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Taliban Threaten Pakistan With War, Pakistan Bombs Afghanistan It’s sad when friends fight. Also entirely deserved. Pakistan’s intel people and regime are the major backers of the Taliban. They also helped shield Al Qaeda and other Taliban allies. But there are the “good Taliban” in Afghanistan and the “bad Taliban” in Afghanistan.Like most Islamist regimes, the Pakis are enthusiastic about Jihad… somewhere else. But they’re vehemently opposed to it in their own territory. The Afghan Taliban are supposed to keep the Pakistani Taliban out as a basic condition of their support by Pakistan. But cutting deals with terrorists never works...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to face British lawmakers on Tuesday for the first time since police fined him for attending a birthday party during COVID lockdown.

Warner Bros Discovery has suspended all external marketing spend for its recently launched streaming service CNN+ and laid off CNN's finance chief Brad Ferrer,

Two British soldiers fighting with the Ukrainian army have appeared on Russian state television after being captured in the besieged port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine. Several propaganda clips aired on Rossia 1 and RT channels on Sunday and Monday, picturing U.K. citizens Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28. They fought in Mariupol as part of Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade. On Sunday, Pinner, who appeared to be tired and bruised, spoke to Russian TV war reporter Andrey Rudenko and gave some details about the battle of Mariupol. "I was fighting in Mariupol for five to six weeks and...

Ten Democrats have broken ranks with President Biden to side with the GOP over the ending of Title 42, a Trump-era border policy that allows for expedited deportation of migrants and prevents them from seeking asylum. "Right now, we have a crisis on our southern border. Right now, this administration does not have a plan. I warned them about this months ago," Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told Fox News over the weekend. "It’s going to be, to be honest, it’s going to be a crisis on top of a crisis." Kelly is just one of several Democrats now speaking out...

To mask up or not mask up? That’s the pressing question for commuters and travelers across the country after a federal judge struck down a national public transportation mask mandate on Monday.

U.S. immigration officials detained more than 5,000 migrants from Ukraine at the nation’s land, sea and air borders in March, with a significant increase in those seeking refuge at the U.S.-Mexico boundary, adding to the record influx of newcomers from Latin America and the Caribbean this year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures released Monday. The tally — up from fewer than 1,150 the month before — marks the first official accounting of Ukrainians seeking refuge at the ports and borders since Russia’s invasion began Feb. 24. Many, if not most, Ukrainians have been released into the United...

Poland has informed the European Commission and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer that it will no longer accept nor pay for any more COVID-19 vaccines for now, Poland's health minister said Tuesday. The decision to stop taking vaccine doses will set up a legal battle under a supply contract the European Union has negotiated with vaccine manufacturers. Poland and other EU member nations have been paying for and receiving vaccine doses under agreements between the European Union and vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer is the chief supplier for Poland, Reuters reported.

One of the silver linings of the very large dark cloud of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is the clarity it provides. This is, broadly speaking a contest between good guys and bad guys.A lot of people who fancy themselves foreign policy realists roll their eyes at talk about “good guys” versus “bad guys.” The world is made up of nation-states with interests and those states act rationally on their interests. Good and bad ain’t got nothing to do with it.I’ve never bought this argument, on either analytical or moral terms.Yes, nations have interests, but the way they define their...

As even many foreigners who live in Shanghai have been swept up in China's strict quarantine measures, as we showed over the weekend, the FT reports that many wealthy residents of Shanghai are looking to leave, following the brutal lockdown measures that have forced millions of people to stockpile food and other necessary supplies - or even go without food or essential medical care, sometimes with deadly consequences. Immigration consultants who spoke with the FT said requests from wealthy individuals looking to leave Shanghai have soared since the lockdown started three weeks ago. And many clients who had postponed previous...

Not publicized, but instead carefully hidden, is the systematic terrorizing, tracking down, and killing, of political opponents, which includes not only opposed politicians, but also investigative journalists who are digging too deeply — deeply enough to maybe jeopardize Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky’s staying in office. All of this was solidly documented by Dan Cohen of Mint Press News, in their stunning April 14th article, “Testimony Reveals Zelensky’s Secret Police Plot to ‘Liquidate’ Opposition Figure Anatoly Shariy: Accounts from the Ukrainian SBU’s torture prison reveal Zelensky’s plot to assassinate exiled opposition figure and leading journalist Anatoly Shariy.” That article (which on...

At this point, only God can prevent massive food shortages from hitting the United States in the near future. We knew things were bad when even Joe Biden’s handlers instructed him to warn the world last month that we would all be experiencing food shortages soon. Now, it seems to be a foregone conclusion. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we’re in the middle of a perfect storm of events that will lead to even higher prices and extreme food scarcity. The stage was set by Pandemic Panic Theater. The Ukraine-Russia war made things much worse...

An MSNBC commentator has reportedly left the network to join an international legion fighting on the side of Ukraine as it seeks to repel a Russian invasion.Malcolm Nance, the former naval intelligence officer who has served as an on-air analyst at the Comcast-owned cable network since 2007, appeared on Monday’s episode of Joy Reid’s nightly show “The ReidOut” wearing military fatigues and combat gear.Nance also appeared while carrying what appeared to be a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court sides against a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve who refuses to get the COVID vaccine on religious grounds. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent.https://t.co/Ke2pQtCT3f pic.twitter.com/WXirK9Qt07 — Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 18, 2022 The Supreme Court Monday denied an Air Force Reserve officer’s request for a preliminary injunction shielding him from punishment for refusing to follow the military’s Covid Vaccine mandate. The justices said the Pentagon need not accommodate Lt. Col. Jonathan Dunn, who said he had a religious objection to the coronavirus vaccine. Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, wrote...

Do a majority of Americans believe President Biden to be a real-life Manchurian candidate? According to a new poll from one of the country’s most accurate pollsters, at least two-thirds of the voting population have doubts as to whether the Biden family’s business dealings with China have left the president “compromised.” The results of the poll, which will be released on Tuesday, reveal that a whopping 63.7 percent of American voters — including 34.3 percent of expected Democrat voters — believe Biden to be “likely” compromised and/or conflicted “when dealing with China.” Partnering with Convention of States Action, The Trafalgar...

KYIV (Reuters) - Russia's new offensive in eastern Ukraine is going "very cautiously" and will fail because Moscow's forces lack the strength to break through Ukrainian defences, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Rusisan forces were trying to find "sensitive spots" in Ukraine's defences but added: "Their offensive will fail - I give you a 99% guarantee - they simply do not have enough strength.""The battle for Donbas, which was announced and apparently began yesterday, is under way and is going very cautiously. The battle will not go in Russia's favour," he said...

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden poses with supporters after speaking at the East Las Vegas Community Center about the effects of Covid-19 on Latinos, October 9, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden won two-thirds of the Hispanic vote, according to Bloomberg. But just 15 months later, President Joe Biden’s poll numbers are in freefall. A new nationwide poll by Quinnipiac released last week puts Biden’s approval rating among Hispanics at just 26%. “Upon entering office, FiveThirtyEight.com had Biden at 69 percent...

President Biden and others traveling with him will wear a mask on his trip to New Hampshire on Tuesday, despite the federal mask mandate for travel being struck down this week. “During transit on today’s trip, masking will be required in line with CDC guidance,” the White House told The Hill. The president is traveling on Air Force One to Portsmouth, N.H., to visit the port authority at Portsmouth Harbor and deliver remarks on the infrastructure law. He will fly back to Joint Base Andrews to return to the White House on Tuesday evening.

Biden tapped into the US Strategic Oil Reserves in an attempt to bring down oil prices. Now we know that at least one ship, the Suezmax ship Advantage Spring, is sailing for Rotterdam filled with US oil. Zero Hedge reported: Joe Biden’s decision to release 180 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve – one million barrels per day for 180 days, ending just before the midterm elections which the Democrats will lose in an avalanche – was meant to help lower US gasoline prices “because Putin price hike.” Instead, it is heading for Europe. According to...

Minor Revamp for Advanced Bridge Players (Chapter 1) April 14 2022 by Scott MerrellWarning: This is a dual system, employing ones original knowledge of the minors in Bridge in some cases and the new system "Revamp" in others. Therefore it is for Advanced and well matured Intermediate Bridge players only. For instance, the "Revamp" system is off under Strong Bids like 2C, after pre-emptive openings and all overcaller-Advancer overcalls. NOTE: The Minor revamp always starts with a 1 level bid in the minors by Opener and is answered with a minor or the equivalent of a minor for the "Revamp"...