Media outlets and the ruling party declared front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum the winner of Mexico’s presidential election after polls closed on Sunday, putting her on course to be the country’s first woman president.

Television outlet NMAS and newspaper El Financiero both said their polls showed Sheinbaum winning, though they did not give figures.

Mario Delgado, head of the ruling Morena party, told supporters in Mexico City that Sheinbaum had won by a “very large” margin.

On her way to vote on Sunday morning, Sheinbaum told journalists it was a “historic day” and that she felt at ease and content. Her victory represents a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture, and her six-year term will begin on Oct. 1.

Mexico’s largest-ever elections have also been the most violent in modern history, with the killing of 38 candidates. The deadly violence has stoked concerns about the threat of warring drug cartels to democracy. On Sunday, two people were killed at polling stations in Puebla state.

Sheinbaum, who has led convincingly in opinion polls over her main competitor Xochitl Galvez, will be tasked with confronting organized crime violence. More people have been killed during the mandate of outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador than during any other administration in Mexico’s modern history, although the homicide rate has come down over his term.

2 dead on Sunday

The violence was not limited to candidates. Two people were killed in violence at polling centres on Sunday as people cast their ballots.

Voting was suspended at one polling place after a person was killed in a shooting in Coyomeapan, a town in the state of Puebla, the state electoral authority reported in the afternoon. The state attorney general confirmed another death at a polling centre in Tlanalapan, also in Puebla.

The deadly violence stoked concerns about the threat of warring drug cartels to democracy.

Long lines at polling stations

Galvez, a senator who represents an opposition coalition comprised of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the right-wing PAN and the leftist PRD party, chatted with supporters before casting her ballot early Sunday.

“God is with me,” Galvez said, adding that she was expecting a difficult day.

There were long lines of voters outside polling places, even before they opened at 8 a.m. local time, with some reports of delayed openings.

“It seems like a dream to me. I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman,” said 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Tlaxcala, Mexico’s smallest state.

“Before we couldn’t even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to live it,” Montiel added.

Almost 100 million Mexicans were eligible to vote in Sunday’s election. Other key positions were also up for grabs, including eight governorships and both chambers of Congress.

‘Flooded with blood’

“The country is flooded with blood as a result of so much corruption,” said Rosa Maria Baltazar, 69, a voter in Mexico City’s upper-middle-class Del Valle neighbourhood. “I wish for a change of government for my country, something for a better life.”

Outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador loomed over the campaign, seeking to turn the vote into a referendum on his political agenda. Sheinbaum has rejected opposition claims that she would be his “puppet,” though she has pledged to continue many of his policies including those that have helped Mexico’s poorest.

Challenges ahead for the next president also include addressing electricity and water shortages and luring manufacturers to relocate as part of the nearshoring trend, in which companies move supply chains closer to their main markets. The election winner also will have to wrestle with what to do with Pemex, the state oil giant that has seen production decline for two decades and is drowning in debt.

Both candidates promised to expand welfare programs, though Mexico has a large deficit this year and sluggish GDP growth of just 1.5 per cent expected by the central bank next year.

Trump presidency could complicate U.S. relationship

The new president will face tense negotiations with the United States over the huge flows of U.S.-bound migrants crossing Mexico and security co-operation over drug trafficking at a time when the U.S. fentanyl epidemic rages.

Mexican officials expect these negotiations to be more difficult if the U.S. presidency is won by Donald Trump in November. Trump, the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, has vowed to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese cars made in Mexico and said he would mobilize special forces to fight the cartels.

During the pandemic, the American people started to feel that Big Government was very cozy with Big Pharma.

Now we know just how close they were.

New data from the National Institutes of Health reveals the agency and its scientists collected $710 million in royalties during the pandemic, from late 2021 through 2023. These are payments made by private companies, like pharmaceuticals, to license medical innovations from government scientists.

Almost all that cash — $690 million — went to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), the subagency led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, and 260 of its scientists.

Information about this vast private royalty complex is tightly held by NIH. My organization, OpenTheBooks.com, was forced to sue to uncover the royalties paid from September 2009 to October 2021, which amounted to $325 million over 56,000 transactions.

We had to sue a second time, with Judicial Watch as our counsel, to pry open this new release.

Payments skyrocketed during the pandemic era: those years saw more than double the amount of cash flow to NIH from the private sector, compared to the prior twelve combined. All told, it’s $1.036 billion.

It’s unclear if any of the Covid vaccine royalties from Pfizer and Moderna, the latter of which settled with NIH by agreeing to pay $400 million, is even included in these new numbers. NIH isn’t saying.

The American people have one last crack at getting some candor from Fauci, the face of our COVID response, when he testifies Monday before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

There’s plenty to answer for.

He’s spent years scoffing at questions about potential conflicts of interest between COVID policymakers, who relentlessly pushed vaccines, and recipients of private royalties.

Now he’ll also need to account for bombshell emails sent by one of his deputies, which described in-house strategies to circumvent the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Fauci won’t be able to misspell words to evade scrutiny or have folks physically courier messages — just two of the FOIA-avoiding actions described by Dr. David Morens, a key Fauci deputy.

Instead, cameras from around the world will be trained on Fauci and he’ll be answering for information he gave in a sworn deposition earlier this year.

It’s a chance to either come clean or further cement the public’s perception of him and the NIH as secretive and self-interested.

Beyond this small cabal of scientists covering up discussions of the virus’ origin, NIH has consistently treated FOIA requests like viral attacks of their own. No wonder, then, that we’re plaintiffs in six ongoing FOIA cases.

Characteristically, NIH is still redacting pieces of the data that would help us more easily connect therapeutics with their government-paid inventors. For example, they refuse to show us the amount of royalties paid to each individual scientist. So we still can’t entirely follow the money.

In the meantime, Sen. Rand Paul has sponsored the Royalty Transparency Act, which sailed unanimously through the committee process and deserves a floor vote immediately.

There’s plenty Fauci could do in the meantime, too. He could indicate he supports bills like Paul’s. He could call on NIH and CDC to voluntarily “unmask” the royalty payments. Then we could see whether their decisions have advanced the general welfare or their own.

Fauci could also support fixes to the FOIA law that create real consequences for those who purposely violate it.

At minimum, he must apologize for the utter contempt for FOIA, and the transparency war waged by his colleagues that’s now been revealed in private communications.

Among the government’s most basic duties to the public are providing for the general welfare and reporting its income and spending.

As Dr. Fauci wraps five decades in government having become its highest-paid bureaucrat, he should consider ticking those boxes again. For old times’ sake.

Adam Andrzejewski is the CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks.com, the largest private database of public spending.

While the Biden administration is attempting to look like it’s getting tough on the border, behind the scenes it’s operating a program of a “mass amnesty” for migrants, The Post can reveal.

Data shows that since 2022, more than 350,000 asylum cases filed by migrants have been closed by the US government if the applicants don’t have a criminal record or are otherwise not deemed a threat to the country.

This means that while the migrants are not granted or denied asylum — their cases are “terminated without a decision on the merits of their asylum claim” — they are removed from the legal system and no longer required to check in with authorities.

The move allows them to legally, indefinitely roam about the US without fear of deportation, effectively letting them slip through the cracks.

“This is just a massive amnesty under the guise of prosecutorial discretion,” according to Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who now works for the Center for Immigration Studies.

“You’re basically allowing people who don’t have a right to be in the United States to be here indefinitely,” he added to The Post.

ICE officers add that they have seen an increase in cases of such migrants committing crimes after their asylum cases have been dismissed, forcing agents to restart removal proceedings — which typically take years.

“Please let everyone know what’s really going on,” an ICE officer told The Post.

In 2020, during the Trump administration, 48,000 migrants were ordered removed from the US by immigration court judges. Fewer than 20,000 people were granted asylum, and 4,700 people had their cases closed or were otherwise allowed to remain in the country, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

In 2022, under Biden, a memo issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s principal legal adviser, Kerry Doyle, and seen by The Post instructed prosecutors at the agency to allow cases to be dismissed for migrants who aren’t deemed national security threats.

That year, 36,000 were ordered removed, 32,000 were awarded asylum, and 102,550 had their cases dismissed or otherwise taken off the books – 10 times the number in 2014.

In 2023, there were 149,000 cases in this latter category, and so far in financial year 2024 — which ends Sept. 30 — the data is certain to surpass that, with 114,000 cases closed already.

Since Biden assumed office, 77% of asylum seekers have been allowed to remain in the country, according to TRAC. That equates to 499,000 of the 648,000 who applied for asylum in the US in that time.

The current backlog of asylum cases stands at 3.5 million, and shaving more than 100,000 people a year off it makes the administration look better, sources told The Post.

Once cases are closed, migrants are no longer in “removal proceedings” and subject to deportation – the government’s default position for all migrants admitted at the border.

The migrants are under no obligation to leave the US, and once cases are dismissed, the person is no longer monitored by ICE and required to regularly check in with them, unlike those still pursuing asylum claims.

“If the case gets dismissed, you’re basically back to nothing,” Washington-based immigration lawyer Hector Quiroga told The Post, clarifying that migrants with dismissed cases can’t receive benefits or a work permit.

Quioga said for clients with “horrible” cases – ones where they are unlikely to ultimately prove they need asylum – “that’s better than having a deportation order.”

Once a migrant’s case is terminated, the person can re-apply for asylum or seek other forms of legal status in the US.

These potentially include applying for a family-based visa, employment-based visa or other humanitarian protections such as Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a k a DACA, “if they meet the eligibility requirements,” Immigration lawyer Sergio C. Garcia told The Post.

“Migrants whose asylum cases have been dismissed can approach US Citizenship and Immigration Services to explore other legal avenues to remain in the country,” he said.

“It’s important for them to consult with an immigration attorney to identify the best options available for their specific situation.”

ICE officers who spoke with The Post flagged an increase in cases of migrants committing crimes after their asylum cases have been closed. This forces agents to restart removal proceedings, which typically take years.

“If the migrants, who ICE no longer controls or monitors, commit crimes after the dismissal, ICE will have to start all over and issue a new Notice to Appear in court and start the clock all over again,” an ICE official told The Post.

“It’s starting to increase,” a second ICE officer told The Post, pleading for publicity over the issue.

A third ICE officer told The Post that it “happens all the time.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s attempt to tighten things up at the border has included issuing a rule in May that asylum claims must be resolved within 180 days for migrants who list their final destination in the US as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.

The administration is also poised to issue an order to close the border once the number of migrant crossings reaches 4,000 per day, sources told The Post.

In April, US authoriites in the southwest intercepted an average of 5,990 migrants per day, according to US Customs and Border Protection. That figure didn’t even include the so-called “gotaways” who escape detection and arrest.

If Democrats needed further confirmation that prosecuting Donald Trump on an obscure misdemeanor elevated to a felony just for him… (while the same DA reduced 60% of felonies to misdemeanors last year), the Trump campaign has raised over $200 million since Thursday’s verdict in the former president’s New York ‘hush money’ trial.

Of that, $70 million was from small donors, and 30% of the total were first-time donors to a political campaign, Eric Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.

“I mean, these are Americans who are p*ssed off, said the younger Trump. “They’re coming out of the woodwork and they want to support a guy that they just believe is getting bamboozled by a system.

“We saw it with Impeachment one, we saw it with Impeachment two, we see it where they weaponize every liberal DA and AG across the country with one intent: To take him down, to slander him, to ruin his reputation, to try and divide his family, to try and bankrupt him, to throw him in jail, to do whatever the hell they can do,” he added.

“America sees through it. They know exactly what’s going on.”

Watch:

Eric Trump says the campaign is over $200 million in donations since the verdict

pic.twitter.com/BiwTUG6K0w

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 2, 2024

As the Post Millennial notes further;

The $200 million was raised in a matter of just three days, which far surpasses any amount raised by President Biden’s campaign in a similar time frame. Within 24 hours of President Trump’s guilty verdict, the Trump campaign received $53 million in donations. The Biden campaign raised a total of $51 million for all of April.

According to a Friday statement by Trump campaign officials Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, “Biden and his Democrat allies have turned our legal system into a political tool, and Americans from every corner of the country have had enough,” adding “This momentum is just getting started and together, as President Trump stated perfectly, Americans will render the real verdict on November 5.”

Donald Trump Jr arrived in El Salvador on Friday to participate in the inauguration of President Nayib Bukele’s second term on Saturday. “El Salvador has the great pleasure of receiving @DonaldTrumpJr, who has traveled to attend the inauguration ceremony of President-elect @nayibbukele. Welcome to El Salvador,” the government house posted on the social network X.

Trump Jr arrived at the Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport, 44 km southeast of San Salvador, just one day after a New York jury found the former president guilty of concealing payments to a porn movie star, a shock to his presidential campaign five months before the election in which he seeks to regain the White House.

“We have the whole team here, we are now in El Salvador, we have the police escort going at full speed, pretty solid way to travel. We are here just promoting those who support freedom around the world,” Trump’s son said in English on the Tiktok network while traveling from the airport to the Salvadoran capital.

With more power than ever, a pulverized opposition, and at the height of popularity, Nayib Bukele will begin his new five-year term on Saturday, after waging a relentless “war” against gangs.

Bukele will be sworn in at a ceremony scheduled for 08H00 local time (14H00 GMT) at the National Palace, in the historic center of San Salvador, to whose square he summoned Salvadorans en masse.

Attending the inauguration ceremony are Presidents Daniel Noboa (Ecuador), Xiomara Castro (Honduras), Santiago Peña (Paraguay), Rodrigo Chaves (Costa Rica), and King Felipe of Spain, among others.

The last president to arrive on Friday night was Argentina’s Javier Milei, with whom Bukele shares his affinity for former US President Trump, the conservative agenda, and a taste for dramatic gestures.

Former President Trump said he’s okay with potentially being sentenced to house arrest or jail time following his conviction last week on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial.

Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention where he is expected to officially accept the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.

The possibilities for Trump’s sentence range from probation or conditional discharge up to the maximum sentence of four years in prison.

According to an analysis by author Norman L. Eisen of similar cases brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, approximately 10% of those cases resulted in jail time.

House arrest, in which an individual is restricted to a certain area and often required to wear an ankle monitor, is another option that Judge Juan Merchan may consider. House arrest would allow the former president to continue campaigning, albeit virtually.

Trump said in a pre-taped interview which aired Sunday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that house arrest or jail time would be “tough for the public to take.”

“You know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point,” Trump said.

The former president added that he was okay with house arrest or jail time, and that he told his lawyers “not to beg” for anything.

“It’s just the way it is,” he said.

Watch:

President Trump gives his response to the possibility of being put on house arrest or even jail

“I’m okay with it… I’m not sure the public would stand for it” pic.twitter.com/rTpTvHAr0W

— James Jinnette (@james_jinnette1) June 2, 2024

Trump said the case has been tougher on his family than on him.

When specifically asked about his wife, Melania Trump, the former president said she’s “fine,” “I think it’s very hard for her.”
“She has to read all this crap,” he said.

Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche told CNN last week that he has no idea if prosecutors would seek jail time for Trump.

“Look, there’s there’s a system in place that where you rely on precedent, and somebody like President Trump should never, never face a jail sentence based on this conduct,” Blanche said.

Trump’s legal team plans to appeal the case, but cannot do so until after sentencing per New York law. The decision to enforce the terms of Trump’s sentence while the case is appealed is up to Merchan.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) on Sunday agreed to extend output cuts through next year, likely keeping prices high through the November presidential election.

The alliance said after a meeting Sunday that the move was aimed at boosting slack prices that have lulled despite the ongoing war in Gaza and attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea.

International benchmark Brent has loitered in the $81-$83 per barrel range for the past month, reaching nowhere near the $100 per barrel levels not seen since late 2022.

Reasons include higher interest rates, concerns about demand due to slower than desired economic growth in Europe and China, and rising non-OPEC supply including from U.S. shale producers.

The alliance said that it is extending additional voluntary cuts of 1.65 million barrels per day that that were announced in April 2023 through the end of December 2025.

Saudi Arabia, which dominates the alliance, desperately needs an inflow of cash as it seeks to diversify its economy away from fossil fuel exports.

Higher oil prices would also allow fellow OPEC+ member Russia to maintain economic growth and stability as it spends heavily on its war against Ukraine.

Analysts say the cuts could push oil prices higher in coming months, and will be heavily watched going into the November election.

The summer usually sees a spike in demand through the July-September quarter, but uncertainty about demand grows after that.

U.S. motorists have benefited from weaker oil prices which have stagnated in recent weeks, averaging $3.56 per gallon last week.

That’s just a penny less than a year ago and down from a record national average high of $5 per gallon in June 2022.

A 29-year-old German police officer who was repeatedly stabbed during an attack at an anti-Islam rally in the city of Mannheim has died of his wounds after having been “stabbed several times in the area of the head.”

The officer, identified as Rouven L in German media, underwent emergency surgery following the attack and was placed in an artificial coma, only to die of his injuries on Sunday, the Daily Mail reports.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he was “deeply saddened” by the officer’s death.

“His commitment to the safety of all of us deserves the highest recognition,” Scholz posted on X.

A shocking video has exploded across social media showing a man stabbing anti-Islam activist and politician, 59-year-old Michael Stürzenberger, during a campaign event in Mannheim.

As Remix News’ John Cody reports, the bloody and chaotic video shows the man running amok among campaign staff, who are wearing blue jackets, while the man stabs any victim in his sight.

GRAPHIC Stabbing on YouTube Live by Muslim migrant
Conservative German politician and anti-Islamist Michael Stürzenberger, police officer who turned his back to arrest man trying to help, and others stabbed
Suspect survived single gunshot, no ID releasedhttps://t.co/BDOS2pLQRZ

— Brendan (@BrendanMcInnis) May 31, 2024

The campaign workers scramble to stop the man, who also stabbed a police officer in the neck.

News reports indicate that the suspect has already been shot and killed by police, although the suspect’s death has not been confirmed by all news outlets. In one frame of the video, the man can clearly be seen plunging his knife into the neck of a police officer.

Police say the victim was campaigning and providing “educational information” in the lead-up to the attack in the city square.

Stürzenberger is an anti-Islamic political activist who is a member of the Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa, who earlier served in the Munich Christian Socialist Union (CSU) and as the chairman of the Freedom party, a small party which is now dissolved. He publishes an anti-Islamic blog.

He is well known for producing a citizens’ petition against the construction of a mosque in Munich. He was convicted for “insulting an officer” and “denigration of religious teachings.”

He has also been under surveillance in the past, with the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) listing Stürzenberger in its report related to “Islamophobia relevant to the Protection of the Constitution.”

The stabbing incident comes just one week before EU parliament elections.

Akron police are investigating a mass shooting that happened early Sunday morning in the area of Kelly and 8th Avenues.

Officers responded to the area just after midnight after several people called 911 to reports shots fired with multiple victims struck.

As officers were heading to the scene, hospital staff reported multiple people were arriving at the emergency room with gunshot wounds.

According to police, a total of 25 people were shot and a 27-year-old man was killed.

The conditions of the other victims has not been released.

Neighbors told 19 News the shootings took place at a very large birthday party.

“We just heard like fireworks. I thought it was the Fourth of July, Then I seen cars and I seen everybody running. “I was petrified. Petrified. I was scared for my life. I got kids. What if that would have been me?” said Jehovah Jones.

“We’re outside, enjoying ourselves, and the next thing you know, we’re running for our lives. That fast. A lot of people out there but there wasn’t no drama, no commotion, no fighting. Nothing. I don’t know why,” said Joyoux Payne. “We were all just out here having fun, we’re all dancin’ everybody listening to music and next thing you know, the gunshots went off as we’re all dancing, As we’re all enjoying ourselves, there’s bullets are ringing out. How? Why? That fast.”

One firearm and several dozen casings have been recovered from the scene, said police.

Akron Mayor Shammas Malik and Akron Police Chief Brian Harding released the following statement:

“This morning, our city is reeling after the devastation of senseless violence. With more than two dozen victims, the pain and trauma reverberates across all of Akron today as we search for answers. As with all acts of violence in our city, our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones.

We will bring those responsible to justice, and we need the help of our community to do that. For those who have information about this horrific shooting – we need you to speak up in order to prevent further violence and retaliation. This can be done anonymously.

Today, and in the days ahead, we will share more information about this horrific incident. Our city government and our Akron Police Department will continue to prioritize public safety as our number one concern as we aim to end gun violence in our community.”

There are no arrests and anyone with information is asked to call Akron police at 330-375-2490 or 330-375-2Tip.

You can also call Summit County Crimestoppers at 330-434-COPS.

A fire erupted on Sunday near the Knesset and spread to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Sunday, which is now under control.

The Fire and Rescue Authority stated that 14 fire crews, with the help of four firefighting aircraft, worked to extinguish the fire that had erupted at the Valley of the Cross in Jerusalem.

Watch:

Firefighters respond to fire near Israel Museum in Jerusalem 0206024 / Brandweerlieden reageren op brand nabij het Israel Museum in Jeruzalem
A fire broke out near the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Sunday and firefighters worked to extinguish the flames. pic.twitter.com/xwcnHbBt0d

— john l (@Maeestro) June 2, 2024

Israel Museum evacuated

In addition, the authority said it had evacuated the Israel Museum in the area where the fire spread.

“The fire first hit the roof of the youth wing building. However, firefighters fully took control of the fire, and there were no casualties or damage, and none of the artwork was in danger,” The Israel Museum said in a statement.

The police said a police helicopter and police forces had operated in the fire area.

The police added that no injuries were reported.

The first son’s ex-wife and a pair of his former lovers are slated to testify in Delaware federal court about his crack cocaine addiction as he heads to trial on weapons charges beginning June 3.

Hunter’s former spouse Kathleen Buhle, his sister-in-law-turned-lover Hallie Biden and ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan all have memories of the now-54-year-old’s near-constant drug use during the period in October 2018 when he lied about his addiction and purchased a handgun, according to Monday court filings.

Hunter deliberately claimed on a federal background check form that he was neither a user of controlled substances nor an addict when buying the firearm on Oct. 12, 2018, prosecutors allege, pointing out in filings earlier this year that cocaine was found on the gun’s pouch.

Hallie’s testimony will confirm that Hunter returned to Delaware around the same time and owned the Colt Cobra .38 special for 11 days before she threw it into a trash can outside a Wilmington supermarket.

Special counsel David Weiss indicted the first son on three felony counts this past September, accusing him of illegally possessing the gun and lying on the background check form.

Weiss did not reveal the witnesses’ names in the filings, but their identities are clear from public reports, data from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, other records produced from House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden and excerpts from Hunter’s own 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things.”

Hunter, in an interview with the Daily Beast published Monday, indicated that some photos of drug use found on his laptop were misleading.

A notorious photo shows the Biden scion fast asleep with what appears to be a crack pipe in his mouth, but it is not, in fact, a crack pipe, he told the outlet.

“That’s actually a meth pipe,” Hunter said of the photo, which he now claims was staged.

But in troves of text messages obtained by prosecutors, Hunter admitted to buying and using drugs as well as to trying and failing to maintain sobriety over a roughly four-year period that included his purchase of the gun.

Kestan is alleged to have told prosecutors that during her more than nine-month relationship with Hunter in 2018 he smoked crack cocaine “every 20 minutes except when he slept.”

The lingerie and textile designer testified before a grand jury in February 2022 about her and Hunter’s trysts in high-priced hotels four years prior, as part of the DOJ’s lengthy tax probe of the first son.

Kestan also visited Hunter in November 2018 after a “short stint at a therapist-run wellness center in Newburyport, Massachusetts,” according to photos and other data from his laptop hard drive analyzed by the nonprofit research group Marco Polo.

Buhle told Hunter in a March 9, 2018, message that she had “found a few crack pipes” in the family car and removed them because their “daughter was driving” it at the time.

Prosecutors also said that Buhle “found drugs or paraphernalia on approximately a dozen occasions, which she discarded in a trash can,” and Hunter began using her cellphone to communicate in October 2018 with Hallie, the widow of his brother, Beau, the former attorney general of Delaware who had died three years earlier of brain cancer.

Hunter and Buhle separated in October 2015, and she filed for a divorce that was finalized in April 2017 — claiming in court papers that her husband had spent “extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”

In a page from the first son’s memoir entered into evidence, Hunter wrote that he returned to Delaware in the “fall of 2018, after my most recent relapse in California, with the hope of getting clean through a new therapy and reconciling with Hallie.”

At the time, Hunter was “in the throes of addiction and need[ed] help coupled with love,” Hallie said of her brother-in-law, as the two carried on an affair before, during and after the purchase of the handgun.

Hunter was aware he was an addict the same day that Hallie took his gun, according to other text messages introduced by prosecutors that had been revealed via IRS whistleblower disclosures to the House Ways and Means Committee last year.

“The f–ing FBI Hallie. It’s hard to believe anyone is that stupid,” Hunter raged in one message after meeting with police who recovered the gun in October 2018. “Owning a gun that’s in a locked car hidden on another property? You say I invade your privacy. What more can I do than come back to you to try again. And you do this????”

“Who in their right mind would trust you would help me get sober?” he fumed.

Other location data contained in photos from Hunter’s cellphone and messages to Hallie corroborate his crack abuse.

“I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney,” he wrote in an Oct. 14, 2018, text to Hallie.

One month after the gun incident, Hunter also confessed to Hallie: “I’m a liar and a thief and a blamer and a user and I’m delusional and an addict unlike beyond and above all other addicts that you know and I’ve ruined every relationship I’ve ever cherished.”

He also in December 2018 texted Hallie to admit “completely” that he was an addict but would “get sober when I want to get f–king sober.”

Hallie witnessed his drug use and even searched through Hunter’s “bags, backpacks, and vehicle in an effort to help him get sober, and discovered drug paraphernalia and drugs in his possessions on multiple occasions,” prosecutors added.

The court will also hear testimony from DEA Supervisory Special Agent Joshua Romig, “who will opine on coded terms and drug language” in Hunter’s text messages, and prosecutors also plan “to show videos and photographs of the defendant smoking crack.”

FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen, an employee of Starquest Shooters in Wilmington — where Hunter bought the revolver — and two Delaware state police officers will also testify.

Lunden Roberts, an ex-stripper who gave birth to Hunter’s love child, Navy Joan, in 2018, will apparently not be called to testify — despite her year-long romance with him overlapping his liaisons with two other witnesses.

A source familiar with Kestan’s grand jury testimony previously told The Post that Hunter impregnated Roberts just before meeting Kestan but never disclosed the relationship with his baby mama or the birth of his daughter.

Hunter and Buhle share three daughters — Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy — the last of whom was also coached in basketball by Roberts in 2017, according to emails on Hunter’s abandoned laptop.

Prosecutors said they may also show evidence from other text messages if Hunter’s defense team — including lead attorney Abbe Lowell — argues their client was unaware of his actions.

The IRS disclosures to Congress include one message in which Hunter told Hallie that he was “proven unstable when you put a gun in the trash can … out of FEAR.”

The first son has pleaded not guilty to the Delaware indictment, for which he faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Donald Trump appeared at UFC 302 and received a huge ovation from the fans at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night as fans awaited the main event featuring Dustin Poirier challenging for Islam Makhachev’s UFC Lightweight Championship.

Trump walked into the arena with UFC president Dana White. He also stopped for a second to greet comedian Theo Von. Trump shook the hands of some fans and waved to the crowd.

The former president then took his spot just outside the UFC Octagon and readied to watch the main card.

Trump rolls into the UFC fight in New Jersey tonight to a hero’s welcome. Biden is in his Delaware basement. pic.twitter.com/NUOisJs4ZG

— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) June 2, 2024

Great moment from the UFC ring last night.

Sean Strickland dominates the fight, then he immediately leaves the ring to take a selfie with President Trump.pic.twitter.com/REJOOE6eG0

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) June 2, 2024

“F*ck Joe Biden” chants break out during UFC fight with Donald Trump in attendance. pic.twitter.com/J0QrwmdhLr

— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) June 2, 2024

It was one of Trump’s first public appearances since he was found guilty on all counts in a New York criminal trial on Thursday.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.

“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial and disgrace. It wouldn’t give us a venue change,” Trump said afterward. “We were at five percent or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.”

Trump said “the real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people.”

“And they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” Trump said. “You have a Soros backed DA and the whole thing.”

He added: “We didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a very innocent man. And it’s okay. I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now.”

Trump said that the case was “done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent.”

“And I think it’s it’s just a disgrace. And we’ll keep fighting–we’ll fight till the end and we’ll win because our country’s gone to hell,” he said. “We don’t have the same country anymore. We have a divided mess. We’re a nation of decline, serious decline.”

Trump said “millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists. And they’re taking over our country. We have a country that’s in big trouble.”

“But this was a rigged decision right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never,” he said. “And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over.”

Trump has made semi-regular appearances at UFC events. He’s close friends with White, who spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Trump’s favor.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) called on New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul to pardon former President Donald Trump following his conviction in the Manhattan hush-money trial.

Phillips, who ran for president in the Democratic primary and was blown out by President Joe Biden, argued that Trump’s guilty verdict will only energize the Republican candidate’s base ahead of the 2024 election. Trump was convicted on Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments sent to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

While the Democratic congressman slammed Trump as “a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon,” he argued on Friday that Hochul should pardon the former president “for the good of the country.”

After Phillips was blasted for calling on Hochul to pardon the convicted Republican candidate, he doubled down on his argument in a tweet on Saturday morning.

“You think pardoning is stupid? Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different.),” he wrote. “It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost.”

Hochul applauded the conviction of Trump, telling NPR, “Justice was served.” She added that she doesn’t believe the felony conviction “is going to be a factor in the election for our congressional candidates.”

In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s conviction, donations poured into the Trump campaign as the former president raised over $50 million in the 24 hours after the jury’s verdict, his campaign said. The hush-money trial has been blasted by legal experts who worry that criminal prosecutions of political opponents will become the norm in the U.S.

While a pardon of Trump from a Democratic governor is highly unlikely, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee has other avenues to challenge his conviction. Legal scholar and George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley explained in a blog post published on Friday that, eventually, Trump’s appeal of the verdict could reach the Supreme Court, adding that he believes “convictions will be overturned.”

“Indeed, moments like this require us to take a leap of faith in a nation that remains committed to the rule of law. Manhattan is neither the entirety of the country nor the legal system. I believe that these convictions will be overturned, but it will take time,” Turley wrote. “Judge Merchan committed, in my view, layers of reversible error. Eventually, this case may reach the United States Supreme Court.”

Attorney and Heritage fellow Roger Severino also told “Morning Wire” on Friday that Trump’s legal team could make “constitutional arguments that his right to a fair trial was violated.”

“And the Constitution means something,” Severino added. “It means, if anything, you cannot jail political opponents because you don’t like what the American people are going to vote for.”

Trump has already said he will appeal the guilty verdict, which according to New York state law, must come following the sentencing, CNN reported. Judge Juan Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11, just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where Trump is set to be nominated for president.

Former President Trump has joined TikTok, the embattled Chinese-owned social media platform that he once tried to ban during his years in the White House.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s first post on TikTok was a launch video on Saturday night on a verified account – @realDonaldTrump – showing him waving to fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight in Newark, New Jersey, that he attended a couple of hours earlier.

“The president is now on TikTok,” UFC CEO and Trump friend Dana White said as he introduced the former president in the video.

“It’s my honor,” Trump responded in the video. The song “American Bad A–” by Kid Rock can be heard in the background.

The move appears to be an effort to connect with younger voters who frequent the app, as Trump faces off with President Biden in the 2024 election rematch. The main super PAC supporting Trump, MAGA Inc., joined TikTok a couple of weeks ago. The site has roughly 170 million users in the U.S.

The app appears to be friendly ground for the former president, with roughly twice as many pro-Trump posts compared to pro-Biden posts on the site, according to recent reports from the New York Times and Puck, which cited internal analysis from TikTok.

@realdonaldtrump Launching my TikTok at @UFC ♬ original sound – President Donald J Trump

Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign joined TikTok in February, but the president signed a law in April forcing TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the app within a year or face a ban in the U.S.

Trump, in 2020 during his last year as president, tried to ban the app in the U.S. market over national security concerns. His executive order was eventually blocked in federal court.

Trump changed his mind this year, and came out in opposition to Biden’s potential ban on TikTok.

Some former top Trump advisers – including former senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and David Urban – have been speaking out in favor of TikTok on Capitol Hill.

Regardless, many Republicans continue to criticize the popular app and urge its Chinese-based parent company to divest.

Trump’s account has gained 2.1 million followers since last night’s launch. That’s more than six times the followers of the Biden campaign’s account, which launched in February.

Rupert Murdoch has got married for the fifth time after tying the knot with Elena Zhukova in a secretive ceremony at his Californian estate.

The 93-year-old media mogul held his nuptials with the biologist at the vineyard in his Bel Air estate, Moraga, on Saturday.

The News Corp founder, who is worth an estimated $20 billion, had announced his engagement to Zhukova in March this year after less than nine months of dating.

Images released today showed the couple posing for photos in a garden following the ceremony, his 67-year-old spouse holding a bouquet of white flowers.

The event was attended by high-powered guests including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and News Corp chief Robert Thompson.

Pictures taken from outside the venue showed workers transporting buckets of flowers in the direction of the estate, while there was also an increased security presence for the big day.

It is the fifth time the media baron has tied the knot, with his most recent marriage to Jerry Hall lasting from 2016 to 2022.

The couple are believed to have started dating last summer after his engagement to former police chaplain and vineyard owner Ann Lesley Smith was called off just two weeks after it was announced.

Murdoch and Zhukova grew close and were spotted cruising the Mediterranean on a summer holiday last August.

She is the mother of Dasha Zhukova, a Russian socialite who is famous for her marriage to Russian oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.

She was previously married to Alexander Zhukov, a billionaire energy investor, and is a molecular biologist who specialises in diabetes research.

She has lived in America for over three decades after leaving Russia in 1991 with her daughter.

Before retiring she worked at the medical research unit in UCLA. Sources said she spends a lot of time with her grandchildren by Dasha and Roman.

Murdoch is reported to have met Zhukova through his third wife, Wendi Deng, with the pair being firm friends in New York.

Mexicans headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in a historic election expected to return the country’s first woman president.

The two leading presidential candidates are women: Claudia Sheinbaum from the leftist Morena party and Xochitl Gálvez, from the conservative PAN party, who is representing a coalition of opposition parties.

The third candidate is Jorge Álvarez Máynez, the youngest in the race, who is representing the center-left Citizens’ Movement.

Sunday’s poll is the largest election in the country’s history. More than 98 million voters are registered to cast a ballot in Mexico, and 1.4 million Mexicans are eligible to vote abroad. More than 20,000 positions are set to be filled with an estimated 70,000 candidates vying to become senators, mayors and governors.

Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is Sheinbaum’s mentor, greeted supporters as he voted. As Sheinbaum made her way to cast her ballot, she called for Mexicans to vote, telling reporters: “This is a historic day, I am feeling very happy.”

Gálvez told reporters on Sunday that she was not nervous and was happy about the large voter turnout. She added that she was expecting it to be a long day and a very close call.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time and will close at 6 p.m., according to Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE).

However, on Sunday, some voting stations in parts of the country opened with delays. Long lines were seen in Mexico City, Yucatán, Tuxtla, Cuauhtémoc, and voting centers abroad.

Follow live updates.

Alex Jones, the host and founder of InfoWars, claims during a live emergency broadcast Saturday that the federal government is orchestrating a forceful takeover of his broadcasting studios.

According to Jones, federal agents could put locks on the doors and liquidate all broadcasting assets. Jones alleges that he even spent the night in his studio and has prepared to involve local law enforcement to prevent what he describes as an unlawful raid on his property.

In a video posted Friday with the caption, “BREAKING! INFOWARS May Be Shutdown in 48 Hours,” Jones said, “The deep state thinks they’re taking down Trump. And hours after they have their false conviction, they’re making their move to shut down InfoWars right now.”

Jones has been vocal about the attacks on his platform over the past six years including de-platforming, deep state interference, and rigged trials. Despite these challenges, InfoWars has managed to survive due to overwhelming public support. However, Jones warns that this latest assault could be the final blow.

“I learned at 4:00 PM today, just a few hours ago, that Infowars was going to be shut and closed tonight. We have hired security here, a private contractor. They were told, ‘Get ready to close the doors, change the locks, and InfoWars is going to be shut down,’” Jones said Friday.

“I learned about this and said, ‘Well, I’m going to go expose this. I’m going to talk about this. This is all having the bankruptcy. It’s not the court doing it.’ I’ll reveal who’s behind it soon. And so I made some phone calls and did some things. They said, ‘Okay, we’ll back off for now if you do X, Y, and Z.’ I don’t believe anything I’m being told. So when I tell you that this could be the last show I ever do from Infowars, 50% chance. There’s a 50% chance this has what’s happening right now,” he added.

“We may be shut down [Saturday]. And this is where we are right now. And it is so horrible. It is so disgusting. And it’s because we’re viable. It’s because we’re hard to kill. It’s because we keep coming back. We don’t give up, and we’re not going to give up. This will not be a victory for them, shutting this place down,” Jones said.

In these uncertain times, Jones is asking for support from his followers. He has urged them to continue supporting InfoWars and his father’s company, drjonesnaturals.com.

“We are under global attack, just like President Trump. And you should donate to him. He’s raised like $60 million in the last 24 hours. That’s great. And get behind Trump 100 %. But the main satellite attack fleets, the main frigates supporting the capital ship, the mother ship, the flagship, we need your support.”

Watch:

BREAKING! INFOWARS May Be Shutdown in 48 Hours

Please Support https://t.co/KfYsWPgxeM pic.twitter.com/nVEVlVUCRV

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) June 1, 2024

Alex Jones is hosting a live emergency broadcast this Saturday to discuss the Deep State’s final push to shut down InfoWars, amid reports that authorities plan to lock up the studio doors tonight.

Watch Live:

Breaking: Feds Attempting To Shut Down Infowars Tonight!
https://t.co/MOm7W2I1Hu

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) June 1, 2024

This should not come as a surprise. Last month, a CIA officer/former FBI official was on an undercover video boasting about using the might of the federal government to ‘jail anyone’ by ‘setting them up.’

Gavin O’Blennis, a Contracting Officer for the CIA told an undercover journalist with Sound Investigations that the FBI “can put anyone in jail…set ’em up!”

“We call it a nudge,” O’Blennis said, adding the FBI can put “problematic” right-wing journalists like Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones in jail.

O’Blennis said of Infowars founder Alex Jones: The FBI “took his money away,” and ‘chopped his legs off.’

Alex Jones stated that he had previously been aware of a CIA-FBI-led Deep State operation targeting him, which was revealed during a court case in Connecticut where it emerged that the FBI was involved, advising the operation.

“It came out in court in Connecticut in the staged trial where the judge already found me guilty that the FBI was a party to it and was advising them and going through all the discovery, trying to find something to put me in jail,” Jones told Steve Bannon in an interview.

Former President Trump was found guilty on felony charges Thursday, raising potential challenges for the Secret Service responsible for protecting him just as a top Democrat is seeking to yank that protection from him.

Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in New York v. Trump. The charges were related to alleged payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence pornographic performer Stormy Daniels about an alleged 2006 extramarital sexual encounter with Trump. Trump denied all charges and any affair with Daniels.

But the conviction raises the possibility the presumed 2024 Republican nominee could end up being bars. That unprecedented development would raise a number of additional questions, including how his Secret Service protection would adapt.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the agency said the outcome of the case “has no bearing on the manner in which the United States Secret Service carries out its protective mission.”

“Our security measures will proceed unchanged,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has previously said the city’s Department of Corrections and the Rikers Island prison in New York are “ready” to receive Trump.

Asked if Trump would be housed by himself or with the general population, a Department of Corrections spokesman said last month, “The Department would find appropriate housing for him if he winds up in our custody.”

The New York Times reported that there had been conversations involving the Secret Service and other law enforcement about how to move and protect Trump if he were briefly jailed for contempt, but the challenge of a longer prison sentence has yet to be addressed.

This could be in part because, even though the sentencing is in July, a series of lengthy Trump appeals that could rise to the Supreme Court would likely follow.

A.T. Smith, a former deputy director at the agency, said that while the territory may be uncharted, the Secret Service would not allow the mission to be compromised.

“They’ll rise to the occasion. They will work with the counterparts that may become necessary depending upon the judge’s decision … in order to accomplish their mission, which is the protection of the former president,” he told The Telegraph.

One potential impediment to that protection could come from Democrats, who have introduced a bill in the House to strip Secret Service protection from convicted felons sentenced to prison.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act.

“Unfortunately, current law doesn’t anticipate how Secret Service protection would impact the felony prison sentence of a protectee — even a former President,” Thompson said in a statement.

“It is regrettable that it has come to this, but this previously unthought-of scenario could become our reality.”

An accompanying fact sheet said the bill deals with the possibility the logistics of Secret Service protection would result in Trump getting home confinement rather than prison time.

“This bill would remove the potential for conflicting lines of authority within prisons and allow judges to weigh the sentencing of individuals without having to factor in the logistical concerns of convicts with Secret Service protection,” the document states.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign says it has been energized by the trial’s conclusion and is confident that it takes him a step closer to reclaiming the White House.

“Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats confined President Trump to a courtroom for more than eight hours a day for more than six weeks, and he’s still winning,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “Now that he is fully back on the campaign trail, Biden and the Democrats better buckle up.”

Leavitt told Fox News Digital Trump “generated billions of dollars in earned media coverage throughout the trial, hosted massive rallies and impromptu campaign stops in New York and beyond, increased his lead over crooked Joe Biden in the polls and raised more money than Biden and the Democrats in the month of April. Not even a witch hunt trial could slow him down. In fact, it only made him stronger.”

Stormy Daniels has dramatically broken her silence on convicted ex-President Donald Trump, demanding: Jail him now.

Speaking for the first time since White House hopeful Trump was found guilty, the former adult actress told us:

“I think he should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate, or being the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter.”

Stormy told how she now feels vindicated – and warns the world ahead of Trump’s fresh bid for office:

“He is completely and utterly out of touch with reality.”

She said:

“You always feel like you’re the bad guy, even when you’re not just being up on that standard. Being in court was so intimidating with the jurors looking at you, but I’m glad that the stuff came out in court that wanted to come out and prove, like I said, I’ve been telling the truth the entire time. It’s it’s not over for me. It’s never going to be over for me. Trump may be guilty, but I still have to live with the legacy.”

Stormy said she was “shocked” over how quickly the jury found the former president – the first US leader ever convicted – guilty of all 34 charges saying it showed they believed her testimony. Weeks earlier she had been sat just 10 feet away from him – the first time since she sat saw him in Los Angeles in 2007 – while giving evidence.

When asked about what sentence Trump should receive, Stormy remained unsure.

“I don’t know what the sentencing could be or what Trump will even understand. It’s like when you have a child, and sometimes you take the electronics away from them, but if your child is very artistic, they don’t. They don’t care. They’ll just go colour their colouring books, and then you have another child that, you know, they don’t want to go outside. You gotta ground them or like take away electronics or don’t let them have dessert. You have to find the punishment that not just matches the crime, but is fair and just, and that impacts that particular person. Who knows what that is with Trump.”

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe successfully landed on the far side of the Moon to collect samples, state news agency Xinhua reported Sunday — the latest leap for Beijing’s decades-old space programme.

The Chang’e-6 set down in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system, Xinhua said, citing the China National Space Administration.

It marks the first time that samples will be collected from the rarely explored area of the Moon, according to the agency.

The Chang’e-6 is on a technically complex 53-day mission that began on May 3.

Now that the probe has landed, it will attempt to scoop up lunar soil and rocks, and carry out other experiments in the landing zone.

That process should be complete within two days, Xinhua said. The probe will use two methods of collection: a drill to collect samples under the surface and a robotic arm to grab specimens from the surface.

Then it must attempt an unprecedented launch from the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.

Scientists say the Moon’s dark side — so-called because it is invisible from Earth, not because it never catches the sun’s rays — holds great promise for research because its craters are less covered by ancient lava flows than the near side.

Material collected from the dark side may better shed light on how the Moon formed in the first place.

China’s space ambitions

Plans for China’s “space dream” have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping.

Beijing has poured huge resources into its space programme over the past decade, targeting a string of ambitious undertakings in an effort to close the gap with the two traditional space powers — the United States and Russia.

It has notched several notable achievements, including building a space station called Tiangong, or “heavenly palace”.

Beijing has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and China is only the third country to independently put humans in orbit.

But Washington has warned that China’s space programme is being used to mask military objectives and an effort to establish dominance in space.

China aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.

The United States is also planning to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission.