Dr. Anthony Fauci said in congressional testimony that he reviewed no scientific evidence behind the specific recommendations for masking children or maintaining 6-foot social distancing before advocating these policies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The revelations come from the full transcript, released Friday, of Fauci’s closed-door transcribed interview session in January before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The publication comes days before the former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is slated to testify in his first public hearing since his retirement in December 2022.

When asked about social distancing recommendations that were implemented in businesses and schools during the early stages of the pandemic, Fauci said he did not recall where the precise number of 6 feet came from.

“It just sort of appeared,” Fauci said in his interview. “I don’t recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be 5 or 6 or whatever.”

Fauci also said that he had not seen any scientific study supporting the measurement, noting that such a study would be “very difficult” to do with accuracy and scientific rigor.

The former NIAID chief also said the science behind masking recommendations for children is “still up in the air.”

The released transcript adds to what the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), told the Washington Examiner in an interview following the second day of transcribed interviews on Jan. 10.

Wenstrup committed to releasing the full interview transcripts with Fauci prior to his scheduled public hearing. Minimal information was redacted from the nearly 500 pages of transcripts from the 14 hours of interviews.

Fauci also acknowledged in the interview that vaccine mandates during the pandemic have contributed to diminished trust in vaccination overall.

When asked if vaccine mandates for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine could have led to long-term vaccine hesitancy, Fauci said that public health experts and policymakers need to do an “after-the-game, after-the-event evaluation of things.”

“We really need to take a look at the psyche of the country, have maybe some social-type studies to figure out, does the mandating of vaccines in the way the country’s mental framework is right now, does that actually cause more people to not want to get vaccinated, or not?” Fauci said.

Members of the subcommittee are expected to ask Fauci about his role in crafting pandemic policy for both the Trump and Biden administrations as well as his knowledge of the origins of the virus.

Robert De Niro will no longer be honored at the National Association of Broadcasters award ceremony following his anti-Trump rant outside the former president’s criminal trial.

The Oscar-winning actor, 80, was set to be handed the group’s Leadership Foundation’s Service to America Award next week.

But the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has rescinded the award after De Niro hit out at Donald Trump in a press conference in support of Joe Biden outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday.

‘I owe this city a lot. And that’s why it’s so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street because he doesn’t belong in my city,’ he told reporters.

The NAB which describes itself as ‘proudly bipartisan’ said De Niro would no longer be attending their event.

‘This event is proudly bipartisan, uniting those from across the political spectrum to celebrate the impactful work of local broadcasters and our partners,’ an NAB spokesman told The Hill.

‘While we strongly support the right of every American to exercise free speech and participate in civic engagement, it is clear that Mr. De Niro’s recent high-profile activities will create a distraction from the philanthropic work that we were hoping to recognize.

‘To maintain the focus on service of the award winners, Mr. De Niro will no longer be attending the event.’

It comes days after De Niro said he joined the Biden campaign because it was the only way to ‘preserve our freedoms’.

‘I don’t mean to scare you. No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you,’ he told reporters.

‘If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.’

The actor cast himself as the true New Yorker and mocked Trump’s history of sometimes-unsuccessful business ventures and self-promotion, saying Trump was looking to ‘destroy’ the city.

‘We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another crappy real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot,’ De Niro said.

‘I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world.’

He said if Trump gets reelected he will never relinquish power.

‘I can tell you right now. He will never leave. He will never leave. You know that. He will never leave,’ De Niro said.

Watch the entire remarks from Robert De Niro.

He calls Trump a “grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot. A two-bit playboy lying his way into the tabloids.”

“A loser.”

“A tyrant.”

“Clown.”

And he shuts down a MAGA calling officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone… pic.twitter.com/7B5MPrVBal

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) May 28, 2024

Last week, the Biden campaign released a new ad that was narrated by De Niro sharply criticizing Trump’s presidency and plans if he’s reelected.

Trump labeled De Niro a ‘wacko’ following his rant outside Manhattan Criminal Court and posted a deepfake video that manipulates the actor’s own voice to call himself ‘washed up.’

The former president posted the video from his Truth Social account where the actor calls himself a ‘scared little man’ and a ‘sicko’ with ‘lots of skeletons in my closet.’

It also insults his stature, calls Trump a ‘real man,’ and includes crude references to gay sex.

‘I don’t know why they made this podium so high. I told them I’m coming straight from the bathhouse and didn’t have my platform shoes with me,’ the actor says in a manipulated voice that resembles his own in the video blasted out by Trump to his followers.

‘I’m speaking to you today because I’m a scared little man, a washed up actor with lots of skeletons in my closet. People like me need Joe Biden and power not because he’s any good, but because he enjoys the same sick perversions,’ it says.

The manipulated ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Godfather Part II’ actor then says he only gets to ‘pretend to be tough and powerful on a movie set.’

‘If Donald Trump was in front of me right now I’d punch myself right in the face, get down on my hands and knees …’ the deepfake version of De Niro says, with a crude reference in the video posted by the former president.

Watch:

I just donated $300k to Trump. I’m prepared to lose friends. Here’s why.

Back in 2016 I had drunk the media Kool-Aid and was scared out of my mind about Trump. As such I donated to Hilary Clinton’s campaign and voted for her.

By 2020 I was disillusioned and didn’t vote – I didn’t like either option.

Now, in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my lifetime, and I’m supporting Trump.

I know that I’ll lose friends for this. Some will refuse to do business with me. The media will probably demonize me, as they have so many others before me. But despite this, I still believe it’s the right thing to do.

I refuse to live in a society where people are afraid to speak.

The 2016 Election

I’m going to start off with something provocative, but I think it leads to a different take on the most controversial Trump issue, which is obviously January 6th. So here goes nothing.

I believe the 2016 election was manipulated to hurt Hilary Clinton and to help Donald Trump.

Hilary Clinton herself believes this, she has denied the 2016 election result dozens of times, and still does to this day. Plot twist: I agree with her! Look into Guccifer 2.0 which was the “hacker group” that strategically leaked her emails (through Wikileaks) in a drip campaign at just the right moments. Turns out it was the Russian GRU. And remember all those fake news and bot farms? These incidents are the tip of the spear — some of the publicly known incidents. There was extreme manipulation happening during the 2016 election.

Before proceeding, please watch at least 30 seconds of this video. It’s “24 straight minutes of Democrats denying election results.”

Russia (and others) interfering in the 2016 election was nothing new, this happens in every election, everywhere in the world. Obviously.

But for me, as someone that used to work in National Security, Russia’s implicit support for Trump made me deathly afraid of him getting elected as President.

I was wrong, and Russia miscalculated. President Trump turned out to be a master of foreign policy and particularly strong towards Russia. If you’ve never seen it before, please watch this two minute clip from Trump at a NATO breakfast 5 years ago.

If you’re too lazy, Trump told Germany that they’re a) owned by Russia via their energy dependence b) financing Russia’s war machine by buying their energy c) not investing enough in defense, investing only 1% of GDP, which was below the 2% NATO commitment, meanwhile the US was investing 4.2% of GDP. And yet the world said he’s owned by Russia?

For other Trump foreign policy wins, he: a) signed the Abraham Accords b) successfully put Iran in the penalty box, which the Biden administration immediately unwound and c) he helped India see the dangers of having their comms networks controlled by China resulting in Huawei and TikTok bans there.

My “radicalization” towards the center

August 16th, 2021 was the day I knew I could never support Joe Biden or any of the senior officials in his administration. This was the day that Afghans fell to their deaths from US C-17 airplanes at the Kabul International Airport, or KAIA as ISAF forces referred to it.

Back in 2012 I deployed to Afghanistan working for DARPA. I used to fly out of KAIA at least weekly, usually taking a Blackhawk to Bagram Airfield (BAF), but sometimes jumping on a C-130 down to Kandahar (KAF).

I’m not going to go into all of the details here, but this was personal for me — as it was for anyone that served in Afghanistan. Most have the wrong impression of what happened there. Afghanistan wasn’t Iraq. And real progress had been made. It took roughly 15 years to stabilize most of Afghanistan, but the ISAF coalition had gotten it to the place that little girls were going to school in Kabul, sometimes walked there by their mothers who weren’t even wearing Burkas anymore. All of this was unimaginable a decade prior.

And then there’s the strategic aspect. The US’s most strategic base in Afghanistan was Bagram Airfield. Unless you’ve been there it’s impossible to imagine how strategic this base is, and how easy it is to defend. Nestled in a remote valley at the foothills of the Himalayas. Within a couple hour flight of China and Iran, and a few minute flight to Pakistan. I believe this airfield could have been held for 50+ years with 50,000 men. A similar scale to the US permanent forces stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany or the US bases in Okinawa, Japan.

We gave up one of the most strategic air bases in the world, and arguably stability in Kabul, for political gain — to be able to say that President Biden ended the War in Afghanistan. And we did it in the most incompetent manner possible, literally with people falling from our airplanes. Everyone I have spoken with that served in Afghanistan knows this.

Global instability

It wasn’t just Afghanistan, I believe that the Biden administration has had some of the worst foreign policy in decades. And this has manifested in two major Wars breaking out during their administration, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iran’s proxy attack against Israel.

Was the timing just bad luck? I don’t believe so. I believe that a weak America leads to a chaotic world.

The failed Afghanistan pull-out showed the weakness of the Biden administration. They failed to adapt to changing facts on the ground, chiefly the Afghan army putting up no resistance as the Taliban drove towards Kabul. If the US can’t adapt quickly in a theater where we’re already active, how can it react quickly to a blitz in a new theater, Ukraine? Granted the Russian’s botched their blitz, miscalculating the weather, almost certainly to keep China happy as they hosted the Olympics in Feb 2022.

The most damaging foreign policy has been the Biden administration’s approach to Iran. Biden resuscitated Obama’s braindead Iran doctrine. Somehow believing that the theocratic Islamic Regime could be turned towards the West.

But it’s much worse than this. After Hamas’ attack against Israel on October 7th, Iran took credit for planning the attack publicly. Moreover, Iran was so bold that their proxies carried out over 300 attacks against US bases and Naval ships. Many of the attacks haven’t been disclosed or publicized. At least 4 US soldiers have been killed in these attacks. And yet somehow despite this, the Biden administration has been rewarding Iran by unfreezing their funds, mourning the death of President Raisi and hamstringing Israel in its proxy battle.

This level of weakness is unprecedented in my opinion. The US has been kissing the ring of its attacker, literally while attacks against our Armed Forces are carried out. If you start looking, it’s hard to see anything other than Iranian foreign influence in the Biden administration, such as what Semafor reported on, and which was effectively buried by our mainstream media.

The Biden administration has been a dream come true for foreign adversaries, and a nightmare for US allies. Trusting of enemies, and fickle with friends.

Israel

To anyone that follows me on X you know that I’m a staunch Israel supporter and also Zionist. I believe that Israel is one of America’s most important allies in the world. Unfortunately, in a post-Snowden world, Israel is now arguably the world’s top cyber power. And it’s a critical intelligence ally for any US operations in the Middle East. It’s also becoming an advanced weapons partner, co-developing the hypersonic missile defense system Arrow 3 and also Iron Dome + Iron Beam.

The Islamic Regime in Iran terrorizes its own people and their proxies terrorize the entire region. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been modernizing at an exceptional pace. Somehow the Biden administration has chosen to cuddle up to Iran while driving Saudi Arabia and Israel away. This is unforgivably disastrous policy in my opinion.

Double standards

The next topic that has boiled my blood are the double standards and lawfare that Trump has faced. Here are some examples:

• Classified documents: Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, Mike Pence and Donald Trump were all caught with classified documents. Only Trump was indicted. Either it’s a crime for all of them or none of them. All of the arguments about quantity of documents or obstruction are distractions to justify a double standard.
• The Border Wall: remember how Trump was villainized for promoting a border wall? Biden resumed building sections of it after pausing them, which the legacy media has been very quiet about.
• Election denialism: yes, Trump denied the 2020 election results. But as we linked to above, so did Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden regarding the 2016 results. As have hundreds of other politicians since 2000. Either they’re all election deniers, or none of them.
• Corruption charges: every inch has been searched for Trump corruption while Joe Biden’s involvement with foreign countries (through Hunter) have been swept under the rug. Here are some examples.
• Three strikes for thee but not for me: Joe Biden was the architect of the 1994 Crime Bill, which most attribute as the source of the mass incarceration we saw over the next two decades (especially amongst black communities). Crack cocaine in particular was treated harshly when combined with the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act. Watch this video. Hunter Biden would be locked up for life if the same rules were applied to him that Joe Biden imposed on thousands of others.

This is just the tip of the double standard iceberg.

Lawfare

This is too broad of a topic to go into detail here, but suffice to say I’ve spent hundreds of hours following the trials and researching the charges against Trump. This has been another radicalizing experience. I understand that normally when there’s smoke there’s fire, but in this case I think when there’s smoke there’s lawfare.

To anyone with a curious mind, I implore you to go deep on any of the charges against Trump, whether civil or criminal. Here’s a very quick summary of some of the fishy aspects:

• Election Interference Case: Jack Smith was appointed Special Counsel to prosecute Trump. Jack Smith previously got the Governor of Virginia convicted of corruption charges… WHICH WERE THEN UNANIMOUSLY OVERTURNED BY THE SUPREME COURT. Basically Jack Smith misled the Jury. Why would you choose Jack Smith to be the Special Counsel for this case? Maybe if all you’re trying to do is to get charges to stick before an election, even if you know they’ll be overturned subsequently by the Supreme Court?
• The Classified Documents Case: once again Jack Smith is the Special Counsel.
• Georgia Election Interference: The Fulton County DA, Fani Willis, has a history of corruption. It turns out that the outside lawyer she selected to prosecute Trump … is someone she was having a romantic relationship with, Nathan Wade.Wade’s Law firm made about $700k after Willis appointed him. This was concealed. Wade has since resigned from the case but Willis is still involved.
  The Hush Money Case: The key witness, Michael Cohen, is a proven liar. His testimony has been filled with contradiction after contradiction.
• Bank Fraud: Trump was ordered by Judge Engoron to pay over $350M in civil judgment that he committed bank fraud. This whole case reeked of corruption. This was an incident where no harm had been done: the banks had already been fully repaid with interest. The most important point in the case was Judge Engoron arguing that Mar-a-Lago was worth only between $18M and $27.6M when Trump had said it’s worth between $426.5M and $612M. Judge Engoron tried to compare apples to oranges, with an appraised value vs market value for a property that is very clearly worth something close to Trump’s range.
• Sexual Assault / E Jean Carroll: the background to this case was almost unbelievable. In simple terms, a woman in 2019, E Jean Carroll, came out and said that 20+ years prior, in the late 1990s, Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her. The statute of limitations on this case had expired more than a decade prior to her claims. But the state of New York did something unprecedented and opened a one year window where people could file claims for sexual abuse going back to exactly the window when E Jean Carroll accused him. So that’s point #1, there was lawfare around the statute of limitations. Point #2 is that the case was highly irregular and ultimately the Jury determined that Trump did not rape E Jean Carroll, despite her claims. But they did determine that he sexually assaulted her (a lesser charge than rape.)

All of these cases are too complicated for most to follow, almost by design. As someone that has been following the cases closely, I’ve had the opposite reaction of what was intended: a) every single case seems to have had impropriety and b) after going through Trump’s entire life, if these are the worst things they can find, then he did less wrong then I otherwise would have assumed.

Fairness is one of my guiding principles in life and simply, these cases haven’t been fair for Trump.

Where do I disagree with Republicans?

The number one area is abortion. This is obviously a lightning rod issue. As someone with libertarian leaning views, I believe the Republicans have the wrong stance around imposing their views on others. That said, I think Democrats misunderstand the constitutional argument that this should be a states issue.

Domestic policies

Other than abortion, I believe that President Trump and the Republicans have been better on most domestic issues. Look at the quality of life in Red States such as Florida and Texas vs that in Blue States like California, Oregon and New York. I used to live in San Francisco and now live in Los Angeles. The crime and homelessness is out of control.

Trump was villainized for his stance on building a border wall, but we’ve had about 10M illegal immigrants cross into the US already during President Biden’s tenure.

The Democrats have been trying to regulate technology — especially open source AI and crypto in ways that incentivize the best builders to build outside of America.

25 years ago I believe the Far Right was vastly more dangerous than the Far Left. But today I believe the Far Left, and especially Antifa, is more dangerous. Our attention and maintenance was on the Far Right while we ignored the Far Left.

The 2020 election and January 6th

Now onto the elephant in the room, the 2020 election. The topic so taboo that if you talk about it you’re immediately cancelled. I’m willing to wade into this fire — some of us need to be willing to.

I believe America has conflated two issues: the 2020 election itself and January 6th.

Just as Hilary Clinton and dozens of other democrats claimed the 2016 election was stolen (which I agree with). I believe there was a similar scale, or even more interference in the 2020 election. We need to be able to talk about this, so that we can fix the problems. Democracy doesn’t work without secure elections. But it also doesn’t work without peaceful transitions of power. Both are essential.

I believe there was extreme election interference but I don’t believe January 6th was the right response. Bear with me.

So what was going on during the 2020 election?

I held a Top Secret (TS/SCI) clearance for about 7 years and used to work in information warfare, and also cybersecurity. I’ve seen nation-state tactics that most can’t imagine. It is from this lens, and through access to lots of non-public information, through which I viewed the election.

If you go back to the 2020 election, arguably the most sophisticated cyberattack in history was taking place. This was the SolarWinds supply chain attack. This attack was so sophisticated that it’s impossible to know exactly what it was used for. And much of what we do know has never been reported.

Washington has an interesting phenomenon where when something incredibly damaging is learned, people oftentimes clam up and refuse to deal with it. I’ve seen this first hand multiple times now.

But we also have things like the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, which the FBI was in possession of for roughly a year before the election, and despite it being easy to verify its authenticity, the FBI was actively telling Facebook and Twitter that it is fake news and they recommended banning sharing of the NY Post article about it.

But there were so many other issues. Not least of which was a global pandemic that almost certainly leaked from a Chinese lab, but we weren’t allowed to talk about that. Nor the mail-in ballot issues.

Many point to the 2020 election and say “there’s no smoking gun evidence so therefore there was no interference!” My retort is that there’s not public evidence and in general the DoD/IC is afraid to push too far on the issue, knowing how damaging it would be to find interference. There’s things I can’t say.

The end result is a 2020 election where Biden and Trump combined received 155.5M votes vs the 128.8M combined for Hilary and Trump in 2016. That’s 26.7M more votes in 2020 compared to 2016. That’s a 20% increase in voter turnout in a period where the population only grew by a few percent. In an election where people weren’t inspired by either candidate. And where there was more voting friction than ever before due to COVID-19.

Personally I don’t think it’s fair for Hilary Clinton to be able to claim the 2016 election was stolen, but Donald Trump to be indicted for the same thing.

Regarding the January 6th protests. I don’t agree with them. Even if an election is stolen I think the correct democratic response is to accept it, have peaceful transition of power, and then to fight like hell on the backend to make sure it never happens again.

Regarding Trump’s involvement in January 6th. The clearest thing he did was deny the election results, but again, so did Hilary Clinton. So if this isn’t a crime in and of itself, then what else did he do?

The rest is fuzzy. There is conflicting testimony, especially around when the National Guard was requested. On the one hand you had the testimonies of General Charles Flynn and Lt. General Walter Piatt. But on the other side you have the testimonies of Colonel Earl Mathews, Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and The Head of the Capitol Police at the time, Steven Sund. The media reports on Trump’s January 6th involvement in absolute terms but again, if you go deep, it’s unclear. For me, if Trump actually asked for the National Guard to be ready to go during January 6th it’s a major counterpoint against the allegations that he was inciting an insurrection.

Summary

In 2016 there were two primary reasons I voted for Hilary (and was deathly afraid of Trump)

#1) Russia helped him in the election by hurting Hilary. This made me susceptible to the media narrative that he’s owned by Russia and will be a foreign policy disaster.

#2) Candidly the clip where he said “I grab them by their pussy” deeply bothered me.

These two things built a pattern in my mind that Trump was out of control.

But now with the benefit of hindsight, revisiting these two points:

#1) To my shock, I believe Trump was one of the best foreign policy Presidents in decades, and during the most complex period in almost a century, as the East rises, which leads to a changing set of rules.

#2) That clip still sits in the back of my mind, but I personally consider the double standards and lawfare against Trump to be 10x worse, and 10x more dangerous for our Democracy.

What’s next?

Do I agree with Trump on everything? Of course not. The area where I disagree with Republicans the most is on Women’s rights. And I’m sure I’ll disagree with some of Trump’s policies in the future.

But in general I think he was surprisingly prescient, such as with the border wall, and he was also a masterful negotiator, such as with the Abraham accords.

There’s a real chance President Trump is convicted of felony charges and sentenced to prison. Bluntly, that’s part of why I’m supporting him. I believe our justice system is being weaponized against him.

If abortion is your most important issue, then I get it, vote for Biden. If any other topic is your most important issue, then do your homework and investigate the manipulation I outlined above.

Given the two choices, I believe President Trump is overwhelmingly the stronger candidate. Again, this is something I couldn’t have imagined saying in 2016.

Conclusion

Speak up. Don’t be silenced. Freedom of speech is worth nothing if you’re afraid to use it. We can’t let cancel culture win.

There’s no greater country in the world than America. But America has had a bad decade. America is blessed with a robust constitution, abundant natural resources and diverse people. The way out from here is by focusing on our strengths, which are liberalism and hard work. We need to start building again.

Best of luck to President Trump.

—–

*Note that everything in this post reflects my personal views and not the views of my employer. I work in Silicon Valley which traditionally leans very far left. I’m lucky to work at a place that tolerates spirited debate and independent thinking. If the truth is in the middle, it’s impossible to find it without sharing our ideas and debating each other.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama announced Friday afternoon that her mother, Marian Shields Robinson, passed away at the age of 86-years-old.

Michelle Obama noted in a post on Twitter from her and former President Barack Obama that Robinson was “her rock” and was “always there for whatever I needed.”

“Marian Lois Shields Robinson — our mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother — had a way of summing up the truths about life in a word or two, maybe a quick phrase that made everyone around her stop and think. Her wisdom came off as almost innate, as something she was born with, but in reality it was hard-earned, fashioned by her deep understanding that the world’s roughest edges could always be sanded down with a little grace,” the Obamas and Robinsons wrote in a reflection of her life.

My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed. She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today. We wanted to offer some reflections on her remarkable life: https://t.co/F7T6q625PC

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) May 31, 2024

From the South Side of Chicago, Robinson was one of seven children and the daughter of Parnell Shields and Rebecca Jumper, according to the statement.

By October 1960 Robinson married Fraser Robinson, who passed away in 1991 and was described as “another South-Sider with a boxer’s strength and jazz-lover’s cool,” eventually giving birth to Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson.

“As a grandmother, at every stage of their lives, from infancy through adulthood, she stood secondary watch over her grandchildren’s growth and development, inspiring them, listening to them, telling them she was proud of them, making them feel loved, like they were remarkable in every way,” the statement reads.

“And as a sister, aunt, cousin, neighbor, and friend to so many, she was beloved beyond words by countless others whose lives were improved by her presence. We will all miss her greatly, and we wish she were here to offer us some perspective, to mend our heavy hearts with a laugh and a dose of her wisdom.”

A retired Vice Chief of Naval Operations was arrested Friday on charges of bribery stemming from an alleged government contract scheme between 2020 and 2022.

Robert Burke, a retired four-star admiral, allegedly worked with two chief executive officers to arrange a contract with their company to provide training for the Navy in exchange for a position with the company.

Burke is charged with bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, performing acts to affect a personal financial interest and concealing material facts. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, according to the Department of Justice. Burke denies the charges, his lawyer Timothy Parlatore told USNI News on Friday.

Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger, the co-CEOs of the company, which was not named in the Department of Justice release, were also arrested.

The two face charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery and each face up to 20 years in prison. The two are listed as the co-chief executives of a training company called Next Jump based out of New York City.

Allegedly, Kim and Messenger secured a government contract to provide training for a group in the Navy from 2018 to 2019, when the Navy ended the contract and ordered Burke to no longer contact the two CEOs.

Kim and Messenger allegedly reached out multiple times to Burke, eventually having a call in which Burke said he wanted to work with the company, which Kim said would need to be attached to a deal, according to the indictment.

Messenger allegedly “felt slimy” following the call, but Kim was calm, reads the indictment.

Instead, the three met in 2021 to set up a situation in which Burke would use his influence as a Navy admiral to get the company a contract with the Navy, the release alleges.

“They allegedly further agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy with a value Kim allegedly estimated to be ‘triple digit millions,’” reads the release.

The DoJ alleges that in 2021, while serving as the Navy’s top officer in Europe, Burke ordered his staff to award a contract to Messenger’s and Kim’s company to train naval personnel in Italy and Spain. The contract was worth $355,000, according to the release.

As part of the agreement, Burke also would stay in the Navy for six months in order to convince other naval officers to award Next Jump contracts, according to the indictment. For example, Burke introduced Kim and Messenger to Fleet Forces U.S. Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Daryl Caudle via a March 14, 2022 email, reads the indictment. On March 28, 2022, Burke forwarded a proposal from Next Jump to Caudle to provide their services for a foreign military.

In a May 25, 2022 email from Burke to what the DoJ identifies as a “senior foreign military official,” Burke tells the official he had “put together a proposal for wider U.S. Navy implementation.”

“To conceal the scheme, Burke allegedly made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including by creating the false appearance that Burke played no role in issuing the contract and falsely implying that Company A’s employment discussions with Burke only began months after the contract was awarded,” the release reads.

Burke started working with Next Jump in October 2022. A post on social media announces Burke as a senior partner.

We are delighted to welcome Bob Burke as a Senior Partner at Next Jump! He joins our team of world experts in growing Next Jump’s human performance community. Bob brings a wealth of leadership experience from serving four decades in the US Navy. pic.twitter.com/9d7jpzYATm

— Next Jump (@nextjump) October 17, 2022

The DoJ release lists Burke’s compensation with Next Jump as $500,000 and 100,000 stock options.

Burke made his first appearance in court in Florida late Friday afternoon and is set to be arraigned in Washington, D.C., shortly, Parlatore said.

“We intend to go to trial and we expect that he will be found not guilty,” Paralotre said.
“The biggest problem with this indictment is the timeline. The DOJ wrongly believes that there was a job offer and job agreement far earlier than there was. There is no quid pro quo, no job for contracts whatsoever … It looks odd he did later go work for them but he did not get into serious contract negotiations until the appropriate time and with the appropriate permissions.”

In a statement, the Navy said the service “cooperated with this investigation from the onset. We take this matter very seriously and will continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice.”

The service referred USNI News to the DoJ for additional information.

Parlatore confirmed the investigation began while Burke was still on active duty. His final retirement grade as a four-star admiral was under review as a result.

“We’ve known about this investigation for a while,” Parlatore told USNI News.

Burke, a native of Portage, Mich., earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Western Michigan University and the University of Central Florida, respectively. He has served on both attack and ballistic missile submarines, including USS Von Steuben (SSBN-632), USS Maryland (SSBN-738) and USS Bremerton (SSN-698). Burke commanded USS Hampton (SSN-767) and was the commodore of Submarine Development Squadron (DEVRON) 12 based in Groton, Conn., according to his Navy biography.

Earlier this month, Google’s cloud platform deleted the entire customer account, including some backups, of UniSuper.

Fortunately for the $135 billion Australian pension fund’s 647,000 members, some of UniSuper’s backups on Google Cloud’s servers and elsewhere were salvageable, and the fund was able to recover its data, teaching us all a lesson about having multiple redundancies.

This was not a “systemic issue,” Google says.

“An inadvertent misconfiguration” during a setup left a data field blank, which then triggered the system to automatically delete the account.

Google is having a rough 2024. In addition to this mishap, the company is reeling from its AI Overview debut and its disastrous AI-generated image tool launch.

Mike Tyson, at 57 years old (and 58 by the time of the fight), actually making it inside the ring at AT&T Stadium on fight night, with no complications, for his heavily-anticipated bout against Jake Paul was certainly never a given.

Well, just two and a half weeks after their first press conference, a complication arose.

The bout is postponed and will no longer take place on July 20 as expected after Tyson suffered an ulcer flare up while onboard a plane from Miami to Los Angeles on Sunday.

A new date for the fight is set to be announced on June 7, according to Most Valuable Promotions, Paul’s promotional company who is organizing the event.

The new fight is expected to remain at AT&T Stadium.

“I want to thank my fans around the world for their support and understanding during this time,” Tyson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, due to my ulcer flareup, I have been advised by my doctor to lighten my training for a few weeks to rest and recover. My body is in better overall shape than it has been since the 1990s and I will be back to my full training schedule soon.

“Jake Paul, this may have bought you some time, but in the end you will still be knocked out and out of boxing for good. I appreciate everyone’s patience and can’t wait to deliver an unforgettable performance later this year.”

Tyson had posted on Tuesday that he was “feeling 100 percent” after the flare-up, and Paul, a 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer, had originally said after the medical scare that “nothing changed” about the status of the fight.

The bout is an officially sanctioned heavyweight fight that will count on both their professional records.

It is set to be streamed live on Netflix with no additional pay-per-view for subscribers, when — or if — it actually takes place.

Tyson has not fought a professional fight since a 2005 loss to Kevin McBride, though he did fight Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition in 2020, which ended in a split-draw.

Previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new date, and those who can’t attend will be eligible for a refund.

“I fully support postponing the event so Mike Tyson has no excuses come fight night,” Jake Paul said. “My fans know I don’t want to face Iron Mike at anything but his best, but let there be no mistake — when he steps into the ring with me, I will be ready to claim my W with a sensational finish. Paul vs Tyson will be one for the ages, and I promise to bring my best for this once-in-a-lifetime matchup.”

A trans-identified male is in custody on charges of manslaughter after it was reported that he fatally stabbed a Syrian security guard at a refugee shelter in Potsdam, Germany. The suspect, who is said to be from South Africa, was arrested after contacting the police to report a misgendering incident hours after he fled the crime scene.

Details are currently limited as the story is developing, but German police have confirmed that the incident took place within the Schloßgarten Hotel – a building which was converted into a shelter in 2022 and houses approximately 30 asylum seekers. At approximately 4 a.m. on May 30, a dispute broke out within the facility, culminating in a security guard being stabbed. The 33-year-old guard, who is a Syrian national, was rushed to hospital but died of his injuries.

The perpetrator fled the scene, resulting in a wide-scale manhunt conducted by the Brandenburg West Police Department. The area surrounding the shelter was closed off, and police began to search through nearby Sanssouci Park using sniffer dogs.

But just three hours after the manhunt began, the perpetrator called on the police himself to report that he had been the victim of misgendering at an Edeka supermarket in nearby Schöneberg.

Responding officers took his complaint without knowing he was connected to the manhunt in Potsdam because it is not standard practice to run the names of “victims” through police systems following a report. Had they done so, the officers would have likely seen he was wanted in Potsdam, but because they did not, the suspect was allowed to continue on his day after he lodged his complaint for the “transphobic incident.”

Some time later, authorities in Potsdam became aware of the “transphobic incident” report, which assisted them in determining the area the suspect would be in.

He was ultimately apprehended after an off-duty police officer saw him boarding a train at the Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The public prosecutor’s office has issued manslaughter charges at this time.

#News
Nach einem tödlichen Angriff auf einen Wachmann einer Gemeinschaftsunterkunft in #Potsdam wurde der Tatverdächtige im Zusammenwirken mit der @polizeiberlin in #Berlin festgenommen. Weitere Ermittlungen übernimmt die Mordkommission. Infos: https://t.co/31XBSBE9pT

— Polizei Brandenburg (@PolizeiBB) May 30, 2024

While the identity of the suspect has not been released, it is known that he is a South African trans-identified male, and was likely not a resident of the refugee shelter where the stabbing took place. Why he was at the shelter is unclear at this time. Police are also investigating whether the alleged perpetrator’s gender identity was a factor in the crime.

The Mayor of Potsdam, Lord Mike Schubert, released a short statement on the incident, noting that it was a sad day for the community.

“A person working on behalf of our city who was protecting those seeking asylum has become the victim of a violent crime – the news of his death has hurt me deeply,” Schubert said. He also raised questions as to why a Syrian national had been hired to guard a refugee shelter.

Because the Schloßgarten Hotel has now been closed in order to preserve evidence, an emergency maritime care center has agreed to temporarily take the residents of the shelter, along with the colleagues of the slain security guard.

The trans-identified male suspect is expected in court on May 31.

The Trump campaign said Friday it nearly doubled its single-day fundraising record after a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty in his criminal hush money trial.

The Republican’s campaign said it raised $34.8 million from small-dollar donors in less than seven hours following the historic verdict Thursday afternoon that convicted the former president of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Nearly 30% of those donors were brand new to the Trump donation site WinRed, senior campaign advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a press release.

The advisors echoed Trump’s post-trial vow that the “real verdict” will come on Election Day, Nov. 5, when he is set to face President Joe Biden in a rematch of their 2020 contest.

Trump is set to be formally nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate days after his scheduled July 11 criminal sentencing in Manhattan Supreme Court.

He is the first former U.S. president, and first presumptive major-party nominee, ever to be convicted of a crime.

The Trump campaign told NBC News that its latest fundraising figure only includes donations sent between Thursday’s verdict, which came just after 5 p.m. ET, and midnight Friday.

The massive windfall comes less than two weeks after Trump reported a higher monthly fundraising haul than the Democrat Biden for the first time in 2024.

According to an exclusive snap poll for DailyMail.com which found that the guilty verdict in Manhattan only improved the former president’s standing with likely voters ahead of the 2024 election.

Sen. Joe Manchin is registering as an independent, according to a person familiar with the matter — a move that is sure to stoke speculation he could run for Senate or governor without a party affiliation this fall.

A longtime Democrat, Manchin’s decision comes ahead of a deadline for filing as an independent in West Virginia. He’ll have several more weeks to decide whether to run for his Senate seat or mount a bid for his old job as governor.

My commitment to do everything I can to bring our country together has led me to register as an independent with no party affiliation. pic.twitter.com/tvMB2N87AW

— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) May 31, 2024

The move is no guarantee he will run for either office, however.

Manchin previously announced he would not run for reelection, a move that essentially ceded his seat to Republicans. But Democrats have held out hope he’d make a last-minute decision to run as an independent, and Friday’s move is sure to increase pressure on him to do so. Gov. Jim Justice, a Manchin rival, won the GOP primary and is heavily favored in November.

State Republicans are divided after a fierce primary in the governor’s race, which Attorney General Patrick Morrisey won. Manchin defeated Morrisey in the 2018 Senate race. Manchin is friends with the Democratic nominee Steve Williams, but he would likely be a more viable general election candidate.

Manchin will be the fourth independent in the Democratic Caucus and has long flirted with leaving a party he thinks is far too liberal. In recent interviews, he’s said his biggest fear is a future Senate that weakens the filibuster, a move he opposed last Congress.

West Virginia is one of the most conservative states in the nation, so either bid would be challenging for Manchin. But running as an independent would be easier than running as a Democrat in the deep-red state. And Manchin is a talented retail politician who has won both offices in the past.

Manchin likes to stay in the mix both nationally and regionally and may ultimately decide against running for anything. He turned down an independent presidential bid, for example, after considering one for months.

President Joe Biden on Friday detailed a three-phase deal proposed by Israel to Hamas militants that he says would lead to the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and could end the grinding, nearly 8-month-old Mideast war.

Biden added that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel as he urged Israelis and Hamas to come to a deal to release the remaining hostages for an extended cease-fire.

The Democratic president in remarks from the White House called the proposal “a road map to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages.”

Biden said the first phase of the proposed deal would would last for six weeks and would include a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

American hostages would be released at this stage, and remains of hostages who have been killed would be returned to their families. Humanitarian assistance would surge during the first phase, with 600 trucks being allowed into Gaza each day.

The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza.

“And as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, the temporary cease-fire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposals, ‘the cessation of hostilities permanently,’” Biden said.

The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from devastation caused by the war.

But Biden acknowledged that keeping the deal on track would be difficult, saying there are a number of “details to negotiate” to move from the first phase to the second.

Biden’s remarks came as the Israeli military confirmed that its forces are now operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city. Biden called it “a truly a decisive moment.” He added that Hamas said it wants a cease-fire and that an Israeli-phased deal is an opportunity to prove “whether they really mean it.”

Israel has faced growing international criticism for its strategy of systematic destruction in Gaza, at a huge cost in civilian lives. Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in the besieged territory have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.

Cease-fire talks ground to a halt at the beginning of the month after a major push by the U.S. and other mediators to secure a deal, in hopes of averting a planned Israeli invasion of the southern city of Rafah. The talks were stymied by a central sticking point: Hamas demands guarantees that the war will end and Israeli troops will withdraw from Gaza completely in return for a release of all the hostages, a demand Israel rejects.

Former President Donald Trump gave a freewheeling press conference the day following his historic felony conviction.

On Thursday, Trump became the first president in United States history to be convicted of a felony. He was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The former president unleashed on the trial process and his general election opponent President Joe Biden in a 40-minute speech that was at times rambling.

Though the speech was billed as a press conference, Trump did not take questions at the end, as expected.

Police have shot a knifeman who injured several people in an attack at a right wing event in the German city of Mannheim.

It happened in the southwestern city’s Marktplatz square shortly after 11.35am local time.

German news site Bild showed a video in which the bearded attacker is shot as he stabs a policeman in the neck from behind.

The officer was bent over and appeared to be helping another person at the time.

Moments before, the video shows the attacker wrestling with a man on the ground and swinging wildly with a knife as others try to pull him off.

The victim appears to have a leg wound.

A Muslim man has stabbed an anti Islam protester in Germany while at the same time a Police officer tackles another anti Islam protester to the ground. The Muslim man then proceeds to stab the police officer from behind while he’s on the ground.

These knife attacks are getting… pic.twitter.com/hCoPrP0vEm

— Rod Caddies (@RodCaddies) May 31, 2024

In a livestream earlier in the morning, anti-Islam activist Michael Stuerzenberger was seen preparing to speak to a small crowd in the square.

Bild said he was one of those injured.

Mr Stuerzenberger has been a member of several far-right groups, including the PEGIDA movement that holds regular marches in German cities.

German interior minister Nancy Faeser said the policeman was “seriously injured” and called Islamist extremism a “great danger”.

She didn’t confirm the condition of the attacker.

“I would like to thank the police officers who intervened immediately and the doctors and paramedics who are fighting for the lives of the victims of this terrible crime,” said the minister.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, posting on X, said images of the attack were “terrible” and his thoughts were with the victims.

“Violence is absolutely unacceptable in our democracy. The perpetrator must be severely punished,” he said.

Mannheim is a city of about 300,000 people south of Frankfurt.

The Biden administration is preparing to roll out a sweeping border executive action as early as Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, who cautioned that timing is fluid.

For weeks, administration officials have been working through an executive action that would dramatically limit migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US southern border — part of a strategy to try to give President Joe Biden the upper hand on one of his Republican rival’s key campaign issues. The action is designed to potentially blunt Republican attacks on border security and preempt former President Donald Trump ahead of the first presidential debate, which will be held on June 27 on CNN.

The executive action is expected to be reminiscent of a controversial measure from the Trump era. It involves using an authority known as 212f between ports of entry to try to clamp down on unlawful border crossings.

CNN previously reported that officials were discussing announcing the executive action after Mexico’s election on June 2 and before the first presidential debate. Biden is scheduled to travel to France on Wednesday.

“While Congressional Republicans chose to stand in the way of additional border enforcement, President Biden will not stop fighting to deliver the resources that border and immigration personnel need to secure our border,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

“As we have said before, the Administration continues to explore a series of policy options and we remain committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system.”

A White House official told CNN that no final decisions have been made on additional executive actions.

With border arrests down this year, thanks in part to Mexico stepping up its own enforcement efforts in January, the White House is looking to take advantage of a brief reprieve from one of the most politically fraught issues Biden faces in his reelection campaign.

Some Democrats on Capitol Hill have also encouraged White House officials to consider having the president make another visit to the border in the coming weeks. A White House spokesperson previously told CNN that no border trip for Biden is under consideration at the moment.

Over recent weeks, the administration has trotted out a series of policy changes to try to dissuade migrants from journeying to the US and convince skeptical voters they are working to tighten up immigration at the border.

That includes rolling out new guidance and regulations that would tighten the immigration system to quickly reject migrants who are ineligible for asylum and speed up court cases for some migrants — measures Biden officials hope will, in part, keep the number of border crossings low.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X will stage a town hall with former President Donald Trump — three years after he was suspended from the site in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president, who was convicted Thursday in connection with a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, will answer submitted questions during the livestream event, which will also be broadcast in a partnership deal with cable channel NewsNation.

The social media company is also planning a similar town hall with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is running for president as an independent.

President Joe Biden was invited by the social media company to do a debate or a town hall, but he declined, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported news of the X sit-downs.

The date, location and moderators for the town halls have yet to be announced.

X users will submit questions but the moderators will have final say over what is asked.

The moderators will likely include at least one NewsNation host, alongside other journalists, Axios reported.

Trump, who famously steamrolled CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during a town hall last year, has the first of his two debates against Biden slated for June 27.

The idea for the town halls was first conceived by X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who pitched it to Nexstar Media Group, NewsNation’s parent company.

Trump has posted just once on X since his ban was lifted by Musk last year after he acquired the site formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022,

The town hall comes a flurry of reports indicating that Musk and Trump have grown closer in recent months.

Musk, has not been shy about voicing his displeasure with Biden, and Trump have reportedly met to discuss a wide range of issues, including cryptocurrency policy and a possible invitation for the mogul to address the Republican National Convention this summer, according to Bloomberg News.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief wrote on X that he was “pretty sure I’ve never discussed crypto with Trump, although I am generally in favor of things that shift power from government to the people, which crypto can do.”

The two have also reportedly discussed a possible advisory role for Musk should Trump win the election rematch in November.

Their allies have also been in conversations about the federal government’s electric vehicle policy as well as the space program.

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for Trump, told Bloomberg News: “President Trump will be the only voice of what role an individual plays in his presidency.”

“Many of the nation’s most important leaders in technology and innovation are concerned with the damage done to their industry by Biden’s failures.”

Recently, Musk attended a dinner in Los Angeles that featured tech moguls who have united to derail a potential second term for the Democrat, who finds himself trailing Trump in polls in several key swing states.

The Musk-Trump connection is a sign that high-profile Silicon Valley figures no longer feel the need to hide their affinity for the Republican despite the fact that tech has been largely dominated by Democratic-leaning supporters.

Prominent venture capitalists such as Marc Andreessen, Chamath Palihapitiya and David Sacks have either been vocal in denouncing Biden’s policies or have explicitly stated their support for Trump.

News of the town hall on X came amid a flurry of reports indicating that Musk and Trump have grown closer in recent months.

The Tesla mogul and the former president have reportedly met to discuss a wide range of issues, including cryptocurrency policy and a possible invitation for Musk to address the Republican National Convention this summer, according to Bloomberg News.

Musk, who lifted the ban on Trump’s Twitter account after he acquired the social media platform for $44 billion in late 2022, has not been shy about voicing his displeasure with President Biden.

Recently he attended a dinner in Los Angeles that featured tech moguls who have united to derail a potential second term for Biden, the Democrat who finds himself trailing in the polls behind Trump in several key swing states.

Before having his Twitter account suspended, Trump’s rampant tweeting helped him amass popular support en route to capturing the GOP nomination in 2015 and his shock victory over Hillary Clinton in the general election in 2016.

He created his own social media platform, Truth Social, after the Twitter ban.

Founded in 2022, the platform, which is owned by parent company Trump Media and Technology Group, was beset with glitches and other technical problems.

Trump Media’s stock began trading on March 26 after the company merged Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

Trump supporters and speculators snapped up the company’s shares, sending them soaring as much as 59% in their Nasdaq debut.

The company reported revenues of $770,500 for the March quarter and an adjusted operating loss of $12.1 million.

Shares of the company are down roughly 4% Friday, a day after Trump was became the first former commander in chief convicted of a felony. A Manhattan jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, as a jury of 12 unanimously returned its verdict on May 30 after less than two days of deliberation. With this result, President Trump becomes the first ever American president to be convicted of a crime.

As the verdict was read, President Trump sat still and looked straight ahead, showing no emotion.

TRUMP’S STAMENT 

“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt. … They wouldn’t give us a venue change,” Trump said.

“The real verdict is gonna be Nov. 5 by the people, and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” Trump continued.

Trump claimed that the legal proceedings were orchestrated by the Biden administration to hurt him politically. “We’ll fight to the end and we’ll win.

“We didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m a very innocent man. It’s OK, I’m fighting for our country, I’m fighting for our Constitution,” Trump said.

BIDEN’S STATEMENT

Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director, wrote in a statement:

“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law.

“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.

“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence — and the American people will reject it this November.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The US Constitution sets out relatively few eligibility requirements for presidential candidates: they must be at least 35, be a “natural born” US citizen and have lived in the US for at least 14 years. There are no rules blocking candidates with criminal records.

The Biden administration has quietly given Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia — solely near the area of Kharkiv — using U.S.-provided weapons, three U.S. officials and two other people familiar with the move said Thursday, a major reversal that will help Ukraine to better defend its second-largest city.

“The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S. weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” one of the U.S. officials said, adding that the policy of not allowing long-range strikes inside Russia “has not changed.”

Ukraine asked the U.S. to make this policy change only after Russia’s offensive on Kharkiv began this month, the official added. All the people were granted anonymity to discuss internal decisions that haven’t been announced.

In the last few days, the U.S. made the decision to allow Ukraine “flexibility” to defend itself from attacks on the border near Kharkiv, the second U.S. official said.

In effect, Ukraine can now use American-provided weapons, such as rockets and rocket launchers, to shoot down launched Russian missiles heading toward Kharkiv, at troops massing just over the Russian border near the city, or Russian bombers launching bombs toward Ukrainian territory. But the official said Ukraine cannot use those weapons to hit civilian infrastructure or launch long-range missiles, such as the Army Tactical Missile System, to hit military targets deep inside Russia.

It’s a stunning shift the administration initially said would escalate the war by more directly involving the U.S. in the fight. But worsening conditions for Ukraine on the battlefield –– namely Russia’s advances and improved position in Kharkiv –– led the president to change his mind.

The Biden administration hinted that a decision had either been secretly made or forthcoming in recent days. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who supports a restriction lift, became the first U.S. official to publicly hint that Biden may shift course and allow such strikes, telling reporters that U.S. policy toward Ukraine would evolve as needed. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby later did not rule out a potential change.

Those messages came after top U.S. allies, such as the United Kingdom and France, said Ukraine should have the right to attack inside Russia using Western weapons. Lawmakers from both parties also supported the move publicly and privately, while top U.S. military officials briefed Congress behind closed doors that relaxing the restriction had “military value,” POLITICO first reported.

Some officials are concerned that Ukraine, when it attacks inside Russia using its own drones, has hit military targets unrelated to Russia’s invasion. The U.S. has strongly delivered the message that Kyiv must use American weapons only to directly hit Russian military sites used for its invasion of Ukraine, but not civilian infrastructure.

Ukrainian officials, from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on down, have pushed for the Biden administration to change its policy ever since Russia launched a large assault on Kharkiv. For weeks they’ve said an inability to attack Russian troop positions over the border complicated Ukraine’s defense of Kharkiv and the country writ large.

In a discussion with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov made a “hard push” to use U.S. weapons in Russia, according to a person with knowledge of the call.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts declined a request from Senate Democrats to discuss ethics reform amid calls for Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself following the display of controversial flags at his residence.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Roberts declined their request to meet and discuss what they called a Supreme Court “ethics crisis.” For months, the two Democrats have scrutinized the court over reports that justices had accepted gifts without disclosing them, but new reporting that Alito’s wife flew flags apparently associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement has caused Democrats to call for Alito to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 defendants.

“I must respectfully decline your request for a meeting,” Roberts wrote in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.

“In regard to questions concerning any Justice’s participation in pending cases, the Members of the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the practice we have followed for 235 years pursuant to which individual Justices decide recusal issues,” he added.

Roberts said that only on “rare occasions in our Nation’s history” has a chief justice met with legislators with both major political parties present. He noted the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches and the importance of “preserving judicial independence counsel against such appearances.”

“Moreover, the format proposed — a meeting with leaders of only one party who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the Court — simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable,” Roberts said.

Roberts’s letter comes after Alito sent a letter to the Democratic leaders declining to recuse himself from Jan. 6- and Trump-related cases before the high court. He said Wednesday that he had “nothing whatsoever to do” with the two flag incidents.

In the first case, his wife flew an upside-down flag over his house in 2021 as part of a dispute with a neighborhood family over their yard sign. In the second, an “Appeal to Heaven” flag waved by those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was observed at his New Jersey beach house last year.

Alito wrote neither incident merits his recusal and that he was unaware of the upside-down flag until it was brought to his attention. He similarly told lawmakers he was not aware of the connotations of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag.

“I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention,” Alito wrote. “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused. My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly. She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.”

The decision to recuse is left up to specific justices and is not reviewable by other colleagues. The law requires recusal if a family member is involved in a case as a litigant, witness, or lawyer or has an interest that will greatly affect the decision.

The cases Democrats are asking Alito to recuse himself from are pivotal to the Supreme Court’s current term, and the justices have not yet handed down decisions.

One of the cases is Trump v. United States, in which justices must determine whether Trump has immunity from prosecution in the context of the 2020 election subversion case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The other case involves consideration of whether hundreds of Jan. 6 riot defendants were wrongfully charged under a long-standing obstruction statute when the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory was briefly interrupted due to the riot at the Capitol.

Boston’s 39-year-old Mayor, Michelle Wu, wants to follow in the footsteps of San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, New York, and other liberal strongholds – where property crimes, including grand larceny and motor vehicle theft, have seen a sharp increase in recent years.

As the Daily Mail reports, Wu wants to make crimes including shoplifting and disorderly conduct off-limits to prosecution. She also wants to include certain categories of breaking and entering, wanton and malicious property destruction, larceny under $250, and trespassing as non-prosecutable crimes. She did toss in drug possession – which is fine as long as crimes like disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace are enforced.

Those who commit such wanton crimes would receive little more than a slap on the wrist.

The offenses are all on a ‘do-not-prosecute’ list that was created by former Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins.

Rollins, who later joined the Biden administration but resigned amid ethical violations, had advocated for the non-prosecution of more ‘low-level’ offenses.

During her 2021 campaign, Wu was asked by left-wing nonprofit Progressive Massachusetts whether she supports Rollins’ list, to which she responded “Yes.”

When asked if she supported closing the Boston Police gang database, she also said yes. She also supports firing any Boston PD employees involved in the January 6th protest in Washington DC.

The Police gang database notably played a critical role in the federal bust of 40 individuals allegedly connected to a violent street gang which had operated for years out of a Boston housing project.

Wu, the city’s first female and Asian American Mayor, has promised to reallocate police funds to other city priorities, and believes in ‘demilitarizing’ law enforcement by eliminating the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and police dogs. Further, Wu wants police records on use-of-force to be made public, which critics say could endanger officers’ safety.

So, embolden criminals and de-fang cops. Right.

Boston about to get San Franciscoed https://t.co/bp5fcP9B0w

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 29, 2024

Libs’ Big Ideas:

“1. Let’s treat criminals as law-abiding citizens.”

“2. Let’s treat law-abiding citizens as criminals.” https://t.co/jInNfRKelS

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 29, 2024

Elon Musk has agreed to testify in the SEC’s investigation into his 2022 purchase of Twitter, the social media company now known as X, according to a court filing.

Seven months after the Wall Street regulator sued to compel his testimony, Musk has agreed to appear for no more than five hours of questioning later this year at one of the SEC’s offices, the court filing said.

If Musk needs to reschedule for an emergency, he will either have to obtain a court order or the SEC’s written consent.

The agreement likely caps a monthslong feud between the SEC and Musk over the agency’s attempt to interview the billionaire technology mogul once again as part of a probe into the disclosures around his $44 billion deal to buy X.

The SEC is investigating potential violations of U.S. securities laws regarding Musk’s acquisition of the social media company as well as his statements and SEC filings about Twitter, the agency said in an October 2023 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Last year, the SEC said Musk canceled previously agreed-upon testimony at the last minute, “raising, for the first time, several spurious objections.”

Musk’s attorneys have argued that the subpoena was “the latest in a litany of duplicative and harassing demands” from the agency looking into Musk and his companies.

Musk and the SEC have regularly clashed over the years. Most notably, the SEC sued Musk in 2018 over the Tesla CEO’s tweets about taking the electric carmaker private for $420 per share — resulting in a settlement that led to Musk’s ouster as Tesla chair.

The Supreme Court recently rejected a challenge to the terms of the settlement from Musk’s attorneys.