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Politifact Lying About Trump's Remarks on Kamala?

California law lets you “rob a store as long as it’s not more than $950” and “not get charged.” Kamala Harris “did that.”

Donald Trump misleads about a 2014 California crime law, Kamala Harris’ role

At a news conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, former President Donald Trump blamed  Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for a 2014 California law he falsely said allowed shoplifters to steal from retailers without consequence.

"You're allowed to rob a store as long as it's not more than $950. Has everyone ever heard of that?" Trump said Aug. 15. "You can rob a store, and you have these thieves going into stores with calculators, calculating how much it is, because if it's less than $950 they can rob it and not get charged. That was her that did that."

Trump was referring to Proposition 47, a 2014 California voter-approved law, "which makes the theft of stolen property worth less than $950 a misdemeanor charge rather than a felony," Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson said, linking to a June 12 San Francisco Chronicle article about the law and a new ballot initiative that could roll back some of its provisions.

That article mentions neither that Harris was involved in creating the law, nor that thefts of less than $950 bring no charges. The article also noted that other states, including Republican-led Texas at $2,500, have higher financial thresholds to meet felony charges for theft.

California’s law did reduce some nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and did include a $950 felony threshold on retail thefts.

But Trump’s comments mislead about the law and Harris’ role in its creation.

What is Proposition 47?

Proposition 47 was a ballot initiative created in response to a court ruling that ordered California to reduce its prison population because of overcrowding.

Then-San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and former San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne co-authored the bill, with collaboration from nonprofits such as Stanford’s Justice Advocacy Project and Californians for Safety and Justice, said UC Law San Francisco professor Hadar Aviram.

Proposition 47 downgraded some nonviolent drug and property crimes to misdemeanors. A summary Harris’ office prepared in 2014, said the law "requires misdemeanor sentence instead of felony for the following crimes when amount involved is $950 or less: petty theft, receiving stolen property, and forging/writing bad checks."

Under state law before Proposition 47, shoplifting property worth $950 or less was often a misdemeanor, but such crimes could, in some cases, also be charged as a burglary, which could be a felony, Harris’ summary said. Proposition 47 said shoplifting property under that threshold would always be considered a misdemeanor.

The proposition defined "shoplifting," a misdemeanor, in the state’s penal code as "entering a commercial establishment with the intent to commit larceny while that establishment is open during regular business hours" and the value of property taken is $950 or less. Entering a retail store with the intent to steal when a store is not open is burglary, which could be a felony.

The $950 threshold in Proposition 47, however, was not new to state law.

The California Legislature in 2010 passed Assembly Bill 2372, which set a $950 threshold between petty theft (a misdemeanor) and grand larceny (a felony), raising it to account for inflation from $400, a threshold set in 1982. Then-Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed that change into law.

Proposition 47 essentially affirmed that threshold and addressed a few more theft categories, such as auto thefts and thefts of some agricultural products, that the 2010 legislation didn’t address, experts told PolitiFact.

I guess not even NBC News article posted back on July 24th would agree with them at all.

‘Thread that needle’: Kamala Harris’ criminal justice policies in California angered progressives and police

As the new Democratic standard bearer, Vice President Kamala Harris has described her contest with former President Donald Trump in blunt terms — tough prosecutor versus civil and criminal defendant.

“I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own game,” Harris said at a rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday. “So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”

But critics say that Harris’ record as a prosecutor, first as the district attorney in San Francisco and later as the California attorney general, reveals a political chameleon rather than a tough-on-crime top cop, according to interviews with current and former law enforcement leaders across the state, civil rights advocates and politicians.

In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said, “During her career in law enforcement, Kamala Harris was a pragmatic prosecutor who successfully took on predators, fraudsters, and cheaters like Donald Trump.”

Harris has written two books about her time as a prosecutor and attorney general. In her 2009 book, “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer,” published near the end of her tenure as DA, Harris described herself as a prosecutor who was “tough on crime by being Smart on Crime,” said she promoted programs to fix recidivism and made “improving my office’s felony conviction rates my number one priority.”

Five years later, after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, which vaulted the Black Lives Movement onto the national stage and made criminal justice reform a top issue, Harris embraced the calls for change.

In her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” published while she was senator, Harris described herself as a “progressive prosecutor.”

“I knew I was there for the victims. Both the victims of crimes committed and the victims of a broken criminal justice system,” Harris wrote. “For me, to be a progressive prosecutor is to understand — and act on — this dichotomy.”

Trump and his allies are now trying to emphasize the “progressive” part of Harris’ identity. On Tuesday, the former president attacked Harris as a “radical left person” and blamed current crime in the city on her tenure as district attorney.

“Really, what you should do is take a look at San Francisco now compared to before she became the district attorney, and you’ll see what she’ll do to our country,” Trump said.
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Prison reform

Several years after Harris was elected state attorney general in 2010, California voters passed a ballot measure that enacted sweeping sentencing reforms across the state. In an effort to relieve overcrowding in the state's prison, the proposition reclassified a list of felonies as misdemeanors, including certain drug crimes and theft — including shoplifting of property valued at less than $950.

The attorney general’s office under Harris released a summary of the law, called Proposition 47, which predicted that prison and jail populations would decrease while funding for truancy reduction programs and mental health services would rise. It also predicted that the state criminal justice system would save hundreds of millions of dollars due to the changes, and local prosecutors and sheriffs would have reduced workloads.

As of last week, prison officials reported, there were 92,480 people locked up in California’s prison systems, down from a height of more than 156,000 inmates during the early 2010s before the law was passed. But as NBC News reported last year, California’s reforms created a prison-to-homelessness pipeline, as counties were overwhelmed with an influx of returning inmates.

Violent crime, meanwhile, has increased across the state. The state attorney general’s office reported that from 2014 to 2023, violent crime had risen by more than 30% — including jumps in rapes, aggravated assaults and murders.

Although Harris didn’t take a formal position on the measure, Republicans accused her of misrepresenting Proposition 47 to the public. Steve Cooley, who served as the Los Angeles County district attorney from 2000 to 2012, blamed the rise in crime on Harris and the referendum.

DNC Protesters

Cook County State’s Attorney Preemptively Announces that DNC Protesters Will Not Be Prosecuted

Soros-backed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx preemptively announced that she will not prosecute protesters who are “peaceful” at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

This sudden turn toward leniency runs against what she claimed in April, Wirepoints reported.

Despite the attention to “peaceful” protesters, Foxx also announced ahead of time that she will not prosecute anyone arrested for misdemeanors — such as disorderly conduct, public demonstration, unlawful gathering, criminal trespass to state-supported land, and even curfew charges.

The policy is not new, though. The prosecutor, who was given a $408,000 donation from a George Soros super PAC in 2016, has maintained this policy at least since the riots in 2020 and has released hundreds of protesters over the years — even those who perpetrated property damage.

Despite this announcement of leniency, Foxx was talking tougher in April when she told the Chicago Tribune that her past policy, confirmed in a November 15 memo, would be set aside and hinted that protesters could expect to be arrested.

The Tribune reported that Foxx “was clear that her Nov. 15 memo wouldn’t apply during that time.”

That, though, does not seem to be the case now. It appears that the lenient November 15 policy is back in effect.

On Sunday, Foxx told the Triibe that her office does not prosecute protesters. “Whether it’s the O’Hare 40, or the educators at Northwestern, or the students at the Art Institute. We are consistent. We don’t prosecute these cases,” she said. “So this is not a policy that has been stagnant since 2020. It’s certainly a policy that we will continue to take into the DNC.”

According to the site, Foxx only vaguely promised to prosecute “specific cases involving an act of vandalism or violence.” However, Wirepoints added that some prosecutor’s office sources say that offenses including resisting/obstructing arrest, assault, misdemeanor aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery to a police officer, reckless conduct, mob action, and obstructing identification will still be prosecuted.

All this seems to run contrary to claims from the City of Chicago that authorities will not tolerate violent protests and that errant protesters will be prosecuted. The Chicago Police Department (CPD), for instance, rewrote its arrest policy in June specifically to cover the convention, the Associated Press reported at the time.

Chicago’s top cop, Superintendent Larry Snelling, even noted that the department is authorized to conduct “mass arrests” if things get out of hand.

More on DNC Convention

Rifts Emerge Between Establishment Media, Democrats as DNC Problems Turn into Debacle

Establishment media outlets are signaling that Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s honeymoon phase is over after the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) saw major issues with logistics and operations.

Several media figures from across the spectrum began publicly criticizing and even openly mocking Democrats for their mistakes at the DNC, particularly with regard to press operations and workspace but also with regard to the flow of convention programming that went far too long on Monday evening. The derailed convention programming, which was far behind schedule, led to President Joe Biden–the sitting president of the United States–being pushed until nearly 11:30 p.m. eastern time before he finally took the stage late Monday evening. Democrats even canceled planned speeches from Reps. Grace Meng (D-NY) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and a planned performance from award-winning musician James Taylor.
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Some in media even mocked Democrats for giving New York Gov. Kathy Hochul so much time for a pretty widely panned speech:
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What’s more, the logistical failures of Democrats as compared with the much-more-smoothly-run Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last month were apparent:

The scene to get into United Center is absolute chaos. Line after line - there are hundreds of people waiting to get in 1.5 hours after programming started. Staff, delegates, media all stuck outside

Lots of gripes in Chicago about the logistics on day one. RNC seemed to be a better managed affair, at least getting to and inside the arena, per a bunch of people who attended both conventions.

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Outside DNC Want Israel Destroyed

“We don’t want no two states; give us all of ’48!” That was one among many anti-Israel — and anti-American chants shouted by pro-Palestinian protesters Monday outside the Democratic National Convention.

President Joe Biden would later tell his party, from the stage, that the protesters “have a point.” But their point was not that “[a] lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides,” as Biden said. Their point was: destroy Israel.

At the front of the procession Monday from Union Park to the perimeter fence outside the United Center — which protesters soon broke through — were several extremist flags, including the flag of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Protesters chanted the familiar “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which refers to the destruction of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian state (under current conditions, an Islamist one, controlled by Hamas).

Other chants targeted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, whom protesters accused of “genocide” and “killing children.” In another refrain, protesters likened the Chicago Police Department to the Ku Klux Klan.

But the target of most of the chants was Israel. There were no chants for peace, or even for a ceasefire in the ongoing war in Gaza, which started October 7 when Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians.

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[spoiler=Pro-Israel Group Can't March in Chicago]

Pro-Israel Group, Denied Permit to March, Gathers at ‘Hostage Square’ in Chicago

A pro-Israel group that was denied a permit to march during the Democratic National Convention gathered in a makeshift “Hostage Square” in the West Loop on Tuesday to make their voices heard.

The original “Hostage Square” is front of an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel, and was given that name after it became a gathering place for the families of kidnapped and missing Israelis in the wake of the Hamas terror attack of October 7.

Like its namesake in Israel, the “Hostage Square” in Chicago features art installations that draw attention to the victims of Hamas — in particular, to U.S. citizens who were murdered or taken hostage. Five American hostages remain: Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, Omer Neutra, 22, Edan Alexander, 20, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23.

One art project, by Israeli designer Neil Salti, is a tree that honors the 403 victims of the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival. Visitors were invited to contribute by writing messages, or the names of victims, on rocks nearby.

Salti told Breitbart News that he lost 25 friends at Nova who were DJs or art designers for the festival. His tree included a rope around the trunk, like the ropes found onsite, which were thought to have been used on rape victims.

His girlfriend, Orly Birnbaum, said that one of her friends, Karla, was burned so badly at the festival site that she was only identified using dental records.

Other art projects focused on hope persisting, despite the horror.

Andrea Weinstein, the younger sister of Judih Weinstein, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz who was murdered with her husband, Gadi Haggai, told reporters that she had come to visit Hostage Square without knowing that her sister’s photograph would be prominently displayed.

Trump Against Selling US Steel to Japanese Corp.

Donald Trump Vows to Block Japanese Corporation from Buying U.S. Steel

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump promised to block Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation from buying the United States Steel Corporation during a speech in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

“It’s an honor to be here at Precision Custom Components, a company that has helped build and defend America for nearly 150 years,” Trump said:

With the help of companies like this one, we will rebuild our hollowed-out defense industrial base — ensuring that America is never in a situation where we don’t have the tanks, missiles, and raw materials to fight and win a war. [Emphasis added]

Upon taking office, I will invoke the Defense Production Act wherever it is necessary to quickly ramp up capacity of essential products, and I will stop Japan from buying U.S. Steel. [Emphasis added]

As Breitbart News reported in 2023, executives with U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel Corporation announced a nearly $15 billion deal, which would have the iconic American steel giant sold off to the Japanese company.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), has been a leading voice opposing the foreign acquisition of U.S. Steel. Vance, along with Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Bob Casey (D-PA), have warned of Nippon Steel’s deep ties to China.

The sale of U.S. Steel, founded in 1901 by Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Charles Schwab, to Nippon Steel is significant, as the steelmaker served a critical role in the nation’s “Arsenal of Democracy” during WWII.

Among several American companies that helped the Allies defeat the Axis Powers, which included Imperial Japan, U.S. Steel made the U.S. the world’s largest steel producer during the war, with Pennsylvania becoming the nation’s steel capital.

Madsen Charged with Domestic Violence

‘Reservoir Dogs,’ ‘Kill Bill’ Star Michael Madsen Charged with Domestic Violence

Actor Michael Madsen, star of films including the Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, was arrested and charged with domestic violence in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The L.A. Police told TMZ that Madsen was charged with a misdemeanor domestic violence charge late on Saturday night.

It is alleged that Madsen pushed his wife, DeAnna, then forced her out of their home before locking her out.

The reason for the marital spat was not revealed, but when police arrived, DeAnna, who has been married to the actor since 1996, was safe with a security guard. She refused medical attention when the L.A. Police offered to call an ambulance.

Officers spoke to the pair and then arrested the actor and took him off to lockup.

“It was a disagreement between Michael and his wife, which we hope resolves positively for them both,” Madesn’s representative told TMZ in a statement.

Madsen has a long history of altercations and arrests.

Most recently, he was arrested and charged with trespassing last year after he entered a neighbor’s property without permission.

In April of 2019, Madsen was arrested and charged with drunk driving. He was later sentenced for a four-day jail stint for the incident.

The 2019 arrest cost him a $100,000 paycheck for a role in the film Confessions of a Serial Killer after the production decided not to include him in the film.

The Kill Bill star also had legal troubles for drunk driving back in 2012 when he was arrested after police observed him driving erratically. The actor struck a plea deal for the arrest and promised to attend AA meetings. Unfortunately, he failed to uphold the agreement and his probation was revoked.

LATIN AMERICA

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Maduro Hosts International Congress

Nicolás Maduro to Host ‘Global Anti-Fascist Congress’ in Venezuela

Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro announced on Monday that his regime would host a world congress “against fascism, neo-fascism, and similar expressions.”

Maduro said that the yet-to-be scheduled event will seek to “exchange strategies” to “fight fascism,” which he has often defined broadly to mean any opposition to hardline socialism. Maduro has for over a decade used “fascism” as a reason to violently repress political dissidents in the country. The dictator made the announcement during a Monday evening event with leaders of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allied parties.

“A very good idea has been proposed to me, I want us to set a date very soon, to hold a world congress against fascism, neo-fascism and similar expressions, with guests from all continents,” Maduro said. “Let’s invite thinkers, intellectuals, artists, social leaders and political leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, etcetera, etcetera.”

“We are going to hold here in Venezuela, the world epicenter of the fight against fascism, the great congress to nourish ourselves with ideas, proposals, and refine the strategies of Venezuela, which is defending its right to live, to peace, to the future,” he continued.

Maduro suggested that the event should take place before October 18, when the PSUV is scheduled to hold a national congress in which the dictator will “receive proposals” from his sympathizers on his “agenda” for the next six years once he takes office for a third term in January 2025.

The Venezuelan dictator claims that he was “reelected” for a six-year presidential term after Venezuela’s National Electoral Center — loyal to Maduro — proclaimed him the “winner” of the July 28 sham presidential election. The Venezuelan electoral authorities have continuously refused to show voter data that can corroborate his claims. The nation’s top court — also loyal to Maduro — is presently undergoing a “review” of the results following a request made by Maduro.

Maduro’s claimed “victory” has been heavily called into question by the international community and the Venezuelan opposition, who have published voter data that they claim can prove that their candidate, Edmundo González, was the actual winner of the election after defeating Maduro in a landslide.

Throughout his rule, Maduro has repeatedly accused both the Venezuelan opposition — which is mostly composed of center-left parties — and dissidents of his regime of being “right-wing” and “fascists.” Maduro has accused the opposition of allegedly engaging in a “fascist coup” by contesting his “victory” in the July 28 sham election.

Maduro has also accused “international Zionism” of being behind a purported plot to oust him and his authoritarian regime.

US Supports Venezuelan Economy

Report: Venezuela Gets Rich Sending Oil Tankers to U.S. Even After Sham Election

The Venezuelan newspaper Tal Cual reported on Sunday that the United States received 12 shipments of crude oil and asphalt from Venezuela after the July 28 sham presidential election, which socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claims he “won” and the United States does not recognize as legitimate.

Tal Cual reported that, according to data it reviewed from maritime transport monitoring websites, the 12 ships departed from Venezuelan ports after the sham election. The tankers carried cargo belonging to California-based Chevron and the Spanish company Repsol — two of the companies that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has issued licenses to that allow them to resume oil production in Venezuela and sell Venezuelan oil in the U.S. and other markets.

The U.S.-bound shipments reportedly contained Merey and Boscán crude oil, as well as fuel oil and asphalt. Tal Cual reported that Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, received gasoline, diesel, and diluents in exchange. Each oil tanker reportedly carried a cargo of between 1.6 and 2 million barrels.

The United States, during the administration of former President Donald Trump, imposed sanctions on PDVSA in 2019 as a response to the Maduro regime’s ongoing human rights violations against its own people. Biden temporarily lifted the sanctions between October 2023 and April 2024 as part of a now-failed effort to entice Maduro to allow a “free and fair” election to occur in Venezuela.

In addition, Biden issued licenses to companies such as Chevron, Repsol, Shell, and BP that allow them to resume operations in Venezuela, including new deals involving joint ventures that these companies have with PDVSA, such as PDVSA and Repsol’s Petroquiriquire joint venture.

Venezuela held a sham election on July 28 that the Maduro regime’s electoral authorities claim dictator Maduro “won.” The United States is among the list of countries that do not recognize Maduro’s claimed victory as legitimate. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the election.

Tal Cual points out that while Maduro has rejected the United States’ stance on the sham election, PDVSA continues to export oil to the United States, its erstwhile top buyer.

“PDVSA has to continue invoicing in some way and even more after the disaster generated by the PDVSA-Cripto corruption scheme with which billions of dollars were lost,” an oil expert who preferred to remain anonymous told Tal Cual:

Of course there is the possibility of new sanctions or greater restrictions in the oil market and that also makes them hurry to send the cargoes as soon as possible, and I am not only talking about PDVSA, but also about Repsol and Chevron, which must collect what Venezuela owes them.

Ortega is Milking US-Bound Migrants

Report: Nicaragua Collected Nearly $10 Million in ‘Fines’ from U.S.-Bound Migrants in 2024

Nicaragua’s communist regime collected more than 359 million Nicaraguan córdobas (roughly $9.76 million) in “safe-passage” fees from U.S.-bound migrants that pass through its territory as of June, the local newspaper Confidencial reported on Monday.

The nearly $10 million collected between January and June already represents 163 percent of the regime’s established goal for that income.

Since 2022, communist dictator Daniel Ortega has engaged in a policy widely derided as the “weaponization” of migrants against the United States, sporting near non-existent entry visa requirements and allowing U.S.-bound migrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia to pass through the Central American nation. Additionally, the Ortega regime authorized charter flight routes connecting it to countries such as Libya, capable of transporting hundreds of migrants per flight.

Experts have speculated that Ortega is seeking to force Washington into talks toward potential U.S. sanctions reliefs for his communist regime.

As part of the dictator’s plans, the Ortega regime is charging migrants taxes and other fees for the use of the facilities of Managua’s international airport, presently the country’s only international terminal. The communist regime received several loans from China in 2024, including a $400 million loan for the renovation of an abandoned military airport that Ortega aims to turn into Nicaragua’s second international airport.

Ortega’s use of migrants against the United States has also resulted in record profits for the nation’s airport authority that have allowed it to overturn more than ten years of continued fiscal deficits.

Confidencial’s report stated that the nearly $10 million collected by Nicaragua’s General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME) during the first six months of 2024 came from the collection of  “safe-passage” fines imposed on migrants seeking to reach the United States, who are charged with an amount ranging from $150-200 per person to be able to pass through the country.

The “safe-passage” fines, according to Confidencial, are concealed by DGME’s income reports under the “other service fees” category, which, the newspaper explains, is a category whose origin has not been properly justified by the corresponding authorities.

During 2023, DGME was reportedly able to collect more than 1.664 billion Nicaraguan córdobas (roughly $45.2 million) in fines and other miscellaneous charges to migrants, of which the “safe-passage” fine amounted to 64.3 percent of the total collected during that year.

Confidencial stated that the Ortega regime projected that it would collect roughly 586 million córdobas across all fines and charges to migrants throughout 2024 but that it had already collected 96.9 percent of the total by June.

Argentina Detains an Islamic Terrorist Cell

Argentina Announces Discovery of Islamic Terrorist Cell Plotting Attacks on Jews

Argentina’s Federal Police forces dismantled this weekend what they described as an Islamic terrorist cell allegedly planning attacks against the Jewish community in the western province of Mendoza.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced on Friday evening that federal police officers carried out eight raids on the homes of the group’s members to dismantle the radical Islamic terror cell, resulting in the arrest of seven individuals.

The terrorist cell was identified after it issued threats against a local Jewish journalist, who denounced the threats to the Delegation of Israelite Associations of Argentina (DAIA), prompting local authorities to launch an investigation. Bullrich explained on social media that the now-dismantled cell used messaging platforms to spread hateful messages and attack plans against Mendoza’s Jewish community as well as content from terrorist groups such as ISIS and the Taliban.

“The person responsible [for issuing the threats against the journalist] was identified, and then the group was identified. The police raided the place and brought them all to justice. Inside [a prison],” Bullrich’s message read.

“We are going to get rid of each and every one of these criminals who try to sow fear in Argentines, and they will pay,” the message concluded.

Officials from the local police’s anti-terrorist unit were reportedly able to seize a large number of firearms in the eight raids such as shotguns, rifles, and revolvers, as well as bladed weapons such as knives, daggers, and katanas. The officials also seized electronic devices and a bibliography of Salafi origin.

The investigators determined that the apprehended suspects were actively involved in private groups on the instant messaging services Telegram and WhatsApp where they spread messages with “anti-Christian and anti-Jewish expressions.” There they also reportedly discussed the now-thwarted attack plots against Mendoza’s Jewish community.

Some of the alleged members of the radical Islamic terror cell were arrested at the Cristo Redentor Border Crossing and at the Ezeiza International Airport, which, according to the investigators, suggested that they were attempting to flee the country.

Prior to the discovery of the alleged terror cell, officials with the nation’s Federal Police — following an alert from the FBI — were able to apprehend a 16-year-old in Villa de Mayo in April who stands suspected of accessing an ISIS-related website to obtain information on how to manufacture explosives, reportedly with the intention of staging terrorist attacks.

While the authorities did not list explosives among the discoveries in the raids this weekend, the minor was in possession of tools such as pliers, glue guns, and testers that are compatible with the manufacture of explosives or the repair of electronic equipment, in addition to chemical materials.

“Now we will have to determine if he was actually making explosives, if he was a lone wolf waiting for orders, or if he was a kid messing around,” a source related to the case told the Argentine news outlet Infobae at the time.

Petro Hates Israel

Colombia’s Socialist President Ends Coal Exports to ‘Nazi’ Israel

Colombian President Gustavo Petro signed a decree on Sunday outlawing exports of coal to Israel, the latest in a series of aggressive actions against the Jewish state — a country he has repeatedly compared to Nazi Germany — by his radical leftist administration.

Petro, a hardline socialist who belonged to the Colombian terrorist guerrilla M19 in his youth, dramatically escalated his hostility against Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of hundreds of civilians on October 7, 2023, which prompted Petro to declare himself a staunch supporter of the “Palestinian” cause. After months of condemnation for his repeated comparison of Israeli self-defense actions against Hamas in Gaza to the Holocaust, Petro cut diplomatic ties with Israel in May, severing a previously uninterrupted positive relationship begun in 1957. Israel has since deleted its informational page on bilateral ties to Colombia.

Coal and crude oil are Colombia’s top exports and Israel has long been a reliable customer. In addition to his vitriol against Israel, Petro is a vocal opponent of fossil fuels, repeatedly claiming oil and coal are more dangerous than cocaine – informally, Colombia’s top export under Petro – and has hinted at destroying Colombia’s fossil fuel industry.

Petro had initially announced in June that he would cut coal exports to Israel “until the genocide ends,” referring to self-defense operations against Hamas terrorists, who themselves follow an explicitly genocidal ideology. The decree signed on Sunday will take effect on August 22, giving time for Colombia’s coal companies to comply, and will reportedly remain in place until “the orders of provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice in the Process of the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip are fully complied with.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), responding to a petition by the government of South Africa, ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military operation” in Rafah, southern Gaza, in May. The ICJ is a non-binding body and Israel does not formally recognize its jurisdiction.

Petro celebrated the decree on Twitter, where he regularly publishes screeds referring to those opposing jihadist terrorism as “Nazis.”

“With Colombian coal they make bombs to kill the children of Palestine,” Petro wrote.

EUROPE

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Ukraine on Creating a Buffer Zone

Zelensky Says Ukraine Creating a ‘Buffer Zone’ Inside Russia to Stop Attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the goals of a surprise attack by his military in Russian territory, stating Sunday that Kyiv is seeking to create a “buffer zone” in Russia to stop incoming soldiers.

Local reports first began revealing the presence of Ukrainian soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, actively seizing uncontested Russian territory and threatening the neighboring region of Belgorod. Ukrainian authorities did not directly address or explain the seemingly abrupt change in military strategy for a week, offering only vague statements indicating that the Ukrainian leadership felt that Russians should “feel” the wages of war as Ukrainians have for over a decade.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin first invaded and colonized part of Ukraine, its eastern Crimean peninsula, in March 2014 and has supported irregular separatist fighters in the eastern Donbass region since that year. Putin escalated his threat to the sovereignty of Ukraine to a full-scale invasion in February 2022, claiming that a “special military operation” was necessary to oust Zelensky on the grounds that his government was “Nazi.” Zelensky, Ukraine’s first-ever Jewish president and the descendant of World War II survivors, vehemently denied the accusations.

Putin has since annexed four more regions of Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk.

In his national address on Sunday, Zelensky said he was satisfied with the progress of his army’s counter-invasion of Russia so far and detailed that he believed the move was necessary to disempower the much larger Russian military.

“All this is more than just defense for Ukraine; it is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions,” Zelensky said, according to a translation of his remarks by the presidential office. “This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”

“Everything that inflicts losses on the Russian army, Russian state, their military-industrial complex, and their economy,” the president continued, “helps prevent the war from expanding and brings us closer to a just end to this aggression – a just peace for Ukraine.”

Elsewhere in his speech, Zelensky said his “guys are doing great on all fronts,” but that they needed more support from the West.

“There are no vacations in war. Decisions are needed, as is timely logistics for the announced aid packages. I especially address this to the United States, the United Kingdom, and France,” he demanded.

The administration of leftist President Joe Biden has gifted Ukraine $55.4 billion since February 2022 and regular commits new security packages to Zelensky’s troops. It nonetheless faces continuous pressure not to cut the flow of weapons and funding.

Russia & Journalists

Russia Threatens More Journalists After Biden Hostage Deal for WSJ Reporter

Three weeks after freeing Wall Street Journal report Evan Gershkovich in a hostage swap for dangerous Russian criminals held in the United States and Europe, Moscow is threatening to arrest a group of Washington Post journalists who crossed the border with Ukrainian troops to file a story on their incursion into Kursk.

Ukraine launched a surprising attack on Kursk on August 6 and has reportedly managed to hold a remarkable amount of territory against Russian counterattacks so far. One of Ukraine’s targets in Kursk was the town of Sudzha, the location of a strategic natural gas hub.

The Ukrainians have retained control of Sudzha for 11 days as of Sunday, when Washington Post correspondent Siobhan O’Grady, photographer Ed Ram, and Ukrainian human rights activist Tetiana Burianova were escorted into the town by Ukrainian troops to write an article about the occupation.

The article described “unmistakable evidence” from Sudzha that “some citizens of Russia are living under Kyiv’s control and Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is really not going as planned.”

Many of Sudzha’s residents were camped on the grounds of a former school, surrounded by Ukrainian soldiers who provided them with food and water. The center of the small down was heavily damaged by explosive weapons.

The part of the report that probably annoyed Moscow was the insistence, by both the Washington Post team and the captive Russian citizens they interviewed, that Ukrainian forces were treating civilians fairly well.

One older gentleman asked if the Ukrainians would take him home with them when they pulled out of the city, so he could search for his daughter, who went missing during the Russian attack on Kharkiv. A group of women in Sudzha thanked Ukrainian forces for treating them kindly and said they were still unable to “wrap our heads” around the swift and sudden invasion.

“Let Putin make an agreement with your Zelensky. We really want some kind of agreement, guys. You’ve come to us, thank you, you’re treating us very well. But you must understand, we want to return to our children, to go home, do you understand? We want things to be resolved in a good way,” one Russian woman said to the Ukrainian troops escorting the American newspaper team.

Ukrainian troops interviewed by the Washington Post were generally upbeat, although perpetually on guard for Russian snipers and drones. They left notes for each other to keep the facilities they were occupying. They even took time to care for Russian pets and farm animals.

Someone from the invasion force cheekily spray-painted the name of a popular Ukrainian grocery chain on the walls of a local food store. The Ukrainians marked the Russian side of the border with a white surrender flag decorated with a swastika, to mark Russia as a “Nazi state” – an inversion of the propaganda Russia often uses against Ukraine.

There was not much in the Washington Post report for the Russians to like, and they clearly did not like it. On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russian police are “studying the facts in connection with the actions of the American journalists.”

Germany: Ukraine Should Pay Us For Damaging Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

German Lawmakers Demand Ukraine Pay for Nord Stream Sabotage, Gov’t Cutoff of Military Aid to Kyiv

Leading populist lawmakers in Germany, from both the left and right, have demanded consequences for Kyiv over Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, including reparations and the cessation of arms deliveries.

Last week, it was reported that German authorities had issued an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian citizen for alleged involvement in the 2022 sabotage against the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines owned jointly by Russia and Germany.

This was followed by a report from the Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had initially approved the plot to attack the pipelines but had ordered the plan to be scrapped after the CIA got wind of the plot. However, according to the paper, Zelensky’s then-commander-in-chief, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, continued on with the plan anyway.

Following the reports of the Ukrainian government’s alleged involvement in the attack on critical German infrastructure and energy security, there have been growing calls for Berlin to punish Kyiv.

Suggesting that Ukraine should pay reparations to Germany, parliamentarian and co-chairwoman of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, wrote on Friday: “The economic damage to our country caused by the demolition of Nord Stream, presumably ordered by Zelensky—and not Putin as we were led to believe–should be ‘billed’ to Ukraine.”

Weidel added that any “aid payments” paid for by the German taxpayer “should be stopped.”

The demands to punish Ukraine over its alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines did not only come from the right, with Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of the Bundestag parliament in Berlin and leader of the left-wing populist BSW party, also calling for stern repercussions against Kyiv.

“If Ukraine was involved in the attack on Nord Stream, the [traffic light government] must draw consequences and stop arms deliveries immediately. It is outrageous that the federal government is not making any effort to address the revelations and is even withholding information,” Wagenknecht said.

Over the weekend, the former leader of The Left party also called for the formation of a committee in the Bundestag to investigate what role the German government played during the attack and specifically whether Berlin had any advance knowledge of the plot.

“If it turns out that German authorities knew about the attack plan in advance, then we would have a scandal of the century in German politics,” Wagenknecht said according to broadcaster ZDF.

While criticising the government for failing to inform the public about the situation, the leftist populist leader said that the sabotage of the pipelines was a “terrorist attack on our energy supply.”

Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security has denied that Kyiv had any involvement in the attack on Nord Stream, stating: “Versions in the media about the alleged involvement of Ukraine are based on dubious anonymous sources and are unrealistic from a technical standpoint.”

German Court on a 99-Year-Old Nazi

German Court Upholds Conviction of 99-Year-Old Former Nazi Concentration Camp Secretary

A German court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a 99-year-old woman who was convicted of being an accessory to more than 10,000 murders for her role as a secretary to the SS commander of the Nazis’ Stutthof concentration camp during World War II.

The Federal Court of Justice upheld the conviction of Irmgard Furchner, who was given a two-year suspended sentence in December 2022 by a state court in Itzehoe in northern Germany.

She was accused of being part of the apparatus that helped the camp near Danzig, now the Polish city of Gdansk, function. She was convicted of being an accessory to murder in 10,505 cases and an accessory to attempted murder in five cases.

At a federal court hearing in Leipzig last month, Furchner’s lawyers cast doubt on whether she really was an accessory to crimes committed by the commander and other senior camp officials, and on whether she had truly been aware of what was going on at Stutthof.

The Itzehoe court said that judges were convinced that Furchner “knew and, through her work as a stenographer in the commandant’s office of the Stutthof concentration camp from June 1, 1943, to April 1, 1945, deliberately supported the fact that 10,505 prisoners were cruelly killed by gassings, by hostile conditions in the camp,” by transportation to the Auschwitz death camp and by being sent on death marches at the end of the war.

Prosecutors said during the original proceedings that Furchner’s trial may be the last of its kind. However, a special federal prosecutors’ office in Ludwigsburg tasked with investigating Nazi-era war crimes says three more cases are pending with prosecutors or courts in various parts of Germany. With any suspects now at a very advanced age, questions increasingly arise over suspects’ fitness to stand trial.

Germany’s main Jewish leader welcomed the ruling. “For Holocaust survivors, it is enormously important for a late form of justice to be attempted,” Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews, said in statement.

“The legal system sent an important message today: even nearly 80 years after the Holocaust, no line can be drawn under Nazi crimes,” he added.

Greece Has Issues with Immigration

Greece: Illegal Migrants Detained on Island of Crete as Smugglers Seek New Routes

Authorities on the southern Greek island of Crete detained 76 migrants early Tuesday after they arrived on three boats as smugglers seek new routes in the region to evade coast guard patrols.

The migrants, from Syria, Egypt, Sudan, and Bangladesh, included six children and arrived before dawn on the tiny island of Gavdos, near Crete’s southern coast, local officials said. Usually, they are detained for identification and processing, after which they can apply for asylum while waiting in refugee camps, with cases accessed on an individual basis.

Smugglers typically target Greek islands close to Turkey’s coastline, but in recent months they have increasingly chosen longer routes to Crete and islands in the central Aegean Sea, where coast guard patrols are more relaxed.

The Greek government is considering setting up state-funded processing centers on Crete to assist local authorities. Currently, migrants are housed in sports facilities, disused buildings, and schools during the summer months.

According to data updated by the United Nations refugee agency, more than 28,000 migrants have arrived illegally in Greece this year, a rate slightly lower than in Italy and Spain. The rate of migrants arriving illegally in Greece has eased slightly so far this year following a post-pandemic spike in 2023, according to UNCHR.

Greece has received backlash from human rights organizations over the treatment of migrants trying to reach its shores. In June, it denied a BBC report that accused its coast guard of brutal practices resulting in dozens of deaths.

UK Wants to Release Criminals During Riots

UK Gov’t to Release Some 5,500 Prisoners Early to Free Space Amid Sentencing of Rioters

The emergency Operation Early Dawn measure to clear prison space amid the sentencing of anti-migration rioters, protesters, and social media posters will reportedly see at least 5,500 criminals released early by the autumn.

The left-wing Labour Party government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer enacted emergency measures on Monday to free up prison cells in England as over 1,000 people have been arrested in connection to the outbreak of violence, or for posts on social media, in the UK following the mass stabbing at a children’s dance party in Southport last month allegedly by a second-generation Rwandan migrant teen.

According to Sky News, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is reportedly planning to cut the mandatory time behind bars before parole by 40 to 50 per cent for certain criminals. This would result in 5,500 prisoners being released back on the streets early in September and October.

The measures will specifically target prisons in the Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside, the North East, and Yorkshire regions. In total, the prison system capacity of England and Wales currently stands at 89,191, however, as of Friday 87,893 slots were occupied, the BBC reports.

The government has claimed that those convicted of domestic abuse, sexual offences, terrorism, and some violent offences will not be eligible for early release. Those involved in the recent riots will also not be eligible.

Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said: “We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks. As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.

“However, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff and partners, we have brought forward additional prison places and now introduced Operation Early Dawn to manage the pressure felt in some parts of the country.”

Operation Early Dawn, which was previously used by the former Conservative government in May amid prison overcrowding, will also allow for the holding of criminals in police cells while they await trial.

Some have warned that this measure will have a negative impact on the ability of police forces to function, including Mark Fairhurst of the Prison Officers’ Association

“It’s justice delayed at the moment, because we are now clogging up police cells, so they might have to delay some of their operations. When they arrest people, they have to make sure that they have got them a custody space because we might have prisoners filling up their cells and of course they have to pay overtime to supervise prisoners,” Fairhurst told the BBC.

“In reality, the most serious offences will end up in court; we will guarantee them a prison cell, and the lesser offences, the police will decide ‘do we hold on to them or do we bail them’,” he added.

However, Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp of the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “We are working closely with criminal justice system partners to manage demand in the system and ensure that the public are safe.

 I wonder why I can't believe in Mr. Kemp's promise...