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After failing the first time, Spain’s far left coalition government received a reprieve when parliament finally passed an amnesty bill that satisfies its Catalan separatist allies. The bill passed 178-172 with the center-right and many leftists still protesting the measure.
The next step for the bill is the Senate, which, controlled as it is by the conservative opposition, is likely to kill it, leaving the coalition in as tenuous a position as it was before the bill passed.
100 U.S. Soldiers have departed for Gaza to build a port for the Gazans that is also sure to be used by Hamas. The port is ostensibly being set up as a humanitarian port but military experts have little doubt the port will be used to supply far more than humanitarian aid. The team is expected to arrive within 30 days.
The people who live in Gaza do need humanitarian aid, but getting humanitarian aid to them without aiding the Islamo-fascist group has proven to be difficult in the past, including the recent past. The port seems to be one of the most ineffective ways to provide aid to the victims without also providing aid to the militant faction that controls them.
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced it will no longer allow the chemical castration of children as a method of treating gender dysphoria for kids. The reason for the reversal comes from the NHS’ claims that “gender affirming care” works to lower suicide rates or that it doesn’t have other “unintended” negative side-effects.
A tech firm named Cnano USA has admitted that the company is infested with members of the Chinese Communist Party. That same company is building a new facility in Kansas that is conveniently located near two major U.S. military bases.
The news was revealed with the President of the company, Shawn Montgomery, admitted to having CCP members in his company during his testimony this month before the Kansas House Committee on Commerce, Labor, and Economic Development.
A new center-right coalition is expected to take over the government of Portugal after elections saw center-right and far-right parties win the majority of the seats. The highlight of the evening came from the right-wing Chega party which, after being formed in 2019, saw its vote shares grom from 1.3 percent in 2019, to 7 percent in 2022, to now 18 percent in 2024.
The election highlights populist surges not just in Portugal, but also in other EU member states, causing some to either hope or fear a possible populist domination in this year’s EU elections.
Excerpt from europeanconservative.com
Portugal veered rightwards following November’s grift scandal that toppled the ruling socialists (PS), with Chega securing approximately 45 seats in the 230-seat parliament, unprecedented for a party founded only in 2019 in a historically left-wing state.
While the centre-right effectively retained its electoral base under the umbrella of the AD alliance, upstarts Chega appear to have eaten into one-third of the PS vote share.
President Joe Biden is announcing plans to build an aid relief port on the Gaza port in a move that some see as ultimately benefitting Hamas in a military way. The port will be run by the U.S. military, meaning this war could potentially see both combatants of the war being served in some capacity by the same “ally,” America.
The Canadian government, under the far-left extremist government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is looking to pass legislation called the Online Harms Act, which will make “harmful content” a criminal offense. Harmful content includes content that “foments hatred.”
Excerpt from www.fasken.com:
The Act targets seven types of online harms that it deems to be “harmful content”:
- intimate content communicated without consent;
- content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor;
- content that induces a child to harm themselves;
- content used to bully a child;
- content that foments hatred
- content that incites violence; and
- content that incites violent extremism or terrorism.
“Intimate content communicated without consent” means a visual recording where a person is nude, exposes sexual organs or particular regions, or is engaged in explicit sexual activity, where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the person does not consent to the recording being communicated. Such content also includes a visual recording that falsely presents a person in the above manners, including deepfakes, if it is reasonable to suspect that the person does not consent to the recording being communicated.
Notably, the Act does not define hate, but does clarify that content does not incite hatred solely because it “expresses disdain or dislike or it discredits, humiliates, hurts or offends”.
At long last, after holdouts Turkey and Hungary finally acquiesced and removed their opposition, Sweden is officially a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, which recently experienced a revival after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, perhaps characterized the nature of Sweden’s radical switch from neutrality to joining NATO, stating “one more country in Europe has become more protected from Russian evil.”
It remains a debated point as to the veracity of such claims, but, nonetheless, Europe’s perception of that “truthfulness” is largely the reason Sweden is now a member of NATO.
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, survived an assassination attempt by Russia that saw his convoy struck by a Russian missile. In that convoy was the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The missile struck outside of Odessa less than 800 meters from the two world leaders.
Excerpt:
UKRAINE’S President Volodymyr Zelensky has survived an alleged attempt on his life while touring the Black Sea port of Odessa.
He claimed other people died and were injured when a Russian missile struck near his motorcade.
The attack was launched at his line of cars while he was with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Both delegates were a mere 500 to 800 metres from the strike which killed five people, according to a Ukrainian navy spokesperson.
Zelensky told reporters soon afterwards: “Do you see who we are dealing with? It doesn’t matter where you hit.
“I know that there were victims today. I don’t know what other details, but I know there were victims.
“I know there are dead and wounded. This is a blow. My condolences.”
The delegation heard sirens and a big explosion as they headed towards their cars, Mitsotakis said.
Zelensky continued: “It doesn’t matter whether they are military or civilians.
“Whoever they are, there are international guests [the Greek premier]. These people [the Russians] don’t care.
Despite the fact that the opposition party led by the former PM, imprisoned Imram Khan, won the most seats in parliament, the military’s ruling party is holding on to power thanks to a tenuous coalition. Shehbaz Sharif is expected to become the next PM, but most view him as a puppet of the real power, the military.
Pakistan’s Army still firmly in command despite election rebuke – m.economictimes.com
Excerpt:
Pakistan’s voters expressed their disillusionment with the nation’s powerful military in a surprising election result earlier this month. But the army is still poised to have more control from behind the scenes than ever — and reviving the economy will be its ultimate test.The military, which has ruled Pakistan directly or indirectly for most of its modern history, is set to make all important decisions on foreign policy and security for the country’s new government and have a more expanded role in running the nation’s economy, a person familiar with the matter said. Shehbaz Sharif, who’s expected to become prime minister, is likely to be only a figurehead, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
The army is consolidating power as Pakistan faces the worst inflation in Asia, a crippling debt load and the need to negotiate another bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Observers are largely pessimistic that a weak coalition propped up by the military will fare any better than similar governments in the past.
While the army “definitely has more credibility” than politicians, “it has not shown historically a strong grasp or understanding of what needs to be done,” said Yousuf Nazar, a former Citigroup Inc. banker and author of The Gathering Storm: Pakistan.
