of their livelihoods over the past several years for their refusal to get the COVID vaccine.” Surprisingly, 83 Republicans joined their Democrat colleagues in voting against an amendment that would have ameliorated the pilot shortage.

The FAA has been criticized for lacking a plan to address the serious shortage of ATCs: 77% of critical air traffic control (ATC) facilities are staffed below the 85% threshold.  Currently, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks to cover shortages.  The shortage of about 3,000 ATCs has been responsible for large numbers of flight cancellations and delays.  The fact that the FAA paused training in the wake of the COVID pandemic has added to the already serious problem, compounded by the diversity agenda.

Under the Obama administration, the FAA furthered diversity goals by screening applicants using biographical questionnaires that supplanted skills-based tests.  Former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson had then reported that applicants with lower aptitude in science were being preferred over those who scored high in science.  Similarly, applicants who were unemployed for the previous three years got more points than licensed pilots.  As Carlson rightly put it, the FAA was actively searching for unqualified ATCs, prioritizing identity politics before passenger safety and ultimately reducing the available pool of ATCs.

The resultant delays and restrictions bring to mind the post 9-11 commissioning of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security and how it was insidiously expanded, using the fear of terrorist attacks, to serve a state that is becoming increasingly authoritarian.  A parallel could be drawn with how the pandemic and the supposed menace of climate change are being used to get people to accept without question the need for surveillance and other restrictions on freedom.

In the name of rooting out terrorists, the TSA began by having its airport staff probe and prod ordinary Americans, including children and the wheelchair-bound elderly.  Its mandate now covers the entire transportation landscape, including all surface transport systems.  From 26,941 screeners in 2014, the number has leapt to over 60,000 today.  Travelers are now inured to surveillance and willingly submit to scans, pat downs, and other intrusions.  The globalist elite and their progressive cohorts hope that, similarly, with the fear of new pandemics and end-of-the-world climate scenarios on their minds, people will acquiesce to giving up their freedom and living as directed by states that are in the control of the elite.

With the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring climate the number one threat to world health in the 21st century, conditions are now in place for the centralized control proposed under the Great Reset.  This amounts to the weaponization of the weather to bring about a Sinification of America under one-party rule.  It is high time people became aware of the true objective of the climate agenda: curtailing and monitoring human activity and allowing the elite to ultimately control all resources by working through so-called experts who make decisions without accountability.  Before it goes any further, this blatant attempt to seize liberty and extinguish freedom must be stopped.

Photo credit: YouTube screengrab (cropped)

Janet Levy

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/07/in_the_name_of_climate_change_travel_restrictions_and_the_great_reset.html

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What NASA and the European Space Agency are admitting but the media are failing to report about our current heat wave - Thomas Lifson

 

by Thomas Lifson

What? A historic, gigantic volcanic eruption occurred last year and you haven't heard about it until now?!

 

The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world’s leading scientific organizations. It turns out that levels of water vapor in the atmosphere have dramatically increased over the last year-and-a-half, and water vapor is well recognized as a greenhouse gas, whose heightened presence leads to higher temperatures, a mechanism that dwarfs any effect CO2 may have.

So, why has atmospheric water vapor increased so dramatically? Because of a historic, gigantic volcanic eruption last year that I – probably along with you -- had never heard of. The mass media ignored it because it took place 490 feet underwater in the South Pacific. Don’t take it from me, take it from NASA (and please do follow the link to see time lapse satellite imagery of the underwater eruption and subsequent plume of gasses and water injected into the atmosphere):

still from the time lapse photos

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in the South Pacific Ocean also blasted an enormous plume of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth’s global average temperature.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He led a new study examining the amount of water vapor that the Tonga volcano injected into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere between about 8 and 33 miles (12 and 53 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

In the study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Millán and his colleagues estimate that the Tonga eruption sent around 146 teragrams (1 teragram equals a trillion grams) of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – equal to 10% of the water already present in that atmospheric layer. That’s nearly four times the amount of water vapor that scientists estimate the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines lofted into the stratosphere. [emphases added]

NASA published the above in August 2022. Half a year later, a newer study increased the estimate of the water vapor addition to the atmosphere by 30%. From the European Space Agency:

In a recent paper published in Nature, a team of scientists showed the unprecedented increase in the global stratospheric water mass by 13% (relative to climatological levels) and a five-fold increase of stratospheric aerosol load – the highest in the last three decades.

Using a combination of satellite data, including data from ESA’s Aeolus satellite, and ground-based observations, the team found that due to the extreme altitude, the volcanic plume circumnavigated the Earth in just one week and dispersed nearly pole-to-pole in three months. [emphasis added]

Another scientific paper explains the “net warming of the climate system” on a delayed basis.  NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory further explains:

Volcanic eruptions rarely inject much water into the stratosphere. In the 18 years that NASA has been taking measurements, only two other eruptions – the 2008 Kasatochi event in Alaska and the 2015 Calbuco eruption in Chile – sent appreciable amounts of water vapor to such high altitudes. But those were mere blips compared to the Tonga event, and the water vapor from both previous eruptions dissipated quickly. The excess water vapor injected by the Tonga volcano, on the other hand, could remain in the stratosphere for several years.

This extra water vapor could influence atmospheric chemistry, boosting certain chemical reactions that could temporarily worsen depletion of the ozone layer. It could also influence surface temperatures. Massive volcanic eruptions like Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo typically cool Earth’s surface by ejecting gases, dust, and ash that reflect sunlight back into space. In contrast, the Tonga volcano didn’t inject large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere, and the huge amounts of water vapor from the eruption may have a small, temporary warming effect, since water vapor traps heat. The effect would dissipate when the extra water vapor cycles out of the stratosphere [Emphases added]

So there you have it: we are in for extra atmospheric heat “for several years” until the extra water vapor injected by this largest-ever-recorded underwater volcano eruption dissipates.

Jeff Childers, who brought this scientific data to my notice, writes:

 Here’s why corporate media is ignoring the most dramatic climate even[t] in modern history: because you can’t legislate underwater volcanoes. You can try, but they won’t listen. So what’s the fun in that? Corporate media only exists to further political ends. Since volcanoes aren’t subject to politics, why bother?

 He brings up the work of Ethical Skeptic:

Ethical is suggesting that the water is heating the air — instead of the other way around. And the Earth’s core is heating the water.  It’s a theory that explains everything.

Meanwhile, “science” is baffled. From just a month ago, in mid-June:

See? But though scientists are baffled, corporate media and its repulsive allies are busily blaming ocean warming on carbon dioxide — a ludicrous notion.

I am the first to admit that none of this – not the atmospheric CO2 theory of global warming, nor the effect of the largest ever known undersea volcanic eruption – is scientifically proven. But before we impoverish ourselves trying to reduce CO2 emissions (while watching China dramatically increase them), let’s practice real science and not jump to conclusions based on an imaginary “consensus.”

Hat tip: Alan Fraser

Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/what_nasa_and_the_european_space_agency_are_admitting_but_the_media_are_failing_to_report_about_our_current_heat_wave.html

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It's not climate change that's causing heat waves this summer but no one wants to explain why - Justin Haskins

 

by Justin Haskins

In the 1930s, the government's Heat Wave Index was four times higher

 

Every summer, heat waves inevitably hit the U.S. and other parts of the world, causing climate alarmists and left-leaning media outlets to demand dramatic, disastrous changes to the global energy system. Unfortunately, this summer is no different. 

On Tuesday, U.S. media outlets published a wave of stories about supposedly "historic" heat waves in Europe and North America. For example, The Washington Post published an article titled "Heat waves in U.S., Europe ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change, study finds." 

Similarly, Axios published a story titled "Historic and enduring U.S. heat wave, by the numbers." 

BARBIE'S DREAMHOUSE MUST BE 'REDESIGNED TO SURVIVE' CLIMATE CHANGE, CBS REPORTS

Although certain parts of the U.S. have undoubtedly experienced strong heat waves this summer, there’s no reason to believe these weather events are evidence that the world is hurtling toward a climate change catastrophe. In fact, the best available evidence suggests that heat waves recorded a century ago were more problematic than anything we’re seeing today. 

Climate change protesters are seen marching and chanting as they carry placards in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 6, 2021. Protests across Australia were organized as part of a global day of action demanding world leaders act decisively on climate to prevent catastrophic global warming. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Government researchers have been tracking heat waves for more than 100 years. According to data from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, which is made available by the Environmental Protection Agency, the annual heat wave index for the contiguous 48 states was substantially higher in the 1930s than at any point in recent years. In some years in the 1930s, it was four times greater or even more. 

Additionally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a large database of daily temperatures that goes back to 1948. NOAA used 1,066 weather stations located across the U.S. to collect this data. 

According to NOAA, huge swaths of the U.S. have experienced a significant decrease in abnormally hot days recorded since 1948, especially in the Midwest and northern and eastern Texas. 

Although it’s true that some parts of the U.S. have seen the number of hotter-than-usual days increase over the past 70 years — including in California and the New York metropolitan area, both of which happen to be areas where a large number of media outlets are located — most weather stations have shown no meaningful changes or even declines. 

U.S. Annual Heat Wave Index, 1895–2021 (EPA)

Meteorologist Anthony Watts, who works with me as a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute, analyzed NOAA’s data in detail and found that 81% of the weather stations used in NOAA’s database reported that since 1948 there has been "either a decrease or no change in the number of unusually hot days." 

If the available data so clearly reveal that there is no heat-wave crisis, why are media outlets suggesting the opposite is true? The answer is sloppy, irresponsible media reporting, combined with cherry-picked data. 

Anyone who wants to show a long-term warming or cooling trend can do so by selectively choosing starting and ending points in datasets that will provide the answer you’re looking for.  

For instance, if you start your examination of historic temperatures with figures collected in the 1970s, when temperatures were unusually low compared to the rest of the century, then current temperatures look abnormally high. 

Video

 

If you start around 2010, then temperatures over the past decade appear to have dipped below "normal" and are only now recovering. 

When many media outlets and left-wing politicians talk about climate change data, they almost always selectively choose a range that offers an incomplete picture of the larger available dataset. This makes it appear as though today’s temperatures are "historic" when they are actually well within normal historical ranges.

Another problem is that media outlets have been using temperature forecasts in their news reports as if those figures were actual temperature data. A forecast is, by definition, a guess, and some alarmist analysts have recently made a bad habit of incorrectly predicting insanely high temperatures that never come to fruition. 

For example, the Telegraph, one of the largest papers in the U.K., published an article on July 18 in which the author claimed, "The European Space Agency said thermometers could tip 48C in Sardinia and Sicily, while the temperatures in Rome and Madrid could both reach the mid to high-40Cs. In drought-stricken Spain, temperatures were set to reach highs of 44C in Catalonia." 

If the available data so clearly reveal that there is no heat-wave crisis, why are media outlets suggesting the opposite is true? The answer is sloppy, irresponsible media reporting, combined with cherry-picked data. 

None of these predictions came true. In fact, some of them were off by several degrees or more.  

Heat waves happen every year, but this isn’t evidence that Americans are facing a global warming crisis. When heat-wave data are put into their proper historical context, it’s clear that everything humans are experiencing today has been witnessed in the past. 

The ugly truth behind climate alarmism is that much of it is driven by a radical ideological agenda that is seeking to transform the global economy and American society, not by science. The best way to fight back against it is to use cold, hard facts. And those facts plainly show that there is no reason to panic about our ever-changing climate. 

Justin Haskins is the director of the Socialism Research Center at The Heartland Institute and a New York Times bestselling author.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/not-climate-change-causing-heat-waves-this-summer-explain

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DOJ asks to send Hunter Biden's associate to prison weekend before he's set to talk to Congress - Madeleine Hubbard

 

by Madeleine Hubbard

The request comes as Archer is set to testify Monday before the House Oversight Committee.

 

The Justice Department is asking the Southern District Court of New York to set a date for former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer to surrender to prison more than a year after he was granted bail. 

The request comes as Archer is set to testify Monday before the House Oversight Committee.

Archer was granted bail pending an appeal of his conviction in April 2022 after he was sentenced in February 2022 to a year and a day in prison for his role in a scheme defrauding a Native American tribe. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction last month and again last week. 

"In light of the foregoing, the Government respectfully requests that the defendant be ordered to surrender, at a date and time determined by the Court, to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons to commence his term of imprisonment," the Justice Department wrote to the New York federal court Saturday in a letter obtained by Fox News.

Archer's counsel, Matthew Schwartz, said he "believes it is premature to set a report date in light of his anticipated continuing appeal and newly-discovered sentencing error that the government has now conceded." His counsel will file a response to the government on Wednesday.

Schwartz said that his client will testify as planned despite suggestions the DOJ letter was an attempt to intimidate Archer.

“We are aware of speculation that the Department of Justice’s weekend request to have Mr. Archer report to prison is an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate him in advance of his meeting with the House Oversight Committee,” Schwartz said in a statement, according to Politico.

“To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation,” Schwartz added. “In any case, Mr. Archer will do what he has planned to do all along, which is to show up on Monday and to honestly answer the questions that are put to him by the Congressional investigators.”

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said on Fox that Archer "has an opportunity to be a hero" when he testifies Monday. "He has an opportunity to come tomorrow to the House Oversight Committee and tell the truth.”

"My hat's off to Devon Archer when he shows up tomorrow. I know it's tough. I know he's been intimidated by the Biden legal team, but hopefully he saw what happened in that courtroom in Delaware last week. And there are good people in the justice system," he said, referring to how Hunter Biden's plea deal was put on hold last week.

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Madeleine Hubbard

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/doj-asks-court-set-surrender-hunter-bidens-business-associate-hes-set-testify

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Iran: With Friends Like That - Amir Taheri

 

by Amir Taheri

Khamenei's dream of a "New World Order" led by Iran, China and Russia, has proven to be a pipe-dream shaped in the mind of a leader that operates in a fantasy universe.

• The Islamic Republic has been asking to be admitted into the BRICS group [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] club since 2010 when the "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced his intention to create a "New World Order" through a triple alliance of Iran, China and Russia.

• Tehran sources say the Iranian demand, though supported by South Africa and India, has been quietly vetoed by Russia and cold-shouldered by China.

• Khamenei's dream of a "New World Order" led by Iran, China and Russia, has proven to be a pipe-dream shaped in the mind of a leader that operates in a fantasy universe.

• The pipe-dream was partly punctured last week when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first foreign visit after his election victory to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, ignoring Iran altogether.

• [F]or years, the former head of the Islamic Majlis's National Security Commission Heshmatallah Falahat-Pisheh has warned that both China and Russia have treated the Islamic Republic as nothing but a source of profit for themselves.

• Former Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh has warned that Russia, having pushed Iran out of the European oil market is now trying to do the same in the Indian and Chinese markets by offering mouth-watering discounts. Since last March, China's oil imports from Iran have fallen by almost 40 percent, according to unofficial estimates, with Russia claiming the part that Iran has lost.

• Meanwhile, regarding what some Iranians see as an attack by Lavrov on the nation's integrity, many are unhappy about Raisi's refusal or inability to read the riot act to the Russians. The concern is that Tehran's lack of reaction to the Russian and Chinese moves could encourage other nations to adopt a similar stance against Iran.

• Khamenei, aged 84, seems unlikely to abandon what he had hoped would be his "historic legacy" or, in his own words "driving the Great Satan and its allies out of the region." This is perhaps why, as long as Khamenei is in charge, neither Beijing nor Moscow is worried about angering Iran, whatever they do.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's dream of a "New World Order" led by Iran, China and Russia, has proven to be a pipe-dream shaped in the mind of a leader that operates in a fantasy universe. (Image source: khamenei.ir)

The great Marx, Groucho not Karl, once said that he wouldn't join a club that would have him as a member.

Iran's rulers today face a different dilemma, trying to join clubs that wouldn't have them as member. For weeks, Tehran propaganda harped on the theme of President Ebrahim Raisi travelling to South Africa to attend the annual summit of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

The Islamic Republic has been asking to be admitted into the club since 2010, when "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced his intention to create a "New World Order" through a triple alliance of Iran, China and Russia.

Tehran sources say the Iranian demand, though supported by South Africa and India, has been quietly vetoed by Russia and cold-shouldered by China.

The irony in that is that Khamenei's senior foreign policy advisor Ali-Akbar Velayati, a leading Russophile, has on several occasions claimed that Russia would back Iran's application for membership.

This year, the whole fantasy assumed a comical aspect when South Africa "advised" Russian President Vladimir Putin not to attend the summit on 23-24 August. The reason is that the International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued a red alert for Putin on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Russia hasn't signed the treaty that created the court but South Africa has, and, as a result, would have had to arrest Putin on arrival. Putin will now attend the summit through a video connection, not exactly a strong position from which to recommend the Islamic Republic as a future member.

It is clear that Russia, even if it wanted to help Iran join BRICS, which it does not, will not do so. But it could help the Islamic Republic join other clubs that Tehran thirsts to join. One such club is the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which Moscow created in 2014 in the hope of reviving the Soviet Union at least on the economic front. The EEU consists of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, with China, Moldova and Uzbekistan as associate members. Tehran lodged its application for associate membership in 2016 as Ayatollah Khamenei preached his "looking to the East" strategy.

Again, according to sources within the Tehran regime, it is the Russian veto, never formally announced, that keeps the Islamic Republic out in the cold.

Last year, however, Russia removed its veto on Iranian membership of another club, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, presumably because of Chinese "persuasion". Having decided to invade and annex Ukraine, Putin also thought he would need Iranian support in the form of drone supplies and recruitment of Syrian and other mercenaries to fight on the Russian side. Even then, Iran had to wait one more year on probation before entering the club. whose precise aims remain unclear.

To make matters worse, both China, through its President Xi Jinping, and Russia, via Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have signed communiques that clearly question Iran's territorial integrity, becoming the only two veto-holding members of the United Nations Security Council to do so.

Khamenei's dream of a "New World Order" led by Iran, China and Russia, has proven to be a pipe-dream shaped in the mind of a leader that operates in a fantasy universe. In a series of speeches, the "Supreme Guide" has claimed that the "American Great Satan" has tried to make Iran like the rest of the Middle East while it is Iran that is making the rest of the Middle East like itself on the way to reshaping the world as a whole.

The pipe-dream was partly punctured last week when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first foreign visit after his election victory to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, ignoring Iran altogether.

According to Tehran sources, Ra'isi had to wait three days before he could arrange a phone call to Ankara to congratulate Erdogan on his re-election.

In the meantime, Tehran was announcing "significant diplomatic victories" not in Khamenei's "Looking East" region but west, in the African states of Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Chief among these victories was Uganda's decision to waive visas for Iranian tourists, provided they can somehow get there.

For the first time, Khamenei's "Looking East" fantasy is openly questioned by regime insiders and commentators close to "deciders" in Tehran. At a meeting of the so-called Strategy Council for Foreign Policy last week, attended by five former foreign ministers and several other senior retired or semi-retired diplomats, mumbled criticism was heard of reliance on an imagined alliance with China and Russia. According to sources, one participant, thought to be former Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi, reminded the audience that the late "Imam" Ruhollah Khomeini had preached a "neither East nor West" foreign policy.

Former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has also said that Russia has "stabbed us in the back" on a number of occasions and for years. The former head of the Islamic Majlis's National Security Commission Heshmatallah Falahat-Pisheh has warned that both China and Russia have treated the Islamic Republic as nothing but a source of profit for themselves. Another Majlis member, Masud Pezeshkian has called for a thorough review of the "Looking East" policy. A new political grouping known as Sherian, believed to be set up by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in view of next year's general election, openly demands dropping the "Looking Est" slogan and returning to Khomeini's "Neither East nor West".

Former Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh has warned that Russia, having pushed Iran out of the European oil market, is now trying to do the same in the Indian and Chinese markets by offering mouth-watering discounts. Since last March, China's oil imports from Iran have fallen by almost 40 percent, according to unofficial estimates, with Russia claiming the part that Iran has lost.

Meanwhile, regarding what some Iranians see as an attack by Lavrov on the nation's integrity, many are unhappy about Raisi's refusal or inability to read the riot act to the Russians. The concern is that Tehran's lack of reaction to the Russian and Chinese moves could encourage other nations to adopt a similar stance against Iran.

Khamenei, aged 84, seems unlikely to abandon what he had hoped would be his "historic legacy" or, in his own words "driving the Great Satan and its allies out of the region." This is perhaps why, as long as Khamenei is in charge, neither Beijing nor Moscow is worried about angering Iran, whatever they do.

This article originally appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987. He is the Chairman of Gatestone Europe.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19838/iran-friends

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Team Biden Outmaneuvered by China? - Eric Rozenman

 

by Eric Rozenman

At home, Xi has continued to tighten party control over the economy even as economic growth has faltered and unemployment climbed. Why pursue antagonistic policies abroad and counter-productive ones at home?

• U.S. policy toward China appears to be suffering from a belief in magic – that, for instance, withdrawing from Afghanistan would be a great idea; that Putin would be happy with a "minor incursion" into Ukraine; that the Chinese spy balloon was "silly;" that the mission of education and the military should be to ensure "equity," leading one veteran to say that the US is "trying to out-pronoun our enemies;" and that America's southern border, with agents trying to process reportedly 8,000 illegal migrants each day, thereby leaving vast swaths of land open to traffickers, smugglers and terrorists, is "secure."

• Regrettably, the Biden Administration seems to be letting itself be outmaneuvered in countering the imminent threat of war posed by China's leader Xi Jinping and his ruling Communist Party.

• Blinken swallowed the airport insult and met anyway with, among others, his Chinese counterpart and Xi himself. They held what the State Department called "a productive conversation, a real exchange." Chinese officials likewise said the talks were "candid, in-depth and constructive." Oh good! Then we have nothing to worry about!

• At home, Xi has continued to tighten party control over the economy even as economic growth has faltered and unemployment climbed. Why pursue antagonistic policies abroad and counter-productive ones at home?

• Xi's objectives are not economic growth or good relations but rather to insulate China from outside sanctions and other pressure like that orchestrated by the United States and NATO against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. — J. Kyle Bass, founder of Texas-based Hayman Capital Management, July 12, 2023.

• "The day Yellen landed in China, Xi told the Eastern Military Command to prepare for war. I think it's highly likely he invades Taiwan." Not by 2027, as estimated by U.S. intelligence, but "in 12 to 18 months." — J. Kyle Bass, July 12, 2023.

Regrettably, the Biden Administration seems to be letting itself be outmaneuvered in countering the imminent threat of war posed by China's leader Xi Jinping and his ruling Communist Party. Pictured: US President Joe Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia on November 14, 2022. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. policy toward China appears to be suffering from a belief in magic – that, for instance, withdrawing from Afghanistan would be a great idea; that Putin would be happy with a "minor incursion" into Ukraine; that the Chinese spy balloon was "silly;" that the mission of education and the military should be to ensure "equity," leading one veteran to say that the US is "trying to out-pronoun our enemies;" and that America's southern border, with agents trying to process reportedly 8,000 illegal migrants each day, thereby leaving vast swaths of land open to traffickers, smugglers and terrorists, is "secure."

Regrettably, the Biden Administration seems to be letting itself be outmaneuvered in countering the imminent threat of war posed by China's leader Xi Jinping and his ruling Communist Party.

Three cases in point:

John Kerry, Biden's climate envoy, landing in China in mid-July, declared that the country was doing an "incredible job" developing renewable energy sources. He also asked it to reduce its world-leading coal-fired electricity production.

Not exactly likely. On January 24 2022, the Chinese ruler told party leaders that carbon goals should not undermine energy or food supplies. China opens two new coal-fired generating plants a week, according to multiple reports.

Then there was Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China in June. Even before Blinken could deplane, Xi let Washington know who he thought was boss. When the secretary of state arrived -- for the first trip to China by a top U.S. diplomat since 2018 -- no senior Chinese official went to the airport to greet him: no red carpet, no ceremony. This non-encounter took place after Blinken's journey had been postponed following the February shoot-down of a Chinese spy balloon that had snooped its way over many of the most sensitive military installations across the United States. Blinken swallowed the airport insult and met anyway with, among others, his Chinese counterpart and Xi himself. They held what the State Department called "a productive conversation, a real exchange." Chinese officials likewise said the talks were "candid, in-depth and constructive." Good, so we have nothing to worry about!

Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen apparently thought so too. When she arrived on her pilgrimage ahead of Kerry in July, she actually bowed repeatedly, as Fox News showed—in the Chinese fashion of an inferior kowtowing to a superior—three times, "optics the Chinese love," before Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Doing business

"Criticism of Yellen's apparent obsequiousness, was 'just noise'", Mary Lovely of the Washington, D.C.-based Petersen Institute for International Economics told Bloomberg News. The treasury secretary went to Beijing "to do business" and put guardrails up to decrease tensions and "manage" U.S.-China relations.

What have Xi and his hand-picked team atop the party-government pyramid been doing to install guardrails and manage the critical relationship? Here are a few recent illustrations:

• The Wall Street Journal revealed that China uses Cuba for extensive surveillance of the United States and military training. Miles Yu, who was China policy advisor to then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, wrote in a June 29 Wall Street Journal op-ed that "China's spying installations and military training in Cuba reflect the Communist Party's plans for global dominance";
• China maintains "police stations" in at least 53 countries around the world — as well as in Manhattan — from which, according to reports, to intimidate expatriate dissidents and others, and threatening them with "arrest" -- meaning kidnapping and imprisonment in a Chinese gulag;
• Former Canadian Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole, in a speech to Parliament, said he had been told that Beijing used proxy agents to spread disinformation about his party via the Chinese-operated WeChat instant messaging service. This followed similar charges by parliamentarian Michael Chong;
• The Chinese Communist Party hacked the e-mails of senior U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo before her planned trip to China.
• Beijing decided early in July to restrict exports of germanium and gallium, key elements in semi-conductors and missile systems. China retaliated against U.S. trade restrictions, citing "national security" .

Xi's real purpose

At home, Xi has continued to tighten party control over the economy even as economic growth has faltered and unemployment climbed. Why pursue antagonistic policies abroad and counter-productive ones at home?

J. Kyle Bass, founder of the Texas-based hedge fund Hayman Capital Management, thinks it is due to China's vulnerability to petroleum and liquid national gas sanctions. Bass said on July 12 that Xi's objectives are not economic growth or good relations but rather to insulate China from outside sanctions and other pressure like that, orchestrated by the United States and NATO against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

According to Bass, in 2020, China possessed 100 intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, and last year, the tally reached 450. This year, he said, Fujian province, opposite Taiwan, opened 18 new air raid shelters, a major military hospital and conducted a large-scale blood drive.

Holding U.S. dollars, China "should be buying short-term Treasury notes," Bass stressed. Instead, "the curve is going in the opposite direction." Beijing is building its gold reserves.

"The day Yellen landed in China, Xi told the Eastern Military Command to prepare for war. I think it is highly likely he invades Taiwan," Bass said. Not by 2027, as estimated by U.S. intelligence, but "in 12 to 18 months."

Bass said he believes the United States and its allies can prevail against China in a conflict over Taiwan and its democratically-governed 24 million people, but only if everything needed for defense "is on the island on day one."

Also, it must be added, only after American leaders drop their belief in magic and speak realistically to the public.

Eric Rozenman is communications consultant for the Jewish Policy Center. Any opinions expressed above are solely his own.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19839/china-outmaneuvered-biden

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Netanyahu, security chiefs meet as Hezbollah violates border - Yonah Jeremy Bob

 

by Yonah Jeremy Bob

Hezbollah confirmed that “a group of youths” had marched through the Ghajar village to protest Israel’s holding onto southern Ghajar.

 

A WHITE Hezbollah watchtower just a few meters from where the IDF is constructing a wall on the border with Lebanon, near Zar’it.

(photo credit: HERB KEINON)

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with defense officials on Sunday, including regarding the security situation in the North, Hezbollah operatives were recording themselves violating the border and waving the terrorist organization’s flag.

Videos posted to social media showed several Hezbollah operatives crossing a UNIFIL boundary that signifies the border between the northern part of Ghajar, considered part of Lebanon, and the southern part of the village, considered part of Israel. In the video, they can be seen waving flags and jumping up and down. Hezbollah confirmed that “a group of youths” marched through the area to protest Israel’s holding onto southern Ghajar.

Israeli media claimed that #Hezbollah members cut the fence erected by UNIFIL in 2006 near the Lebanese occupied village of Ghajar and crossed into the area.

Correct news is this was done by Lebanese civilians.
But for us..wither way..this is our land..so cry us a river Zios. pic.twitter.com/yBQgVIeMuu

— Marwa Osman || مروة عثمان (@Marwa__Osman) July 30, 2023

 

Ghajar was split by the UN in May 2000, when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon. In recent months, Hezbollah has increased a variety of activities challenging Israeli sovereignty in a dozen minor border disputes. Netanyahu’s meeting included IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Mossad Director David Barnea, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, National Security Council Chief Tzachi Hanegbi, IDF intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Aharon Haliva, and other senior officials.

Over the weekend, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah made his second threatening speech in the last few weeks. The looming question is whether Jerusalem will decide to use force to remove a small Hezbollah outpost in the Mount Dov area.

NORTH GHAJAR, in Lebanese territory, on the left, surrounded by a border fence, and the Lebanese village Wazzani to the right, with a Lebanese military road between them. (credit: Leor Bareli)

Challenging Israel's authority

Israel says that the Hezbollah outpost of under 10 operatives, set up months ago but only exposed by the media a month or so after it was established, is a few meters into Israeli territory and so does not pose any danger.

As such, the IDF and the government decided to go the diplomatic route for the past several months to persuade Hezbollah to withdraw, though the terrorist group has made it clear it will not do so.

On Saturday morning, Nasrallah said the entire Middle East will not rest until the “cancerous gland” that is Israel is removed. He further warned that Palestinians today “believe more than ever in the resistance.” He also reaffirmed that Hezbollah “stands by the Palestinians.”

Netanyahu told his government on Sunday that, "regarding Nasrallah's threats from his bunker, we are not impressed. At the crucial moment, he will find us standing together, shoulder to shoulder. Even Nasrallah knows that it is worth neither his while nor Lebanon's, to put us to the test."

Earlier this month, IDF soldiers used warning shots and crowd dispersal measures to disperse at least 20 Lebanese citizens who crossed about 80 meters into Israeli territory in the isolated Mount Dov region. Prior to that, the IDF struck sites in Lebanon after an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon toward Ghajar.  

 

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-753069

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Israel and Saudi Arabia to be linked by future railway – Netanyahu - Tovah Lazaroff

 

by Tovah Lazaroff

“Today we are launching the 'One Israel' project - connecting the entire country by high-speed train fromKiryat Shmona to Eilat,” Netanyahu said.

 

A train in Israel.

(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Israel and Saudi Arabia can be linked by a future railway the opening leg of which Israel is embarking on now with a NIS 100 billion project to construct a high-speed train linking Kiryat Shmona in Israel’s north with its furthermost southern city of Eilat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

“Today we are launching the "One Israel" project - connecting the entire country by high-speed train from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat,” Netanyahu said prior to his government’s approval of the project at its weekly meeting in Jerusalem.

He linked that project with the potential of an Israeli-Saudi normalization deal, which is expected to be part of any deal between Riyadh and Washington that is now under discussion between those two capitals. 

“In the future, we will be able to transport cargoes of goods by train from Eilat to our ports in the Mediterranean Sea, and we will also be able to connect Israel by train to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula. We are working on that too,” Netanyahu said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Sunday's cabinet meeting, July 30, 2023. (credit: Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post)

The project will also have a revolutionary impact domestically and environmentally, he said.

Expediting and easing travel in Israel

“My vision is that every citizen in the country will be able to get to and from the center, from anywhere in the country - in less than two hours.

“In most cases in less than an hour - and even less. No traffic jams, no air pollution, no parking problems - comfortably and safely,” he said.

He spoke just two days after US President Joe Biden told supporters at a 2024 campaign event in Freeport Main. On Thursday New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman published a column explaining that Biden was mulling a major security pact with Riyadh.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, one of Biden's most trusted aides, was in Jeddah last week with Middle East envoy Brett McGurk discussing the possibility of a normalization deal, according to White House officials. A Saudi-Israel normalization deal would be part of any such agreement between Washington and Riyadh.

In an interview with Army Radio, however, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said he thought it was premature to think of an Israeli-Saudi deal in the near future.

”I think it's too early to talk about a deal being in the works," Edelstein said.

He referenced the possibility that Israel might have to pay a hefty price with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to arrive at such a deal.

"How shall I put this delicately? There are clauses that are far more important or problematic than such-and-such declarations in the Palestinian realm," he said.

"Most of of the Saudi discourse is with the Americans, and not with us," he added, saying that when it came to Riyadh's demands of Washington, "there are some things we can live with better, and some things we can live with less well."

Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, asked by reporters as he entered the weekly cabinet meeting whether there would be progress in the Saudi talks,” said: "I hope so."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tovah Lazaroff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-753037

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