If China Can Ever Bully the United States Like It Is Canada, We’re in Serious Trouble

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The United States started a trade war with China. The Justice Department requested Canadian authorities to arrest Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of China’s telecom giant Huawei, on allegations that she had violated sanctions against Iran by committing financial fraud.

China hasn’t taken Meng’s arrest very well. It viewed Meng’s arrest as a politically driven “kidnapping” aimed at curbing China’s technological ambition and forcing China to make trade concessions. Beijing feels it has lost face internationally and in front of its domestic, nationalistic audience. Therefore, Beijing has been in revenge mode. However, its main target so far has been not the United States, but Canada.

Since Meng’s arrest, China’s foreign minister has summoned the Canadian ambassador to China, John McCallum, multiple times, to lodge a “strong protest” and tell him Meng’s arrest caused “serious damage to Sino-Canada relations.” Beijing demanded the immediate release of Meng, or Canada would face “grave consequences” for Meng’s arrest. The same Chinese foreign ministry also summoned the U.S. ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, a day after meeting the Canadian ambassador, to protest Meng’s arrest as being “unreasonable.” In diplomatic language, the U.S. ambassador was treated with kid gloves.

The Canadian government has tried very hard to explain to Beijing that Meng’s arrest was not politically driven and its timing, which took place on the same day as the President Trump and Chinese President Xi Xinping’s meeting at the G20 in Argentina, was pure coincidence. The Justice Department launched a criminal probe into Huawei’s dealings in Iran in April 2017. The arrest warrant for Meng was issued in August by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and Meng was charged with “conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions.” To U.S. authorities, arresting Meng in Canada was a natural choice, because Meng stopped traveling to the United States in 2017, but she does travel to Canada regularly as a legal resident there. . .

Last week, Beijing arrested two Canadians on charges of “endangering national security.” One is Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat and now a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group (ICG). According to ICG’s website, Kovrig “conducts research and provides analysis on foreign affairs and global security issues in North East Asia, particularly on China, Japan and the Korean peninsula.” China declared that ICG is not a legally registered non-governmental organization (NGO) in China. Thus, Kovrig might have also violated China’s notorious foreign NGO law, which gives Beijing the ability to prevent international organizations it doesn’t like, such as human rights organizations, from operating legally in China. (Read more from “If China Can Ever Bully the United States Like It Is Canada, We’re in Serious Trouble” HERE)

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North Korea Issues Scary Statement About U.S. Sanctions

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. . .On Dec. 10, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it would be placing sanctions on three high-ranking North Korean officials “in response to the North Korean regime’s ongoing and serious human rights abuses and censorship.” These officials included Minister of State Security Jong Kyong Thaek, Director of the OGD (North Korea’s censorship department) Choe Ryong Hae, and Director of the PAD (the Propaganda and Agitation Department) Pak Kwang Ho.

“Today’s actions shine a spotlight on North Korea’s reprehensible treatment of those in North Korea, and serve as a reminder of North Korea’s brutal treatment of U.S. citizen Otto Warmbier, who passed away 18 months ago,” the statement said. Warmbier, 22, was an American college student who died after being held in North Korean custody. . .

An editorial by the North Korean government in the state-run news service KCNA threatened that “DPRK-US relations back to the status of last year which was marked by exchanges of fire.” It also said that “added sanctions pressure will block the path to denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula forever – a result desired by no one.” The editorial also claimed that the sanctions were put into place to punish North Korea for a “non-existent ‘human rights issue.'” . . .

While North Korea may blame these recent sanctions for a breakdown in progress, satellite evidence suggests that they had never been fully committed to denuclearization. Several separate reports, from multiple news agencies as well as the United Nations, have suggested that North Korea has been continuing to run and actively improving its nuclear test sites. (Read more from “North Korea Issues Scary Statement About U.S. Sanctions” HERE)

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Mexico Has a Plan to Deter Illegal Aliens From Flocking to the United States. Here’s What It Entails.

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Over the next five years, the Mexican government plans to spend $30 billion on Central American development. Their goal is simple: to keep illegal aliens from heading north towards the United States border, USA Today reported.

According to Mexican Foreign Ministry Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico “will change its migration policies to respond to the needs required in the south of our country and Central America,” although it’s unclear exactly how those funds will be spent.

“We’re going to guarantee that the rights of migrants in our territory are respected,” Newly-elected Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrado told reporters on Dec. 5. “About how to resolve the problem, we’re putting together a proposal to invest in productive projects and job creation. And, not only that, in work visas as well for Mexican and for the United States.”

The decision comes after multiple migrant caravans filled with illegal aliens made their way across Central America, through Mexico and to the United States-Mexico border. Those on the caravan hoped to file for asylum but quickly found out they would have to wait months to have their case heard. Now, they’re sitting in Mexico, waiting. (Read more from “Mexico Has a Plan to Deter Illegal Aliens From Flocking to the United States. Here’s What It Entails.” HERE)

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U.S. Takes a Stand Against Global Compact on Refugees, Promotion of Abortion at the United Nations

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By Townhall. The United States took a lonely stand Monday against the United Nation’s General Assembly in a vote on the Global Compact on Refugees and on concerns about language related to abortion.

Hungary was the only country to join the United States in voting against an annual resolution on the work of the U.N. refugee agency which included approval of the compact on refugees. The resolution was approved with 181 countries voting in favor and three abstaining.

The U.S. explained its opposition to the compact, arguing that it represents “an effort by the United Nations to advance global governance at the expense of the sovereign right of States to manage their immigration systems in accordance with their national laws, policies, and interests.”

Reuters noted on Monday that the U.S. also “unsuccessfully tried to remove two paragraphs from a General Assembly resolution on preventing violence and sexual harassment of women and girls. It was the only country to vote against the language, while 131 countries voted to keep it in the resolution and 31 abstained.” (Read more from “U.S. Takes a Stand Against Global Compact on Refugees, Promotion of Abortion at the United Nations” HERE)

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US Left Isolated at UN Over Stance on Abortion and Refugees

By The Guardian. The United States has found itself isolated at the 193-member United Nations general assembly over Washington’s concerns about the promotion of abortion and a voluntary plan to address the global refugee crisis.

Only Hungary backed the United States and voted against an annual resolution on the work of the UN refugee agency, while 181 countries voted in favor and three abstained. The resolution has generally been approved by consensus for more than 60 years. . .

The US also failed in a campaign – which started last month during negotiations on several draft resolutions in the general assembly human rights committee – against references to “sexual and reproductive health” and “sexual and reproductive health-care services”.

It has said the language has “accumulated connotations that suggest the promotion of abortion or a right to abortion that are unacceptable to our administration”.

On Monday, Washington unsuccessfully tried to remove two paragraphs from a general assembly resolution on preventing violence and sexual harassment of women and girls. It was the only country to vote against the language, while 131 countries voted to keep it in the resolution and 31 abstained. (Read more from “US Left Isolated at UN Over Stance on Abortion and Refugees” HERE)

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This Is How Venezuelan Families Are Being Forced to Bury Loved Ones

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As the crisis in Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship deepens – gripped by mass hunger, starvation and a lack of medical supplies – there is no comfort even for the dead.

“What is happening is medieval. People are ‘renting’ caskets for a service, but giving them back. The same casket is being used over and over again because people cannot afford to buy one,” Venezuelan opposition leader Julio Borges, who has been living in exile in the Colombian capital of Bogota for the past nine months, told Fox News. “And then they have to wrap the body in plastic bags for the burial. Others don’t have money for a land plot, so they are burying loved ones in their back garden.”

Borges said the “really creepy” problem of how to properly bury the dead has become the norm rather than the exception. Other Venezuelans concurred, indicating the use of “common graves,” along with backyard burials, was becoming standard.

One Venezuelan, who asked his name not be published, described the sudden death of his father in the capital Caracas last week, which left the family without a vehicle to take the body to the morgue. It took more than a day for the body to be collected. . .

“Funeral services are too expensive. Coffins are expensive, as well as paying for a place in the cemetery and everything that comes with it: the chapel for the service, the plate,” Julett Pineda, a health journalist for Efecto Cocuyo in Caracas, told Fox News. “People cannot have a decent funeral.” (Read more from “This Is How Venezuelan Families Are Being Forced to Bury Loved Ones” HERE)

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DHS: 7-Year-Old Migrant Who Died Was Not Ill Upon Initial Screening

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By The Daily Caller. The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement Friday that the 7-year-old migrant girl who died in their custody was not ill upon an initial screening and was offered food and water.

The story of the young girl from Guatemala exploded on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that she died of dehydration shortly after Border Patrol took custody of her and her father, who entered the country illegally. WaPo’s headline suggested that Border Patrol bore responsibility in the child’s death, but the Department of Homeland Security is now disputing that characterization.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the child died last week approximately eight hours after she was taken into custody. Her father reportedly told Border Patrol agents that the child had not had anything to eat or drink in days.

The father and daughter, identified by a Guatemalan official as Nery Caal and Jakelin Caal, crossed the U.S. border into New Mexico in a remote location 90 miles from the nearest Border Patrol station.

The Washington Post’s initial report noted that they were not aware of any provisions offered to the family when they were first taken into custody. (Read more from “DHS: 7-Year-Old Migrant Who Died Was Not Ill Upon Initial Screening” HERE)

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7-Year-Old in Good Health, Border Agents Said; Then She Died

By AP. Just 7 years old, Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin was picked up by U.S. authorities with her father and other migrants this month in a remote stretch of New Mexico desert. Some seven hours later, she was put on a bus to the nearest Border Patrol station but soon began vomiting. By the end of the two-hour drive, she had stopped breathing.

Jakelin hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for days, her father later told U.S. officials. . .

According to the form, the girl showed no sign of illness. She was not sweating, had no tremors, jaundice or visible trauma and was mentally alert. (Read more from “7-Year-Old in Good Health, Border Agents Said; Then She Died” HERE)

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Mexico to Invest Billions in Plan That Will Curb Migration to U.S.

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By Townhall. Mexico is spending $30 billion on a development plan that will help boost its southern region’s economy as a way to curb migration to the United States.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a UN-backed conference that the policy would slow migration better than “containment measures.”

(Read more from “Mexico to Invest Billions in Plan That Will Curb Migration to U.S.” HERE)

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Mexico Will InvesT $30 Billion in Development Plan to Curb Migration

By Mexico News Daily. The federal government will invest more than US $30 billion over the next five years on a Comprehensive Development Plan with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador aimed at curbing migration to the United States, the foreign secretary said yesterday.

Speaking at a United Nations (UN) migration conference in Marrakech, Morocco, Marcelo Ebrard said that Mexico has made a commitment to cooperate closely with Central American countries and expressed confidence that the plan would be feasible and effective.

Ebrard said he expected that the plan, which will seek to develop Mexico’s poor southern states, would curb migration better than “containment measures.”However, he didn’t explain exactly how the US $30 billion investment will be used or where the money would come from.

Thousands of Central American migrants have traveled through Mexico as part of several caravans during the past two months, leaving the authorities of the past and current federal government to grapple with finding a way to stem migration under increasing pressure to do so from the United States government.(Read more from “Mexico Will Invest $30 Billion in Development Plan to Curb Migration” HERE)

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Queen’s Pedophile Driver Dies Before Facing Justice

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A chauffeur to the queen who admitted sexually abusing two young boys, and carried out one of the attacks at Buckingham Palace, has died before he could be charged with the crimes, despite reportedly admitting his guilt to British police.

The Sun reports that Alwyn Stockdale molested a boy of 10 at his royal household quarters in Buckingham Palace and also sexually assaulted a second boy, aged 14, at a relative’s home in the 1970s.

Stockdale, 81, admitted the attacks, which took place in the 1970s, but he died in hospital last week before he could be prosecuted, The Sun said.

The paper reports that it took 19 months for Metropolitan Police officers to trace Stockdale after a man in his fifties claimed he assaulted him when he was 10 and Stockdale was a trusted staff member in close contact with the queen and living at Buckingham Palace Mews. He later lived in a cottage on the Windsor estate, a reward often given by the royals to particularly well-liked servants. . .

A source told The Sun: “The victims are understandably upset that Stockdale will not face justice. They’ve lived with what he did all their adult lives. There are questions over why it took so long for police to identify and get round to questioning Stockdale. Given his age, it was a race against time to bring him to justice.” (Read more from “Queen’s Pedophile Driver Dies Before Facing Justice” HERE)

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France Terror Suspect Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ Before Attacking Christmas Market

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Before he opened fire on a crowded Christmas market in Strasbourg, France on Tuesday, 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt yelled “Allahu Akbar,” Paris’ public prosecutor said Wednesday — the first official statement pegging the deadly shooting as an Islamic terror attack.

Though no groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, Islamic terrorists have a history of plotting assaults at Christmas markets — including one disrupted plot in which nearly a dozen militants sought to bomb the Strasbourg market around the millennium.

Chekatt escaped from the scene in a taxi, bizarrely bragging to the driver about being injured in a firefight with soldiers after killing 10 people, officials said. Police said three people were killed in the attack.

A wide-scale manhunt was underway near Strasbourg as the French government raised the security level and sent police reinforcements to the city, located about 305 miles east of Paris. But a top French official admitted Chekatt may no longer be in the city and could have slipped through the police dragnet into neighboring Germany, where he’d spent time in prison. . .

[Senior Interior Ministry official Laurent] Nunez said Chekatt had been radicalized in prison and was being monitored by French intelligence services since at least 2015 due to his suspected religious extremism. Authorities did not say which religion; however, supporters of the Islamic State terror group were celebrating the shooting online, according to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadi communications worldwide. (Read more from “France Terror Suspect Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ Before Attacking Christmas Market” HERE)

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Terrorist Attack: Gunman Opens Fire at Christmas Market, Kills 3

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By The Guardian. France has upgraded its security threat level as police hunted a gunman who shot three people dead and injured 12 others in a terror attack on Strasbourg’s celebrated Christmas market on Tuesday evening.

Six hours after the gunman disappeared after firing at passers-by in the busy city centre, interior minister Christophe Castaner said the government had raised the risk level to the highest category. . .

French media reported that gendarmes had attempted to arrest the man for a separate crime at his home in the Neudorf district of southeast Strasbourg earlier on Tuesday. The suspect was not home, but officers reportedly found “grenades” in his apartment.

Shortly before 8pm local time, the man, armed with an automatic rifle, walked over one of Strasbourg’s many bridges around the Grand Île toward the Christmas market, which attracts millions of visitors every year. Witnesses said the man fired a first volley of rounds and then walked down the street before opening fire again. . .

Strasbourg’s Christmas Market, which started in 1570, is one of France’s most popular seasonal events. The “Grande Ile” where the market is held is surrounded by water, on one side the main channel of the River Ill and the other by the Canal du Faux-Rempart, is only accessible by bridges. (Read more from “Terrorist Attack: Gunman Opens Fire at Christmas Market” HERE)

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Strasbourg Shooting: Gunman at Large After Three Killed and 12 Injured Near French Christmas Market

By The Independent. Three people have been killed and 12 others injured after a gunman opened fire near a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg on Tuesday evening. . .

Thousands of people were confined to buildings as police searched for the gunman. Many have since been released.

Members of the European Parliament, which is based in the city, were sent a message warning of what “seems to be several gun attacks”. They were told to stay in buildings if they were in the city centre. . .

The attack came despite tight security, with unauthorised vehicles banned from streets surrounding the market during opening hours and access points to search pedestrians’ bags. (Read more from “Strasbourg Shooting: Gunman at Large After Three Killed and 12 Injured Near French Christmas Market” HERE)

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