Are Hong Kong’s Days of Freedom Numbered?

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The murder in Taiwan of a 19-year-old Hong Kong woman at the hands of her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day 2018 seemed routine enough. Another tragic story of a love affair going terribly wrong.

But Chinese authorities seized on the year-old incident to try and push through a new extradition law that would allow some crimes committed in Hong Kong to be prosecuted in China. The Beijing government badly miscalculated the reaction by citizens to this blatant attempt to curtail Hong Kong’s “special relationship” with the Chinese government in their semi-autonomous province. This led to massive demonstrations which some estimates placed at over a million demonstrators.

On Saturday, China’s puppet, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, apologized for introducing the law but resisted calls to withdraw it entirely and step down. “The government understands these views have been made out of love and care for Hong Kong,” according to a statement from an unidentified government spokesman.” . . .

It isn’t just that Hong Kong residents identify far more with their city than China. People in the city have a very different concept of “freedom” than the Communists in China. They are hyper-sensitive to any effort by Beijing to impose their political culture on Hong Kong residents, as evidenced by the massive demonstrations against the proposed extradition law.

In short, Beijing simply doesn’t care about the unrest. The murderers who killed thousands in Tiananmen Square in 1989 aren’t squeamish about busting a few protesters’ heads. Hong Kong is about to get a lesson in why Communists were once in control of half the planet. They will keep pressuring residents until the vast majority throw up their hands and give in to the tyranny. From Poland and Eastern Europe to Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the relentless drive for total control by Communists eventually wears people down and they give in. (Read more from “Are Hong Kong’s Days of Freedom Numbered?” HERE)

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Ex-Iranian Diplomat Blames Israel for the Oil Tanker Attacks

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By Breitbart. A former Iranian diplomat claimed that Israel [was] responsible for Thursday’s attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, an Iranian media outlet reported.

Without offering any evidence, Hamid Reza Asefi, who served as Iran’s ambassador to France and Foreign Ministry spokesman, claimed the motive behind the attack was “clear.”

“I think the directing of such incidents in the region are done by the Zionist regime and this has no hidden dimensions,” Asefi told Iran Online in an interview cited by the Tehran Times.

srael benefits the most from accusations against Iran, Asefi theorized, and therefore “logically the Zionist regime is the agent of this incident.”

He added that Israel seeks to drag the Islamic Republic into turmoil with the rest of the world. (Read more from “Ex-Iranian Diplomat Blames Israel for the Oil Tanker Attacks” HERE)

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Oil Prices Rise After Tanker Attacks Stoke Middle East Tensions

By Reuters. Oil prices rose on Monday after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington will take all actions necessary to guarantee safe navigation in the Middle East, as tensions mounted following attacks on tankers last week.

Brent futures had climbed 26 cents, or 0.4%, to $62.27 a barrel by 0314 GMT. They gained 1.1% on Friday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 17 cents, or 0.3%, at $52.68 a barrel. They rose 0.4% in the previous session.

Prices had jumped as much as 4.5% on Thursday after the attacks on two oil tankers near Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

It was the second time in a month tankers have been attacked in the world’s most important zone for oil supplies as tensions increase between the United States and Iran. Washington blamed Iran for Thursday’s attacks, prompting a denial and criticism from Tehran. (Read more from “Oil Prices Rise After Tanker Attacks Stoke Middle East Tensions” HERE)

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Israel Honors Trump with Settlement in the Golan Heights

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled Sunday a new Jewish settlement in the internationally contested Golan Heights named after President Donald Trump.

The settlement is called “Trump Heights” — or “Ramat Heights” in Hebrew — and essentially renames an existing settlement in Kela Alon that was built decades ago, the Wall Street Journal reported. Fewer than a dozen Israeli citizens live in the settlement, which sits just 12 miles from the Syrian border.

Netanyahu revealed the settlement during a meeting of his cabinet.

“We are going to do two things — establish a new community on the Golan Heights, something that has not been done for many years. This is an act of Zionism and it is paramount,” he said, according to the New York Post. “The second thing is to honor our friend, a very great friend of the State of Israel — President Donald Trump, who recently recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.” . . .

The move was internationally condemned, and did not generate any worldwide support. The international community maintains that Israel has illegal control over the Golan despite winning control over the the majority of the land during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel officially annexed Golan in 1981.

(Read more from “Israel Honors Trump with Settlement in the Golan Heights” HERE)

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The Sudan Crisis Has Reached A Key Infection Point

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By UN Dispatch. Sudan is at a crossroads. In April, popular protests in Khartoum lead to the ouster of the country’s longtime ruler, Omar al Bashir. He was toppled in a coup by military leaders. But the peaceful protests did not stop. Rather, the protesters held their ground and rallied outside the headquarters of the military junta demanding that civilians — not the military — lead the transition to democracy.

The standoff between the military council and civilian protesters held firm until early June, when a paramilitary group known as the Rapid support forces, or RSF, attacked the protesters, killing over 100. The protests were dispersed and a general strike ensued. (Read more from “The Sudan Crisis Has Reached a Key Infection Point” HERE)

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Sudan Crisis: U.S. Appoints Envoy Head as Death Toll Climbs to 129

By UPI. The United States appointed the head of a new special envoy to Sudan Wednesday as opposition forces report dozens of people have been raped and over 120 people have been killed following last week’s military crackdown on protests.

The State Department said in a statement it appointed Ambassador Donald Booth to head a special envoy for Sudan to lead “U.S. efforts to support a political solution to the current crisis that reflects the will of the Sudanese people.”

Booth, who served as U.S. special envoy for Sudan during the Obama administration, was dispatched to accompany Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Tibor Nagy to meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Nagy was dispatched Monday by the State Department to speak with leaders of the ruling Transitional Military Council and Forces for Freedom and Change to “call for a cessation of attacks against civilians and urger parties” to return to talks.

The opposition Sudanese Professionals Association said Wednesday that its leaders met with the envoy and agreed that the power of the country should be transferred to civilian rule, welcomed Ethiopia to continue mediations between the two parties, hold the military responsible “for the massacre” and to begin an international investigation commission for fact-finding to bring the perpetrators to justice. (Read more from “Sudan Crisis: U.S. Appoints Envoy Head as Death Toll Climbs to 129” HERE)

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550 African Migrants Were Just Caught at the Border – and They’re Not Being Screened for Ebola

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The border crisis is no longer exclusively a problem of illegal Central American migrants. As word spreads of the collapse of border enforcement, the number of migrants from Africa continues to increase. The threat of bringing in dangerous diseases is higher than ever, yet there are no mandatory and universal screenings, quarantines, or detention before illegal immigrants are released into our communities, often within hours.

According to preliminary weekly data used internally by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and given to CR by a Border Patrol agent who must remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the press, over 550 African migrants were apprehended in Texas in just one week – from May 30 through June 5. The lion’s share were from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country with the worst Ebola outbreak in the world. Here’s the breakdown:

Angola – 101
Cameroon – 6
Democratic Republic of Congo – 314
Gabon – 1
Niger – 1
Republic of Congo – 130

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), not to be confused with the smaller separate nation of “Republic of Congo,” which is to the immediate west of DRC, is currently experiencing the worst Ebola outbreak ever. As of June 4, according to the World Health Organization, there were a total of 2,025 confirmed and reported cases of Ebola, including 1,357 reported deaths.

In addition to Ebola, the DRC is experiencing 87,000 cases of measles, claiming the lives of 1,500. Angola and Cameroon are also experiencing measles outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Yet local media in San Antonio reported on Friday that hundreds of these African migrants were seen dropped off at bus stations in San Antonio. I confirmed with CBP last week that there is no special screening, extra scrutiny, or quarantine required of those coming from African countries more than from anywhere else.

Overall, a record 20,274 illegal aliens were apprehended in Texas during this seven-day period. That is an annualized pace of over one million just for the state of Texas. Honduras had the highest single-country total, accounting for 38 percent of all illegal immigrants caught in the Lone Star State. Honduras is experiencing a mumps outbreak, and many of the caravans left from San Pedro Sula, a northern Honduran town that had 1,336 reported cases of mumps as of April. As of Monday, Arizona officials confirmed 47 cases of mumps in Pinal County, mainly in ICE facilities, a 10-year high for the state. Dan McLaughlin, the mayor of Uvalde, Texas, confirmed to CR at least two known cases among the illegal immigrants held in the detention facility in his city. According to a recent DHS inspector general report, there is “a high incidence of illness among the staff” in some facilities.

Also, as of May 29, there were 51 confirmed cases of mumps among the general population in Hidalgo County, Texas, the busiest illegal alien smuggling corridor along the Southwest border. The disease has spread to every major city in the county.

Then there is Venezuela. Due to the collapse of the economy and civil society, the country is experiencing outbreaks of all sorts of diseases. The number of migrants is beginning to tick up, with 47 apprehended in Texas the first week of June.

It is simply astounding that hundreds of thousands are coming from the most disease-prone countries under the worst traveling arrangements imaginable and there is no quarantine, as required by law. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan finally admitted publicly at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that CBP is not screening anyone for diseases. “The public health risk—family units are released into our communities with unknown vaccination status and without a standard medical examination for communicable diseases of public health concern, as well as a public health risk of disease outbreak at processing facilities,” McAleenan said in his written testimony.

So why is McAleenan himself not requiring such a process, and if such a process is unfeasible given the numbers, shouldn’t these people be inadmissible rather than being released? Asylum does not trump the medically inadmissible statutes of 8 U.S.C. 1182. In other words, if the criminal smuggling conspiracy is so successful that it results in catastrophic numbers jamming our border, why should that strengthen the claim of the aliens to be released without following medical quarantine rather than strengthen the claim of the American sovereign to keep them out? (For more from the author of “550 African Migrants Were Just Caught at the Border – and They’re Not Being Screened for Ebola” please click HERE)

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Why Do American Tourists Keep Dying at These Foreign Resorts?

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By PJ Media. . .Sunday night, favorite son and sports legend David Ortiz was shot in the back in his native Santo Domingo. Big Papi will be flown to Boston so he can be treated by his personal physicians while recovering from surgery.

Wallace is the fourth American to die while visiting the Dominican Republic since the end of April. The other three all died at sister resorts that are less than a mile apart from each other. . .

Concerned tourists can use the travel info site TripAdvisor, which has been working to make it easier to filter and find traveler safety reviews.

There have been other reports in the past year of American tourists becoming ill while visiting the Dominican Republican. (Read more from “Why Do American Tourists Keep Dying at Foreign Resorts?” HERE)

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5 U.S. Tourists Have Died in the Dominican Republic Since April. Should You Cancel Your Trip?

By TIME. . .Since the beginning of 2019, there have been multiple high-profile cases involving American tourists dying or being seriously injured while staying in the Dominican Republic.

Miranda Schaup-Werner of Pennsylvania died on May 25 after she was found unresponsive by hotel staff in her Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville resort hotel room. According to the hotel, which is located in San Pedro de Macoris, The National Institute of Forensic Sciences and the National Police Investigations Unit concluded the 41-year-old had suffered a heart attack. In a statement, Bahia Principe says that her husband, who she was traveling with, confirmed she had a history of heart conditions.

Five days later, on May 30, Maryland couple Cynthia Ann Day, 49 and Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63 were both found unresponsive in their rooms by hotel staff the day they were scheduled to check out. Bahia Principe confirmed the couple was staying at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana, which is less than a mile away from sister resort Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville where Schaup-Wener stayed. According to Bahia Principe, there were no signs of violence and the case of Holmes and Day is still under investigation and awaiting results of toxicology test.

(Read more from “5 U.S. Tourists Have Died in the Dominican Republic Since April. Should You Cancel Your Trip?” HERE)

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Woman Attacked in Dominican Republic Says All-Inclusive Resort Is Trying to ‘Blame the Victim’

By People. The woman who says she was brutally attacked in January at a resort in the Dominican Republic has accused the all-inclusive of attempting to “blame the victim” after the hotel addressed the incident Wednesday in a statement.

Tammy Lawrence-Daley, 51, wrote in a May Facebook post that she was attacked and left for dead in an underground area at the Majestic Elegance Punta Cana Resort by a man wearing a hotel uniform. She and her husband have accused authorities and hotel staff of mishandling the case.

On Wednesday, nearly a week after the woman’s Facebook post, which received extensive media coverage, the resort issued a statement denying Lawrence-Daley’s allegations. The hotel’s statement also accused her of requesting $2.2 million in compensation, saying that when she did not receive a “positive response, she disclosed her version of the case, four months after it happened.”

A statement issued Friday on behalf of Lawrence-Daley asserts that she and her attorneys “feel confident that viewers and the public can see that the hotel’s attempt to blame the victim in this case is their last plea to avoid taking responsibility for their failures.” (Read more from “Woman Attacked in Dominican Republic Says All-Inclusive Resort Is Trying to ‘Blame the Victim'” HERE)

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Kim Jong Un’s Assassinated Brother Was Supposedly a CIA Informant

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Kim Jong Un’s half-brother was working as a CIA informant before he was brazenly murdered in a Malaysian airport in 2017, according to a report Monday.

Kim Jong Nam, the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il’s eldest son, “met on several occasions with agency operatives,” according to the report in The Wall Street Journal. . .

Little else is known about what Kim Jong Un’s older brother told the feds; however, the report did state he “was almost certainly in contact with security services of other countries, particularly China’s.” . . .

A Vietnamese woman tried in the case of Kim’s death was released from a Malaysian prison and returned to her native country earlier this month. Doan Thi Huong, the last suspect who’d been in custody after being charged in the death of Kim Jong Nam with VX nerve agent, said at the airport that “the case has come to a complete end.” . . .

In March, the Malaysian attorney general stunningly dropped the murder charge against Aisyah, following high-level lobbying from Jakarta. Huong sought to be acquitted after her co-defendant was freed, but prosecutors rejected her request. (Read more from “Kim Jong Un’s Assassinated Brother Was Supposedly a CIA Informant” HERE)

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Mexican Military Begins Taking Action Against Illegal Aliens

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By The Blaze. The Mexican military has deployed and is taking action against migrants after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador struck a deal with President Donald Trump to prevent the implementation of tariffs on Mexican imports. . .

The Mexican National Guard is targeting migrants just north of the Guatemalan-Mexican border, where migrants hitch a ride north on a train known as “The Beast,” the Washington Examiner reported.

“The National Guard was placed on one side, a moment that was used by more than 200 migrants who got off the train and fled,” Nataniel Hernández Núñe, director of the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center, told Mexican media. . .

According to El Universal, migrant apprehensions in Mexico have increased 200 percent after Trump publicly threatened Mexico with tariffs. Because Mexico agreed to increase their immigration efforts — which they are clearly doing — Trump announced Friday that he would not move forward with the tariffs. (Read more from “Mexican Military Begins Taking Action Against Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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Dow Futures Jump More Than 100 Points After US-Mexico Reach Deal to Avoid Tariffs

By CNBC. Stock futures indicated that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would open more than 100 points higher Monday in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend planned tariffs against Mexico.

Trump announced on Friday that he would not impose 5% tariffs on Mexican exports, after Mexico agreed to strengthen immigration enforcement.

But Komal Sri Kumar, president of Sri-Kumar Global Strategies, thinks this boost will be short lived.

“There is still uncertainty around the treaty because the president can still impose tariffs if Mexico doesn’t comply with the deal,” Kumar said. “What does this mean? It means that, if the U.S. feels Mexico isn’t doing enough to stop immigration into the U.S., tariffs will be imposed. My feeling is this is going to happen sometime in the next few months.”

On Friday, the Dow closed 263.28 points higher at 25,983.94 to post its best week since November on hopes that the Federal Reserve would move to slash interest rates after job numbers came in lower than expected. (Read more from “Dow Futures Jump More Than 100 Points After US-Mexico Reach Deal to Avoid Tariffs” HERE)

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‘Break the Cross!’ The Jihad on Christianity

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A 37-year-old Muslim migrant in Rome was recently arrested for homicide after he stabbed a Christian man in the throat for wearing a crucifix around his neck. “Religious hate” is cited as an “aggravating factor” in the crime. . .

The fact is, Islamic hostility to the cross is an unwavering phenomenon—one that crosses continents and centuries; one that is very much indicative of Islam’s innate hostility to Christianity.

For starters, not only is the cross the quintessential symbol of Christianity—for all denominations, including most forms of otherwise iconoclastic Protestantism—but it symbolizes the fundamental disagreement between Christians and Muslims. As Professor Sidney Griffith explains, “The cross and the icons publicly declared those very points of Christian faith which the Koran, in the Muslim view, explicitly denied: that Christ was the Son of God and that he died on the cross.” Accordingly, “the Christian practice of venerating the cross … often aroused the disdain of Muslims,” so that from the start of the Muslim conquests of Christian lands there was an ongoing “campaign to erase the public symbols of Christianity, especially the previously ubiquitous sign of the cross.” . . .

This “campaign” traces back to the Muslim prophet Muhammad. He reportedly “had such a repugnance to the form of the cross that he broke everything brought into his house with its figure upon it,” wrote one historian (Sword and Scimitar, p. 10). Muhammad also claimed that at the end times Jesus (the Muslim ‘Isa) himself would make it a point to “break the cross.”

Modern day Muslim clerics confirm this. When asked about Islam’s ruling on whether any person—in this case, Christians—is permitted to wear or pray before the cross, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Tarifi, a Saudi expert on Islamic law, said, “Under no circumstances is a human permitted to wear the cross” nor “is anyone permitted to pray to the cross.” Why? “Because the prophet—peace and blessings on him—commanded the breaking of it [the cross].” (Read more from “‘Break the Cross!’ The Jihad on Christianity” HERE)

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Russia to Make Film Blaming U.S. And CIA for Nuclear Accident

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By PJ Media. . .Recently, HBO broadcast the emotionally gripping account of what happened during the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The series Chernobyl, which ended a few days ago, depicted the stupidity, negligence, bureaucratic bungling, heroism, and the conspiracy of silence from the government that kept the true cost in lives and rubles of the disaster secret for decades. The series was a huge hit — even in Russia. . .

But the portrayal in the series of Soviet government culpability in keeping vital information from the operators at the power plant and the KGB efforts to hush the whole thing up apparently didn’t sit well with Putin’s regime. The Cultural Ministry is funding a film of the disaster that tells a much different story.

The premise is ludicrous because the seeds of the reactor’s destruction were sown before the plant was even built. There was a fatal flaw in the RBMK reactor design that led directly to the explosion of the reactor core. Inadequately trained plant personnel, who were conducting a safety test at the time of the explosion, were also a major contributing factor.

But in Putin’s Russia, up is down, black is white, and, when in doubt, always blame America and the CIA:

‘One theory holds that Americans had infiltrated the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and many historians do not deny that, on the day of the explosion, an agent of the enemy’s intelligence services was present at the station,’ Muradov explained to the Moscow Times.

(Read more from “Russia to Make Film Blaming U.S. And CIA for Nuclear Accident” HERE)

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Russia Is Making Its Own ‘Correct’ Version of Chernobyl That Will Blame AMERICA and the CIA for the Nuclear Disaster Following the Unexpected Success of the New HBO Show

By Daily Mail. Furious at the breakout success of the HBO series Chernobyl, Russia is planning to make its own series portraying the nuclear disaster as the work of an American CIA operative.

Russian television broadcaster NTV announced that it had commissioned the series, and principal photography has already begun in Belarus under director Alexei Muradov.

In response to the HBO series’ depiction of Soviet bureaucrats bungling the response both during and after the 1986 nuclear accident in the Ukrainian SSR, the Russian version plans to tell the tale of a heroic KGB agent trying to thwart a supposed CIA sabotage plot. . .

The Chernobyl disaster occurred during a failed safety test of the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and there is no credible evidence to suggest that the accident was part of a CIA plot.

The HBO miniseries covering the disaster finished its five-episode run on June 3, and as of Thursday had the highest audience ranking on IMDb, with 9.6 out of 10 stars – beating even such mega-hit series as Breaking Bad and Game Of Thrones. (Read more from “Russia Is Making Its Own ‘Correct’ Version of Chernobyl That Will Blame AMERICA and the CIA for the Nuclear Disaster Following the Unexpected Success of the New HBO Show” HERE)

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