News of the World

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DOJ Drops Campaign Finance Charge Against Sam Bankman-Fried

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) informed a federal judge late Wednesday it did “not intend to proceed” with a campaign finance charge against disgraced FTX founder and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried.

Consultation with the Bahamas on the campaign finance charges in Bankman-Fried’s original extradition document last year were behind the decision as part of an effort to adhere to the legal obligations therein, Forbes reports.

The campaign finance violation charge was among eight counts present in the DOJ’s original indictment—which also includes wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering—in December.

In the filing addressed to New York federal judge Lewis Kaplan, the Bahamas did not include the eighth charge from the original indictment, a campaign finance violation, in its extradition treaty.

“The Government has been informed that The Bahamas notified the United States earlier today that The Bahamas did not intend to extradite the defendant on the campaign contributions count,” the DOJ letter said. “Accordingly, in keeping with its treaty obligations to The Bahamas, the Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count.”

The notice came hours after a hearing over Bankman-Fried’s alleged attempt to discredit former Alameda Research executive Caroline Ellison by sharing private documents with the New York Times.

The FTX founder has been accused of taking more than $2 billion in “loans and payments” from the firm during his time as CEO, as Breitbart News reported.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone Regrets Voting for Joe Biden: ‘I Made a Mistake!’

Director Oliver Stone said he regrets voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, warning that the president is dragging the country into a potential World War III with Russia.

“I voted for him — I made a mistake!” Stone said in a new interview with actor Russell Brand.
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“This is a potential World War III,” the two-time Oscar-winning director said. “This is the same situation as World War I, in a sense. The stupidity of it — because of the alliances and the fears and the built-up phobias. If we don’t stop this, what Biden is doing, I voted for him — I made a mistake! — thinking that he was an old man now that he would calm down, he’d be more mellow and so forth. I didn’t see that at all.”
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He added: “I see a man  [Biden] who maybe is not in charge of his own administration. Who knows [if] he’s going to fall down somewhere. It seems that he’s dragging us stupidly into a confrontation with a power that’s not going to give.”

Stone interviewed Russia’s Vladimir Putin for his four-part Showtime docuseries The Putin Interviews in 2017.

DHS Secretary Mayorkas ‘Not Familiar’ with California’s Sanctuary State Law

During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee this week, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) asked Mayorkas his views on sanctuary jurisdictions. The secretary, though, refused to criticize California’s sanctuary state law — the strictest in the nation — and went as far as to say he is unaware of the details of the law.

“I do not consider it in the service to public safety to release an individual into the community when that individual can be released to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for prompt removal,” Mayorkas said when asked by Kiley if he believes sanctuary jurisdictions risk public safety for Americans.

“So you oppose California’s sanctuary state law?” Kiley then asked, to which Mayorkas responded, “I am not familiar with the particulars of that law.”

“I would like to restate for the record, the policies that you’ve said you oppose — overriding the ability for local jurisdictions to cooperate — that’s exactly what California’s sanctuary state law does,” Kiley said.
Mayorkas has made clear that the well-being of illegal aliens is paramount to President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda. Last year, for instance, Mayorkas said “justice and equity” for illegal aliens is central to his mission at DHS.

In addition to the sanctuary state law, many California cities have their own sanctuary policies that reinforce their goal to protect criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

China Erases Purged Foreign Minister Qin Gang from Internet

The Chinese government began erasing mentions of former Foreign Minister Qin Gang — who has not been seen publicly since June 25 and lost his position this week — from the Foreign Ministry’s website on Tuesday and has refused to answer questions about his status in subsequent days.

Qin became the shortest-serving foreign minister in the history of communist China on Tuesday after the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee voted to oust him from office on Tuesday, replacing him with his predecessor Wang Yi. Genocidal dictator Xi Jinping appointed Qin to lead the ministry in December following his tenure as Chinese ambassador to America. At 57 years old, Qin was one of the youngest and fastest-rising Communist Party officials since Xi seized power in 2013.

Wang currently holds the title of foreign minister in addition to leading the foreign policy of the Politburo, making him the most powerful diplomat in modern Chinese history. As Beijing has offered little to no information on what led to Qin’s demise, it remains unclear if Wang played any role in his disappearance.

Qin last made a public appearance in meetings with diplomats from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Russia on June 25. He has yet to make any public statements or been seen since, leading to speculation that he ran afoul of Xi’s politics, engaged in some inappropriate behavior, or otherwise angered the Party leadership.

Ukrainian Drone Shot Down Outside Moscow, Claims Russia

A Ukrainian drone was shot down early Friday outside Moscow, Russia´s defense ministry said. It was the third drone strike or attempt on the capital region this month.

The ministry said there were no injuries or damage in the early morning incident. It did not give details about where the drone was shot down, but said it took place in the Moscow Oblast, a region that surrounds but does not include the city itself.
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The shootdown adds to concern about Moscow’s vulnerability to attack as the war drags into its 18th month.

Two drones struck the Russian capital on Monday, one of them falling in the center of the city near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters along the Moscow River about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Kremlin. The other drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors.

Mexican President Says U.S. DEA Chief has Mistaken Information About Cartels

“We don’t have that information, I don’t know where she got it from, the lady from the DEA,” Lopez Obrador said on Friday during his morning news conference. “What proof does she have?”

Lopez Obrador addressed DEA Administrator Anne Milgram’s statement that the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation have more than 44,800 members, associates, and facilitators in 100 countries. The DEA leader also claimed that drug cartels had a presence in more than 21 states in Mexico. On Thursday, Milgram went to a congressional hearing to provide updates on the current fentanyl crisis where she claimed that those two cartels were the main producers and distributors of the drug.
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When asked about the comments by the DEA chief, a flustered Lopez Obrador asked for proof of her claims.

“If everyone acts on their own, they don’t move forward,” Lopez Obrador said, claiming that there is no coordination between U.S. agencies. The Mexican politician claimed that earlier this week that his government officials met with White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood Randall for a summit on fentanyl, and the information shared there was different from the DEA testimony.

As Breitbart Texas reported, Lopez Obrador has publicly claimed that Mexico does not produce fentanyl as U.S. law enforcement agencies have previously stated.

Biden Expands Mexico’s Gatekeeper Role at U.S. Border

The White House has announced a new deal that gives Mexico even more power over the flow of wage-cutting economic migrants into jobs and communities throughout the United States.

“Today we are announcing our full support for an international multipurpose space that the Government of Mexico plans to establish in southern Mexico to offer new refugee and labor options for the most vulnerable people who are currently in Mexico,” said the July 28 announcement by the White House’s top security official, Jake Sullivan.
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The gatekeeper deal “improves the optics [at the border], but it’s not going to reduce the flow” of migrants into Americans’ workplaces and communities, Vaughan added.

The deal also “suggests that the Biden administration has been willing to sacrifice a deal on the [cartel] drug [smuggling] problem to get the migration deal that it wants,” she said.  On July 25, lower-level Biden officials announced a toothless deal over drug smuggling.

The deal also will not stop the cartels’ labor smuggling, because many people will pay the cartels to help them get around the Mexican gatekeepers as well as U.S. border agents, she added. But it will also allow U.S. elites to hurt Americans’ pocketbooks by using the new migrants to ratchet down Americans’ wages and push up their housing costs and inflation.
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In January 2023, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he favors the continued inflow of Latino migrants into the United States. “What we want is an in-depth solution,” Obrador told a January 10 press conference with Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Hunter Biden Admits in Court He Made $664K
from CEFC China Energy, Contradicting Joe Biden’s Claims

During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, Clark revealed Hunter made over one million dollars in foreign business transactions, including $664,000 from CEFC, a company linked to the CCP and Chinese intelligence.

“During calendar year 2017, Biden earned substantial income, including: just under $1 million from a company he formed with the CEO of a Chinese business conglomerate [BHR Partners]; $666,666 from his domestic business interests; approximately $664,000 from a Chinese infrastructure investment company[CEFC]…” Clark told the judge, according to the court transcript obtained by not-for-profit Marco Polo.
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Clark confirmed additional income from Hunter Biden’s business ventures, including $500,000 in director’s fees from his ventures with Burisma Holdings, a company whose executive told an FBI informant he bribed Hunter and President Joe Biden each with $5 million.
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Clark also said the younger Biden made” $70,000 relating to a Romanian business; and $48,000 from the multi-national law firm.”

The money received by Hunter Biden contradicts Joe Biden’s claims his son never received money from a Chinese entity.
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Suspicious Activity Reports 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.

Communist Nicaragua Funding Itself with Remittances Sent by Exiles

The Nicaraguan communist regime has been funding itself with remittances sent home by Nicaraguans who it banished or forced to flee, turning them into a crucial economic resource, a report published by the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa on Friday revealed.

The report cites the director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, Manuel Orozco, whose recent study found that remittances sent to Nicaragua are expected to total almost $5 billion by the end of this year, exceeding 30 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Unfortunately, family remittances are economically oxygenating a regime that kills, imprisons, intimidates, and expels its citizens,” Orozco said.

“Without migration and family remittances, the other indicators are recessive; there is no private investment; there is little access to credit; there is no increase in consumption; [there are] informal labor increases.”

“Indebtedness and debt payments increase, taxes grow, but spending does not. Meanwhile, the regime continues to preserve its elite in power,” Orozco concluded.

Niger Coup: Presidential Guard Leader Declares Himself Ruler

General Abdourahmane Tchiani appeared on national television and declared himself the president of Niger on Friday, a day after a group of soldiers claiming to be the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland” said they had overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum and suspended government operations.

Tchiani is the leader of Niger’s presidential guard. Prior to his broadcast on Friday, unconfirmed reports claimed that Tchiani was responsible for abducting Bazoum and placing him on house arrest to allow the military to take over the country.

Niger is a turbulent nation with a prolific recent history of coups d’etat in Saharan Africa. Bazoum, the country’s democratically elected leader since 2021, reportedly survived two coup attempts before this week. Neighbors Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Mali have all experienced similar military coups in the past two years.

His foreign policy brought the country closer to the United States and to former colonizer France, whose leadership enthusiastically rejected the coup on Friday and insisted it still recognized Bazoum as the nation’s leader. Bazoum spoke with American Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday following the rebellion, receiving State Department support for his legitimacy.

Bazoum is believed to be trapped in the presidential palace; coup leaders have stated they have no intention of harming him in response to widespread outrage over the mutiny in western Africa.