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AMLO also called on Washington to end its decades-long trade embargo on Cuba

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has urged the United States to end its economic penalties on Venezuela, part of a sweeping proposal to tackle Latin America’s migration crisis.

Speaking during a Friday press conference, Obrador described a multi-step plan to address the surge in immigration across the region, saying he had asked the US government to set aside $20 billion for the initiative and grant visas to some 10 million long-term Hispanic residents working in the United States.

He added that he also requested an end to economic sanctions targeting both Cuba and Venezuela during talks with senior US officials last month, instead calling for a “humane policy” with a “social dimension.”

Washington must “abandon the politics of 200 years ago, the hegemonic policy of impositions, of embargoes. That is from the Middle Ages, it has nothing to do with today’s world,” Obrador said.

The president has been highly critical of the penalties in the past, arguing they have only worsened the migration crisis. During a speech in October, he vowed to “keep insisting on addressing the root causes of migration, the origins, go deep, stop politicking, thinking rights are above ideology, that sanctions cannot be maintained – blockades – and that the poorest countries have to be helped.”

Washington has long maintained harsh sanctions on Cuba, instituting a full-scale trade embargo on the island in 1962, in the wake of the socialist overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista. Penalties against Venezuela are more recent, with former US President Donald Trump imposing sanctions on the country’s oil industry in 2017 and gradually stepping up the measures in the following years. President Joe Biden has continued many of the same policies, but relaxed some sanctions on Caracas after negotiations between the country’s ruling party and opposition.

Obrador’s latest comments came days after Mexican law enforcement rescued 32 migrants who had been kidnapped as they attempted to reach the US, most of whom hailed from Venezuela and Honduras. The migrants were taken from a bus by armed men reportedly seeking ransom payments, which some families ultimately made, according to local officials.

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Police interference in civilian databases has raised concerns among MPs and political activists.

British police have been secretly using the national passport database to run facial recognition technology, according to an investigative report by the Telegraph.

According to the article, over 46 million British passport holders were affected. In addition to the passport database, the police also used information from immigration services to monitor foreigners.

The media report revealed that British police have been using the passport database for facial recognition since at least 2019, with the trend intensifying last year. For example, in the first nine months of 2023, UK law enforcement agencies used the passport database more than 300 times.

The media emphasises that the problem is not the facial recognition technology itself, but the fact that police are using passport database instead of their internal databases.

The revelation sparked concern among politicians and human rights activists, some of whom described the situation as “deeply concerning”, adding that “there is no clear legal basis for this intrusive technology”.

David Davis, a Conservative MP, stressed that there was “no explicit legislative basis” for such a practice and claimed that the use of Britons’ passports “undermines the data relationship between the citizen and the state”.

Moreover, “opening up civil databases to mass police searches turns everyone a priori into a suspect,” another campaigner warned. He added that “more surveillance and snooping powers will not make people safer”.

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Biden later remarked that Trump is gearing for an “all-out war.”

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US President Joe Biden said during a speech in Pennsylvania that some of former US President Donald Trump’s comments are reminiscent of those made by Nazi officials in Germany under the Third Reich.

“[Trump] calls those who oppose him ‘vermin.’ He talks about the blood of America being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany,” Biden said on Friday.

BIDEN: TRUMP IS HITLER pic.twitter.com/8cnZHIN1S4

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) January 6, 2024

Biden’s campaign speech, the first of the election year, focused on Trump’s ties to the January 6 US Capitol riot and alleged threats posed to US democracy by the former president.

“Trump’s mob wasn’t a peaceful protest; it was a violent assault,” Biden stressed. “They were insurrectionists, not patriots. They weren’t there to uphold the Constitution; they were there to destroy the Constitution.”

Leaning into memories of the Capitol riot, which marks its third anniversary on Saturday, Biden further commented that his predecessor is “trying to rewrite the facts” of the shocking day, claiming that Trump is “trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election.”

The US president vowed to protect democratic principles in the United States, which he called the “central cause” of his presidency. “Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is what the 2024 election is all about,” Biden remarked during the event.

“The choice is clear. Donald Trump’s campaign is about him, not America, not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power. Our campaign is different.”

He later remarked that Trump is gearing for an “all-out war.”

In response to Biden’s earlier remarks, Trump during a speaking engagement in Iowa described Biden’s commentary as “pathetic” and encouraging “fearmongering.”

Trump mocks Biden’s “pathetic, fear-mongering campaign event” in Pennsylvania earlier today. pic.twitter.com/TRwGrQgbkF

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 5, 2024

The Friday remarks come in advance of the November presidential election, in which Biden and Trump may again square off as their respective parties’ nominees. Earlier in December, Trump rejected comparisons to Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler and called them unwarranted.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James among prosecutors alleging financial wrongdoing by NRA leadership

Wayne LaPierre, who has served in the leadership of the pro-gun National Rifle Association (NRA) group for decades, announced on Friday that he would be stepping down as the organization’s chief executive.

A release issued by the NRA detailed that LaPierre “cited health reasons as a reason for his decision.” Stepping in to fill LaPierre’s post in the interim will be Andrew Arulanandam, who has served as the organization’s executive and head of general operations.

“With pride in all that we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said in a statement accompanying the release.

“I’ve been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever.”The resignation will take effect on January 31.

During his more than 30 years with the gun rights organization, LaPierre faced various controversies, many of which emerged from the firm’s responses to repeat mass shootings across the US, efforts to enforce comprehensive gun laws, and more recently financial fallouts.

Noted in the Friday release is the upcoming embezzlement trial naming LaPierre and other members that composed senior NRA leadership. The case, which is due to go to trial on Monday, alleges that LaPierre and company diverted millions away from the NRA’s charitable mission and toward their own personal gain.

Although the NRA and LaPierre have rejected the accusations and denied any wrongdoing, prosecutors – chief among them New York Attorney General Letitia James – allege the group encouraged a “culture of self-dealing, mismanagement and negligent oversight.” Over $60 million is said to have been funneled away from the mission.

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Pennsylvania farmer targeted by feds faces fines and jail time

Local media, The Lancaster Patriot, reports that the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture served an all-natural Amish farm in southeastern Pennsylvania with a search warrant on Thursday afternoon. 

The farmer, Amos Miller, has been in the crosshairs with the US Department of Agriculture because of his repeated failures to comply with federal farming regulations. 

The USDA has tried to bring Miller’s farm into compliance with federal regulations, but Amos has yet to cooperate with the Feds and faces fines and jail time. 

A Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson said:

 “The PA Department of Agriculture is conducting a search warrant on this property. Troopers from PSP Lancaster are just assisting with scene security. You will have to reach out to the DOA for information on their investigation.”

According to LancasterOnline, Miller and the Feds have been locked “in a standoff over his compliance with federal food safety rules and failure to pay assessed fines.” 

With his sovereign citizen defense, Miller has tried to thwart the Fed’s overreach to get him to comply with food safety rules. He sells all sorts of food to more than 4,000 buyers, such as organic eggs, raw milk, grass-fed beef and cheese, and fresh produce. He doesn’t use electricity, chemical fertilizers, vaccines, or petroleum products in farming. 

Commenting on the raid, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said, “Looks like Amos Miller’s farm is being raided. With all of the problems in society today, this is what the government wants to focus on?” 

Massie continued, “A man growing food for informed customers, without participating in the industrial meat/milk complex? It’s shameful that it’s come to this.”

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Ramaswamy believes the alliance’s “expansionism” risks sparking a major conflict with Russia, his spokeswoman says

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has signaled that he intends to pull the US out of NATO if he wins the 2024 election, Politico reported on Friday, citing sources.

According to three people familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking, he made the remarks privately while speaking to supporters. Publicly, the American entrepreneur of Indian descent has described Washington’s potential withdrawal from the military alliance – in which it plays the leading role – as a “reasonable idea.”

Tricia Mclaughlin, the spokeswoman for Ramaswamy’s campaign, neither confirmed nor denied the reported plans. However, she told Politico that her boss had “serious concerns that most NATO allies fail to meet their military investment commitments.” 

According to Mclaughlin, the presidential candidate “also believes that post Cold War NATO expansionism has unnecessarily increased the risk of major conflict with Russia.”

Ramaswamy does not enjoy a high level of support even among members of his own party, trailing behind other GOP presidential candidates – notably Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US President Donald Trump, who is widely considered to be the frontrunner. However, Politico suggested that Ramaswamy could potentially join an administration led by Trump, who has positioned himself as a NATO skeptic, if he returns to the White House.

Numerous media reports suggested that Trump threatened to pull his country out of the US-led military bloc during his first term in 2018 while urging Washington’s allies to ramp up their defense spending. The GOP frontrunner’s current campaign platform is more vague on the matter, stating: “we have to finish the process… of fundamentally re-evaluating NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.”

Amid reported concerns in Europe that Trump might try to abandon Washington’s NATO commitments, US President Joe Biden last month signed an $886 billion bill funding the Pentagon which, among other things, would require congressional approval for the US president to leave the alliance.

Questions about NATO’s fate have intensified with the alliance locked in a standoff with Russia over the Ukraine conflict, with members providing massive military assistance to Kiev, a campaign repeatedly denounced in Moscow. Russia has for decades viewed the alliance’s expansion toward its borders as an existential threat, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that Ukraine’s desire to join the bloc was one of the key triggers of the current conflict.

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