News of the World

[kyonides]

Special Counsel Jack Smith Adds New Charges Against Donald Trump

Smith charged Trump with one count of willful retention of national defense documents and two counts of obstruction.

Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, who was previously charged in the first indictment, also received two new obstruction-related charges.

The superseding indictment also charged Carlos De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s head of maintenance, with altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

“The superseding indictment also charges Trump, De Oliveira, and Nauta with two new obstruction counts based on allegations that the defendants attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in summer 2022,” a statement from the special counsel’s spokesman Peter Carr said.
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Trump is also newly accused of retaining a classified document detailing a U.S. military plan of attack on Iran, which Trump showed to a writer, publisher and two staff members at his club in Bedminster, N.J., on July 21, 2021.

At the time, Trump had not been president for five months, and his guests “did not have security clearances” to view the document, according to the superseding indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

With the additional charges, Trump is now facing 40 counts in the criminal case.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the U.S. Department of Justice for the new charges, calling it a “continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.”

Hunter Biden Pleads Not Guilty After Plea Deal Falls Apart

Hunter Biden pled not guilty on Wednesday to gun and tax charges, refusing to accept a new plea deal laid out by prosecutors.

The original plea deal fell apart after the judge questioned if it covered future potential charges of the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation. The prosecution reportedly said the deal did not include any alleged Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations.

MSNBC reported the court took a ten-minute recess to determine if the two parties could quickly come to an agreement. When the deal got back on track, reports indicated it would “be more limited in scope,” only including specific charges related to tax and gun wronging. “The two sides have agreed that this deal does not shield him from potential future charges,” CNN reported.

But the judge said she was not ready to accept the plea deal and asked both the prosecutor and Hunter Biden to submit additional briefs, according to reporters inside the courthouse. The parties will have to return to court in the future.

The hearing ended with Hunter Biden pleading not guilty.

Sen. Josh Hawley told CNN the high court drama shows the plea “sweetheart” deal was flawed, and additional charges could be brought.

China Looks to Flood U.S. Market with Cheap Electric Vehicles

Chinese automakers are looking to flood the United States market with cheap Electric Vehicles (EVs) as President Joe Biden’s administration has made a rapid all-electric, green energy push without having first ensured domestic manufacturing capacity.

According to Axios, Chinese automakers like BYD Co. Ltd., Li Auto, Xpeng Motors, Nio Inc., and Geely are looking to the U.S. market to sell cheap EVs to Americans as the Biden administration makes its push for an all-electric economy.
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In fact, some China-built cars are already for sale in the U.S. under Western brands, including the Buick Envision, Polestar 2 and soon, the Lincoln Nautilus. And China’s BYD is already the largest manufacturer of electric buses in North America. [Emphasis added]
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Chinese automakers will likely follow the same script as Japanese and Korean brands decades ago: Use imports to exploit a void in the U.S. market, learn quickly and then go deeper with factories on American soil.
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Already, China is dominating the critical minerals that are needed to produce EV batteries. Supply chains of minerals like nickel, graphite, lithium, and cobalt — all needed to make the batteries — are controlled by China.
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Most recently, the United Auto Workers (UAW) has blasted the Biden administration for shifting billions to American automakers through its all-electric, green energy agenda, while American auto workers are experiencing wage cuts as a result of moving to EVs.

Venezuela’s Campaign to Jail Donald Trump for ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

One crucial, albeit tacit element in the Venezuelan socialist regime’s narrative is that it needs to portray itself as the hero of its own skewed story. This is something it has been doing since before it took power in 1999.
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Currently, former President Donald Trump — and, more specifically, the sanctions he imposed on the regime of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro during his time in office — remain the revolution’s main scapegoat, someone to blame for our socialism-induced woes.

While Maduro and high-ranking officials in his regime have been subject to a wide array of sanctions in the past decade, those against the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) oil company — the only lucrative part, at least legally, of the Venezuelan government — were only imposed in 2019. Since these sanctions actually hurt the regime, it has blamed all of Venezuela’s economic collapse on them. The accusations against Trump for destroying Venezuela ignore that the collapse of “Bolivarian Socialism” was inevitable, caused by the incoherence and corruption inherent in the ideology, and began years before Donald Trump had been elected.

Maduro has personally blamed sanctions for everything his socialist regime has wrought upon this country — even the lack of women’s rights, for example, which the United States has no control over.

Those sanctions are the beast that the metaphorical “hero” Maduro regime seeks to defeat, and as such, the regime has taken it upon itself — perhaps inspired by the trials that former President Trump is currently facing in U.S. courts — to prosecute Trump for his alleged “crimes against humanity.”

El Salvador: Congress Approves Mass Trials for Gang Suspects

The Congress of El Salvador approved transitory provisions and reforms to the nation’s criminal code on Wednesday that will allow courts to conduct mass trials for the tens of thousands arrested in President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on criminal gangs.

The changes, approved by the overwhelming pro-Bukele majority in Congress with 67 votes in favor and six against, will allow Salvadoran courts to hold trials for groups of defendants based on their area of residence and what “clique” gang group they stand accused of belonging to. The changes also allow for prison sentences for those found to be gang leaders going from 45 to 60 years.

The lawmakers argued that the modifications will grant greater order and efficiency to the processes in the courts. Detractors accused the government of legalizing the violation of due process and stripping detainees of their individual presumption of innocence.

El Salvador has been under a de facto state of martial law through a “State of Exception” decree since March 2022. The decree is meant to combat violent gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) and 18th Street. The original 30-day decree has been continuously renewed on a monthly basis and was renewed for a sixteenth time on July 11.

Niger: Soldiers Seize Airwaves, Claim to Stage Coup on National TV

A group of soldiers describing themselves as the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland” appeared on national television in Niger late Thursday night announcing they had overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum and “suspended” the operations of all government institutions.

The status of the alleged coup remains unclear at press time – reports from Niger’s main cities on Thursday suggested many civilians going to work or otherwise behaving normally, with no indication of whether Bazoum’s government or the military was in charge. Bazoum has not appeared publicly since Thursday, but posted a message on Twitter in the early morning hours of Thursday vowing to protect “democracy and freedom.”

This is the third coup attempt against Bazoum since he took office following elections in 2021. Bazoum is the nation’s first leader to rise to power in a peaceful election.

Niger is a volatile Sahel country facing multiple jihadist insurgencies, including attacks by the Islamic State, its subsidiary Boko Haram, and some al-Qaeda elements. Bazoum’s government has been generally friendly to America – Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the country in March and spoke to Bazoum on Wednesday prior to the alleged coup – and hosts American military assets.

It is currently surrounded by, in addition to jihadists, nations that have turned on the West and sought aid from Russia and the Wagner Private Military Group (PMC), most prominently Burkina Faso, which experienced its own televised coup last year.

Keep in mind that Niger is surrounded by Lybia, Algeria, Mali, Nigeria, and Chad.

Kim Jong-un Shows Off ICBMs, Drones to Russian Defense Minister in North Korea

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on Wednesday led Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu through a tour of a “weaponry exhibition house” in Pyongyang reportedly showcasing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and other advanced arms.
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Shoigu’s team and a partner delegation from China are the first high-profile foreign dignitaries invited to North Korea since the beginning of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
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Shoigu’s visit appeared to be a test of his diplomatic abilities following an attempt to overthrow him by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder and leader of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), in late June.
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Kim Jong-un personally greeted Shoigu and scheduled a tour with him of a weaponry exhibition house in North Korea’s capital, according to the regime’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmun. The newspaper described their exchange as “friendly” and brimming with “militant comradeship.” Shoigu offered Kim a personal letter written to him by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
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Kim and Shoigu reportedly discussed “issues of mutual concern in the struggle to safeguard the sovereignty, development and interests of the two countries from the high-handed and arbitrary practices of the imperialists,” a term typically used to refer to America. Rodong Sinmun claimed the two also discussed “international justice” and Kim predicted Russia would “achieve big successes in the struggle for building a powerful country.”

Shoigu, in turn, reportedly called North Korea “the strongest army in the world.”

Voice of America, citing the images of the tour in the North Korean state newspaper, reported that Kim showed Shoigu homemade ICBMs and other advanced military machinery.

NBC’s Mike Tirico Feared Planted ‘Positive’ COVID Test
After He Criticized Chinese Human Rights Abuses

NBC sports broadcaster Mike Tirico claims that he feared having a suddenly positive planted COVID test after criticizing China’s human rights record during his comments at the Winter Olympics last year.
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“Our first segment of our first broadcast from Beijing while we were on the ground there was all about the Uyghur population – not all about, but we addressed it right on"
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“In being honest,” Tirico admitted, “I have to say, I was concerned about if my COVID test was going to come back surprisingly positive all of a sudden after our first night in China, and we made our comments about the treatment of the Uyghurs over there.”

Ultimately, though, Tirico did not test positive during his coverage of the games.

China has faced pressure from all around the world over its treatment of its minority Uyghur population. However, it has made no moves to change its policies.