[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The shocking truth about a Chinese spy balloon that entered US airspace last year has finally been revealed.
Panic swept the nation when officials spotted a massive, white balloon float over the Canadian border in February 2023.
While the Chinese government insisted it was a civilian meteorological device that had blown off course, it floated near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, home to some of America's intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
The mysterious trajectory led to officials ordering it be shot down, sending an Air Force F-22 Raptor over the Atlantic Ocean to get the job done.
Glen VanHerck, retired Air Force general who led the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told the National Post that officials only contacted him when the balloon was nearly over Alaska - two weeks before it crossed into the Lower 48.
He immediately scrambled two Raptor stealth fighters and two armed F-16s to deal with the balloon, but due to it not posing a physical threat the jets had to stand down until President Joe Biden gave the greenlight.
Now, more than a year later, VanHerck said he should have been warned about the spy balloon in advance. Reports have since suggested that U.S. intelligence may have been aware of the balloon from the moment it launched from Hainan Island in China.
'It's a failure of multiple intelligence, Department of Defense agencies. I should not get surprised by something that's coming into my area of responsibility … Anybody who knows about it should pass that on. It shouldn't be less than 24 hours notice.'
This is why President Trump brought in all his disrupters to head the various agencies.
News broke about two days before the take down that a Chinese spy balloon, the size of three buses, was spotted floating over Montana for day.
Biden was briefed two days before the take down and after it was spotted and reported by civilians in a commercial airliner.
The president suggested the high-altitude balloon should be shot down, but the Pentagon opposed the move, fearing civilian casualties if the giant balloon explodes in the air.
'The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,' Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News.
'We continue to track and monitor it closely.'
The Chinese government insisted that the device was a civilian meteorological device that had blown off course, but after the balloon altered course and passed over sensitive nuclear sites, it was shot down with a Sidewinder missile fired from an Air Force F-22 Raptor over the Atlantic ocean.
'The balloon opened up eyes,' said Glen VanHerck, a now-retired U.S. air force general who commanded NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) during the balloon's incursion into U.S. airspace.
VanHerck told the National Post that the balloon highlighted how attacks could arrive without warning, 'We're not going to see long-range cruise missiles. We're not going to see balloons over the horizon.
'Today, with missiles being fired off submarines, missiles being fired off aircraft, missiles being fired from the land well beyond curvature-of-the-Earth ranges, your time is limited to respond to those types of things.'
VanHerck said that although NORAD had been warned the previous year by U.S. intelligence sources about similar balloons, he 'knew immediately it would be a huge deal' as he was notified of the arrival of the craft.
Alarms were raised at NORAD after the balloon changed course, heading south on a trajectory that would take it over Idaho, which borders Montana, where a military base and nuclear missile silos are located.
Military officials hatched a plan to shoot down the balloon, but waited until it was over water, to minimize the risks to U.S. civilians and infrastructure.
Colorado-based NORAD dates from the Cold War and has a mission to deal with air- and space-based threats including nuclear missile attacks - and held back from shooting down the missile over fears that debris would fall in a seven-mile radius.
Vanherck, a former fighter and bomber pilot, had prepared for the arrival of a Chinese spy balloon, researching whether balloons which can float as high as 80,000 feet were still within U.S jurisdiction (his legal advisers told him that U.S. sovereignty extends all the way to space).
He said, 'I told my team it was just a matter of time before one of these approaches North America.'
VanHerck says that the intelligence community only got in touch on January 27, 2023, when the balloon was almost over Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
So the new storyline is the DOD leaders that the Biden Puppet masters picked to run things are to blame. Well NO! Because, the Biden puppet masters had ultimate control over each of them.
What if one of these floating CCP balloons were like the WWII Nippon Fu-Go balloon bombs that cause havoc along the West coast in 1943-1945?
#3
The president suggested the high-altitude balloon should be shot down, but the Pentagon opposed the move, fearing civilian casualties if the giant balloon explodes in the air.
A controlled shoot down of a high altitude balloon over a sparsely populated area would have happened kilometers away from any human being, let alone any civilian.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Haitian migrants have turned to religion amid the looming threat of deportation under the presidency of Donald Trump - who accused them of eating their neighbors' pets on the campaign trail.
The First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Ohio was jam-packed with parishioners on the first Sunday service since President Trump's inauguration as immigration raids take place across the country.
'I asked God to protect my people,' Reverend Reginald Silencieux said after the service.
'I prayed especially for the Haitian community, and I prayed for U.S.A. too, because Trump is our president. As a church, we have an obligation to pray for him because he's our political leader right now.'
The town was thrust into the national spotlight during the presidential campaign when Trump accused Haitians in Springfield of eating their neighbor's cats and dogs.
Now, migrants in the community are concerned that they will be targeted and sent packing, as Trump authorizes ICE raids across the nation.
Many had come to receive a blessing and hear guidance on how to deal with federal agents in case of raids stemming from President Trump's crackdown on immigration.
Other congregants stayed home out of fear and growing uncertainty.
Community leaders say many of Springfield's estimated 15,000 Haitians are overwhelmed by fears Trump will end or let expire the Temporary Protected Status program that allows them to remain in the U.S. legally.
'The community is panicking.' Viles Dorsainvil, leader of Springfield's Haitian Community Help and Support Center, told AP.
'They see the arrests on TV in other parts of the country and they don't know what's going to happen.
'The majority of immigrants in the U.S.A. are not criminals, and they're hard-working people.'
Haitian community leader Jacob Payne has been guiding locals with immigration forms, employment authorization cards and questions on their TPS applications.
'Before, we had a different type of fear - it was a fear of retaliation, whether it was the far right, the Proud Boys,' Payne said.
'Now, there's a fear of deportation. That keeps a lot of people from going out and has caused a lot of people to have left,' he said.
But anti-immigrant sentiment has been on the rise in Springfield after false rumors spread that cats and dogs were being stolen - and eaten - by Haitian migrant communities.
The rumors spread like wildfire following a social media post in September 2024 that a local cat had been mutilated and exacerbated fears in the mostly white, blue-collar city of about 59,000.
Trump repeated the rumor, and additionally claimed dogs were also being eaten, at his debate with Kamala Harris and in the weeks that followed, schools, government buildings and the homes of elected officials were targeted with dozens of bomb threats.
Thousands of temporary Haitian migrants legally arrived in Springfield in recent years under the TPS program, as longstanding unrest in their home country has given way to violent gangs ruling the streets.
'Everything changed because Trump is president. People are scared right now. Most are staying in their homes — they don't want to go outside,' said Romane Pierre, 41, who settled in Springfield in 2020 under the TPS program after fleeing violence in his native Haiti.
'I love my country, but you can't live there; it's terrible right now,' said Pierre, who works at the Rose Gaute, a popular Haitian restaurant in Springfield. 'So where do you go back to?'
The TPS, which allows him and thousands of others to remain legally in Springfield, expires on February 2026. He still hopes Trump will keep in mind the violence in Haiti and renew it.
'Think about Haitians because Haiti is not a place to return to right now,' he said. 'God, talk to Mr. Trump and do something for Haitians.'
[Breitbart] An Ohio woman reportedly froze to death overnight in her yard while letting her dog outside this week.
Deputies with the Huron County Sheriff’s Office found 43-year-old Eugenia Michele Wadman dead in her yard after responding to a 911 call just before 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, according to a report by WKYC.
The emergency call reported an unresponsive person at an address on Hanville Corners Road in Willard, Ohio
…population approximately 6,200…
— located in Huron County — approximately 60 miles southwest of Cleveland.
Authorities said Wadman apparently fell on snow and ice in her yard while she took her dog outside during the night “wearing only light pajamas.”
The 43-year-old woman “appeared to have fallen and sustained injuries consistent with struggling and crawling on the snow- and ice-covered yard,” the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies also disclosed that Wadman was already dead when EMS and law enforcement arrived at the scene, adding that they do not suspect foul play.
Ohio authorities said that hypothermia likely set in “quickly” due to temperatures hovering around 20 degrees around the time Wadman appeared to have fallen in her yard.
The sheriff’s office also noted that medical conditions may have contributed to the woman’s death.
An investigation into Wadman’s death is currently being conducted while officials wait to receive full autopsy results.
[NPR] As much needed rain falls across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and gives firefighters relief from ongoing wildfires, officials are warning residents of hazardous waste, toxic ash runoff and mudslides.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch beginning at 4:00 p.m. PDT on Sunday through 4:00 p.m. PDT Monday that includes areas scorched by the fires known as "burn scars."
Firefighters have made progress on the fires, with the Palisade Fire 87% contained, the Eaton Fire 95% contained and the Hughes Fire, which broke out on Wednesday morning, 92% contained.
------------- one wildfire in San Diego is only 10% contained but that will change tomorrow; rain may lead to flow of toxic substances
#6
Bass was losing the election until 3am. Obama flew to LA to endorse the Bass election results. Now you know why everything else, including why she couldn't dismiss the fire chief, her corruption is such an open secret. Like someone here at Rantburg said, she knows where the bodies are.
[FOX] Fox News host Mark Levin traces the history behind birthright citizenship on ’Life, Liberty & Levin’ after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban the practice.
[KhaamaPress] Officials at the Baghlan Public Health Department have reported a new case of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... in the city of Pul-e-Khumri.
Abdul Qahar Ahmadi, the head of the Public Health Department in the province, stated today (Sunday, January 26) that immediate measures will be taken across the city to prevent the spread of the virus.
The head of Baghlan’s Public Health Department emphasized that widespread vaccination and public cooperation will play a crucial role in controlling this disease.
Meanwhile,
...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... the Polio Eradication Campaign Office announced yesterday that a polio vaccination campaign will begin in various parts of the country within two days.
However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... the office did not specify the exact number of children to be vaccinated or the regions where the vaccination will take place.
It is worth noting that about a month ago, the Ministry of Public Health under the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... announced that, in coordination with international organizations, it had launched polio vaccination campaigns in some provinces of the country.
According to a statement from the ministry, at least 5.3 million children under the age of five in 11 provinces have received the polio vaccine.
Afghanistan and Pakistain remain the only two countries in the world where polio has not been eradicated and continues to claim victims among children.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, 72 positive cases of polio were recorded worldwide last year, including 23 cases in Afghanistan and 49 in Pakistain.
The new case of polio in Pul-e-Khumri highlights the ongoing challenge of eradicating this debilitating disease in Afghanistan. While vaccination campaigns and international collaboration are making strides, the persistence of polio in both Afghanistan and Pakistain underscores the need for continued vigilance, public awareness, and proactive health measures to protect vulnerable children and ultimately eliminate the virus.
[GEO.TV] South Korea's prosecutors indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3, Yoon's lawyers and the main opposition party said.
Yoon's lawyers criticised the indictment as the "worst choice" made by the prosecution service, while the main opposition party welcomed the decision.
The charges are unprecedented for a South Korean president, and if convicted, Yoon could face years in prison for his shock martial law decree, which sought to ban political and parliamentary activity and control the media.
His move set off a wave of political upheaval in Asia's fourth-largest economy and a top US ally, with the prime minister also impeached and suspended from power and a number of top military officials indicted for their roles in the alleged insurrection.
"(The) President's declaration of emergency martial law was a desperate plea to the public over a national crisis caused by the opposition getting out of control," Yoon's lawyers said in a statement.
The prosecutors' office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The indictment was also reported by South Korean media.
[BBC] Swedish authorities have seized a ship suspected of damaging a data cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia.
The Vezhen - a Maltese-flagged ship - is now anchored outside the Swedish port of Karlskrona.
Prosecutors said an initial investigation pointed to sabotage. An inquiry has been launched involving Sweden's police, military and coast guard.
Images shared by Swedish media showed that the ship appeared to have a damaged anchor.
However, on Monday, Bulgarian shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare, which listed the Vezhen among its fleet, said one of the ship's anchors dropped to sea floor in high winds and that there was no malicious intent.
On Sunday, Latvia's military reported that three ships were seen in the area where the damage occurred.
Less than a month ago, Nato launched a new mission in the Baltic Sea in response to repeated attacks on underwater power and telecom cables — some of which have been blamed on Russia.
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said her country was working closely with Sweden and Nato in response to the incident.
The cable belongs to Latvia's state broadcaster, LVRTC, which said in a statement there had been "disruptions in data transmission services", but that end users would be mostly unaffected.
Earlier this month, Nato launched its new Baltic Sentry mission, after several cables under the Baltic Sea were damaged or severed in 2024.
Nato chief Mark Rutte said the mission would involve more patrol aircraft, warships and drones.
While Russia was not directly singled out as a culprit in the cable damage, Rutte said Nato would step up its monitoring of Moscow's "shadow fleet" - ships without clear ownership that are used to carry embargoed oil products.
Rutte said there was "reason for grave concern" over infrastructure damage, adding that Nato would respond to future incidents robustly, with more boarding of suspect vessels and, if necessary, their seizure.
Finnish police said late last year they were investigating whether a Russian ship was involved in the sabotage of an electricity cable running between Finland and Estonia.
[IsraelTimes] Government commission concludes Belgian National Railway Company should apologize for WWII transports; Holocaust restitution group pans outcome
Of course they have judged themselves, only to conclude they owe nothing to the Jews. Besides, almost all of them have died in the meantime, and the rest will die off soon enough — Belgium need only wait them out.
The Belgian railway company that sent Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II should not have to pay compensation to survivors, a panel commissioned by the Belgian government has concluded.
The official report, released on Friday, ended a five-year investigation into the role that the Belgian National Railway Company played in the Holocaust. Between 1942 and 1944, the railway carried more than 25,000 Jews and 353 Roma to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Fewer than 1,200 people returned alive.
Belgium’s government opened an independent probe of the railway company, known by the acronym SNCB, in 2019. It invited a research center, the Study and Documentation Centre for War and Contemporary Society, to investigate the railway’s role in the Holocaust. Last week, a committee revealed its recommendations based on what the researchers learned.
The committee said that SNCB should offer an official apology to survivors and urged expanded Holocaust education and commemoration initiatives, but they stopped short of recommending reparations. Instead, they said the deportation trains were the "collective responsibility" of Belgian authorities and a silent, complacent Belgian public.
"The ultimate responsibility cannot therefore be attributed to a single person or even to a single company," said the report.
One member of the commission, Belgian Supreme Court Judge Sidney Berneman, spoke strongly against the report’s conclusions. Berneman’s parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland who settled in Antwerp after the war.
"It is with a bitter feeling that I must give the final report a resounding fail and cannot in good conscience endorse it," Berneman said. "The report does not honor the memory of thousands of Jews."
The finding drew swift condemnation from the World Jewish Restitution Organization, or WJRO, founded four decades ago to negotiate reparations for Holocaust survivors. The group’s president Gideon Taylor and COO Mark Weitzman said they were "very disappointed."
"To reject compensation from the perpetrator to the victim denies the moral obligation by SNCB to those it wronged," the group said in a statement. "Accepting responsibility means facing and dealing directly with individual victims."
The report comes as the number of survivors — and thus opportunities for restitution — dwindles. Fewer than 250,000 survivors were alive a year ago; the number is lower now.
Taylor and Weitzman pressed Belgium to compensate people urgently while they are still alive, noting that the annual mortality rate for Holocaust survivors is between eight and ten percent. January 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Belgium’s investigation follows similar moves in La Belle France and the Netherlands, where railway companies that shipped Holocaust survivors to death camps have successfully arrived at agreements for compensation. Dutch Railways said it would pay about $17,000 to each living survivor, while La Belle France’s SNCF railway negotiated payments of up to $100,000.
Meanwhile,
...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... Amsterdam’s public tram company last year announced that it would donate more than 100,000 euros to Jewish groups to divest itself of revenue generated by transporting local Jews to the Nazis.
WJRO rebuked the Belgian group for stepping away from those precedents and accused it of failing to cooperate with WJRO, which represents Belgian Holocaust survivors living abroad.
"Such consultations would have enabled the Committee to draw on a broader range of perspectives from Holocaust survivors and benefit from our expertise in restitution, fostering a more inclusive process that addresses the full scope of these injustices," said Taylor and Weitzman.
[FoxNews] The annual House GOP retreat this week is held at Trump National Doral in Miami
House Republicans are flying down to South Florida this week for their annual issues conference, where President Donald Trump is expected to speak with lawmakers hashing out the GOP agenda for the next two years.
It’s another sign of the House GOP conference’s push for unity with Trump that the conference is being held at Trump National Doral, his golf course and resort near Miami.
"He’s going to come and address the Republicans there, and we’re looking forward to that," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., confirmed to reporters last week.
Trump has made no secret of his intent to keep a close eye on the Republican majorities in the House and Senate this year, particularly as they discuss how to use their numbers to pass a massive conservative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process.
By reducing the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a 51-seat simple majority, reconciliation allows a party in control of both congressional chambers to enact sweeping changes, provided they’re relevant to budgetary and fiscal policy.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are also contending with the debt ceiling being reinstated this month after it was temporarily suspended in a bipartisan deal during the Trump administration.
And coming on March 14 is the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, which Congress has extended twice since the end of the previous fiscal year on Oct. 1.
"I think obviously everyone is ready to get to work," Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. "With President Trump’s inauguration behind us, now we’re focused on the task at hand – everything from the border to the tax package, energy and defense and national security, and our debt. What we need to do over the next two years to really fulfill the agenda that we laid out for the American people."
Lawler said he anticipated reconciliation would be a key focus of Trump’s remarks.
With razor-thin margins in the House and Senate, Republicans can afford few dissenters if they are going to get to the finish line.
Lawler is one of several Republicans who have drawn red lines in the discussions, vowing not to vote for a reconciliation bill that does not lift state and local tax (SALT) deduction caps – limits that have put a strain on suburban districts outside major cities.
He was realistic about setting expectations for their short Florida trip but was optimistic Republicans would eventually come together.
"I think we’re in the middle of the process and, you know, this is obviously not going to be resolved over these three days," Lawler said. "But this is, I think, an important opportunity for everyone to really sit down and spend their time going through a lot of these issues."
[FoxNews] President Trump's executive order on DEI was among dozens he signed on his first day in office
Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed up by Elon Musk, wrote on X Friday that approximately $420 million in current/impending contracts, mainly focused on DEI initiatives, had also been canceled.
After Trump signed the order on the day of his inauguration, the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) notified heads of agencies and departments that they must begin taking steps to close all DEI offices by the end of the day Wednesday, and place government workers in those offices on paid leave. It is not yet clear when or if they will be terminated.
Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management Charles Ezell sent a memo to heads and acting heads of departments and agencies on Tuesday evening directing them that by the end of business on Jan. 22, they were to inform all agency employees of the DEI shutdown. In addition, they were instructed to tell workers directly involved in DEI they were being placed on paid leave immediately, take down all DEI-related websites and social media accounts, cancel any related contracts or training, and ask employees to report any efforts to disguise DEI programs by using coded or imprecise language.
The memo also directed the heads of agencies and departments that by noon on Jan. 23, they were to provide OPM with lists of all DEI offices, employees, and related contracts in effect as of Nov. 5, 2024.
By Friday, Jan. 24, at 5 p.m., agency heads were required to submit to OPM a written plan for executing a reduction-in-force action regarding DEI employees and a list of all contract descriptions or personnel position descriptions that were changed since Nov. 5, 2024, to obscure their connection to DEI programs.
The executive order was among dozens Trump signed on his first day in office, including the government only recognizing two genders and withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.
He also issued two other executive actions on Tuesday targeting DEI – an executive order to end discrimination in the workplace and higher education through race and sex-based preferences under the guise of DEI and a memo to eliminate a Biden administration policy that prioritized DEI hiring at the Federal Aviation Administration.
Trump’s Monday executive order rescinded President Joe Biden’s one on promoting diversity initiatives, "Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government," which he signed on his first day in office.
[IsraelTimes] Iran says it arrested 13 adherents of the banned Baha’i faith, accusing them of proselytizing to children and adolescents, local media reported, drawing condemnation from an international organization representing Baha’is.
A statement yesterday by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence unit, carried by state media, says the arrests were made in the central city of Isfahan.
It says the 13 arrested “were acting illegally and were indirectly promoting their ideological deviation by exploiting children and adolescents.” It does not elaborate.
The Baha’i International Community, which represents the faith worldwide, says in a statement that the arrested women “were facilitating simple children’s classes – arresting them is the equivalent of arresting people for teaching Sunday school.”
Simin Fahandej, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the UN in Geneva, describes the arrests as a senseless act against innocent women.
Last month a group of UN special rapporteurs expressed serious concern at what they described as a rise in systematic targeting of Baha’i women in Iran, including through arrests, interrogation and enforced disappearances. The Iranian government said in response that Baha’i women faced no restrictions.
The Islamic Republic considers the Baha’i faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.
Its faithful see Baha’i as an independent religion and its more than five million followers are spread across more than 190 countries.
Exiled Baha’i leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Israel is home to around 12,000 members of the Baha’i faith, and the spiritual and administrative center of the religion is located in the northern Israel cities of Haifa and Acre.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
