News of the World

[kyonides]

FBI 'afraid' informant could be killed
over Biden family information
if unmasked: Congresswoman Luna

A member of the powerful House Oversight Committee alleged Monday that the FBI is "afraid" the informant accusing President Biden of having been involved in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national while vice president could be "killed" if unmasked.

"Just left meeting for House Oversight. The [FBI] is afraid their informant will be killed if unmasked, based on the info he has brought forward about the Biden family," Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter following a closed briefing by the FBI for the committee.

When reached for additional comment, Luna told Fox News Digital the FBI's worries were "alarming and scary." House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and the FBI did not immediately respond to Fox's request for comment.

Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, were approached by the informant last month alleging that the FBI was in possession of a document — an FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020 — which explicitly detailed information provided by a confidential human source alleging Biden, while serving as vice president, was involved in a $5 million criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national in exchange for influence over policy decisions.

The FBI confidential human source who has been used by the bureau in multiple investigative matters dating back to the Obama administration is "highly credible," a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital last week.

The source also told Fox that the confidential human source who provided the Biden information to the FBI was a "pre-existing" FBI source who has been used in multiple investigative matters separate from the Biden information.

'Deadly consequences' of Los Angeles
DA Gascon's 'soft-on-crime' approach
felt after murder suspect released

Gowdy highlighted the case of Stefan Sutherland, an attempted murder suspect who was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department in November 2020. Gascon's office recommended sending him to a mental health diversion program instead of prison for the alleged stabbing. Sutherland was arrested again in May 2023 in connection to the murder of his neighbor.

"Yet another murder committed by someone who should have been in prison, and George Gascon's reaction is to blame everyone but himself," Gowdy said.

Senna added, "Mr. Sutherland was arrested for attempted murder by the LAPD for stabbing a construction worker in the neck because the construction worker was making too much noise for Sutherland's liking. Under Gascon's soft-on-crime policies, he was actually charged by Gascon's office with assault with a deadly weapon instead of attempted murder, which made him eligible for mental health diversion. Gascon has a policy of not opposing these mental health diversion motions and pretty much going along with whatever the public defender's office likes."

...sources had told him the Los Angeles County Probation Department recommended a prison sentence for Sutherland for the 2020 arrest.

However, the recommendation by the LA County Probation Department was apparently ignored.

Blinken calls for Israel-Saudi normalisation on eve of Riyadh visit

"We believe we can and indeed we must play an integral role in advancing it," Blinken said.

He said the administration of President Joe Biden has "no illusions" that bringing about full Saudi-Israel diplomatic relations can be done quickly or easily.

"But we remain committed to working toward that outcome, including on my trip this week to Jeddah and Riyadh for engagements with Saudi and Gulf counterparts," he said.

Blinken is expected to arrive Tuesday evening in Jeddah, the Red Sea port where the ruling Saudi royalty keeppalaces for the summer season.

On Wednesday and Thursday he will be in Riyadh for a ministerial meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council and a separate meeting of the 80-strong coalition of countries fighting the Islamic State group.

Besides his diplomatic counterparts, Blinken is expected to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto power in the country.

Despite longstanding close ties, US relations with the Saudis have been testy in recent years, over human rights issues like the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a group tied to the Saudi royal palace, and Riyadh's effort to raise oil prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Justice minister rejects 'corrupt' EU court's ruling
against Poland's judicial reform

The Luxembourg-based court's verdict "was not written by judges but politicians because it constitutes a clear violation of European treaties," Ziobro said, adding that "the European Union's top court is corrupt".

The European Union stepped up its rule-of-law fight with member state Poland on Monday when the bloc's highest court confirmed that Warsaw had refused to comply with EU rules on judicial independence for which it has already lost more than 500 million euros ($535 million) in fines.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled that Poland's 2019 justice reform infringed EU law after the European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, said that the Polish Supreme Court lacked the necessary independence and impartiality.

“By today's judgment, the Court upholds the Commission's action,” a court statement said.

It was the latest in a streak of setbacks for the nationalist conservative ruling party in Poland, with many Poles furious at what they consider a dramatic erosion of democracy in the country. That sentiment boiled over into a massive anti-government protest in Warsaw on Sunday, probably the largest demonstration in Poland's post-communist era, with an election coming up in the autumn.

Iran may have supplied ammunition to Russia, UK's Sky News says

British broadcaster Sky News reported on Monday that Iran may have provided not only attack drones, but also ammunition, to Russia.

The broadcaster quoted an informed security source as claiming that, "A purported arms contract seen by Sky News offers the first hard evidence that Iran has sold ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine."

It added that, "If authentic, the 16-page document, dated 14 September 2022, appears to be for samples of varying sizes of artillery and tank shells and rockets."

The deals are believed to be worth 1.75 million dollars in total.

It was alleged that the agreement was struck between the "Ministry of Defence and Logistics of the Armed Forces of Iran and Russia's state military exporting and importing company, JSC Rosoboronexport."

The document assumes the use of two Iranian ports -- Anzali and Amirabad -- along the Caspian Sea and a Tehran airport for shipping items.

The source claimed that the document is 100 percent authentic and it is for sales of weapons samples "before further shipments."

[kyonides]

Comer to hold FBI chief Christopher Wray
in contempt for refusing Biden subpoena

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer moved Wednesday to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena requesting an informant file on an alleged $5 million bribery scheme involving President Biden.

“We have been clear that the FBI must produce the unclassified FD-1023 record to the custody of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability,” Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement accompanying his contempt resolution. “To date, the FBI has refused to comply with our lawfully issued subpoena and even refused to admit the record’s existence up until a week ago.”

Comer, 50, also accused Wray of “leaking a false narrative to the media” about the FD-1023 form, apparently referring to reports that the file originated in documents Rudy Giuliani provided to the Justice Department in 2020.
...
“The case is not closed as the White House, Democrats, and the FBI would have the American people believe,” Comer responded in his statement Wednesday. “The FBI created this record based on information from a credible informant who has worked with the FBI for over a decade and paid six figures. The informant had first-hand conversations with the foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Biden.”

Comer later accused Raskin of having “lied to the American people” about the case and said he sat beside the ranking member as the FBI informed them “four times that this was part of an ongoing investigation” as they reviewed the FD-1023 form.
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“It’s not true. It wasn’t closed down,” Barr told The Federalist, adding that it was “sent to Delaware for further investigation” by US Attorney David Weiss.

James Comer Cancels Contempt Vote
After FBI Caves on Alleged Biden Bribery Doc

Eleven hours before the House Oversight Committee would assemble to vote on holding FBI Director Wray in Contempt of Congress, the FBI agreed to permit members of the Oversight Committee to review an unclassified informant file that allegedly links President Joe Biden to a $5 million bribery scheme.

Wednesday evening, Comer canceled the 9 a.m. Thursday vote to hold Wray in contempt. In exchange, the FBI finally agreed to allow the members to review the document, a demand on which Comer insisted from nearly the beginning of the negotiations.

“After weeks of refusing to even admit the FD-1023 record exists,” the committee stated in a press release, “the FBI has caved and is now allowing all members of the Oversight and Accountability Committee to review this unclassified record that memorializes a confidential human source’s conversations with a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden.”

RFK Jr: Border Hospitals Packed with Pregnant Migrants
Forcing American Women to Delay Deliveries

Hospitals along the United States-Mexico border are so packed with pregnant migrant women that American women are being forced to delay their scheduled deliveries, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says.

As Breitbart News reported on Tuesday, Kennedy visited the southern border to bring awareness to the issue of illegal immigration, which has skyrocketed under President Joe Biden.

Kennedy said the illegal immigration problem under Biden is so straining for American border towns and beyond, pregnant American women are having to delay their scheduled deliveries so that pregnant migrant women can be readily cared for at their local hospitals.

“Moms occupied 32 of 36 beds in Yuma hospital maternity ward so that local moms had to delay induced pregnancies for two weeks,” Kennedy wrote in a Twitter post.
...
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration has let its relationship with Mexico and the Central American countries deteriorate, and we need cooperative agreements with all of them to stop the flow of immigration,” Kennedy told Breitbart News.

Such cooperative agreements with Central America, supported by Kennedy, were imposed by the former Trump administration, but Biden canceled all of them after taking office.

 Can you really delay any delivery? Will the baby  ever ask you for permission to come to this world on that specific moment?
Well, Biden's team seems to think so.

Canadian Wildfire Smoke Spreads ‘Hazardous’ Air Over U.S. Cities

Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, sending school recesses indoors and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.

While Canadian officials expanded evacuation orders and asked other countries for help fighting more than 420 fires nationwide, air quality with what the U.S. rates as “hazardous” levels of pollution extended into central New York, with massive tongues of “unhealthy” air extending as far as Virginia and Indiana.

In Baltimore, where officials warned residents to stay indoors when possible and limit outdoor exertion, Debbie Funk sported a blue surgical mask as she and husband Jack Hughes took their daily walk around Fort McHenry, a national monument overlooking the Patapsco River. The air hung thick over the water, obscuring the horizon as distant ships pushed slowly through the haze.
...
Canada’s wildfire season started early this year and accelerated very quickly, exhausting firefighting resources across the country, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre spokesperson Jennifer Kamau said.

Smoke from the blazes in various parts of the country has been lapping into the U.S. since last month but intensified with a recent spate of fires in Quebec, where more than 100 fires were burning and considered out of control Tuesday.

Don't worry,  Wulfo! If you haven't seen it with your very own eyes over your city, you soon will! 

‘Russian Terrorists’: Civilians Evacuated as Major Ukraine Dam Blown Up

Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up a major dam up water from Kherson, unleashing a flood and prompting an evacuation. Meanwhile, Russia denies responsibility and says Ukraine sabotaged the reservoir themselves.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried “Russian terrorists” early Tuesday morning as she published drone footage of the aftermath of a blast at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power dam on the Russian-occupied Dnipro river.
...
Both Kyiv and Moscow accused the other of having been behind the blast, and each giving reasons why the other might wish to destroy the Soviet-era hydroelectric infrastructure. Ukraine claimed the sudden unleashing of the reservoir downstream, which necessitated the evacuation of villages as the water spread, was intended to slow the progress of their army crossing the Dnipro River, reports The Times.

Notwithstanding that, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military says the blowing of the dam — which has been held by Russia since last year — won’t prevent their army from advancing on Russian positions.

Ukrainian reports say Russia blew the dam by planting explosives inside. No fatalities are reported, but residents of bordering areas, including those in the city of Kherson, are said to be heading to higher ground.

[kyonides]

Trump says indictment is 'election interference at the highest level'

Trump said the case is "election interference" and "the greatest witch hunt of all time." Trump said he will "of course" plead not guilty to charges in federal court on Tuesday, and said he is "totally innocent."

Trump, the current front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, was indicted on federal charges Thursday evening stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith's months-long investigation into the former president’s alleged improper retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump is listed in the indictment, which has not been unsealed, as a criminal defendant charged with at least seven counts involving obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and illegal retention of classified government material. He has been ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. The indictment remains unsealed.
...
"I did absolutely nothing wrong," he said, citing the Presidential Records Act, saying it "makes me totally innocent."

President Biden is under special counsel investigation for his alleged improper retention of classified records from his time as vice president in the Obama administration and as a senator.

When asked whether he thought Biden could, too, be charged, Trump said, "Probably not—nothing will happen."

Elise Stefanik: Donald Trump Indicted Same Day
Treasonous’ Biden Doc Released to Congress

House Republican Conference Chair Rep Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said in a statement Thursday that President Biden weaponized the Justice Department against former President Trump, amid news the GOP front-runner had been indicted on the same day it was revealed Biden allegedly received a payoff for influencing U.S.-Ukraine policy.
...
On Thursday afternoon, House Oversight Committee Republicans told reporters after reviewing a FBI’s informant file that an FBI informant claimed to possess two pieces of evidence that show Joe Biden received $5 million after threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine until a prosecutor probing the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings was fired.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Joe Biden is guilty of bribery 100 percent,” Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL) told reporters after viewing the document. “There was two separate transactions, one that went to Joe Biden for $5,000,000, one that went to Hunter Biden for $5 million.”

The bombshell allegations come after the FBI refused to allow House members to review the document, citing its use in an ongoing investigation. But 11 hours before the House Oversight Committee would assemble to vote on holding FBI Director Wray in contempt of Congress, the FBI agreed to permit all members of the Oversight Committee to review it.
...
Thursday evening, the Justice Department notified Trump of the indictment, nearly erasing the news of the allegations against Biden from the establishment media.

This week a couple of strange news have arrived, some didn't make it here for being real  but this one had to be published here on News of the World.

New California Bill Would Prohibit
Employees From Stopping Shoplifters

A California bill to prohibit employees from confronting shoplifters or active shooters has passed the state Senate, in spite of opposition from retailers who say it would add to the state’s escalating retail theft problem.

“With growing awareness of workplace violence, California needs smarter guidelines to keep workers safe in the office or on the job site,” said the bill’s author Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose) in a press release.

Under SB 553, employers would be prohibited from forcing their workers to confront active shoplifters and would set standards for companies of all kinds to address workplace violence prevention.

According to Cortese, the bill is focused on protecting employees and does not affect private security guards. In fact, it highlights the need for dedicated safety personnel, according to his office.

The bill does not prohibit employees from stopping theft, but does prohibit employers from having a policy requiring them to confront shoplifters, according to Cortese.
...
Supporters of the bill argue that worker safety is an emergency.

What about letting the police do their job of protecting the citizenry? If you let petty criminals steal up to US$999 of merchandise or products, how do you expect them to stop committing  thefts at all?

Texas businessman connected to
Ken Paxton impeachment arrested by FBI

The FBI has arrested a Texas businessman whose links to State Attorney General Ken Paxton were central to his historic impeachment last month.

Online records show Nate Paul, a real estate developer, was booked into an Austin jail Thursday afternoon after being taken into custody by federal agents, according to online inmate records of the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

It was not immediately clear what charges led to his arrest, and the records said only that he was being held on a federal detainer for a felony.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI and Paxton's lawyer for comment.

The arrest comes a day after Paul's defense presented evidence that was intended to counter bribery allegations but raised new questions about his dealings with Paxton.

Paul's troubled real estate empire has been the focus of federal scrutiny for years, and agents searched his Austin offices and palatial home in 2019.

The next year, Paxton involved his office in the federal case, a move that prompted his top staff to report him to the FBI.

Sudanese foreign ministry declares
UN special representative persona non grata

Sudan said on Thursday it has notified the United Nations that it has declared Volker Peretz, the representative of the UN secretary-general and head of the UNITAMS mission, persona non grata.

Army general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had previously expressed his disapproval of the envoy, and prior to the war supporters of former President Omar al-Bashir had protested in front of Peretz’ mission.

IDF to probe terror killing of three Israeli soldiers by Egyptian policeman

The results of the investigation into the killing of three IDF soldiers at the Israeli-Egyptian border early on Saturday will be presented in one week's time, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi announced on Sunday.

He additionally ordered to carry out a comprehensive investigation of the defense strategy and approach regarding the defense of borders with non-enemy countries like Egypt.

A senior IDF official said that Halevi had decided to turn the probe regarding the incident into a flagship investigation, Walla reported. "In the investigations, as time goes by, more painful details are revealed. I would not be surprised if heads fly in the Southern Command," he estimated. He added that a preliminary investigation shows substation gaps between standing orders and what happened on the ground at the border with Egypt.
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Following the discovery of their bodies, additional reinforcements arrived and a search operation was carried out in order to locate the perpetrator, who was believed to have infiltrated Israel from across the border at some point during the night.

The terrorist was later confirmed by the IDF to be an Egyptian police officer. The IDF added that it and the Egyptian military were conducting a thorough investigation.

Shortly after midday on Saturday, the IDF confirmed an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and the terrorist, who was killed in the exchange.

Lawmakers Warn of New Cold War
as China Reportedly Seeks Spy Base in Cuba

In its latest challenge to the United States, China has reached a deal with Cuba to install an electronic spy base on the island, just about 100 miles from Florida, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials familiar with highly classified intelligence.

It would be close enough for Chinese intelligence services to garner electronic communications from the southeastern United States—home to many military bases—potentially including emails, phone calls, and satellite transmission data, the officials have said. They said Beijing agreed to pay Havana billions of dollars for the arrangement.

Revelation of the secret intelligence facility sparked wide concern in Washington.
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It “reminds us we are in a New Cold War that, once again, has come to our doorstep,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) said in a statement. “Our ardent diplomatic pursuit of the CCP in the aftermath of the spy balloon has only emboldened CCP aggression.”

Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said the report calls for the United States to take “long-overdue actions” to counter Beijing, including ending export licenses for chips to blacklisted Chinese telecom provider Huawei, restricting outbound investment in crucial sectors in China, closing trade loopholes that allow Chinese imports to enter the United States tariff-free, enhancing research security, and curbing Chinese land purchases near sensitive military bases.

...a spokesperson for the State Department told The Epoch Times that the department is monitoring and working to counter CCP efforts to build up military infrastructure in the Western Hemisphere.

 Well, what a good job they did in Cuba!

[kyonides]

Trump attacks Jack Smith on Truth Social after indictment unsealed

Former President Donald Trump attacked Special Counsel Jack Smith after his unsealed indictment shows the ex-commander-in-chief was charged with 37 counts of criminal wrongdoing over his handling of classified documents, calling him a "deranged lunatic."

Posting a photo of Smith to his Truth Social app, Trump accused the prosecutor of being behind a 2013 controversy in which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was revealed to be targeting political groups, mainly those on the right, for increased auditing.

"This is the man who caused the Lois Lerner catastrophe with the IRS. He went after Evangelicals and Great Americans of Faith. The United States had to apologize, and pay major damages for what this deranged lunatic did," Trump wrote.

Lerner was a central figure in the IRS scandal, with lawmakers voting to hold her in contempt of Congress for what they said was insufficient testimony on the issue in 2014.

In his attack on Smith, Trump also cited the corruption case of ex-Virginia GOP governor Robert McDonnell. Smith successfully secured his conviction, though it was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
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Trump was charged for improperly handling classified documents and obstructing justice. His aide Walt Nauta was also indicted on six obstruction and concealment-related charges.

Companies Reach $1.18 Billion Deal
to Resolve Claims From
‘Forever Chemicals’ Water Contamination

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—Three chemical companies said Friday they had reached a $1.18 billion deal to resolve complaints of polluting many U.S. drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds known as PFAS.

DuPont de Nemours Inc., The Chemours Co., and Corteva Inc. said they would establish a fund to compensate water providers for contamination with the chemicals used widely in nonstick, water- and grease-resistant products, as well as some firefighting foams.

Described as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally in the environment, PFAS have been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver and immune-system damage and some cancers.

The compounds have been detected at varying levels in drinking water around the nation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in March proposed strict limits on two common types, PFOA and PFOS, and said it wanted to regulate four others. Water providers would be responsible for monitoring their systems for the chemicals.

The agreement would settle a case that was scheduled for trial Monday involving a claim by Stuart, Florida, one of about 300 communities that have filed similar suits since 2018 against companies that produced firefighting foam or the PFAS it contained.

They are pending in U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina, where Judge Richard Gergel is overseeing thousands of complaints alleging PFAS damages. Among the plaintiffs are water providers, airports, and a number of states and private well owners.

Biden Energy Secretary Granholm admits
false testimony about owning stocks

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm quietly acknowledged in a letter Friday that she made a false statement when she recently told lawmakers she didn't own any individual stocks.

While Granholm divested from a variety of stocks in 2021, she acknowledged in the letter — which was sent to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee leadership — that she maintained shares of six companies. On April 20, however, Granholm testified under oath that she had sold all of her shares of individual companies.

"As you know, as part of the confirmation process before this Committee, in 2021 I divested from assets that could be in conflict with my official duties," Granholm wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. "I did, however, retain assets that were determined by Government ethics officials to not conflict with my official duties."

"I mistakenly told the Committee that I did not own any individual stocks, whereas I should have said that I did not own any conflicting stocks. In order to make my financial holdings consistent with my testimony, on May 18, 2023, I divested my remaining stock holdings which consisted of stock in six companies, even though these assets were deemed non-conflicting," she continued.

Granholm didn't say in the letter which companies she had owned shares of — and which she divested from on May 18 — but vowed to share that information in her Annual Public Financial Disclosure Report in mid-June.

In addition, Granholm said she discovered on May 13 that her husband Daniel Mulhern owned $2,457.89 worth of shares in Ford Motor Company. Those shares were then sold on May 15, a Monday, when the stock market opened.

Germany moves ahead with €4 billion purchase of Israel's Arrow-3

Germany plans to buy Israel's Arrow-3 missile defense system for almost 4 billion euros ($4.30 billion) in total and will ask lawmakers to release advance payments of up to 560 million euros next week, according to documents seen by Reuters on Friday.

The Arrow-3 is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside of the Earth's atmosphere.

It is the top layer of Israel's missile defense array, which extends from Iron Dome that intercepts short-range rockets to Arrow-3's long-range missiles that destroy any non-conventional warheads at a safe altitude.

Berlin aims to strike a government-to-government deal with Israel on the purchase of the Arrow-3 system at the end of the year, said the finance ministry's procurement documents that were prepared for parliament.

Germany will lose part or all of its advance payments should the deal fail, according to the papers, as the money would be used to compensate Israel for costs incurred by then.

Turkey seizes $1 bln of counterfeit money headed for Africa

Turkish security forces seized $1 billion of counterfeit money in Istanbul and arrested six people involved in the operation, including one Ghanian and three Swedish nationals, the governor's office said on Friday.

Gendarmerie forces tracked the suspects to a storage space in Istanbul's Kagithane district, where they seized the fake $100 bills meant to be sent to African countries, the office said.

The suspects'homes were searched and their cash and jewelry confiscated. The Swedish and Ghanian consulates were notified.

Former British PM Boris Johnson is standing down from parliament

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson quit as a member of British parliament on Friday in a furious protest against lawmakers investigating his conduct, reopening divisions in the ruling Conservative Party ahead of national elections next year.

Johnson had been fighting for his future with a parliamentary inquiry investigating whether he misled the House of Commons when he said all COVID-19 rules were followed even though parties were held in government buildings during national lockdowns.

Johnson said he was stepping down because it was "clear" that the committee was "determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament."

He also chided current Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for his performance in power.

Parliament's privileges committee had the power to recommend Johnson be suspended from parliament for more than 10 days if they were to find he did mislead parliament recklessly or deliberately, potentially triggering an election for his seat.

[kyonides]

Putin Says Russia Will Place Nuclear Weapons in Belarus Next Month

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus when the necessary special storage facilities in the former Soviet republic are completed early next month.

The announcement comes several months after Putin first described plans to move tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in March, pointing to U.S. deployment of similar weaponry at NATO bases in a number of European countries over many decades.

Belarus’ longtime authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, recently described the development as a unique chance for Minsk and Moscow to unite. Belarus, along with Kazakhstan and Ukraine, relinquished its nuclear weapons to Russia in the 1990s in exchange for security guarantees.

“Everything is proceeding as planned,” Putin said in televised remarks of his meeting with Lukashenko at his Bocharov Ruchey resort in Sochi on Russia’s Black Sea coast.

“Preparations of the relevant facilities will be completed on July 7 or 8, and we will immediately begin the activities related to the deployment of the corresponding types of weapons on your territory,” he added, according to a Kremlin transcript of his remarks.

If everything goes as planned, the deployment will mark the first time Russian tactical nuclear weapons are placed outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

Judge Who Ruled in Trump’s Favor Assigned to Mar-a-Lago Documents Case

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon was assigned to the criminal case, which was lodged in federal court in southern Florida, according to the court docket.

Assignment of new cases is chosen randomly to one of 26 judges who operate in the district, according to the court’s internal rules.

Cannon, a former U.S. prosecutor who was appointed as a judge in 2020, sided with Trump in a previous case brought by the former president against the government following its execution of a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump asked for an independent person called a special master to be appointed to help adjudicate disputes over the documents the FBI seized, many of which were not marked classified, because he said many of the documents were not allowed to be seized under the warrant.

Department of Justice (DOJ) officials opposed the request, alleging that appointing a special master would harm natural security and would impede its criminal investigation into Trump.

Cannon ruled on Sept. 5, 2022, that a special master would be helpful in identifying personal documents that Trump may be entitled to, such as tax documents that the government had acknowledged seizing.

Mary Trump Scores Legal Victory on the Same Day He’s Charged by DOJ

The lawsuit by the former president against his niece Mary Trump, who is a fiery critic of him, could advance, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled on Friday.

Mary Trump filed a motion to dismiss all Trump’s claims, but Judge Robert Reed refused to dismiss the part about breaching of contract.

“ORDERED that defendant Mary Trump’s motion to dismiss the complaint is denied to the extent that it seeks to dismiss the first cause of action (breach of contract),” Reed wrote in the ruling.

Mary Trump was sued in 2021 for providing Trump’s taxes information to The New York Times who later published an over 13,000-word article claiming that Trump potentially engaged in tax schemes.

The New York Times was also one of the defendants, but Reed dismissed the complaint against The New York Times in May, citing the First Amendment.
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In a statement to multiple outlets, the NY Times said it was “pleased” with Reed’s decision.

Paxton’s Lawyers Take Legal Action Against Impeachment Prosecutors

Attorneys representing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have taken legal action against several Texas House Republicans and two Houston attorneys prosecuting Paxton, demanding they stop covertly contacting witnesses related to what they say is a meritless impeachment proceeding.

The letter was sent on June 8 to Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, the co-chairs of the Texas House General Investigating Committee Reps. Andrew Murr ® and Ann Johnson (D), and to Houston attorneys Rusty Hardin and Dick DeGuerin.

Paxton’s attorneys accused the recipients of the letter and their agents of “improper contact” with potential witnesses, including employees of the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

“There can be no doubt that your efforts to have ex parte contacts with witnesses are wholly improper,” Paxton’s attorneys wrote.

Ex parte contacts with witnesses refer to direct communications between one party—or their legal representatives—and a witness, without the knowledge, presence, or consent of the other parties involved in a legal dispute.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Dismissal of China Military Threat
‘Dangerously Naive’: Retired Colonel

In a Twitter Spaces conversation earlier this week with the platform’s owner Elon Musk, the Democrat presidential candidate called for the United States to engage with China in talks and compete with the country economically but not militarily.

“The Chinese cannot and do not want to compete with us militarily,” Kennedy said. “So it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy that says, ‘Oh, the Chinese want to be our enemy and have a military competition,’ they don’t. What we should be doing is de-escalating military pressure on China.”
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“We think the world is on our side, but it isn’t. All we’ve got—the only people who are supporting this pugnacious, bellicose relationship with China are Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Britain, Canada,” he said. “We’re pretty much alone in the world. The rest of the world is looking at us and saying, What the heck are you doing? Why are you trying to create a war with China? Why are you fighting them over?”

“They don’t want war, they want peace and they want prosperity, and that cannot happen where there’s a war,” he said, adding that the United States should “de-escalate the war talk” on issues such as Taiwan and seek “a smart negotiation where we do better because of China.”
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While the CIA director William Burns made a secret trip to China last month to thaw relations with Beijing, Kennedy said he wanted to have a “real political and economic discussion” with the Chinese side...
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To John Mills, a retired Army colonel who previously oversaw cybersecurity policy and international affairs at the Department of Defense, the remarks indicate that Kennedy is “almost dangerously naive as to the malign behavior of China.”

“I’m a little puzzled by his comments,” Mills, a contributor to The Epoch Times, said in an interview. “He has strong opinions on the virus and the vaccine. Well, where does he think the virus came from? It’s kind of incongruent.”

Japan to Allow More Skilled Foreign Workers to Reside Amid Labor Shortage

Japan’s cabinet approved Friday a plan to increase the number of industries that can offer a long-term work visa for skilled foreign workers in a move to tackle the country’s acute labor shortage.

During a meeting, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized the need for Japan to promote the smooth acceptance of foreign workers in order to address “the severe labor shortage,” Kyodo News reported.

At present, only skilled workers in the construction and shipbuilding sectors can apply for a Class II visa, which grants an unlimited length of stay and allows holders to bring family members into the country.

The approved plan expands the sector from two to 11 industries, including fishery, agriculture, and hotel, enabling Class I visa holders from the 11 sectors to apply for long-term residency.

However, workers must pass Japanese language and skill examinations before being qualified for the upgrade. Class I holders are allowed to stay in Japan for five years but cannot bring family members to the country.

The plan will come into effect by this fall. According to the Immigration Services Agency, about 150,000 foreign workers in Japan are Class I holders as of March, while the number of Class II holders was only 11.

[kyonides]

MPs Concerned Over UK Universities’ Alleged Role
in Developing Iranian ‘Suicide Drones’

According to a report published on Thursday by The Jewish Chronicle (The JC), a number of research projects were done in collaboration with Iranian universities that have been sanctioned by the UK, the EU, and the United States.

Alicia Kearns MP, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Twitter that she had written to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to raise her “serious concerns about these unacceptable collaborations by British Universities with Iran, which risk breaching sanctions around sensitive and dual-use technologies.”

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy has also said the revelation is “deeply troubling,” calling on the government to “urgently investigate whether or not UK universities and academics have breached UK sanctions on Iran regarding collaboration on military technologies.”

Among thousands of scientific papers published since 2017, an analysis by The Jewish Chronicle identified “hundreds of projects” that involved collaborations between British researchers and institutions and Iranian universities that have been sanctions over their involvement with the Iranian regime’s nuclear programme, the report said.

While most of the papers are on subjects about civil technologies, at least 16 studies involving 11 British universities had “potential Iranian military applications,” it said.

One of the papers that was highlighted had investigated the effect of two-stroke engines using an electronic fuel injection system in drones.

It was published in 2019 by Ahmad Najjaran Kheirabadi, then a postgraduate researcher at the Imperial College London (ICL), and two scientists from Iran’s Shahrood University of Technology and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

Philadelphia I-95 collapse: Gov Shapiro says
1 person possibly trapped in vehicle
Biden briefed on disaster

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said during a Sunday afternoon press conference that a vehicle is trapped in the rubble of the disastrous collapse that shut down Interstate 95 outside of Philadelphia on Sunday morning.

Shapiro said it is possible that at least one person is still in the vehicle, according to FOX 29 Philadelphia. Shapiro would not say if authorities believe it could be the driver of the commercial truck that sparked the massive fire that led to the collapse, but he noted that there were no injures or fatalities to drivers on I-95.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney reported that while there are no known fatalities, the situation is "still fluid."

As authorities continue to work the scene, President Joe Biden has been briefed on the collapse.
...
Chaos ensued when a tanker truck caught fire when reportedly traveling under an overpass, causing the elevated structure to collapse. Authorities believe the truck could have been carrying hundreds of gallons of gasoline.

The fire was extinguished by 7:30 a.m. Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management reported that both sides of I-95 were closed while authorities and first responders responded to the situation.

Images from the scene show the elevated concrete structure collapsed on the road below. No injuries have been reported as of Sunday afternoon.

[kyonides]

GOP Rep. Ogles introduces impeachment articles against Biden, Harris

Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles introduced articles of impeachment on Monday against President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Ogles’ articles accuse Biden of having "weaponized" the presidency, both in his tenure as president and vice president, to "shield the business and influence peddling schemes of his family from congressional oversight and public accountability."

Additionally, the articles accuse Biden of acting in a "manner contrary to the public trust and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States" with his handling of the southern border crisis.

Ogle's effort will likely face an uphill climb in the House, where a small minority of Republicans have pushed for Biden's impeachment.

Lava flows from Mayon Volcano in the Philippines as thousands flee to safety

Thousands of people have evacuated regions surrounding the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines as the mountain continues to spew lava and show increasing signs of unrest.

According to the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program, the Mayon Volcano, located near Legazpi City in the province of Albay, is the most active volcano in the Philippines.

An increase in the volcano’s activity led to officials raising the alert level to Alert Level 3 (Increased Tendency Towards Hazardous Eruption) on June 8.

Since then, numerous earthquakes have been reported at the volcano.

Scientists have also noted a sharp increase in rockfall events and pyroclastic flows from the volcano’s lava dome, according to the Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).
...
On Thursday, the PHIVOLCS reported at least 21 earthquakes over the past 24 hours, as well as at least 260 rockfall events and three pyroclastic density current events, or pyroclastic flows. In an update, the PHIVOLCS said current hazards include rockfalls, landslides or avalanches, ballistic fragments, lava and pyroclastic flows, moderate-sized explosions and lahars.

Grassley: Burisma executive who allegedly paid Biden
has audio recordings of conversations with Joe, Hunter

Sen. Chuck Grassley said Monday that the Burisma executive who allegedly paid Joe Biden and Hunter Biden kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them as an "insurance policy," citing the FBI FD-1023 form that the bureau briefed congressional lawmakers on.

Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed from the Senate floor Monday what was said to be a redacted reference in the FBI-generated FD-1023 form alleging a criminal bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national that involved influence over U.S. policy decisions.

...The FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020, is the FBI's interview with a "highly credible" confidential source who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top Burisma executive over the course of several years, starting in 2015. Fox News Digital has not seen the form, which is redacted, but it was described by several sources who are aware of its contents.
...
According to Grassley, the FD-1023 also states that the executive possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between himself and then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Grassley, from the Senate floor, slammed the FBI for not complying with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena, saying Congress "still lacks a full and complete picture with respect to what that document really says."

"That’s why it’s important that the document be made public without unnecessary redactions for the American people to see," he said. "Let me assist for purposes of transparency."

Karine Jean-Pierre violated Hatch Act
with 'mega MAGA Republicans' remarks: Government watchdog

According to the Office of Special Counsel, Jean-Pierre committed the violation last year ahead of the 2022 midterm elections when she repeatedly referred to "mega MAGA Republicans" while acting in her role as White House press secretary.

"Because Ms. Jean‐Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election," the agency wrote in a letter dated June 7 shared with NBC News.

Jean-Pierre, who frequently cites the Hatch Act during the daily White House press briefing to avoid answering questions related to President Biden's re-election campaign or other candidates, made the comments during a briefing on Nov. 2.

"Unfortunately, we have seen mega MAGA Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law. They refuse to accept the results of free and fair elections and they fan the flames of political violence through what they praise and what they refuse to condemn. It remains important for the President to state strongly and unequivocally that violence has no place in our democracy," she said.

Biden previously introduced the term "mega MAGA" on Oct. 21 while attacking Republican economic policies as "mega MAGA trickle down."

US military helicopter 'mishap' in Syria
leaves 22 service members injured, CENTCOM says

U.S. Central Command said in a press release that said the service members suffered "various degrees" of injuries during the incident Sunday in northeastern Syria.

Central Command said the injured service members are "receiving treatment for their injuries and 10 have been evacuated to higher care facilities outside of the CENTCOM AOR."

No enemy fire was reported, according to the press release. The incident is under investigation.
...
The U.S. military has kept a force of at least 900 troops in Syria, the U.S. government has said. The group includes an undisclosed number of contractors.

Walking away: San Francisco mall owner hands property
back to bank as exodus continues

Shopping center giant Westfield is walking away from its San Francisco Centre mall, becoming the latest major company to leave the California city amid rampant crime problems.

Westfield confirmed to FOX Business Monday that the company and partner Brookfield Properties earlier this month stopped making payments on a $558 million loan securing the San Francisco Centre property.
...
"Given the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic, we have made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward."

Westfield's move comes less than a week after Park Hotels & Resorts announced it had handed two prominent hotels back to the bank. The real estate investment trust said it was abandoning the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55, saying the city's streets are unsafe and expressing doubts about the area's ability to recover.

...due in part to Nordstrom shutting down both its downtown San Francisco locations. One of them is located in the San Francisco Centre property, and Westfield says the mall would only be 55% leased when Nordstrom leaves – far less than Westfield's other U.S. malls, which are 93% leased, on average.

Ex-Samsung Exec Charged With Stealing Trade Secrets
to Create Copycat Chip Factory in China

The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said Monday that the unnamed 65-year-old unlawfully obtained Samsung’s factory blueprints and clean-room designs from 2018 and 2019 while trying, unsuccessfully, to replicate a chip factory in the Chinese city of Xi’an, near where Samsung operates a plant.

The technology allegedly stolen by the man’s China-based company would have been worth at least 300 billion won ($233 million) for Samsung, prosecutors said. They charged six people employed by the man with “active participation” in the tech theft.

South Korea is highly sensitive to breaches of technologies related to semiconductors, which accounted for nearly 17% of its total exports in 2022.
...
The man later created chip manufacturing companies in China and Singapore with the backing of Chinese and Taiwanese investors and lured more than 200 chip experts from Samsung and Hynix with higher pay before arranging to smuggle out crucial technologies from Samsung, prosecutors said.

The manufacturing secrets allegedly taken from Samsung included processing blueprints and “basic engineering data” for designing clean-room environments to prevent contamination during semiconductor manufacturing, which prosecutors described as “core national technologies.”

[kyonides]

Trump Outlines Legal Strategy in Post-Arraignment Speech

Trump spoke to a crowd of supporters and family members hours after pleading not guilty to 37 counts of charges linked to his handling of classified documents. He decried the indictment as a political hit job meant to derail his bid for the White House.

In outlining his defense, the former president particularly focused on the Presidential Records Act of 1978. Trump suggested that the act gives the president discretion to determine which records are personal and which are presidential, and, as a result, belong to the public.

While the documents Trump is being charged with illegally retaining do not fit the criteria to be personal records under the act, Trump referred to a 2012 district court ruling in a case concerning audio tapes former President Bill Clinton kept after leaving the White House. In that decision, Judge Amy Berman Jackson concluded that even though Clinton’s tapes should have been classified as presidential records and turned over to the National Archives, the national archivist didn’t have the power to reclassify them.

“Under the statute, this responsibility is left solely to the president,” Jackson wrote.

Trump had previously hinted at this line of defense, jokingly referring to the lawsuit by Judicial Watch as the “Clinton socks” case, because Clinton had kept the tapes of his interviews with historian Taylor Branch stored in a sock drawer. Unlike the Clinton tapes, the documents in Trump’s possession had classification markers. It remains to be seen how the former president’s defense team will construct their argument.

Adam Schiff dodges bullet:
House votes against bill censuring him for Trump-Russia 'lies'

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted against the idea of censuring and condemning Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for insisting that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

In a 225-196 vote, lawmakers decided to set aside the censure resolution against Schiff, effectively killing it and preventing a vote on passage. The resolution, introduced by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., was opposed by 20 Republicans as two other GOP lawmakers voted "present" along with five Democrats.

The resolution was known to be on shaky ground with some Republicans. One expected "no" vote, Rep. Tom Massie, R-Ky., said he opposed the idea of a fine against Schiff — the resolution up Wednesday recommended a $16 million fine but did not require it.
...
It wasn’t clear late Wednesday whether House Republicans might try again with a resolution against Schiff that leaves out all mentions of possible fines.

The resolution that failed on the House floor Wednesday said claims of Trump-Russia collusion were cooked up by Trump’s political opponents and pursued by the Department of Justice despite the lack of any solid foundation for suspecting collusion.

US soldier pleads guilty to charges for trying to help Islamic State

A US Army soldier on Wednesday pleaded guilty to terrorism charges for attempting to help Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Islamic State) conduct deadly ambush on US troops in the Middle East, the Department of Justice said.

The soldier, a man from Ohio, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide "material support" to a designated foreign terrorist organization and trying to help the Islamic State to attack and kill US soldiers, the Justice Department said in a statement.

US deploys its F-22 Raptors to Middle East amid Russia tensions

US Central Command deployed its advanced F-22 Raptors to the Middle East, according to a statement released on Wednesday. The F-22 is among the most advanced air superiority fighter jets in the world, but the US has generally not had advanced adversaries to use it against over the last decades.
...
"Russian forces' unsafe and unprofessional behavior is not what we expect from a professional air force. Their regular violation of agreed-upon airspace deconfliction measures increases the risk of escalation or miscalculation," said Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander of US Central Command.

"Alongside our partners and allies, we are committed to improving the security and stability in the region." The F-22s flew from Langley and America says they are here to demonstrate “the US' ability to re-posture forces and deliver overwhelming power at a moment's notice.”
...
They will integrate with other US-led coalition air assets in the region. The US has warplanes based in Qatar, the UAE and other bases in the region.

On June 8th I had informed  you about the alleged existence of a Chinese base in Cuba to spy on US. Now it's no longer a vague  rumor.

Biden Administration Confirms
Chinese Spy Base in Cuba, Shifts Blame to Trump

The White House stated on June 12 that the existence of a Chinese spy base in Cuba isn’t a recent development and dates to the time when President Donald Trump was in office.

During a press briefing at the White House, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, confirmed that the Biden administration is aware of China’s intelligence-collecting capabilities in Cuba and is taking them seriously.

“We’re not going to be able to get into too much detail about our own counterintelligence efforts,” Kirby said. “As we’ve communicated over the weekend, this is not a new development that China’s been trying to achieve some intelligence gathering capabilities in Cuba and, frankly, elsewhere in the hemisphere, and that from day one, when we came in, we took this issue seriously.”

The remarks came after several media outlets reported that Beijing has been operating a spy base in Cuba since 2019.

Previously, both the White House and the Pentagon denied claims that China struck a “secret agreement” with Cuba recently to build a spy base, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
...
Kirby claimed that the report wasn’t accurate but didn’t elaborate on what was incorrect.
...
China upgraded its Cuban intelligence collection facilities in 2019, Blinken told reporters on June 12 at a briefing alongside Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
...
On his Truth Social account, Trump blamed the Biden administration for the spying facility in Cuba.

“China just, effectively, took over Cuba,” he wrote on June 12. “Would never have happened under the Trump administration!”

John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence under Trump, denied that there was a Chinese spy facility in Cuba during the Trump administration.

[kyonides]

CCP Propaganda Seeks to Undermine European Unity, Experts Say

China now considers a politically fragmented Europe to be among its core interests, according to Andrew Small, a senior fellow for the German Marshall Fund think tank.

“I think that has been one of the big shifts on the Chinese side [in recent years],” Small said during a June 15 hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).
...
Small said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, views European unity to be a threat to its interests. CCP leader Xi Jinping is determined to isolate European nations and encourage them to break away from working with the United States against the regime, Small said.
...
While many European nations are wary of getting involved in the U.S.-China rivalry, Small said, their hope for robust engagement with China cratered after Xi’s visit to Moscow in March. There, he and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to unite to create change in the international system that “hasn’t happened in 100 years.”
...
“The European Council meeting that took place after the Xi Jinping trip to Moscow was characterized by real concern on the part of European leaders about what the trajectory of China-Russia relations actually was.”

Small said the CCP had determined that its relationship with Russia was more important than ties with the European Union (EU) for fulfilling its military, political, and ideological goals.
...
Whereas previous overseas propaganda efforts focused on portraying China as a great nation and Xi as a wonderful leader, new propaganda efforts seek to undermine the international order.

Throughout the EU, [Ivana Karaskova, a fellow at the Mercator Institute for China Studies] said, new CCP propaganda outlets were targeting fringe political groups and candidates on both the extreme left and right, and encouraging them to distrust their own governments and reject international institutions.

RFK Jr. Says He’s ‘Aware’ of Possibility CIA Could Assassinate Him

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that he has to “be careful” in the midst of his 2024 campaign, seemingly making note of the deaths of his uncle and father.

In light of the assassination deaths of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, podcast host Joe Rogan asked the younger Kennedy about what he might do if he were elected president. As a longtime proponent of the theory that the CIA killed former President Kennedy, he responded by saying: “I gotta be careful.”

“I’m aware of that, you know, I’m aware of that danger. I don’t live in fear of it—at all. But I’m not stupid about it, and I take precautions,” he said. JFK, he added, often spoke of being “at war” with the military-industrial complex, a term that was popularized by former President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961 when he warned about what he described as collusion between defense companies and the federal government.

RFK Jr. also said that intelligence agencies in the early 1960s were trying to “trick” JFK into launching military excursions in Vietnam and Cuba. That came before his uncle proclaimed he must splinter the CIA into “thousands of pieces” and “scatter it into the winds” after the Bay of Pigs incident.
...
However, a recent HarrisX poll shows that he’s behind President Joe Biden by about 40 percentage points.

Reports have indicated that Kennedy, however, could win New Hampshire’s Democrat primary after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) named South Carolina the first primary state. It’s because Biden’s name likely won’t appear on the state’s primary ballot, leaving Kennedy and self-help author Marianne Williamson to vy for the state’s nomination.
...
On May 8, Kennedy wrote on Twitter that Biden should release all government records in connection to the assassination, claiming that the White House “is still keeping thousands of pages heavily redacted, including 44 pages related to a shadowy CIA agent and a covert program that had contact with Lee Harvey Oswald just months before my uncle was killed.”

 I guess he's suspecting he could soon become another victim of his family's deadly tradition. Well, I can't blame him for that. The CIA loves to get rid of politicians according to papers exposed on Fox News, clearly pointing the finget at the Agency.

Ex-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Hit With Historic Fine for Misuse of Public Funds

Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has been fined roughly $475,000 for misusing public funds during his failed presidential campaign.
...
“Between May 2019 and September 2019, while serving as Mayor, Respondent was a candidate for President of the United States,” the board wrote in issuing the June 15 order (pdf). “During this time, Respondent had the City pay the travel expenses for an NYPD [New York Police Department] security detail to accompany Respondent or his spouse on 31 out-of-state trips in connection with his presidential campaign.”

De Blasio’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination lasted only four months before he called it quits. But in that time, he managed to rack up $319,794.20 in travel-related costs for the city, including airfare, car rentals, meals, accommodations, and other incidentals.

The board also said de Blasio was warned prior to the launch of his campaign that using his security detail for out-of-state travel related to his presidential campaign would constitute a violation of the law.

But as the mayor ultimately disregarded that advice, the board fined de Blasio $5,000 for each out-of-state trip—$155,000 total—and ordered him to reimburse the city for the misspent funds.

Federal Judge Issues Order on Trump’s Classified Documents Case

“On or before June 16, 2023, all attorneys of record and forthcoming attorneys of record shall contact the Litigation Security Group of the U.S. Department of Justice, if they have not done so already, to expedite the necessary clearance process for all team members anticipated to participate in this matter, and thereafter file a Notice of Compliance” no later than June 20, Cannon wrote.

Over the past week, Cannon has faced significant pressure and criticism from mainstream media outlets, claiming that because she was appointed by Trump, the judge would act in a biased manner that favors the former commander-in-chief. Some Democratic lawmakers, too, called on the judge to recuse herself in the case.
...
Cannon, 42, was appointed by Trump in November 2020. She was randomly selected to oversee Trump’s case, which was brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith.
...
He added: “The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country … this vicious persecution is a travesty of justice.”
...
If convicted on all the charges, Trump, who recently turned 77, could face up to 400 years in prison and nearly $9.5 million in fines. Trump’s aide, Walt Nauta, was also charged in the case, and court documents show that he is to enter his plea on June 27.

Before he was charged, Trump told Politico that he will continue running for president even if he’s convicted in the DOJ case.

[kyonides]

Top House Republican Reveals Next Steps in Biden Family Investigation

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said that more witnesses and sources will come forward in connection with his committee’s investigation of alleged influence peddling and bribery on behalf of President Joe Biden’s family.

“I think we’ve done as much as we could do with the obstacles we’ve had to overcome,” Comer told Fox News over the weekend. “No one thought I would get bank records. No one thought we would get access to the Treasury, Cabinet’s suspicious activity reports, but we would not take no for an answer.”
...
Comer said that he is “going to start bringing in key figures” in the Biden family’s business deals “for depositions, and I think we’re on the right track, even though we’re having to fight the FBI, fight the [Department of Justice], fight the Democrats in Congress, and fight the mainstream media.”

His investigation is centered now on indirect wire transfers to members of the Biden family while he was vice president. Those wire transfers were made through shell companies to nine members of the Biden family, he told Fox, adding that the discovery of an FBI 1023 form means that the Justice Department chose not to investigate whistleblowers’ bribery allegations.
...
The chairman added, “So if this is the case and the FBI informant’s that credible and the FBI informant tells the FBI that the vice president of the United States took a bribe from a foreign national in exchange for foreign policy and foreign aid, then why did the FBI not investigate it?”

Again alleging that federal agencies have taken a hands-off approach to the evidence, Comer said the Internal Revenue Service would only look at possible tax evasion-related claims against Hunter Biden, the president’s son who has long been targeted by Republicans for criticism for his business dealings.

“They didn’t want to investigate the shell companies. They didn’t want to investigate the money laundering. And then we know the Department of Justice hasn’t done anything, so there’s a pattern here where the federal government, the deep state bureaucracies, have turned a blind eye to Joe Biden,” he said.

FBI Investigates After 100 Letters Containing White Powder Sent to Kansas Lawmakers

In a June 18 statement, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation confirmed “the white powder found in letters sent to Kansas legislators and public officials” and that about 100 such letters were sent to individuals across Kansas. A sample of the letters with the powder was sent to a laboratory that specializes in testing potential biological samples, officials said.

“Preliminary tests have returned from this lab indicating the substance is presumptively negative for common biological agents of concern. Further and more complete testing will be conducted on this sample, as well as on additional letters that have been collected, in an effort to determine the components of the substance. The investigation is ongoing. Nothing further will be released at this time,” the agency’s statement said, without elaborating further.

The FBI and Kansas Department of Health and Environment are now involved in the investigation, the statement continued. Currently, no injuries or illnesses have been reported so far.

State House Speaker Daniel Hawkins, a Republican, received one of the letters, according to a spokesperson, Carrie Rahfaldt, in a statement to CNN.
...
Also, Republican state Rep. Stephen Owens also got a letter with the powder, asserting that he believes that only Republicans received such letters.

DA Alvin Bragg Sued After Refusing to Release Trump Case Records

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was sued by a conservative organization in a bid to turn over prosecution records relating to the cases against former President Donald Trump, who was arrested on multiple counts earlier this year.

The Heritage Foundation think tank filed two Freedom of Information Law lawsuits against the Manhattan prosecutor, alleging that he and his office coordinated with Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), the White House, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) about the prosecution targeting Trump.
...
A second lawsuitfiled by the conservative Washington-based think tank also claimed that Bragg retained pro-bono assistance from top law firms in connection to the Trump case. They are asking a court to release requested documents to the public under the New York Freedom of Information Law and declare that Bragg hand over the documents.
...
Mike Howell, director of Heritage’s Oversight Project, told Fox News that his organization suspects that Bragg was “coordinating, or otherwise communicating” with opponents of Trump, adding that there is reason to believe Bragg is a “prolific communicator” via his phone.
...
The lawsuit further alleges that Bragg hasn’t responded to requests for communication between Bragg or his office and other parties. Heritage stated that it has the right to see those communications under New York’s Freedom of Information Law.
...
In the meantime, Trump’s lawyers are trying to move the case to a federal court or demanding that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan recuse himself. Lawyers for the former president on Friday filed a motion asking the case to be transferred to the federal level, saying that the alleged crimes—relating to the 2016 election and his campaign—”took place while the president was in office.”

DOJ Responds to House GOP Request for Information on Mar-a-Lago FBI Raid

The Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected a House Republican request to disclose information connected to the FBI’s search and raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago last August for alleged classified documents.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) had requested the information in a letter sent to the DOJ, asking for information about the classified materials that were discovered in the search. That included communications between the FBI’s Washington office and the U.S. Secret Service.

On Friday, the DOJ rejected Jordan’s request and argued that it couldn’t provide “non-public information about an ongoing criminal investigation and prosecution by a Special Counsel.”

“Protecting the confidentiality of non-public information regarding investigations and prosecutions preserves the American people’s confidence in the evenhanded administration of justice by guarding against the appearance of political pressure or other improper attempts to influence Department decisions,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter to Jordan.
...
The Judiciary Committee “previously requested information and documents related to the FBI’s raid on President Trump’s residence and its subsequent investigation,” Jordan’s letter to Garland stated. “Because you have not provided this information, and in light of your appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel, we write to request an unredacted copy of the memorandum outlining the scope of Mr. Smith’s probes regarding President Trump and any supporting documentation related to his appointment as special counsel.”

Jordan sought a memo that outlines the scope of Smith’s investigation or “any other document describing, listing, or delineating the authority and jurisdiction of the special counsel,” according to his letter. He gave the DOJ until June 20 to hand over the material.
...
Uriarte also made reference to the recent indictment against Trump as providing detailed information about the investigation and the charges that were brought against him. Trump pleaded not guilty in a Miami federal courthouse last week to dozens of counts related to the classified documents case.

Xi Rejects US Bid for a Military Crisis Hotline: Blinken

China has refused to resume direct military communication with Washington despite repeated efforts from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the top U.S. diplomat said on June 19 shortly after meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

While he “raised repeatedly” the prospect of setting up a crisis communication line between the U.S. and Chinese militaries, “at this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that,” Blinken told reporters at a press conference as he wrapped up his two-day trip to Beijing.

“I think that’s an issue that we have to keep working on,” he said. “It is very important that we restore those channels. If we agree that we have a responsibility to manage this relationship responsibly, if we agree that it’s in our mutual interests to make sure that the competitive aspects of the relationship don’t veer into conflict, then surely we can agree and see the need for making sure that the channels of communication that we’ve both said are necessary to do that include military-to-military channels.”

As bilateral tensions keep rising, Beijing has resisted a consistent U.S. push to open up lines of communication to mitigate the risk of a potential flare-up. Since 2021, China’s leaders have declined or ignored more than a dozen requests to talk with the Pentagon and about 10 working-level engagement invitations from the U.S. side, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed senior U.S. defense official.
...
Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu also refused an invitation for a formal meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum earlier this month.

In his first visit to China as the secretary of state, which made him the most senior Biden administration official to make such a trip, Blinken held talks with the Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang and Beijing’s highest-ranking diplomat, Wang Yi, and had a brief meeting with Xi.

Asked why Washington would want to continue engaging with China despite the apparent unwillingness to have open military communications from the other side, Blinken argued that such efforts are necessary to make changes happen.

 Instead of making changes take place, it sounds like a "Yes, sir!" to me for sure.

China Expanding Its Influence in Nigeria With Country’s New Administration

China is making significant strides in solidifying its presence in Nigeria through the newly inaugurated administration of President Bola Tinubu, according to a national politician.

Early talks between Chinese officials and Tinubu, who took office on May 29, indicate that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is looking to expand its foothold in Africa’s largest democracy under the new government, a member of the Nigerian senate Simon Mwadkwon told The Epoch Times.
...
“They have an agenda to rule the world and Nigeria is a strategic target for the attainment of those goals because of its population and influence in Africa,” Mwadkwon [the representative of Plateau North] said.
...
“The immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari took loans from China without a focus, raising the level of Nigeria’s indebtedness to China beyond reasonable heights and the Chinese authorities are looking to consolidate on that,” said Mwadkwon.

On May 31, Chinese Special Envoy to Nigeria, Peng Qinghua—who also serves as the vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in China—held a crucial meeting with Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.

While the details of the discussions remain undisclosed, local media reports Qinghua informed Tinubu before the closed-door meeting that China is willing to enhance economic cooperation with Nigeria, given its crucial role in Africa and the global arena.
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During a seminar at the University of Abuja on April 5, the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, revealed that he had engaged in discussions with Tinubu and Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima.

Jianchun emphasized the importance of increasing productivity in Nigeria and expressed efforts to attract Chinese investment and facilitate exporting Nigerian products to Chinese markets.

The ambassador hinted at plans to expand China’s debt financing of Nigeria, acknowledging the solid foundation established by President Muhammadu Buhari for the incoming Tinubu administration.