Boris Johnson Hails Historic Brexit Deal

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In a Christmas Eve address, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an “immense moment” in British history, with the securing of a Brexit deal many thought was impossible more than four years after Britons voted to leave the European Union.

Beginning New Year’s Day, he said, the United Kingdom will be able to set its own rules after 40 years of being tied to Brussels.

The deal, which must be approved by Parliament in a Dec. 30 vote, achieves “something that the people of this country instinctively knew was doable but which they were told was impossible.”

“We have taken back control of laws and our destiny,” Johnson said. “We have taken back control of every jot and tittle of our regulation.”

Worth nearly $900 billion a year, he said it will protect British jobs by allowing U.K. goods “to be sold without tariffs and without quotas in the EU market, which will if anything allow our companies to do even more business with our European friends.” (Read more from “Boris Johnson Hails Historic Brexit Deal” HERE)

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Countries Where Coronavirus Canceled Christmas

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Below are ten nations where celebrating Christmas through a traditional gathering on December 25 is prohibited to prevent the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. . .

The Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank [Israel] traditionally draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area. Health authorities have canceled the public mass this year out of fears it could increase transmission of coronavirus. . .

Germany has banned Christmas parties, caroling, outdoor drinking, and even closed its iconic glühwein Christmas stalls this holiday season. Private gatherings are limited to a maximum of five people from two households during the holidays. An additional four close family members are allowed to join private gatherings on Christmas day. . .

South Korea has prohibited private social gatherings of five or more people from Christmas Eve through January 3. . .

All four nations of the U.K. – England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland – are in various stages of lockdown during the Christmas holiday. (Read more from “Countries Where Coronavirus Canceled Christmas” HERE)

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‘Nail From Christ’s Crucifixion’ Found in Box Inscribed With ‘Jesus Is King’

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Priceless Christian relics have been discovered in a secret chamber of a monastery that allegedly includes a nail used in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Archaeologists working in the Milevsko monastery in the Czech Republic found a six-inch long piece of nail inside a box adorned with a 21-karat gold cross.

The box was built between 260 and 416 AD and is inscribed with the letters ‘IR,’ which translates to ‘Jesus is King.’

The hidden treasury room, according to experts, was used to conceal rare artifacts from raids by Hussite troops in the early 15th century.

Researchers excavating the scene say that they cannot confirm if the nail came from the ‘True Cross,’ but note the discovery ‘is even greater than the reliquary of St. Maurus, reports the Czech News Agency (ČTK). (Read more from “‘Nail From Christ’s Crucifixion’ Found in Box Inscribed With ‘Jesus Is King'” HERE)

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Twitter Refuses To Explain Why It Promoted a Chinese Company That Allegedly Tracks Minorities

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Twitter refused to explain to the Daily Caller News Foundation why it is promoting a Chinese tech group that allegedly tracks Uigher Muslims.

The DCNF reached out to Twitter multiple times on Tuesday asking why Twitter promoted a Huawei Christmas tweet. A confidential Huawei “interoperability report” obtained by IPVM allegedly found that the Chinese technology companies Huawei and Megvii worked together to test software that would recognize Uigher Muslims and then alert the police.

The report was formerly public on Huawei’s website, though it was marked confidential, and the company deleted it after IPVM reached out for comment, according to IPVM.

Twitter declined to explain to the DCNF why it allowed the promotion of the Huawei tweet. (Read more from “Twitter Refuses To Explain Why It Promoted a Chinese Company That Allegedly Tracks Minorities” HERE)

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South Korea Scrambles Jets as Chinese, Russian Aircraft Enter Air Defense Zone

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South Korea said it scrambled fighter jets in response to an intrusion into its air defence identification zone by 19 Russian and Chinese military aircraft on Tuesday.

Four Chinese warplanes entered the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) followed by 15 Russian aircraft, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The South Korean military dispatched air force fighters to take tactical measures.

The South Korean military said the Chinese military had informed South Korea that its planes were carrying out routine training before the Chinese aircraft entered the KADIZ. (Read more from “South Korea Scrambles Jets as Chinese, Russian Aircraft Enter Air Defense Zone” HERE)

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Brazilian President Fears a Horrible Side Effect From COVID Vaccine… It’s Not What You Think

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. . .In the film, “I Am Legend,” scientists re-engineered the measles vaccine to cure cancer. It instead wipes out most of humanity. Most of those who didn’t die in the aftermath mutated into vampire-like albino creatures. The rest, a small sliver, to say the least, were immune but consumed by the vampires. Will Smith, who plays Dr. Robert Neville, explains it better in the movie. That’s what Brazil’s president thinks will happen with the COVID vaccine…sort of.

President Jair Bolsonaro thinks the shot could turn people into alligators (editor’s note: he was joking, see below). Now, from the transcript, he sounds like he’s just trying to give an example of a side effect before hitting on his main point, which is that Pfizer could have legal immunity if anything goes terribly wrong from some people who take it. (via NY Post):

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro shocked even his staunchest supporters this week with an expletive-filled tirade against the COVID-19 vaccine, despite 7.1 million cases of the virus in the country and over 185,000 deaths.

“I’m not going to get [the vaccine]. Some say I’m setting a bad example. Hey a–hole, oh idiot, what are you saying about the bad example, I already had the virus, I already have antibodies. Why should I get the vaccine again?” Bolsonaro said in a speech captured by the news service UOL to a crowd in Porto Seguro. Bolsonaro contracted COVID-19 earlier this year. . .

“And another thing that has to be made very clear,” Bolsonaro charged. “There in the Pfizer contract, it is very clear that we (Pfizer) are not responsible for any side effect. If you become an alligator, it is your problem. … And what is worse, tampering with people’s immune systems.”

(Read more from “Brazilian President Fears a Horrible Side Effect From COVID Vaccine… It’s Not What You Think” HERE)

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Zoom Executive Exposed as Chinese Communist Spy

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A former executive at Zoom, who shut down video conferences that were not flattering to China, was exposed as a spy for the Chinese Communist Party, according to the Department of Justice.

Xinjiang Jin, aka Julien Jin, was an employee of the American video conferencing company. The 39-year-old, who was based in China’s Zhejiang Province, worked as a “security technical leader” for tech company headquartered in San Jose, California. Jin served as a liaison between Zoom and the Chinese government after Beijing blocked the company’s service in China in September 2019.

Jin provided the Chinese Communist Party with information about users and meetings, even supplying the CCP with IP addresses from anyone who held anti-China sentiments, say federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York.

According to the complaint filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Jin reportedly participated in a plot to disrupt a series of meetings in May and June that commemorated the Tiananmen Square massacre, where at least 280 pro-democracy demonstrators were shot dead.

In the CCP’s bidding, it is reported that at least four video meetings commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre were infiltrated and terminated. Jin and his co-conspirators reportedly contrived false accusations, including child porn and terrorism, against Zoom users in the United States. (Read more from “Zoom Executive Exposed as Chinese Communist Spy ” HERE)

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Rockets Targeted U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in Third Attack Since Truce

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Iraqi security officials say at least three rockets landed in Baghdad’s Green Zone in an attack reported to be targeting the U.S. Embassy.

The rockets hit a residential complex inside the heavily fortified area, damaging buildings and cars but left no casualties, according to Reuters. The Iraqi military said an “outlaw group” fired the rockets on Sunday, causing sirens to blare from the embassy compound. One official, whose office is inside the Green Zone, said an anti-rocket system diverted one of the rockets.

The attack is the third on U.S. military and diplomatic infrastructure since an October truce that put an end to a year of roadside bomb attacks and rocket launches on foreign installations, according to Arab News, an English newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. (Read more from “Rockets Targeted U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in Third Attack Since Truce” HERE)

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U.S. Sanctions Electoral Hardware Company Over Role in ‘Fraudulent’ Venezuelan Elections

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The U.S. Department of State and Treasury Department on Friday took action against a Venezuelan election systems company for supporting socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s allegedly fraudulent Dec. 6 legislative elections.

The firm, Ex-Cle Soluciones Biometricas C.A. (Ex-Cle C.A.), is accused of materially supporting Maduro’s regime by “providing goods and services that the Maduro regime used to carry out the fraudulent December 6, 2020 parliamentary elections,” said the Department of the Treasury in a news release, while also announcing sanctions against the company and two of its executives.

Ex-Cle C.A. is a biometric technology company that operates in Venezuela as the subsidiary of Argentine-registered Ex-Cle S.A. According to the company’s website, it designs systems that use biometrics to identify and verify citizens when they vote, while the Treasury Department said the firm “has been doing business as the electoral hardware and software vendor with Maduro regime-aligned government agencies and officials.”

The Department of State, meanwhile, asserted that Ex-Cle C.A. “was aware of and involved in the regime’s efforts to rig the fraudulent December 6 elections, thereby undermining democracy and suppressing the voices of the Venezuelan people.” The company aided the regime in buying “thousands of voting machines from China, routing payments thru the Russian financial system,” the State Department added.

“They shipped the voting machines through Iran using rogue airlines Mahan Air and Conviasa, both previously targeted by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control,” according to a press release. (Read more from “U.S. Sanctions Electoral Hardware Company Over Role in ‘Fraudulent’ Venezuelan Elections” HERE)

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China Spied on Americans Traveling Abroad, Expert Finds

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China allegedly used telecommunications networks in the Caribbean to spy on Americans traveling abroad, according to a network security expert’s findings reported by the Guardian.

Using a state-controlled tech giant, Chinese officials allegedly conducted surveillance attacks to track and intercept communications of mobile phone users without their knowledge. China has engaged in the practice since at least 2018, targeting 3G and 4G phone users, a former telecommunications security executive told the Guardian.

The surveillance attacks largely occurred in countries such as Barbados and the Bahamas, affecting potentially tens of thousands of users, including U.S. citizens abroad.

The majority of the attacks on mobile phones were routed through the state-owned telecommunications company China Unicom, according to the security expert. Simultaneous surveillance intrusions were traced to Caribbean-based companies, though the expert suggested they may not have knowingly participated in malicious data theft but simply leased a network address to a Chinese entity carrying out surveillance. (Read more from “China Spied on Americans Traveling Abroad, Expert Finds” HERE)

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