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Category: World

U.S. forces in Niger
April 22, 2024
NatSec
World

U.S. Troops Forced Out in ANOTHER Humiliating Biden Diplomacy Fail.

In a win for Russia and an embarrassment to the Biden government, the U.S. military is hurriedly withdrawing over 1,000 deployed personnel from Niger. With more than $1 billion spent over a decade, the withdrawal represents another major failure for President Joe Biden and his “national security” team.

The region’s instability, amplified by alliances of local militias with international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS, poses a significant risk to peace and counterterrorism efforts. The decision of the U.S. departure follows Niger’s recent military coup and the subsequent refusal of the nation’s leaders to cooperate with U.S. discussions regarding governance.

The African nation is instead moving towards partnerships with countries traditionally considered U.S. adversaries, focusing on Russia for security services and Iran for uranium reserve deals. In August 2023, the head of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries was seen in the country after its leaders requested Russian assistance.

Gen. Michael Langley, head of the U.S. military’s Africa Command, warned Congress in March about the risk of countries like Niger aligning with the Kremlin. His trip to Niger to meet with the country’s junta leadership proved futile as the nation’s joint military collaboration with the U.S. was suspended shortly afterward.

Last week, a Russian transport plane, reportedly carrying 100 Russian military trainers and a new air defense system, arrived in Niger’s capital. Russia is expanding its influence in several African countries once seen as critical to U.S. interests in the region. In March, Russia expanded a former Wagner Group base in Mali, and the Kremlin has stepped up recruitment efforts for Russia’s Africa Corps.

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In a win for Russia and an embarrassment to the Biden government, the U.S. military is hurriedly withdrawing over 1,000 deployed personnel from Niger. With more than $1 billion spent over a decade, the withdrawal represents another major failure for President Joe Biden and his "national security" team. show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
As you probably know, The National Pulse is not a fan of foreign adventurism, military interventions, or other forms of meddling that present little value to the Western taxpayer
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As you probably know, The National Pulse is not a fan of foreign adventurism, military interventions, or other forms of meddling that present little value to the Western taxpayer show more
for exclusive members-only insights
Biden Abbas
April 18, 2024
War
World

Biden-Backed Palestinian Authority Announces Payouts for Attacks Against Israelis.

The newly formed Palestinian Authority (PA) government in the West Bank territory announced it would distribute bonus payments to security forces responsible for attacks on Israeli citizens and military targets. Just days earlier, President Joe Biden‘s State Department declared its support for the newly formed West Bank government, stating they looked forward to working with the PA “to deliver on credible reforms.”

“Service Director in Jenin Adnan Abu Aisheh said that the message of the service, under the instructions of its leader, Majed Faraj, is to emphasize what President Mahmoud Abbas has said again and again — that if we are left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the martyrs and the prisoners,” Palestine News Agency WAFA reported. On April 4, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service issued grant payouts to 36 families whose relatives were killed or arrested in the course of committing crimes against Israelis.

The PA’s announcement comes as a blow to the Biden government‘s initiative to elevate the West Bank government as the legitimate authority over a separate Palestinian state as part of a potential peace process. State Department officials have insisted the PA be reformed and given governing control over the Gaza Strip after Israel’s military operations against the Hamas terrorist group there conclude. Former President Donald Trump suspended American taxpayer funding of the Palestinian Authority. The Biden government subsequently reinstated the aid.

West Bank Palestinian officials have repeatedly refused to condemn the barbaric October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel. Some of the newly ‘reformed’ PA members have even gone so far as to endorse continued acts of terrorism against the Jewish state.

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The newly formed Palestinian Authority (PA) government in the West Bank territory announced it would distribute bonus payments to security forces responsible for attacks on Israeli citizens and military targets. Just days earlier, President Joe Biden's State Department declared its support for the newly formed West Bank government, stating they looked forward to working with the PA "to deliver on credible reforms." show more
Biden Rafah Haifa
April 18, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Politics
War
World

WATCH: Biden Says He Warned Israel Not to ‘Move on Haifa’ – An Israeli City Over a Hundred Miles from Gaza.

Joe Biden made a significant error while discussing Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, claiming he warned the Israeli government against attacking Haifa. Haifa is an Israeli port city far to the north of Gaza, while the last remaining Hamas stronghold is the city of Rafah.

“I’ve been meeting with them, number one,” Biden told an interviewer who has asked him about his plans to win over voters sympathetic to the Palestinians, who are increasingly discontented with his foreign policy.

“Number two, I made it clear that we have to vastly increase the amount of food, water, healthcare going into Gaza, and I made it clear to Israelis — don’t move on Haifa,” Biden continued. “It’s just not, I mean, anyway…” he trailed off.

Rafah, rather than Haifa, has become Israel’s main strategic target. Hamas is believed to have concentrated the bulk of its surviving forces in the city, along with its remaining Israeli hostages. It also hosts around a million Palestinians displaced by the war, and the White House does not want Israel to mount a major offensive against it, fearing there will be significant civilian loss of life.

Biden has made a major error when discussing geography before. Addressing the Hur Report on his mishandling of classified documents, which described him as having a failing memory, he insisted he has no such issues, before describing General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the President of Egypt, as “the President of Mexico.”

Biden has also made repeated false claims about about traveled 17,000 miles around the world with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, despite even friendly outlets like CNN repeatedly debunking the story as a lie.

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Joe Biden made a significant error while discussing Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, claiming he warned the Israeli government against attacking Haifa. Haifa is an Israeli port city far to the north of Gaza, while the last remaining Hamas stronghold is the city of Rafah. show more
April 18, 2024
Ed Kozak
News
Science
World

At Least 20 Dead During Record Flood After Government ‘Cloud Seeding.’

The record rainfall and flooding in Dubai that has claimed the lives of at least 20 people this week directly followed government cloud seeding missions, according to reports.

Cloud-seeding is a form of geoengineering using planes or cannons to shoot particles into clouds to attract more moisture and increase rainfall.

The UAE government, which has practiced cloud seeding since 2002 to enhance the desert country’s water security, reportedly launched at least seven cloud seeding missions on Monday and Tuesday, immediately before record levels of rain hit Dubai. The government’s National Center of Meteorology has denied this claim, however.

Whether or not cloud-seeding missions immediately preceded this week’s rain and flooding, the government’s cloud-seeding endeavors are undoubtedly at least partly responsible for the country’s recent increase in rain. The UAE has experienced a significant rise in rainfall in the past few years, and a report in the journal Nature predicts that precipitation is expected to increase by 15 percent to 30 percent in the coming years. This week’s rainfall was the country’s heaviest since record-keeping began in 1949.

The Dubai disaster is certain to be used by critics as an example of the dangers inherent in man’s attempts to alter nature’s course through geoengineering. At present, government-backed geoengineering experiments are taking place across the globe, largely intended to combat ‘global warming.’ Earlier this month, Tennessee became the first state in the U.S. to approve legislation banning geoengineering.

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The record rainfall and flooding in Dubai that has claimed the lives of at least 20 people this week directly followed government cloud seeding missions, according to reports. show more
April 18, 2024
William Upton
Economy
World

Russian Economy Will Grow Faster Any Other Advanced Nation in 2024.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Russian economic growth to exceed any other advanced nation in 2024. According to their data, they anticipate Russia will grow at a rate of 3.2 percent. Meanwhile, the United States is expected to achieve only 2.7 percent.

Not a single nation typically seen as Europe’s economic powerhouse is expected to exceed 1 percent growth. The United Kingdom is projected only to hit 0.5 percent, France 0.7 percent, and Germany 0.2 percent.

Given the Biden government’s sanctions regime aimed at grinding Russian commerce to a halt, the high Russian economic growth projection comes as a bit of a surprise. U.S. sanctions were enacted in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.

According to Russian officials, the Biden government’s sanctions are partly responsible for their high growth projection. They claim that the economic restrictions made their domestic industries more self-sufficient. Additionally, Russia insists that its citizens’ rate of consumption and investment remains stable, which also aided in their economic gains.

The IMF believes the country’s growth rate will decline to 1.8 percent in 2025. This decline will occur “as the effects of high investment and robust private consumption, supported by wage growth in a tight labor market, fade.”

“What it [the growth data] tells us is that this is a war economy in which the state — which, let’s remember, had a very sizable buffer, built over many years of fiscal discipline — is investing in this war economy,” said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva regarding Russian economic projections during a February interview with CNBC.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Russian economic growth to exceed any other advanced nation in 2024. According to their data, they anticipate Russia will grow at a rate of 3.2 percent. Meanwhile, the United States is expected to achieve only 2.7 percent. show more
Ukraine Nightclub
April 17, 2024
Jack Montgomery
War
World

REPORT: Ukraine’s Men Dodging Draft, Hanging Out in Nightclubs Instead.

Ukrainian resolve is breaking, and Ukrainian men are “packing into hipster bars and techno clubs” or leaving the country outright rather than answering the draft, according to on-the-ground reporting.

POLITICO correspondent Jamie Dettmer, who traveled to the Eastern European country to speak with top politicians and military leaders, noted the “crowds of young men who lined up to join the army” have now “disappeared” and morale among servicemen is “grim” after being “ground down by relentless bombardment, a lack of advanced weapons, and losses on the battlefield.”

Despite politicians lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25, Dettmer noted, “eligible would-be recruits dodge the draft and spend their afternoons in nightclubs instead.”

The report continues:

“Two years ago, the trains heading out of Ukraine were almost exclusively carrying women, children and the elderly to seek refuge. This week, around a third of the passengers on one train carrying this correspondent out of the country were men of fighting age. Somehow they’d managed to get waiver papers to leave.”

FLAGGING. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, admitted “people are flagging,” as did the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba.

POLITICO also noted Ukraine required “millions” of artillery shells; however, war skeptics such as Senator J.D. Vance have pointed out the West is simply incapable of meeting such demands, with total U.S. capacity, for example, being only 360,000 shells a year.

Dettmer said senior military officers, who only agreed to speak to him on condition of anonymity, have an “even darker” view of the country’s prospects, forecasting “frontlines potentially collapsing this summer.”

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Ukrainian resolve is breaking, and Ukrainian men are "packing into hipster bars and techno clubs" or leaving the country outright rather than answering the draft, according to on-the-ground reporting. show more
Kharkiv
April 17, 2024
Ed Kozak
War
World

Russia Poised to Capture Kharkov Within Months.

Russian forces are poised to capture Kharkov, the second-largest city in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government was “doing everything we can” to prevent the Russians from capturing the city. “Kharkiv [sic] is one of the capitals of Ukraine, so it has great symbolic meaning.” Without further Western interference in the war, however, it is unlikely that Ukraine will be able to stop Russian forces should they make a push for the city.

A “successful assault on Kharkiv [sic] would be a major undertaking for Russia, but not completely out of the question,” noted Jacob Parakilas, research leader for Defense Strategy, Policy and Capabilities at RAND Europe. Kharkov sits fewer than 20 miles from the Russian border, and a “slow, grinding attack” could see Russian forces take control of the city within “months,” Parakilas said.

“In the event of an offensive, will the Ukrainian defense forces be able to defend Kharkiv [sic] without U.S. military assistance? We can!” claimed Colonel Andriy Zadubinnyi, a press officer with the Ukrainian military. “But it will be at the cost of tens of thousands of lives of Ukrainian soldiers,” he added.

The reality is that Ukraine would likely be unable to successfully defend Kharkov from a Russian offensive. “The Russian military can afford to take more losses for longer than the Ukrainians can,” Parakilas said.

Despite its continued pleas, it is unlikely Ukraine can defeat Russia even with an injection of billions of U.S. dollars into its coffers. U.S. Senator J.D. Vance noted recently that the “math” on Ukraine “doesn’t add up,” with the country needing more U.S. equipment than the U.S. can produce and more soldiers than it can possibly field. Former Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite predicted last week that Ukraine could be “quickly overwhelmed” by Russia “within weeks.”

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Russian forces are poised to capture Kharkov, the second-largest city in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government was "doing everything we can" to prevent the Russians from capturing the city. "Kharkiv [sic] is one of the capitals of Ukraine, so it has great symbolic meaning." Without further Western interference in the war, however, it is unlikely that Ukraine will be able to stop Russian forces should they make a push for the city. show more
Patrice Runner
April 16, 2024
William Upton
Crime
World

‘Psychic’ Canadian Conned 1.3M Americans Out Of $175,000,000.

Patrice Runner, a Canadian fraudster, was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison for defrauding over $175 million from an estimated 1.3 million Americans. For two decades, Runner posed as a ‘psychic’ who would promise financial success and personal happiness if his marks sent him money through the mail.

“Patrice Runner’s extravagant lifestyle, borne on the backs of millions of older and vulnerable Americans, has come to an end,”  U.S. postal inspector Chris Nielsen said. Responding to the 10-year sentence handed down in the Eastern District of New York, Nielsen said he believed it to be an “appropriate punishment.”

An American jury convicted Runner last June of 14 counts, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The jury also found the conman guilty of eight additional counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In his scheme, the conman would fraudulently pose as famous psychics Maria Duval and Patrick Guerin. Letters sent to his targets would claim they could “achieve great wealth and happiness with the psychic’s assistance, in exchange for payment of a fee.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Runner and his co-conspirators sent tens of thousands of such letters weekly.

The DOJ said in a press release announcing the sentencing decision that “some victims made dozens of payments in response to the fraudulent letters, losing thousands of dollars.”

United States government officials had Runner — who possesses both Canadian and French citizenship — extradited after his arrest in Ibiza, Spain, in 2020. Addressing the charges, the Runner claimed he did nothing illegal. “Maybe it’s not moral, maybe it’s bullshit,” he said, adding: “But it doesn’t mean it’s fraud.”

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Patrice Runner, a Canadian fraudster, was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison for defrauding over $175 million from an estimated 1.3 million Americans. For two decades, Runner posed as a 'psychic' who would promise financial success and personal happiness if his marks sent him money through the mail. show more
Naxalite Maoist Rebels India
April 16, 2024
War
World

Commies Killed in Gun Battle with Cops.

Indian police forces killed 29 suspected Maoist rebels in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, just three days before the start of India’s presidential election.

Law enforcement authorities initiated a raid in the Kanker district following crucial intelligence about suspected communist rebel activities. In the ensuing skirmish, three security personnel suffered injuries. The after-action led to a recovery of several firearms.

The clash traces back to a seemingly never-ending conflict that began in 1967 when Indian forces found themselves locked in a struggle with Maoist rebels across various central and northern territories. These rebels, also known as Naxalites, agitate for more employment opportunities, land rights, and wealth for India’s economically impoverished indigenous tribes.

According to the Indian government, the dissidents pose the gravest internal security challenge for the nation. Drawing direct inspiration from Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, they persist with disruptive activities mainly in Chhattisgarh, often making government forces and officials the targets of their aggression.  Chhattisgarh is among the poorest regions of India but is rich in minerals.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has resolved to uproot the communist insurgency from this embattled state, describing it as the “biggest enemy of development, peace and bright future of youth” and stating that “We are determined to free the country from the scourge of Naxalism.”

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Indian police forces killed 29 suspected Maoist rebels in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, just three days before the start of India's presidential election. show more
Mateusz Morawiecki
April 16, 2024
Jack Montgomery
World

Poland’s Ex-PM Regrets Pushing Too Far on Abortion as New Globalist Govt Set to Liberalize Laws.

Mateusz Morawiecki, the former national populist Prime Minister of Poland, has expressed his regret at conservatives pushing abortion restrictions further than the public would tolerate while in office. His Law and Justice (PiS) party has now been displaced by a globalist coalition, which wants not just to reverse the changes but also liberalize abortion far beyond the status quo ante.

Abortion was already restricted relatively strongly when PiS entered office, with exceptions for rape, danger to the life of the mother, and cases where the unborn baby was found to have defects — an arrangement known as the “abortion compromise.” Conservative appointees to the country’s Constitutional Tribunal eliminated the last of these exceptions, intended to allow women to end unviable pregnancies, in 2020, ruling it was being used to target babies with conditions such as Down’s Syndrome in a discriminatory manner.

Abortion was weaponized by the left in Poland’s 2023 elections. While PiS remained the largest party, a coalition of smaller globalist and left-wing parties combined to take over the government. Two of the three major factions in the new government now wish to not only restore the defects exception but also legalize abortion up to 12 weeks.

“If I could turn back time, yes, I would do it. I think the compromise was a bad thing, but much better than what may await us in the future,” lamented Morawiecki.

Donald Trump has often cautioned pro-life campaigners against pushing for abortion restrictions that do not enjoy broad public support. He argued that while people should “follow their heart” on the issue, conservatives “have to win elections” to stop leftist politicians from gaining power and advancing extreme policies such as legalizing abortion up to birth.

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Mateusz Morawiecki, the former national populist Prime Minister of Poland, has expressed his regret at conservatives pushing abortion restrictions further than the public would tolerate while in office. His Law and Justice (PiS) party has now been displaced by a globalist coalition, which wants not just to reverse the changes but also liberalize abortion far beyond the status quo ante. show more