🇩🇪 Germany to suspend 'debt brake,' present revised 2023 budget

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner plans to present a supplementary budget next week for the current year that lifts borrowing limits after the top court wiped €60 billion from existing spending plans.

Lindner's decision follows a ruling by the Constitutional Court, which said a move to redirect €60 billion ($65 billion) of unused debt from the COVID pandemic era to a climate fund was unconstitutional.

The court's decision has implications not only for planned climate investments but also for the financing of the energy price brake, which is intended to provide relief from high electricity and gas costs.

The government wants to use an exemption from the debt brake this year because of the court ruling.

A fiscal hawk, Lindner had been reluctant to suspend the debt brake as his party, the neoliberal FDP, strongly advocates fiscal discipline.

The debt brake is part of the German constitution and limits the federal government's structural net borrowing to 0.35% of gross domestic product. It was first adopted in 2009 after the financial crash.

The brake was suspended from 2020 to 2022 during the pandemic and energy crisis but was set to come back into force this year.

🔗 https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-suspend-debt-brake-present-revised-2023-budget/a-67536063

🇭🇺🇪🇺🇺🇦 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is threatening to block all European Union aid for Ukraine, as well as the country’s future accession to the bloc, unless EU leaders agree to review their entire strategy of support for Kyiv, according to a letter seen by POLITICO.

In the letter, addressed to European Council chief Charles Michel, the Hungarian leader says that no decision on funding for Ukraine, the opening of accession talks to the EU, or further sanctions against Russia can be taken until this “strategic discussion” happens when leaders gather in Brussels in mid-December.

“The European Council should take stock of the implementation and effectiveness of our current policies towards Ukraine including various assistance programs,” Orban writes in the letter, which is undated but bears the stamp of his office. (...)

Orbán’s letter raises the stakes in a long-running standoff between Budapest and Brussels, which is holding back €13 billion in EU funds for Hungary over concerns that the country is falling afoul of the EU’s standards on rule-of-law.

Without saying so directly, the letter suggests that Budapest could use its veto power to block the disbursement of a planned €50 billion in aid for Ukraine — money that’s needed to fund the Ukrainian government while its armed forces fight back against a full-scale Russian invasion.

In addition to the €50 billion, Orban is threatening to block €500 million in planned military aid for Ukraine, as well as the opening of formal negotiations for Kyiv to join the 27-member union, which leaders were hoping to approve at the next gathering of the European Council on December 14 and 15.

On other occasions, Budapest has abstained on key votes and allowed the EU to slap sanctions on Russia, on this occasion, “I don’t see that happening.”

“It’s not a matter of neutrality for Hungary,” said the envoy. “It’s about leverage.”

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-viktor-orban-threatens-to-blow-up-eu-ukraine-policy-european-union/

🇭🇺🇪🇺🇺🇦 In a last ditch effort made by the EU to avoid a potential Hungarian veto over the beginning of formal negotiations for Ukraine's entry into the European Union as well as continued humanitarian and military aid for Kiev, president of the European Council, Charles Michel, is travelling to Budapest hoping to convince the Hungarian prime-minister to not use his right to veto.

🔗 https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/11/24/weekly-schedule-of-president-charles-michel/

🇺🇸 🇮🇱 Musk to visit Israel to meet with Netanyahu next week following anti-Semitism allegations.

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-774890

AF Post

🪦 🏳️‍🌈 🇮🇱 In LGBTQ Milestone, IDF Lists Three Parents on Tombstone for Fallen Soldier

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-21/ty-article/.premium/in-lgbtq-milestone-idf-lists-three-parents-on-tombstone-for-fallen-soldier/0000018b-

https://archive.ph/MGDCp

🇺🇸 🇮🇱 💵 Israel's bombing of Gaza to cost US $50 Billion

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/gaza-war-estimated-to-cost-israel-48b/3063123

🇬🇾🇻🇪 President of Guyana raised the flag of that country in the territory of Essequibo

https://teleg.eu/VenezuelaNewsNetwork/9151

Maduro: We are in "national union" for the recovery of Guyana

https://goo.su/KJtzTYp

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Soviet created famine in 1932-1933 known as the Holodomor in Ukraine.

Over 3.5 million Russians,Ukrainians,Germans were systematically starved to death over the period of 2 years. 10% of the total population perished.

📽🇬🇧 Defamation — ADL bullying Ukraine into downplaying the Holodomor as serious as the Holocaust

Abe Foxman the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the worlds largest advocate for Israel and fighting Anti-Semitism meets with Yushchenko's advisors and warns them not to compare the two genocides - the Holodomor and the Holocaust:

Abe Foxman (head of the ADL): "But one thing that you need to be sensitive about is not to link it (the Holodomor) with the Holocaust. Be careful that it not be linked as your genocide and our genocide, because that would be counter-productive."

Israel has still yet to recognize the Holodomor as genocide.

— 🇬🇧/🇾🇪 BREAKING: Possible hijacking of a UK-affiliated ship by Yemenis in the Gulf of Aden

'An entity declaring itself as the Yemeni authorities have ordered a vessel to alter course' – U.K. Maritime Trade Operations

@Middle_East_Spectator

📢 🇾🇪 🇮🇱 Houthi military spokesman on X shared a cryptic message with the three letters "ZIM."

🔶️ Presumably ZIM, the Israeli international cargo shipping company, publicly held and ranked among the top 20 global carriers. Uncertain if this indicates a targeted action or a warning.

📝 This comes amidst reports of another cargo ship hijacking. Important to note that the vessel ZIM Luanda is not the target as previously reported by netizens.

📎 Basha Report

👮‍♂️ 🇺🇸 Derek Chauvin Is Said to Have Been Stabbed in Federal Prison

🔶️ The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an inmate at the Tucson prison was stabbed at 12:30 p.m., though the agency’s statement did not identify Mr. Chauvin, 47, by name. No other inmates or prison staff were injured, and the situation was quickly contained, according to the people familiar with the situation.

🔶️ Emergency medical technicians “initiated lifesaving measures” before transporting the inmate to a local hospital “for further treatment and evaluation,” bureau officials wrote. No details were immediately available on his condition, but one of the people with knowledge of the incident said that Mr. Chauvin survived the attack.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/us/derek-chauvin-prison-stabbing.html

https://archive.ph/YBMFM

👮‍♂️ 🇺🇸 NYPD cops leave force in alarming rate — over 2,500 turned in badges so far in 2023

🔶️ New York’s Finest continue to bolt from the job at an alarming rate, according to new data obtained by The Post — and some cops worry the exodus will only get worse because the city plans to cancel the next five Police Academy classes, shrinking the nation’s largest police force to the smallest its been in decades.

🔶️ The number of cops quitting before they reach the 20 years required to receive their full pensions also skyrocketed from 509 in 2020 to 1,040 so far this year — an alarming 104% increase, the data show.

🔶️ Spero Georgedakis, 53, a former Miami SWAT team officer who helps recruit and relocate New York City cops to greener pastures — in his case, police departments in Florida — told The Post he’s “busier than ever” and moved 60 disgruntled officers over the last two years.

⬛️ “The cops who left can’t believe they ever worked there [NYPD],” the Queens native said.

🔶️ He said the ex-NYPD officers tell him they were “afraid to make arrests” because of the anti-cop climate in the Big Apple, and when they do make a collar, it’s “what’s the point?” and “we’re shoveling sh-t against the tide” because the bad guys are right back out on the street.

🔶️ The exodus began after Minnesota cop Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on May 25, 2020, triggering nationwide protests and calls to defund the police. Anti-cop hostility, bail reform, and rising crime have fed into frustration among the NYPD rank and file.

⬛️ Assaults against NYPD cops have skyrocketed by more than 25% this year, police data obtained by The Post last month revealed.

🔶️ “When you look at the number of resignations, you need to ask yourself why would the mayor even consider making cuts to hiring in the NYPD?” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “As the numbers continue to dwindle, things will take a dramatic turn for the worse.”

https://nypost.com/2023/11/25/metro/2516-nypd-cops-head-for-exits-so-far-in-2023-pension-data/

🗳 🇮🇪 🇮🇱 Final results of Dr. Eli David's poll on X:
- A Muslim Jihadist stabbed Irish children in Dublin 🇮🇪

🔽 Who is to blame?

68% voted for Israel

https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1728117613685805332