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Indonesia Asia Pacific Indonesian divers find parts of plane wreckage in Java Sea

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An investigator of Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee inspects parts of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 that crashed in the waters off Java Island, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021. Indonesian rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of clothing and scraps of metal from the Java Sea early Sunday morning, a day after the Boeing 737-500 with dozens of people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, officials said. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

(AP) — Authorities said they determined the location of the crash site and black boxes of a Boeing 737-500 on Sunday, a day after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital.

The head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, Bagus Puruhito, said officials believe they identified the location of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — the so-called black boxes — because emergency signals transmitted by the devices were detected by a navy ship’s sonar system.

“Hopefully we can lift the black boxes in short time to determine the cause of the crash,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said.

Earlier Sunday, search and rescue operations resulted in parts of the plane being found in the sea at a depth of 23 meters (75 feet), leading rescuers to continue searching the area.

“We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane,” Tjahjanto said in a statement. “We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.”

He said the objects found included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registration parts.

Earlier, rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of children’s clothing and scraps of metal from the surface.

The break in the search for Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 came after the navy ship’s sonar equipment detected a signal from the aircraft at a location that fit the coordinates from the last contact made by the pilots before the plane disappeared Saturday afternoon, Tjahjanto said.

The plane was en route from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island, on a flight that was expected to take around 90 minutes.

It was still unclear what caused it to crash. There was no sign of survivors.

“I represent the government and all Indonesians in expressing my deep condolences for this tragedy,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said.

“We are doing our best to save the victims. We pray together so that the victims can be found,” he said, adding that he had asked the National Transport Safety Committee to conduct an investigation.

Fishermen in the area between Lancang and Laki islands, part of an archipelago around Thousand Islands north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

“We heard something explode — we thought it was a bomb or a tsunami since after that we saw a big splash from the water,” Solihin, who goes by one name, said by phone.

“It was raining heavily and the weather was so bad, so it was difficult to see around clearly,” Solihin said. “But we saw the splash and a big wave after the loud sound. We were very shocked and saw the plane debris and the fuel around our boat.”

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the flight was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36 p.m. It disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 29,000 feet (8,839 meters), he said.

There were 62 people on board, all of them Indonesian nationals, including three babies and seven other children. The plane was carrying 50 passengers, six working crew members and six other crew for another flight.

“Our thoughts are with the crew, passengers, and their families,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are in contact with our airline customer and stand ready to support them during this difficult time.”

Authorities established two crisis centers, one at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, where the plane departed from, and one at port. Families gathered to wait for news about their loved ones.

On social media, people began circulating the flight manifesto with photos and videos of those who were listed as passengers. One video shows a woman with her children waving goodbye while walking through the airport.

Sriwijaya Air president director Jefferson Irwin Jauwena said the plane, which was 26 years old and previously used by airlines in the United States, was airworthy. He told reporters Saturday that the plane had previously flown to Pontianak and Pangkal Pinang city on the same day.

He said the plane was delayed due to bad weather, not because of any mechanical problems.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, with more than 260 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents on land, sea and air because of overcrowding on ferries, aging infrastructure and poorly enforced safety standards.

In October 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet operated by Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. The plane involved in Saturday’s disaster did not have the automated flight-control system that played a role in the Lion Air crash and another crash of a 737 MAX 8 jet in Ethiopia five months later, leading to the grounding of the MAX 8 for 20 months.

The Lion Air crash was Indonesia’s worst airline disaster since 1997, when 234 people were killed on a Garuda airlines flight near Medan on Sumatra island. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing 162 people.

Sriwijaya Air has had only minor incidents in the past, though a farmer was killed in 2008 when a plane went off the runway while landing due to a hydraulic issue.

The United States banned Indonesian carriers from operating in the country in 2007, but reversed the decision in 2016, citing improvements in compliance with international aviation standards. The European Union has previously had similar bans, lifting them in June 2018.

In Aftermath of Capitol Attack, Hollywood Actor Jon Voight Calls to ‘Rise, to Look to a Better Future’

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Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight posted a powerful and uplifting video on Saturday addressing the nation, thanking the president, and urging Americans to “rise and look to a better future.”
The clip, which is slightly over a minute, features Voight against the backdrop of an American flag emphasizing the importance of unity and displaying a more encouraging and optimistic tone.
Addressing Wednesday’s violence at the U.S. Capitol, Voight unequivocally calls for those who stormed the Capitol to be held accountable.
“I know all are disappointed, but this violence is not who we are,” Voight continues. “We’re love, respect, honor. The ones who destroyed will be accountable, but the ones who truly wanted to share love and respect will be heard.”
Voight continues by encouraging viewers to set aside differences and embrace the “love that President Trump shared” during his presidency.
“Let us put aside our differences and let America grow,” the veteran actor says. “Let her stand again with pride, and we as a nation will hold on to the love that President Trump shared with us all.”
The clip concludes with Voight claiming that justice will prevail.
“It’s not over,” Voight says. “The truths of justice will prevail, for God’s glory shall as well. Love to you.”

Breitbart

Who’s Really Assaulting Democracy? – The Trump Coup Attempt That Wasn’t

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By: Matthew Vadum

Leftists and weak-kneed Republicans were quick to accuse President Donald Trump of attempting to overthrow the democratic process on January 6 as individuals bearing Trump campaign flags and paraphernalia ran amok in the United States Capitol while lawmakers were attempting to officially certify the results of the November 6 election.

The election –don’t forget—that the Democrats stole with the connivance of those same Republicans.

The disorder in the Capitol complex, during which an apparently unarmed Trump supporter, 35-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, was shot to death by police, didn’t end the certification process, but merely delayed an official declaration a few hours. The barely sentient former Vice President Joe Biden, a left-winger now held hostage by even more radical elements of his anti-American party, hobbled across the finish line as he was pronounced president-elect early in the morning January 7 after lawmakers rejected a series of Republican objections to states’ presidential electors. Support for the objections collapsed after an angry mob took over the premises, smashing windows, breaking down doors, and occupying lawmakers’ offices.

Rogue lawmaker Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman from Illinois, led the charge against Trump, not the rioters, labeling the freelance storming of the Capitol building then in progress “a coup attempt,” in a tweet time-stamped 2:24 p.m.

Former Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, who fled the Republican Party under pressure, tweeted “Donald Trump needs to resign or be removed from office. America has endured enough.”

RINO Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, said President Trump has been “very disappointing” since his November election loss and that he will be “judged harshly by history.”

Kooky, noxious, perpetually wrong about everything journalist-turned-novelist David Frum tweeted, “Impeach. Remove. Indict. Incarcerate. Now.”

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat and socialist, called for impeachment articles against Trump to bypass his committee and proceed directly to the floor of the House of Representatives for an immediate vote.

Antifa-loving Democrat Tim Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia, called for the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to be invoked to oust Trump, who is already scheduled to leave office just days from now at Noon on January 20. Calls from representatives and senators to remove Trump from office have only grown since then.

More than a few mainstream media outlets are reporting without evidence that Trump incited his supporters to interfere with the congressional proceeding.

It’s not true. Not even close.

Highlights from a transcript of Trump’s remarks at the gigantic “Save America” pep rally January 6 at the Ellipse shows that the president didn’t say anything different from what he has been saying since Election Day:

“The media will not show the magnitude of this crowd,” he said.

“Turn your cameras, please. Would you show? They came from all over the world, actually, but they came from all over our country. I just really want to see what they do. I just want to see how they covered. I’ve never seen anything like it. But it would be really great if we could be covered fairly by the media. The media is the biggest problem we have as far as I’m concerned, single biggest problem, the fake news and the big tech.”

“It’s just a great honor to have this kind of crowd and to be before you,” Trump said.

“Hundreds of thousands of American patriots are committed to the honesty of our elections and the integrity of our glorious Republic. All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

“
Our country has had enough,” the president said.

“We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”

“Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election, and we won it by a landslide,” he said.

“This was not a close election. I say sometimes jokingly, but there’s no joke about it, I’ve been in two elections. I won them both and the second one, I won much bigger than the first. Almost 75 million people voted for our campaign, the most of any incumbent president by far in the history of our country, 12 million more people than four years ago.”

“
By the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes?” Trump said.

“Does anybody believe that? He had 80 million computer votes. It’s a disgrace. There’s never been anything like that. You could take third world countries. Just take a look, take third world countries. Their elections are more honest than what we’ve been going through in this country. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace. Even when you look at last night, they’re all running around like chickens with their heads cut off with boxes. Nobody knows what the hell is going on. There’s never been anything like this. We will not let them silence your voices. We’re not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.”

“We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very, very basic and simple reason, to save our democracy,” he said.

The president urged the massive crowd probably numbering in the hundreds of thousands to peacefully protest outside the Capitol building.

“We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

He referred to the joint congressional session convened to count the electoral votes.

“Today, we see a very important event though, because right over there, right there, we see the event going to take place. And I’m going to be watching, because history is going to be made. We’re going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders or whether or not we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, throughout eternity, they’ll be ashamed. And you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never ever forget that they did. Never forget. We should never ever forget.”

Trump took aim at the corrupt Biden family.

“Now where is Hunter? And how come Joe was allowed to give a billion dollars of money to get rid of the prosecutor in Ukraine? How does that happen? … And how come Hunter gets three and a half million dollars from the mayor of Moscow’s wife, and gets hundreds of thousands of dollars to sit on an energy board even though he admits he has no knowledge of energy, and millions of dollars up front, and how come they go into China and they leave with billions of dollars to manage? ‘Have you managed money before?’ ‘No, I haven’t.’ ‘Oh, that’s good. Here’s about 3 billion.’”

Trump addressed the unconstitutional changes that officials made to electoral procedures in battleground states that allowed Democrats to steal the election.

“In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by the state legislatures, that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before. … And that’s totally illegal. That’s totally illegal. You can’t do that.”

The president quite rightly complained about social media censorship by Big Tech.

“And just like the radical left tries to blacklist you on social media, every time I put out a tweet, even if it’s totally correct, totally correct. I get a flag. I get a flag. And they also don’t let you get out. On Twitter, it’s very hard to come on to my account. … if you’re a conservative, if you’re a Republican, if you have a big voice, I guess they call it shadow ban. Shadow ban. They shadow ban you and it should be illegal. I’ve been telling these Republicans get rid of Section 230.”

After spending several minutes reciting a litany of electoral irregularities in the states, Trump stressed the importance of adopting electoral integrity measures, banning ballot harvesting and the use of unsecured ballot drop boxes.

“With your help we will finally pass powerful requirements for voter ID. You need an ID to cash your check. You need an ID to go to a bank, to buy alcohol, to drive a car. Every person should need to show an ID in order to cast your most important thing, a vote. We will also require proof of American citizenship in order to vote in American elections.”

“We will restore the vital civic tradition of in-person voting on Election Day so that voters can be fully informed when they make their choice,” Trump said.

Trump concluded his speech saying:

“Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans for our movement, for our children and for our beloved country and I say this, despite all that’s happened, the best is yet to come.

“So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… The Democrats are hopeless. They’re never voting for anything, not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

“So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you all for being here, this is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.”

So what exactly did President Trump say that was seditious or in some way an attack on democracy? Go through the whole transcript to look for the magical words Trump supposedly used to incite armed insurrection and to try and remain in the White House another four years.

Americans have a right to assemble peacefully to protest. This right doesn’t disappear if you’re a conservative or a Republican. President Trump was urging his supporters to surround the Capitol and apply political pressure to the lawmakers inside. That’s what politicians of all ideological stripes do in America. Democrats have their supporters surround the Trump White House all the time. They’re allowed to do that.

But because everything Trump does needs to be distorted and made to look abnormal and antisocial, his legitimate call to action was dishonestly characterized as an incitement to riot.

The truth is when Trump learned that individuals had gotten past barricades and into the Capitol he repeatedly called upon them to back off in a recorded message. “Go home now,” he said, but few people saw it. Big Tech censored the video. Twitter and Facebook both shut down his accounts.

And then there is evidence that shows police at the Capitol inexplicably accommodating the protesters, which raises separate, disturbing questions.

A video clip posted by Twitter user @DavidJHarrisJr appears to show police removing barricades to let protesters in. Another video clip referenced by the New York Post shows a U.S. Capitol Police officer “politely holding the door for the pro-President Trump protesters to walk out of the building after they caused mayhem that forced lawmakers to barricade themselves inside.”

Talking head Joe Scarborough, a former GOP congressman from Florida known for his bitter hatred of all things Trump, blamed police for letting protesters in, saying on MSNBC, “You opened the fucking doors for ’em.”

Then there is growing evidence that agents provocateur from Antifa infiltrated the crowd.

“Antifa members disguised themselves with pro-Trump clothing to join in the DC rioting, said the sources, who spotted the infiltrators while monitoring video coverage from the Capitol,” according to the New York Post. “The infiltrators were recognized due to their participation in New York City demonstrations, and were believed to have joined in the rioting so that Trump would get blamed …”

President Trump didn’t do anything he wasn’t legally entitled to do, yet he has been attacked for daring to assert his right to contest the election to the fullest extent permitted by law. When Democrats like failed presidential candidate Al Gore and former U.S. Sen. Al Franken (ACORN-Minnesota) dragged out election disputes, they were treated as honest actors doing the right thing.

But when Trump does it, he’s a monster, the Left says.

This is the same Left that gave its blessing to months of rioting, looting, arson, and murder following the Fentanyl-caused death of career criminal and one-time porn actor George Floyd –his stage name was Big Floyd— while he was handled roughly in Minneapolis police custody.

This colossal hoax, the lie that racist cops murdered Floyd, was used to justify and normalize rioting, but only rioting in furtherance of leftism, while Democrat lawyers like Marc Elias fanned out to the courts in battleground states to destroy any semblance of electoral integrity by sabotaging ballot security rules.

When the Left was burning down American cities last year, those were “peaceful protests” carried out by noble crusaders for social justice.

But when a few yahoos take an election dispute into their own hands by storming the national legislature, somehow Trump is the monster.

This is the same Left that cheered on the rolling coup attempt against President Trump that then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden set in motion by authorizing the use of the nation’s intelligence agencies against Trump, along with Hillary Clinton’s phony Russian dossier about Trump, twin abominations for the ages that will now never be investigated because the perpetrators will be in power.

That’s the real crime. (FrontPageMag.com)

Top Republican says Trump committed ‘impeachable offenses’

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(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

(AP) — Democrats’ momentum for a fresh drive to quickly impeach outgoing President Donald Trump has gained support, and a top Republican said the president’s role in the deadly riot at the Capitol by a violent mob of Trump supporters was worthy of rebuke.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Saturday he believed Trump had committed “impeachable offenses.” But he did not explicitly say whether he would vote to remove the president from office at the conclusion of a Senate trial if the House sent over articles of impeachment.

“I don’t know what they are going to send over and one of the things that I’m concerned about, frankly, is whether the House would completely politicize something,” Toomey said Saturday on Fox News Channel, speaking of the Democratic-controlled House.

“I do think the president committed impeachable offenses, but I don’t know what is going to land on the Senate floor, if anything,” Toomey said.

 

Late Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues reiterating that Trump must be held accountable — but stopped short of committing to an impeachment vote. Still, she told her caucus, “I urge you to be prepared to return to Washington this week.”

“It is absolutely essential that those who perpetrated the assault on our democracy be held accountable,” Pelosi wrote. “There must be a recognition that this desecration was instigated by the President.”

Pelosi said House Democrats “will be proceeding with meetings with Members and Constitutional experts and others.”

The new Democratic effort to stamp Trump’s presidential record — for the second time and days before his term ends — with the indelible mark of impeachment gained more supporters Saturday. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I, a leader of the House effort to draft impeachment articles — or charges — accusing Trump of inciting insurrection, said his group had grown to include 185 co-sponsors.

Lawmakers plan to formally introduce the proposal on Monday in the House, where articles of impeachment must originate. If Democrats decide to move forward, a vote could be possible by Wednesday — exactly one week before Democrat Joe Biden becomes president at noon on Jan. 20.

The articles, if passed by the House, could then be transmitted to the Senate for a trial, with senators acting as jurors who would ultimately vote on whether to acquit or convict Trump. If convicted, Trump would be removed from office and succeeded by the vice president.

Earlier Saturday, Pelosi told her San Francisco constituents during an online video conference that it is “a decision that we have to make.”

 

Potentially complicating that decision is what it means for Biden and the beginning of his presidency. While reiterating that he has long viewed Trump as unfit for office, Biden on Friday sidestepped a question about impeachment, saying what Congress does “is for them to decide.”

If the House decided to impeach, the soonest the Senate could begin an impeachment trial under the current calendar would be Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.

A violent and largely white mob of Trump supporters overpowered police, broke through security lines and rampaged through the Capitol on Wednesday, forcing lawmakers to scatter as they were putting the final, formal touches on Biden’s victory over Trump in the Electoral College.

The crowd surged to the domed symbol of American democracy following a rally near the White House, where Trump repeated his bogus claims that the election was stolen from him and urged his supporters to march in force toward the Capitol.

Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died as a result of the siege.

“It has been an epiphany for the world to see that there are people in our country led by this president, for the moment, who have chosen their whiteness over democracy,” Pelosi said of the attack.

She added: “This cannot be exaggerated. The complicity, not only the complicity, the instigation of the president of United States, must and will be addressed.”

No. 4 House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York reiterated support for moving against what he deemed “an act of sedition that was incited and encouraged by Donald Trump.”

Speaking of Trump, Jeffries said Saturday: “He should be impeached, convicted and thrown out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and forever banished to the dustbin of history.”

Outrage over the attack and Trump’s role in egging it on capped a divisive, chaotic presidency like few others in the nation’s history. There are less than two weeks until Trump is out of office but Democrats have made clear they don’t want to wait that long.

Trump, meanwhile, has few fellow Republicans speaking out in his defense. He’s become increasingly isolated, holed up in the White House as he has been abandoned in the aftermath of the riot by many aides, leading Republicans and, so far, two Cabinet members — both women.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who has long voiced her exasperation with Trump’s conduct in office, told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that he simply “needs to get out.”

Sen. Ben Sasse, another Trump critic, said more important than what happens to Trump “is what happens to the United States people and this union 12 days and beyond.”

But the Nebraska Republican also told “CBS This Morning” on Friday that he “will definitely consider” whatever articles the House sends over because he believes Trump “has disregarded his oath of office” to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

After spending many weeks refusing to concede defeat in the November election, Trump promised — after the Capitol riot — to oversee a smooth transfer of power to Biden. He called for reconciliation and healing, but then announced he will not attend the inauguration — the first such presidential snub since just after the Civil War.

___

Superville reported from Wilmington, Delaware. Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

N. Korea threatens to build more nukes, cites US hostility

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(Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to expand his nuclear arsenal as he disclosed a list of high-tech weapons systems under development, saying the fate of relations with the United States depends on whether it abandons its hostile policy, state media reported Saturday.

Kim’s comments during a key meeting of the ruling party this week were seen as applying pressure on the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has called Kim a “thug” and has criticized his summits with President Donald Trump.

The Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying the “key to establishing new relations between (North Korea) and the United States is whether the United States withdraws its hostile policy.”

Kim said he won’t use his nuclear weapons first unless threatened. He also suggested he is open to dialogue if Washington is too, but stressed North Korea must further strengthen its military and nuclear capability to cope with intensifying U.S. hostility.

He again called the U.S. his country’s “main enemy.”

“Whoever takes office in the U.S., its basic nature and hostile policy will never change,” he said.

Biden, who will take office on Jan. 20, is unlikely to hold direct meetings with Kim unless the North Korean leader takes significant denuclearization steps.

Cheong Seong-Chang, a fellow at the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, said Kim’s speech showed he has no interests in denuclearization talks with Biden if he insists that working-level negotiations must sort out contentious issues first.

Kim didn’t cite any specific provocative U.S. actions. North Korea has previously called regular U.S. military drills with South Korea an invasion rehearsal, though the allies have repeatedly denied that.

The North Korean leader listed sophisticated weapons systems that he said were under development. They include a multi-warhead missile, underwater-launched nuclear missiles, solid-fueled long-range missiles and spy satellites. He said North Korea must also advance the precision attack capability on targets in the 15,000 kilometer (9,320 mile)-striking range, an apparent reference to the U.S. mainland, and develop technology to manufacture smaller nuclear warheads to be mounted on long-range missiles more easily.

“The reality is that we can achieve peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula when we constantly build up our national defense and suppress U.S. military threats,” Kim said.

It’s unclear if North Korea is capable of developing such systems. It’s one of the world’s most cloistered countries, and estimates on the exact status of its nuclear and missile programs vary widely. In 2018, the South Korean government said North Korea was estimated to have up to 60 nuclear weapons.

“What they want to tell the U.S. is we’re developing the new strategic weapons that you can see as the most intimidating. Do you want to come to the negotiating table?” Choi Kang, vice president of Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said.

KCNA said Kim’s comments were made during the ruling Workers’ Party congress, the first in five years, from Tuesday to Thursday. He spoke for nine hours, the agency said.

The congress, the party’s top decision-making body, is being held as Kim faces what appears to be the toughest moment of his nine-year rule due to blows to his already-fragile economy — pandemic-related border closings that have sharply reduced the North’s external trade, a spate of natural disasters last summer and U.S.-led sanctions.

During his opening-day speech, Kim called the difficulties the “worst-ever” and admitted his previous economic plans had failed. In his other comments reported Saturday, he called for building a stronger self-supporting economy and reducing reliance on imports under a new five-year development plan.

Since taking power in late 2011, Kim, who turned 37 on Friday, has pushed the so-called “byungjin” policy of simultaneously seeking economic growth and the expansion of his nuclear deterrent. After claiming to have achieved the ability to strike the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons, Kim launched high-stakes summits Trump in 2018, but their diplomacy later fell apart due to wrangling over the sanctions the following year.

During this week’s speeches, Kim said North Korea will further boost ties with China, its biggest ally and economic lifeline but slammed South Korea for continuing the drills with the U.S. and introducing modern weapons.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry responded that it hopes for the early resumption of North Korea-U.S. talks, saying the inauguration of a new president in Washington can serve as a good chance to improve their ties.

“Kim’s speech foreshows the North Korean-U.S. relations won’t be smooth in the next four years with Biden in office,” said Nam Sung-wook, an expert on North Korea at Korea University in South Korea. “We won’t likely see big events and spectacles (like the Kim-Trump summits) for the time being.”

DOJ To Investigate Capitol Shooting Death of Air Force Vet Ashli Babbitt

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By: Sandy Fitzgerald & Marisa Herman

 

The Department of Justice is opening an investigation into the death of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, 35, who was shot in the chest by a Capitol Police officer during Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol while trying to climb through a window and enter the House chambers.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin told CBS News that his office has opened a formal investigation into whether excessive force came into play in relation to Babbitt’s death, senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge reported through Twitter.

The office’s civil rights division will be the lead prosecutors for the case, which is also under investigation by the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Herridge also reported.

Sherwin’s office has also opened a homicide investigation into the death of Capitol Hill Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died of injuries Thursday night from the injuries he sustained while responding to the riots and engaging physically with attackers during the melee, reports CNN, quoting a statement from the Capitol Police.

Sicknick joined the department in July 2008 and had most recently served in the department’s First Responders Unit.

Babbitt, a California native, had served for 14 years in the Air Force. According to a friend and fellow veteran, she was an avid supporter of President Donald Trump and flew across the country to be at the president’s massive rally on Wednesday, reports The New York Post. Babbitt also live-streamed a part of the march from the rally to the Capitol.

In addition to Babbitt and Sicknick, another woman, Roseanne Boyland, died after she was trampled and two others died from medical emergencies.

Newsmax also reported that Benjamin Phillips, a 50-year-old from Pennsylvania  and Kevin Greeson, a 55-year-old from Alabama, died after suffering “medical emergencies” related to the Wednesday siege of the Capitol.

Their names were released during a Thursday press conference.

Steven A. Sund, the chief of United States Capitol Police, who has since resigned from his post has said that more than 50 officers were hurt, and some have been hospitalized with “serious injuries.”

Police said at least 70 people were arrested for rioting or violating curfews put in place amid the unrest.

Rioters “actively attacked” Capitol police and other law enforcement officers Wednesday with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and ”took up other weapons against our officers,” Sund said in a statement on Thursday.

“The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.  Maintaining public safety in an open environment — specifically for First Amendment activities — has long been a challenge,” Sund said in an emailed statement to Fox News. “The USCP had a robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities.  But make no mistake — these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior.”  (Newsmax.com)

 

NYC Health Department’s Covid-19 Vaccine Hubs Open on Sunday

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Edited by: TJVNews.com

 

Three new COVID-19 Vaccine Hubs located in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn will open Sunday, the Health Department announced on Saturday.  Twelve additional Hubs will open next week across the five boroughs, adding to the over 125 sites that are currently up and running for eligible New Yorkers citywide.

 

“In order to get the vaccination traffic we want, we will need to build on-ramps,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Dave. A. Chokshi. “Facilities like these will be a route to immunity for thousands of New Yorkers. We need more New Yorkers to be eligible for the vaccine in order to quicken the pace of vaccination for the entire city.”

 

These three Hubs will start with the capacity to vaccinate a total of 5,000-7,000 people per day and will be open seven days per week from 9:00am-7:00pm. Currently eligible New Yorkers are required to make an appointment online.

 

Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Hub Locations:

  • South Bronx Educational Campus (701 St. Ann’s Avenue)
  • Bushwick Educational Campus (400 Irving Avenue)
  • Hillcrest High School (160-05 Highland Avenue, Jamaica)

 

The list of New Yorkers who are currently eligible for vaccine includes high-risk healthcare workers, staff and residents at long-term care facilities and other front-line staff in patient-facing roles. Starting next week, New Yorkers in 1b, which includes first responders and those 75 years and older, will be eligible to make appointments.

 

The Hubs are staffed by Health Department staff and trained volunteers through the Medical Reserve Corps.

 

New Yorkers can visit the Health Department’s Vaccine Locations page to find more locations currently administering the COVID-19 vaccine. Before an appointment, New Yorkers will need to complete the NYS COVID-19 Vaccine Form (PDF) in order to get vaccinated. NYS requires the provider administering the vaccine to check completion of the form. Additionally, eligible New Yorkers will need to bring proof of employment, such as an employee ID card, a letter from an employer or affiliated organization, or a recent pay stub.

 

“COVID-19 continues to ravage our communities, especially in the Bronx, where we were hardest hit during the height of the pandemic, and continually as our positivity rates grow to be of the highest of other boroughs in NYC,” said State Senator Luis Sepúlveda. “The new vaccine hubs will serve a crucial role in protecting our neighbors from this deadly virus and in our fight against the pandemic. I am thrilled to see a vaccine hub open in my district at the South Bronx Educational Campus, and I thank the Mayor and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for their important collaboration on expediting COVID-19 vaccines for the South Bronx.”

 

“If our country will ever return to a sense of normalcy, it starts with ensuring as many Americans are getting vaccinated,” said Council Member Rafael Salamanca. “Most importantly, in communities like mine that have disproportionately felt the impacts of COVID, the decision to place one of the first vaccination hubs in the South Bronx will literally save the lives of countless frontline workers, and the most vulnerable Bronxites. I thank the administration, the Medical Reserve Corps, staff and volunteers for their herculean efforts to protect New Yorkers during this second surge of COVID cases.”

 

 

Google Blacklists Parler App from Play Store

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Alana Mastrangelo

Google has removed social media platform Parler from its Play Store for Android devices, stating the app will remain suspended until it implements “robust” moderation policies that crackdown on free speech.

In a statement on Friday, Google claimed that “in light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat,” Parler is suspended from its Play Store until it implements moderation policies.

Read the full statement below:

In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence. All developers agree to these terms and we have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months. We’re aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US. We recognize that there can be reasonable debate about content policies and that it can be difficult for apps to immediately remove all violative content, but for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app’s listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues.

Google’s suspension of Parler arrives the same day that Apple threatened to ban Parler from its app store unless it cracks down on constitutionally protected speech that Apple doesn’t approve of — a move that would effectively exclude the app from all Apple smartphones.

Both Google and Apple made these similar moves in the wake of President Donald Trump getting permanently banned from Twitter

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” said Twitter in a statement.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram. Breitbart news

Twitter Purge: Conservative Social Media Personalities Report Losing Thousands of Followers

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screen shot Andalusian media

LUCAS NOLAN

Since Twitter banned President Donald Trump this week, prominent conservative voices on the platform users are reporting that they’ve lost tens of thousands of followers.

Breitbart News recently reported that Twitter banned President Trump permanently, saying in a statement: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

Now, multiple prominent conservatives on Twitter are claiming that they’ve lost a large number of followers since President Trump’s ban. A few examples can be seen below

In response, a number of users announced that they would be leaving Twitter with many moving to the popular app Parler.

Twitter told the New York Post: “As part of our work to protect the integrity of the conversation on Twitter, we regularly challenge accounts to confirm account details such as email and phone number. Until the accounts confirm additional account information, they are in a locked state and do not count towards follower counts.”

Biden names Orthodox woman to senior National Security Council position

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(JNS) U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to appoint Anne Neuberger, an Orthodox Jewish woman, to serve in a newly created cybersecurity position on the U.S. National Security Council.

The expected pick was first reported by Politico on Wednesday. The Biden transition team and the National Security Agency declined to comment to the outlet about Neuberger’s expected appointment.

Neuberger has lead the NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate since 2019, being one of the highest-ranking women at the NSA since Ann Caracristi, who served as deputy director of the agency during the early 1980s.

She has worked at the NSA for more than a decade and helped found the U.S. Cyber Command, where she was chief risk officer and headed the agency’s security initiative during the 2018 midterm elections.

Neuberger, who lives in Baltimore, is from the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, N.Y., where she went to Bais Yaakov Jewish day school for girls.

Neuberger graduated from Touro College in New York and Columbia University business school. She was also in the White House Fellows program.

Cuomo’s Botched Vaccine Rollout: Some Thrown Out

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AP

By Solange Reyner(NEWSMAX)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expanding the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility requirements to include 3 million more people after pushback from Mayor Bill de Blasio and other local officials and reports of doses tossed out, reports The New York Times.

The group will include people over the age of 75, firefighters, police officers, teachers, bus drivers, train operators and other frontline MTA staff.

“On Monday, you can start to schedule appointments. Pharmacies will start coming online, some on Monday, more on Wednesday,” Cuomo said Friday during a press conference on the rollout.

The city has only vaccinated 13 percent of the 917,000 healthcare workers currently eligible to receive the vaccination.

The Times also reported that a New York clinic had to throw out doses after some healthcare workers did not show to receive their vaccine and others decided against getting it.

“The hospitals were slow. They’re ramping up too slowly,” said Cuomo. “So we’re going to accelerate the distribution and what we’re going to do is add new distribution networks to supplement the hospitals.”

The state will launch a website where New York City residents will be able to make reservations.

De Blasio on Thursday demanded that Cuomo expand the number of people who can be vaccinated.

“We were ready to go and do a huge vaccination effort at the Department of Correction and the NYPD, but we were told by the state that they would not allow that,” de Blasio said Thursday. “They are allowing a smaller percentage, several thousand, NYPD medical corps members, and we’re going ahead with those vaccinations, but we really think the rules couldn’t be clearer.”

Federal Murder Probe Opens Into Death of Capitol Police Officer

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(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

By Jeffrey Rodack(NEWSMAX)

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington D.C. has launched a federal murder investigation into the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died from injuries sustained during the mob siege of the Capitol.

ABC News attributed the information to three law enforcement sources.

And a statement posted on the Capitol Police website said: “Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters.

“He returned to his division office and collapsed. The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP (U.S. Capitol Police), and our federal partners.”

Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen added in a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and fellow officers of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who succumbed last night to the injuries he suffered defending the U.S. Capitol, against the violent mob who stormed it on January 6th. The FBI and Metropolitan Police Department will jointly investigate the case and the Department of Justice will spare no resources in investigating and holding accountable those responsible.”

Sicknick joined the Capitol Police in July 2008 and was serving in the First Responder’s Unit.

US COVID-19 Deaths Hit New Record for 2nd Day in a Row

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By Surya Gowda  (NEWSMAX)

The U.S. reported 4,207 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, according to the worldometers.info tracking website, setting a new record and making it the second day in a row that deaths exceeded 4,000.

Confirmed cases in the U.S. Thursday jumped to 279,154, also a record high.

The country first passed a one-day death toll of 4,000 on Wednesday, when 4,100 deaths were recorded. Globally, 88,652,226 coronavirus cases and 1,909,621 deaths have been recorded over the course of the pandemic, per worldometers data.

Certain states, such as California, have been hit particularly hard in the recent virus surge. The state reported 488 deaths on Thursday alone, and hospitals are being put under strain.

“Folks are gasping for breath. Folks look like they’re drowning when they are in bed right in front of us,” Dr. Jeffrey Chien, an emergency room physician at Santa Clara Valley Regional Medical Center, told The Guardian. “I’m begging everyone to help us out because we aren’t the front line. We’re the last line.”

The vaccination effort in the U.S. is also ramping up, with at least 5.9 million Americans having received the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 600,000 people got their first shot on Thursday.

Eerie Video Circulates Online Showing Trump, Family, Staff In Cheerful Mood Hours Before Riot

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Jared Evan

Many social media users have shared a video from the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., along with the allegation that it shows members of the Trump family and administration watching the riot at the Capitol and enjoying it. Also, seen in the video is Trump, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Trump adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle. Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle are dating.

Giofolye is seen cheerfully dancing in the video to 1980’s disco hit “Gloria” by Laura Branigan. This in itself makes the video almost bizarre, dancing to a forgotten disco song as they allegedly watch the riot.

While the anti-Trump forces were quick to frame the video as Trump and company celebrating the riots which left 5 people dead, the video actually took place hours before and appears to be taken right before Trump made his voter fraud speech.

Though Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle both encouraged the president’s supporters to “fight” in the video, this was said before the march on the Capitol and was most likely referring to the fight against voter fraud in the 2020 election accusations.

If you look at the video, the president is seen looking at computer monitors showing the crowd filing into the stage area where Trump spoke.

The video is quite eerie, with the disco backed soundtrack, we see some of Trump’s closest allies, in a jovial mood, around 2 hours before an event which resulted in the deaths of 5 people and a riot that shook America and the world.

The last happy moments of the Trump regime from behind the scenes  forever captured.

Hours later the riots which took place almost immediately after the speech would place a dark cloud over the Trump administration and the MAGA movement forever.

Later in the evening, the votes would be certified for Biden.  Several Republicans who vowed to stand against the alleged voter fraud changed their minds because of the carnage, and the electoral votes were swiftly certified and the Trump era came to an end.

Trump will spend the last days basically isolated as Democrats and several Republicans are calling to remove the president in his last days.

Kimberly Guilfoyle’s joyful dance to “Gloria” on this video will forever be documented as an eerie and symbolic end to Trump’s administration.

The many accomplishments of the Trump era will be buried by historians and the media. The historic unemployment, relative world peace, effective efforts to fight COVID, the giant steps Trump made in attracting minority voters into the Republican fold, Jews making peace with Arabs, brave efforts to make peace with North Korea and countless other accomplishments will be forever overshadowed by the carnage of January 6th.

Boston Marathon Bomber Sues for $250K over Ball Cap, Showers in Prison

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AMY FURR
The Boston Marathon bomber is suing the federal government for $250,000 over what he claims is unlawful and discriminatory treatment at the prison where he is serving his life sentence.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lives at Colorado’s Supermax in Fremont County, according to an Associated Press (AP) article published Friday.
In the handwritten suit, Tsarnaev claimed the treatment is contributing to his “mental and physical decline.”
The lawsuit was assigned to a federal judge but the judge said Tuesday the filing was “deficient” because it did not have a “certified copy of prisoner’s trust fund statement” or the $402 fee, the Boston Herald reported:
Tsarnaev alleges his baseball cap and bandana were confiscated by prison guards “because, by wearing it, I was ‘disrespecting’ the FBI and the victims” of the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing. “There is no proof and no evidence to support (the) false accusation,” Tsarnaev alleges in his eight-page lawsuit posted on the federal court system.
In October, the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the United States Supreme Court to hear Tsarnaev’s case when a panel of circuit court judges overturned his death sentence, according to Breitbart News:
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who first arrived in the U.S. with his family on tourist visas, was previously convicted and sentenced to death for carrying out an Islamist terrorist attack with his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, on April 15, 2013, at the annual Boston Marathon.
Tamerlan died during the manhunt for his arrest.
In the attack, the Tsarnaev brothers killed eight-year-old Martin Richard, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, 23-year-old Lingzi Lu, and left more than 280 people injured. Later in the evening, the Tsarnaev brothers killed 27-year-old MIT Officer Sean Collier.
This week, former Florence prison warden Bob Hood told the Herald that lawsuits such as Tsarnaev’s are common among inmates, adding, “I get it. He wants more than three showers a week.”
“But he’s a twentysomething living in a 7-foot box where life is worse than if he did get the death penalty,” he concluded.

Breitbart

Suspicious Videos Emerge From D.C Riot, Protestors Allowed in Capitol by Cops, ANTIFA Involvement

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.(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Jared Evan

As the nation continues to react to the shocking riot which occurred at the now-infamous January 6th MAGA event, the responses are running the gamut of emotions. Liberals have declared this the darkest day in America’s history and lay all of the blame at Trump’s feet,  many elected officials are using this tragedy as an excuse to finally remove Trump from office permanently destroying Trump’s possible future political aspirations; while the most devout Trump supporters have immediately absolved themselves of the horrible scene which took 5 people’s lives, placing all of the blame on ANTIFA infiltrators, and barely acknowledging that what should have been a spirited peaceful event, turned into a blood bath. The most strident far-right activists have actually celebrated the riot as part of a “great awakening”.

Is there a grain of truth to the immediate, almost knee jerk response from the MAGA minions who pointed the finger at ANTIFA? Evidently, based on several videos leaking out on social media, there were ANTIFA or some kind of unaffiliated agent provocateurs egging on the chaos. Even more shocking, it appears DC Police actually let protestors into the capitol and even directed traffic.

In this video provided by banned.video- as windows are being broken thousands of Trump supporters are screaming “f**k ANTIFA” indicating that the vandals, who are setting up the chaos to follow were not Trump supporters but members of the radical left-wing militant group.

In this video, allegedly taken during the march, several black-clad ANTIFA members waving the Pan African flag were caught on camera

This circulating video is an alleged confession of a protestor who claims he was paid to be part of the event, he refuses to name the organization who paid him, and called it an “organized effort”. Is this proof that clandestine leftists organized an infiltration?

In this video, 2 mysterious men dressed in all black appear to be the first ones physically attacking the capitol as they smash thru the doors with flag poles. The crowd is screaming  F**K ANTIFA and booing their actions. While it is not known if the men were actually in ANTIFA these videos do make a case that the initial violence was set up by a select group of agitators or possibly professional paid provocateurs and many Trump supporters were against the actions.

The most shocking videos which have emerged following the madness seem to reveal that some police officers were possibly part of the invasion of the capitol itself or simply gave up trying to police the event.

In this first video, police officers literally, remove barriers allowing protestors to flood the capitol’s surroundings.

In this unbelievable video, which should immediately be investigated, we see thousands of people flood right into the capitol, as police officers stand aside and watch the activity. An officer is caught on camera saying ‘ I disagree with this, but I respect it’. The door is open, no action is being taken to stop the angry protestors from walking right in.

Here is another video from inside the capitol, as cops stand aside and do nothing to stop masses of protestors from entering the capitol. The door is wide open, no action is taken, an alleged journalist identifies herself as press, the officer responds ” nobody can come in here, as thousands of MAGA hat flag-waving protestors are invading.

In this final video, an officer is seen literally directing traffic inside the capitol, it appears he is directing the protestors and giving directions !!

We can be sure, investigations are underway, but the question remains: will the media keep the public informed as to what actually happened?