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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U.S. Blames Iran in Abduction, Death of Ex-FBI Agent Levinson

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The Trump administration for the first time on Monday formally blamed Iran for the presumed death of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, publicly identifying two Iranian intelligence officers believed responsible for his abduction and imposing sanctions against them.

Levinson disappeared in Iran under mysterious circumstances more than a decade ago, and though U.S. diplomats and investigators have long said they thought he was taken by Iranian government agents, Monday’s announcement in the final weeks of the Trump administration was the most definitive assignment of blame to date.

Besides blaming two high-ranking intelligence officers by name, U.S. officials also said the Iranian regime sanctioned the plot that led to Levinson’s abduction and lied for years about its involvement in his disappearance through disinformation campaigns aimed at deflecting responsibility and covering up the government’s role.

“The abduction of Mr. Levinson in Iran is an outrageous example of the Iranian regime’s willingness to commit unjust acts,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “The United States will always prioritize the safety and security of the American people and will continue to aggressively pursue those who played a role in Mr. Levinson’s detention and probable death.” (Read more from “U.S. Blames Iran in Abduction, Death of Ex-FBI Agent Levinson” HERE)

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Judge Gives Residency to Migrant Who Set Village on Fire, Killing Multiple People

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A judge has granted humanitarian residency to a Gambian migrant who admitted to having started fires in his native village, killing several people.

The migrant arrived in Italy in 2016 but was initially denied asylum by the Bologna Territorial Commission in September of 2018. He then appealed the decision to the Bologna court, which granted him a residency permit on humanitarian grounds late last month.

According to a report from newspaper Il Giornale, the migrant admitted to setting a large part of his village on fire.

He told judges that he had worked in the fields of his village after two years at an Islamic school, and one day he set dry grass on fire which spread to nearby houses due to heavy winds. The fire ultimately killed several people and put others in the hospital.

(Read more from “Judge Gives Residency to Migrant Who Set Village on Fire, Killing Multiple People” HERE)

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Police Fatally Shoot Man Breaking COVID-19 Regulations, Protests Erupt

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Hundreds of protesters set a Christmas tree on fire and knocked over other seasonal decorations in demonstrations Wednesday night after police fatally shot a man for not adhering to a COVID-19 curfew in Albania, Politico reported Thursday.

Protests started in Tirana, Albania, on Wednesday where protesters reportedly threw rocks at government buildings and flares at law enforcement officials before they were teargassed, according to Politico. Two protesters and 16 officers sustained injuries, and one officer was in serious condition.

Protesters demanded Prime Minister Edi Rama and Interior Minister Sandër Lleshaj’s resignations, Politico reported. The officer who shot the man has been arrested. . .

Police shot a 25-year-old man when he didn’t stop after officers approached him for breaking curfew on Tuesday, Politico reported. Police claimed the man would not follow orders and that he was carrying a weapon they later referred to as an unidentified object. (Read more from “Police Fatally Shoot Man Breaking COVID-19 Regulations, Protests Erupt” HERE)

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China Threatens U.S. With ‘Stern’ Retaliation Over Hong Kong Sanctions

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China has vowed it will hit back against U.S. sanctions of its lawmakers following Beijing’s clampdown on freedoms in Hong Kong.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said 14 vice chairs of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) would face asset freezes and travel bans, accusing Beijing of an “unrelenting assault against Hong Kong’s democratic processes.” . . .

On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press conference there would be “stern and forceful” countermeasures to the U.S. actions.

She said the sanctions “revealed the U.S. side’s dangerous intentions to interfere in Chinese domestic affairs, destabilize Hong Kong and obstruct China’s stability and development.” (Read more from “China Threatens U.S. With ‘Stern’ Retaliation Over Hong Kong Sanctions” HERE)

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Protests Erupt Across France After Announcement of Surveillance Bill (VIDEO)

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Protests turned destructive across France after President Emmanuel Macron’s administration announced a bill that would expand the use of surveillance tools while restricting the ability of citizens to share images of police officers in the media.

Thousands of French citizens poured into the city streets of Paris, Marseille, and Lille with signs that read “France, land of police rights” and “Withdrawal of the security law” after the government issued a ban on the sharing of images online “with the manifest aim to harm.”

The bill came after the beating of French music producer Michel Zecler by Parisian police officers in late November caused outrage across the country. Images of the incident from closed-circuit television and cellphones were distributed online. (Read more from “Protests Erupt Across France After Announcement of Surveillance Bill (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Iran Changes Its Story on Killing of Top Nuclear Scientist

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Accounts of the killing of a top Iranian nuclear scientist have devolved into finger-pointing and shifting narratives.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the man widely described as one of the leading architects of Iran’s secretive military nuclear program, was killed on Friday when his convoy was ambushed on a rural road 40 miles east of Tehran. Initial news reports indicated there was an explosion and a cacophony of gunfire from several assailants.

Iran claims Israel’s elite intelligence agency Mossad was behind the attack, and the New York Times reported that a senior U.S. official also said that Israel was responsible for the operation. Israel has yet to comment on the killing. Early reports from Iranian authorities, corroborated by an eyewitness, detailed an explosion and gun battle between up to a dozen attackers and Fakhrizadeh’s bodyguards.

No one behind the attack has been arrested, and now, officials have begun to spin a new story about what happened on Friday in an apparent attempt to shift the blame from Iran’s massive intelligence failure that allowed the operation to be successful and the supposed gunmen to escape.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary for Iran’s National Security Council, claimed on Monday that there were not actual operatives on the ground during the attack and that the killing was carried out by a remote-control robotic machine gun affixed to a parked Nissan, according to the Associated Press. (Read more from “Iran Changes Its Story on Killing of Top Nuclear Scientist” HERE)

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Report: China Moves to Surpass U.S. in Economics, Technology, Diplomacy and Military

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China is poised to overtake the United States in key economic and security areas, a development that could forever change the dynamic between the world’s two premier powers, according to a report released Tuesday by a congressionally mandated commission.

The United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, founded two decades ago to mark the beginning of “The American Century,” produces an annual report to Congress, detailing challenges to the bilateral ties between the two countries.

The 2020 report, obtained early by Newsweek, took a definitive turn, even for an already historic year, calling on Congress to take action as the international playing field was redefined based on steps taken by Beijing and Washington.

“This year, a lot of our focus was on China moving beyond catching up and moving to surpass [the United States] in the economic field, [as well as in] technology, diplomacy and military,” Carolyn Bartholomew, vice chair to the U.S.-China Commission, said during a press call Monday. (Read more from “Report: China Moves to Surpass U.S. in Economics, Technology, Diplomacy and Military” HERE)

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A Hungarian Official Compared Billionaire George Soros To Adolf Hitler

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A Hungarian ministerial commissioner has been condemned after comparing billionaire George Soros, who is a Holocaust survivor, to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Szilard Demeter, who is the head of the Petofi Literary Museum in Budapest, wrote in an opinion piece for pro-government outlet Origo that Soros was “the liberal Führer” and that Europe was his “gas chamber,” according to the Associated Press.

“Europe is George Soros’ gas chamber,” Demeter wrote, according to the AP. “Poison gas flows from the capsule of a multicultural, open society, which is deadly to the European way of life.”

Demeter was writing the article, which was published on Saturday, in defense of Hungary and Poland, who are currently in an ongoing dispute with Brussels over the planned European Union €1.8 trillion budget, linked to standards of democracy in member states.

Hungary and Poland are accused of undermining judicial independence and media freedom and under EU investigation. They are threatening to veto the EU budget over provisions that could block payments to countries that do not uphold democratic standards, Politico reported this week. (Read more from “A Hungarian Official Compared Billionaire George Soros To Adolf Hitler” HERE)

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