Ukraine > Zelensky ‘no angel’ – Trump; Man 'buys kids' to flee Ukraine

 

Zelensky is ‘no angel’ – Trump

The Ukrainian leader “shouldn’t have allowed” a conflict with Moscow to happen, the US president said

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and US presidential candidate Donald Trump meeting on September 27, 2024 in New York. ©  Alex Kent / Getty Images

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky bears some responsibility for the armed conflict with Russia, US President Donald Trump has said. He argued that Zelensky, who has been granted a glowing reception in many Western capitals, should have done whatever necessary to avoid hostilities.

During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired on Wednesday and Thursday, Trump reiterated the need to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, set to enter its fourth year next month. 

“Zelensky – I got to say this – he wants to settle now. He’s had enough. He shouldn’t have allowed this to happen either,” Trump said. “You know, he’s no angel. He shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen,” he added.

“First of all, he’s fighting a much bigger entity,” Trump stressed. He previously questioned the unconditional military and financial aid provided to Kiev by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Trump also described Zelensky in the past as “the greatest salesman on Earth.” 

In the same interview, Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and threatened to impose more sanctions on Moscow “if they don’t make a settlement fast.” 

“Putin shouldn’t have done it,” Trump, who took office on Monday, told Hannity. “He shouldn’t have done it and it has to stop.”

Zelensky had to know that he could not win a war against Russia. And he had to know the destruction it would bring upon Ukraine, the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries, the millions of people displaced, the tens of millions of children traumatized. Why did he do it? What did he gain? Does he have a few Swiss bank accounts that are filling up with Western dollars and Soros' Euros? He will have to stand before Jesus Christ one day and give an accounting. I don't think it's going to be a good day for him.

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 Trump admits love for Russian people and offers Putin ‘a deal’

The president has repeatedly claimed that he would quickly negotiate a fair deal between Russia and Ukraine, but provided no specifics about possible terms. 

Both Moscow and Kiev have previously said that freezing the conflict along the current front line would be unacceptable. Putin has insisted that Kiev must abandon plans to join the US-led NATO military alliance, and renounce claims on Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia in 2022.

Earlier this month, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said he hopes to resolve the conflict within 100 days. Trump has criticized Biden for neglecting diplomacy and said on several occasions that he was open to having a conversation with Putin.

Neither Biden nor Blinken had a single conversation with their Russian counterparts in over two years. What madness!

So far no date for negotiations has been announced. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied earlier this week that a phone call between the leaders was being arranged.

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Ukrainian man ‘buys kids’ to flee country – border guard

A fake father-of-three claimed his non-existent children were waiting for him in Germany, according to the authorities

FILE PHOTO: The Doll Museum at Palazzo Guiccioli in Ravenna, Italy. ©  Roberto Serra - Iguana Press / Getty Images

A Ukrainian man has been caught trying to flee the country by falsely claiming that he had three young children waiting for him in Germany, according to the Ukrainian Border Guard Service. Potential conscripts in Ukraine are resorting to extreme measures to avoid being drafted into the military.

The service reported details of the case on Thursday, accusing the suspect of “buying kids” for his ploy. The unidentified man presented paperwork stating that he had three children living in Germany: two-year-old twins and a seven-month-old infant.

The documents raised suspicion and border guards questioned the traveler, who confessed that he had purchased the fraudulent papers for €6,000 ($6,250). He was handed over to the national police, the statement added.

Kiev has banned fighting-age men from leaving the country since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in early 2022. Exceptions are granted to specific groups, including fathers of three or more minors.

Last year, the government reformed the military service system to bolster conscription rates, as frontline troops suffered significant casualties. However, draft officials are struggling to meet their targets. Men with financial means can resort to illegal ways of avoiding enrollment, including by buying fake exemptions or being smuggled across the border.

Poles are “fatigued” of Ukrainian migrants in their country

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported investigating a senior official who serves as chief military psychiatrist and deputy chair of Kiev’s central draft medical commission. The agency alleged that the suspect had accumulated some $1 million in illicit gains since 2022.

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Bits and Bites from Around the World > Siblings claim their dad was the infamous DB Cooper

 

Siblings claim late dad is mysterious plane hijacker 

DB Cooper after finding hidden parachute in home:

‘One in a billion’

By 

Ronny Reyes

Published Nov. 26, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ET

Is he the real McCoy?

A pair of North Carolina siblings claim their late father is the ever-elusive Boeing hijacker DB Cooper after allegedly finding his parachute hidden in their home, according to a new report.

Chanté and Rick McCoy III claim their father, Richard McCoy Jr., was the infamous fugitive who disappeared when he leaped out of a Boeing plane with $200,000 in cash after taking passengers and crew hostage in 1971, the Cowboy State Daily reports.

The siblings said they waited until their mother’s death in 2020 to come forward, fearing she could be implicated as the parachute that allegedly belonged to Cooper was found in her storage stash outside the house.

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Aviation YouTuber Dan Gryder claimed the parachute found by the McCoy siblings matches the one used by fugitive DB Cooper.

Dan Gryder/YouTube

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A sketch of DB Cooper, the man who hijacked a Boeing plane in 1971 and jumped off with a parachute and $200,000.

AP

After her death, the siblings met with aviation YouTuber Dan Gryder, who has seen the parachute and believes it’s the very one Cooper used in 1971.

“That rig is literally one in a billion,” Gryder told the local outlet about the unique parachute he saw.

Gryder claimed the parachute at the McCoys’ home matched the modified parachute prepared by veteran skydiver Earl Cossey for police as part of Cooper’s demands before he disappeared somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada.

DB Cooper sleuths have raised the possibility that Richard Jr. was the fugitive for years given his own criminal past.

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Sleuths have previously claimed Richard McCoy Jr., a plane jacker who died in a police shootout, was DB Cooper.

Dan Gryder/YouTube

Five months after Cooper pulled off his famous caper, Richard Jr. was caught pulling off a similar hijacking in Utah. The thief eventually broke out of prison and died in a subsequent shootout with police.

The McCoy siblings told Gryder they’ve known the truth for years, but talking about it remained taboo in their family over worries that law enforcement would implicate their mother, Karen, in both hijackings.

Gryder published his latest theory and images of the parachute, with the FBI allegedly reaching out to the McCoys to see the evidence.

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Bills linked to the DB Copper caper were located in Oregon in 1980.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The McCoys told the Daily the FBI searched the North Carolina complex for additional clues and took possession of the parachute in 2023, with Rick also providing investigators with a DNA sample.

The agents allegedly informed him that the next step could be to exhume his father’s body, but such a request has yet to be made.

The FBI has not made any public statements about the investigation or acknowledged that it has been actively looking into the DB Cooper case.

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The FBI was flagged in 2008 after a family claimed to have found DB Cooper’s parachute near their Oregon home.

AP

The agency has said the case was officially closed in 2016 over a lack of leads.

Whether Cooper survived the jump over a rugged, wooded landscape somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nev., has never been confirmed.

One of the few clues about the hijacker’s identity was his recovered black tie and a crumbling package of $20 bills matching the ransom money’s serial numbers, which was unearthed by a young boy from a sandbar along the Columbia River in 1980.

Canadian Convulsions > NDP Break with Liberals doesn't change much; Even the LGBTQ2 lobby is turning on Trudeau - terrified of common sense

 

‘The Deal Is Done’: NDP Breaks With Liberals,

Opening Early Election Prospects

The NDP has announced it’s pulling out of its agreement keeping the minority Liberals in power, opening the possibility the government could fall before the next scheduled election in 2025.

“The deal is done,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a social media post on Sept. 4, adding he notified Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the same day.

Singh said the Liberals are “too beholden to corporate interests” and that only the NDP can stop the Conservatives.

“Together, we can and will stop Conservative cuts, we can deliver relief and restore hope, fix health care, build homes you can afford, stop price gouging,” he said.

You have had ten years to do that and you just made it worse. Why would anyone give you another 4 years?

Trudeau reacted by saying he hopes the NDP will remain focused on how to deliver for Canadians.

“I’m focused on Canadians, I'll let the other parties focus on politics,” he said during a press conference in Newfoundland and Labrador on Sept. 4.

The major announcement came a few days after Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre made public a letter he sent to Singh, asking him to break his agreement with Trudeau.

Poilievre said Singh had promised the agreement would make life more affordable for Canadians while the opposite had occurred.

Poilievre’s office reacted to Singh’s announcement calling it a “media stunt.”

“Singh refuses to state whether the NDP will vote with non-confidence to cause a carbon tax election at the first chance,” said spokesperson Sebastian Skamski in a statement.

The NDP entered a supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals in March 2022, providing support on confidence votes in the House of Commons in exchange for prioritizing items on the NDP’s agenda.

He could have landed a cabinet post, but, apparently, didn't think of it.

Most of the items in the agreement have been fulfilled to date, including implementing dental care, tabling a pharmacare bill, and passing legislation banning replacement workers during strikes and lockouts. The deal was scheduled to last until June 2025, at the end of the spring parliamentary session.

The NDP will not be bound to support the Liberals in confidence votes when the new sitting starts on Sept. 16.

The first set confidence vote pertains to the budget, which will be tabled in early spring 2025. Otherwise the ruling party can designate certain votes in the House as confidence votes, and opposition MPs can also table non-confidence motions.

The passing of a non-confidence vote typically leads to the resignation of the government and the holding of an election.

So, it is obvious that Singh can vote against Liberal motions without collapsing parliament until the spring, at which point Singh will have 6 years in Parliament and qualify for his pension. Good move!

LGBTQ2 activists call on Trudeau to step down to prevent Poilievre leadership

LGBTQ2 activists say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to remain the Liberal leader through to the next election, despite dwindling public support, is putting them at risk.

Queer advocates say a Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would be dangerous for the LGBTQ2 community, and some are calling on Trudeau to step aside to give the Liberals a better chance at winning the next election — which must happen by Oct. 20, 2025.

Sarah Worthman, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Queer Research Initiative, says she’s seriously concerned about the potential harm of a Conservative government for LGBTQ2 Canadians.

She points to Poilievre’s comments saying minors should not have access to puberty blockers and transgender athletes should be barred from women’s sports and changing rooms.

Worthman says the Liberals would have a better chance at beating the Conservatives in an election if they replaced Trudeau, but she didn’t say with whom.

2:43

‘Shame’: Trudeau responds to Poilievre remark that ‘female spaces should be exclusively for females’

A spokesperson for the Conservatives did not directly respond to questions but instead sent an email with a series of transcribed answers that Poilievre gave to journalists between June 2023 and February 2024 on LGBTQ2 issues.

The answers include Poilievre’s call for Canada to continue offering refuge for persecuted LGBTQ2 people around the world, and that “female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males.”

Pollievre is right that Trudeau is not interested in protecting kids. In nearly 10 years he has done absolutely nothing to protect kids from child sexual abuse. Canada may be the only country in the western world that has completely ignored the phenomenal growth in child sex abuse in the past 15 years.

1:01

Poilievre weighs in on Alberta trans policies for kids, says he’s against puberty blockers

Worthman and Celeste Trianon, who runs a centre that helps trans people in Quebec who wish to change their legal name or gender marker (?), say the Liberals should follow the lead of the U.S. Democratic party, which has seen a swell of support since replacing President Joe Biden with Vice-President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee in November’s presidential election.

Randy Boissonnault, a federal cabinet minister who was previously Trudeau’s special adviser on LGBTQ2 issues, says queer people are right to be worried about what may happen if Poilievre wins the upcoming election.

However, Boissonnault says Trudeau is the best person to lead the party through another campaign, adding that the prime minister is a champion of LGBTQ2 rights.

He just appointed a man from Alberta to the Senate. A man who is firmly for the transitioning of gender dysphoric children from an early age. Such a man does not represent the feelings and beliefs of Albertans. This is a slap in the face of Alberta's heroic Premier, Danielle Smith.

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