Important Takeaways:
- California has declared a state of emergency for H5N1 bird flu amid fears that the virus could jump to people and start to spread.
- The move comes in response to a major outbreak of the virus among the state’s cattle which has spilled over and infected dozens of dairy workers.
- The announcement follows news that an individual in Louisiana was hospitalized with H5N1, becoming the country’s first severe case.
- The declaration of emergency gives California state and local resources to contain the outbreak, including hiring staff or issuing contracts for things like tests or personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Governor Gavin Newsom said the move would free up funds and ‘streamline and expedite’ the state’s efforts to tackle the outbreak.
- California has identified H5N1 in 645 dairy herds since its first detection in late August and nearly half of those were reported in the past 30 days, highlighting the rapid spread of the virus.
- Thirty-four of the US’ 61 human bird flu cases have also been in California
- Experts have described it as a pandemic ‘unfolding in slow motion.’
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The deal, thrown together during daylong negotiations between different ideological corners of the House Republican Conference and President-elect Donald Trump’s team, failed 174 to 236, with one voting present and 20 absences.
- An astonishing 38 Republicans voted against the hastily assembled, Trump-endorsed deal, with nine not voting.
- Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance stepped in Wednesday afternoon to drive the final stake in the heart of a previous deal negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrats. Support for that deal was deteriorating rapidly ahead of Trump taking action to reframe the debate, insisting the deal should have included a debt limit increase to take the tricky issue off his administration’s plate next Congress.
- The new deal removed over a thousand pages of pork and other provisions unrelated to keeping the government open.
- As a result, only two Democrats supported it, with one voting present and eleven not voting.
- Republicans must now decide on a path forward, not only for funding the government but who can lead them through this and future battles
- It is rare for so many Republicans to buck a bill backed by Trump. Multiple sources tell Breitbart News that many of the 38 nays are a protest vote on Johnson’s continued leadership of the conference.
- The deadline to pass a spending bill is Friday at midnight.
- Republicans must act fast if they want to get a funding bill through — and if they want to get on the same page before Trump takes office.
- They face some difficult questions on how best to move forward.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Three days after Cyclone Chido tore through the French overseas territory off East Africa, the hospital’s emergency department has not seen large numbers of injured, leading them to fear the worst, Naouelle Bouabbas said.
- “The fact that we don’t see that many injured from the cyclone when everything has collapsed makes us think that all these people are still buried and are dead,” she told Reuters in a video call from the islands.
- “We expect thousands, tens of thousands would not surprise me,” said Bouabbas, when asked about a possible death toll, adding there was no infrastructure in place yet to remove people from the rubble.
- Authorities have said hundreds or even thousands could have died, but only 22 deaths had been confirmed on Tuesday morning
- The Red Cross said on Tuesday that about 100,000 people were unaccounted for, including about 200 of its volunteers, after the cyclone battered the islands with 200 kph (124 mph) winds in the worst storm in 90 years.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine targets Russia’s mercenaries saying ‘there is no reason for Koreans to fight and die for Putin’
- “Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
- Ukraine’s military intelligence (GUR) reported the North Koreans were embedded with Russian Marines and Airborne troops – elite units – in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine has counter-invaded.
- Zelenskyy posted that Russia was adopting gruesome tactics to obscure the loss of North Korean soldiers.
- “After the battles with our guys, the Russians are also trying to… literally burn the faces of the killed North Korean soldiers,” he wrote on Telegram.
- He added, “There is no reason for Koreans to fight and die for Putin. And even after their death, all that awaits them from Russia is mockery.”
- There were no statements from Russia or North Korea on these first casualties of Korean mercenaries.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Mysterious drones have been reported near military bases in Hawaii and by installations in Utah, California, Maine and Florida — among other facilities scattered throughout the country.
- It comes as residents in New York and New Jersey have reported thousands of sightings of unexplained mystery drones in the night skies.
- House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Tuesday he believes some of the unidentified drones are “spy drones” from China.
- “We need to identify who is behind these drones,” he said. “My judgment based on my experience is that those that are over our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming from the People’s Republic of China.”
- Sources have previously raised their concerns to The Post over Chinese landowners, who are usually linked to, or working on behalf of, the country’s communist government.
- Morgan Lerette, a former contractor for private military contractor Blackwater, previously told The Post: “The Chinese are, or will, use this farmland to learn more about US military capabilities, movements, and technology.
- “This will allow them to better understand how to transition their military from a defensive strategy to an expeditionary one.”
- Chinese holdings total under one percent of foreign-owned agricultural land in the US, per NBC, but it’s the proximity to critical military installations which raises concerns, critics have charged.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The clock is ticking towards a possible government shutdown at midnight Friday.
- A measure to keep the government open for three more months was rejected by President-elect Trump and other Republicans.
- The 1,500-page spending bill that included pay increases for members of Congress received enormous backlash from Trump who called on lawmakers to go back to the drawing board and pass a better bill before he takes office on January 20, 2025.
- Likewise, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, both blasted the bill for earmarking vast amounts of taxpayer dollars on frivolous items.
- Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus also complained the bill was packed with wasteful spending.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Health officials have said that the overall risk to the American population is low, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 61 human cases of the bird flu since April 2024.
- On Wednesday, California governor Gavin Newsom, whose state has seen the bulk of the cases confirmed so far, issued a state of emergency in connection with the bird flu
- Although the majority of the reported cases have come with only mild symptoms, this week the agency reported a new severe case of the virus discovered in Louisiana that resulted in hospitalization for the patient
- The Louisiana Department of Health tells CNN that the patient in question is older than 65 and is currently hospitalized in critical condition with “severe respiratory illness,” but also has other underlying health conditions.
- “While an investigation into the source of the infection in Louisiana is ongoing, it has been determined that the patient had exposure to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks,” the agency said, noting that this is also the first bird-flu case to be traced back to backyard flocks.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- With Hezbollah in Lebanon disabled and Hamas’ strength waning, Houthi rebels in Yemen have been launching missiles at Israel, and Israel is striking back.
- Israeli airstrikes pounded the rebel regime in Yemen early Thursday after the Houthis launched another missile at Israel – one of several fired at the Jewish state in recent days.
- Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to huddle with top officials to discuss a hostage deal that may be fast approaching.
- A Palestinian negotiator told the BBC the talks are in the final stage. Though issues remain, it may include a six-week ceasefire, during which Hamas would free 30 of the remaining 100 hostages.
- IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said from Gaza that Israeli troops continue to do their part there.
- “We are exerting pressure on Hamas daily, driving it into greater distress, to ensure the return of the 100 hostages,” Halevi said.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- President-elect Donald Trump is weighing his options to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon, including preemptive airstrikes that would end years of containing Tehran with sanctions, according to a new report.
- Members of Trump’s transition team are reviewing the military strike option more closely now following the recent upheavals in the Middle East, including the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and Israel’s decimation of Tehran terror proxies Hezbollah and Hamas, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Trump has a “great opportunity” to end the Middle East conflict and halt Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions.
- Trump recently said in his interview with Time magazine that America could go to war with Iran after investigators found that Tehran had once plotted to assassinate him.
- The US could also sell additional advanced weapons to Israel, including bunker-busting bombs, to pressure Tehran with a foe that has hit its nuclear facilities in the past.
- “Anything can happen,” he told the magazine that named him 2024 Person of the Year. “It’s a very volatile situation.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- While much national attention is on the first 100 days of the Trump 2.0 presidency, there is growing reason to be concerned about the final days of Joe Biden’s term.
- Among those with a powerful interest in disrupting the peaceful transfer of power to a new Trump administration are: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), world government globalists, Sharia-supremacists, deep state bureaucrats and assorted homegrown and foreign-enabled terrorists, jihadists, and other revolutionaries.
- These hostile forces’ ability to create chaos in the United States – especially collectively – cannot safely be ignored.
- The bottom line is that any one of these elements is capable of creating or greatly exacerbating chaos that could be used to justify martial law, try to derail the inauguration and thwart the on-time transfer of power to the incoming administration.
- As the federal government may for the next few weeks be part of the problem, it will fall to liberty-loving states to pursue six steps that can help mitigate this dangerous situation:
- Raise awareness of the existence of threats.
- Crowdsource information about the whereabouts and status of potentially hostile elements.
- Enhance personal and community preparedness.
- Heighten the readiness of the National Guard, constitutional sheriffs, other state and local law enforcement.
- Protect critical infrastructure and likely targets.
- Plan for contingencies, such as any effort to respond to chaos-inducing events with a declaration of martial law and efforts to postpone the inauguration.
- In addition to action at the level of state and local governments, it behooves every patriot committed to the American experiment to be alive to these dangers. Collectively, we can bring to bear the kind of “situational awareness” that can help detect and expose the potential for harm before it is inflicted. And, thereby, millions of us can assist in ensuring the on-time, peaceful transfer of power and national course-correction for which the majority of Americans voted on November 5th.
Read the original article by clicking here.
