Important Takeaways:
- Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy will sign a 10-year bilateral security agreement at the G7 summit in Italy, as arguments continued on the sidelines about how the west can provide a Donald Trump-proof $50bn loan to Ukraine.
- As with the other bilateral pacts, the agreement with the US will not require America to come to Ukraine’s defense if attacked. But it could make it easier for Ukraine to enter into peace negotiations with Russia, as Kyiv would have some assurance about the help it would receive in the event of a further Russian attack.
- The US-Ukraine agreement does not require the authorization of Congress and could be undone by a future Trump administration.
- Biden has said previously that guarantees for Ukraine would be equivalent to those to Israel, covering financial and military assistance as well as the possibility of the joint weapons production.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- ‘People will die’: Biden’s border order will worsen migrants’ risks, experts say
- El Paso mayor says order ‘will save lives’ but advocates express concern over heat and exploitation by criminals
- The aggressive new election-year policy triggers a block on most asylum claims once the number of people crossing the border without authorization exceeds a certain level
- The mayor of El Paso, Texas, Democrat Oscar Leeser, said the order “will save lives, keep people from dying in the desert, jumping over the walls and falling, as well as keep them from being exploited”
- Dora Rodriguez, executive director of Salvavision, a group that provides aid to migrants on both sides of the border, said “People will die. Because they will not stop crossing”
- Experts and human rights advocates in El Paso are concerned that the unintended consequences of Biden’s executive action may be to worsen the risks for asylum seekers, while not deterring them from taking those risks
- And they warned that more obstacles in the asylum process will increase exploitation by criminals.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Biden administration officials have discussed potentially negotiating a unilateral deal with Hamas to secure the release of five Americans being held hostage in Gaza if current cease-fire talks involving Israel fail, according to two current senior U.S. officials and two former senior U.S. officials.
- Such negotiations would not include Israel and would be conducted through Qatari interlocutors, as current talks have been, said the officials, all of whom have been briefed on the discussions.
- White House officials declined to comment.
- The officials did not know what the United States might give Hamas in exchange for the release of American hostages. But, the officials said, Hamas could have an incentive to cut a unilateral deal with Washington because doing so would likely further strain relations between the U.S. and Israel and put additional domestic political pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- The five Americans believed to be held in Gaza are Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra and Keith Siegel. The three Americans believed to have been killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack are Itay Chen, Judy Weinstein and Gad Haggai.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Russia and China, which hold veto powers in the U.N. Security Council, raised concerns on Thursday with a U.S. draft resolution that would back a proposal -outlined by President Joe Biden – for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.
- The council’s only Arab member, Algeria, also signaled it was not ready to back the text, diplomats said. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the U.S., France, Britain, China or Russia to pass.
- The current draft welcomes the ceasefire proposal, describes it as “acceptable” to Israel, “calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
- Some council members have raised questions about whether Israel has actually accepted the plan and want the council to stick to a demand made in March for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages, diplomats said.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Biden’s policy shift has triggered a tsunami of illegal immigration
- By December 2020, the U.S. had the most secure border in the history of our nation, and a proven plan to continue improvements. We had an overall decrease in entries and the highest level of situational awareness ever.
- Immediately following his inauguration, Biden fulfilled his campaign promise. He quickly terminated the migrant protection protocols and halted all border security infrastructure improvements.
- The border security gains earned over three decades vanished and Biden surrendered control of our border to transnational criminal organizations – the cartels.
- Over 1,000 illegal entries per day is more than enough to enable the cartels to shape the environment to facilitate the smuggling of narcotics, contraband and any alien willing to pay extra to avoid being fingerprinted
- The bottom line is that the chaos at the border is 100% Biden’s doing. Limiting illegal entries to 2,500 a day is political theater.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons in today’s wars
- The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe.
- “There are things worth fighting for,” said Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. “Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other. We’ll learn one of these days, but I won’t be around for that.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presence at the D-Day commemorations with world leaders who are supporting Ukraine fused World War II’s awful past with the fraught present.
- Feted everywhere they go in wheelchairs and walking with canes, veterans are using their voices to repeat their message they hope will live eternal: Never forget.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Rather more jarring is that the Biden administration, and therefore taxpayer money, is also funding the protests, through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- “U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee… discussed oversight findings from the EPW Committee that revealed a $50 million grant was awarded from the EPA through the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to ‘Climate Justice Alliance,’ a group that engages in pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic activities.” — US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, May 21, 2024.
- “[We] went to the website of Climate Justice Alliance. This is what we found on the website that our taxpayer dollars are going to organizations such as this. This, at the bottom, is a picture of the bulldozer that went through the fence when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.” — Senator Shelley Moore Capito, May 21, 2024.
- The People’s Forum’s executive director Manolo De Los Santos called for the complete destruction of the United States at the conference to great applause: “We have to bring down this empire with one million cuts, and those one million cuts have to come from every sector of struggle in this room.”
- Terrorists and their billionaire, as well as less-affluent supporters, are actively conspiring to destroy the US with the backing of foreign powers — and very little, if anything, is being done to stop it.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- On October 7, Hamas had a Plan A and a Plan B.
- Plan A was to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews. Plan B was to pull back, stage ambushes and cry genocide while making up fake casualties and staging atrocities until its Islamist and leftist allies managed to save it while using hostages and their bodies as negotiating leverage.
- Phase 1. Hamas frees some surviving female hostages and returns the bodies of the others in return for Israel releasing hundreds of terrorists. Then Hamas retakes control over populated areas in Gaza.
- Phase 2. Endless negotiations for the possible return of the rest of the hostages as Hamas secures its grip on Gaza once again.
- Phase 3: US sends billions to Hamas to “rebuild” Gaza in exchange for some bodies of hostages.
- Phase 4: Hamas plots its next attack.
- The plan, presented as Israel’s proposal, is really Egypt and Qatar’s proposal overlaid on Israel, and now put forward by Biden and endorsed by Obama, whose people are running foreign policy in this administration.
- The Biden administration will decide if Israel gets to defend itself based on assurances from Qatar, a state sponsor of Hamas, and Egypt, which was caught red-handed with tunnels leading into Rafah to Hamas.
- This isn’t an Israeli deal or an American deal. It’s a deal by Islamic terrorists for Islamic terrorists. And Obama and Biden, two men who have done more to empower Islamic terrorists than almost anyone in the White House except Jimmy Carter, have put their seal on it. It’s a bad deal for America, for Israel and for civilization.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The Biden administration has quietly given Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia — solely near the area of Kharkiv — using U.S.-provided weapons, two U.S. officials and two other people familiar with the move said Thursday, a major reversal that will help Ukraine to better defend its second-largest city.
- In the last few days, the U.S. made the decision to allow Ukraine “flexibility” to defend itself from attacks on the border near Kharkiv, the second U.S. official said.
- In effect, Ukraine can now use American-provided weapons, such as rockets and rocket launchers, to shoot down launched Russian missiles heading toward Kharkiv, at troops massing just over the Russian border near the city, or Russian bombers launching bombs toward Ukrainian territory. But the official said Ukraine cannot use those weapons to hit civilian infrastructure or launch long-range missiles, such as the Army Tactical Missile System, to hit military targets deep inside Russia.
- Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who supports a restriction lift, became the first U.S. official to publicly hint that Biden may shift course and allow such strikes, telling reporters that U.S. policy toward Ukraine would evolve as needed. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby later did not rule out a potential change.
- Those messages came after top U.S. allies, such as the United Kingdom and France, said Ukraine should have the right to attack inside Russia using Western weapons. Lawmakers from both parties also supported the move publicly and privately, while top U.S. military officials briefed Congress behind closed doors that relaxing the restriction had “military value,” POLITICO first reported.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Many Americans consider fast food to be a ‘luxury’ good since prices have skyrocketed
- Fast food is beloved in America because it is cheap and convenient.
- At least it used to be.
- The recent inflation report for April showed that since President Biden took office, the cost of eating out at restaurants is up nearly 22%. However, fast food has been hit particularly hard, with prices dramatically rising at the most popular restaurant chains beginning even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Gone, too, are the days of the $5 Footlong at Subway. A BLT Footlong that cost $5.50 in 2019 now costs customers $8.49 in 2024, though prices can vary by location. Additionally, Chipotle’s beloved chicken burrito that cost $6.50 in 2019 now runs customers $10.70.
- Fast-food executives have pointed to rising wages and increased costs for ingredients as factors driving up the prices on their menus.
- Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that fast-food prices have actually increased faster than the average hourly earnings of most employees at fast-food restaurants. Fast-food prices have also outpaced inflation, rising 41% from 2017, while the consumer price index has increased by 35.9%.
- A recent survey conducted by LendingTree found 78% of consumers now consider fast food to be a “luxury” purchase due to how expensive the meals have become.
- The financial strain means fewer people are visiting the drive-thru. The findings show three out of four Americans typically eat fast-food once a week, but 62% of respondents said they are eating it less frequently due to the cost.
Read the original article by clicking here.
