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Three killed, 38 injured in Russian attack on Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih

Ten children are among those injured in the missile attack on apartment buildings as rescue teams search for survivors. A Russian missile has hit two apartment buildings in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing three people and injuring at least 38, with rescue teams sifting through rubble in a night-time search for survivors. Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, put the provisional injury toll from the attack on Tuesday at 28 adults and 10 children. “Two buildings were hit, one five storeys, one nine storeys,” Lysak wrote on Telegram. “The number of injured is constantly rising as is the number of children injured.” Video of the scene showed a blaze that erupted at the top of one apartment block and rescue teams carrying the injured out of shattered building entrances. “The emergency services and residents who care are rescuing residents blocked in their apartments and are continuing to search for anyone who might be under the rubble,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote. “Four people have already been rescued.” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was born and raised in Kryvyi Rih, said on Telegram that search operations “will continue as long as they are needed.” In his evening address, he said: “We will inflict losses on the Russian state in response – quite rightly. They in the Kremlin must learn that terror does not go unpunished for them.” The city of Kryvyi Rih has been frequently targeted by Russian forces throughout the conflict. Adblock test (Why?)

Colombia names attorney general amid political unrest under Gustavo Petro

Luz Adriana Camargo Garzon will lead probes into President Petro and his son after weeks of delay in the appointment process. Colombia’s Supreme Court of Justice has chosen Luz Adriana Camargo Garzon as the country’s new attorney general, amid ongoing turmoil for the government of President Gustavo Petro. Camargo was a former judge who worked for the attorney general’s office for 12 years, starting in the 1990s. She was also a prosecutor assigned to the Supreme Court of Justice, where she investigated ties between legislators and right-wing paramilitary groups. She is set to direct several delicate investigations, including a probe into accusations of illegal financing in Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign. The attorney general’s office is also in the midst of prosecuting Petro’s eldest son Nicolas, a former provincial legislator, for alleged corruption and money laundering, as part of an investigation that began more than a year ago. “With 18 votes, Luz Adriana Camargo Garzon was elected as the country’s new attorney general,” Gerson Chaverra, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, told journalists on Tuesday. A total of 23 judges were eligible to vote. The previous attorney general — Francisco Barbosa, a prominent Petro critic — saw his four-year term end in February. Camargo’s appointment comes amid weeks of political tensions and protests over delays in naming an official to the role. In January, Petro presented three candidates to the Supreme Court to succeed Barbosa, having pledged to fill the impending vacancy with a woman. But the voting process had stalled in the weeks since. Last month, hundreds of pro-Petro protesters surrounded the Supreme Court to demonstrate against the slowdown. The United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for Barbosa’s replacement to be named swiftly, without any additional pressure on the court. On Tuesday, before Camargo was voted in, there was another shake-up in the process: Amelia Perez, long considered the frontrunner to fill the role, announced she would withdraw her candidacy. Perez’s prospects had dimmed in recent days, after her husband’s social media posts became the subject of scandal. According to publications like Semana magazine, Perez’s husband Gregorio Oviedo had used his online platforms to insult the Supreme Court and other judges, as well as blast the investigation into Petro’s son. Petro himself has been critical of the attorney general’s office for its probes into his campaign, and he has denied any wrongdoing. The first leftist president in Colombia’s modern history, Petro has also faced steep opposition from right-wing lawmakers. Prior to her appointment on Tuesday, Camargo worked for the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) between 2014 and 2017, where she directed the investigations team. While in that role, she was a colleague of current Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez. Carmago also consulted with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the case of three Ecuadorean journalists kidnapped and killed by a Colombian armed group. As Colombia’s new attorney general, Carmago will oversee a case alleging that the younger Petro received money from accused drug traffickers in exchange for beneficial treatment in his father’s “Total Peace” plan — a framework for ending the armed conflict that has gripped Colombia for nearly 60 years. Carmago will also manage the long-running case against right-wing former President Alvaro Uribe for witness tampering and fraud, allegedly part of a scheme to discredit accusations he had ties to paramilitary groups. Uribe has denied the accusations against him. Adblock test (Why?)

GOP lawmaker reveals ‘perverse implication’ of Robert Hur’s argument on Trump ‘deterrent effect’

A House GOP lawmaker targeted former Special Counsel Robert Hur over what he called a “perverse implication” that the current prosecution of former President Donald Trump at least partially factored into Hur’s decision not to recommend charges for President Biden. Hur testified before House lawmakers on Tuesday in a lengthy and, at times, heated hearing on his report — the product of a monthslong investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.  Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., took issue with a part of Hur’s report that downplayed the “deterrent effect” of charging Biden, both because of “little risk he will reoffend” and that “future presidents and vice presidents are already likely to be deterred by the multiple recent criminal investigations, and one prosecution, of current and former presidents and vice presidents for mishandling classified documents.” HUR TESTIFIES BIDEN ‘WILLFULLY RETAINED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS,’ BUT PROSECUTORS ‘HAD TO CONSIDER’ MENTAL STATE Kiley argued during the hearing, “The perverse implication here is that the administration, by the very terms of your analysis, actually made it less likely that the president would face charges by [Special Counsel Jack Smith] bringing an indictment [against Trump].” “I’ll stand by the way and the specific terms in which I characterize my assessment of deterrence value of a case under the principles of federal prosecution,” Hur told him just minutes earlier. Kiley stood by his argument in a brief interview with Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon, explaining, “It’s the implication that is perverse, because it means that Biden sort of lowered his chances of facing charges when the administration brought charges against former President Trump.” Trump has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges stemming from Smith’s federal investigation into alleged election interference. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether Trump has presidential immunity from prosecution in the case. BIDEN RETAINED RECORDS RELATED TO UKRAINE, CHINA; COMER DEMANDS ‘UNFETTERED ACCESS’ AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY “I think there’s a lot here that’s fairly troubling,” Kiley said. “That’s why I wanted to sort of bring it to light. I didn’t know, maybe, even if Mr. Hur had really thought that through, that particular implication.” “I think that really, broadly, the report was well done. I think that particular factor was not thought through as carefully as it should be.” Meanwhile, Fox News contributor and Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley argued that the section of the report suggesting Biden himself was at “little risk” of reoffending is not an accurate conclusion on deterrence.  SPECIAL COUNSEL CALLS BIDEN ‘SYMPATHETIC, WELL-MEANING, ELDERLY MAN WITH A POOR MEMORY,’ BRINGS NO CHARGES “The finding seems inherently in conflict with the acknowledgment that Joe Biden continued to remove classified material over 40 years since he was a senator,” Turley said. “There was no evidence of deterrence despite repeated warnings given to him by counsel and staff. If anything, that record shows a certain habitual violation of well-known rules on the handling of classified material.” Hur found that Biden did willfully mishandle classified materials but did not recommend charges, citing, in part, that he came off “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” and that “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department but did not immediately hear back.

Texas House Republican introduces bill to prevent noncitizens from serving as election administrators

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, has introduced a measure to prevent noncitizens from serving as election administrators ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Named the “No Foreign Persons Administering Our Elections Act,” the measure, if successful, would prohibit state and local jurisdictions from hiring individuals who are not U.S. citizens, including illegal immigrants, to administer an election for federal positions. “Foreign agents have no place overseeing our sacred democratic process,” Pfluger, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News Digital. “My legislation aims to ensure that only American citizens have the honor and responsibility of serving as election administrators,” he added. “No foreign influence should taint the integrity of our voting system.” GOP EFFORT TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BEING COUNTED FOR HOUSE DISTRICTS, ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHOT DOWN IN SENATE Pluger’s bill comes after Kelly Wong, an immigrant from Hong Kong who is not a U.S. citizen, was appointed to serve on the San Francisco Elections Commission. Wong’s appointment to the position was made possible after San Francisco passed a measure in 2020 removing the citizenship requirement to serve on city boards, commissions and advisory bodies. Wong, an immigrant rights advocate who came to the U.S. from Hong Kong in 2019 to pursue a graduate degree, was sworn in at a ceremony in San Francisco City Hall. San Francisco Election Commission President Robin Stone recently told Fox News Digital, “I support the Board of Supervisors’ authority and decision to appoint Kelly Wong to the Elections Commission. What’s more, as public officers of the City, we respect the law and will of San Francisco voters, who removed the citizenship requirement for commissioners in 2020.” ‘SHOCKING’ CALIFORNIA BILL TO PROTECT VIOLENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM DEPORTATION DRAWS FIERCE BACKLASH The Republican crackdown on the influence noncitizens may have on U.S. elections is an effort that Democrats have largely defeated in recent history. Earlier this month, a move by Senate Republicans to stop noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, from being counted on the census for the purposes of apportionment for House seats and the Electoral College was shot down after the measure failed to gain the support of a single Democrat. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., moved to include an amendment, attached to the $460 billion spending package, that would require the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question in any future census, and then bar anyone who isn’t a U.S. citizen from being counted for purposes of congressional district and Electoral College apportionment. While the bill would also exclude legal immigrants on temporary visas and green cards from the census, the move has been undertaken explicitly to stop illegal immigrants from being counted amid millions of new arrivals at the southern border. It’s similar to a Trump-era effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Trump’s effort sparked widespread criticism and condemnation from Democrats and left-wing immigration groups who argued that a citizenship question was unlawful and was designed to help Republicans in future elections. Fox News’ Gabriel Hays and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Schiff spars with Hur in heated exchange over report that ‘disparaged’ Biden: ‘That did not happen’

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff sparred with Special Counsel Robert Hur in a contentious House hearing on Tuesday where the California congressman accused Hur of playing politics with his report on President Biden’s handling of classified documents, which earned pushback from Hur. “I want to go back to your opening statement in which you said that you did not disparage the president, your report, but of course, you did disparage the president,” Schiff told Hur during Tuesday’s hearing.  “You disparaged him in terms you had to know would have a maximal political impact. You understood your report would be public, right?” “I understood based on comments that the attorney general had made, that he had committed to make as much of my report public, as consistent with legal policy and legal requirements,” Hur responded.  ADAM SCHIFF FACT-CHECKED ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER CLAIMING HOUSE SPEAKER COUNTS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL VOTES Schiff then suggested that Hur “could have” simply commented on instances where Biden could not remember information about certain documents rather than make a “generalized statement” about his memory, referencing the much talked about section of the report where Hur characterized Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory.” “Congressman, I could have written my report theoretically in a way that omitted references to the president’s memory,” Hur explained. “But would have been an incomplete and improper report and that it did not reflect my analysis.” Schiff continued to press Hur and accused him of knowing he would start a “political firestorm” with the language he used to which Hurr said that “politics played no part whatsoever” in the investigation. “What you did write was deeply prejudicial to the interests of the president, you say it wasn’t political, and yet you must have understood,” Schiff said. “You must have understood the impact of your words. You must have understood the impact of your decision to go beyond the specifics of a particular document, to go to the very general, to your own personal prejudice issues, subjective opinion of the president, one you knew would be amplified by his political opponent. When you knew that would influence a political campaign, you had to understand and you did it anyway. You did it anyway.” PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS INTERRUPT ADAM SCHIFF’S VICTORY SPEECH, DEMAND CEASE-FIRE IN GAZA Schiff then attempted to discuss allegations against former President Trump at which point Hur, a registered Republican, went back and again addressed the notion that his report was influenced by politics. “I need to address something that you said in your prior question of what you were suggesting is that I needed to provide a different version of my report that would be fit for public release,” Hur said. “That is nowhere in the rules. I was to prepare a confidential report that was comprehensive and thorough.” “What is in the rules, Mr. Hur?” Schiff said. “What is in the rules is you don’t gratuitously do things to prejudice the subject of an investigation when you’re declining to prosecute you don’t gratuitously add language that you know will be useful in a political campaign. You were not born yesterday. You understood exactly what you were doing. It was a choice.” “You certainly didn’t have to include that language. You could have said vis a vis the documents that were from the university. The president did not recall. There is nothing more common. You know this. I know this. There is nothing more common with a witness any age when asked about events that are years old to say, I do not recall. Indeed, they’re instructed by their attorney to do that if they have any question about it. You understood that you made a choice. That was a political choice. It was the wrong choice. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.” During the next line of questioning, Hur went back and addressed Schiff.  “Congressman, what you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning, an explanation to the attorney general for political reasons,” Hur said.  “No,” Schiff shot back. “I suggest that you do not shape report for political reasons, which is what you did.” “That did not happen, Congressman, that did not happen,” Hur said back before the next line of questioning began.

Ron DeSantis says he stepped in to ensure illegal immigrant, accused rapist is back in ICE custody

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has recently claimed credit for ensuring the arrest of an illegal immigrant accused of rape and sexual abuse in Oregon. The suspect had found his way to Florida, and DeSantis said he wanted the man deported after federal immigration officials initially walked back a detainer – and Oregon officials had to request a policy exception to approve an extradition request. “We had to pull teeth to get the federal government to detain an illegal alien who was apprehended in Florida, but he was wanted on charges involving rape and sexual abuse in Oregon. Since Oregon was not interested in pursuing justice, the plan was to release him on the streets of Florida,” DeSantis said. “That is unacceptable. We had to fight back to get a detainer put on this individual.” The case concerns Juan Jose-Sebastian, 26, a Guatemalan national who entered the U.S. in 2015 as an unaccompanied minor and was ordered removed in 2019 by an immigration judge. He has outstanding warrants for rape and sexual abuse charges in Washington County, Oregon. FBI DIRECTOR WARNS OF ‘VERY DANGEROUS THREATS’ AT BORDER, SMUGGLING NETWORK WITH ISIS TIES  Jose-Sebastian was arrested in Florida last month by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, which detained him for driving without a driver’s license. MCSO in turn contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which lodged a detainer – a request for advance notice so that he can be transferred into ICE custody upon his release. In a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Florida Highway Patrol said MCSO ran a pre-release warrant check on March 1 and found the Oregon warrant for three counts of rape and sexual assault. But Florida officials say that Oregon then “refused to extradite” him, and that ICE also withdrew its detainer because he “did not meet current enforcement priorities.” Consequently, MCSO had to release him as they couldn’t hold him any longer on the driving offense.  In a news release, ICE confirmed that the detainer on Jose-Sebastian was lifted and he was released by MCSO, but said the lifting of the detainer occurred before they knew of the outstanding warrants for rape and sexual abuse as initial records checks did not reveal that he met enforcement priorities. After they learned of the warrants, officials say, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) partnered with MCSO, and he was arrested a day later, on March 2.  SENATE REPUBLICANS DEMAND DOCS, INFO ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH LAKEN RILEY’S MURDER “At the direction of Governor DeSantis’ office, Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement intervened to ensure the illegal alien and alleged rapist Juan Jose-Sebastian was taken into custody and held until he could be handed over to ICE,” Florida Highway Patrol’s Molly Best said. “Based on the latest information, we are anticipating the deportation of Jose-Sebastian.” Oregon officials have now agreed to the extradition of Jose-Sebastian, but claim they were not contacted by Florida and learned of the matter from the media. The Washington County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that extradition authorization is generally made by the governor’s office, and the policy depends on the classification of the crime.  Rape in Oregon is classified as an A, B or C felony depending on various factors. Third-degree rape, a class C felony, is a charge applied when the victim is either 15 or 16 years old and the offender is three or more years older. Only A and B felonies carry presumptive nationwide extradition, and Jose-Sebastian was charged with third-degree rape. According to the Washington County DA’s Office: “We have had no communication with anyone from Florida, including the Florida governor’s office and Florida law enforcement. We contacted the Oregon governor’s office on March 6 and asked if they would make an exception to the [nationwide extradition policy]. On that same date, the Oregon governor’s office agreed to authorize funding for extradition and to upgrade the warrant to nationwide status.” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital, but confirmed to local outlets that the extradition was underway after she authorized it, and said her office considers extradition requests on a case-by-case basis. The case comes amid an ongoing debate about the deportation of illegal immigrants and the ongoing immigration crisis at the southern border. The issue was put under the spotlight after the death of Laken Riley in Georgia. The suspect charged with her murder is a Venezuelan national who entered the country illegally. “How pathetic that there’s even a question to release someone like this – who shouldn’t even be in this country in the first place – back onto the streets,” DeSantis said.

Biden impeachment effort starting to ‘lose steam,’ House Republicans say

House Republicans are growing increasingly skeptical of whether their push to impeach President Biden will succeed. “I don’t think we have the will to impeach Joe Biden… We just don’t. We’ve got a two-seat majority. You’ve got some guys in these tough districts that don’t want to alienate maybe independents or moderates,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “They’ve laid out a good case for impeaching Joe Biden… but I just don’t think we have the will to do it.” Each of the GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital expressed the belief that what the investigation has uncovered looks bad for Biden, but even those who think it rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors were unsure the House would see an impeachment vote.  FBI INFORMANT CHARGED WITH GIVING FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN IN 2020 Several noted that House Republicans’ razor-thin, two-seat majority has made it difficult to pass significant legislation in the past.  “That’s always a question with everything,” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said of the numbers. “We have some folks who love to scream, rant and rave, and have gotten all involved in their ego. You never know where those folks are going to come out one moment or the other. He added, “I do surely think there’s evidence there.” Another GOP lawmaker granted anonymity to speak freely agreed the impeachment push has lost momentum, chalking it up to the hectic environment of a presidential election year. BIDEN, NOT SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR, BROUGHT UP SON’S DEATH IN QUESTIONING “I think it was always gonna lose steam. I think as soon as we transitioned into a formal presidential election, I don’t know that it was going to continue with the same fervor,” the GOP lawmaker said. Asked about the amount of skepticism within the conference over actually voting to impeach Biden, they said, “I’m not the one to worry about, but there are dozens of others.” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who represents a district Biden won in 2020, noted investigators have not yet uncovered a smoking gun but defended the inquiry as a fact-finding mission. SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR TO TESTIFY PUBLICLY AT HOUSE HEARING ON BIDEN CLASSIFIED RECORDS PROBE “When the staff tells you that they can’t identify a particular crime, that’s a problem. But we should welcome the investigation. It’s more about letting the voters know the truth,” Bacon said. The House voted to formalize their impeachment inquiry into Biden in mid-December, with every member of the Republican Conference supporting the investigation. The House Oversight Committee is now leading a joint investigation with the House Judiciary and Ways & Means Committees into whether Biden used his former position as vice president to enrich himself and his family — claims the White House has denied. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

‘Bling Bishop’ lashes out at FBI after being convicted of fraud, attempted extortion, lying to feds

Lamor Whitehead, a Brooklyn preacher nicknamed the “Bling Bishop” for his ostentatious clothes and flashy cars, claimed Tuesday that his conviction for defrauding an elderly parishioner and trying to extort a business owner was part of a larger scheme by the FBI of trying to make him become an informant against New York City Mayor Adams. Whitehead, 45, posted a video message to his 1.3 million followers on Tuesday from inside his Rolls-Royce, saying he refused to dish on Adams to the FBI. Adams’ campaign has faced a federal corruption investigation. “This wasn’t about me…. I was not going to be an informant for the FBI against NYC Mayor Eric Adams,” Whitehead wrote in the caption of the video.  “This was politically driven,” Whitehead said. “This was about Mayor Eric Adams.” BROOKLYN’S ‘BLING BISHOP’ LAMOR WHITEHEAD DENIES STEALING FROM PARISHIONER’S MOTHER ON DAY 1 OF FRAUD TRIAL Whitehead was found guilty on five counts, including wire fraud, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal law enforcement agents, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. Whitehead was convicted of inducing Pauline Anderson to invest around $90,000 of her retirement savings with him by promising to use the money to help her buy a home.  Instead, prosecutors say Whitehead splashed the money on luxury goods from Louis Vuitton and Foot Locker as well as car payments. When Anderson demanded to be paid back, Whitehead lied to avoid returning the money, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.  Whitehead also extorted Bronx auto body shop owner Brandon Belmonte for $5,000 and then attempted to convince the businessman to lend him $500,000 and give him a stake in certain real estate transactions in return for favorable actions from Adams, even though prosecutors say Whitehead knew he could not obtain the favors he promised, prosecutors said.  NYC BISHOP ROBBED OF $1M IN JEWELRY MID-SERMON FILES $20M LAWSUITS AGAINST SOCIAL MEDIA CRITICS CLAIMING HOAX Whitehead, of Paramus, New Jersey, faces decades in prison. “As a unanimous jury found, Lamor Whitehead abused the trust placed in him by a parishioner, tried to obtain a fraudulent loan using fake bank records, bullied a businessman for $5,000, tried to defraud him out of far more than that, and lied to federal agents,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “Whitehead’s reprehensible lies and criminal conduct have caught up with him, as he now stands convicted of five federal crimes and faces time in prison.” Whitehead claimed he was “targeted” and vowed to appeal.  He said the FBI showed up to his home on June 8 looking for information on the mayor and told him he was not under arrest but that they had a search warrant to take his phone. “And what they said to me, was, ‘we don’t want you, we want the mayor of New York [City],’” he said. “And just because I was not going to be a federal informant… the FBI said they [were] going to make my life a living hell, and that’s what you guys are seeing.” Whitehead said he is innocent. The FBI investigation into Adams burst into the public domain in November when the home of one of his campaign consultants was raided.  The FBI told Fox News Digital it would not be commenting on Whitehead’s claims. In a July 2021 Instagram post, Whitehead posted a collage of photographs of himself with Adams before Adams assumed office, writing, “Congratulations to my mentor, friend and someone who I can say really help me become a man!” Whitehead had sought to follow in Adams’ footsteps by becoming the Brooklyn borough president.  But Adams would not endorse Whitehead and admonished him for using his name in a “misleading” campaign ad, according to the New York Times, citing text messages prosecutors showed during the trial. Whitehead sought Belmonte to give him a loan of $500,000 while promising him access to Adams.  One of Whitehead’s lawyers played down his client’s relationship with Adams at the trial, saying that he could get a meeting with Adams “faster than most people” – and that statement, he contended, was true. But prosecutors also showed messages from Whitehead to Adams in early 2022 that went unanswered, the New York Times reports.  Adams told reporters last month that legal filings by the prosecution “stated that clearly [Whitehead] did not have authorization and there was no connectivity to the actions of [the] mayor or borough president.”  At a press briefing earlier today, Adams said he had no part in the investigation and that prosecutors in the case said there were “no benefits coming from government.” Pauline Anderson, meanwhile, said she trusted Whitehead to buy her a house since she could not afford one due to low credit.  “He was a man of God,” she said, according to the New York Times. “I believed him as the leader of his church.” Whitehead has previous criminal convictions for identity theft and grand larceny, which resulted in a five-year prison stint. He became a bishop when he founded the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in 2013.  The Brooklyn preacher owns a $1.6 million home in Paramus, New Jersey, and an apartment in Hartford, Connecticut.  Whitehead has been free on $500,000 bail since his arrest, which came only months after he was the victim of a robbery when $1 million in jewelry was stolen from him by gunmen who surprised him during a church service. Fox News’ Maria Paronich, Chris Pandolfo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

‘Should never have come to this’: What’s next as Henry steps down in Haiti?

After nearly two weeks of heightened gang violence and instability, millions of Haitians woke up to the news that Ariel Henry has pledged to resign as the country’s prime minister. The announcement came late on Monday after the United States urged him to step aside and usher in a transitional political process to stem the unrest. Haitian civil society leaders welcomed the resignation of Henry, an unelected leader who was named to his post in 2021 shortly before the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, as a long overdue step. But many are now questioning what comes next. For years, the country has been plagued by corrupt leaders, failed state institutions and violence wrought by rival armed groups, and federal elections have not been held. “First of all, we have to say that we think this is a good thing,” Rosy Auguste Ducena, a lawyer and programme director at Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), said of the prime minister stepping down. Yet Ducena told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from Port-au-Prince on Tuesday morning that his announcement did little to stem the anxiety and fear on the ground. The West Department, which encompasses the capital city, remained “very tense” after days of gang violence, she said. “The streets continue to be empty.” Since late February, Haitian armed groups have launched attacks on police, prisons and other state institutions. The main airport in Port-au-Prince has been shut down, and residents have been afraid to leave their homes to get water, food and other supplies. “Today again, we have the impression that the West Department is holding its breath because we don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Ducena added. Transitional council The answer to that question — what happens next? — remains unclear. The leaders of Haiti’s armed groups, one of whom had said the country would face a “civil war” if Henry did not resign, have yet to comment on the prime minister’s announcement. But it appears unlikely that Henry’s promise to step down after a transitional presidential council and his replacement are chosen will be enough to get the groups to lay down their arms. Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer known as Barbecue who leads Haiti’s powerful G9 gang alliance, said before Henry’s statement that he rejected any proposed solution led by the international community. The resignation came after a group of Caribbean nations known as CARICOM held an emergency meeting on Monday to set out the terms of Henry’s departure, which will come into effect after the “establishment of a transitional presidential council and the naming of an interim prime minister”. Jake Johnston, a Haiti expert and senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, DC, said CARICOM’s announcement “is unlikely to lead to a solution to the current crisis by itself”. “After criticising Henry for relying on the support of the US and other foreign powers, an agreement pushed by those same foreign powers is likely to face legitimacy concerns from the moment it forms,” Johnston wrote on Tuesday in a post to CEPR’s website. “Though negotiations have been taking place for the better part of a week, none of the participants or discussions has been made public, leaving the vast majority of Haitians in the dark.” According to CARICOM’s statement, the transitional council will be composed of seven voting members picked from across Haitian society, including the private sector and various political factions. Two non-voting members will also be chosen, from civil society and religious groups. US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that Washington expects the members of the council to be appointed within 24 to 48 hours. “And then they will take the step to appoint an interim prime minister in the near future after that,” Miller said. But CARICOM’s statement tied participation in the process to support for a proposed international security mission to Haiti, led by Kenya and backed by the United Nations. CARICOM indicated that anyone opposed to the Kenya-led mission would be excluded from the transitional council, raising more questions about who is dictating the country’s political transition. Some Haitian civil society leaders have previously raised concerns about the prospect of a multinational force in Haiti, stressing that safeguards need to be in place to avoid crises wrought by past foreign interventions. Kenyan officials, meanwhile, have told news outlets such as Reuters and the New York Times that any police deployment from their country is on hold following Henry’s resignation. “It was US and foreign support for Henry that pushed the situation to its dire state,” said Johnston. “But rather than letting a truly Haitian-led process play out, those same foreign powers have opted for a stability pact that, it would seem, is likely to lock in an unsustainable status quo at least in the short term.” An armoured police vehicles passes people taking refuge amid gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 9 [Guerinault Louis/Anadolu Agency] ‘Should never have come to this point’ Most analysts and experts agreed that it is important to understand how Haiti got to this point, in order to chart a path forward. Marlene Daut, a professor of French and African American studies at Yale University, stressed that the unelected Henry should never have had the backing of Washington, the UN and other Western powers to begin with. The prime minister was handpicked for his post shortly before President Moise was assassinated in July 2021. From the very start of his tenure, Henry faced calls to step down in favour of a representative council that would guide Haiti to elections — but he refused. He has served as Haiti’s de facto president amid the political stalemate. “It should never have come to this point,” Daut told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “Because either the United States, the CORE Group [and] the UN believe in democracy, which is what they say — or they don’t. “And if they believe in democracy — that

Russia claims to repel major Ukrainian drone strikes

NewsFeed Ukraine launched one of its most severe attacks into Russia on Tuesday – destroying critical energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Russia claims it is doing everything necessary to thwart new attacks – including the invasion of anti-Kremlin troops threatening to disrupt the upcoming presidential election. Published On 12 Mar 202412 Mar 2024 Adblock test (Why?)