• Restraining order issued against reporter who asked Karine Jean-Pierre a question
• Reporter asks White House 'How come migrants are allowed to come in unvaccinated, but world-class tennis players are not?'
• Reporter tells White House security coordinator 'You gave a whole country to extremists'
• Reporter exposes White House's blatant redefining of 'recession'
• White House asked when Biden will apologize for falsely accusing border agents of 'whipping' migrants
• Doocy asks if White House is going to blame 'Putin for everything until the midterms'

• Is Michelle Obama a man? Let's survey the evidence with an open heart and mind
• Obama once wrote to ex-girlfriend that he 'repeatedly fantasizes about making love to men,' biographer says
• Obama embraces gay rights, calls for an end to 'conversion' therapies LGBT youth
• Obama's 'gay lover': Lying psychopath, Psy-op, or Both?
• Sylvester Stallone calls 'pathetic' Obama a 'closet homosexual living a lie'

• South Africa bans arms sales to Poland over concerns they're intended for Ukraine in war on Russia
• Egypt eyes dropping US dollar in trade with BRICS nations
• Egypt to issue $2 billion worth of bonds in Chinese yuan

• Gantz, Netanyahu both reiterate Israel's unwillingness to sell weapons to Ukraine
• Israel explains refusal to supply air-defense systems to Ukraine
• Israeli general explains why Ukraine is not getting Iron Dome
• Russia issues warning to Israel over Iron Dome for Ukraine
• Israel explains reluctance to arm Ukraine - bound by 'certain agreements' with Russia

• Israel now arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine
• Israel welcomes Ukraine's Nazi Azov battalion

"I think there are some legitimate questions about this whole situation," Tapper said on CNN News Central. "First of all, I do think it's fair to question why would U.S. Attorney Weiss be appointed to special counsel. Usually, a special counsel is an outside attorney. Now, it has happened before. Durham came from inside, and the attorney general has the right to do that, but it is odd."

[...]

Tapper went on to ask why they would stick with the person who was responsible for the "colossal failure" of the Hunter plea deal and referenced questions about whether the original deal was "strong enough."

He also spoke about the mixed messages regarding Weiss' jurisdiction and whether he already had the necessary power to charge outside of Delaware before he was made a special counsel, recalling that the U.S. attorney had made different claims about his power in private versus in public, according to whistleblowers.

"The Justice Department and Weiss denied what the whistleblowers were saying, but this move makes it seem as though, well, maybe the whistleblowers were right. Maybe what they were alleging is true, and he didn't have the ability to charge whatever he wanted to charge, and now he does. So I do have a lot of questions about that, and I do think some of the political questions being raised by Republicans have merit," Tapper said.

This was a sharp shift in Tapper's tone compared to the previous day when he said House Republicans finding Biden family members had been wired over $20 million from shady foreign entities was "sleazy" but not criminal during an interview with Comer.

"So let's pause it for the sake of argument that Hunter Biden is sleazy and the president's relatives tried to profit off the Biden family brand, something CNN has reported on, what's new in this memo?" Tapper kicked off the interview before repeatedly saying he saw "no evidence" that President Biden did anything wrong.

[...]

Comer warned during the interview that multiple agencies appeared to be blocking the progress of the investigation.

"The Biden attorneys are obstructing, they're intimidating witnesses, the DOJ will not cooperate with us, the FBI will not cooperate with us, the IRS will not cooperate with us," he told Tapper. "Thank God we had whistleblowers from the IRS testified to our committee that they were told to stand down by the DOJ."

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley claimed Weiss alleged to multiple witnesses that he was told by the DOJ he could not bring charges against Hunter in California and Washington D.C. Garland denied there being any interference in the probe.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of seeking to conquer Europe and has insisted that Russia must be stopped in Ukraine where it is "cheap" to do so.

In an interview with the Washington Post published on Thursday, the Polish leader was asked to respond to American conservatives who oppose sending additional military and financial aid to Ukraine.

He said:

"It is very simple. Right now, Russian imperialism can be stopped cheaply, because American soldiers are not dying. Unless Russian aggression is halted now, there will be a very high price to be paid."

President Putin is seeking to restore "czarist territory," Duda claimed.

He said:

"The West needs to stop Russia now, before American soldiers have to shed their blood and to lose their lives in Europe to restore peace and liberty to the world."

Duda suggested accepting Ukraine into NATO as the best way to thwart the Kremlin. He admitted that he was disappointed that Kiev did not receive a formal invitation to the US-led bloc during last month's NATO summit in Lithuania. He also said he plans to push the Biden administration to make sure Kiev receives an invitation next year.

Brilliant. Crossing that line bodes a potential global war of epic proportion of which numerous countries may not survive.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu stated on Wednesday that Moscow would bolster its forces along its western borders in response to what he called a growing threat from the US and its allies in Europe, which are increasing their own military presence in the region.

The minister pointed to the recent accession of Finland into NATO and the potential joining of Sweden, as well as the increasing militarization of Poland, which he claimed "has become the main instrument of the anti-Russian policies of the US."

Shoigu also alleged that Warsaw is actively seeking to take over parts of Ukraine by forming a so-called Polish-Ukrainian military unit, whose official purpose will be defending Western Ukraine, but will in fact serve to occupy it.

The defense minister also stressed that Russia needs to come up with a timely and adequate response to the increasing size of NATO forces in the immediate vicinity of the borders of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.