Quote:The Democrat-led city of Denver, Colorado, is offering a how-to guide to help other cities turn into immigrant sanctuaries at the expense of taxpayers.
The guide is titled “Newcomers Playbook: A Guide to Welcoming Newcomers into Your City,” and its authors say they are “thrilled” to offer their guide on how to plan and implement a sanctuary city.
The guide exclaims:
We are thrilled that you are interested in creating a welcoming environment for migrants in your city. As part of Denver’s welcoming approach, we use the term “newcomers” to refer to migrants, recognizing that they are new to our city and embracing a more inclusive language. This playbook is a guide divided into two sections, offering recommendations and strategies for successfully integrating newcomers into your city.
The guide credits the “Office of Mayor Mike Johnston” and several of his migrant agencies. Even though the 22-page booklet celebrates turning cities into immigrant sanctuaries, it is supposedly written by the same mayor who has attacked outside groups and states for sending immigrants to Denver, claimed the wave of immigrants was unsustainable, sent officials on trips to discourage immigrants from coming to Denver, spent millions shipping immigrants to other cities, cut funding and services, and worked to evict immigrants from city-sponsored shelters.
Despite actions that seem to contradict the “welcoming” that the guide claims Denver has offered “newcomers” — that being the latest Orwellian rebranding of the term “illegal aliens” — the guide offers handy tips to aspiring sanctuary cities on how to redirect city services from citizens to immigrants.
Included are tips to establish intake centers to help direct immigrants to free services, how to offer free transportation, free housing, food, clothing, medical care, legal advice, and more.
The guide even suggests that cities purchase or arrange contracts with mobile showers and laundry trucks to offer such services to “newcomers.”
Quote:Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) spoke Saturday at an anti-Israel conference in Detroit, Michigan, that was connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the U.S. regards as a Foreign Terror Organization (FTO).
The Detroit Free Press reported on Tlaib’s remarks at the People’s Conference for Palestine at Wayne State University:
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib slammed President Joe Biden and some of her congressional colleagues in a speech to the People’s Conference for Palestine in downtown Detroit, urging them to do more to stop what she calls the “genocide” in Gaza.
…
More than 3,000 people registered for the three-day People’s Conference for Palestine, organizers said, and they descended on Detroit starting Friday from around United States, and some from outside the country. The goal was to “serve as a space to assess, strategize and prepare for what is required for us in the next phase of struggle,” organizers said.
…
Sessions included “Palestinian Resistance and the Path to Liberation,” “Confronting Zionism in Higher Education” and “Zionism and U.S. Imperialism.” A vendor fair included Palestinian art, clothing and more. Many wore keffiyehs, the headdress or scarf that has come to be a symbol for Palestinians.
The National Review noted that one of the speakers, Wisam Rafeedie, is “associated” with the PFLP; while another, Sana Daqqah, is married to a PFLP terrorist:
Among the speakers at the Michigan event was Wisam Rafeedie, an activist associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist terror group active in Gaza and headquartered in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The U.S. State Department, as well as Japan, Canada, and the European Union, has designated the PFLP as a terrorist organization.
Quote:The cost of illegal immigration is bearing out in the Big Apple and tourists are the latest to foot the bill.
New York City is more expensive than ever to visit, primarily due to Mayor Eric Adams (D) converting tons of hotels into shelters for newly arrived migrants, the New York Times reported Saturday. As Breitbart News has chronicled, Adams currently has about 65,000 migrants living in more than 16,500 hotel rooms across New York City.
The result has been skyrocketing hotel room costs for tourists who pay the price while hotels, often owned by the largest conglomerates, are raking in up to $185 per hotel room per night, whether migrants are staying in the room or not.
“The average daily rate for a hotel stay in New York City increased to $301.61 in 2023, up 8.5 percent from $277.92 in 2022, according to CoStar, a leading provider of commercial real estate data and analysis,” the Times reported:
During the first three months of 2024, when prices traditionally dip, the average stay was still 6.7 percent higher than during the same time period last year: $230.79 a night, up from $216.38 in 2023. [Emphasis added]
About 135 of the city’s roughly 680 hotels entered the shelter program, with many congregated in Midtown Manhattan, Long Island City in Queens and near Kennedy International Airport — all traditional magnets for tourists. Participating hotels are paid up to $185 a night per room, according to the city. Not a single one has converted back into a traditional hotel. [Emphasis added]
Quote:Actor Johnny Wactor, who played Brando Corbin on General Hospital, was shot and killed on Saturday during an alleged car theft. He was 37.
The tragic shooting reportedly happened when Wactor and a colleague saw three men attempting to steal a catalytic converter from his car. His mother, Scarlett Wactor, said that her son confronted the suspects, who fired at him and fled. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3 a.m. Per the New York Post:
No suspects have been arrested as of Sunday afternoon.
Wactor is best known for playing Brando Corbin in 164 episodes of long-running soap opera “General Hospital” between 2020 and 2022, according to his IMDb profile. He also appeared in the supernatural drama show “Siberia” and an episode of “Criminal Minds.”
His mother told TMZ she would remember him as a loving young man. He leaves behind his mother and a pair of younger brothers, the outlet reported.
Wactor’s tragic death comes when Los Angeles has experienced an unprecedented crime wave that has claimed several celebrity victims in the past two years. In August 2023, for instance, two victims were robbed at gunpoint outside of the celebrity-frequented restaurant Craig’s on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. As Breitbart News reported previously, several celebrities found themselves in near-violent or extremely violent altercations in Los Angeles in 2023 when the city faced an unprecedented crime wave ahead of its mayoral election:
Quote:A museum in Seattle had to close its “Confirming Hate Together” exhibit after several employees walked out in protest of Israel.
Employees with the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle reportedly organized under the handle @wlm4palestine on Instagram, accusing the exhibit of conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The “Confirming Hate Together” exhibit billed itself as an exhibition for “anti-Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander hate, Black hate and anti-Jewish hate.”
More than 20 employees walked out last Wednesday — the same day that the exhibit opened.
“A majority of our walkout collective is made up of the most vulnerable employees of the Wing Luke Museum — front of house staff and part-time workers,” a post from @wlm4palestine reads. “There are 22 known WLM Staff across departments and organization levels who are still in solidarity with walkouts, with others who are in solidarity.”
The employees went as far to demand that the museum remove “any language…that attempt[s] to frame Palestinian liberation and anti-Zionism as antisemitism.” The anti-Israel protesters also ask for the museum to “acknowledge the limited perspectives presented in this exhibition.”
“Missing perspectives include those of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslim communities who are also experiencing an increased amount of violence, scapegoating, and demonization as Zionist forces continue the genocide in Palestine,” the petition said.
The campaign even set up a GoFundMe page asking for donations to compensate wages missed. As of this writing, it has raised over $4,300.
Quote:North Korea on Monday lashed out at South Korea, Japan, and even Pyongyang’s patron China for supporting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula at a summit in Seoul.
North Korea’s rhetoric was par for the course with regard to South Korea and Japan, but unusually harsh against China, which went out of its way to avoid criticizing the North Korean regime during the summit.
China was less insistent on denuclearization at this weekend’s summit than it was at a similar event held in the Chinese city of Chengdu in 2019. The trilateral meeting issued a statement on Monday that said disarmament and stability on the peninsula are important for all three countries, but avoided the phrase “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, which appeared in the 2019 joint statement.
“We reiterated positions on regional peace and stability, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the abductions issue, respectively. We agree to continue to make positive efforts for the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue,” the new statement said.
“Abductions” refers to North Korea’s horrific policy of kidnapping Japanese citizens during the 1970s and 1980s. A few of the abductees were later returned to Japan, but the Japanese government has long demanded a full accounting of all of their fates. North Korea periodically claims to be “investigating” the matter, without results.
Quote:France’s globalist President Emmanuel Macron is making a state visit to Germany, the first such for 24 years, and kicked off his visit by warning against nations acting in their own interest.
France and Germany, both led by globalist-left governments and both facing a damaging vote in less than two weeks as the European Parliament is re-elected continent-wide, put on a united front as Macron arrived in Berlin for the first state visit in a near-quarter century. The last French leader to make a full state visit to Germany was Jacques Chirac in 2000.
The Franco-German relationship — keeping the two parties from invading each other — is the founding purpose of the European Union and defending that institution was evidently on Macron’s mind as he addressed German young people to sublimate feelings of national pride into the European Union. “Europe can die”, the French President warned again, if the right wing isn’t defeated, reports Le Figaro.
“We have never had as many enemies inside as outside”, Macron said, expressing his hyper-globalist assessment that nationalism damages democracy, and that there was a “fight” on to prevent this process. He continued, warning: “A form of fascination with authoritarianism is emerging in our democracy.”
Presenting his list of European victories that wouldn’t have been possible “if the nationalists had been in charge in Europe”, Macron again showed particular preoccupations by naming achievements like coronavirus vaccines, “decarbonising the economy”, and underwriting Ukraine’s national defence.
Quote:French President Emmanuel Macron decided on Monday to lift the state of emergency in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia in a move meant to allow political dialogue following the unrest that left seven people dead and a trail of destruction, his office said.
The president’s office said in a statement that the state of emergency won´t be extended “for the moment” and will therefore end Monday at 8 p.m. in Paris, which is 5 a.m. Tuesday in New Caledonia.
The decision aims at “enabling meetings of the various components” of pro-independence movement FLNKS, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, and allowing elected officials and other local leaders “in a position to call” for lifting the barricades to go there and meet with protesters, the statement said.
New Caledonia’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said on Monday that an evening and overnight curfew will remain in place. Travel will be banned between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time except for civil servants, medical professionals and other essential workers on night shifts and health emergencies.
New Caledonia’s ban on public gatherings, transport and carrying of weapons and sale of alcohol will also remain in place, Le Franc said.
The main international airport, La Tontouta, will remain closed to commercial traffic until Sunday, June 2, according to a statement from the archipelago’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Tontouta airport shut down the day after protests against Macron government’s efforts to amend the French Constitution and change voting lists in New Caledonia turned violent.
Quote:Interim President Mohammad Mokhber held a phone conversation on Sunday with the head of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to assure his organization that Tehran would continue to sponsor terrorists following the sudden loss of late President Ebrahim Raisi.
“The basic strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in backing the Resistance Front, especially the Palestinian resistance groups, will not alter by the change of people,” Mokhber reportedly assured Ziad al-Nakhalah, the PIJ “secretary general.”
Mokhber became interim president following the death of Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and six others in a helicopter crash on May 19. The group was returning from a political engagement in Azerbaijan when the helicopter suddenly lost contact with the ground. Iranian officials initially reported that the helicopter had a “hard landing” that had “not been rough” before confirming on May 20 that the helicopter had crashed and killed everyone on board.
The Iranian Islamist regime has not offered any clarity to the public regarding the nature of the crash. A preliminary report by the Iranian Armed Forces published on Thursday stated that investigators had found no evidence of sabotage, such as bullet holes or explosive residue, but did not suggest any alternate explanation for the crash.
Quote:Wars and rumours of wars are having an impact on military preparedness right across Eastern Europe. NATO member Poland on Monday became the latest state to announce a boost, presenting a plan to strengthen its anti-drone surveillance and on-ground military capabilities in the face of continued Russian threats.
The effort follows Finland, Norway, and Baltic states drawing up similar proposals to deter Moscow’s aggression.
AP reports a system of fortifications and barriers along about 430 miles of Poland’s eastern border with Russia and Russian ally Belarus are part of the planning.
The government says Poland, which supports neighboring Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s aggression, is being targeted by hostile actions by Russia and Belarus.
They include cyberattacks, attempted arson and migrants being pushed illegally across the border, which officials describe as intended to destabilize the European Union, of which Poland is a member, the AP report notes.
The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has planned a range of security measures including in cyberspace, as well as a more than $2.5 billion investment in strengthening surveillance, deterrence and defense along the eastern border, a system known as Shield-East that is to be completed in 2028.
Quote:Palestinian sources claimed that 50 people had been killed — including civilians — as Israel launched an airstrike Sunday night in Rafah that targeted several major Hamas commanders.
[x/Twitter Posts]
The IDF issued a statement describing the airstrike:
Earlier this evening, an IAF aircraft, in an IDF and ISA intelligence-based strike, eliminated the terrorist Yassin Rabia, the Commander of Hamas’ leadership in Judea and Samaria, as well as Khaled Nagar, a senior official in Hamas’ Judea and Samaria wing.
The strike was carried out in the area of Tal as Sultan, in northwest Rafah, based on precise intelligence.
Hamas’ Judea and Samaria wing is responsible for the planning, funding, and carrying out of terror attacks throughout Judea and Samaria and within Israel.
The terrorist Yassin Rabia managed the entirety of Hamas’ terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria, transferred funds to terror targets and planned Hamas terror attacks throughout Judea and Samaria.
In the past, Rabia carried out numerous murderous terror attacks, including in 2001 and 2002, in which IDF soldiers were killed.
The terrorist Khaled Nagar, a senior official in Hamas’ Judea and Samaria Headquarters, directed shooting attacks and other terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria, and transferred funds intended for Hamas’ terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip. Previously, Khaled Nagar carried out several deadly terror attacks between 2001-2003 which led to the deaths of several Israeli civilians and the injury and death of several Israeli soldiers.
The IDF is aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.
Quote:Egypt confirmed Monday that one of its soldiers had been killed near the border with Gaza in a “shooting incident,” apparently with Israeli soldiers on the other side of the boundary, in the city of Rafah.
The Times of Israel reported: “Egypt says one of its soldiers was killed during a shooting incident near the border with the Gazan city of Rafah, appearing to confirm reports of a deadly firefight with Israeli troops.” The Egyptian military noted the shooting but did not specifically mention Israel.
However, Israeli media accounts suggested that Egyptian soldiers had started a firefight:
Egyptian army spokesman: 'The Egyptian armed forces are conducting an investigation regarding an incident of opening fire in the border area in Rafah - which resulted in the death of the border security authorities'
Egypt and Israel have formally been at peace since the Camp David Accords of 1978. However, Egypt has opposed Israel’s effort to attack Hamas in Rafah, and suggested that Israeli maneuvers near the border could jeopardize the peace between the two countries.
The peace with Egypt is regarded as “cold,” since Egypt still maintains hostile rhetoric toward Israel and antisemitism is common in Egyptian media. Israeli tourists visit Egypt, but rarely the other way around.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Former President Trump was found guilty on all counts in his historic and unprecedented criminal trial, making him the first former president of the United States to be convicted of a crime.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged former President Donald Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Jurors found the former president guilty on all counts.
Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 4 years. In total, Trump faces a maximum sentence of 136 years.
Judge Juan Merchan invited the jury into the courtroom to read its verdict after two days of deliberations.
Sentencing for the former president will be July 11 at 10:00 a.m--just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to be formally nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. The convention is July 15- 18 in Milwaukee.
Any motions will need to be filed by June 13th.
The conviction does not bar Trump from running for president.
Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified those records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
Moments after the verdict was delivered by the jury, the former president spoke to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom.
"This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial and disgrace. It wouldn't give us a venue change," Trump said. "We were at five percent or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial."
Trump said "the real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people."
"And they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here," Trump said. "You have a Soros backed DA and the whole thing."
He added: "We didn't do anything wrong. I'm a very innocent man. And it's okay. I'm fighting for our country. I'm fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now."
Trump said that the case was "done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent."
"And I think it's it's just a disgrace. And we'll keep fighting--we'll fight till the end and we'll win because our country's gone to hell," he said. "We don't have the same country anymore. We have a divided mess. We're a nation of decline, serious decline."
OK, now the US has become a banana republic that Putin and Xi Jinping can laugh at during their following meetings.
Quote:Americans across the country reacted to the stunning conviction Thursday of Donald Trump in his landmark criminal trial in New York, as he became the first former U.S. president and presumptive major party nominee to be found guilty of a crime.
The verdict has potentially massive political and societal implications with the presidential election just over five months away, or it could be greeted with a shrug by the American public. Those who talked to Fox News Digital on Thursday offered a range of reactions, from outrage to indifference to glee that Trump had been convicted, as well as divergent predictions on how it would affect the 2024 election.
Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 which the former president denies, and the jury found Trump falsified 34 business documents to conceal a hush money payment to Daniels before the 2016 election.
Aaron, speaking in Birmingham, Mich., told Fox News Digital the verdict was "absolutely insane" and made him more inclined to vote for Trump and donate to his campaign.
"It's election interference," he said. "We have a frontrunner in all the polls. He's actually beating Biden, and they've gone after Trump in multiple states."
Chase, also from Birmingham, Mich., said the verdict was a "complete failure of our justice system."
"I think it makes Trump stronger with his base," he added.
Outside the courthouse in Manhattan, a Trump supporter who said he was a native New Yorker called the verdict "despicable."
"[Trump] may be guilty there," he said, pointing to the courthouse, "but not in the eyes of the real New Yorker. We support him. He's going to be our president."
Quote:The Biden campaign is cheering the guilty verdict of former President Donald Trump in New York today in his business records case, the merits of which have been widely questioned by legal scholars and experts.
After Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in deep blue Manhattan, the Biden campaign said in a statement, “In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law.”
[X Post]
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” the release snarked.
The snide comment comes as Trump has been adamant the “election interference” “all comes out of Washington, DC.
“This is election interference. It all comes out of Washington. They have their reps [representiaves] here,” he said on May 10, telling media members, “I’m sure you know that.”
“It’s to damage Crooked Joe Biden’s political opponent – happens to be me. And we’re leading big in the polls, and the American people get it; it’s a scam,” he added.
Notably, Michael Colangelo, a lead prosecutor on the case, worked in the Biden Department of Justice before New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought him on board to his office, as the Washington Examiner reported. He also previously worked for New York Attorney General Letitia James and on her civil fraud case against Trump.
Per the Examiner’s Ashley Oliver:
Bragg did not hire Colangelo for his white-collar prosecutorial experience, which was lacking at the time he joined Bragg’s office. Rather, Bragg valued Colangelo’s “broad knowledge” of the Trump Organization, according to a New York Times report published at the end of 2022, during the same time frame that Bragg was seeking to ramp up his prosecution efforts against Trump.
Notably, legal expert Jonathan Turley has slammed the case as “absurd,” while Fox News analyst and former defense attorney Greg Jarrett has asserted the trial bore “no resemblance” to the “cherished constitutional promise” of the right to a fair trial.
Biden’s campaign also relied heavily on fear-mongering in its statement about the unprecedented conviction of the former president of the United States and presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Quote:Republicans’ online donation website was so overwhelmed in the minutes after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty that its functionality was incapacitated.
WinRed, the Republican Party’s official online donation platform, reportedly shut down after high traffic following the verdict.
The Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts, with Judge Juan Merchant setting sentencing for July 11 – only four days before the Republican National Convention assembles to formally nominate Trump.
WinRed’s link to donate to Trump’s campaign led to a page indicating an error had taken place with the website’s host. Other reports have GOP sources confirming the platform is “overwhelmed.”
Republicans rallied behind Trump after the verdict, with many choosing to find silver linings, the subsequent skyrocketing fundraising among them.
“The bad news is today the Biden leftists in New York made a mockery of our criminal justice system,” Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted. “The good news is Americans have sent Trump over $50 million since this travesty and his deranged enemies just elected Trump for President again!”
Lee Zeldin, the former Congressman and Trump ally who chairs the Leadership America Needs PAC, tweeted after the verdict that he “just secured a $800k donation from someone for President Trump’s Joint Fundraising Committee. Never experienced a massive ask that easy.”
Quote:American Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters on Wednesday that he is optimistic the member nations of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) will agree on a framework to respond to future pandemics, despite the collapsed of talks on a proposed “pandemic treaty” this week.
Becerra is in Geneva, Switzerland, for the W.H.O.’s annual World Health Assembly (WHA). Prior to the opening of the Assembly this week, a working group attempting to draft a pandemic treaty – formally the “W.H.O. convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response,” or “WHO CA+,” as parties cannot agree on what kind of international legal document to make it – failed to agree on a such a draft to introduce to the greater U.N. body. Supporters of a binding international agreement on pandemics lamented the setback, but W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, insisted, “this is not a failure.”
Becerra, representing the administration of President Joe Biden at the WHA, told reporters that the expansive nature of such an agreement makes it a challenging diplomatic endeavor and the necessity of years of negotiations on such an ambitious document is not unusual.
“We think the elements of a good deal are already on the table and that is why we feel optimistic because those are pretty good deals,” Becerra said on Wednesday, according to Voice of America. “It is just a matter now of fine-tuning it to make sure everybody says we are ready to sign on the dotted line.”
Becerra urged observers to put “in perspective” the size of the “major international achievement” that a pandemic treaty would represent: “negotiations go on forever … you do not build a nation overnight.”
He reportedly added that “there is clear consensus that we cannot let the status quo be upon us if another pandemic comes.”
Quote:U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is scheduled to meet with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun in Singapore this weekend, holding the first face-to-face bilateral defense meeting in 18 months.
The unusual dialogue comes only a week after China held aggressive military drills around Taiwan to “punish” the island for electing a president Beijing does not like.
Austin’s previous meeting was with one of Dong’s predecessors, Wei Fenghe, at a regional summit in Cambodia. Wei retired and was replaced by Gen. Li Shangfu in March 2023.
Li mysteriously vanished after only a few months on the job and was sacked without explanation in October 2023 with no immediate replacement, suggesting drama behind the scenes in the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy. In December, the Party appointed People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Admiral Dong Jun as Li’s belated successor.
Austin and Dong will meet on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asian defense summit hosted annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). This year’s meeting will include sessions on the Myanmar junta and U.S. strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, among other topics.
China has been harshly critical of those U.S. alliances in the Indo-Pacific, portraying them as a doomed effort by the United States to contain China’s rising power. Beijing has alternately bullied and cajoled Indo-Pacific nations to enter its orbit instead.
Taiwan is certain to be high on the list of subjects Austin and Dong will discuss. China staged several days of belligerent military drills, including simulated missile strikes and bombing runs that would have killed millions of civilians if they were real, after the inauguration of President William Lai Ching-te on May 20.
Quote:American Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested in remarks on Wednesday that President Joe Biden could one day support Ukraine attacking Russian territory with U.S. weapons if deemed necessary to “adjust” to what Ukraine needs to do to fend off the invasion.
“As the conditions have changed, as the battlefield has changed, as what Russia does has changed in terms of how it’s pursuing its aggression, escalation, we’ve adapted and adjusted too, and I’m confident we’ll continue to do that,” Blinken told reporters during a stop in Moldova on Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that anonymous sources within the Biden administration appear to agree with the implication in Blinken’s remarks that Biden is considering greenlighting strikes within Russia. The Post claimed the officials were “actively weighing” whether to stop discouraging Ukraine from using American weapons to strike Russian targets. Biden has led efforts to provide Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons in response to the Russian invasion since 2022 but has yet to publicly support Ukrainian attacks inside Russia out of concern that doing so will prompt Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to retaliate directly against the United States or other NATO powers.
Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing its Crimean peninsula in an “annexation” that Kyiv has rejected for a decade. The war simmered for years in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, fueled by Russia-backed separatists seeking to sever ties with the Ukrainian government. Following Biden’s decision to lift sanctions on the now-defunct Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, Putin dramatically escalated the conflict by formally invading Ukraine using the Russian military in February 2022. Since then, Putin has “annexed” four more regions of the country — the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — and made small but incremental gains in securing a growing amount of Ukrainian territory.
The lack of significant progress for Ukraine in thwarting the invasion in recent months appears to have prompted growing anxiety in the West and mounting calls to stop discouraging Ukraine from attacking Russian territory. Blinken was asked about Biden’s restrictions on U.S. weapons in the context of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg suggesting that Ukraine should be allowed to attack Russia.
“To deny Ukraine the possibility of using these weapons against legitimate military targets on Russian territory makes it very hard for them to defend themselves,” Stoltenberg reportedly said.
Quote:A Dominican Republic national living illegally in the U.S. has admitted to stealing $213,000 in food stamp benefits in Rhode Island, according to a federal press release.
Giomar Lopez Meireles, 41, admitted to defrauding the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). He was also found illegally in possession of a firearm when he was arrested, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Rhode Island.
After pleading guilty, Lopez Meireles is set to be sentenced on September 4.
Investigators said that Lopez Meireles was involved in a scheme to file for SNAP assistance using stolen identities and fraudulent social security numbers. After filing for assistance using the false identities, Lopez Meireles was sent electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards loaded with money, which he then sold to others for cash.
Lopez Meireles reportedly filed false applications for SNAP assistance from September 2021 to November 2023 to the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, which administers the SNAP program in the state.
After a raid was conducted on his apartment, dozens of EBT cards wrapped in paper containing account and PIN numbers were discovered. Officials also discovered a 9 mm pistol in the apartment. It is against the law for an illegal alien to be in possession of a firearm in the United States.
Quote:A judge in the sanctuary state of Washington has cut bail by 90 percent for the illegal alien accused of killing 27-year-old Washington State Trooper Christopher Gadd.
Raul Benitez Santana, a 33-year-old illegal alien from Mexico with multiple run-ins with the law, was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide in connection with Gadd’s death.
According to prosecutors, on March 2, Gadd was parked on the shoulder of an interstate in Snohomish County when eyewitnesses said Santana crashed into him. Santana, eyewitnesses said, was swerving and speeding at the time.
Gadd was killed as a result of the crash, prosecutors said, leaving behind his wife Cammryn and their two-year-old daughter.
When police arrived at the scene of the crash, they found Santana with bloodshot eyes; he later admitted to smoking marijuana and having two beers before getting behind the wheel.
Santana’s bail was initially set at $1 million. Last week, though, Judge Richard Okrent lowered his bail to $100,000 after Santana’s defense attorneys argued his initial bail amount was excessively high for a vehicular homicide suspect.
Following Santana’s arrest in March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials confirmed that he is an illegal alien who has been living in Washington for at least a decade. In May 2013, Santana was arrested in the state for driving without a license and later sentenced to 90 days in prison for having marijuana.
Later that year, Santana was incarcerated for 90 days after failing to appear in court for charges of driving without a license. In May 2019, he was charged with domestic violence.
Likely thanks to Snohomish County’s sanctuary policy, as well as Washington’s sanctuary state law, signed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) in 2019, Santana was never turned over to ICE agents despite his prior arrests.
Quote:Two planes almost collided at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday, prompting a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation.
An air traffic controller at the Arlington, Virginia, airport had to cancel the takeoff clearance for American Airlines Flight 2134, which was already heading down the runway at around 10:30 a.m. when another plane was cleared to land on an intersecting runway, Fox Business reported.
The other aircraft was a private King Air jet, according to the Daily Mail:
X Post Wrote:JUST IN - Hair-rising moment American Airlines came close to smashing into a private aircraft on the runway during take-off as pilot is forced to slam on the brakes at 110mph when private King aircraft lands in its path at Reagan National Airport — Daily Mail
Audio recording of the conversation between the control tower and the planes obtained by TODAY revealed the tense moment the King Air pilot said he couldn’t just “go around” because he was “already on the ground”:
X Post Wrote:There was a frightening close call at Reagan National Airport yesterday: An American Airlines jet was cleared for takeoff and was speeding down the runway at the exact same time a private plane was landing on an intersecting runway.
Quote:U.S. law enforcement authorities in Louisiana allegedly dismantled a sex trafficking network led by three Venezuelan nationals, CNN en Español reported Wednesday — one of which is allegedly a member of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal organization.
According to alleged testimonies from one of the victims, the sex trafficking ring arranged for the victims to be smuggled into the United States and taught them how to request asylum to U.S. authorities. The victims would then allegedly be forced into prostitution to pay for the “debt” accrued from their smuggling into U.S. territory.
The Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization that started as a local trade union gang in the eponymous Venezuelan state of Aragua in 2012. Over the past decade, the gang has dramatically evolved into a full-fledged crime syndicate with an active presence in several Latin American countries and the United States. The gang has been linked to a wide array of criminal activities ranging from homicide, theft, extortion, contraband, and kidnapping to drug, human, and arms trafficking.
The criminal organization is largely believed to have deep ties with Venezuela’s socialist regime, which allegedly allowed the gang to expand into its current transnational state. The regime has repeatedly insisted that Tren de Aragua “does not exist” and that it is part of a purported international campaign to discredit the image of the Venezuelan government.
According to court documents CNN en Español claimed to obtain from the Middle District Court of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, the sex trafficking ring was led by a man identified as Josmar Jesús Zambrano-Chirinos, an alleged member of the Venezuelan gang.
In addition to Zambrano-Chirinos, Louisiana authorities reportedly arrested Venezuelan nationals Allbert Herrera Machado and Osleidy Vanesa Chourio Díaz. All three individuals were reportedly charged with forced sex trafficking, fraud and coercion.
The news network claimed that American authorities believe the sex trafficking network was operating in Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, New Jersey, and Florida.
Quote:Disgraced “FBI lovebirds” Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have reached a “tentative” settlement with the Department of Justice over the alleged violation of their privacy rights with the release of their disparaging text messages about former President Donald Trump during the Russian collusion investigation.
The deal was disclosed in a court filing Tuesday that did not reveal any of the terms, the Washington Times reported.
Strzok, a former FBI counterintelligence agent who helped lead the Bureau’s investigation into accusations that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia, was terminated in 2018 after his biased anti-Trump conversations with Page, an FBI lawyer, were exposed. During its review of his phone, the DOJ also revealed that he had been having an affair with Page, who resigned the same year.
The pair, referred to as the “FBI lovebirds” by Trump after the damning texts were used in a theater production by that name in 2019, alleged in a federal lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia that the DOJ infringed on their privacy rights when officials shared copies of their messages with the press, including texts calling Trump an “idiot’ and “loathsome human.”
Strzok also sued the department for firing him, arguing that the FBI gave in to “unrelenting pressure” from Trump and violated his First Amendment rights. He sought back pay and reinstatement in his lawsuit.
“Those constitutional claims have not been resolved by the tentative settlement,” according to a Times review of the court notice.
Page’s lawsuit also sought reimbursement for “the cost of childcare during and transportation to multiple investigative reviews and appearances before Congress,” the “cost of paying a data-privacy service to protect her personal information,” and attorney’s fees, Fox News reported.
INTERNATIONAL
UN Whines About Not Being as Influential as 20 Years Ago
Quote:The world’s most powerful nations have significantly undermined what the United Nations can do to help nations resolve conflicts, the globalist organization’s peacekeeping chief lamented Wednesday.
The unelected French career bureaucrat blamed global political divisions and an insistence by countries on sidelining the U.N. in general and the Security Council in particular for the lack of influence.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix used an interview with the Associated Press to point at the U.S. and the West on one side and Russia and often China on the other as affecting not just peacekeeping but everything the United Nations does in trying to promote peace and security.
The political rivalry can lead to the presence of U.N. peacekeepers being questioned by the parties to the conflict — or even asked to leave, as happened in Mali and is happening in Congo, he said.
Lacroix, personally appointed to his role by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said 20 years ago countries were much more likely to heed the U.N. and now it is being sidelined. East Timor, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cambodia were used as examples of what is possible.
“But we don’t have that anymore,” he said ahead of the International Day of U.N. Peacekeepers on Wednesday.
Quote:A gunman shot and killed a Mexican mayoral candidate as he was about to take the stage during a campaign event in the coastal state of Guerrero. The murder comes amidst one of Mexico’s bloodiest election cycles, with at least 36 candidates murdered and over 300 political attacks in a span of less than a year.
The killing took place on Wednesday afternoon in the town of Coyuca de Benitez in the coastal state of Guerrero. Mayoral candidate Jose Alfredo Cabrera Barrientos was preparing to close his campaign events in preparation for Sunday’s election. He was a candidate of an opposition party competing against Mexico’s ruling party MORENA.
A cell phone video captured the moment when Cabrera Barrientos was preparing to take the stage, and a gunman snuck up behind him. The gunman fired two shots, knocking down the politician. The gunman then reportedly stood over him, firing as many as 15 shots before trying to flee.
Quote:Pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly swarmed police outside Israel’s embassy in Mexico City on Tuesday, throwing rocks and bottles and setting fires on the embassy grounds.
Video of the unrest shows protesters trying to tear down metal fences erected around the embassy, and at one point the grounds were set afire, according to the Hill.
X Post Wrote:Protesters set fire to the Israeli embassy in Mexico City with Molotov cocktails
The demonstrators also threw stones at the police who cordoned off the building. It is reported that as a result of the unrest, six people were burned and several journalists were injured.
According to the Associated Press, some 200 protesters accosted police outside the embassy and six officers were injured.
Mexico City police, deployed in riot gear and carrying shields, used tear gas on the protesters.
X Post Wrote:Israeli embassy in Mexico city firebombed by "Pro Palestine" mobs.
How much destruction must their be before it's admitted these groups are orchestrated terrorists?
Quote:Radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva officially withdrew Brazil’s ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, on Wednesday, marking a new chapter in already tense relations between the countries.
Lula has issued several statements against Israel over the past eight months following Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 terrorist attack and the start of Israel’s self-defense operations against the jihadist terrorists, accusing Israel and its government of commiting “genocide” through its operations.
In one such comment, issued in February on the sidelines of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Lula compared Israel’s self-defense operations to the actions committed by Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Lula said at the time.
Lula’s remarks — which elicited praise from Hamas — prompted Israel to declare him persona non grata, banning the Brazilian president from visiting Israel until he formally apologizes and retracts his statements. Lula’s top foreign policy advisor Celsor Amorim has insisted that Lula will not issue any kind of apology — arguing Israel should “apologize before humanity.”
Lula responded to his ban by recalling the now-former ambassador Meyer. On Wednesday, Lula officially removed Meyer from his position at the Brazilian embassy in Tel Aviv and designated him the Brazilian envoy to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland. Meyer had remained in Brazil since February and reportedly returned to Tel Aviv last week to prepare his transfer to Geneva.
Sources from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry told AFP that the Brazilian government will not immediately designate a new ambassador to Israel and, as a result, its embassy in Tel Aviv will be led by diplomat Fábio Moreira Farias, a charge d’affaires — effectively downgrading the level of the diplomatic relations between the two countries unless a new ambassador is designated.
Quote:The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen claimed on Wednesday to have downed another $30 million U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone, backing up their claim with footage of a missile launch and debris in the desert.
French naval officials revealed that a civilian ship attacked and damaged by Houthi missiles on Tuesday was carrying a load of grain bound for Iran, a longtime ally and state sponsor of the Houthi terrorist movement.
The Houthis released footage on Wednesday that purportedly showed a Reaper drone being targeted by a surface-to-air missile as it flew over the desert province of Marib in central Yemen. The video included photos of what appeared to be a crashed Reaper in the desert, with its tail assembly separated and one of its hatches opened.
The footage also depicted Houthi fighters celebrating the shootdown by standing atop the crashed drone. The alleged Reaper appeared intact, raising the possibility that the Houthis will pass it along to their patrons in Iran, who have a history of reverse-engineering advanced technology from other countries to improve their own drone weapons.
Quote:Widespread online reaction followed a message from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praising pro-Hamas American university students protesting Israel, welcoming them to the terrorist “Resistance Front,” and encouraging them to “become familiar with the Quran.”
The letter, which is addressed to U.S. college students, was published Wednesday evening on Khamenei.ir, the official website of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the “Supreme Leader” of Iran.
[X Post]
The 85-year-old authoritarian ruler, widely criticized for backing terrorism, has a history of human rights abuses, suppression of dissent, and radical policies, which have led to widespread suffering and repression among the Iranian people.
[X Post]
In his letter, Khamenei reverses narratives by labeling innocent defenders as terrorists while glorifying those he supports, and distorting historical events to align with his extreme ideological views.
Expressing “empathy and solidarity” with the pro-Hamas students, Khamenei insisted they were “standing on the right side” of history, and that they are a “branch of the Resistance Front.”
The “Resistance Front” is a reference to a loose alliance of Iran-backed terror groups and militias across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Yemen’s Houthis, Iraq’s Islamic Resistance, and Hamas, all of which oppose Western influence, while seeking to destroy Israel and kill American troops.
Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) secured control of the entire length of the Gaza-Egypt border on Wednesday, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, and discovered some 20 tunnels nearby, as it continued military operations in Rafah.
The IDF also discovered a massive, 1.5-kilometer tunnel complex filled with weapons and other facilities for housing Hamas military operations.
IDF Wrote:UNCOVERED: 1.5km long terrorist tunnel route in eastern Rafah containing dozens of anti-tank missiles and weapons was dismantled.
Only 100 meters from the Rafah Crossing, our soldiers located a tunnel shaft branching into several different routes that contained several blast…
IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters (translation via IDF):
Our troops have located dozens of launchers along the corridor, loaded and ready to fire rockets, and launch pits from which Hamas fired rockets and mortars into Israeli territory. Hamas exploited the Philadelphi Corridor, using it to build this infrastructure just dozens of meters from the border with Egypt so that we would not strike them. This infrastructure was located between 10 and 40 meters from the border, specifically so that Israel would not strike near the fence with Egypt. I remind you that in recent weeks, Hamas has fired about seventy rockets and mortars from the Rafah area.
So far, our troops have located about 20 tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor area. We are investigating these tunnels and neutralizing them. In parallel, the troops continue to conduct operations. These operations are carried out based on intelligence information regarding specific locations in the area.
In recent weeks, our troops uncovered an extensive underground terrorist infrastructure in eastern Rafah, which was 1.5 kilometers long. The entrance shaft to the infrastructure was located about 100 meters from the Rafah crossing. The route branched into several sub-routes and was used by Hamas terrorists for movement, transferring weapons and initiating terrorist attacks. Inside the route, we found large quantities of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, AK-47s, explosives and grenades. The 401st Brigade Combat Team operated in the route and destroyed it.
Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that three soldiers had been killed by a booby-trapped tunnel in Rafah that was located in a medical clinic that was part of a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school.
In a statement, the IDF said:
In response to an anti-tank missile fired from an UNRWA school toward IDF troops, the 12th Brigade combat team operated in the school complex by which a mosque and a medical clinic are also located.
During the sweep and clear operation in the medical clinic, two incidents of explosive charges set in a booby-trapped tunnel shaft detonated on the troops. As a result of one of the explosions, three soldiers – Staff Sergeant Amir Galilove, Staff Sergeant Uri Bar Or, and Staff Sergeant Ido Appel – from the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade were killed.
In addition, during the operation, large quantities of weapons were found in the complex, including firearms and grenades. Inside the classrooms at the school, the troops located significant shafts leading to a wide network of underground terror tunnels.
Israel has criticized UNRWA’s role in Gaza, saying the agency indoctrinates Palestinians to hate Israel and Jews, and accusing UNRWA employees of supporting, and even participating in, the October 7 terror attack by Hamas in Israel.
The risk of booby-trapped tunnels and buildings is one reason the IDF prefers to bomb dangerous locations rather than sending troops in. The Biden administration has recently withheld the needed bombs, in protest at the Rafah operation.
Quote:Chinese dictator Xi Jinping used a speech to Arab leaders on Thursday to demand the establishment of a state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and pledged $3 million in funding to a Hamas-affiliated U.N. agency.
Xi opened the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) in Beijing, attended by some of the Middle East’s most influential leaders, including the leaders of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain. The summit is primarily intended to expand Chinese economic influence in the Arab world – Xi prominently promoted China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during his remarks – but the Communist Party has also proven eager to support the anti-Israel cause in the Middle East, going so far as to engage in talks with the Hamas terrorist organization:
[X Post]
In addition to Xi’s remarks, China signed onto a joint statement against Israel by participants at the CASCF.
Hamas triggered a war with Israel by invading the country on October 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people, taking another 250 hostage, and engaging in wanton acts of gang rape, infanticide, torture, and desecration of corpses. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded by engaging in self-defense operations in Hamas’s stronghold of Gaza, from where the terrorists invaded, that are ongoing to this day. China has adamantly opposed the self-defense operations and bolstered Hamas, including by claiming to host “unity” talks with Fatah, the Palestinian party in charge of the West Bank. China has also leveraged its permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council to rally anti-Israel sentiment at the international body.
In his remarks on Thursday, as translated by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi insisted that the solution to ending hostilities in the Middle East was not to eradicate terrorist organizations such as Hamas, but, rather, to grant Hamas’s demand of a Palestinian state.
Quote:Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said Thursday that China’s aggressive military drills are intended to “nibble away” at the island’s air and sea space.
Lin said this effort to collapse Taiwan’s operational space should be a global concern.
“The Chinese communists’ pressure on Taiwan is all encompassing, especially diplomatically,” Lin told reporters on his way into a parliamentary session.
“The Chinese communists are continuing to change the status quo. They are creating a new normal, pressing on at every stage, trying to nibble away and annex,” he said.
In his remarks to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Thursday, Lin said some nations have expressed interest in developing stronger relationships with Taiwan, pushing back against China’s strategy of diplomatic isolation. He suggested one reason for this growing interest is that Taiwan, unlike China, does not use economic leverage to manipulate or punish its business partners.
The foreign minister said another mark in Taiwan’s favor is that it offers clean, secure, and reliable networking technology, in contrast to Chinese countries, which are all required, by law, to cooperate with Chinese military and intelligence services.
Lin warned that China will try to peel off more of Taiwan’s allies in the years ahead, but “we hope to make more friends.”
The Chinese Defense Ministry on Thursday denounced the United States and United Kingdom for supporting Taiwan’s new government under President William Lai Ching-te. The defense ministry accused Taiwan’s allies of trying to “instigate confrontation” with China, which they supposedly view through a “Cold War” lens.
The tyranny in Beijing was irritated by a delegation of U.S. congressional representatives who met with President Lai on Monday to reaffirm American support for Taiwan’s democracy.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
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