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The Biden administration could sign in Vienna as early as Monday a new deal with the ayatollahs that would include a staggering hostage ransom sum totaling as much as 25 percent of Tehran’s entire annual budget.

DEVELOPING: Hostage situation ongoing at Apple store in Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/PhgC7I307Q — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 22, 2022 Staff being held at gunpoint. This story is developing. #BREAKING #NETHERLANDS 🔴HOLLAND : #VIDEO HOSTAGE SITIATION AT AN APPLE STORE IN LEIDSEPLEIN, AMSTERDAM! ONGOING! Police Forces have surrounded the #Apple store, after a man took workers of the store #hostage with a gun. -Another Footage#BreakingNews #Amsterdam #Leidseplein pic.twitter.com/7wvBxx6fSh — loveworld (@LoveWorld_Peopl) February 22, 2022 Vermoedelijke gijzeling Apple Store Leidseplein #overval #leidseplein pic.twitter.com/mMmgnRFNQG — Thom (@vdhthom) February 22, 2022 Steeds meer leden van de DSI komen ter plaatsehttps://t.co/tFjc24uVgv pic.twitter.com/ubF0aepxI9 — AT5 (@AT5) February 22, 2022...

President Biden on Sunday called for the release of American hostage Mark Frerichs ahead of the two-year anniversary of his abduction if the Taliban expects to be recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. "Two years ago tomorrow, U.S. Navy veteran Mark Frerichs was taken hostage in Afghanistan. A civil engineer, he spent a decade helping the people of Afghanistan. He has done nothing wrong. And yet, for two years the Taliban has held him captive," Biden said in a statement.

President Biden on Sunday called the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue on Saturday an "act of terror." "This was an act of terror," Biden told reporters. "This was an act of terror [that was not only related to someone who had been arrested I might add 15 years ago and had been in jail for 10 years."

The suspect in an apparent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue is identified as Muhammad Siddiqui by ABC News, which reports that he’s holding the rabbi of the congregation and three others hostage. Siddiqui claimed during the livestream to be the brother of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who was convicted in 2010 by a New York City Federal Court of attempting to kill US military personnel. She is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. ABC, citing a source at the scene, says Siddiqui is demanding his sister’s release.

In a standoff that has lasted nearly a month, three cats based in Langford, B.C. on southern Vancouver Island have tried to claim ownership of a blender box — a saga that has fascinated social media users worldwide. It all started on Dec. 16, according to Nikii Gerson-Neeves, one of the trio's owners, when she brought in a new Vitamix blender and left the still-unopened, knee-high box on the kitchen floor. Her four-year-old tuxedo cat, Max, immediately jumped on the box, bemusing Nikii's wife Jessica, who took a picture and uploaded it to a Facebook group that celebrates chunky cats....

Officers received a call late on Sunday night from a distressed woman who said “a possum was holding her hostage” at her home in the South Island city of Dunedin. “When she would exit her house and attempt to reach her car, the possum would charge at her and she would flee inside,” Snr Sgt Craig Dinnissen said. When the police arrived and approached the front door, a juvenile possum came out of the dark and climbed an officer’s leg. Dinnissen suspected it was either an escaped pet or had recently been separated from its mother. Maurice the pet Possum...

Taliban holding six airplanes carrying AMERICANS AND AFGHAN REFUGEES 'HOSTAGE' at an airport in Afghanistan... https://twitter.com/ChuckCallesto/status/1434546651536965632

It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.. After details emerged that Biden officials handed the Taliban a list of names of Americans and Afghan allies they wanted evacuated, as well as allowing biometric devices containing fingerprints, eye scans and personal details of those allies to fall into Taliban hands, the president was charged with having ‘blood on his hands’ after he admitted that “that very well could have happened.” The existence of what has been dubbed a ‘kill list’ was first reported on by Politico via three congressional officials. The report notes that “the decision to provide...

Rep. Liz Cheney said President Biden should have ignored his predecessor’s negotiated May 1 withdrawal deadline with the Taliban and disregarded the advice of military leaders — decisions she claimed has led to Americans “probably being held hostage” in war-torn Afghanistan. “President Biden is the president of the United States and he’s had no problem in reversing course on other things. He decided he’s going to rejoin the JCPOA. He decided he’s going to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. He’s reversed a number of decisions of the Trump administration,” Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the...

A former British soldier turned MP who served in Afghanistan says the Taliban cannot be trusted and warns "of the biggest hostage crisis the West has seen in decades", amid growing calls for humanitarian support. In an interview with 9News, Tom Tugendhat, chair of the UK Parliament's powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, criticised the handling of the withdrawal, lashing his own government for the "worst foreign policy mistake for the United Kingdom since Suez", and saying "for the United States this is potentially worse than Saigon." Mr Tugendhat questioned remarks by US President Joe Biden defending the chaotic withdrawal, and the...

Vulnerable Democrats revolted against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) holding a bipartisan infrastructure deal hostage to pass their more leftist infrastructure package. President Joe Biden softened his language about a threat to veto a bipartisan infrastructure proposal if Congress did not pass their far-left, reconciliation infrastructure bill. However, Pelosi has not reversed her threat to tank the proposal.

A former confidant of Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, admitted in court papers on Friday to an array of federal crimes — including sex trafficking of a minor — and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigations, handing prosecutors a potential key witness as they decide whether to charge Mr. Gaetz. Joel Greenberg, who was a tax collector in the Orlando area until he was indicted last year, did not implicate Mr. Gaetz by name in papers filed by prosecutors in Federal District Court in Orlando. But Mr. Greenberg admitted that he and unidentified others had paid a...

The man accused of trying to extort $25 million from Rep. Matt Gaetz’s family admitted Monday that he asked the congressman’s dad for cash — but denied that it was a shakedown. Bob Kent, an ex-Air Force intelligence officer, confirmed to Sirius Radio host Michael Smerconish that he approached the Florida Republican’s dad, Don Gaetz, for money last month. The funds, Kent said, were to pay for an effort to free Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, and is believed to be dead. Kent claimed he has video evidence that Levinson is still alive...

The Oklahoma City Police Department released a video showing inmates drag, beat and stab a jailer before police shot and killed one who was holding a homemade knife to the jailer’s neck at Oklahoma County Detention Center on Saturday, March 27. According to officials, Oklahoma City police were called in after 34-year-old Curtis Montrell Williams, an Oklahoma County jail inmate, took a detention officer's keys, tied him up and took him hostage. Police said Williams then let out other inmates from their cells and then an inmate got a hold of the knife and stabbed the detention officer multiple times....

The material suggests that Gaetz’s father was told his son’s legal problems could go away if he gave $25 million to help secure the release of Iranian hostage Bob Levinson. --- The scandal swirling around Rep. Matt Gaetz took a stunning turn Wednesday with the news that a former Air Force intelligence official and a Florida lawyer tried to get the congressman’s dad to cough up $25 million that would be used to free American Bob Levinson from Iranian custody—and somehow release Gaetz from a federal sex-crimes investigation. And if that wasn’t enough, here’s one more strange fact: Levinson was...

Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name.We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter...— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 30, 2021...and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals. The planted leak to the FBI tonight was intended to thwart that investigation.No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets...— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 30, 2021...of the ongoing extortion...

Joe Biden conducted the most anemic presidential campaign in history. Using COVID-19 as an excuse, he stayed off the campaign trail for months, limited press access, and held strange rallies with no voters in attendance. When he called a voter “fat”, and challenged Donald Trump to a fist-fight, we knew he was past his prime and his prime was never very impressive. Nobody has ever admired Joe for his intelligence, wisdom, statesmanship, or creativity. No, it was obvious he was merely a transport mechanism to deliver the White House to the political left -- rather like a political trojan horse...

WASHINGTON - Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that House impeachment managers were preparing to prosecute President Trump in the Senate, but she refused to offer a timeline for when they would move forward with a never-before-attempted trial of a former president. At a news conference two days after the House impeached Mr. Trump in a bipartisan vote, Ms. Pelosi made clear that her first priority was ensuring the security of the Capitol and lawmakers before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration on Wednesday. But growing emotional at times as she recounted seeing the image of a rioter barging through...

An American hostage has been rescued in West Africa by SEAL Team 6 in a daring raid, Fox News has learned. The elite SEAL Team 6 staged a daring raid in the West African country of Nigeria, rescuing Philip Walton, 27, who had been taken hostage, officials told Fox News. “We had to get him before any potential trade or sale,” one U.S. official said. President Donald Trump tweeted out a show of support, calling the operation a "big win" for the elite force, and promised further details. Walton was kidnapped in Niger, which borders Nigeria, earlier this week. The...