Alternative for Germany Reports Surge in Membership

 Leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany on Saturday reported a surge in membership and vowed to build on its success in the European Parliament election as it targets wins in three state votes in the east this year.

The AfD jumped to second place in nationwide polls last year amid frustration with infighting in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition and worries over sluggish growth in Europe's largest economy and the war in Ukraine.

While a string of scandals and anti-extremism protests has dampened support in recent months, the nationalist, eurosceptic party nonetheless came second with 15.9% in the European vote this month, ahead the three parties in Scholz's coalition.

AfD membership had grown by 60% to 46,881 members since January 2023, co-chief Tino Chrupalla told nearly 600 delegates at the party's convention in the western city of Essen. Some 22,000 people had joined the party while 4,000 had left it.

"Despite all the harassment you have to endure as a member of the AfD, this is an absolutely sensational figure," Chrupalla told the party convention.

The figure is still a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of members that the big tent parties in Germany, Scholz’s Social Democrats and the opposition conservatives, boast.

The congress was held despite resistance from city authorities - marked by the rainbow and EU flags flying on the flagpoles outside the convention centre - and thousands of protesters who sought to prevent AfD delegates from making it there.

It will run until Sunday, the same day neighbouring France holds the first round of a snap parliamentary election that could bring the far right to power.

"We will not be intimidated," said co-chief Alice Weidel. "We are here and we are here to stay."The AfD is on track to come in first place in elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September, according to polls, which will likely further complicate governance there as other parties refuse to form a coalition with it.

In discussing the party's policy platform, Weidel said AfD allies should oppose the disbursal of tax payer money to the "debt states" of Europe and the idea that Ukraine belongs to the European Union, after it opened membership talks this week.

The AfD is on course to form a new political group in the European Parliament - a move which would require 23 MEPs from at least seven EU countries - after being expelled from the Identity and Democracy grouping last month, Weidel said.

The ID expelled the AfD after its lead candidate for the European elections said the Nazi's Waffen SS were "not all criminals", a move costing the party both funding and the platform in parliament.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-06-29/far-right-alternative-for-germany-reports-surge-in-membership

Chip Roy demands Kamala remove Biden via 25th Amendment

 Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is pushing to force President Biden out of office via the 25th Amendment.

The U.S. lawmaker from Texas introduced legislation this week that would urge Vice President Kamala Harris to bring together executives of the executive cabinet and jointly declare Biden unfit to continue as president.

Roy introduced the resolution on Friday "calling on Vice President Kamala D. Harris to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments of the Cabinet to activate section 4 of the 25th Amendment to declare President Joseph R. Biden incapable of executing the duties of his office and to immediately exercise powers as Acting President."

President Joe Biden stands at his podium during the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections between himself and former president Donald Trump at CNN's studios in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin D. Liles for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The resolution claims that Biden "has repeatedly and publicly demonstrated his inability to discharge the powers and duties of the Presidency, including, among others, the powers and duties of the Commander-in-Chief."

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment authorizes the vice president and a majority of the executive cabinet to make the decision whether the president is fit to continue in office or not.

Biden has faced severe backlash following a disastrous debate performance on Thursday in which the president was seen visibly confused, mouth agape, and frequently unable to complete sentences.

President of the United States Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump participate in the first Presidential Debate at CNN Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Biden appeared tired and unfocused at times during his 90-minute face-off with Trump. At one point, Trump fired back, "I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either."

Some Democrats have floated the idea of pulling Biden out of the Democratic primary at the last second, despite the fact he's been the overwhelming winner of every state.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a post-debate campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.  (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Such a radical move would certainly lead to legal battles, voter confusion, and a last-minute scramble for a new candidate to connect with the American people.

Republicans have seized the moment as vindication after years of questioning the president's mental acuity but being denied by the mainstream media and political insiders.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chip-roy-demands-kamala-remove-biden-via-25th-amendment

Boeing in Talks with DOJ to Resolve Charges Over Safety Lapses

 

• Boeing failed to comply with prosecution deal over two crashes
• Victims’ families urged DOJ to charge Boeing with crimes

Boeing Co. is in talks with the US Justice Department to resolve potential charges stemming from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jetliners, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

The settlement could be announced as soon as next week and is expected to include imposing a corporate monitor on the world’s second-largest planemaker, according to the people, who asked not to be identified disclosing confidential discussions. DOJ prosecutors want to bring charges against Boeing, but it isn’t clear if the company will agree to plead guilty, the people said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-29/boeing-in-doj-talks-to-resolve-charges-over-safety-lapses

'Taliban Power-Grab Over Opium Production Sparked Surge In Fentanyl Use'

 For years, Afghanistan has been the world's premier cultivator of poppy used as the base for heroin distributed in Europe, Africa and Canada according to the key findings of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) World Drug Report 2024, while the Americas have largely been supplied with product derived from poppy plantations in Mexico and Colombia.

With the Taliban retaking power in April 2022, the new Afghan government instituted a strict ban on the cultivation of poppy, not only curtailing the supply of illicit substances like heroin but also that of medical prescription opioids.

As a result, potential opium production dropped by 95 percent between 2022 and 2023 to 333 tons.

As Statista's Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, based on UNODC data, this change makes Myanmar the country with the highest opium production potential in 2023.

The Southeast Asian country more than doubled its estimated capabilities in this segment compared to 2021 and is trailed by Mexico with a potential production of oven-dry opium of 166 in 2022, with estimates for the past year still outstanding. While Laos and Colombia are grouped into other countries in the chart due to limited data availability. However, they contributed to global opium production with 41 tons in 2019 and 18 tons in 2018, respectively.

Apart from the U.S. invasion of the country in 2001, the cultivation of poppy has been a significant part of Afghan agriculture for the past decades, rarely dropping below levels of 2,500 tons of estimated opium produced between 1994 and 2022.

While the curbing of the production capabilities of drugs like heroin can in theory be seen as a net positive, many farmers in the country heavily relied on their poppy fields for their monthly income, and the resulting increasing prices for heroin gave rise to new and arguably more dangerous substances like fentanyl.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-power-grab-over-opium-production-sparked-surge-fentanyl-use

UK Military Planes Making Secretive Flights To Lebanon From Cyprus

 Via The Cradle

The UK has sent over 80 military transport planes to the Lebanese capital of Beirut since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza nine months ago, Declassified UK reported on Friday.

All the flights have gone from the UK’s massive Akrotiri airbase on the nearby island of Cyprus, long a staging post for UK bombing missions in West Asia. Declassified UK notes that the number of UK military flights to Beirut has risen dramatically in recent months. The group tracked 25 flights in April and May and 14 so far in June.

Flights from the UK base take around 45 minutes to reach Beirut, which Israel has increasingly threatened to bomb in a possible full-scale war with the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah.

The Ministry of Defense declined to disclose the number of UK military flights to Lebanon since the start of the war on October 7 or their purpose. A defense source told Declassified UK that the flights “have been primarily for the purpose of facilitating senior military engagement” with the Lebanese army.

But it is widely assumed the planes are carrying weapons to Beirut to arm anti-Hezbollah militias. The US, UK, and Israel would presumably use these militias to attack Hezbollah from within the country in the case of an Israeli invasion from the south.

Declassified UK notes that nearly every Royal Air Force flight to Lebanon has been the Voyager KC mark 2, which can carry a payload of 45 tons and 291 personnel or provide air-to-air refueling. Another flight involved a vast C-17 cargo plane.

Israeli threats to invade Lebanon have accelerated in tandem with the increase in flights. Israeli military leaders have increasingly warned of a Lebanon campaign to push Hezbollah away from the border and past the Litani River.

Last week, the Israeli army approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon,” and the US pledged to support Israel with weapons if a full-scale war breaks out.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned of using its massive rocket and missile arsenal to hit targets across Israel in a “total war” if Tel Aviv decides to launch an invasion.

Nasrallah also threatened Cyprus, noting its role as a US, UK, and Israeli staging ground. “The Cypriot government must be warned that opening Cypriot airports and bases for the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon means that the Cypriot government has become part of the war and the resistance [Hezbollah] will deal with it as part of the war,” he said.

Nasrallah’s threat appeared to include the Akrotiri base, which lies in territory retained by the UK when Cyprus gained independence in 1960. The territory now hosts vast military and intelligence hubs for Britain and the US, Declassified UK notes.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uk-military-planes-have-been-making-secretive-flights-lebanon-cyprus

China tells Taiwanese to visit ‘in high spirits,’ despite execution threat

 Most Taiwanese can visit China with no need to worry and can come “in high spirits,” the Chinese government said, condemning Taiwan for warning its citizens not to go following a threat from Beijing to execute “diehard” separatists.

Taiwan’s government raised its travel warning for China this week, telling people not to go unless absolutely necessary after China announced legal guidelines threatening prosecution and in extreme cases the death penalty for Taiwan independence separatists.

In a statement late on Friday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the guidelines were only aimed a tiny number of separatists and their “evil words and actions”. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory.

Taiwan has ignored the facts and is trying to intimidate its own people for political means, which China is strongly opposed to, the office said in a statement.

“The majority of Taiwanese compatriots can participate in cross-strait exchanges and cooperation. They don’t have to have any worries about travelling to and from the mainland. They can absolutely arrive in high spirits and depart well content.”

China has vowed to pursue people it views as Taiwan separatists wherever they may be, though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan and it is not clear how China could seek to enforce any legal judgements outside its borders.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china-tells-taiwanese-visit-high-spirits-execution-threat-rcna159581

Boots CEO James Quits After Walgreens' Plans for Sale Stalls

 Boots chain CEO Sebastian James quit as CEO after owner Walgreens Boots Alliance's plans for a 5 billion pound ($6.32 billion) sale or stock market listing of the company stalled, Sky News reporter Mark Kleinman said in a post on X on Saturday.

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-06-29/boots-ceo-james-quits-after-walgreens-plans-for-sale-stalls-sky-news-reporter-says