Mueller’s Key Witness Was Just Charged with a Serious Crime

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By Townhall. One of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s key witnesses, George Nader, on Monday was charged with transporting child pornography last year. Nader is a Lebanese businessman with ties to President Donald Trump’s associates, The Hill reported. He was responsible for brokering “a meeting in the Seychelles between Trump ally and Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian financier.”

Nader was arrested at John F. Kennedy airport on Monday. Following his arrest, the details of his charges were made public.

On January 17, 2018, Nader returned from a trip to Dubai. He flew into Washington, D.C.’s Dulles Airport. He was “voluntarily interviewed by FBI agents regarding a matter unrelated to child pornography,” the court documents said. An anonymous source told the Washington Post investigators were interested in interviewing him as part of the Russia probe.

He was given a search warrant for an unrelated case. The search warrant covered electronics, which included the three iPhones he had on his person. During the search, “the case agent in that other matter uncovered multiple files which appeared to contain child pornography.” (Read more from “Mueller’s Key Witness Was Just Charged with a Serious Crime” HERE)

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Mueller’s Key Witness Was Just Charged with a Serious Crime

By Washington Post. . .Nader played an unusual role as a kind of liaison between Trump supporters, Middle East leaders and Russians interested in making contact with the incoming administration in early 2017.

Officials said Nader, 60, was charged by criminal complaint over material he was traveling with when he arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport on Jan. 17, 2018, from Dubai. At the time, he was carrying a cellphone containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, officials said. The charges were unsealed after his arrest Monday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Lawyers for Nader did not return calls seeking comment. At a brief court appearance in New York, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak ordered Nader to remain in custody, pending a further hearing Tuesday.

If convicted, Nader faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years, officials said. (Read more from “Mueller’s Key Witness Was Just Charged with a Serious Crime” HERE)

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Bader Ginsburg Just Sided with Conservative Justices

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the four liberal justices on the Supreme Court, sided with her conservative colleagues on Monday over a prisoner’s supervisory release. She joined Justices Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh in the majority, deciding that a criminal defendant, in this case Jason Mont, can be sentenced for violating his supervised release, even if the release expires while he is incarcerated ahead of facing new charges. Her vote was swapped with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan in their dissent.

Mont had been indicted by a grand jury for multiple drug and firearm offenses. He was released from federal prison on March 6, 2012, but broke the law again on supervised release, found guilty of two counts of cocaine trafficking. He then tested positive on several drug tests. His supervised release date was set for June 28, 2017.

The District Court issued a warrant on March 30, 2017, and ultimately set a supervised-release hearing for June 28, 2017. Two days before that hearing, Mont challenged the jurisdiction of the District Court based on the fact that his supervised release had initially been set to expire on March 6, 2017. The court concluded that it had authority to supervise Mont, revoked his supervised release, and ordered him to serve an additional 42 months’ imprisonment to run consecutive to his state sentence.

(Read more from “Bader Ginsburg Just Sided with Conservative Justices” HERE)

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Pope Francis Approves Change to Lord’s Prayer

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Pope Francis finally approved the changes he has long wanted to implement to the Lord’s Prayer by replacing “lead us not into temptation” with “do not let us fall into temptation,” reports UCatholic.

“On May 22nd during the General Assembly of the Episcopal Conference of Italy, President Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti announced the approval of a third edition of the Messale Romano,” reports the outlet. The revised translation will include changes to the Lord’s Prayer and Gloria. The Lord’s Prayer will change from ‘and lead us not into temptation’ to ‘do not let us fall into temptation.'”

Pope Francis first spoke of his desire to update the “lead us not into temptation” part of the Lord’s Prayer, arguing that it portrays God in a false light. “A father does not lead into temptation, a father helps you to get up immediately,” the Pope said at the time. . .

Pope Francis also asserted that other translations had already been changed to correct mistakes and to modernize the language. “The French have modified the prayer to ‘do not let me fall into temptation,’ because it is me who falls, not the Lord who tempts me to then see how I fall,” he said.

According to the U.K.’s Express, the change to the Lord’s Prayer comes after 16 years of research by experts who found a mistake in the current translation “from a theological, pastoral, and stylistic viewpoint.” It has been translated into literally hundreds of languages from the original texts in ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. (Read more from “Pope Francis Approves Change to Lord’s Prayer” HERE)

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Pro-Gun Control Chicago Has 52 Shot, 10 Killed in One Weekend

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Chicago finished last year with a downturn in shootings and homicides, but 2019 is threatening to reverse whatever progress was made in the last months of 2018, and with the weather turning warmer, it seems Chicagoans are determined to have a bloody summer.

Over the weekend, Chicago saw its most violent days and nights so far this year. A total of 52 people were shot between Friday night and Sunday night. Ten of those victims were killed, according to NBC News.

Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson called the incidents part of a “despicable level of violence,” and promised targeted patrols in neighborhoods on the south and west side where violence has become a regular part of everyday life, thanks to increases in gang activity.

Johnson did note that police likely prevented a bloodier couple of days; over the course of the weekend, officers confiscated approximately 90 firearms, “nearly double the amount of guns that we take in during a particular weekend.” Nearly 20 people were arrested on firearms charges alone.

Chicago had hoped for an immediate downward trend, as Lori Lightfoot took over the mayor’s office from Rahm Emanuel, who often found himself incapable of handling such intense levels of violence, but as Lightfoot herself pointed out last week, handling the gang warfare taking place on the city’s south and west sides will take time and a lot of police and community cooperation. (Read more from “Pro-Gun Control Chicago Has 52 Shot, 10 Killed in One Weekend” HERE)

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This Ad Shows Just How Much Chinese Consumers Trust Facial Recognition Technology

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In a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood blockbuster’s trailer, a Chinese policeman dons a pair of futuristic facial recognition–equipped sunglasses. He scans each member of the crowd at Shanghai’s People’s Square subway station. Before long, he pinpoints a crook—whose disguise may have fooled humans, but not technology—and starts chasing him down.

The video is an advertisement for state-owned telecom giant China Mobile’s new 5G network. The voiceover in Mandarin at the end of the clip doesn’t endorse facial recognition outright, but it does boast that 5G is speedy enough to make “smart cities possible.”

People around the world are grappling with facial recognition. Earlier this month, it was officially banned in San Francisco. Congress recently held a hearing about the pitfalls of the technology. Meanwhile, a backlash broke out in the U.K. last week after a Welsh man complained that the authorities breached his privacy with facial recognition, prompting police to defend what they call a valuable crime-prevention tool.

All that pales in comparison with China’s usage of the technology. Critics have accused the Chinese government of using such technology in its suppression of the Uighur minority, with experts digging up copious amounts of evidence to back up those claims. There are also concerns that facial recognition will be abused nationwide. Cameras equipped with the technology have sprung up alongside most major Chinese city streets, and even in some public bathrooms.

Alarming as such widespread state surveillance might seem to many Westerners, much of the Chinese population has welcomed its increasing ubiquity. As author Jianan Qian wrote in a New York Times op-ed, “Many people in China seem to be happy about the physical security promised by the surveillance network. Our mind-set, long ago, was wired to see safety and freedom as an either-or choice.” (Read more from “This Ad Shows Just How Much Chinese Consumers Trust Facial Recognition Technology” HERE)

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Viral Media Outlet with Ties to Qatar Tricks Young Liberals into Spreading Anti-American Propaganda

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AJ+ has become a major video creator on Facebook, with its viral videos in the style of Buzzfeed or NowThis targeting liberal millennials. But unknown to some, it’s actually a branch of Al Jazeera and is owned by the government of Qatar, a Middle Eastern nation long accused of meddling in the affairs of other countries.

The AJ+ videos often focus on progressive ideals and are framed in a way that emphasizes the divisions in U.S. policy and politics. And Facebook doesn’t disclose the Qatar connection on videos AJ+ posts and apparently hasn’t blocked its content, even as the social media platform cracks down on fake news and hidden foreign influence.

“If AJ+ reaches a larger audience with its façade of progressivism, it doesn’t mean Qatar is more progressive. It just means its influence campaign is more effective,” a researcher with the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Gilead Ini, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. . .

Meanwhile, AJ+ publishes videos criticizing policies and politics that are particularly divisive in the U.S., but are contrary to Qatar’s own laws. For example, AJ+ posted a video on Facebook on May 15 portraying Alabama abortion legislation as dangerous, yet Qatar imprisons women for unauthorized abortions.

AJ+ “targets young, left-leaning Americans by focusing on areas of young progressive interest, such as the ‘patriarchy,’ LGBT rights, and even the lives of indigenous American ‘punk rockers,’” wrote the Middle East Forum’s Samantha Rose Mandeles. “Though promoting intersectionality, feminism, same-sex marriage, and punk rock is not part of the traditional Qatari rhetoric … AJ+’s branding allows Doha to peddle anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism to a younger audience under the guise of minority rights.” (Read more from “Viral Media Outlet with Ties to Qatar Tricks Young Liberals into Spreading Anti-American Propaganda” HERE)

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Watch: Cruise Ship Crushes the Dock and Smaller Boat in Horrifying Video as People Run for Their Lives

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By The Daily Caller. The massive cruise ship absolutely crushed the dock and a smaller boat while in Venice, Italy. People on the dock took off running after it became clear the cruise ship was about to make impact. . .

You have to love the speed of the people on the dock once they realized a massive cruise ship might crush into them. They looked like they were running the 40 yard dash at the NFL combine.

Best of luck to the people running the show when they have to explain how the hell this happened. I don’t envy their position at all. (Read more from “Watch: Cruise Ship Crushes the Dock and Smaller Boat in Horrifying Video as People Run for Their Lives” HERE)

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Cruise Ship Rams Tourist Boat in Busy Venice Canal, Four Hurt

By CNN. . .The cruise ship, MSC Opera, rammed into the San Basilio terminal, and hit a smaller tourist boat — the River Countess — that was docked there, the local port authority told CNN.

Four people suffered “light injuries” in the accident, it said.

The incident happened at around 8.30am local time on the Giudecca canal, one of the busiest in the Italian city which is hugely popular with tourists. . .

The cruise ship operator, MSC Cruises, said in a statement that the vessel “experienced a technical issue” while heading towards the terminal for mooring. (Read more from “Cruise Ship Rams Tourist Boat in Busy Venice Canal, Four Hurt” HERE)

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Trump Win? Mexican President Ready to Help U.S. Immigration Surge

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White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that President Donald Trump is “deadly serious” about levying a 5% tariff on Mexican goods if the Mexican government doesn’t step up enforcement of illegal immigration on the southern side of the border, and now it appears the Mexican government is serious about complying to avoid a trade war. . .

The Associated Press reports that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador “hinted his country could tighten migration controls to defuse U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods,” and that he plans on engaging the White House in talks this week, which he hopes will be fruitful.

Lopez Obrador insisted, in the same news conference, that the Mexican government has ramped up immigration enforcement along Mexico’s southern border and that officials have been working diligently to turn back migrant caravans, limit the number of migrant visas issued, and capture and deport recognized criminals, including MS-13 gang members.

“The main thing is to inform about what we’re already doing on the migration issue, and if it’s necessary to reinforce these measures without violating human rights, we could be prepared to reach that deal,” Lopez Obrador said Sunday.

“We’re doing all we can to reach a deal through dialogue,” he added. “We’re not going to get into a trade war, a war of tariffs and of taxes.” (Read more from “Trump Win? Mexican President Ready to Help Immigration Surge” HERE)

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Transgender Girl Crowned Prom King at High School

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A female student who has “transitioned” to identifying as a male has been crowned prom king at a Massachusetts High School in a vote made possible because teachers deemed her eligible.

Nicole “Nicholas” Bulman is a 19-year-old senior at Barnstable High School who began identifying as transgendered starting in eighth grade, the Cape Cod Times reported. She legally changed her name and, after what she calls years of consultation with a primary care doctor, endocrinologists, psychologists, therapists, and a support group, has undergone testosterone treatments and gender-transition surgery.

Her school community has reportedly been so overwhelmingly supportive that Barnstable teachers named him as one of five candidates eligible for this year’s prom king, according to teacher and Class of 2019 adviser Lyn Vazquez. “He’s just an all-around great person,” she said. “Teachers at Barnstable High School felt Nick was a great candidate.”

Bulman ultimately won, the Times reported in a follow-up, attending prom last week in a beard and full tuxedo, alongside friend and prom queen Kalyani Clarke.

“It just feels like a weight’s off my shoulders, like I can be more free and open with all those around me and I’m happy with myself,” Bulman told CBS Boston. Her mother, Jaime Gallagher, said she “love(s) the fact that Barnstable High School validated and acknowledged Nick in that way.” (Read more from “Transgender Girl Crowned Prom King at High School” HERE)

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Abortion Makes over Half Planned Parenthood’s Non-Government Income

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By Life Site News. Planned Parenthood’s estimated abortion revenue totaled more than half (52%) of the organization’s non-government health services revenue, reaching nearly $200 million ($190.3) for the second year in a row, according to an analysis conducted by Live Action News.

The stunning numbers confirm what Planned Parenthood’s new president Dr. Leana Wen claimed when she identified abortion as Planned Parenthood’s “core mission.” As Live Action News previously documented, in 2017, although Planned Parenthood claimed abortion made up just 3.4 percent of its services, the abortion vendor was able to increase abortions nearly four percent (3.54%), from 321,384 in 2016 to 332,757 in 2017, the highest number committed by the corporation since 2011.

To calculate the latest data, Live Action News used the same methodology utilized in 2016: examining revenue and median abortion costs and comparing them against reported abortion totals in Planned Parenthood’s 2017–2018 annual report, in which the organization reported committing 332,757 abortions. . .

If we divide Planned Parenthood’s estimated abortion revenue ($190,274,370) by the total non-government health center revenue of $365,700,000, we find that abortion makes up 52 percent of Planned Parenthood’s non-government health services revenue. . .

However, even if we include the $563.8 million in government dollars with the $365.7 ($929,500,000 million), abortion revenue can be estimated at 20.5 percent of all Planned Parenthood’s health services revenue. (Read more from “Abortion Makes over Half Planned Parenthood’s Non-Government Income” HERE)

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Missouri’s Last Abortion Clinic to Temporarily Stay Open in Planned Parenthood Case

By NBC News. A judge on Friday temporarily blocked Missouri from taking action that would have made the state the first in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade to not have a single abortion clinic.

Planned Parenthood, which now operates the only clinic in Missouri performing abortions, won a temporary restraining order from circuit court Judge Michael F. Stelzer. The clinic will stay open till at least Tuesday when there will be a hearing at 9 a.m. to consider a preliminary injunction.

Without Friday’s court action, the St. Louis clinic’s license for providing abortions would have expired at midnight.

Judge Stelzer was careful to say his order took no sides in the ongoing dispute, but only found that a further hearing was warranted. (Read more from “Missouri’s Last Abortion Clinic to Temporarily Stay Open in Planned Parenthood Case” HERE)

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