News of the World

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New ‘Cardboard Envelope’ Tax Scam Is Targeting Taxpayers

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a warning to taxpayers about a new scam mail scheme that attempts to trick people into believing the government owes them money.

“The new scheme involves a mailing coming in a cardboard envelope from a delivery service,” the IRS said in a statement on July 3.

Inside the cardboard envelope is a letter on IRS masthead while fraudulently claiming that the notice is “in relation to your unclaimed refund.”

While dangling the prospect of obtaining unclaimed tax refund dollars, the letter asks taxpayers to provide sensitive personal information, including detailed photographs of drivers’ licenses. The data that the scammers are trying to obtain can be used by thieves to try and obtain a tax refund or other sensitive financial information.

“This is just the latest in the long string of attempts by identity thieves posing as the IRS in hopes of tricking people into providing valuable personal information to steal identities and money, including tax refunds,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement.
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One unusual feature, according to the IRS, is that it tries to trick people to email very detailed personal information and tells recipients the need to provide “filing information” for their tax refunds.

The scam letter includes a variety of warning signs, including strange punctuation and a mixture of different fonts, with some requests being awkwardly worded, such as: “A Clear Phone of Your Driver’s License That Clearly Displays All Four (4) Angles, Taken in a Place with Good Lighting.”

The fraudulent notification then asks for additional information that is sensitive, with the wording of the request also awkward.

“You’ll Need to Get This to Get Your Refunds After Filing. These Must Be Given to a Filing Agent Who Will Help You Submit Your Unclaimed Property Claim. Once You Send All The Information Please Try to Be Checking Your Email for Response From The Agents Thanks,” the letter reads, per the IRS.

National Archives Releases Most, but Not All JFK Files: ‘We Protect What We Must’

More than 99 percent of the classified documents surrounding the 1963 assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy have been publicly released following the conclusion of a National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) review, according to the White House.

Sharing the news at a June 30 press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the review’s conclusion demonstrated the Biden administration’s commitment to government transparency and accountability.
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“As a result, over 99 percent of the records in the collection are now publicly available at the National Archives. In keeping with the president’s direction, the National Archives will be digitizing the entire collection to make it more accessible to the public.”

Earlier that day, in a memo to executive department and agency heads, President Joe Biden revealed that NARA had notified him of the review’s completion on May 1, requesting that the release of certain redacted information be further postponed.

Biden obliged, certifying the specified information’s continued redaction for the time being and requiring all releasable information to be publicly disclosed by June 30.

Future reviews, he added, would be conducted by the National Declassification Center (NDC) at NARA, as per the transparency plans submitted by federal agencies.
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Entities that sought the postponement of certain disclosures included the CIA, FBI, State Department, Defense Department, and NARA itself.

Since the December memo, NARA has published an additional 2,672 documents in full or with fewer redactions on its website.

California Death Row Murderers Closer to Parole Eligibility After New Bill Advances

Facing staunch opposition from family members of victims, law enforcement groups, and Republican lawmakers, a bill that would allow for resentencing of inmates convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee June 27 on a partisan vote.

Introduced with the intention of allowing a path for release for elderly inmates some believe to no longer be a risk to society, supporters of the bill say that imprisoning people for decades lacks humanity, with the bill intended to alleviate such concerns.

But some law enforcement representatives adamantly opposed the legislation, citing significant costs to the state, potential harm to family members, and risk to communities if the bill is approved.

“Dragging these murderers back into court will be prohibitively expensive, tie up judicial resources, and inflict further pain upon their victims,” the San Diego Deputy District Attorneys Association argued in opposition to the bill. “By creating presumptions favoring the release of these murderers, SB 94 will create unjustifiable risks to public safety.”

The bill, introduced by Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), offers a path to release for those convicted of murder with special circumstances before 1990—also known as capital murder—a classification for offenses deemed egregious by the state’s penal code and punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Multiple friends and family members of murder victims lined up in opposition to the bill, with district attorneys, police departments from across the state, and sheriff’s organizations also speaking against the measure.
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The bill under consideration does not apply to cases after 1990 because of Proposition 115, passed by California voters that year, which prohibits judges from downgrading special circumstances convictions.

Exceptions in the bill are those convicted of killing a peace officer, first-degree murder of three or more people, and murder involving certain sexual offenses. Inmates can also be excluded if it can be proven they are an “unreasonable risk of danger.”

China’s $3 Trillion in ‘Shadow Reserves’ Threatens Global Economy: Former US Treasury Official

Mr. Brad Setser, who served on President Joe Biden’s 2020 transition Agency Review Team, recently warned that China possesses far more foreign exchange reserves than what the regime is reporting. He estimated in The China Project that Beijing likely has roughly $3 trillion “hidden,” something that could threaten the global economy in the future.

“China is so big that how it manages its economy and currency matters enormously to the world,” he said on June 29. “Yet over time, the way it manages its currency and its foreign exchange reserves has become much less transparent—creating new kinds of risks for the global economy.”

According to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), China officially has $3.204 trillion in foreign assets on the books as of April 2023. Beijing’s war chest consists of cash, bonds, bank deposits, gold, and other currencies.

The former deputy assistant Treasury secretary for international economic analysis noted that the country’s sudden pause in its reporting activity was a key hint at the present state of China’s reserves.

From 2002 to 2012, the Chinese regime’s forex reserves steadily increased amid the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) acquiring U.S. dollars to prevent the yuan from appreciating too much and ensuring exports remained cheap. However, in the last decade, the nation’s reserves ceased growing, despite a record trade surplus.

In the first five months of 2023, China’s trade surplus with the United States surged nearly 28 percent year-over-year to $359.48 billion. Moreover, it is estimated that there is a gap of about $200 billion between China’s goods surplus in the balance of payments and the goods surplus that Beijing’s customs reports in the official data.

Mr. Setser, now the senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), believes officials are preventing data from appearing on the central bank’s balance sheet by relying on state-run banks and sovereign wealth funds.

Hong Kong Offers $120,000 Bounties for Human Rights Dissidents Living in US, Australia, UK

Hong Kong police are offering $1 million (US$127,650) bounties for information on eight human rights dissidents currently residing in the United States, UK, and Australia.

On July 3, the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force issued arrest warrants for the eight individuals, alleging they had contravened the National Security Law.

The law was passed by Beijing’s rubber-stamp legislature in 2020 and received widespread criticism for eroding the long-running “one country, two systems” model that ensured British-style rule of law over Hong Kong.

The eight individuals were accused of “endangering” Hong Kong’s national security—more specifically, the allegations of “incitement to secession, subversion, incitement to subversion, and collusion with a foreign country.”

A Hong Kong police spokesperson claimed the National Security Law granted authorities the power to pursue individuals located outside of the city.

Meanwhile, Steve Li (Li Kwai-wah), chief superintendent of the HK Police, vowed authorities would “not stop chasing” the dissidents.

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Internal Affairs Investigates Chicago Police
for Having Sex with Migrants, Impregnating Teen

Several Chicago police officers are accused of sexual misconduct involving underage migrant girls.

One of the officers is accused of impregnating a teenager, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The sexual assaults allegedly occurred at the 10th District police station in North Lawndale, which until Friday was housing migrants in half of the lobby, according to ABC7 Chicago.

“These allegations are under investigation with CPD’s [Chicago Police Department] Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability,” a CPD spokesperson told the Times.

It is neither certain if the officers accused are still on the job nor if Cook County prosecutors are looking into the accusations.

The officers are from a West End station that was turned into temporary housing to accommodate the flood of migrants to the city, the New York Post pointed out. Since August 2022, 11,000 migrants have arrived in the Windy City, primarily at the direction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Chicago has struggled with housing all of the migrants — turning to police stations, airports, and Wilbur Wright College.
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Recently, Mayor Brandon Johnson made plans to open five new shelters with a combined capacity of nearly 2,500. 

White House: Racial Preferences Are an ‘Important Constitutional Right’

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down racial preferences in college admissions was the court “taking away important constitutional rights that have been in place for a long time.”

Jean-Pierre said, “I know the American people are really tracking this, as they should be. The Dobbs decision, that was something that was decided on a year ago, really took away the freedoms from women. I think about abortion, I think about reproductive rights. And that was unprecedented. Now, you fast forward to what we saw last week, affirmative action, again, taking away important constitutional rights that have been in place for a long time. Let’s not forget the president was, when he was a senator, he was the chair of the Judiciary Committee, he is an expert on this..."

 Oh really? So killing  babies is a constitutional right? Or forcing employers to hire black people instead of white or Asian guys is a right as well?
A constitutional right should cover pretty much everybody, not just a minority.

‘Squeezed from Every Direction’: NYPD Cops Continue Leaving Force in Droves

The news comes on the heels of former New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Keechant Sewell’s resignation, even though she would not say why she handed in her notice, NBC New York reported on June 14.

Meanwhile, a New York Post article published Saturday cited data regarding the officer exodus, stating that “Through June 30, 648 officers quit before retiring this year — a 22% spike from 2021, when 530 left, and an 87% rise from 2020, when 347 quit, NYPD pension data show.”

The decision to quit, along with NYPD’s recruiting issues, reportedly means the 34,000 officers are lacking over 1,000.

“Cops are being squeezed from every direction. They are working inhumane amounts of forced overtime. The brass is pushing for more enforcement, while the police-oversight complex is pushing to ruin more cops’ careers,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry noted.

He said many officers cannot afford the risk because they are not being paid enough, and the NYPD needs to be more accommodating to those it already employs.

Turkey’s Erdogan Backs Ukraine’s NATO Membership Bid in Talks with Zelensky

Erdogan made the comment at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who arrived in Turkey as part of a European tour to rally support for Ukraine’s entry into the military alliance after the war with Russia comes to an end.

NATO leaders meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, next week are expected to reaffirm that Ukraine will join their alliance one day.

“There is no doubt that Ukraine deserves NATO membership,” Erdogan told reporters,

His support for Ukraine comes as Turkey has been holding off giving its final approval to Sweden joining NATO, saying Stockholm is not effectively cracking down on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara views as threats to its security.

Sweden, along with Finland, abandoned its decades-long neutrality and applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Turkey’s parliament ratified Finland’s membership earlier this year, after Ankara voiced satisfaction with its efforts to address Turkey’s security concerns.

Erdogan also said Turkey was working toward extending a Turkish- and U.N.-brokered grain deal that has paved the way for the shipment of more than 30 million tons of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

The deal, which helped temper rising global food prices, is set to expire July 17. Russia has been reluctant to extend the deal, citing obstacles to its own exports of food and fertilizer.

Venezuelan Migrant Living Good Life at New York City Taxpayers’ Expense

Danny, a Venezuelan migrant who recently arrived in the “Big Apple,” is beyond surprised with the accommodations and benefits provided to him. He crossed the Rio Grande in May near Brownsville, Texas, after a grueling trek through Panama, Central America, and Mexico.

Now, Danny told Breitbart Texas he has a clean hotel room, a New York City identification card, free health care and prescription benefits, and recently found a job at a cleaning company. All at the expense of New York City taxpayers.

The video shows the city-provided hotel room where Danny and another migrant currently live. He recently began working for a residential/commercial cleaning company and works four days weekly. Despite not having a work authorization card allowing him to legally work, or a New York driver’s license, his employer hired him and allows him to drive a company vehicle into New Jersey on workdays. The video shows Danny’s drive to work across the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River.

Danny’s journey to New York began in early May when he was forced out of a migrant camp when members of the violent Gulf Cartel burned an encampment he was living in on the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande. Danny told Breitbart Texas of the incident in Brownsville and provided video footage of the camp. He arrived in Texas before the end of the Title 42 protocol.
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The shelter life was chaotic, and for 15 days, Danny says he did his best to avoid any issues with other residents. On the 15th day, he was told he could move to a city-funded hotel in the Bronx. Danny has been at the hotel since mid-May, saying the accommodation is beyond anything he could have imagined.

Contrary to reports that describe drug use and violence in some of the New York City hotels used to house migrants, Danny says that is not the case where he is staying.

Over 20 Police Officers Injured at Eritrean ‘Cultural Event’ in Germany

German police said at least 22 officers were injured and dozens of people were detained Saturday during unrest at an Eritrean cultural event in the western city of Giessen.

Police said bottles were thrown and smoke bombs were ignited as groups of Eritreans opposed to the African nation’s autocratic ruler tried to force their way to the venue.

About 1,000 officers, a water cannon and helicopters are deployed in the city, which is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Frankfurt. Police spokesman Christopher Pfaff urged the public to avoid the center of Giessen while the operation is ongoing.

Authorities had tried to ban the festival after similar unrest occurred there last year, but a court overturned the order.

The event was organized by a group considered close to the government of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

France protesters defy bans to rally against police violence

Around 2,000 people defied a ban to join a memorial rally in central Paris Saturday for a young black man who died in police custody, while marches took place throughout France to denounce police brutality, as tensions run high after days of rioting engulfed the country.

Seven years after the death of Adama Traore, his sister had planned to lead an annual commemorative march north of Paris in Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise.

But fearful of reigniting recent unrest sparked by the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel M. at a traffic stop near Paris, a court ruled the chance of public disturbance was too high to allow the march to proceed.
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“They authorise marches by neo-Nazis but they don’t allow us to march. France cannot give us moral lessons. Its police is racist and violent,” she said.

The Paris rally had also been banned on the grounds that it could disrupt public order and a legal case has been opened against Assa Traore for organising the event, police said.
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However, one of Assa Traore’s brothers was arrested on suspicion of violence against a person holding public authority, police said, without giving details.

Around 30 demonstrations against police violence also took place across France, including in the southern port city of Marseille and in Strasbourg in the east. Authorities in Lille banned a gathering.

[Kain Nobel]

Portland to Give Out Tin Foil, Straw and Snorting Kits to Drug Users

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Multnomah County Health Department announced Friday that it will start distributing tin foil, straws and snorting kits to drug users across Portland this month.

It is part of its Harm Reduction Program, which offers clean paraphernalia for using hard drugs and to offer services to users.

A Multnomah County spokesperson said they're adding these items to their distribution because of a change in drug-using patterns, like fentanyl, which do not include injection.

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Turkey Agrees to Admit Sweden to NATO, Secretary General Says

Sweden is set to join NATO as the military alliance’s 32nd member following its acceptance by Turkey.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on July 10 that a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson resulted in an understanding being reached between the two nations.
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Turkey previously vetoed the Nordic nation’s membership bid, saying Sweden provided safe haven to members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which it considers to be a terrorist organization.
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A joint statement issued by Turkey and Sweden on July 10 said that Sweden wouldn’t provide support to the Kurdish groups and would actively support efforts to help Turkey’s own accession into the European Union.
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Mr. Stoltenberg said Mr. Erdogan had agreed to push ratification in parliament “as soon as possible” but didn’t give a specific date. It took about two weeks for Turkey’s parliament to ratify Finland’s membership.
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It also comes just five days after President Joe Biden welcomed Sweden’s Mr. Kristersson to the White House, where he voiced support for the Nordic country’s NATO membership ahead of the summit.

In a statement issued on July 10, Mr. Biden praised Turkey and Sweden’s agreement, which he said would enhance regional security.

Federal Agency Issues Weather Warning for Millions as State of Emergency Declared

At least one death was confirmed after a storm system brought heavy rain and flooding to the northeastern United States on Sunday and now Monday, prompting officials in New York state to declare an emergency. The National Weather Service also listed much of the northeastern United States under various flood warnings and advisories as the system moves to the east.

“Heavy rain is likely to produce the potential for significant flash flooding throughout parts of New England on Monday,” said the National Weather Service in a bulletin on Monday morning. It added that “several additional inches of rainfall is expected through Tuesday morning as this system slowly moves eastward.”

A woman in her mid-30s died after she tried to leave her house with a dog in Highlands, New York, said the Orange County Executive’s office. Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus told local media that the house of the victim floated away.

On Sunday evening, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for Orange County, located north of the New York City metro area.

Biden Says US–UK Relations Are ‘Rock Solid’ Amid Cluster Bomb Controversy

President Joe Biden met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today in London before heading to Windsor Castle for tea with King Charles during his visit to the United Kingdom.

Mr. Biden told Mr. Sunak that the relationship between the two countries was “rock solid” amid a recent controversy over the shipment of cluster munitions to Ukraine.
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The two leaders met for around 40 minutes at 10 Downing Street, the British leader’s official residence and office. This was the two leaders’ sixth meeting in six months.

Mr. Biden is set to go to Vilnius, Lithuania, following his meeting with the king, to attend the high-stakes North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit on July 11 and 12.

Mr. Biden’s five-day trip to Europe this week has been overshadowed in part by his recent decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, weapons that are banned by more than 100 countries, including U.S. allies France, Germany, and the UK.

In 2008, these countries agreed in Oslo, Norway, to outlaw “all use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions.”

The United States and Russia are not parties to this agreement.
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Human rights groups reacted quickly to the decision, with Amnesty International declaring in a statement that cluster munitions pose “a grave threat to civilian lives, even long after the conflict has ended.”

SFPD Makes Mass Arrest While Shutting Down Dolores Park ‘Hill Bomb’

An attempt to shut down an unsanctioned Dolores Park “hill bomb” in San Francisco quickly escalated into vandalism and violence, and the police made a mass arrest on July 8, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) said.

According to SFPD Officer Robert Rueca, the incident ended with 32 adults being arrested and booked in county jail; 2 others were cited, and 81 juveniles were taken to the Mission District Police Station before they were cited and released.
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The Dolores Park hill bomb is an event that has been held on and off for years, in which skateboarders plunge down Dolores Street at full speed. The thrill of this sport attracts young people but has also caused property damage, resulted in injuries, and caused one death in the past.

This year, skateboarders started to set off fireworks and vandalize things.

The crowd turned violent after police ordered them to disperse at around 7:15 p.m. The fireworks started fires in Dolores Park, which led to an order to clear the park, the SFPD said.

People started to vandalize MUNI light rail vehicles. In a Twitter post by the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association (POA), a video shows at least three people jumping on a J-line light rail vehicle; others were spraying a light rail vehicle.

In the same video, bottles and fireworks were thrown at police officers at the scene.

US Introduces New Immigration Pathway
for People From Central America, Colombia

The Biden administration has introduced a new immigration program to allow some nationals of Central America and Colombia to enter the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on July 7 that it’s implementing “new family reunification parole (FRP) processes” for Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The program was first announced in April.

The FRP processes allow certain migrants with U.S. relatives to enter and work legally while they await their U.S. immigration visas.

“Specifically, nationals of these [four] countries can be considered for parole on a case-by-case basis for a period of up to three years while they wait to apply to become a lawful permanent resident,” the DHS stated on July 7.

Potentially eligible migrants are those from the four countries who have family members who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents in the United States.

The latest initiative, according to the DHS, is part of the comprehensive measures the DHS and State Department announced in April “to further reduce unlawful migration across the Western Hemisphere, significantly expand lawful pathways for protection, and facilitate the safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants.”

The FRP processes were available to Cubans starting in 2007 and Haitians starting in 2014. The Trump administration had halted the programs, but the Biden administration later restarted them.

CCP Poised to Expand Security Footprint in Latin America With New Port in Argentina

In Argentina’s southern tip, Tierra del Fuego, on June 5, Governor Gustavo Melella greenlit a”multi-purpose” Chinese-operated port facility through decree  3312/22, which entered the provincial legislature the same day. The country currently houses a Chinese military-run facility operating in the remote Neuquén Province.

Final approval is still needed from the national government and the undersecretary of ports, waterways, and merchant Marine to move forward.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated company involved in the port facility is Shaanxi Chemical Industry Group. Though civilian on the surface, the U.S. State Department expressed concern over Beijing’s prioritization of “military-civilian fusion,” a state strategy that forces Chinese companies to share technology and assets with the CCP military.

In the agreement signed by Melella, it states, “The smooth construction of the project will be exemplary for the investment of Chinese companies in southern Argentina.”

In March, top U.S. military officers, including U.S. Southern Command Gen. Laura Richardson, warned that China’s “aggressive” expansion in Latin America isn’t some long-term threat to U.S. interests and security.
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Like-minded security analysts and a former Argentine government official have expressed similar concerns over potential military and surveillance applications of China’s new port being built in the town of Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego.

Ideally situated near the Straights of Magellan, a CCP port facility in Rio Grande offers direct access—and potential control—over the world’s second most important shipping lane between the Western and Eastern hemispheres.
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Interstingly, the Rio Grande project was approved a week before The Wall Street Journal published a story discussing China’s “Project 141” initiative—the regime’s blueprint for how it intends to grow a global military and logistical support network.
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The debate surrounding the port aside, Mr. Calle thinks the national government may still approve the Rio Grande project. He says the current stall is due to ongoing negotiations for a new round of loans and repayment extensions from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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DHS Chief Mayorkas Ignores Request to Disclose
How Many Illegals Have Been Freed into U.S.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, is ignoring a request from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee to disclose the number of illegal aliens the agency has released directly into American communities through its massive parole pipeline.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, led by Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Glenn Grothman (R-WI), asked Mayorkas to provide a total numerical accounting of illegal aliens DHS has released into the United States interior through the administration’s expansive parole pipeline.

The letter asked Mayorkas to provide the data by July 7.

On Tuesday, Grothman’s office confirmed to Breitbart News that Mayorkas had yet to reply to the House Oversight Committee members.

From January 2021 to February 2023, it is estimated that Biden’s DHS has released more than 880,000 illegal aliens into the U.S. interior via the agency’s parole pipeline at the border. The estimate, though, is not a definitive figure, as DHS actively buries such data.

In April 2022, for example, DHS is estimated to have released more than 91,000 illegal aliens into American communities via Biden’s parole pipeline.

Biden DOJ Indicts Whistleblower Gal Luft, not Hunter Biden, for FARA Violations

The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Gal Luft, a whistleblower in the Biden family scandals, for failing to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) — but has never indicted Hunter Biden for the same.

Luft, as Breitbart News reported, is on the run abroad from charges of arms trafficking, which he denies. He says he met with the FBI about corruption involving Joe Biden and his son Hunter, but it never followed up.

Breitbart News noted that Luft is currently sought by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee as a potential witness
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Gal Luft, a dual citizen of the United States and Iran, is accused of working with others to advance the People’s Interest of China without registering as a foreign agent.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the 57-year-old agreed to recruit and pay a high-ranking U.S. official. In 2016, he conspired with the official, who was an adviser to then-President elect Donald Trump, to support policies related to China.
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Ironically, the charges facing Luft allege that he worked for the same company — CEFC China Energy Co. — as the Bidens are believed to have been doing business with. But only Luft thus far has been charged under FARA.

NY Times, Wall St. Journal Admit ‘Global Immigration Backlash’

Record-breaking mass migration into the United States, Europe, and Australia is causing a “Global Immigration Backlash” against establishment left-wing political parties, admits a New York Times columnist.

“In earlier eras, the political left in the U.S. included many figures who worried about the effects of large-scale immigration,” a New York Times columnist admitted on July 11, adding:

Both labor leaders and civil-rights leaders, for example, argued for moderate levels of immigration to protect the interests of [home nation’s] vulnerable workers … [but] many progressives are uncomfortable with any immigration-skeptical argument. They have become passionate advocates of more migration and global integration, arguing — correctly — that immigrants usually benefit by moving from a lower-wage country to a higher-wage country.

“The global migration wave of the 21st century has little precedent,” said columnist David Leonhardt, adding that “Lower-income and blue-collar workers often worry that their wages will decline because employers suddenly have a larger, cheaper [imported] labor pool from which to hire.”
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The Wall Street Journal posted a similar article on July 8, saying, “The influx since the end of the pandemic is altering societies, with many people blaming immigrants for increases in crime and higher housing costs.” It continued:

In Australia and New Zealand … foreigners are being blamed for rising housing costs. U.S. research suggests that an immigration inflow equal to 1% of a city’s population is associated with increases in average rents and housing prices of about 1%.

Former Charles Manson Follower Leslie Van Houten Paroled After 53 Years

Leslie Van Houten, the former follower of Charles Manson who was convicted in 1971 of two notorious 1969 murders, was paroled and left a state prison in California on Tuesday.

Ms. Van Houten’s lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, said she was taken early Tuesday morning to transitional housing at an undisclosed location. “She’s going to have to learn to live in the world after 53 years in prison,” Ms. Tetreault said in an interview. “So that’s going to take some time.”

Ms. Van Houten was 19 when she and other members of the so-called Manson family broke into the home of wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, and stabbed them dozens of times on Aug. 10, 1969.

The LaBiancas were murdered one night after five people were killed at the home of movie director Roman Polanski — including his pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate. The murders were carried out at the direction of Charles Manson, one of the most notorious murderers of the 20th century, who died in 2017 at age 83.
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An appeals court in California overruled Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) decision to deny her parole after more than half a century in prison for her crimes.

As Breitbart News noted at that time: “Van Houten, 73, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the stabbing murders of grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, has reportedly been a model prisoner, and her attorneys have argued that she poses no danger to society.”

Let's take into account what a certain  Wulfo once posted here... back in 2021!

Gascon Refused to Oppose Parole
for a Manson Family Killer!

On July 27, 1969, Charles Manson conducted some members of his 'Family' to break into the rented home of actress Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski, and kill those within. Polanski was not present, filming in Europe; but was distraught after hearing Sharon, pregnant with his child, was murdered.

Now, family members Kay Martley and Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister went to the most recent parole hearing of one of the Manson Family members, and found that Gascon is the ONE D.A. who doesn't care if their family's murderer gets released.

This Office’s default policy is that we will not attend parole hearings and will support in writing the grant of parole for a person who has already served their mandatory minimum period of incarceration, defined as their MEPD, YEPD or EPD. However, if the CDCR has determined in their Comprehensive Risk Assessment that a person represents a “high” risk for recidivism, the DDA may, in their letter, take a neutral position on the grant of parole.

[kyonides]

Blinken: Iran Envoy Reportedly Under Investigation
for Mishandling Classified Documents
Has ‘Admirably’ Served Country

During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that all he can say about Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley ... is that Malley has “dedicated his life, his career to serving our country, and he’s done so admirably.”

Host Andrea Mitchell asked, “And speaking of Iran, the Special Envoy, Rob Malley, has had his security clearance suspended. He’s being investigated by the FBI and diplomatic security for mishandling classified documents. Is this a huge setback in any hopes of getting back on track?”

Blinken responded, “Well, first, this is a personnel matter. There’s only so much I can say about a personnel matter. What I can say is I’ve known Rob Malley for many, many years. And he’s someone who’s dedicated his life, his career to serving our country, and he’s done so admirably. The work that we’re doing on Iran, making sure that it doesn’t acquire a nuclear weapon, bringing home those unjustly detained, pushing back in coordination with allies and partners against its behavior in other areas, that continues.”

Zelensky Hails ‘Significant Security Victory’
as NATO Says Ukraine an ‘Equal’

NATO is “more united than ever”, Ukraine is on a path to membership, and is now treated as an equal to NATO, it is said as the annual meeting of the alliance concludes in Vilnius.

In a brief speech which will probably be best remembered for his accidentally misnaming President Zelensky as “Vladimir” — the forename of the sworn enemy of the Ukrainian people, Russian President Putin — President Biden said the alliance had now created “a path to NATO membership” for Ukraine.

We just concluded the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, and all our allies agreed Ukraine’s future lies in NATO… we’re gonna provide security to Ukraine for its needs and against any aggression that may occur… this starts a process by which each of our nations, and any other nation that wishes to participate will negotiate long term bilateral security agreements with Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is now closer to NATO membership than ever before, and that “Today we meet as equals; I look forward to the day we meet as Allies.” The long-serving alliance boss said NATO is “more united than ever”, presumably papering over some cracks on exactly how quickly Ukraine is to be admitted, a matter on which some members appear to disagree.
...
As the summit ended, Zelensky spoke to journalists and answered questions. Speaking about the end of the war, the Ukrainian President rejected a Korea-style solution where the war would end with a truce, saying there must be accountability for the Russians, and that all Ukrainian land must be returned. A “frozen conflict is not a victory”, he said, and said even a village with a population of “one old man” would need to be taken back.

I don't think that posture is reasonable but typical of a warmonger.  On the other hand, Russia would get a "prize" that could motivate them to invade other neighboring countries...
Is it the right timing for this?  Not really. War is still ongoing and anything may happen. Either Ukraine could do something stupid that provokes Russia to fully invade the whole country. Or Russia or even Belarus (aka Wagner Group) could launch missiles, nuclear ones, to Kiev and other main cities.  

No End To War Until ‘West Abandons Plans
to Maintain Dominance’, Says Russia

The war in Ukraine will not end until the West stops trying to defeat Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Indonesian media on Wednesday.

His comments came ahead of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s symbolic talks with NATO leaders at their summit in Lithuania on Wednesday.

In an interview with the Indonesian newspaper Kompas ahead of meetings with his Southeast Asian counterparts in Jakarta this week, Lavrov lambasted the United States and its allies for supporting Ukraine.
...
“It will continue until the West abandons its plans to maintain dominance and its obsession with inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia through the hands of its puppet, Kyiv,” he said of the Ukraine conflict.
...
Lavrov is due to attend the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum foreign ministers’ meetings on Friday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The pair last met briefly in March at a G20 meeting in India.
...
Turning to Indonesia, Lavrov praised what he called Jakarta’s independent foreign policy on the conflict.

President Joko Widodo was the first Asian leader to visit both Moscow and Kyiv after the invasion began.

Scratch what I said before, either Putin or Lavrov seems to be far worse than Zelensky and Biden together.  Plus, Blinken got to have no dignity by meeting with Chinese and now also Russian officials.

Xi Jinping: Beijing Preparing for Vladimir Putin Visit in October

Genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, a key ally of Russia’s reportedly confirmed the visit himself while meeting with the head of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko in the Chinese capital this week. Putin will reportedly visit China to attend the Belt and Road Forum, an event meant to promote China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The BRI is a global project in which communist China offers predatory loans to poor countries to be used to fund the construction of state-of-the-art infrastructure, mostly roadways, ports, and railways. The loan money typically goes to Chinese companies, prompting massive ways of Chinese immigration into the target countries and depriving locals of job opportunities. The high interest and other detrimental features in BRI contracts often result in the countries being unable to pay their debts back – and the Chinese government seizing the projects involved.

Russia has publicly supported the BRI and designated some joint infrastructure deals as BRI projects, but no public information exists on Moscow formally signing an agreement to join the BRI. Ukraine is an official BRI member.
...
The Kremlin appeared to confirm the report on Wednesday. Top Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin’s office was already working on “main agenda items” to discuss with Xi in October.
...
“During my state visit to Russia in March this year, President Putin and I reached new and important consensus on deepening bilateral comprehensive strategic coordination and practical cooperation in various fields,” the Chinese government news outlet Xinhua quoted Xi as saying. Xi also reportedly promised that China would “continue to work with Russia to develop a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.”

“New era” is a Chinese government term typically used to mean the overthrow of America as the major world power, replaced by communist China.

Air Force General Who Will Replace Mark Milley
Downplays Memo He Signed Calling for Race-Based Applicant Pools

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. “CQ” Brown, Jr. — whom President Joe Biden has selected to replace Gen. Mark Milley as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his top military adviser — on Tuesday downplayed a memo he signed in August 2022 that set officer applicant pool goals by race.

During his confirmation hearing on Tuesday with the Senate Armed Services Committee, Brown was asked repeatedly by Republican senators about the August 2022 memo, which called for the Air Force to set “applicant pool goals” for officers according to percentages of race.

The memo, dated August 9, 2022, called for the Air Force’s applicant pool goals to be 67.5% White, 15% Hispanic/Latino, 13% Black/African American, 10% Asian, 1.5% American Indian/Native Alaskan, and 1% Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander.

The goals were then broken down into gender, calling for about a third of the recruits to be women.
...
The memo added the caveat: “These goals are aspirational, aligning resources to invest in our long-term objectives and will not be used in any manner that undermines our merit-based processes.”

However, it instructed the service’s Air Education and Training Command and Air Force Academy leaders to “develop a diversity and inclusion outreach plan aimed at achieving these goals no later than 30 September 2022.”

And I always thought that the Army or the Air Force cared about finding recruits fit and healthy enough as to perform tasks in a timely manner while being highly effective.

Honduran Drug Dealers Praise
San Francisco’s Sanctuary City Policy:
‘You Go to Jail and You Come Out’

Illegal alien drug dealers from Honduras are praising San Francisco, California’s, sanctuary city policy for shielding them from deportation when they are arrested, telling local media the policy is one of the reasons they seek out the Democrat-controlled city to sell drugs to Americans.
...
While some of the drug dealers told the Chronicle that they had initially arrived in San Francisco with the intention of working legal jobs, others said they fully intended to sell drugs upon their arrival.

An enticing component of drug dealing in San Francisco for the Hondurans is its severe sanctuary city policy that made worldwide headlines when 32-year-old Kate Steinle was killed in 2015 by a stray bullet set off by a seven-time convicted felon and five-time deported illegal alien.

For the drug dealers, their arrests on drug charges does not mean they will be deported from the United States. In the overwhelming majority of cases, they are released from jail without bail and only a fraction are swiftly convicted.
...
In a number of cases, the Chronicle reported that illegal aliens from Hondurans who had been convicted of selling drugs in San Fransisco were merely deported to their native country before illegally crossing the southern border to start dealing drugs in the sanctuary city again.

One drug dealer in particular, noted by the Chronicle, has returned to San Francisco for the ninth time after having been deported to Honduras.

Getting swift convictions for drug dealers in San Francisco are also increasingly few and far between. From 2018 to 2022, only six percent of those charged with drug crimes had been convicted. Of those charged last year, 75 percent have yet to be convicted, take a plea deal, have their charges dropped, or be found not guilty.

In few words, San Francisco's policies makes it a huge revolving door for criminals.

[kyonides]

Top Russian generals killed, fired, disappeared after aborted Wagner mutiny

A Russian lawmaker said Wednesday that one Russian commander in Ukraine, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, had been removed from duty and another, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, was killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Monday. The death of Tsokov, the deputy commander of Russia's Southern Military District, was "one of the highest-level losses for Russia during the course of the war," The New York Times reported.

Russian MP Andrei Gurulyov said Tsokov "died heroically" in the occupied town of Berdiansk. He also posted an audio recording of Popov saying he had been fired as commander of the 58th Army, which has been fighting in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, for raising questions about the high Russian casualty rate and lack of artillery support. "It was necessary either to keep quiet and be a coward or to say it the way it is," he said. Popov accused senior military leaders of treason.

Popov is one of at least 15 senior military officers suspended or fired since Wagner paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny against Russia's military chiefs, The Wall Street Journal reported. And another top commander, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, is one of at least 13 officers who has been detained or arrested. Surovikin, the head of aerospace forces and former top Russian commander in Ukraine, has not been seen publicly since the mutiny, and another Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, said Wednesday the general was "taking a rest" and "unavailable right now." Surovikin, the Journal reported, is being held and interrogated in Moscow. He is an ally of Prigozhin, who has also vanished from public view.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities arrested a Ukrainian man they accused of fatally shooting a former Russian submarine commander, Capt. Second Rank Stanislav Rzhitsky, as he was jogging in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. Ukraine's military intelligence claimed Tuesday that Rzhitsky had commanded a submarine that was involved in missile attacks on Ukraine, and Russian law enforcement reportedly got the alleged Ukrainian gunman to confess to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence to gun Rzhitsky down.

When Russians say somebody is unavailable right now, that usually means they can no longer take your very long distance call.

2024 Candidates Differ on Possible NATO Membership for Ukraine

This week, President Joe Biden was at the NATO summit in Lithuania, where the topic of Ukraine being a future member of the 31-member alliance.

The 2024 presidential candidates are split on that possibility.

Mr. Biden, a Democrat, told CNN that Ukraine is not ready to join the Brussels-based group.

“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” he told Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired on July 9.

“But here’s the deal. I spent, as you know, a great deal of time trying to hold NATO together because I believe Putin has had an overwhelming objective from the time he launched 185,000 troops into Ukraine, and that was to break NATO,” continued Mr. Biden. “He was confident, in my view and many in the intelligence community, he was confident he could break NATO.”

Mr. Biden went on to say that NATO membership for Ukraine now would present an undesirable reality.
...
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she is for Ukraine being a NATO member.

“The key is, there is no reason Ukraine should not be part of NATO,” she said on Fox News on July 11.
...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, expressed opposition to Ukraine being a NATO member.

“To say that we should be adding countries like Ukraine into NATO, you know, that’s a non-starter for me,” he told Blaze TV-Radio.
...
Former Vice President Mike Pence did not rule out the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO but said it should not be contemplated during its war with Russia.

Contrasting Crime Trends:
Tennessee Sees Reductions in Violent Crime
While California Faces Challenges

California, with a population over five times the size of Tennessee’s, has a lower rate of murder, but the highest total number of homicides in the nation, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control.

Newsom’s state had 2,495 murders, eclipsing Texas, which was the only other state with over 2,000 murders per 100,000 people. Tennessee’s rate was two times as high as California, but with a much smaller number of people affected per 100,000 people at 810 per 100,000 Tennesseans.

Newsom has even said on numerous occasions, while calling for stricter gun control measures, that mass shootings and gun violence are more of a problem in “red states.”

The National Criminal Justice Association calls into question how large of a role politics of a state play in their crime rates.

“If politics plays a role, it’s a minor role,” Tod Burke, a former police officer and professor emeritus in the Department of Criminal Justice at Radford University, told the NCJA.
...
Additionally, the report (pdf) highlights a decline in reported DUI arrests, suggesting potential progress in addressing impaired driving.

Murder in Tennessee was reduced by 14.55 percent, while crimes against persons fell 3.19 percent. Crimes against property rose in the state by 3.31 percent.

However, amidst these positive developments, there is also a concerning rise in reported Identity Theft victims, which increased by 25.55 percent from 2021 to 2022.

New York Man Turned ISIS Recruiter Handed Life Sentence

Mirsad Kandic, 41, was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn following a three-week trial in May 2022.

Mr. Kandic, originally from Brooklyn and Kosovo, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS and five substantive counts of providing material support to the terrorist organization.

Prosecutors said Mr. Kandic recruited people from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere to travel to Syria and Iraq and join ISIS battles.

His charges also include offering services, weapons, property and equipment, and false documentation and identification. These actions took place between January 2013 and June 2017 when Mr. Kandic was arrested in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Serving ISIS’s deadly terror campaign, this defendant fought on the battlefield, spread propaganda, smuggled weapons, and radicalized Western recruits,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

According to court documents, Mr. Kandic was heavily involved in ISIS’s activities. He fought as a member of the group in Haritan, an ISIS stronghold on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria.

Biden Announces $39 Billion Student Loan Forgiveness
for Over 800,000 Borrowers

The Biden administration has announced a $39 billion student loan forgiveness plan for 804,000 borrowers as part of fixes in “administrative failures” that had held up relief for borrowers under their income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.
...
“By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, and borrowers with permanent disabilities, including veterans,” Cardona added. “This Administration will not stop fighting to level the playing field in higher education.”

An income-driven repayment plan for student loan borrowers sets the monthly payment amounts on a level that’s affordable for the individual based on their income and family size.

There are four plans available that calculate payment amounts ranging from 10 to 20 percent of the person’s discretionary income. Payments can also be as low as $0.

Based on the plan, debts are forgiven once payments have been done for 20–25 years or “after making 240 or 300 monthly payments.” The 804,000 borrowers who have been provided relief are part of the repayment plan.

According to officials, loan borrowers were paying beyond their payment end-dates due to administrative oversight in tracking payments. “Inaccurate payment counts have resulted in borrowers losing hard-earned progress toward loan forgiveness.”

[kyonides]

White House: Iran’s Attacks on Shipping Are ‘Certainly Spiking Now’
and They Threaten American Interests ‘Quite a Bit’

White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby acknowledged that there has been “a real increase” in Iranian attacks on shipping in the area of the Strait of Hormuz and this behavior, that “threatens U.S. and global interests quite a bit” is “certainly spiking now.”

Host Wolf Blitzer asked, “The United States is now — and this is significant — deploying a destroyer and fighter jets in response to Iran’s harassing merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz. How much does this Iranian activity actually threaten U.S. and global interests?”

Kirby responded, “It threatens U.S. and global interests quite a bit. We have seen a real increase now in their attempted attacks, or, in some cases, sadly, successful attacks on maritime shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, whether it’s outside the Gulf or just inside the Gulf. And this is activity that we’ve seen spike from the Iranians before, certainly spiking now. And we’re sending a strong message, not just to Iran, but to our allies and partners, that we take this seriously, because so much — particularly oil, so much of that flows through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s a choke point for the Middle East that has global trade implications.

James Comer: FBI Tipped off Hunter Biden to Interview,
Confirming IRS Whistleblowers

FBI officials tipped off Hunter Biden in the Bureau’s criminal probe of him and told a former FBI supervisory special agent to stand by and not approach him, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced Monday, confirming key portions of the IRS whistleblower allegations.

Upon sitting for a transcribed interview with the committee, the former FBI agent told the committee that FBI officials in December 2020 tipped off both Secret Service and the Biden transition team about a scheduled interview about its criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.

The FBI agent said because of the tipoff, the agent never interviewed Hunter Biden.
...
The FBI agent told investigators that he had never been told to wait outside to be contacted by the target of a probe, the committee posted on Twitter.

IRS whistleblowers, who are set to testify before Congress Wednesday, claim President Joe Biden’s Justice Department (DOJ) politically interfered in the criminal probe into his son.

Among many allegations, they specifically allege the FBI’s investigation forewarned Hunter Biden of any future searches for materials that could be used as evidence. They also alleged Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf refused to allow investigators to ask about Joe Biden being “the big guy.” Wolf also allegedly cautioned the investigation team from searching Joe Biden’s guest house in Delaware for evidence against Hunter Biden because of “optics.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland flatly denied the whistleblower allegations that Biden’s DOJ interfered in the Hunter Biden criminal tax probe.

James Comer: Bidens Owned over 20 Shell Companies
to Hide Payments, Launder Money

After reviewing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) at the Treasury and subpoenaing banks and individuals, Comer posted on Twitter that the Biden family created more than 20 entities to accept, forward, and collect payment from a wide range of business associates.

“We found all these shell companies that make absolutely no sense,” Comer told Fox News. “I don’t believe they have paid a penny of revenue, a penny of taxes on most of the millions of dollars they received from our adversaries around the world.”

In March, the committee revealed the Biden family business over the course of several years received over $10 million from business schemes in Romania and China in return for what appears to be influence peddling.

For instance, SARs obtained by the committee revealed a Biden associate, Rob Walker, received a $3 million wire transfer from CEFC China Energy Co. In turn, four Biden family members — Hunter, James, Hallie, and an unidentified “Biden” — received a collective $1.3 million cut from the $3 million wire transfer.
...
the Biden family business received a total of $5.1 million within days of Hunter Biden’s messages to CEFC through multiple accounts, including Owasco and Hudson West III LLC.

“How did they list this on their taxes?” Comer questioned. “Is it a service they provided?”

Moving forward, Comer’s committee is set to begin deposing Biden family business associates in the coming weeks and months. Comer said in early July that Devon Archer, one of Hunter Biden’s top associates, will be the first member deposed to unravel the family’s international business schemes.

Archer was Hunter Biden’s “best friend in business” and got in legal trouble in 2022 for defrauding a Native American tribal entity. The court ordered him to pay a $43,954,416.75 judgment to the victims. Prior to his arrest, Archer served in 2014 with Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma, a Ukraine-based energy company, whose executive, Mykola Zlochevsky, allegedly bribed Hunter and Joe Biden with $5 million each.

Train Carrying Hazardous Materials Derails
Outside of Philadelphia, Homes Evacuated

Homes outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have been evacuated after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed early Monday morning.

A 40-car CSX freight train operating on Norfolk Southern tracks derailed in Montgomery County around 4:50 a.m., ABC 6 reported. 

Emergency crews responded to the site of the derailment in the suburban area of Whitemarsh Township. Photos show multiple cars toppled off the tracks. Between 15 and 20 of the cars were carrying hazardous material, which prompted a level 2 hazmat response, Fox 29 reported.

There are no known hazards to the public at this time, and the evacuations were a precaution, according to the Whitemarsh Township Police Department.

“As of now, the only thing that is leaking from any of the rail cars involved, is silicone pellets which pose no risk to the community,” the department wrote in a Facebook post.  “We are still gathering information at this time"...

Officials from the Federal Railroad Administration are headed to Montgomery County to gather information, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Pennsylvania derailment comes five months after a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Nearly 5,000 residents of East Palestine evacuated following the February 3 train derailment after Northfolk Southern officials decided to burn vinyl chloride from five tanker cars in an attempt to prevent an explosion, Breitbart reported. The clean-up is ongoing.

South Korea’s Yoon Inks Major Reconstruction Deals
with Ukraine – Potentially Elbowing Out China

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, this weekend, resulting in major agreements for Korean companies to participate in building railways, airports, and a “smart city” in Ukraine after the culmination of the ongoing Russian invasion.

Ukraine’s “urban redevelopment” post-war, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily, is estimated to be worth about $1.58 trillion. The presence of Korean corporate giants such as Hyundai and Samsung may reduce the percentage of those potential profits available to competing states, most prominently China, a core Russian ally that has expressed enthusiasm for aiding the reconstruction of Ukraine and one which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has personally invited into the country to help rebuild. Ukraine joined China’s predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) under Zelensky’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, in 2017.

While hoping “Chinese businesses” invest in his country, however, Zelensky has defied the conventional wisdom in Ukrainian politics and acted with skepticism towards China in the past, most prominently when he sanctioned the Chinese company Beijing Skyrizon Aviation in 2021 for its attempts to seize the Ukrainian jet engine and military manufacturer Motor Sich. Zelensky also nationalized Motor Sich to keep it out of Chinese hands prior to the most recent Russian invasion.

Motor Sich is now a supplier of engines to the Turkish company Baykar, which manufactures the Bayraktar armored drones that Ukraine has prioritized in its defense against Russia in the ongoing invasion.

[kyonides]

J&J Must Pay $18.8 Million to California Cancer Patient in Baby Powder Suit

Johnson & Johnson’s must pay $18.8 million to a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its baby powder, a jury decided on Tuesday, a setback for the company as it seeks to settle thousands of similar cases over its talc-based products in U.S. bankruptcy court.

The jury ruled in favor of Emory Hernandez Valadez, who filed suit last year in California state court in Oakland against J&J, seeking monetary damages. Mr. Valadez, 24, has said he developed mesothelioma, a deadly cancer, in the tissue around his heart as a result of heavy exposure to the company’s talc since childhood. The six-week trial was the first over talc that New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J has faced in almost two years.

The jury found that Mr. Valadez was entitled to damages to compensate him for his medical bills and pain and suffering, but declined to award punitive damages against the company. Mr. Valadez will not be able to collect the judgment in the foreseeable future, thanks to a bankruptcy court order freezing most litigation over J&J’s talc.

J&J vice president of litigation Erik Haas said in a statement that the company would appeal the verdict, calling it “irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer.”
...
In closing arguments to the jury on July 10, J&J’s lawyers said there was no evidence either linking Mr. Valadez’s kind of mesothelioma to asbestos or proving that Mr. Valadez was ever exposed to tainted talc. Mr. Valadez’s lawyers during closing arguments accused J&J of a “despicable” decades-long coverup of asbestos contamination.

China’s Rocket Force Faces Purge Over Possible Disclosure of Military Secrets

Multiple Chinese media outlets outside China allege that a handful of generals at or above the rank of deputy commander of China’s Rocket Force have been purged in recent months, and Chinese military insiders have said that the purge may be related to the disclosure of sensitive military secrets.

According to a report by Taiwan-based media Newtalk, Wu Guohua, the former deputy commander of the Rocket Force, killed himself on July 6. An official internal circular later concluded that it was “sudden death by cerebral hemorrhage.”
...
Yao Cheng, a former lieutenant colonel in China’s Navy Command who is living in the United States, said in a post on Twitter on July 9 that it is unlikely that Mr. Wu died of a cerebral hemorrhage, as he had received advanced medical treatment as a military commander and likely took precautions against cardiovascular disease.
...
Beijing has given up announcing investigations of senior generals. Meanwhile, calling the “unnatural deaths” of military officials “deaths from illness” seems to have become standard practice.

Such “unnatural deaths” often occur in the course of reviewing cases by the CCP’s top disciplinary body, and some suicides may be motivated by fear of being held criminally responsible; As per Mr. Yao, seven navy officials committed suicide since CCP head Xi Jinping rolled out the anti-corruption policy in the army. All of them were treated as having “died of illness.”

The 66-year-old former deputy commander of the Rocket Force retired in 2020.

Coincidentally, on the day of Mr. Wu’s demise, Mr. Xi inspected the Eastern theater and gave a speech on “improving the ability of theater party committees to lead preparations for war.”

Mr. Xi’s strategy has given him a tighter grip on his army generals, leading to a succession of fallen army generals across the army, navy, and air force, and now targeting the rocket force.

A few days before, the current commander of the Chinese Rocket Force, Li Yuchao, was taken away from his office on the morning of June 27, as per the Twitter post of Mr. Yao. The 61-year-old general, just promoted to commander last January, was absent from the promotion ceremony of the Rocket Force at the end of June.

In addition, Zhang Zhenzhong, former deputy commander of the Rocket Force and deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, as well as Liu Guangbin, current deputy commander of the Rocket Force, were both taken away for investigation in April, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao reported on May 24.

A July 13 report by Ming Pao said that those military chiefs in the Rocket Force are involved in corruption or leakage cases, implicating the commander of the Strategic Support Forces, Ju Qiansheng.

Australian Treasurer Meets Chinese Finance Minister
Over Trade Disputes at G20 Summit

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has met with his Chinese counterpart, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun, during a G20 meeting in India as the country seeks to progress further in resolving trade disputes with Beijing.

This was the first meeting between an Australian treasurer and a Chinese finance minister in four years following a diplomatic fallout, which led to Beijing imposing a coercive trade ban on $20 billion (US$13.6 billion) worth of Australian commodities in 2020.

As the two sides started to de-escalate the tension in the past year, the Chinese communist regime has loosened restrictions on some Australian products, such as coal and timber.

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation after the meeting, the treasurer said Australia wanted to stabilise the relationship with Beijing with engagement and dialogue while acknowledging the difference between the two sides.

Mr. Chalmers also said he raised the issue of lifting trade restrictions with Mr Liu, noting that the Australian government would like to settle the disputes before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Beijing.

Tornado Heavily Damages Pfizer Pharma Plant in North Carolina

A tornado heavily damaged a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday, ripping parts of its roofs and scattering large quantities of medicine stored at the factory.

“I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind,” Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said of the large Pfizer manufacturing complex in Rocky Mount, a city in Edgecombe and Nash counties. He noted he hasn’t been able to confirm the extent of the damage.

The tornado had hit the Rocky Mount area around 12:30 p.m, according to Nash County officials.

Besides damaging the Pfizer plant, several residential homes and roadways were also damaged, noted the Nash County Sheriff’s Office.

The tornado also downed trees and power lines along some highways, which forced officials to temporarily shut down a stretch of Interstate 95 in both directions in North Carolina, resulting in miles of congestion.

Pfizer confirmed to multiple outlets that a tornado damaged the facility, adding that it had no reports of serious injuries. It said that the plant employees followed safety procedures and evacuated, and all “are safe and accounted for.”

[kyonides]

Judge Rejects Trump’s Bid to Move New York Felony Case to Federal Court

Trump and his lawyers argued that because Trump was president when he carried out the actions for which he’s been charged, the case should be heard in federal, not New York, court.

U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a Clinton appointee, disagreed.

“Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President,” Hellerstein said in a July 19 ruling. “Trump also has failed to show that he has a colorable federal defense to the Indictment.”
...
The alleged illegal acts took place in 2017 after Mr. Trump was sworn into office.

That means Mr. Trump was an officer of the United States and that the case should be removed to federal court, lawyers for Mr. Trump have said.
...
Federal law states that a criminal prosecution initiated in a state court against an officer of the United States who was acting “in an official or individual capacity for or relating to any act under color of such office” and who raises a colorable federal defense must be removed to federal court. The law applies to former officers if the charges relate to conduct performed while they were still in office.

US Government Suspends Funding to Wuhan Lab Over Risky Experiments

The Biden administration has suspended funding to the laboratory in China that’s located in the same city where COVID-19 cases were first identified, according to a new document.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is cutting off the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s access to U.S. grants, an HHS official said in a memorandum dated July 17.

In 2014, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) awarded a grant to EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit based in the United States that is focused on research into emerging infectious diseases, to fund a project called “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”

The institute (WIV) received more than $1.4 million in U.S. government funds for testing under the project, which included experiments that made a bat coronavirus more harmful. Mice infected with a modified version of the virus became sicker than those infected with the original virus, according to documents made public in 2021.

That violated the terms of the grant, the HHS official said.

U.S. officials have given WIV opportunities to contest that conclusion, the official said, but the institute “has failed to do so.”

“As such, there is risk that WIV not only previously violated, but is currently violating, and will continue to violate,” protocols of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which provided the grant money and is part of the HHS, the official added. “Therefore, I have determined that the immediate suspension of WIV is necessary to mitigate any potential public health risk.”

Reasons for suspensions and debarments include fraud and violations of a contract.

Suspensions are temporary. Officials are taking steps to debar WIV, or cut off its access to U.S. funding for a period of time. Debarment has a higher evidentiary requirement of wrongdoing, including that officials must determine that WIV is not “responsible.”

Capitol Police Retaliates Against Whistleblowers, House Oversight Panel Told

Capitol Police continues to retaliate against employees who file whistleblower complaints with the Capitol Police Office of Inspector General, a U.S. House oversight panel was told on July 19.

“Numerous whistleblowers have come forward with claims of retaliation and abuse after speaking with the Office of Inspector General,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on House Administration.

At a hearing in the Longworth House Office Building, Mr. Loudermilk said the subcommittee isn’t ready to publicly address the latest allegations, but he wanted to be clear that “any retaliation is unacceptable.”
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Prior to the January hiring of Ron Russo to replace Michael Bolton as the Capitol Police inspector general, Mr. Loudermilk said, “there were serious allegations of retaliation within the Capitol Police against whistleblowers who had spoken confidentially to a previous U.S. Capitol Police inspector general.”

Making his first appearance before the Subcommittee on Oversight, Mr. Russo said he has never disclosed the identity of a whistleblower at U.S. Capitol Police or in any previous job.

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) asked Russo if he would ever disclose a whistleblower’s confidential information without their permission.

“We would protect that information at all costs,” Mr. Russo replied. “Super serious that people feel comfortable to come to us without fear of retaliation. So it’s a priority to make sure we handle that with great care.”

US to Be Harmed Irreparably If Russian Gains in Africa
Continue to Grow, Witnesses Tell Congress

“Russia is succeeding in its efforts to make new friends, acquire greater influence, and undermine Western interests in Africa,” said Cameron Hudson, former Africa intelligence analyst for the U.S. government and now senior associate at the Africa Program of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“It is playing on historical ties to these nations; stoking long-held grievances over colonialism and paternalistic attitudes from the West; and pointing out glaring inconsistencies when it comes to Washington’s pursuit of its interests in Africa compared to the values it routinely articulates.”

Joseph Sany, vice president of the Africa Center at the United States Institute of Peace, told the committee that while President Vladimir Putin’s Russia “had no visible grand plan for Africa, a pattern of opportunistic engagements and collusion between the Russian state and shadowy private entities” sought three main goals.

They were to maximize profits through commercial predation by proxies—thus helping evade Western sanctions against Russian individuals and entities; to disrupt and erode Western influence in Africa, and to strengthen Russia’s geopolitical influence and great-power ambitions.

Mr. Sany said the Kremlin was pursuing these goals via misinformation, propaganda, and “overinflated” historical ties to Africa.

“Moscow has often portrayed itself as a staunch supporter of African nations seeking autonomy and sovereignty, emphasizing historical narratives of solidarity, such as providing educational opportunities and military support during the Cold War era,” Mr. Sany testified.

“These efforts have allowed Russia to garner support and win votes at the United Nations, all the while diverting attention away from criticisms of President Putin’s brutal aggression against Ukraine.

“Russia and its proxies sow resentment against the United States and international rule of law to strengthen its global standing.”

Mr. Hudson warned that violent instability in areas where mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group had a presence was spreading.