News of the World

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USA

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White House

WATCH: Pro-Hamas Protesters Circle White House, Attack Federal Officer

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters — some openly supporting Hamas and other terror groups — surrounded the White House on Saturday, vandalizing a statue and assaulting a U.S. Park Police officer who tried to protect it.

The protest happened on the day Israel successfully rescued four hostages from Hamas’s clutches in a raid in Gaza.
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The Washington Examiner reported:

Protesters clad in keffiyeh began gathering outside the presidential residence in Washington, D.C., Saturday morning. Their signs called on President Joe Biden to “free Palestine” and “end the siege on Gaza now.” Others stood in a line draped in a two-mile-long red banner around the White House to symbolize the “red line” Israel crossed when they began the operation in Rafah, a southern city in Gaza where many Palestinians have fled to.
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At one point, U.S. Park Police were on the scene with mace to fend off protesters. They were allegedly attempting to arrest one of the protesters when the crowd began yelling at them to stop, screaming, “Let her go.” It was not immediately clear what they were attempting to arrest her in connection with. In the exchange, police sprayed mace, and it appeared they eventually let the protester go without completing the arrest.

The Examiner reported that there had been no arrests at the time of publication.

Four years ago, radical left-wing protesters surrounded the White House as part of the George Floyd riots and the “Black Lives Matter” movement. They assaulted law enforcement officers, attacked journalists, set a church on fire, and vandalized monuments.

Trump's Probation Interview

Trump Set to Have Probation Interview in Aftermath of Guilty Verdict

Former President Donald Trump is set to have a probation interview on Monday in the aftermath of his guilty verdict at the end of May, according to sources.

Three people familiar with the situation informed NBC News that Trump will take part in a virtual interview from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

While the probation interview is usually done in person, Martin Horn, a former commissioner with the New York City Department of Corrections and Probation, explained to the outlet that having Trump appear in person may be “disruptive.”

Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, will reportedly be with the former president during his virtual interview.

“You can argue that Trump’s appearance at the probation office on the 10th floor of the Criminal Court Building in Manhattan where his trial took place, with Secret Service and press following him, would be very disruptive to the probation office and unfair to other defendants who might not want to be identified,” Horn explained.

In order to help the judge decide a punishment for those convicted of a crime, a pre-sentencing report is used, according to the website for the New York State Unified Court System.

Hunter Biden's Trial

Legal Experts: Hunter Biden Could Be Hoping for ‘Jury Nullification’

Hunter Biden’s legal defense could be hoping for jury nullification, legal experts warned.

Jury nullification occurs when a defendant is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but jurors disregard their oath to find the defendant not guilty.

Hunter is charged with one count of false statement in the purchase of a firearm, one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, and one count of false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer.

Hunter used crack when he purchased the firearm, according to a wide variety of photos from the time on his abandoned laptop, and the gun was found discarded in a public trash can next to a school. The Secret Service allegedly intervened in the investigation of that incident.

While many legal experts say a jury should easily convict Hunter, constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley and Judge Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News that jury nullification is a real risk for the prosecution.

Turley explained to the Hill:

So why wouldn’t Hunter just plead guilty? Even without his earlier plea deal, a guilty plea could significantly reinforce a request to avoid jail time in the case. It would also avoid an embarrassing trial for himself and his father during a presidential election.

While Hunter could always throw in the towel before the start of testimony, there is currently no discernible strategy beyond hoping that a pending case in the Supreme Court might undermine the indictment.

There may also be another possible strategy in play: jury nullification.

Pirro was also surprised Hunter did not plead guilty to forgo the trial, she told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum in reference to potential jury nullification. “They’re [defense] trying to overlook the fact that there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt here,” she said:

They’re trying to get the jury to maybe nullify the verdict, which simply means a jury may believe that the case has been proven to their satisfaction to everyone beyond a reasonable doubt, but they’re going to cut him [Hunter] loose for any reason.

Bragg Could Testify In Congress

Manhattan district attorney agrees to testify in Congress, but likely not until Trump is sentenced

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has agreed to testify before a Republican-controlled congressional subcommittee, but likely not until after former President Donald Trump is sentenced in July

Manhattan district attorney agrees to testify in Congress, but likely not until Trump is sentencedThe Associated PressNEW YORK
NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg agreed Friday to testify before what’s likely to be a hostile, Republican-controlled congressional subcommittee, but likely not until after former President Donald Trump is sentenced in July.

The House Judiciary Committee chairman, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, wrote Bragg in late May after Trump’s conviction in his hush money trial, accusing him of having conducted a “political prosecution” and requesting his testimony at a hearing June 13.

In a reply letter, the Manhattan district attorney’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, said the prosecutor’s office was “committed to voluntary cooperation.”

That cooperation, it added, including making Bragg, a Democrat, available to testify “at an agreed-upon date.” But the letter said the date picked by Jordan presented “presents various scheduling conflicts.”

It noted that the Trump prosecution is not yet finished. Trump, who was convicted of falsifying records to cover up hush money paid to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential campaign, is scheduled to be sentenced July 11. Before then, prosecutors will be making recommendations to a judge about what kind of punishment Trump deserves.

“The trial court and reviewing appellate courts have issued numerous orders for the purpose of protecting the fair administration of justice in People v. Trump, and to participate in a public hearing at this time would be potentially detrimental to those efforts,” the letter said.

Bragg’s office asked for an opportunity to discuss an alternative date with the subcommittee and get more information about “the scope and purpose of the proposed hearing.”

Jordan has also asked for testimony from Matthew Colangelo, one of the lead prosecutors in the Trump case. Bragg’s office didn’t rule that out, but said in the letter that it would “evaluate the propriety” of allowing an assistant district attorney to testify publicly about an active prosecution.

Jordan, an Ohio Republican, has proposed withholding federal funding from any entity that attempts to prosecute a former president. He has also railed against what he’s described as the “weaponization of the federal government.”

EUROPE

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Macron Worried

Macron Trounced by Le Pen’s Populists at EuroParl Elections, Immediately Dissolves Parliament for Snap National Election

Le Pen’s populist-nationalist got twice as many votes as the governing group of Emmanuel Macron’s globalist centrists in Sunday’s European Parliament election, prompting Macron to immediately dissolve the national parliament and call fresh French elections in a bid to regain authority for the remainder of his presidential term.

Update 2215 BST: Le Pen speaks

Shortly after President Macron announced he was calling fresh elections to buttress his position, National Rally (RN, Rassemblement National) leader Marine Le Pen took to the stage at her group’s election night party in Paris and declared their readiness to fight the snap election.

Hailing the progress of right-wing parties across Europe as the “dawn of a new day dawning for all the nations and peoples of Europe” and expressing her hope the result would finally comprehensively close “the painful globalist interlude which has caused the people of the world to suffer” Le Pen said it also confirmed the RN as the “great force for change for France”.

She told the Paris rally:

Ladies and gentlemen, dear compatriots. The French have expressed themselves and this historic election shows when people vote, the people win…

…The President… has just announced the dissolution of the National Assembly, to return the people to the polls in a few weeks time. I can only welcome this, we are ready for it… we are ready to exercise power if the French put their trust in us in these new national elections. We are ready to restore the country to defend the interests of the French people. We are ready to put an end to mass immigration. Ready to [build the strength of the economy] as a priority. And ready to begin the reindustrialization of the country. To be clear, we are ready to straighten out the country, and we are ready to relive France.

As noted by  Le Monde , RN gaining 31.5 per cent of the votes means Le Pen and Bardella have grabbed the best result for any French political party at the European elections in 40 years. And that’s before you even count the fact the right-populist vote was split to some degree by the running of a rival party co-led by Le Pen’s niece Marion Marechal Le Pen, who picked up a further five and a half per cent.

Belgium's Leader Quitting Anytime Soon?

Belgium’s Anti-Trump Prime Minister Resigns After Suffering Right Wing Election Victory

Right wing parties gained ground in Sunday’s national elections in Belgium, largely at the expense of left wing and green parties, prompting the liberal coalition Prime Minister to fall on his sword and announce he will resign.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo will resign, he said, reflecting on the poor performance of his governing coalition in the country’s ‘Super Sunday’ election which saw residents vote for their new parliament as well as regional representatives, and for their new members of the European Parliament.

While Belgium didn’t experience a landslide victory, the gaining of ground by a handful of right-wing parties and the cliff-edge collapse of the country’s two Green parties has been enough to shift the electoral picture in the country, making the present centrist-globalist coalition untenable.

Russia hawk De Croo said on Sunday night: “For us it was a particularly difficult evening, we lost. From tomorrow, I will be a resigning Prime Minister. But the liberals [will be back].” De Croo will stay on as caretaker Prime Minister until a new government can be formed, which in Belgium can typically take an extremely long time, over a year in some previous elections.

Early results suggest the conservative-nationalist Eurosceptic New Flemish Alliance (NVA) will be the largest party in Belgium, followed closely by right wing populist Eurosceptic Vlaams Belang (VB). VB were polled to perform stronger than they did, which may take some of the wind out of their sails on election night, but nevertheless it remains Belgium’s Green parties lost 11 of the 21 seats they held yesterday and that largest parties in the country which hosts the institutions of the European Union are Eurosceptic.

Poll on Immigration in the UK

Plurality of British Public Want a Total Freeze on Non-Essential Immigration: Poll

Nearly half of the British public wants a total freeze on all non-essential immigration into the country, but do not trust either of the two main political parties to cut the number of foreigners allowed into the UK.

A survey conducted by the Centre for Migration Control has found that a plurality of the public agrees that “Britain should have a five-year freeze on all further immigration that is not essential to supporting the NHS”, with 32 per cent strongly agreeing and 17 per cent tending to agree, compared to 13 per cent who tended to disagree and 11 per cent who strongly disagreed.

Additionally, 58 per cent supported cutting legal net migration to the “tens of thousands” compared to just 17 per cent who disagreed, The Express reports.

However, there is widespread pessimism about the prospect of either the governing neo-liberal Conservative Party or the opposition left-wing Labour Party delivering on the priority of reducing mass migration, with the survey finding that 49 per cent of the people do not trust either major party to reduce immigration.

The distrust is unsurprising given Labour’s history of backing mass migration and the Conservative Party’s history of brazenly lying to the public on the issue, with the Tories allowing in the largest influx of foreigners in the history of the country despite previously pledging to the public to bring migration down to the “tens of thousands” in their 2010, 2015, and 2017 election manifestos, and promising that immigration would “come down” in the 2019 manifesto.

Arch-globalist Tory bigwig George Osbourne admitted in 2017 that the party never intended to reduce migration and that behind closed doors, party leadership had never agreed with the promises made to the public. Other top figures, be they Labour or Tory have admitted the same.

Robert Bates of the Centre for Migration Control said: “These figures lay bare the sheer disconnect that exists between Westminster and the British public. It is vital that immigration, and the huge numbers entering the country legally, are at the centre of the national debate in the coming weeks.”

The survey comes on the back of another staggering release of official immigration data, with net migration — the overall number of people coming to the country minus those who left — being recorded at 685,000 following the arrival of 1.2 million people.

MIDDLE EAST

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Changes in Israeli Government

Benny Gantz, Rival to Netanyahu, Leaves Israeli Government; Coalition Remains Solid

Benny Gantz, an opposition leader who brought his party into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government after the October 7 attacks, announced Sunday that he would be leaving, accusing Netanyahu of bungling the war.

The oddly-timed announcement came just a day after Netanyahu oversaw a successful Israeli operation to rescue four hostages from Gaza. Gantz had expected to announce his departure Saturday night but postponed due to the news.

As Breitbart News reported in October:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz agreed Wednesday to form an emergency government of national unity for the duration of the war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

The decision to set aside bitter political differences is a significant one, and marks the achievement of one of the goals Netanyahu listed in his speech to the Israeli nation on Monday. Gantz, a former defense minister and general in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who leads the opposition Blue and White Party, had previously vowed to “shake the country” if Netanyahu passed his judicial reforms (one of which, indeed, was passed).

But Gantz found it politically advantageous to leave, as protests against Netanyahu returned to the streets in some part of Israel in recent weeks, alongside protests for a hostage deal.

He had promised to leave by June 8 if his various demands were not met. The Times of Israel reported Sunday:

Declaring that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “preventing us from reaching true victory,” National Unity chairman Benny Gantz says that his party is pulling out of the government, making good on an ultimatum.

His party joined the coalition following October 7 for the sake of the country even though “we knew it was a bad government” and has since seen strategic considerations pushed aside for political reasons, he says.

Gazan "Journalist" & Israeli Hostages

Gaza ‘Journalist’ Who Doubled as Hamas-run Agency Spox Killed in Israeli Hostage Rescue

Abdallah Aljamal, a journalist for the Palestine Chronicle — a 501©3 non-profit in the U.S. — was killed in Israel’s hostage rescue in Gaza Saturday and was revealed to have been a spokesman for a Hamas-run government department.
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Aljamal was a contributor for the Palestine Chronicle, as well as for Al Jazeera. His reports read like propaganda — perhaps no coincidence, since he was the spokesperson for the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Labor in Gaza, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor chairman Ramy Abdu. (An interview with Aljamal in his official government capacity is still online at Facebook.)

Abdu wrote that Aljamal was “executed” by Israeli forces who entered his home during the successful rescue mission:
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Later, after Israeli news sources speculated that Aljamal’s family may have been holding one of the Israeli captives who were freed, such as Noa Argamani, Abdu wrote that there had been several homes attacked during the raid and would not confirm whether the family had been holding captives.

It is known that Argamani and three other hostages were being held by Palestinian civilian families living near the market area of Nuseirat at the time of their rescue.

The Palestine Chronicle describes itself as “a 501©3 non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the general public.” As such, it receives tax-exempt status in the U.S. A request for comment by Breitbart News was not answered.

A Few Israeli Hostages Returned Home

PHOTOS: Rescued Israeli Hostages Reunite with Families After Daring Raid

Israel released photographs Saturday of the happy reunions of four rescued hostages with their families after a daring special forces raid in Nuseirat, in central Gaza — and a photograph of one of the Israeli soldiers who was killed in the operation.

As Breitbart News noted, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel Police, and Israel Security Agency (ISA) rescued four hostages: Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
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The hostages were rescued from two Hamas buildings, above ground, the Times of Israel reported.

Argamani was among the most iconic of the hostages, with footage of her abduction on a motorcycle airing endlessly after the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog issued a statement:

With overwhelming emotions we received the very moving news about the rescue from captivity of Noa Argamani, Almog Meir, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, who were kidnapped on October 7th from the music festival in Re’im and were finally reunited with their loved ones. On behalf of the entire people of Israel, I thank the IDF, the Israeli Security Agency (Shabak), the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces for an impressive and courageous rescue operation. I wish for the immediate return of all the hostages to their families. Am Yisrael Chai!