News of the World

[kyonides]

USA

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Several Regions

Jeffrey Epstein Had Surveillance Room in New York Mansion to Spy on Guests

A lawsuit filed by two of Epstein’s accusers said that Epstein would give his abuse victims car services and cell phones to track their every move, find “dirt” on them, and offer hundreds of dollars in “hush money” to silence them.

The New York Post continued:

The details were laid bare in the new civil suit — filed in Manhattan federal court — that alleges the “complex, sophisticated sex-trafficking venture” Epstein was able to operate for years wouldn’t have been possible without two of the disgraced financier’s closest advisers: personal lawyer Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn.

Epstein accuser Danielle Bensky and another woman, identified only as Jane Doe 3, filed a complaint against the two men on Friday, alleging they helped build the “complex financial infrastructure” that Epstein relied on to sexually abuse hundreds of teens and young women.

The lawsuit reportedly does not address what happened to the surveillance footage, or if Epstein kept footage of these activities inside the New York mansion.
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The two women said that Indyke and Kahn were “well aware” of Epstein’s abuses and they “knowingly and intentionally benefitted” from the operation.

“Knowing that they would earn millions of dollars in exchange for facilitating Epstein’s sex abuse and trafficking, Indyke and Kahn chose money and power over following the law,” the lawsuit reads.

Ninth Circuit Denies Request to Rehear Panel Decision, Lets Stand Ruling That Gun Ads Ban Is ‘Likely Unconstitutional’

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied on February 20 a request to rehear en banc a September 2023 three-judge panel ruling that found California’s ban on gun advertisements in junior sports magazines “likely unconstitutional.”

The three-judge panel decision, handed down on September 13, 2023, found no evidence that barring advertisements in the magazines would reduce gun violence among youth.

Judge Kenneth Lee, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote the panel’s majority opinion, noting that the panel’s first conclusion was “that because California permits minors under supervision to possess and use firearms for hunting and other lawful activities, [the Marketing Firearms to Minors Law] facially regulates speech that concerns lawful activity and is not misleading.”
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Lee stressed, “California cannot straitjacket the First Amendment by, on the one hand, allowing minors to possess and use firearms and then, on the other hand, banning truthful advertisements about that lawful use of firearms.”

The three-judge panel heard the case on appeal after a district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the marketing ban. The three-judge panel reversed the district court’s refusal of a preliminary injunction and remanded the case “for further proceedings consistent with [the panel’s opinion].”

On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit denied a request to step in and rehear the case en banc, which means the three-judge panel’s decision stands as the case will be re-examined by the district court.

Democrat Bob Casey Criticized for Illegal Immigrant Crime ‘Surge’ in Pennsylvania[/url]

[url=https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/02/20/democrat-bob-casey-criticized-for-illegal-immigrant-crime-surge-in-pennsylvania/]

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) has been criticized by conservatives for opposing measures that would crack down on illegal immigration as the Keystone State experiences a “surge” of illegal immigrant crime.

Sean Parnell, a conservative who previously ran for Senate, shared a news report about how illegal alien gangs are stealing “large quantities of merchandise” from across the state.

Parnell noted that Casey in 2021 opposed a measure ensuring that illegal alien criminals would not be granted amnesty.

He wrote, “Worth pointing out: As illegal immigrant crime surges in Pennsylvania, our radical leftwing Senator Bob Casey voted against an amendment in 2021 to prevent illegals who have been charged with a crime from being granted amnesty.”

“Reminder: Senator Bob Casey of PA stood by Biden as he reversed Trump’s immigration policies and opened our border up to an invasion of illegal immigrants. Had Bob Casey actually done his job and fought to keep our border secure, crimes like this wouldn’t be happening,” Andrew Surabian, a former Trump White House staffer, wrote.

Indeed, Casey voted 2021 in lockstep with Senate Democrats to oppose an amendment offered by Sen. Chuck Grassley.

The amendment’s statement of purpose reads, “To establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to prohibiting illegal aliens with criminal records from receiving conditional or lawful permanent resident status in the United States.”

Boston Families Furious as City Kicks Black Children Out of Community Center to House Biden’s Migrants

Roxbury’s Melnea A. Cass Recreational Community Center, which was once a meeting place for Little League ball players, volleyball games, and other sports and community events, has now been dedicated to rows of cots for illegal border crossers, CBS, WBZ-TV Boston reported.

WBZ interviewed pre-teen Jeremiah Rodriguez who showed up at the community center on Feb. 17 under the mistaken impression that his community baseball team was using the facility for batting practice. He was devastated to find out his community center was now closed to him.

“We usually practice. They were closed,” young Jeremiah told the outlet.

Jeremiah’s dad, Yrbin Rodriguez, added, “It’s hard. I didn’t know the immigrants inside. It’s okay to help, I don’t think that’s the place to do it because kids and families go and enjoy.”

But thanks to Biden and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, the chiefly black community has lost the facility that was once the center of the community. Roxbury is nearly 57 percent black, almost 30 percent Latino, and only six percent white, in a neighborhood that has a median income far under Boston as a whole ($30,654 for Roxbury, $52,433 for Boston overall), according to city of Boston data.

New York is a Real Mess

Letitia James Says She’ll Seize Trump’s Assets If He Can’t Pay $354M Fine

New York Attorney General Letitia James is prepared to seize former President Donald Trump’s assets if he is unable to find cash to cover a $354 million fine in his civil fraud case, she said Tuesday in an interview with ABC News.

James told ABC News, “If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.”

Trump was fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in pre-judgment interest on Friday after Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled the former president had inflated his net worth in order get more favorable loan terms.

Trump has said he will appeal the ruling. Still, he will have to pay the fine as a bond to New York State before he can appeal.

When asked about Trump’s defense that the banks were paid back for all loans and there were no victims in the case, James responded “financial frauds are not victimless crimes,” but did not name any victims and instead said the fraud was “massive.”

So where the heck is the evidence that someone committed fraud? The banks didn't lose their money at all.
This is just an attempt to steal everything from a private citizen because they hate him.

Remington CEO Cites ‘Legislative Environment’ in New York as Company Moves to Georgia

The Associated Press (AP) noted that D’Arcy used a news release to indicate that New York’s “legislative environment” is concerning to the firearm industry as a whole.

The pending closure of Remington’s Ilion, New York, plant — launched in 1828 — marks the end of generations of New Yorkers working for the American gun maker.

Jim Conover began working at the Ilion plant in 1964 and continued to work for Remington for four decades. He commented on the pending closure, saying, “When Remington leaves, it’s not going to be like a facility leaving, it’s going to be like part of your family has moved off.”

On December 1, 2023, Breitbart News reported that Remington was closing the Ilion plant and the anticipated date of closure is early March 2024.
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In addition to all the regulations and taxes in New York, the state has so much gun control that Mike Bloomberg-affiliated Everytown for Gun Safety ranks it the No. 2 state in the Union for gun control laws.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Reverses Plan to Give Luxury Harlem Condos to Migrants After Public Outcry

“Adams’ change of heart came during a surprise appearance at a St. Nicholas House Resident Association meeting packed with dozens of residents furious over the city’s plan for a building development on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd once marketed as upscale housing,” reported the New York Post.

“The 35-story building was quietly slated to become a homeless shelter that could potentially house migrants — a plan that was only revealed to the community this week when some neighborhood residents saw workers bringing bed frames and mattresses inside,” it added.

Adams finally turned his plan around last Thursday night after public pressure.

“I told the team, ‘Find out what’s going on here. We’re not moving folks into a brand new building when you have long-term needs in a community. That’s not gonna happen,’” Adams said. “You will not have migrants and asylum seekers in that property.”

The site will instead house New York families dealing with homelessness.

NYPD Officer Injuries Skyrocket as Migrants Pour into City

The number of New York City police officers getting injured by perps has skyrocketed in recent years, with the 2023 numbers totaling a whopping 5,363 cops hurt on the job.

In the final quarter of the year alone, 1,286 officers were injured in struggles with suspects, according to NYPD data obtained by the New York Post.

The annual statistics ranked the following precincts as the most dangerous for cops to work in:

The Bronx’s 40th Precinct – 135 cops injured
Brooklyn’s 75th Precinct – 129
The Bronx’s 46th Precinct (128), 44th Precinct (126), and 47th Precinct (117)
According to one law enforcement insider: “No real surprises here – all very busy commands where perps are emboldened to fight.”

The number of NYPD officers hurt by suspects increased by 20 percent in 2022, with 4,724 uniformed officers suffering injuries. This figure was up from 3,933 in 2021.

The total amount of anti-cop attacks resulting in injuries in 2023 was 13 percent higher than in the year before.

Crime experts told the Post that the emboldened perps are a result of protests, illegal migrants, anti-cop rhetoric, and soft-on-crime policies like bail reform.

MIDDLE EAST

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Hamas Moved Hostages to Rafah

Hamas Moved Israeli Hostages from Khan Yunis to Rafah

The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) found cages in tunnels underneath Khan Yunis in which hostages had recently been held, but found no hostages there.

The Post noted:

With the IDF completing its operational takeover of Khan Yunis, sources have confirmed that the IDF found no hostages there, though it did find multiple multi-million shekel special tunnels with cages where hostages had been held.
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As early as December, top sources started to argue that Hamas was already moving some hostages from Khan Yunis to Rafah.
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It seems that since December, more, or even all, of the remaining hostages in Khan Yunis were moved to Rafah, hiding among around 1.5 million Palestinian civilians.

The daring hostage rescue carried out by the IDF last week took place in Rafah, freeing two Israeli hostages from a civilian home.

President Joe Biden and other world leaders have warned Israel not to go into Rafah, despite the likely presence of the hostages, and despite the fact that the last four Hamas battalions (out of twenty-four) are thought to be hiding there.

Does the Biden administration even care about Americans still being held hostage in Rafah?

LATIN AMERICA

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Brazil Lies, Haiti Accuses Mose's Wife of Murder

Brazil Claims Israel Is Lying About Lula’s Public Comments Comparing Hamas Fight to Holocaust

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira accused the Israeli government on Tuesday of “lying” about recent public comments in which far-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva compared Israel’s self-defense operations against Hamas to the Holocaust.

Lula compared Israel’s actions against Hamas to those of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler in remarks given on Sunday during a press conference following his participation at the 37 African Union Summit in Addis Ababa.

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Lula said.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Katz addressed Lula on social media on Wednesday in a public letter written in Portuguese in which he stated that “millions of Jews around the world are waiting” for his apology.

“How dare you compare Israel to Hitler?” Katz asked Lula.
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Brazilian Foreign Minister Vieira, in remarks given to Reuters and Bloomberg on Tuesday evening on the sidelines of an upcoming G20 meeting of foreign ministers, lashed out at the Israeli government and Foreign Minister Katz for his public letter addressing Lula. Vieira claimed Israel’s response to Lula’s comments as “unacceptable” and “untruthful.”

“For a foreign ministry to address a head of state from a friendly country in this way is unusual and revolting,” Vieira told reporters.

“The words from Netanyahu’s government are unacceptable in their form, and deceiving in their content,” he continued. “They’re putting up a smoke screen to hide the real problem which is the ongoing massacre in Gaza.”

With regards to Katz’s public request for an apology, Vieira said that there is no reason for the Brazilian President to apologize.

Wife of Haiti’s Assassinated President Among Dozens Indicted in His Killing

Haitian Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire on Monday issued 122 pages of indictments against dozens of people allegedly involved in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

One of the indictments was against Moise’s widow Martine, who the judge accused of conspiring with former Prime Minister Claude Joseph to kill her husband and take his place as president.

Jovenel Moise was murdered in his home on July 7, 2021, by a squad of gunmen, four of whom were killed in a subsequent gun battle with police. Martine Moise was home at the time and was shot in the arm and thigh during the attack.

“I still don’t believe that my husband has gone like this before my eyes without saying a last word to me. This pain will never pass,” she said from her hospital bed in Miami a few days after the assassination.

“You have to be a notorious criminal without guts to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moïse with impunity without giving him the chance to speak. You knew who the president was fighting against,” she said to the killers in an audio statement released from the hospital.

Dozens of arrests were made in connection with the assassination of President Moise. Haitian officials said the killing was an elaborate plot hatched by the conspirators during meetings in Florida and the Dominican Republic.

In February 2023, U.S. federal agents arrested four suspects in South Florida accused of playing major roles in the Moise murder plot, including the owner of a security firm in the Miami area.

Russia's Latin American Tour

Venezuela and Russia Agree to ‘Peaceful Nuclear Energy’ Cooperation

Lavrov made a one-day stop in Venezuela as part of a broader Latin America tour that began in Cuba on Monday. In Caracas, he met with socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil.

“We put special focus to increasing trade and economic relations. There are numerous opportunities here. The high-level intergovernmental trade and economic commission between Russia and Venezuela plays a critical role in our opinion,” Lavrov said at a press conference following his meeting with Gil.

“Peaceful use of nuclear energy, which we also discussed today, looks promising,” he continued. “We decided to accelerate and expand our cooperation in all these areas.”

Lavrov asserted that Russia is ready to “share the experience” it has accumulated in recent years with the Maduro regime in the energy sector to help contribute to national economic stability and strengthen the two rogue nations’ technical autonomy.

“Venezuela is one of Russia’s most reliable and closest friends, not only in Latin America but in the world,” Lavrov proclaimed after meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart, stressing that Russia is “very grateful” for Venezuela’s interest in helping the development of relations between Moscow and various Latin American regional organizations.

During his joint press briefing with the Russian foreign minister, Gil described both countries as “victims in the international scenario of the illegal, irrational, and illegitimate” sanctions, which he claimed are “unilateral coercive measures.”

“None of the sanctions have been lifted against Venezuela,” Gil claimed — a false statement. In October, the Biden administration gifted a generous oil and gas sanctions relief package to the Maduro regime in exchange for vague promises of holding a “free and fair” presidential election sometime in 2024.

Russian Foreign Minister Rants About American ‘Blackmail’ on Cuba Visit

The Russian top diplomat is expected to be in Latin America for four days, traveling to Venezuela on Tuesday and Brazil later this week. During his one-day stay in Havana, Lavrov met with the communist Castro regime’s figurehead President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

“Cuba is our traditional partner, our most important ally in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Lavrov said during his meeting with Rodríguez Parrilla. “We are satisfied with the very constructive and intensive character of the Russian-Cuban political dialogue at all levels.”

Lavrov asserted that Cuba has experienced “illegal pressure” from the United States and its allied nations and called for an end to the “embargo” imposed on the rogue communist regime that has ruled Cuba for over six decades.

“The realities of a multi-polar world are provoking an aggressive reaction from the United States and other countries of the world minority which, by all means, want to preserve their domination, hegemony, and diktat,” Lavrov said. “The means used by representatives of the United States and other Western countries for this purpose do not include diplomacy, but blackmail, ultimatums, threats, the use of brute military force and sanctions.”

Lavrov also demanded that the United States remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after it was included in January 2021 during the administration of former President Donald Trump. The Castro regime appears on the list as a result of its extensive ties to terrorist organizations around the world such as the Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Marxist guerrilla.

AFRICA

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Somali Jihadists: Cuban Slave Doctors Abducted in 2019 Killed by U.S. Drone Strike

The Pentagon’s Africa Command said on Tuesday that it was investigating claims by the jihadist terrorist organization al-Shabaab that an American drone strike targeting its members killed two Cuban slave doctors whom the jihadists had abducted in 2019.

The two men, surgeon Landy Rodríguez Hernández and general practitioner Assel Herrera Correa, disappeared in April 2019 after unidentified gunmen attacked their vehicle on their way to work at Mandera Hospital in the eponymous Kenyan city. A month later, Kenyan elders reached out to al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia and reported that the men were in their custody, being forced to offer the terrorist group medical care. Al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, demanded $1.5 million to free the doctors, but neither Kenya nor Cuba paid the ransom and the men have never been heard from again.

The Cuban government has intermittently claimed efforts to rescue the doctors, but no evidence suggests any substantial efforts on the part of the Communist Party beyond occasional mentions of the doctors to Kenyan diplomats. The anti-communist publication Diario de Cuba noted in its coverage of the al-Shabaab announcement this weekend that the most recent direct action the Cuban government took regarding the doctors, at least publicly, appears to be Díaz-Canel mentioning their captivity during a meeting with former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2021.

Rodríguez and Herrera are slave doctors, used by the Cuban Communist Party to elevate the nation’s profile and sold at a high price to receiving countries. Estimates suggest that the impoverished Cuban state makes as much as $11 billion a year on medical slavery.
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The Organization of American States (OAS) declared Cuba’s slave doctor program a form of human trafficking in 2019.

Al-Shabaab announced the alleged deaths of the two doctors on Saturday.