3/4: The Takeout with Major Garrett

**White House Defends Evacuations of Americans in the Middle East Despite Major Delays**

The White House has issued a strong defense of its efforts to evacuate American citizens from conflict zones in the Middle East, despite significant delays that have raised concerns among lawmakers and the public. Officials emphasize that the safety of American nationals remains a top priority, and the complexities of operating in volatile regions contribute to the challenges faced during the evacuation process.

The administration insists that all measures are being taken to ensure a safe and orderly evacuation, citing coordination with regional partners and military resources. Authorities are urging patience as they work to overcome logistical hurdles and ongoing security threats.

**Vice President Vance Defends Iran War Despite Years of Anti-Interventionism**

In a surprising shift, Vice President Vance has publicly defended the administration’s stance on the war in Iran, despite having a long history of advocating for anti-interventionist policies. His recent statements support continued military engagement, arguing that containment of threats in the region is essential for national security.

This contrast has sparked debate among political analysts and within the ranks of the administration, highlighting the complexities of foreign policy decision-making. Vice President Vance maintains that his current position reflects the evolving realities on the ground and the need to protect American interests abroad.

As the situation unfolds, both the White House’s evacuation efforts and Vice President Vance’s policy stance remain under close scrutiny from the public and political commentators alike.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/34-the-takeout-with-major-garrett/

Democrats raise doubts about urgency of Trump’s Iran strikes

The Senate is expected to vote on a series of Democrat-backed war powers resolutions aimed at stopping the conflict with Iran. These resolutions also seek to prevent future wars from being initiated without explicit approval from Congress.

Nancy Cordes provides detailed coverage on the reactions from Democrats regarding these efforts.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/democrats-raise-doubts-about-urgency-of-trumps-iran-strikes/

Trump officials say Iran likely intended to use missiles against U.S., allies before strikes

Senior Trump administration officials said Saturday that there were indicators Iran intended to use conventional missiles against the U.S. and its allies in the region.

These assessments came as President Trump weighed the possibility of a strike.

Weijia Jiang reports.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-officials-say-iran-likely-intended-use-missiles-against-us-allies-before-strikes/

Funding Radar: Canada to launch C$100M global call on disruptive tech

From January 2026, the Canadian government will lead a C$100 million (€61. 4 million) international research initiative to harness disruptive technologies able to address global challenges. Proposals must address at least one of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, the call text says. To meet the interdisciplinary requirements, project proposals must integrate expertise from at least two of the following domains: natural sciences and engineering; social sciences and humanities; and health and life sciences. Consortia must also include at least three co-principal investigators, each eligible to receive funding from a different participating.
https://sciencebusiness.net/news/r-d-funding/international-news/funding-radar-canada-launch-c100m-global-call-disruptive-tech

Georgian Court Releases Pregnant British Teenager In Drug Trafficking Case

Bella Culley, a 19-year-old British citizen who is eight months pregnant and accused by Georgian officials of drug smuggling, was released from the Tbilisi City Court on November 3 after reaching a plea bargain with prosecutors.

“Several reasons were taken into account: her health condition, her confession, her age, and her cooperation with the investigation,” Prosecutor Vakhtang Tsalugelashvili told RFE/RL. He noted that the prosecutor’s office had initiated the release of the British woman, who fully admitted her guilt, from custody.

The court found Culley guilty and sentenced her to five months and 24 days in prison, along with a fine of 500,000 laris (approximately $181,800). However, because of the time she had already served in custody at Women’s Prison No. 5 in Rustavi, she was allowed to leave immediately. As part of the penalty, her family agreed to pay the fine.

Georgian authorities discovered 12 kilograms of marijuana and 2 kilograms of hashish in Culley’s luggage. The British teenager claimed she was forced to commit the crime “under pressure and torture.”

Culley’s parents reported her missing to Thai police after failing to contact her for several days. Thai authorities joined the search, and Bella’s father, Niel Culley, traveled to Thailand to look for his daughter. Her mother later told RFE/RL that after Bella went missing in Thailand, she was allegedly tortured and then forced to fly with the drugs to Georgia.

While Culley faced up to 20 years in prison or life imprisonment, legal experts initially expected the court to keep her in custody for another two years. The decision to release her came as a surprise to Culley and her family. Her mother said she learned of the release just minutes before the hearing, which was closely monitored by British and international media.

As part of her cooperation with authorities, Culley named several people involved in the drug case, according to the prosecutor.

When leaving the courthouse, Culley expressed relief over the decision. “I’m happy, I didn’t expect it,” she said before turning to her mother and asking, “Can we go now?”
https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-british-teenager-court-release-drugs-thailand-culley/33580139.html

Melbourne weather report October 31: What are the chances of rain in AUS vs IND 2025 2nd T20I?

Team India will take on Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday, October 31, in the second T20I of the five-match series. The first game at the Manuka Oval in Canberra ended with no result due to rain, as only 9.4 overs of play were possible.

There is a prediction for rain in the second India-Australia T20I as well, at the iconic MCG on Friday.

In the 9.4 overs bowled during the first T20I in Canberra, the Men in Blue gave a decent account of themselves with the bat. Swashbuckling opener Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for 19 off 14 balls, while Suryakumar Yadav remained unbeaten on 39 off 24 and Shubman Gill on 37 off 20. The team will look to build on these positive gains from Canberra, even though the match ended in a no result.

Meanwhile, players and fans alike will be hoping that the weather does not affect play in the second T20I in Melbourne.

### Melbourne Weather Forecast for Australia vs India 2025 2nd T20I (October 31)

The second Australia vs India 2025 T20I at the MCG will begin at 7:15 PM local time (1:45 PM IST).

According to AccuWeather, the evening conditions are expected to be partly cloudy with a temperature around 15°C. The probability of precipitation is 17%, cloud cover around 48%, and humidity at 85%.

As the match progresses into the night, the weather will remain partly cloudy, with temperatures falling to around 12°C. The chance of rain stays at 17%, with cloud cover increasing to approximately 62%.

### Morning and Afternoon Weather Outlook

There is a high possibility of rain on the morning of the second India-Australia T20I. Weather forecasts predict breezy and cloudy conditions accompanied by a few showers. The probability of precipitation during this time is very high at 96%, with cloud cover near 98%. There is also a 19% chance of thunderstorms.

In the afternoon, the forecast continues to be cloudy with some showers likely. The probability of precipitation remains high at 90%, with cloud cover around 98% and humidity at 68%.

Fans and players will be hoping for clear skies as the game unfolds at the MCG on October 31. Stay tuned for what promises to be an exciting contest between two cricketing giants!
https://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/news-melbourne-weather-report-october-31-what-chances-rain-aus-vs-ind-2025-2nd-t20i

Venezuelan Narco Regime Under Nicolás Maduro Provided Over $20 Million to Fund Black Lives Matter

The Washington Examiner has uncovered deep connections between the Chavista regime in Venezuela and Black Lives Matter (BLM), an organization that presents itself as a defender of racial rights but, according to documented evidence, has served as a vehicle for foreign Marxist agendas.

It all began in late 2012, when Hugo Chávez, the eternal father of 21st-century socialism, ordered the delivery of at least $20 million in suitcases filled with cash to Opal Tometi, one of the three co-founders of BLM alongside Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza. According to a former high-ranking Venezuelan official who defected and witnessed the meeting, the purpose was to “project the Bolivarian revolutionary project onto the streets of the United States,” meaning to sow chaos and division to erode American democracy from within.

This testimony does not come out of nowhere. The defector, close to Chávez’s inner circle, described a meeting in Caracas where Tometi arrived accompanied by three other African American women and actor Danny Glover, a known sympathizer of communist regimes like those in Cuba and Venezuela. On his deathbed due to cancer, Chávez saw BLM as the perfect tool to export his anti-imperialist ideology.

Notably, BLM had already emerged in 2013, spurred by the Trayvon Martin case, but its ideological roots are steeped in declared Marxism: Cullors identifies as a “trained Marxist,” and Tometi has invoked figures like Assata Shakur, a convicted fugitive for murder living in exile in Cuba.

The connections do not end there. In 2006, Chávez had already called from the World Social Forum in Caracas for the creation of a “fifth column” of the left in the U.S. to sabotage its policies. BLM fit the role perfectly.

In 2015, Tometi personally invited Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’s successor, to an event in Harlem, New York, during the UN General Assembly. There, Maduro shared the stage with Glover and a BLM co-founder, who embraced him warmly in front of a giant portrait of the dictator.

That same year, Tometi traveled to Venezuela as an electoral observer for the parliamentary elections, a process boycotted by the OAS, UN, and EU due to evident fraud. Rather than denouncing irregularities, Tometi praised the Venezuelan system as “one of the best in the world” and drafted a manifesto on behalf of BLM supporting the “Bolivarian revolution.” “Fulfilling my duty as a global citizen,” she tweeted, ignoring the extrajudicial executions and famine already plaguing the country.

This alliance is no coincidence but part of a hemispheric Marxist network orchestrated by the São Paulo Forum, promoted by Venezuela. BLM participated in its meetings, strengthening ties with dictatorships that oppress their own peoples—including millions of Venezuelan Afro-descendants massacred by Chavista repression.

Under Maduro, the Venezuelan police kill six times more people per year than in the U.S., in a country twelve times smaller and with private firearms banned. Cases like that of Genesis Carmona, a former beauty queen shot by snipers in 2014, or the racist lynching of a Black youth in 2017, symbolize the horror that Tometi endorsed.

While BLM raises millions in corporate donations—$90 million alone in 2020—its leaders buy luxury mansions and divert funds to family consultancies, leaving local chapters and victims of police violence with scraps.

From a conservative perspective, this revelation exposes the hypocrisy of the left: they preach racial justice while embracing tyrants who trample human rights. BLM is not an organic movement for equality; it is an extension of the Chavista agenda to destabilize the West, funded with dirty petrodollars from a narco-state sanctioned for drug trafficking.

Under the Trump administration, which is already pressuring Maduro over his alliance with cartels like the Cartel of the Suns, a thorough federal investigation is urgently needed. How much more money flowed? What role did corporations like Amazon or Microsoft, which donated fortunes to BLM, play?

The truth hurts, but it is the antidote to the red propaganda dividing America.

In summary, the $20 million delivered to Tometi was not philanthropy but an investment in chaos: violent protests, burning businesses, and the erosion of law. Venezuela, which exports hunger and repression, imported its poison to the U.S.

It is time for conservatives to demand transparency and the dismantling of these foreign networks. American freedom is not for sale to dictators.

**About The Author**

**Joana Campos**

Joana Campos es abogada y editora con más de 10 años de experiencia en la gestión de proyectos de desarrollo internacional, enfocada en la sostenibilidad y el impacto social positivo. Anteriormente, trabajó como abogada corporativa. Egresada de la Universidad de Guadalajara.
https://gatewayhispanic.com/2025/10/venezuelan-narco-regime-under-nicolas-maduro-provided-20/

Padre e hijo arrestados en Texas por contrabando de armas de fuego a México

El Departamento de Justicia de EE. UU. anunció el arresto en Texas de dos hombres originarios del estado de Alabama, quienes fueron acusados de traficar más de 300 armas, municiones y cargadores con destino a México.

La Fiscal General Pamela Bondi y el Fiscal Federal Nicholas J. Ganjei informaron, mediante un comunicado, que Emilio Ramírez Cortés, de 48 años, ciudadano mexicano que reside legalmente en Estados Unidos, y su hijo, Edgar Emilio Ramírez Díaz, realizaron sus comparecencias iniciales en la corte federal de Laredo, Texas.

Ambos están acusados de contrabando y tráfico de armas de fuego, municiones, cargadores y otros accesorios. Tanto padre como hijo permanecerán bajo custodia en espera de una audiencia de detención fijada para el 31 de octubre.

Las autoridades indicaron que los cargos incluyen contrabando de armas de fuego, municiones, cargadores y otros accesorios, así como tráfico ilícito de armas.

“Interrumpir el flujo ilegal de armas hacia México es fundamental en nuestro enfoque integral para desmantelar los cárteles”, declaró la Fiscal General Pamela Bondi. “Esta importante incautación representa nuestro compromiso de proteger a los estadounidenses de la brutal violencia de los cárteles”, añadió.

Por su parte, el Fiscal Federal Nicholas J. Ganjei puntualizó: “Quienes trafican armas ilegalmente a México empoderan a los cárteles para aterrorizar a inocentes. Esta incautación de una inmensa cantidad de armas de fuego ilustra el enfoque integral del Distrito Sur de Texas para combatir a los cárteles”.

Y sentenció: “Atacaremos cada faceta de sus operaciones hasta que sean erradicados de la faz de la tierra”.

### Llevaban las armas escondidas en dos camionetas

El 23 de octubre, dos vehículos se acercaron al puerto de entrada Juárez-Lincoln en Laredo, según señala la denuncia.

Los documentos oficiales alegan que Ramírez Díaz conducía un Chevrolet Tahoe con placas de Alabama, seguido por su padre en un Chevrolet Silverado con placas de México. Ambos vehículos presuntamente transportaban remolques utilitarios de caja blanca cerrados.

La denuncia penal alega que las autoridades encontraron paredes falsas en ambos remolques, lo que resultó en el descubrimiento de más de 300 rifles y pistolas, así como municiones y cargadores de diversos calibres, compartió el Departamento de Justicia.

“Los hombres estaban contrabandeando armas y artículos relacionados a cambio de pago y lo habían hecho en múltiples ocasiones”, indicaron las autoridades.

### Investigación conjunta de varias agencias

La investigación fue llevada a cabo por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE), la Oficina de Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional, la Oficina de Alcohol, Tabaco, Armas de Fuego y Explosivos, y la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza.

El Departamento de Justicia enfatizó que este caso forma parte de la Operación “Recuperemos América”, una iniciativa nacional que moviliza todos los recursos del Departamento para repeler la invasión de la inmigración ilegal, lograr la eliminación total de los cárteles y organizaciones criminales transnacionales, y proteger a las comunidades de los autores de delitos violentos.
https://eldiariony.com/2025/10/28/padre-e-hijo-arrestados-en-texas-por-contrabando-de-armas-de-fuego-a-mexico/

North Korea’s top diplomat meets with Putin on a visit to Russia

MOSCOW (AP) — North Korea’s top diplomat visited the Kremlin on Monday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, following last month’s meeting between the two countries’ leaders. This visit highlighted a show of deepening ties, coming as U.S. President Donald Trump visits Asia.

In a separate meeting with her Russian counterpart, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui confirmed North Korea’s “unwavering understanding and support” for Putin’s war against Ukraine, North Korean state media reported Tuesday.

In recent months, North Korea has sent thousands of troops and large quantities of military equipment to Russia to support its war effort. This growing alignment underscores leader Kim Jong Un’s increasingly assertive foreign policy as he seeks to break out of isolation and position his country as part of a united front against the U.S.-led West.

North Korea has shunned any form of talks with Washington and Seoul since Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019 during the American president’s first term.

Putin and Kim met in Beijing last September after attending a major military parade in the Chinese capital, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. During Monday’s talks, Putin asked North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui to convey his best wishes to Kim, noting that they had a very warm meeting, according to his televised remarks.

Before attending the Kremlin meeting with Putin, Choe held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov once again praised North Korean troops for fighting alongside the Russian military in the Kursk region after a surprise Ukrainian incursion.

“These heroic deeds will, of course, further strengthen the bonds of friendship and historical unity in our shared struggle for justice,” Lavrov said.

Choe noted “considerable progress” in relations between North Korea and Russia and confirmed Pyongyang’s support for “all measures” taken by Russia to defend its security interests and “eliminate the root cause” of its conflict with Ukraine, according to Russian and North Korean media reports.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) stated that Russian officials expressed Moscow’s support for all of Pyongyang’s efforts to “firmly defend its current status, security interests, and sovereign rights” during their meeting with Choe.

The two sides discussed expanding high-level exchanges and cooperation, as well as coordinating their diplomacy on unspecified “major issues of mutual concern,” KCNA said.

According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last fall, along with large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and ballistic missiles, to support Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. Kim has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia’s Kursk region.

Since the collapse of his diplomacy with Trump in 2019 due to disagreements over U.S.-led economic sanctions, Kim has focused on expanding the capabilities of his nuclear-armed military.

Last month, Kim suggested he could return to talks if Washington drops its demand for North Korea’s denuclearization, after Trump repeatedly expressed hopes for new diplomacy.

___

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed from Seoul, South Korea.
https://wtop.com/world/2025/10/north-koreas-top-diplomat-meets-with-putin-on-a-visit-to-russia/

Venezuela: President Maduro vows unity with Colombia; President Petro renews call for Constituent Assembly

This article from The Orinoco Tribune was written in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, and published on October 23. Given the threat of an imminent U.S. military attack on Venezuela, Colombia, and other sovereign countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Workers World is increasing its coverage from that region.

**Caracas:** Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on October 20 that he will always close ranks with Colombia, whose president, Gustavo Petro, was accused without evidence on October 19 by his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, of being a “leader of illegal drug trafficking.”

“At heart, we are Colombia, the profound Great Colombia founded on the Orinoco River by the Liberator Commander Simón Bolívar,” Maduro said during an activity with communal leaders.

“And Colombia knows that we are one, Siamese twins. Whatever happens with Colombia, happens with Venezuela. And whatever happens with Venezuela, happens with Colombia.”

“As a military officer of the Colombian military forces wrote to me two weeks ago: ‘If you touch Venezuela, you touch Colombia.’ We are one homeland of the heart. And we do not say this just for the sake of saying it.”
https://www.workers.org/2025/10/88668/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=venezuela-president-maduro-vows-unity-with-colombia-president-petro-renews-call-for-constituent-assembly