📊 Polish politician who extinguished Hanukkah candles wins European Parliament seat

Grzegorz Braun took a fire extinguisher to a menorah that was lit for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah at the Polish parliament last December - stating he was restoring “normality.”

Braun won his seat as a candidate for Confederation, a right-wing party with a vocal anti-Ukraine stance, which had its best result ever, coming third with 12.1%.

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➡️ NEW: F-16s and Their Bases Outside Ukraine Will Become Legitimate Targets for Russian Military if They Participate in Combat Missions – Russia’s Head of State Duma Defense Committee (RIA Novosti)

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⚡️ Hundreds of Pro-Palestine Demonstrators Demand the Removal of Israel from 2024 Olympics in Front of Paris Olympic Committee HQ

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🤔 US Considers Dealing Directly with Hamas – Without Israel – to Free 5 American Hostages

The deal to free the five American hostages would be hammered out through Qatari mediation if the current effort to reach a comprehensive agreement fails, NBC reported, citing US officials.

The officials did not know what the US could offer Hamas in return, but argued there was an incentive for Hamas to drive a deeper wedge between Biden and Netanyahu as Israel would not be part of the negotiations.

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🇩🇪🇩🇪AfD Helps Inflict Worst-Ever EU Defeat on Olaf Scholz’s Party

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) scored their worst result ever in a European parliamentary election, with conservatives saying time had run out for his so-called “traffic light” coalition.

AfD claimed second place, exit polls showed, with the centre-Right CDU claiming top spot.

Young voters scorned Scholz's party, with large numbers of under-30s voting for AfD – SPD’s recent move to lower the voting age to 16 for European elections appearing to backfire spectacularly.

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🆕Israeli activists place flowers at entrance to former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s office after his resignation with the message:

“Thank you very much! With love and appreciation, Yahya Sinwar.”

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⚠️Belarus Joins Second Phase of Nuclear Drills with Russia

The exercises were a proactive measure to “increase our readiness to use so-called retaliatory weapons,” Belarusian Defense Minister Lieutenant General Viktor Khrenin said Monday.

“Now, more than ever before, we are determined to respond to any threats posed to both our country and the Union State” between Russia and Belarus, he added.

“We have no goal of creating any tension in regional security issues. We do not project relevant military threats on third countries or anyone else,” Khrenin noted.

He did not say where the exercises were taking place or what types of weapons were involved.

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🔴Civil Defense teams franticly search for any survivors trapped under rubble - after Israeli warplanes targeted house of Palestinian family in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp

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🔴Scholz’s Coalition Claims ‘No Reason’ for Snap Vote Despite Mounting Pressure

Germany’s finance minister has rebuffed calls for a snap election in the wake of a dismal EU election night for the govt.

“Why should anything have changed? We have a joint govt program, and a coalition agreement that we are working on together,” Christian Lindner said.

Olaf Scholz’s spox also asserted that the chancellor had “not for one second” contemplated calling a snap election.

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🍗“27% of Americans are Skipping Meals Due to Skyrocketing Food Costs”

Joe Biden’s America…

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😳 Finland Admits to Using Ukraine as Testing Ground for New Weapons

Lieutenant General Mikko Heiskanen conceded to news outlet Helsingin Sanomat that Helsinki needed to understand how the weapons would cope in a "real situation” – even ones still in development.

Ukraine is the West’s ultimate guinea pig.

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Why did Macron roll the dice with dissolving France’s parliament?

President Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the French parliament's lower house, the National Assembly, and called snap elections on June 30 and July 7.

The move came after his Renaissance party was crushed by the right-wing National Rally (RN) party in the European Parliament elections.

🌏 Win a majority: The most obvious reason, announced by Macron himself, is to get “a clear majority” in the future elections. His Renaissance party has 169 lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly. Le Pen's National Rally has 88 seats. To win an outright majority, Macron’s camp would need to see its number of lawmakers increase to 289.

🌏 A preemptive strike: Macron, whose popularity has been plummeting, was aware of a looming EU election debacle for his party. Analysts say his EU vote loss to RN could trigger anything from censure motions to a collapse of the government.

🌏 Avoid rivalry with Marine Le Pen: A plan to prevent her from succeeding Macron in 2027 is another theory. Proponents think he hopes to force the center-right Republicans to strike a deal with his centrist camp. In that case, if RN wins the elections, it would struggle to form a government without a coalition partner.

🌏 Jordan Bardella as PM: Another reason is that if RN scores a majority in the elections, Le Pen’s protégé Jordan Bardella could be offered the job of prime minister.

🌏 “Cohabitation effect”: If the National Rally, or another party, wins a majority in parliament, Macron would be forced to name someone from their ranks as PM, and that person would have to choose Cabinet ministers. In the ensuing "cohabitation," the president and PM would come from different political parties.

Most analysts predict that even if the right-wing RN party secures more MPs, it would probably not get a majority. The result would be an even more divided, chaotic, and ineffective French parliament.

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❌ JUST IN: US Border Patrol Agents in San Diego Sector Ordered by Biden Admin to Release Nearly All Illegals from Eastern Hemisphere

The internal memo completely negates the so-called “Executive Order” that Biden signed last week – which appears now, to be all for show.

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⚡️ BREAKING: Plane carrying Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima is “off the radar and cannot be tracked”

The plane with the VP and nine others aboard had missed its scheduled landing time and all efforts to make contact have failed, authorities said. Search and rescue operations are underway.

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