The Hobbes News Network

Hello and welcome to the Hobbes News Network, broadcasting the latest news from Lanos. The oldest and most trusted news source in Lanos since 1959.

Available on your local channels:
In mainland Lanos: KRAP-TV 21 (Keinsteinem), WHYL-TV 16 (Georgetown), WGTZ-TV 84 (Marina), KMRA-TV 37 (Nostrom), and KPRT-TV 55 (Port Darthur)
In Hoenn and Sinnow: ZVRL-TV 18 (Celadon)
In Hobbes City: GHOB-TV 91 (Georgetown)
In Longrova and Novestra: NOTV-TV 44 (New Mombassa)
Available on all networks: cable channel 21, satellite channel 321, and on the Armed Forces Network.

Available on radio channels KXRA FM 103.9, KXRA AM 630, and on KXRA shortwave 69.9

Stay tuned.

2016 Election Coverage

It seems the numerous small parties here in Lanos have picked their candidates to run for President in 2016. Many are banking on the Democrats having to defend Mikhail Wilson, current President who has filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for his first elected term, of which he is constitutionally entitled to run for two four-year terms. He can serve for a maximum of 12 years: If one took office after the elected President was removed in some way from office, the new President can run for two terms. Since he took over from Rolf Harris, he can serve for a record-breaking 11 years. It doesn't seem likely, but considering only two Presidents have lost re-election, the odds are in his favor.

However the Republicans, scrambling for someone suitable to defeat Wilson, be re-electable, and experienced enough for the job, have suprised the entire political world with their first candidate to file for her party's nomination for President: Marina Aruthyan.

The widow of Mikhail Aruthyan, she returned to Lanos under careful watch by the Republic of Lanos National Police Security Service as the Service recognizes that there are some who wish to bring harm to her in Kingsley Bedford. A native of Marina, Lanos, she is legal to run as she has met the 10 year requirement of residency and she is a Lanosian. She remarked that by running, she could bring the spirit of her husband to life with her running and being elected as President of Lanos. Many pollsters predict an easy victory, beating Wilson 65-34% on Election Day.

All this comes at a time that Kingfordians are very much in the news. President Wilson, himself of Kingfordian descent, nominated Ambassador Chuck Nugent to the Council of Governors of Sarca Vaehtis. Many have called out this nomination in the Senate as Nugent is connected to political interests back in Kingsley Bedford and is related to Marina Aruthyan from her mother's family. The nomination is expected to be approved, but the appearance of corruption and cronyism is likely to come back to haunt Wilson come Election season.

Enpolian issues

Enpolintoc has stepped up security across its empire with the revelation of Selenia Kolovich leading Ferrozan forces for independence and Romburyani forces doing the same over there. At the same time, the Department of State issued a travel warning to Lanosians, citing the recent stepping up of security and the concern of civil rights violations occuring as a result. The Department also issued refugee/asylum status to Kolovich, calling her a freedom fighter making her non-deportable upon entry to Lanos. No word if she will take up the offer.

Stay Tuned.

Enpolian Controversy

The Enpolian Territory of Romburyan has reacted to the recent HNN news broadcast. Needless to say, it was a hot refutement to the broadcast that the Romburyani forces are freedom fighters trying to secure independence. However, the Lanosian Government contends that the incident, as well as the FIA's conduct of warfare, is an act of partisan warfare. Lanos can't condemn it per se, because the nation engaged in such warfare during the Civil War against the Fascist uprising, however it can condemn such warfare when it devolves into genocide or other war crimes. So far, it appears that none of the sort occured.

Cooler heads seem to prevail here despite analysts predicting armed warfare with Enpolintoc with a 60% chance. The State Department is not lifting either the warning nor the asylum status. If armed conflict comes over her entering Lanos, not only will it destroy Lanos, it will also devastate Enpolintoc. It would also set a dangerous precedent. If Enpolintoc can invade Lanos over a "criminal," would that give Cathatis the right to invade and arrest a head of state for alleged crimes? The region cannot afford that.

Stay Tuned.

Hobbes City to become nation-state in Lanos

The State of Hobbes City is set to become the second nation-state in Lanos, aside from Hyrule which joined in 1964. The state will become the Republic of Hobbes City and will have its own military, special relations with the national government, ability to negotiate which part of laws can be enforced in the nation-state, and have limited diplomatic relations with other nations. Technically, the Republic never died out after the invasion by Lanos in 2009. It remained in an office building and unharmed by Lanos while the State was set up. Now with Hobbes City becoming a nation-state, the whole territory will once again be a republic. The creation of the nation-state will become effective in January 2017, when the new Hobbesian President and Congress will be sworn in.

Already, limitations have been set with who the new republic can have diplomatic relations with. While they can go at with Kingsley Bedford, Bisgea, and Enpolintoc, they are forbidden to converse with nations either to have been confirmed or suspected of having a poor civil rights record or just not acceptable to Lanos at all. Swilatia is on this list and many speculate this is because of corruption in the Worldvision contests they conduct. Whatever the new limits are, many in Hobbes City are excited at the prospect of having sovergnity, however limited it is.

Stay Tuned.

Kingfordian Presidential Election
Scandal over mental sanity of President Marina Aruthyan
Commentary by Some Guy

It would seem that despite all the assurances of not being an issue, the Kingfordian private media outlet, yet unidentified, has gotten scot free so far after making the claims President Marina Aruthyan is insane for adopting Lily and not to vote for her son, Mikhail Aruthyan Jr., on such a basis. What's worse is that President Yuliana, the eventual winner of the election, never had done anything to condemn, refute, or even acknowledge the accusations against Marina's mental health. Reports out of the Kingfordian capital saying she will make a statement on the whole mess have been confirmed by Hobbes News but the time of the press conference is not yet known. We will cover it as it happens.

However, the whole episode proves itself to be another low point in Kingfordian-Lanosian relations. While Lanos has owned up to its bad history of controlling Kingsley Bedford behind the scenes under President Tom Rezantia (and instantly stopped by Marina who was married to Mikhail Sr, the first Kingfordian president), it seems things are not improving. Despite the 1988-2008 involvement of the Lanosian military in the Kingfordian Civil War to keep the two sides from killing each other off, it would be worth noting that relations between the two nations during Marina's first term were good and now things have went off the deep end ever since Marina adopted her pony and now at this critical point when she is talking to the Kingfordian Foreign Minister, her son, and the Cesarica to explain ponies to them. After all, this whole thing started with Marina wanting to take her adopted pony to KB but she refused after Kingfordian customs wouldn't be changed to accomodate the pony or others of her species. Particularly after the insane comments went viral, the Lanosian population believes that the insanity issue was the only issue discussed and voted on instead of foreign interference. Whatever the real issue was when Kingfordians went to the polls, the false claims seemed to have significantly unfairly punished Mikhail Jr.'s chances of winning the election and unfairly damaged Marina's credibility, popularity, and her personal image. Never before has this happened in any sort of democratic politics that Lanos has seen before. In fact, many Lanosians view Yuliana's refusal to address the comments until now or even during the election as unofficially condoning the remarks. If any politican were to do that in Lanos, they would be out of the job as soon as that was seen. I sincerely hope that those responsible over there do own up to that and are legally and fairly punished for their comments.

No matter what seems to be done to improve things, something always works itself into the works to screw it all up. Hopefully Yuliana's statement will calm President Marina and to allow things at the Cesarica's resort to resume and hopefully a settlement and understanding can be reached. Our president is not insane. She just loves her children, her husband, her job, and her home nation. Until next time, stay tuned.

Kingfordian Election Scandal
Yuliana finally condemns slanderous remarks about President Marina Aruthyan
Newsblog, blogger "forced" to apologize for remarks

Spoiler:

It would seem that the issue has finally died off, officially at least, with Yuliana finally condemning the remarks by the blogger and his private news site for the slanderous remarks. However, some remark that it was too little, too late after the election was settled. Perhaps Yuliana did not wish to alienate her voting base that sought to vote for her. The issue at hand was clouded and still taints the election outcome. Whatever. If Yuliana was truly disgusted by the remarks, she should have condemned them then not now. Only time will tell if she really is sorry about those remarks. Only time shall tell.

Kingfordian-Lanosian Pony Summit

The summit, however, seems to be getting off with a good start. Reports have it that the close talks introducing ponies to Kingsley Bedford will start soon though preliminary information about ponies was questioned by the Kingfordians if that was all the Lanosians were introducing. More will come out of the summit later.

Stay Tuned.

BREAKING NEWS
Kingfordian-Lanosian Pony Summit
1st discussion abruptly ends

This just in from the Cesarica's resort in Enpolintoc. Our Presdiential Reporter has just reported that President Marina Aruthyan has abruptly ended today's discussion of ponies because of a sudden question by President Yuliana of Kingsley Bedford to prove Lily Aruthyan's sapience. Yuliana's previous questions had apparantly caused Marina to become flustered during the meeting but the sudden question proving sapiece of the pony had caused Kisha Antellev, the Cesarica's security chief, to burst out in reaction to the question in defense of the pony. The meeting then ended when Marina announced it as such because of her anger at Yuliana over the questions. It is also being reported that Antellev was given an Iron Cross originally meant for the Cesarica. The outcome of this discussion and the future of the summit is now in question after this incident.

Pony elected to Congress

Taylor Kaven (R), the first pony elected to Congress to the 14th Congressional District of Novestra, was elected with 53% of the vote in a special election to fill the vacant seat that was left empty when the previous holder died of a heart attack 2 months ago. Kaven, a black-white pegasus, was elected to the district despite the fact it had a low pony population. He considered the achievement "a significant day for Lanosian ponies that a pony can be elected and serve in Congress." He intends on running for the seat in the November 2016 elections.

Stay tuned.

Kingfordian-Lanosian Pony Summit
Aftermath of 1st discussion
Commentary by Some Guy

Well ladies and gentlemen, it appears that Lanosians were right about something after all when it came to Yuliana. For days we've been reporting of how Yuliana had made indirect threats against the job of the Kingfordian Foriegn Minister and son of President Marina Aruthyan, Mikhail Jr., and now with what has been released to the press by the Green House about what exactly happened at the 1st discussion only seems to make us more disgusted at Yuliana for her reported ignorance and contempt for Marina. It was told that Marina felt flustered by Yuliana's questions and anger when Yuliana held back a laugh when Marina had her husband, Richard, answer a question when she was in a state of being flustered by Yuliana's questions. Only the question of proving Lily's sapience by having her "act normal" could have released her characteristic anger at Yuliana, possibly resulting in the unfair and retalitatory firing of her son from his job, was only prevented from happening when Kisha Antellev, the head of the Cesarica's bodyguard unit, stepped in and defended the pony. Her personal reasons as to why have not been released by the Green House, other sources, or Ms. Antellev herself and the Hobbes News Network will not speculate or release any of her personal information unless she grants permission to do so.

The whole affair has only reinforced Lanosian suspiscion of Yuliana's competence of running a country and make them more suspiscious of how and why the Kingfordians elected such an ignorant leader in the first place. With this information coming out, they should be ashamed in what Yuliana said and should demand she drop her ignorant bullshit and stop with trying to trip up President Marina and humiliate her in front of not only another world leader but her own children. I personally suspect that is her motive after all. She is trying to abuse Marina by threatening to fire her son and using such questions only to make her seem unprofessional and as crazy as that "news" site once claimed about her. Nothing has been heard from the Kingfordian news networks on this incident. Only time will tell if anything will be heard from them.

The whole incident only has proven more reasons as to why Yuliana should not have been re-elected in the first place. If she keeps up this agenda against Marina, it will only damage Kingforidian-Lanosian relations further. If she has any dignity left in her, she should drop the bullshit and apologize to Marina and her pony, to Lanos, and to the world. If she won't stoop to admitting her failings, she should resign from her office and hand control of Kingsley Bedford to more competent command. I am not in any position to make such demands and I understand this may get Marina's son fired illegally from his job but I am making this for the good of President Marina and her family. They do not deserve that sort of treatment, especially from a national leader. Freedom over tyranny.

Stay tuned.

Kingfordian-Lanosian pony summit

On Day 2 of the summit, things have seemed to calm down as President Yuliana has seen Lily Aruthyan on camera and thus proving to her the pony is indeed sapient as a human being. Now there is the possibility that President Marina and her family will go to Harani City in Kingsley Bedford to prove the pony's, and others of her kind, sapience to the Kingfordians in order to advance pony rights to that nation. Time will tell if this were to occur.

Armed Forces to acquire more Sand Cats, replace HMMWV entirely

The Armed Forces announced that to finally phase out the HMMWV series of vehicles, the Oshkosh Sand Cat and its associated variants will be doing the full replacement of the venerable Humvee. Alongside the International Maxxpro and other such armored combat vehicles, the Sand Cat was chosen for its better armor and mobility over the HMMWV in 2008 but the Hobbes City War and the Underium Occupation showed the Humvee's weakness in such situations. The Sand Cat is to be fully adopted by the middle of the year after being phased into service around late 2009.

Stay tuned.

Kingfordian-Lanosian Pony Summit

As reported by other regional news organizations, President Marina Aruthyan and family have moved to Harani City, Kingsley Bedford in order to convince the Kingfordian government to grant sapient animals the same rights as humans. The move is already causing some controversy either from the fact that the pony is being exploited and is being given so many responsibilites at her age and that the Cesarica of Enpolintoc should not have come at all. People are still questioning President Marina's mental health even after that incident last year. Such questions were raised by her visit to Mikhail Arhturyan Sr.'s, her first husband, grave and reportedly talking to his tombstone and crying on the ground. Her press secretary reminded Hobbes News reporters that she still mourns the loss of her husband and that she is not "crazy" as some suggest. She will later be featured in a Kingfordian News interview and later in front of the Kingfordian Parliament. She is rumored to have another pony aide on call to be sent to Harani if she determines Lily is liable to breaking down in front of the Parliament. No word if this is being carried out.

Mojoy coming to Lanos?

Mojoy, a designer drug reputed to be like a mix of cocaine and ecstasy, is hitting the streets of major Enpolian cities and is reportedly heading to Lanos. Upon hearing of the effects of the drug, Mojoy was banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Drug Administration. This ban effectively forbids the usage, possession, and distribution of the drug and it is illegal for it to be perscribed even if the perscription was made in another country.. It is illegal to import the drug into Lanos and carries a stiff penalty akin to importing crack cocaine. The Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, the National Police, and the DEA are on watch for the drug hitting the streets of Lanos.

Stay tuned.

Gay military service ban lifted

President Marina Aruthyan lifted the military service ban on homosexual men in the Republic of Lanos Armed Forces after Congress lifted the statute on the ban but not the Armed Forces directive on the matter. The ban once forbade homosexual men serving in the armed forces since the times of the Civil War and now homosexual men can serve freely and openly without fear of discharge. With new training to instruct servicemen on the matter, the Armed Forces will not tolerate any gay-bashing incidents in the ranks. There is no word on integrating women into the armed forces.

Stay tuned.