A Side Skirmish in Russia-Ukraine War Flares up in South Africa

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It’s thousands of miles from the front lines, but South Africa suddenly finds itself in the thick of a diplomatic dust-up over the war in Ukraine, and over whether the man who started the war should be welcomed here later this year.

Pretoria‘s busy weekend featured President Cyril Ramaphosa speaking by phone with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing a slew of murky allegations that South Africa had secretly sold weapons to Moscow. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken put in a call to South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, seeking to clear the air on an incident that has strained relations between the two capitals.

The diplomatic dancing began Thursday after U.S. Ambassador to Pretoria Reuben Brigety went public with U.S. suspicions that a Russian ship, the Lady R., had picked up badly needed ammunition, guns and other equipment when it docked near Cape Town in December.

“Weapons of war were loaded onto that vessel, and I will bet my life on that assertion,” Mr. Brigety told reporters.

The ambassador later met with Mrs. Pandor who claimed that he “apologized unreservedly,” but in a tweet, Mr. Brigety said he had merely “corrected any misimpressions left by my public remarks.” There remained, he added, a “strong partnership between our two countries.” (Read more from “A Side Skirmish in Russia-Ukraine War Flares up in South Africa” HERE)

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Hunter Biden Laptop Letter Signers Donated Thousands to Joe Biden’s Campaign

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At least a dozen ex-intelligence officials who signed the letter linking Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop to Russia steered tens of thousands of dollars to Joe Biden’s campaign and joint fundraising committee ahead of the 2020 presidential election, records show.

The October 2020 letter has come back under the spotlight after a handful of revelations about its origins, including that ex-Obama CIA head Mike Morell testified in April to congressional investigators that then-Biden campaign adviser and now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken “triggered” him to write it. Between May 2019 and November 2020, 12 laptop letter signers boosted Biden with campaign donations to the tune of almost $40,000, according to campaign finance disclosures.

The 12 laptop letter signers spent an average of roughly $3,300 total supporting Biden in 2020, a sum that takes into account how Jeremy Bash, an ex-chief of staff for both former President Barack Obama’s CIA and Defense Department and now the managing director at the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Beacon Global Strategies, contributed $18,900 to Biden for President and the Biden Victory Fund.

Bash was appointed in August 2022 by Biden to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which “oversees the Intelligence Community’s compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, Executive Orders, and Presidential Directives,” according to an archived version of the board’s website under Obama. (Read more from “Hunter Biden Laptop Letter Signers Donated Thousands to Joe Biden’s Campaign” HERE)

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Vatican to Determine if ‘Miracle’ Happened at Church Where Parishioners Reported Multiplying Hosts

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The Vatican is reviewing claims of a “miracle” at a Catholic church in Connecticut after parishioners reported that Communion hosts mysteriously multiplied at a March Mass.

The Archdiocese of Hartford investigated the claims at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Thomaston and is sending the results to the Holy See in Rome, the Hartford Courant reported last week.

The reported miracle occurred at a March 5 Mass, when a parishioner assisting with Communion reported that there was a shortage of hosts — wafers used during the ritual to symbolize the body of Jesus Christ — only to then find there were plenty.

“God has duplicated himself in the ciborium,” said the Rev. Joseph Crowley, who oversees the congregation, referring to the type of container used to hold the hosts. “It’s really, really cool when God does these things, and it’s really, really cool when we realize what he’s done.”

After the incident, Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair told reporters he appointed a priest well versed in church law to look into the reported miracle. (Read more from “Vatican to Determine if ‘Miracle’ Happened at Church Where Parishioners Reported Multiplying Hosts” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Musk Receives Subpoena in Jeffrey Epstein Lawsuit

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The United States Virgin Islands issued a subpoena to Tesla CEO Elon Musk seeking information in its lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase in relation to business with Jeffrey Epstein.

The subpoena was issued on April 28, and it cited Epstein potentially referring Musk as a client to JPMorgan. The motion was filed by Manhattan District Judge Jed Rakoff after the USVI made several attempts to contact and locate Musk but failed to track him down in person.

Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, has been accused of abusing women on his private island in the U.S. territory. The island in question is Little St. James. (Read more from “Musk Receives Subpoena in Jeffrey Epstein Lawsuit” HERE)

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Homeless Mom Forced to Change Baby’s Diaper on Outside Bench After Being Booted From Hotel for Illegal Aliens

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Two homeless couples, including one with a baby, are getting the boot from a Yonkers hotel to make way for dozens of migrants being dumped there by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the displaced denizens told The Post on Monday.

Savannah Harp, 24, was forced to change her 18-month-old son Emir’s diaper on a bench outside the Ramada Inn in Westchester County on Monday morning after being told that the hotel where she has been paying $150 a night for the past two weeks is now suddenly booked up.

Harp, who rebooked each morning to stay at the hotel on Tuckahoe Road with her baby and boyfriend, said she believes they were denied a room Monday after it emerged that up to 100 migrant families could start arriving there.

“[The migrants’ are not having to pay out of their own pocket, and I’m having to pay out of my own pocket — and then I have to leave whenever [hotel workers] say,” Harp said. . .

The employees did confirm that asylum-seeker families were still expected to stay there, despite not arriving as planned over the weekend. (Read more from “Homeless Mom Forced to Change Baby’s Diaper on Outside Bench After Being Booted From Hotel for Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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Whistleblower: IRS Removed ‘Entire Investigative Team’ From Hunter Biden Probe, per DOJ Request

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) removed the “entire investigative team” working on the Hunter Biden case at the request of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), a whistleblower told Congress on Monday.

The whistleblower has supervised the Hunter Biden investigation since 2020, the New York Post reported.

Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt, attorneys for the whistleblower, told Congress in a letter:

Today the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress. He was informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.

Last month, the whistleblower, through Lytle, told congressional leaders that he wanted to come forward with information about “preferential treatment” in Hunter Biden’s case and alleged Attorney General Merrick Garland gave false testimony to Congress when he assured lawmakers that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss has unilateral authority to make charging decisions, the Post reported. (Read more from “Whistleblower: IRS Removed ‘Entire Investigative Team’ From Hunter Biden Probe, per DOJ Request” HERE)

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Sports Illustrated Features Transgender Model on Cover of Swimsuit Issue

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Transgender models are becoming almost as popular as bikinis when it comes to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

German pop star Kim Petras, who had gender-transition surgery at age 16, was one of the four celebrities selected to appear on the rotating covers of the 2023 swimsuit edition, but the singer isn’t the first male-born figure to do so.

That title goes to Leyna Bloom, who appeared on the annual beach-fest’s front cover in 2021.

The other three cover models are actress Megan Fox, supermodel Brooks Nader, and 81-year-old lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, who made history as the oldest model in the history of the swimsuit issue.

“It’s definitely a scary time to be transgender in America, but there’s also so much more representation than there’s ever been, and there’s so many things on the bright side,” Ms. Petras told the magazine, which released its covers Monday. (Read more from “Sports Illustrated Features Transgender Model on Cover of Swimsuit Issue” HERE)

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‘Let Me Just Correct You’: Leftist Reporter Fact-Checked Live in White House Briefing

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April Ryan, the White House correspondent for theGrio, has not been known to leave her personal political opinions at the door of the White House briefing room. Ryan again made this abundantly clear on Thursday when she decided to engage in the spreading of literal disinformation about a previous hoax amplified by the Biden administration.

With Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas attempting to spin Biden’s border crisis as a success — the border is “not open,” he insisted again — Ryan asked a question about the massive surge of illegal immigrants amassing at and crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The southern border is not just Mexicans, it’s Haitians, its Africans,” Ryan said. “Especially as we saw with that issue with the Haitians being whipped with the reins on the horses,” she continued before being cut off by Mayorkas.

“Let me just correct you right there because, actually, the investigation concluded that the whipping did not occur,” Mayorkas explained in what may have been his only truthful comment of Thursday’s White House press briefing. (Read more from “‘Let Me Just Correct You’: Leftist Reporter Fact-Checked Live in White House Briefing” HERE)

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Biden DHS Is Literally Inviting Mexican Officials to Send Batches of Illegal Aliens Across the Border

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Instead of stopping the illegal aliens currently swarming the border thanks to the upcoming expiration of Title 42 — a pandemic-era policy that allowed Border Patrol to immediately expel illegal migrants upon first encounter — the Biden administration is actively facilitating unlawful entries into the United States.

According to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security has been coordinating with Mexican immigration officers to facilitate group swims across the border using an encrypted WhatsApp channel.

Mexican immigration officers explained to the Center for Immigration Studies that in late April, DHS initiated a “controlled-flow” system with Mexican officials.

Under the arrangement, Mexican senior officers have been continually informing U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials how many immigrants are “gathered and [are] prepared to cross the river.” Then, “the Americans on the other side would ask the Mexicans to hold back the migrants – not because such crossings are illegal and should be blocked and obstructed, but only until the Americans had finished processing the last batch,” explained Todd Bensman for the Center for Immigration Studies.

When the Americans can take more illegal migrants, they send word to the Mexican officials, who radio their on-ground immigration officers. The immigration officers “signal to the waiting crowd to go forward and, once they figure enough are in the water, they cut off the rest and push and cajole them back into line until the Americans signal they’re ready again.” (Read more from “Biden DHS Is Literally Inviting Mexican Officials to Send Batches of Illegal Aliens Across the Border” HERE)

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China Expands Targeting of U.S With Russian-Style Covert Influence Operations

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China’s government is expanding the use of covert influence operations targeting the United States and is expected to exploit the White House-congressional clash over the debt limit crisis as part of growing anti-U.S. activities, the director of national intelligence said.

The most recent DNI annual threat assessment warned that China’s efforts are nearing the aggressive intensity of similar covert disinformation operations from Russia, including the use of intelligence agents, cybertools and social media to meddle in U.S. elections, weaken national security laws and exacerbate domestic divisions.

“Beijing’s growing efforts to actively exploit perceived U.S. societal divisions using its online personas move it closer to Moscow’s playbook for influence operations,” the assessment states.

The report described Russian disinformation as one of the “most serious foreign influence threats to the United States.”

Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, disclosed in congressional testimony on May 4 that China is expected to use the looming government crisis over raising the debt ceiling in its anti-U.S. influence campaigns. (Read more from “China Expands Targeting of U.S With Russian-Style Covert Influence Operations” HERE)

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