Biden tells ABC News that Netanyahu agreed ‘publicly’ to the ceasefire deal
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Following a D-Day commemoration on Thursday, ABC‘s David Muir asked US President Joe Biden if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports the recent three-phase ceasefire and hostage release deal.
“Publicly, he says he is,” Biden replied. “Our European friends are in on it. We have to get a ceasefire.”
Muir reminded Biden that he called Israeli’s military response to Hamas was “over the top” and that he had warned Israel against the Rafah operation.
Biden implied that he prevailed upon Israel to lessen the severity of the Rafah campaign.
He said, “I think he’s listening to me. They were going to go into […] Rafah […] full-bore, invade all of Rafah, go into the city, take it out, move, move with full force. They haven’t done that.”
Returning to the subject of the hostage and ceasefire deal, Biden said, “And what they’ve done is they’ve agreed to a significant agreement. ”
Although Hamas has yet to approve the deal, “It’s being backed by Egypt, being backed by the Saudis, being backed by almost the whole Arab world. We’ll see. This is a very difficult time,” Biden continued.
In the most recent version of the plan, the first phase of the ceasefire would require the release of the women, elderly, wounded, and ill hostages, as well as the bodies of deceased hostages.
This is a departure from an earlier agreement that emphasized the release of living hostages in the first phase and of bodies in later stages.
The second phase of the deal would see the release of the remaining hostages, including male soldiers, and a withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.
Biden said of the second phase, “As long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, a cessation of hostilities permanently.”
The third phase would usher in “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza” and the release of the remainder of the bodies of Israeli hostages.
Briahna Joy Gray Fired After Scorning Israeli Hostage’s Sister, Pushing Hamas Propaganda
Joshua Klein (Breitbart)
Leftist political commentator Briahna Joy Gray, the former national press secretary to Bernie Sanders, was fired from the Hill days after repeatedly demeaning an Israeli hostage’s sister and dismissing her pleas, while pushing common pro-Hamas talking points, including Israel’s culpability for the stall in hostage talks, denial of October 7 atrocities, and even the suggestion that support for Israel led to the 9/11 terror attacks in a “disturbing” interview.
After being fired from the Hill, host Briahna Joy Gray took to social media to report on the matter, accusing the news outlet of “suppressing speech — particularly when it’s critical of the state of Israel.”
A spokesperson confirmed to the New York Post that she no longer works at the media outlet. “It finally happened. The Hill has fired me,” she wrote on Thursday evening.
“There should be no doubt that @RisingTheHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech — particularly when it’s critical of the state of Israel,” she added. “This is why they fired [Katie Halper], & it was only a matter of time before they fired me.”
However, the Tuesday interview on The Hill’s Rising saw Gray consistently demeaning Yarden Gonen, the sister of Romi Gonen who is currently being held hostage in Gaza.
The 23-year-old Romi, a choreographer who Yarden described as someone who loves to paint and work with autistic children, was among those kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7. After hiding for hours, Romi was ambushed by terrorists, resulting in her being shot and taken.
“Mommy, I’m afraid. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go,” were the last words she spoke to her mother on the phone amidst the chaos.
Gonen, who is a nurse, described how terrorists, some as young as 18 years old, had dragged her sister by the hair, debated whether to kill her, and pistol whipped her head until she blacked out while kidnapping her to Gaza.
While Gonen insisted that the “entire free world is at risk” because of Hamas, Gray persistently attempted to put the blame for the hostages’ fate on Israel and not Hamas.
Addressing the complexity of returning the hostages through a ceasefire while also ensuring the elimination of the existential threat to Israel posed by Hamas, Gonen offered an analogy of a terror organization in Mexico attacking Americans and posing a threat to the U.S.
However, Gray shockingly responded, “I don’t think we would endeavor to eliminate all Mexicans if that were to happen.”
Gonen responded by saying she didn’t say anything about eliminating all Palestinians before attempting to pivot back to her sister.
Gray also dismissed photographs taken by ZAKA, an Israeli voluntary emergency response organization, claiming that the group’s reporting “has been roundly discredited by both Israeli and American media sources.”
ZAKA’s reports from October 7 have offered extensive details of the aftermath of the massacre.
When Gonen highlighted the minimal food her sister was likely receiving as a hostage, Gray accused Israel of blocking aid to Gaza. However, Gonen noted that most aid trucks make their way to Gazans and that Hamas has repeatedly blocked aid from reaching their own civilians.
Gray, who has nearly 400,000 followers on X, continued to push Gonen in an attempt to blame Netanyahu for the current hostage situation, with the hostage’s sister finally firing back: “I see you really want to discuss political [matters] and that is not my profession,” noting that an Israeli deal is currently “on the table” and “we’re waiting for Hamas to say yes.”
“I’m here to talk about my sister, please help me spread her story [and] make people understand what she’s going through as a woman in 2024” she pleaded.
“We are not [living] 200 years ago; it is not ok that we have a terror organization that’s controlling the free world and people in the west are letting it happen …. What did I do wrong? Or my sister? We did nothing wrong,” she added.
After Gonen warned that cowering to terrorism could lead to another 9/11-like attack, citing recent Michigan rallies that saw residents chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” Gray pushed back saying there was no threat of terrorism posed by the radicalization of Arab and Muslim communities in the Wolverine State, even going so far as to say that “one of the rationale that was presented for 9/11 was discussed with America’s support of Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine.”
Gonen concluded by telling Gray that “I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt…,” but was cut off by the irritated host, who rolled her eyes, sighed and stopped her mid-sentence, stating, “Alright, thanks for joining….”
In response, many expressed outrage on social media over Gray’s callousness.
“The family member of an Israeli hostage pleads with Briahna Joy Gray to believe Jewish women who have been abducted, tortured, and raped by Hamas. Instead of projecting empathy, as a normal person would, Gray rolls her eyes, her mouth dripping with contempt,” wrote Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
“Gray has a hatred for the Jewish State so visceral and fanatical that it renders her cruelly indifferent to the value of Jewish life,” he added.
“This woman, Briahna, is so filled with antisemitic contempt it’s almost unbelievable. I’ve never seen an interviewer display such a disgusting unprofessional and disrespectful attitude towards their own guest,” wrote journalist Emily Schrader.
“Is it really that hard to stand against sexual assault — as a woman no less?!” she added. “I think we should send Briahna to Gaza.”
“No low this person won’t sink to, truly disgusting,” wrote activist and writer Hen Mazzig, senior fellow at The Tel Aviv Institute.
“This is one of the most disturbing interviews I have ever seen. Both interviewers treated Yarden Gonen, the sister of Israeli hostage Romi Gonen, with such disrespect and disgust … persistently discredited the atrocities committed on 10/7 and then had the audacity to roll her eyes at Yarden, when she asked her to believe all women,” wrote one X user.
In response to Gray’s rant about being fired, many refused to sympathize with the “heartless” host.
“I have as much sympathy for Briahna Joy Gray as she has for the hostages. None,” wrote Congressman Ritchie Torres.
“Briahna Joy Gray, who specializes in parroting the propaganda of Hamas, falsely accuses Israel of genocide, murder, and starvation — all lies and libels,” he wrote in response to her attacking Israel in her reply to him.
“Is she wishing violence upon a sitting United States Congressman?” he added.
“As a regular The Hill columnist, I could not be more delighted that they fired Briahna Joy Gray!” wrote international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky. “Good riddance to bad rubbish!”
“She repeatedly defended Hamas and made light of their victims,” he added. “Just an awful, heartless person.”
“So you’re saying shilling for genocidal terrorist groups, parroting KKK smears against the Jewish state, and showing open contempt for Jewish rape victims *doesn’t* pay? Go figure,” wrote media personality Avi Mayer.
Conservative political commentator Mike Cernovich mocked Gray by citing her own post from 2017 in which she had declared that free speech “doesn’t mean freedom from social consequences from your actions.”
Gray has faced severe criticism for promoting antisemitic tropes, denying Hamas’s sexual violence on October 7, and defending those advocating for Israel’s destruction.
In December, Gray came under fire for appearing to deny the expulsion of more than 850,000 Jews from Arab countries after Israel’s establishment in 1948.
She also declared that “there’s not a group on earth that’s killed more people and enacted more global terror than white Christians.”
Last month, Gray was mocked after suggesting that Hamas, a U.S.-designated Islamic terror group whose charter calls for relentless jihad, seeks to build a peaceful democratic state.
The Jewish State is currently at war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 massacre, whereby the terrorist group perpetrated the deadliest attack against Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust. The massacre saw the torture, rape, execution, immolation, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians, as well as widespread Palestinian support for it.
The Iranian proxy Islamist terrorist organization targeted attendees at a music festival and those in southern Israeli towns, all while thousands of rockets rained down on Israeli civilian centers.
The massacre resulted in terrorists killing approximately 1,200 people and wounding more than 4,800, with at least 242 hostages taken — more than half of whom remain in Gaza. The vast majority of the victims are civilians and include dozens of American citizens.
Concerns about Hamas’s treatment of hostages continue to be raised, as Israeli authorities investigate substantial allegations of rape and sexual assault related to the October 7 massacre, having collected over 1,500 testimonies — including of gang rape and post-mortem mutilation.
IDF International Spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht stated that the Israeli army is “absolutely” concerned about such violence against hostages. His comments came amid firsthand accounts of freed captives at a meeting with Israeli officials, after several shared testimonies of various abuses during their captivity in Gaza.
Over a dozen young Israeli women remain hostage in Gaza.
Leftist Media Gatekeeper Power Is Crumbling
Jarrett Stepman (Daily Signal)
The Washington Post is melting down and the reason might surprise you.
Actually, no it won’t. Just kidding. The Washington Post is melting down because it leaned hard into the Year Zero cultural revolution that’s completely transformed almost every elite institution in the past several years and the newspaper is now bleeding money.
People are no longer buying what they’re selling.
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now
What’s happening at the Post is a microcosm of a much larger and more significant phenomenon. More on that later.
First, let’s review what’s happened at the Post this week.
Publisher and CEO William Lewis announced Sunday that the newspaper would remove Executive Editor Sally Buzbee, hired in 2021 from The Associated Press.
Buzbee is being replaced by former Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray, who will remain in an interim capacity through the 2024 election cycle, according to Fox News.
Buzbee decided during her tenure that The Washington Post wasn’t nearly left wing enough and chose to limit the publication’s appeal to the same demographic as NPR’s.
The result was that the newspaper found a way to lose $77 million last year amid collapsing readership numbers.
NPR gets taxpayer dollars (rather shamefully, in my mind); the Post doesn’t. So, the higher-ups looked at the Post’s dwindling readership and catastrophic financial losses and decided enough was enough.
“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around,” the Post quoted Lewis as saying. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
The people who run The Washington Post seem to understand that there is a crisis—losing lots and lots of money being the prime indicator. The question is, do they understand what the real source of that problem is?
The response to Buzbee’s removal dropped hints about the deeper, underlying issue with the Post and other institutions that decided to replicate the culture and power structure of American higher education.
The Post’s issues aren’t just the result of changing social media algorithms or mundane difficulties finding revenue streams.
Instead, they come from the fact that the newspaper chose to prioritize DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) over everything else and to empower a militant clique of employees who seem to think that promoting their agenda is a privilege that doesn’t have to adjust to reality.
According to Vanity Fair, after the announcement of the Buzbee ouster one reporter complained that “we now have four white men running three newsrooms.”
The Post will reportedly be subdivided into three newsrooms. One for news, one for opinion, and one for “service and social media journalism,” which I imagine will be the loony bin.
Vanity Fair reported that the Post had a meeting Monday about the shakeup and it went about how you would expect, with employees obsessing over diversity initiatives rather than the journalistic merit of the new editors.
The New York Times had more, worth quoting at length:
During the meeting on Monday, the executives were grilled by reporters at the Post on the lack of diversity in the hires replacing Ms. Buzbee — Mr. Murray, Mr. [Robert] Winnett and Mr. [David] Shipley are white men.
According to a recording obtained by The New York Times, one of The Washington Post’s star political reporters, Ashley Parker, asked how the newspaper had arrived at its decision, adding that one skeptical interpretation might be that Mr. Lewis was simply hiring his associates to help run the Post.
…
“When you were here before, you talked very movingly about how you care about diversity—and people talk about diversity—but then when push comes to shove, they say, ‘Well, I looked around and I couldn’t find anyone,’” Ms. Parker said.
In response, Mr. Murray said that diversity would be a “constant commitment” at the Post, adding that he had “the most diverse masthead that the Journal had ever had” during his years as the top editor at The Wall Street Journal.
It’s clear that the DEI today, tomorrow, and forever folks aren’t going to let go, nor will they accept a direction that doesn’t entirely align with their narrow political ideology.
The people who foisted left-wing dogma into every corner of The Washington Post’s newsroom aren’t used to not getting their way.
The question is: Will the new management be able to make a genuine pivot? It’s doubtful.
It appears that those in charge of The Washington Post—whether Buzbee or the new bosses—are unwilling to fundamentally challenge the central tenets of DEI. At no point are they willing or able to say, “My commitment is to running the best, most effective newsroom regardless of the race, gender, or background of our reporters and editors.”
Instead, we get a quasi-religious kowtowing to the “constant commitment” to diversity.
Maybe that will change in the coming days, but the early returns aren’t great.
As independent writer Wesley Yang noted in a post on X, several other massive media companies have been given this choice in the past: Go woke or go broke. They chose to go broke.
This may seem surprising, but from an individual perspective, this has often been the “right” decision.
It’s far easier to jump ship from one failing newspaper or corporation and hop on to another as long as one maintains commitment to the overarching left-wing faith. That’s how the game has been played.
Rebuking or even wavering in commitment to DEI has been a one-way ticket to never working in an elite, “mainstream” institution ever again. It’s better to fail or demonstrate outright incompetence than to question orthodoxy and risk excommunication.
Welcome to life in the USSR.
This is in many ways the heart of the problem, not just for The Washington Post but for our country and even Western civilization more broadly.
In the interlocking world of elite institutions, where even the gap between what is governmental and what is private has become blurry, ideological gatekeepers determine who is promoted and who is denied employment, who is worthy of praise or destruction.
The Washington Post has acted as one of the more prominent gatekeepers.
But it isn’t 2020 anymore.
Although most elite institutions remain as compromised as ever, the “racial reckoning” and DEI revolution have created a serious and determined “populist” backlash.
Huge numbers of Americans, even ones who have generally found themselves on the Left, are tired of the nonsense. They are tired of being fed a constant diet of left-wing agitprop and refuse to live by lies.
The prophets of DEI made huge profits, but now a critical mass of Americans are on to the scam.
This doesn’t mean the revolutionary fever has entirely broken, or that everything will now return to normal. Far from it. We will continue dealing with the profound and terrible consequences of what this ideology has done to our society for a long time to come.
What it does mean is that the power of DEI gatekeepers has waned. The revolution has literally been eating itself, as similar movements have in the past. And now there is a serious counterrevolution—both legal and political—to reduce their poisonous influence on our society.
Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist and commentator who has perhaps done more to produce this turnaround than anyone else, described this moment succinctly.
Portland, Oregon Teachers Union Pushes Kindergarten Curriculum That Demonizes ‘Zionist Bullies’ , Celebrate Martyrs
(Daily Caller) The teachers union in Portland, Oregon, has reportedly sparked controversy with a curriculum that portrays Jewish people In Israel as engaged in “settler colonialism” and positively represents pro-Palestinian protests.
Titled “Teach Palestine!” and co-published by the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT), this curriculum targets students as young as four and five years old, according to City Journal contributor Chris Rufo. The PAT “represents over 4500 educators in the Portland Public School system,” the organization’s website reads.
The curriculum, co-published by the Portland teachers union, is called “Teach Palestine!” The union promotes the curriculum to its 4,500 and provides them legal justification to include it in the classroom—beginning with children as young as four and five years old. pic.twitter.com/w9DgNUh9h5
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) June 5, 2024
The union promotes the curriculum to its more than 4,500 members, providing legal justification for its inclusion in classrooms, Rufo reported.
For pre-kindergarten students, the curriculum includes a workbook from the Palestinian Feminist Collective, which depicts Zionists as bullies who stole Palestinian land. A fictional character says, “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people.”
It also offers “a sensory guide for kids” to prepare children for attending protests, with slogans like “Abolish Prisons,” “From The River To The Sea” and “Save Gaza,” Rufo reported.
Finally, the hardcore ideology. The curriculum encourages students to chant in support of Palestinian martyrs and suggests that violence against Israel is justified: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” “We salute all our martyrs!”; “No peace on stolen land!” pic.twitter.com/Y0am6SRNco
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) June 5, 2024
In kindergarten, the curriculum intensifies with an “Art and Action for Palestine” lesson plan, according to Rufo. Activities include sharing “keffiyehs, flags, and protest signs” and creating agitprop materials with slogans such as “FREE PALESTINE,” LET GAZA LIVE,” and “PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”
Objectives of the lesson include celebrating “Palestinian culture and resistance throughout history and the present,” tying “histories of settler colonialism from Palestine to the United States” and practicing “taking collective action in support of Palestinian liberation,” Rufo reported. \
Another part of the curriculum is a pamphlet titled “All Out For Palestine,” according to Rufo. This document encourages students to chant in support of Palestinian martyrs and suggests that violence against Israel is justified, with slogans like “Resistance is justified when people are occupied: we can stick to our principles without going into details about the actions/forms of resistance.”
The PAT has also alleged that the school district is “actively censoring teachers” advocating for pro-Palestinian views, prompting the union to provide a legal guide for teachers to promote the lessons under state curriculum standards, Rufo reported.
Rufo noted that Portland has a history of radicalism in its public school system, which has long pushed students towards political activism.
REPORT: George Clooney Reaches Out To White House Over ICC Controversy Involving Biden
(Daily Caller) George Clooney reportedly contacted one of President Joe Biden’s top aides last May to express concern over the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) actions against Israeli leaders, The Washington Post reported.
The issue touches close to home for George, as his wife, Amal Clooney, has been involved in the ICC’s work on the case, according to The Washington Post. George allegedly called Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president. The call came after Biden denounced the ICC’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as “outrageous.”
The ICC is also pursuing warrants for top Hamas leaders. George was particularly upset about the administration’s initial consideration of sanctions against the ICC, which could have impacted his wife, The Washington Post reported. Despite this tension, George remains committed to supporting Biden and is scheduled to appear at a high-profile fundraiser for the president’s reelection campaign in Los Angeles on June 15.
The White House and the Biden campaign have downplayed the notion of significant concerns over George potentially withdrawing from the fundraiser. George has a history of supporting Democratic candidates, having donated over $500,000 to Biden’s campaign in 2020 and co-hosted a virtual fundraiser that raised $7 million, The Washington Post stated.
George’s call came after the ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s announcement May 20 of charges against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, The Washington Post reported. Amal has been assisting the ICC prosecutor by reviewing evidence and providing legal analysis. She stated that no conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, supporting the ICC’s actions as a step towards justice for victims in Israel and Palestine.
Biden, along with other Democratic and Republican leaders, criticized the ICC’s move, arguing it unfairly equates Israel’s defensive actions with Hamas’s terrorist activities, The Washington Post stated. While Biden initially signaled openness to sanctions, the administration later clarified that sanctions were not the right response, though it would work with Congress on other measures.
Fetterman Rejects Progressive Label While Addressing Left-Wing Attacks
Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that he was not a progressive while responding to criticisms that he is not liberal enough.
Fetterman said, “Now, in Pennsylvania, the border security is an important issue and we do all believe that we should have a secure border. I never thought it was unreasonable for any Democrat to wanted to make our border more security.”
Sen. John Fetterman says he NO LONGER identifies as a “progressive.”
“The situation has changed.”
pic.twitter.com/qt54IA0t8f— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 6, 2024
Host Dana Bash said, “I want to ask you personally about your own sort of journey, as the kids say, some Progressives have criticized you for being a different senator, then you suggested you would be when you were a candidate for Senate. What do you say to that?”
Fetterman said, “Well, I wasn’t I was very clear for saying that for years. So I’m not a progressive. I just identified myself as just a regular a Democrat. So it really wasn’t any noon news. Now, eight years ago, I was a progressive, but the situations change and I’ve been very clear that I didn’t leave that label, that label leaves me.”
He added, “I think it’s much more important to be focusing on Donald Trump instead of kinds of purity tests and those kinds of issues.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
Spain Applies to Join South Africa’s Case at Top Un Court Accusing Israel of Genocide
(AP) — Spain became on Thursday the first European country to ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice late last year. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza.
The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Israel has not complied and shows no sign of doing so.
“We take the decision because of the ongoing military operation in Gaza,” Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in Madrid. “We want peace to return to Gaza and the Middle East, and for that to happen we must all support the court.”
Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians are waiting for the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to grant approval to their requests to join the case.
Israel denies it is committing genocide in its military operation to crush Hamas triggered by its deadly Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.
Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 more hostage in the surprise attacks. Israel’s air and land attacks have killed 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Once admitted to the case, Spain would be able to make written submissions and speak at public hearings.
Spain’s request is the latest move by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to support peacemaking efforts in Gaza.
Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state on May 28 in a coordinated effort by the three Western European nations. Slovenia, a European Union member along with Spain and Ireland, followed suit and recognized the Palestinian state this week.
Over 140 countries have recognized a Palestinian state — more than two-thirds of the U.N. — but none of the major Western powers, including the United States, has done so.
While Sánchez has condemned the attacks by Hamas and joined demands for the return of the remaining Israeli hostages, he has not shied away from the diplomatic backlash from Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that by recognizing a Palestinian state, Sánchez’s government was “being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes.”
Sánchez’s backing of the Palestinians is generally supported in Spain, where some university students have followed their American counterparts in protesting on campuses. Spaniards will vote in elections for the European Parliament elections on Sunday.
Last year, the International Court of Justice allowed 32 countries, including Spain, to join Ukraine’s case alleging that Russia breached the genocide convention by falsely accusing Ukraine of committing genocide in its eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and using that as a pretext for the invasion.
Preliminary hearings have already been held in the genocide case against Israel, but the court is expected to take years to reach a final decision.
Albares said the decision by his government had the immediate objective of adding pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to follow the court’s interim measures to stop bloodshed in Rafah.
“I insist once again that these interim measures must be complied with,” Albares said. “Whether this is genocide or not, that is for the court to decide, and Spain of course will support its decision.”
Israel sent troops into the southern city of Rafah in early May in what it said was a limited incursion, but those forces are now operating in central parts of the city. Last week, Israeli strikes hit near a U.N. Palestinian refugee agency facility in Rafah, saying they were targeting Hamas militants. An inferno that followed ripped through nearby tents housing displaced families , killing at least 45 people.
More than 1 million people have fled Rafah since the start of the operation, scattering across southern and central Gaza into new tent camps or crowding into schools and homes.
Borrowers, Especially Young, Struggle With Credit Card Debt
(AP) — Consumers are increasingly struggling to pay their credit card bills, raising concerns about severe delinquencies spiraling and sapping consumer spending.
The share of credit card debt that’s more than 90 days overdue rose to 10.7% during the first quarter, a 12-year high, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s report on first-quarter household debt.
A year ago severe delinquencies totaled only 8.2% of credit card debt. The first-quarter jump in severe delinquencies was the biggest since 2012. Meanwhile total credit card debt rose to $1.12 trillion from just under $1 trillion a year ago.
Those in their 20s and 30s are having the most difficulty paying their credit card bills. Those age groups typically have a mix of less earnings power and lower savings.
The Federal Reserve hiked its key interest rate rate to a 23-year high to combat four-decade high inflation, which peaked in June, 2022 at 9.1%. Those rate increases made borrowing more expensive on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.
Consumer spending fuels economic growth, so trouble paying credit card bills is a worrisome signal. The direction of the labor market could determine whether debt stress becomes a bigger concern. Job and wage growth helped counter the hit to consumers wallets from rising inflation, but a continued slowdown or reversal there could tip the scales.
“While these indicators do not necessarily predict a recession, especially with a robust labor market, a weakening in employment conditions could exacerbate household financial instability,” said Gregory Daco, EY chief economist. “The combination of subdued job growth, sluggish income progression, and diminished savings could lead to increased delinquencies and a potential retrenchment in consumer spending.”
Wall Street has so far brushed off concerns about rising credit debt levels and payment struggles, forecasting earnings growth to accelerate from 5.6% in the first quarter to 17.1% by the fourth quarter.
Still, retail spending unexpectedly stalled in April in a sign of consumer fatigue and worry. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, has said its customers are spending more on necessities and less on discretionary goods like home furnishings and electronics.
Coffee chain Starbucks lowered its sales expectations for the year as people visit its cafes less often, and McDonald’s is offering more deals as people cut back on fast food and eating out.
The Fed is now faced with the prospect of inflation remaining stubbornly high around 3%, above its target of 2%. The mix of high inflation, expensive borrowing rates and a slowing economy has thrown more doubt around the central bank’s ability to tame inflation without causing a recession.
Credit cards only make up about 6.5% of consumer debt, according to a Bank of America Global Research report. That alleviates some concerns, but the increase in delinquencies seems to be outpacing income growth and there is likely a large group of consumers who are paying their minimum balances and staying out of delinquency, but are too financially stressed to actually pay their full balances. A worsening of the economy could push those consumers into severe delinquency.
“If our forecast of a benign moderation in the labor market is correct, we think consumer spending will remain resilient,” wrote Michael Gapen, Bank of America Global Research analyst. “However, elevated credit card delinquencies among lower-income consumers could increase the sensitivity of these consumers to an adverse labor market shock.”
Report: Illegal Immigrant Teen, Arrested After NYPD Shootout, Claimed Ties to Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua
Christian K. Caruzo(Breitbart)
Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, a 19-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant accused of shooting two New York police officers, told police that a member of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal organization recruited him, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested Castro Mata on Monday after a shootout with NYPD police officers that resulted in officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu being shot and wounded. The 19-year-old Venezuelan, who was also wounded in the shootout, was arraigned from a Queens hospital bed on 17 counts — including two counts of attempted murder for having allegedly opened fire at the two NYPD officers — and potentially faces 80 years to life in prison.
The Post claimed in its report that Castro Mata told police he was recruited by a Tren de Aragua “coordinator” in New York to join a crew of “snatch and grab” moped thieves and was “encouraged” to get tattoos that showed his allegiance to the transnational criminal organization.
In his statement, the 19-year-old Venezuelan allegedly claimed that the “coordinator” provided the crew’s members with mopeds used to steal mobile phones, a criminal tactic commonly employed by gang members in Venezuela.
The Post cited anonymous sources who said Castro Mata was already believed to be part of the Tren de Aragua due to a tattoo of a clock attached to an anchor on one of his arms and social media posts he published.
According to statements from NYPD officials, Castro Mata illegally entered the United States in July 2023 through Eagle Pass, Texas, and engaged in criminal activities before Monday’s shooting, such as alleged phone snatching and attacking a woman, stealing her credit card and eventually using it in a smoke shop in Queens.
Less than a month before the shootout, a federal immigration judge reportedly had Castro Mata’s deportation case dismissed. As such, Castro Mata, while not granted asylum in the United States, was not a priority for deportation and was no longer monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), effectively rendering him an undocumented immigrant.
The Tren de Aragua transnational criminal organization, whose criminal activities have spread across several U.S. states and Latin American countries, first began as a local trade union gang in the eponymous Venezuelan state of Aragua in 2012. It is largely believed that the criminal organization has deep ties to Venezuela’s socialist regime, which allegedly allowed the gang to expand its criminal activities to its current transnational status. The Tren de Aragua’s crimes are believed to range from theft, homicide, extortion, contraband, and kidnapping to drug, human, and arms trafficking.
In May, law enforcement officials in Louisiana dismantled a sex trafficking network linked to the Tren de Aragua. The trafficking network was reportedly able to smuggle its victims to the United States and taught them how to request asylum before forcing the victims into prostitution to pay for the “debt” from having been smuggled into the United States.
Reports published in February indicate that FBI officials suspect that Tren de Aragua members in New York have brokered an alliance with the Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang.
Venezuela’s socialist regime has repeatedly insisted that the Tren de Aragua “does not exist” and that the gang is part of an international smear campaign against the rogue regime, which is led by dictator Nicolás Maduro. Venezuelan officials publicly stated that the Maduro regime “dismantled” the Tren de Aragua after it “raided” the Tocorón prison in September 2023, which served as the gang’s main headquarters in Venezuela.
The whereabouts of Tren de Aragua’s leader, Héctor “the Child” Guerrero, remained unknown following the raid. Numerous reports have asserted that Guerrero, who, at the time of the raid, was serving a 17-year sentence on multiple criminal charges, negotiated to hand over control of the prison and escaped long before the raid began.
According to reports published in April, the Maduro regime has enlisted the aid of the Tren de Aragua to persecute Venezuelan dissidents abroad. The most notorious suspected case of such persecution is that of Venezuelan dissident Ronald Ojeda, a former member of the Venezuelan military who lived in exile in Chile. In late February, three men linked to the Tren de Aragua allegedly abducted and murdered Ojeda, whose body was found ten days later, buried inside a suitcase under a concrete structure in Chile’s Santiago metropolitan region.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
IDF proves terrorists were killed in UN school, CNN sides with Hamas version
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
The IDF has identified 9 terrorists of possibly dozens who were killed in a targeted overnight operation on Thursday at a UNRWA school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza.
The operation was launched to eliminate 20-30 terrorists, some of whom took part in the October 7th massacre.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Thursday night said the operation “stopped a ticking time bomb” since the army was acting on “concrete intelligence from multiple sources the terrorists inside the school were planning more attacks against Israelis.”
The nine terrorists who have been identified so far are Matzav Hafat Daryush, Rashid Bavli, Salim Afash, Abd al-ati Masmach, Ahmad Tzalach Mansour, Ali Hasin Bana, Mohammed Barham, Mahmoud Machtasav, and Ahmad Hatib.
The IDF said it would continue to identify the names of terrorists killed in the operation as more details come to light to demonstrate that those who were killed were terrorists and not civilians.
The IDF took measures to try to avoid civilian casualties, including putting off the operation twice to prevent the deaths of women and children and non-combatant civilians.
“The terrorists were operating from this UN school,” he added, “planning and conducting attacks from inside classrooms.”
Hagari noted that this was the fifth time the IDF has had to fight Hamas terrorists who embedded themselves in UNRWA facilities.
He criticized news outlets that merely reported that Israel attacked a school without describing how Hamas operates from schools and hospitals in clear violation of international law.
Initial reports from CNN focused heavily on accounts and figures of “civilian casualties” from Hamas-run media, which it referred to as “The Gaza government” in updates shortly after the incident.
According to UNRWA, 35-45 Palestinians were killed, and Hamas media claimed that 14 children and 9 women were killed and 74 others were wounded.
Although CNN interviewed Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, who said he “wasn’t aware of civilian casualties” and that Israel used a “precision and intelligence-based” strike to target terrorists, a skeptical disclaimer was added.
At the end of the article, the CNN journalist wrote of Lerner, “The spokesperson did not provide evidence for his claims.”
However, CNN reporting of unverified figures given by Hamas and terror-supporting UNRWA did not include any such disclaimer.
After outcry, comics convention un-cancels israeli artist
By Fern Sidman
An annual comic book convention in Vancouver, Canada has reversed its ban on an Israeli-American artist, following an outpouring of protests from the comics world.
The controversy began when pro-Hamas activists denounced the organizers of the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival for permitting the Israeli-American graphic novelist Miriam Libicki to rent an exhibitor’s table at their event on May 18-19. The Hamas supporters circulated a social media post asking, “Why was there a ‘former’ IDF soldier at VanCAF all weekend?… Why are members of Occupying Forces granted space in arts and cultural festivals?”
Ironically, Vancouver itself is occupied territory. It was seized by British colonial settlers in the mid-1800s from the region’s indigenous Squamish, Tsleil-waututh and Xmethkwyiem tribes. The pro-Hamas opponents of Miriam Libicki have not undertaken any protests concerning that occupation, however.
Libicki was a clerk in an Israeli Army office during mandatory military service many years ago. She wrote about her experiences in a critically-acclaimed graphic novel in 2008, and subsequently was named scholar in residence at the Vancouver Public Library, a first for a graphic novelist.
The festival’s board of directors assented to the demands of the pro-Hamas social media critics. In a statement released six days after the festival, the board of directors blamed itself for “oversight and ignorance to allow this exhibitor in the festival.” It said Libicki’s presence constituted “disregard” for “the ongoing genocide in Palestine and Indigenous community members alike.”
Although the board’s statement referred to both “Palestine” and the “Indigenous community,” the board did not take any steps regarding the indigenous peoples, such as moving the festival out of the occupied indigenous territory of Vancouver. Instead, the board focused only on Libicki, by announcing that henceforth she would be banned from all future convenings of the comics festival.
The ban sparked an outcry from members of the comic book community. Among the protesters was Dr. Rafael Medoff, a historian and author of educational comic books about the Holocaust, who called the ban “an outrageous act of both censorship and bigotry.” He told the Jewish Voice: “To single out a Jewish woman based on her ethnicity tramples the values of tolerance and free speech that the comics community has always embraced.”
Dr. Medoff noted that Jewish comics creators who were sympathetic to Israel and Zionism were “the pioneers of the comic book industry” in the 1930s-1940s, and “have been pillars of the comics community.” If the standard applied by the Vancouver festival organizers had been applied in the past, he said, Jack Kirby, the co-creator of Captain America and the Fantastic Four, would have been banned because of his vocal support for Israel.
Such bans also might have targeted the legendary comics creator and Israel supporter Joe Kubert, as well as Superman creators Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster, “because they modeled Superman partly on Samson, one of the leaders of the Jewish State in biblical times,” Medoff said.
There have been several notable Israeli superheroes, such DC’s Hercules-like character Seraph, and the Marvel Comics hero Sabra, who is also a Mossad agent. Dr. Medoff pointed out that a major character in the “Green Lantern” comic book series was modeled after Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. “Would every writer or artist who has worked on ‘Green Lantern’ be banned from the Vancouver event?,” he asked.
After being inundated with protests, the heads of the Vancouver Comics Art Festival issued a statement of “deep and sincere” apology on June 3 to “the individual directly affected” by the ban. Although the apology curiously did not mention Libicki by name, it acknowledged that the decision ban her was “wrong headed.”
The statement also revealed that “the vast majority” of those who issued the ban had resigned, and the festival will be “passed off to a new group” that will lead it in the future. The statement was signed by “The Remaining Members of the VanCAF board.”
Vancouver has been a hotbed of anti-Israel activity in recent weeks. During the first week of May, pro-Hamas students set up tent encampments on the campuses of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Island University, and the University of Victoria. Their demands included a call for the Canadian government to stop all arms sales to Israel, even though the government already announced such a ban back in March.
On May 30, arsonists set fire to Vancouver’s Schara Tzedeck synagogue. Police investigators said they are treating it as a hate crime, and Vancouver mayor Ken Sim said it was “a hateful act of anti-Semitism.” The synagogue’s rabbi, Andrew Rosenblatt said a greater tragedy was only narrowly averted, because evening services had just concluded and the building was empty when the arsonists struck.
WATCH: Leftist Host Scorns Israeli Hostage’s Sister, Pushes Hamas Talking Points in ‘Disturbing’ Interview
By Joshua Klein (Breitbart)
Leftist political commentator Briahna Joy Gray, former national press secretary to Bernie Sanders, is being described as a callous “monster” after repeatedly demeaning an Israeli hostage’s sister and dismissing her pleas while pushing pro-Hamas talking points, including Israel’s culpability for the stall in hostage talks, denial of October 7 atrocities, and even the suggestion that support for Israel led to the 9/11 terror attacks, in a “disturbing” interview.
During an interview on the Hill TV’s Rising on Tuesday, co-host Briahna Joy Gray spoke with Yarden Gonen, the sister of Romi Gonen, who is currently being held hostage in Gaza.
The 23-year-old Romi, a choreographer who Yarden described as someone who loves to paint and work with autistic children, was among those kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7. After hiding for hours, Romi was ambushed by terrorists, resulting in her being shot and taken.
“Mommy, I’m afraid. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go,” were the last words she spoke to her mother on the phone amidst the chaos.
Yarden, who is a nurse, described how terrorists, some as young as 18 years old, had dragged her sister by the hair, debated whether to kill her, and pistol whipped her head until she blacked out while kidnapping her to Gaza.
While Yarden Gonen insisted that the “entire free world is at risk” because of Hamas, Gray persistently attempted to put the blame for the hostages’ fate on Israel rather than on Hamas.
Addressing the complexity of securing the return of the hostages through a ceasefire while also ensuring the elimination of the existential threat to Israel posed by Hamas, Gonen offered an analogy of a terror organization in Mexico attacking Americans and posing a threat to the United States.
Gray responded, “I don’t think we would endeavor to eliminate all Mexicans if that were to happen.”
Gonen responded by saying she didn’t say anything about eliminating all Palestinians before attempting to pivot back to her sister.
Gray also dismissed photographs taken by ZAKA, an Israeli voluntary emergency response organization, claiming that the group’s reporting “has been roundly discredited by both Israeli and American media sources.”
ZAKA’s reports from October 7 have offered extensive details of the aftermath of the massacre.
When Gonen highlighted the minimal food her sister was likely receiving as a hostage, Gray accused Israel of blocking aid to Gaza. However, Gonen noted that most aid trucks make their way to Gaza and that Hamas has repeatedly blocked aid from reaching their own civilians.
Gray, who has nearly 400,000 followers on X, continued to push Gonen in an attempt to blame Netanyahu for the current hostage situation, with the hostage’s sister finally firing back: “I see you really want to discuss political [matters] and that is not my profession,” noting that an Israeli deal is currently “on the table” and “we’re waiting for Hamas to say yes.”
“I’m here to talk about my sister, please help me spread her story [and] make people understand what she’s going through as a woman in 2024,” she pleaded.
“We are not [living] 200 years ago; it is not ok that we have a terror organization that’s controlling the free world and people in the west are letting it happen. … What did I do wrong? Or my sister? We did nothing wrong,” she added.
After Gonen warned that cowering to terrorism could lead to another 9/11-like attack, citing recent Michigan rallies where residents chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” Gray pushed back, saying there was no threat of terrorism posed by the radicalization of Arab and Muslim communities in the Wolverine State, even going so far as to say that “one of the rationales that was presented for 9/11 was discussed with America’s support of Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine.”
Gonen concluded by telling Gray that “I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt–” but was cut off by the irritated host, who rolled her eyes, sighed and stopped her mid-sentence, stating, “All right, thanks for joining…”
In response, many expressed outrage on social media over Gray’s callousness.
“The family member of an Israeli hostage pleads with Briahna Joy Gray to believe Jewish women who have been abducted, tortured, and raped by Hamas. Instead of projecting empathy, as a normal person would, Gray rolls her eyes, her mouth dripping with contempt,” wrote Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
“Gray has a hatred for the Jewish State so visceral and fanatical that it renders her cruelly indifferent to the value of Jewish life,” he added.
“This woman, Briahna, is so filled with antisemitic contempt it’s almost unbelievable. I’ve never seen an interviewer display such a disgusting unprofessional and disrespectful attitude towards their own guest,” wrote journalist Emily Schrader.
“Is it really that hard to stand against sexual assault — as a woman no less?!” she added. “I think we should send Briahna to Gaza.”
“When I labeled Zionophobia a neural pathology, colleagues said: No, it’s just a political opinion. Now, watch the rolling eyes of Briahna Joy Gray as she refuses [to] accept reality; are these the eyes of a mentally heathy political commentator?” asked Judea Pearl, a Chancellor’s Professor at UCLA and the president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, named after his son, murdered terror victim Daniel Pearl.
“No low this person won’t sink to, truly disgusting,” wrote activist and writer Hen Mazzig, senior fellow at The Tel Aviv Institute.
“Monsters exist,” wrote one influencer. “Some of them host TV ‘news’ and ‘commentary’ shows.”
“This is one of the most disturbing interviews I have ever seen. Both interviewers treated Yarden Gonen, the sister of Israeli hostage Romi Gonen, with such disrespect and disgust… persistently discredited the atrocities committed on 10/7 and then had the audacity to roll her eyes at Yarden, when she asked her to believe all women,” wrote one X user.
Gray has faced severe criticism for promoting antisemitic tropes, denying Hamas’s sexual violence on October 7, and defending those advocating for Israel’s destruction.
In December, Gray came under fire for appearing to deny the expulsion of more than 850,000 Jews from Arab countries after Israel’s establishment in 1948.
She also declared that “there’s not a group on earth that’s killed more people and enacted more global terror than white Christians.”
Last month, Gray was mocked after suggesting that Hamas, a U.S.-designated Islamic terror group whose charter calls for relentless jihad, seeks to build a peaceful democratic state.
The Jewish State is currently at war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 massacre, whereby the terrorist group perpetrated the deadliest attack against Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust. The massacre saw the torture, rape, execution, immolation, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians, as well as widespread Palestinian support for it.
The Iranian proxy Islamist terrorist organization targeted attendees at a music festival and civilians in southern Israeli towns, all while thousands of rockets rained down on Israeli civilian centers.
The massacre resulted in terrorists killing approximately 1,200 people and wounding more than 4,800, with at least 242 hostages taken — more than half of whom remain in Gaza. The vast majority of the victims are civilians and include dozens of American citizens.
Concerns about Hamas’s treatment of hostages continue to be raised, as Israeli authorities investigate substantial allegations of rape and sexual assault related to the October 7 massacre, having collected over 1,500 testimonies — including of gang rape and post-mortem mutilation.
IDF International Spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht stated that the Israeli army is “absolutely” concerned about such violence against hostages. His comments came amid firsthand accounts of freed captives at a meeting with Israeli officials, after several shared testimonies of various abuses during their captivity in Gaza.
Over a dozen young Israeli women remain hostage in Gaza.
New history museum in Tel Aviv cites ‘nakba’ in timeline of city
(JNS) A new Tel Aviv museum that tells the history of the city uses the term nakba—Arabic for “catastrophe”—in describing the founding of Israel.
The usage of contested Palestinian terminology and narrative in an Israeli city-run museum comes at a time when an intense war of narrative is underway around the globe over Israel’s history.
The reference to nakba appears at the new City Museum in central Tel Aviv in a timeline of the history of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. The museum, which opened its doors earlier this year at the site of the historic city hall building at Bialik Square, was established by the Tel Aviv Foundation in collaboration with the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality.
The timeline, titled “Tel Aviv-Jaffa Time,” is one of the first exhibits visitors see on the walls at the entrance to the museum, and includes two parallel lines, one for the history of Jaffa and the other for the history of Tel Aviv, which merged in 1950, when both came under the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, as it is today.
The timeline for 1948, the year of Israel’s Independence, states, “The Nakba, occupation of Jaffa,” in Hebrew, Arabic and English with a picture of a bombed-out government compound building in Jaffa. On the lower line, the parallel timeline for the city of Tel Aviv reads, “Declaration of Independence” with a photo of Israel’s founding father and first prime minister David Ben-Gurion.
After citing the nakba, the timeline for Jaffa continues with “Jaffa refugees under closure” in 1949 with a photo of barbed wire, and “Yafo annexed to Tel Aviv” in 1950, using the Hebrew word for Jaffa, with a symbol of the municipality.
The other exhibitions on the main level of the museum, which are geared towards city residents, school groups and visitors from abroad, deal with lighter subjects, including “Legends in the Sand,” “Is Tel Aviv a Global City?” “Local and International,” and “Between Sacred and Secular.”
A lower-level exhibition encompasses an interactive city stories exhibition, a video of historic shots of Tel Aviv, and fun in the sun at the city’s beaches. It also has a stand for “What can only happen in this city,” allowing visitors to affix Post-It notes. Many, in a sign of the times, read: “Bring them home,” referring to the more than 120 Israelis still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
The Tel Aviv Foundation referred a JNS query about the Palestinian terminology used in the timeline exhibition to the Tel Aviv Municipality.
In a written response, the municipality said: “The City Museum tells the story of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, a story that begins before the establishment of the city of Tel Aviv, which originated as a neighborhood that was born out of Jaffa.”
The city statement then endorsed the museum’s usage of the terminology nakba. “The timeline represents two perspectives of history, Jewish and Arab. By the nature of things, the Arab residents of Jaffa viewed the War of Independence and its results as a nakba (‘catastrophe’) for them.”
CNN’s Elie Honig Says Fani Willis’ Trump Case ‘May Not Get Tried Ever’ After ‘Surprising’ Decision
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said on Thursday that a Georgia appeals court order to pause the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump might lead to the trial never taking place.
The appeals court on Wednesday ordered Judge Scott McAfee to halt all proceedings pending its coming ruling on the defendants’ effort to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case due to her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade and allegedly receiving financial benefits from appointing him. Honig on “CNN News Central” said there is zero chance the trial will take place before 2025 and that it may never take place if defendants are successful in getting Willis disqualified.
WATCH:
“What was surprising was yesterday’s announcement when the court of appeals said, ‘okay, trial court, while we’re taking this case over the next several months, everything stops down there and .. this is an important point, when the trial judge issued his ruling, he said, ‘okay, defendants, Donald Trump and others, you can try to take this up to the appeals court, but while that‘s all happening, we’re going to carry on here with our normal pretrial business.’ Now that’s all paused,” Honig said. “Now there’s no way this case gets tried before the end of 2024, may not get tried ever if Donald Trump and the other defendants win on this appeal.”
The appeals court consented to take up the matter in May and will hear oral arguments on Oct. 4. McAfee previously enabled Willis to remain on the case although he found “a significant appearance of impropriety” in her relationship with Wade.
McAfee compelled Wade to resign from the case as a condition of permitting Willis to remain on it. His ruling found “reasonable questions” regarding whether the pair testified honestly about the timing of their relationship, which they asserted commenced following Wade’s appointment.
Defendants argued in their appeal that removing Wade was “insufficient to cure the appearance of impropriety the Court has determined exists.” Wade covered expenses during multiple vacations he and Willis took together, bank statements revealed.
Both asserted during a hearing that Willis reimbursed Wade using cash she kept in her home. Wade pointed to cash reimbursements as a justification for why he only had a single receipt for a flight showing she covered any expenses during their travels together, which they claim was “roughly divided equally.”
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Trump ally Steve Bannon must surrender to prison by July 1 to start contempt sentence, judge says
(AP) — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol insurrection, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted the Justice Department’s request to make Bannon begin his prison term after a federal appeals court panel last month upheld his contempt of Congress conviction.
Bannon is expected to seek a stay of the judge’s order, which could delay his surrender date.
“I’ve got great lawyers, and we’re going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. Bannon cast the case as politically motivated, saying “this is about shutting down the MAGA movement.”
“There’s not a prison built or jail built that will ever shut me up,” Bannon said.
Bannon was convicted nearly two years ago of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, a Republican, had initially allowed him to remain free while he fought his conviction because the judge believed the case raised substantial legal questions. But during a hearing in Washington’s federal court, Nichols said the calculus changed after the appeals court panel said all of Bannon’s challenges lack merit.
“I do not believe the original basis for my stay exists any longer,” Nichols said.
Bannon can appeal his conviction to the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prosecutor John Crabb told the judge it was “very unlikely” Bannon would succeed in getting his conviction thrown out.
Bannon’s lawyer at trial argued that the former adviser didn’t ignore the subpoena but was still engaged in good-faith negotiations with the congressional committee when he was charged.
The defense has said Bannon had been acting on the advice of his attorney at the time, who told him that the subpoena was invalid because the committee would not allow a Trump lawyer in the room and that Bannon could not determine what documents or testimony he could provide because Trump has asserted executive privilege.
Defense lawyer David Schoen told the judge it would be unfair to send Bannon to prison now because he would complete his entire prison sentence before he exhausted his appeals. Schoen said the case raises “serious constitutional issues” that need to be examined by the Supreme Court.
“In this country, we don’t send anyone to prison if they believe that they were doing something that complied with the law,” he told reporters.
A second Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, was also convicted of contempt of Congress. He reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence.
Navarro, too, had maintained that he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. But courts have rejected that argument, finding Navarro couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it.
The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection.
Bannon is also facing criminal charges in New York state court alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges, and that trial has been postponed until at least the end of September.