Judge rules no bail release for FBI informant accused of lying about Biden business ties
A California federal judge on Monday denied a bail release to ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who stands accused of lying about the Biden family’s business ties. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright ordered that Smirnov would remain in detention ahead of his trial, concurring with prosecutors who argued he presented a high flight risk. Lawyers for Smirnov argued that he had already invested significant funds into his efforts to defeat the charges, indicating he had no intention to flee. “He didn’t try to run. He didn’t try to move money,” defense lawyer David Chesnoff said of Smirnov’s conduct in recent days. Wright was unconvinced, however, telling Smirnov that he was “not satisfied there are conditions … that will satisfy my concern whether you will flee the jurisdiction.” FBI REPORTEDLY INVESTIGATING CONTROVERSIAL DEMOCRATIC MAYOR WHO SCHMOOZED WITH BIDEN LAST MONTH Prosecutors pointed to Smirnov’s wide range of connections and a bank account held under his girlfriend’s name that contains $3.7 million. HUNTER BIDEN WAS PAID $100K A MONTH THROUGH CHINESE FIRM VENTURE, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIED “He cannot be trusted,” prosecutor Leo Wise told Judge Wright. The defense countered that they were willing to pay for 24/7 private security to ensure Smirnov did not flee. They also committed to renting an apartment in Los Angeles for the duration of the trial, rather than returning to his home in Las Vegas, but the judge dismissed the effort. Smirnov, 43, has been transferred to California from Nevada for his trial. Prosecutors have charged him with peddling lies “that could impact U.S. elections,” highlighting his alleged lies about a supposed multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the Bidens and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Prosecutors say Smirnov falsely told his handler that Burisma executives paid then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter $5 million each around 2015. The claim became a part of the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. He is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. The charges were filed in Los Angeles. Fox News’ Louis Casiano and David Spunt contributed to this report.
San Diego streets, airport flooded with 1,500 migrants after mass-release
The streets and airport in San Diego have reportedly been flooded with approximately 1,500 migrants after a recent mass-release. San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said Border Patrol released more than 1,500 migrants to the San Ysidro bus stop within a three-day span after a $6 million taxpayer-funded migrant processing center that had been operating by a non-profit out of an abandoned elementary school closed last week, FOX 5 San Diego reported. “It’s disgraceful for our country and what we’ve become and the fact that this is how we treat immigrants,” Desmond said. “Border Patrol is their Uber, San Diego is their travel agent.” Desmond said that the San Diego Migrant Welcome Center should never have been funded by taxpayers, and ran out of money in just four and half months. It went through about $1.5 million per month, providing migrants with a place to take refuge and charge their phones until they were processed and sent to their final destinations. CALIF. POLITICIAN PATCHES GAPING BORDER HOLE WITH 400 FEET OF RAZOR WIRE USING HER OWN CASH The center had processed more than 81,000 migrants since October. After its closure, hundreds of migrants arrived at the San Diego airport, according to KUSI. “We’ve got a legal system in place, where people can apply online throughout the world, they can go to an embassy, they can come in with dignity, without having to cross through a fence or go through a river,” Desmond said. “And right now, what we’re allowing to happen is, we’re allowing people who just walk across the border to jump ahead of the line. And I don’t blame them for doing it if we’re allowing it to happen. Why apply legally, if you can just jump ahead of the line.” The outlet’s news crews witnessed a bus full of migrants arrive at the airport around 7 p.m. Friday. A non-profit was helping migrants check in for flights, while another charity group was seen handing out food to migrants sleeping at the airport, FOX 5 reported. One migrant, Mustapha Micradi, told the outlet he had been sleeping outside the airport for about five days because he could not access his bank account in Morocco. He said he crossed the border with a large group of other migrants, was processed by Border Patrol and taken to a transit center where they then boarded a bus to the airport. He was hoping to fly to New York. Desmond said he spotted more than 100 migrants being dropped off at a San Ysidro bus stop on Sunday morning. He said many migrants asked him how to get to New York, Virginia and other destinations. There were no bathroom facilities for the released migrants to use, so some relieved themselves in the parking lot of the MTS bus stop and changed clothes in between cars in the parking lot, Desmond recalled. THOUSANDS OF ‘SPECIAL INTEREST ALIENS’ ILLEGALLY ENTERED US VIA SAN DIEGO SINCE OCTOBER, CBP DATA SHOWS The supervisor noted the federal government does operate one migrant center in the county but demanded they do more to address the issue. The Times of San Diego also reported about how the Iris Transit Center in San Ysidro, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, had been flooded with migrants in recent days. Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director and co-founder of the Immigration Defenders Law Center, spoke with the newspaper about how volunteer-run groups were scrambling after the county-run migrant welcome center shut its doors. She said they were working to provide resources to help migrants dropped on the streets of San Diego to travel to their final destinations, often elsewhere in the country. “What we’re seeing is community stepping up where the federal government has failed to do so,” she said. “The people we’re helping are so resourceful. They have made it this far, they are the survivors, they are so strong and resilient … and all they need is for people to give them a little bit of help.” “They really just need us to meet them with kindness and information to get them to where they’re going,” Toczylowski said.
Most Americans call illegal immigration ‘very serious problem,’ poll finds
A majority of Americans now support building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a Monmouth University poll released Monday. The poll found that 61% of Americans say illegal immigration is a “very serious problem” leading into the 2024 election cycle. “Illegal immigration has taken center stage as a defining issue this presidential election year. Other Monmouth polling found this to be [President] Biden’s weakest policy area, including among his fellow Democrats,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. Similarly, 61% of Americans say immigrants seeking political asylum at the border should be made to stay in Mexico while their claims are processed. Just 35% say they should be allowed into the U.S. while they wait, according to the poll. VULNERABLE DEM SENATOR BREAKS SILENCE ON BIDEN ADMIN PROVIDING VETERAN MEDICAL RESOURCES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS Meanwhile, 53% of participants said they support building a wall at the southern border, while just 46% oppose it. It is the first time a majority of Americans have supported a border wall since Monmouth began polling the issue in 2015, although the poll has a margin of error of 4.1%. 7.2M ILLEGALS ENTERED THE US UNDER BIDEN ADMIN, AN AMOUNT GREATER THAN POPULATION OF 36 STATES Monmouth conducted its poll via telephone, surveying 902 U.S. adults from Feb. 9-12. Last week, another Monmouth poll found that Biden’s approval rating on immigration sits at just 26%. When broken down by party affiliation, slightly over half of Democrats (54%) said they approved of Biden’s handling of immigration, but just 21% of independents and 2% of Republicans said the same. Biden and former President Trump will hold competing trips to the U.S.-Mexico border this week. Biden will speak with U.S. Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas, while Trump delivers a speech in Eagle Pass, Texas. BORDER PATROL UNION RIPS BIDEN OVER BORDER CRISIS: ‘YOU OWN THIS CATASTROPHIC DISASTER’ Biden is expected to use his trip to talk about the importance of passing the Senate’s bipartisan border security agreement, a White House official said, adding that the president will “reiterate his calls for Congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology and more.” Monday’s poll from Monmouth found that nearly half of Americans, 47%, say Biden’s bill does not go far enough, however. Another 28% say the bill is about right, while 12% said it is too tough. U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News this month that the majority of illegal crossings are shifting away from Texas to Arizona and California, where there is less deterrence.
Trump, Biden to visit Texas in competing border trips Thursday
President Joe Biden will meet with law enforcement in Brownsville on Thursday while former President Donald Trump travels to Eagle Pass.
Trump blames ‘Biden’s border invasion’ for Laken Riley murder, vows ‘largest deportation operation’ if elected
Former President Donald Trump blasted Democrat border security and law enforcement policies for the murder of Georgia student Laken Riley at the hands of an illegal immigrant, vowing that “when” elected, he will “immediately seal the border” and begin the “largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American history.” Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Augusta University, was found dead on the University of Georgia campus Thursday after her roommate reported to authorities that she had not returned home from her morning run. ICE CONFIRMS GEORGIA STUDENT MURDER SUSPECT ENTERED US ILLEGALLY, WAS PREVIOUSLY ARRESTED IN NYC The University of Georgia Police Department took Jose Antonio Ibarra into custody and charged him with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another, UGA Police Chief Jeffrey L. Clark said during a news briefing Friday evening. The suspect is not a U.S. citizen. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday confirmed that the Venezuelan national entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and had previously been arrested in New York City. “Crooked Joe Biden’s Border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens!” Trump, the 2024 GOP frontrunner, said Monday in a post on his TRUTH Social. “The horrible murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should have NEVER happened!” Trump said, “the monster who took her life illegally entered our Country in 2022… and then was released AGAIN by Radical Democrats in New York after injuring a CHILD!!” GEORGIA STUDENT MURDER SUSPECT CONFIRMED TO BE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT “When I am your President, we will immediately Seal the Border, Stop the Invasion, and on Day One, we will begin the largest deportation operation of illegal CRIMINALS in American History!” Trump said. He added: “May God Bless Laken Riley and her family!!! Our prayers are with you!” Fox News had previously reported that Ibarra had crossed into the U.S. illegally near El Paso in September 2022 and was paroled into the U.S. LAKEN RILEY CASE: GEORGIA AUTHORITIES IDENTIFY MURDER SUSPECT IN CUSTODY IN NURSING STUDENT’S SLAYING In a statement to Fox News Digital, ICE confirmed he had been encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Sept. 8, 2022, after entering near El Paso and was “paroled and released for further processing.” ICE also confirmed that Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year later, on Sept. 14, 2023, and “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.” When ICE learns that what it believes to be a removable illegal immigrant has been arrested on criminal charges, the agency will normally lodge a detainer – a request asking local law enforcement to keep the suspect in custody until they can be transferred to ICE and put into deportation proceedings. LAKEN RILEY MURDER SUSPECT JOSE IBARRA LIVED WITHIN 5-MINUTE WALK OF UGA CRIME SCENE In this case, however, ICE’s statement says Ibarra was released before a detainer could be issued. NYC is also a “sanctuary city,” which generally restricts law enforcement from complying with ICE detainers. Ibarra appeared in court on Saturday morning, when Clarke County Magistrate Judge Donarell Green denied his bond “for today.” Two translators were present. Ibarra nodded when spoken to. Ibarra’s brother, Diego, was charged Friday with possessing a fraudulent green card and is being held in state custody. The federal arrest affidavit for Diego Ibarra says that in September 2023, Athens-Clarke County Police charged him with drunken driving and driving without a license. He was later arrested for shoplifting and later skipped court. In its statement, ICE said its Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Atlanta “encountered Ibarra pursuant to his arrest by the University of Georgia Police Department and being charged with murder and other crimes. ERO Atlanta lodged a detainer.” UGA Police Chief Jeffrey L. Clark said “the evidence is robust” against Ibarra. Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, Bill Melugin and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
New federal policy gives Native American tribes power to veto green energy development
Federal regulators quietly implemented a new policy enabling Native American tribes to effectively veto certain green energy development projects on their land. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order rejecting three large hydroelectric pump storage projects — which generate dispatchable utility-scale power by transporting water back-and-forth between two man-made reservoirs, one elevated and the other lower — in northeastern Arizona on Navajo Nation land. The order further establishes the policy impacting future projects on tribal lands. That policy replaces FERC’s previous policy of allowing developers to proceed with hydro projects regardless of a tribe’s opposition. The developer of the three pump storage projects submitted applications with FERC in 2021, requesting permits to build the projects in Black Mesa, a mesa on Navajo lands ideal for such energy development, but they received opposition from tribal and environmental groups. “Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said the recent FERC decision is both an acknowledgment and recognition of tribal sovereignty,” Navajo spokesperson George Hardeen told Fox News Digital. “He appreciates that FERC would wait to grant preliminary permits for energy projects on Navajo land until appropriate consultation with tribal divisions and departments is completed.” TED CRUZ PROBES LEFT-WING GROUP OVER EFFORT TRAINING FEDERAL JUDGES FOR CLIMATE CASES “In the past, companies could promise economic development, job growth and similar benefits to local Navajo communities to garner support,” Hardeen added. “But important considerations like adverse impacts on the Nation’s natural and cultural resources were an afterthought. The Navajo Nation seems to have influenced changes in FERC’s permit application process.” Early last year, the Center for Biological Diversity, Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment and Tó Nizhóní Ání, a Diné-led environmental nonprofit, filed motions urging FERC to reject the Black Mesa project’s permits. Other environmental groups, such as Grand Canyon Trust and several Navajo chapters and agencies, joined in opposition to the projects months later. BIDEN ADMIN SCRAPS ECO-FRIENDLY FUEL RULES AS GAS PRICES REMAIN HIGH Those groups applauded FERC’s rejection of the projects and subsequent new policy empowering tribes to veto such developments in the future. “Federal officials are absolutely right to require developers to consult with and gain the support of Tribes before issuing permits for projects on Tribal lands,” said Taylor McKinnon, the Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The demise of these disastrous proposals is a huge win for the people, plants and animals of Black Mesa, and a victory for environmental justice.” The National Hydropower Association (NHA) acknowledged it appreciates “the spirit of FERC’s new policy,” noting it has engaged with Native American tribes. However, the group expressed concern about how FERC’s actions may negatively impact future hydro development. According to NHA, the new policy specifically concerns preliminary permits, which are required to begin the long process of studying a site and engaging with local stakeholders. BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE DELIVERS BLOW TO CLIMATE LAWSUIT TARGETING GAS STOVES “We are concerned that FERC’s new policy could be counter-productive and undermine the Federal Power Act’s existing engagement process,” NHA President and CEO Malcolm Woolf said. “A preliminary permit merely authorizes the licensee to study the site and start the community engagement process.” “By denying permits at the very beginning of the licensing process (which typically takes 5+ years), FERC is short-circuiting the very structure envisioned under the Federal Power Act for engagement with tribes, agencies, and other stakeholders,” Woolf added. “FERC’s new policy would not achieve the intended results that we all hope to secure — which is creating a clean energy future that powers our nation, respects our environment, and preserves important cultural legacies.” Overall, hydropower supplies nearly 80,000 megawatts of the nation’s power, or 6% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity and 29% of total utility-scale renewable electricity, according to federal data. Additionally, the U.S. has more than 23,000 megawatts of pumped storage, which operates like a battery, deploying electricity in times of reduced power supplies and could, advocates argue, be key to supplementing intermittent green energy sources such as solar and wind. The Black Mesa projects would have had a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts, increasing the nation’s pump storage capacity by 26%.
Growing frustration among Mayorkas impeachment managers about not starting a trial
There is growing frustration among the 11 House impeachment managers about when they will present their articles to the Senate in the case of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. House managers serve as “prosecutors” and argue the impeachment case before the Senate. One impeachment manager told Fox they had been given “no clear guidance” about the roles they might play or when the House may even transmit the articles to the Senate. Fox was told the earliest the Senate could begin a trial is Wednesday. However, the decision lies at the feet of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). RANCHER SOUNDS ALARM ON ‘ROUTE’ FOR TERROR AS MAYORKAS DENIES RESPONSIBILITY FOR MASS BORDER CROSSINGS Some House Republicans – and some impeachment managers – are itching to get started, but that could backfire without preparation. Fox was told two weeks ago that House impeachment managers believed they might meet late last week to prep and organize – even doing “mock trial” sessions. Democrats who were impeachment managers conducted such dry runs in late 2019 and early 2020 ahead of the first impeachment trial of former President Trump. However, such sessions never materialized, although there were conversations among chiefs of staff for the impeachment managers. HOUSE VOTES TO IMPEACH DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS OVER BORDER CRISIS “We hoped to get clarity on the next steps two weeks ago, if not the end of last week,” said one frustrated manager. There has been some chatter that the House might not even send over the impeachment articles until the issue of two looming government shutdowns subsides. Managers expressed concern about how they should prepare or if the managers would be assigned “subject lanes” to argue before the Senate. One manager feared that House leaders might want to send over the articles promptly, initiating a trial without any preparation. The manager worried how that would look if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) decides to give impeachment managers some latitude and present their arguments. “We might fall on our face,” said one manager.
Hind Rajab: Were Israeli troops around where the six-year-old was killed?
An Al Jazeera investigation has shown three Israeli tanks around the car where a six-year-old girl was killed after hours of pleading for help. However, Israel’s army denied this on Saturday, saying its troops were not in the area on January 29, the day Hind Rajab and her family were killed. Here’s the whole story, what Israel claims and how Al Jazeera investigators put Israeli tanks at the scene of the killing: What happened to Hind? Hind’s story travelled around the world when a phone recording of what’s now understood to be her and her family’s final moments went viral on social media. On the call, which lasted for about three hours, Hind begged rescue workers to come save her after the family’s car came under fire and she became the sole survivor, stranded inside with her dead relatives. Two dispatchers with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) sent to save her were also killed. The PRCS has accused Israel of deliberately targeting the medical team despite back and forth between the organisation and the army as the medics tried to get permission to evacuate Hind. Hind and her cousins are just some of the thousands of children killed in Israel’s relentless war on Gaza in violation of international law. Nearly 30,000 people have died in Gaza since October 7. Six-year-old Hind Rajab [Courtesy of Ghada Ageel] What has Israel said? According to a report by the Times of Israel, Israeli officials said an initial investigation showed that troops were not present in the Tal al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City on January 29 when Hind and five other family members were killed. “It appears that … troops were not present near the vehicle or within firing range of the described vehicle in which the girl was found,” a statement from the Israeli army read. The statement directly contradicts the evidence as recorded in the circulating phone call between the PRCS and Hind. “Also, given the lack of forces in the area, there was no need for individual coordination of the movement of the ambulance or another vehicle to pick up the girl,” the statement said, which goes counter to PRCS’s statement that it had been working to coordinate with the Israeli army. The statement went on to claim that medics are moving without restriction throughout the Gaza Strip, which goes against multiple accounts out of Gaza. What did Al Jazeera find? Sanad, Al Jazeera’s investigations unit, analysed phone records and satellite imagery to prove that there were Israeli troops near the car belonging to Hind’s family that day. The vehicle, the investigation found, had been stopped by the Israeli military near a petrol station in Tal al-Hawa around early afternoon on January 29. A phone call from Hind’s uncle to a relative in Germany triggered the PRCS intervention. Al Jazeera obtained messages between the relatives, time-stamping the last few hours of the deadly ordeal when Hind and one of her cousins, 15-year-old Layan, were still alive. Layan, who was the first on the call with the PRCS, identified Israeli tanks near the car, saying: “They are firing at us; the tank is beside me.” Within minutes, a round of what sounded like gunfire went off and a screaming Layan went quiet. When Hind picked up the phone and spoke to the PRCS, she also identified Israeli military vehicles near the family car. “The tank is next to me. [It’s] coming from the front of the car,” she said. Around three hours later, the connection with Hind was cut off. Al Jazeera’s analysis of satellite images taken at midday on January 29 corroborated Hind and Layan’s accounts, and put at least three Israeli tanks just 270m (886 feet) from the family’s car, with their guns pointed at it. When rescuers found the remains of Hind and her family on February 10, the car was riddled with bullet holes likely coming from more than one direction. What happened to the ambulance? Medics Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun arrived at the scene around 6pm on January 29, after hours of the PRCS trying to get permission from the Israeli army. “I’m nearly there,” Zeino told his colleagues as the ambulance edged closer to Hind. But the two rescue workers never got to her.“We heard gunfire, we couldn’t imagine [they] would fire at them,” Rana Faqih, the PRCS official who held the line with Hind, told Al Jazeera. After the gunfire, there was complete silence. It was only 12 days later on February 10 that the remains of the two men were found, following the Israeli military’s withdrawal. The ambulance was destroyed and appeared to have been run over by a tank, according to Sanad’s analysis. What next? The United States, Israel’s number-one ally, has called for probes into the killing of Hind, her family, and the medics. US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters: “We have asked the Israeli authorities to investigate this incident on an urgent basis.” After the initial finding into Hind’s case was released on Saturday, Israeli officials told local reporters the investigation has been transferred to the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism for further analysis. Similar Israeli investigations have not been straightforward. Authorities denied the May 2022 killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh for several months before admitting that Israeli gunfire had killed the veteran journalist, claiming it was “not intentional”. Adblock test (Why?)
US serviceman dies after setting himself on fire in Gaza protest
NewsFeed US serviceman Aaron Bushnell, who set fire to himself outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC saying he was protesting against the genocide of Palestinians, has died in hospital from his injuries. Published On 26 Feb 202426 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Photos: Farmers clash with police near the European Union headquarters
Farmers have clashed with police in Belgium, spraying officers with liquid manure and setting fire to piles of tyres in a fresh show of force as European Union agriculture ministers met in search of ways to address their concerns. Brussels police said that 900 tractors had entered the city of Brussels, many bearing down on the European Council building where the ministers were meeting. Smoke drifted through the air near where police in riot gear used water cannons to defend the EU’s headquarters from behind concrete barriers and barbed wire. The farmers are protesting against red tape and competition from cheap imports from countries where the EU’s relatively high standards do not have to be met. They lined up scores of tractors down main roads leading to the city’s European Quarter, snarling traffic and blocking public transport. A few tractors forced their way through one barrier, sending officers scurrying. Some are lamenting what they see as the slow death of working the land. “Agriculture. As a child you dream of it, as an adult you die of it,” said one. At the start of the month, a similar demonstration turned violent as farmers torched hay bales and threw eggs and firecrackers at police near a summit of EU leaders. The protests are the latest in a series of rallies and demonstrations by farmers across Europe. On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron was greeted with boos and whistles at the opening of the Paris Agricultural Show by farmers who claim that he’s not doing enough to support them. Spain, the Netherlands and Bulgaria have been hit by protests in recent weeks. The movement has gathered pace as political parties campaign for Europe-wide elections on June 6-9. It’s already had results. Earlier this month, the EU’s executive branch shelved an anti-pesticide proposal in a concession to the farmers, who comprise an important voting constituency. On the other side of the barriers in Brussels, the ministers were keen to show they’re listening. The EU presidency, currently held by Belgium, acknowledged that the farmers’ concerns include the burden of respecting environmental policies, a drop in assistance from the bloc’s agricultural subsidy system and the impact of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s grain supplies. “We hear, clearly, their complaints,” said David Clarinval, Belgium’s agriculture minister. Still, he urged the protesters to refrain from violence. “We can understand that some are in difficult circumstances, but aggression has never been a source for solutions.” Adblock test (Why?)