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  • White Terrorist, Daniel Penny, Only Charged With Manslaughter For Choking Jordan Neely.

    USA Today:

    As a memorial service next week for Jordan Neely is being organized, his
    killer Daniel Penny awaits trial, where prosecutors will seek a grand
    jury indictment on a charge of manslaughter.
    On Friday, Penny was arrested less than 24 hours after Manhattan
    prosecutors announced the charge of manslaughter, and then he was
    released on bond.
    The 24-year-old could face up to 15 years in prison for administering a
    fatal chokehold on Neely, a 30-year-old Black man experiencing
    homelessness, on May 1 after an altercation on board the subway.
    In the days following Neely's death, New York police failed to release
    substantial details about what happened on board the subway car leading
    up to the chokehold, as well as what happened in the minutes leading up
    to the arrival of police.
    A medical examiner ruled Neely's death a homicide caused by depression
    of the neck.
    Lawyers for Penny, a white U.S. Marine Corps veteran, say he acted in
    self-defense.
    Bystanders on board the subway on May 1 have said Neely did not
    physically assault anyone in the moments leading up to Penny grabbing
    him from behind, lawyers say.
    What charges is Daniel Penny facing?
    Nearly two weeks after administering a fatal chokehold on Neely,
    prosecutors announced Penny would be charged with second degree
    manslaughter.
    On Friday, lawyer Lennon Edwards said the Manhattan district attorney
    "admitted" to him he could not recall a single other instance in the
    past 25 years where a suspect in a death case was released from custody
    after police secured a confession and video evidence, as in the case of
    Penny.
    "He should have been arrested on the spot," the day of the incident,
    said Edwards, a lawyer for Neely's family.
    On Friday, a judge authorized Penny’s release on $100,000 bond and
    ordered him to surrender his passport and not to leave New York without
    approval.
    Edwards said the district attorney had told Neely's father this week to
    expect a possible indictment in June.


    4 min
  • CNN Excoriated For Trump Town Hall Of Lies.

    Yahoo News:

    CNN’s highly anticipated town hall with Donald Trump on Wednesday night
    renewed long-standing questions about how to cover the former president
    without simply allowing him to peddle falsehoods on a national platform.
    Those questions are becoming more urgent as Trump’s campaign recovers
    from last November’s lackluster rollout of a new White House campaign.
    Hosted by anchor Kaitlan Collins, a former White House reporter and a
    rising star at the network, the event came as Trump appeared to be
    consolidating his position as the GOP frontrunner. In the audience sat
    undecided voters from New Hampshire, a crucial early-primary state.
    But there was little effort from the former president to demonstrate
    that he had been chastened by his loss in 2020 and was intent on running
    a more disciplined campaign in 2024.
    Instead, he engaged in his usual lies about his loss to Joe Biden while
    also mocking the judgment against him earlier this week in a Manhattan
    sexual assault civil suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. He claimed
    that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours and suggested that
    the way to prevent school shootings was to arm teachers.
    And for good measure, he insulted Collins, calling her a “nasty person.”
    Questions about CNN’s judgment
    Eight years after Trump launched his first presidential campaign, the
    question of how to cover the master of attention-getting remains
    unresolved. He is clearly not the sideshow that some dismissed him as in
    2015 (he did, after all, win the presidency in 2016), but in the wake
    of the Jan. 6, 2021, deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, there are
    legitimate questions about how to properly cover a candidate routinely
    given to make incendiary statements, not to mention transparently false
    ones.
    CNN chief executive Chris Licht has been intent on making the network
    more appealing to moderates and even conservatives since the Trump
    presidency, and Wednesday night’s town hall was clearly an effort to
    appeal to voters who might otherwise have tuned in to Fox News.
    But to some, simply letting Trump peddle falsehoods was a disservice to
    the political process. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on
    Twitter that “CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” while Democratic
    strategist Simon Rosenberg called on Licht to resign.


    5 min
  • Bill Maher cries about "Wokeness" and "Cancel Culture" (For the 100th time).

    William Maher (/mɑːr/; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian,

    writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He
    is known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher
    (2003–present) and the similar late-night show called Politically
    Incorrect (1993–2002), originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC. In
    2022, Maher started the podcast Club Random.
    Maher is known for his political satire and sociopolitical commentary.
    He targets many topics including religion, political correctness, and
    the mass media. His critical views of religion were the basis for his
    2008 documentary film Religulous. He is a supporter of animal rights,
    having served on the board of PETA since 1997, and is an advisory board
    member of Project Reason. Maher supports the legalization of cannabis,
    serving on the advisory board of NORML.
    Maher is a frequent commentator on various cable news networks,
    including CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and HLN. Maher has regularly appeared on
    CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and has also been a frequent
    guest on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Rachel Maddow Show,
    and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Maher has also appeared as a guest
    on HLN's The Joy Behar Show. He wrote the foreword for the 2002 book,
    Spin This!: All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth by show host Bill
    Press.
    Maher hosted the January 13, 2006, edition of Larry King Live, on which
    he was a frequent guest. Maher appeared as a special guest on the June
    29, 2010, edition of the show, on which CNN anchor Larry King announced
    his retirement. Maher co-emceed the final show of Larry King Live on
    December 16, 2010, with Ryan Seacrest.


    6 min
  • White Supremacist Tucker Carlson Fired By Fox News. Don Lemon Fired By CNN.

    Time:

    In a matter of minutes on Monday, the face of cable news changed
    dramatically. First, Fox News reported that it had “parted ways” with
    Tucker Carlson, the host of the conservative cable news network’s hit 8
    p.m. show Tucker Carlson Tonight. Then, just as the Succession memes
    started flowing, longtime CNN host Don Lemon posted a note on Twitter
    informing followers that he’d just heard, via his agent, that the
    network was firing him. (CNN has since disputed that characterization,
    tweeting that Lemon “was offered an opportunity to meet with management
    but instead released a statement on Twitter.”)
    It’s tempting to lump together these two departures, considering that
    they were announced almost simultaneously. (Lemon was open about his
    termination, whereas Carlson’s exit was publicly framed as a mutual
    decision. A source at Fox confirmed to TIME that the decision was not a
    financial one and suggested that Carlson was likely surprised by the
    decision, given his signoff on Friday’s show, but would not provide
    further comment.) Carlson and Lemon have something else in common, too:
    both men are controversial, and have faced backlash from the media and
    the public as well as their co-workers. The Fox News star leans into his
    role as a provocateur, promoting a right-wing agenda that barely
    bothers to conceal its grounding in racism, sexism, xenophobia,
    conspiracy thinking, religious intolerance, and hatred of the LGBTQ
    community. His less inflammatory CNN counterpart, meanwhile, has been
    mired in accusations of misogyny and bad behavior on set. But it would
    be a mistake to read their tandem dismissals as some righteous act on
    the part of cable news media writ large to purge itself of toxic men.
    The cases have important differences, though both will surely impact how
    TV covers the 2024 presidential election.
    Of the two, Lemon was the much more obvious candidate for replacement.
    As he put it on Twitter on Monday morning: “It is clear that there are
    some larger issues in play.” As anyone who’s been following his career
    recently will remember, one salient issue is Lemon himself. This past
    February, the CNN This Morning co-anchor came under fire for calling
    51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley over the hill.
    “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry,” Lemon told his female
    co-hosts. “When a woman is considered to be in her prime—in her 20s,
    30s, and maybe her 40s.” Further reporting turned up allegations that
    Lemon had a long history of behavior that Variety characterized as
    painting “a picture of a journalist who flouted rules and cozied up to
    power all while displaying open hostility to many female co-workers.”


    5 min
  • Terrorist Organization Fox "News" Settles for $787.5 million.

    New York Times/Yahoo News:

    Dominion Voting Systems did more on Tuesday than settle its lawsuit
    against Fox News for $787.5 million: It also set the tone for the many
    related defamation cases it has filed.
    Legal experts say the settlement with Fox News, one of the largest
    defamation payouts in American history, could embolden Dominion as it
    continues to defend its reputation, which it says was savaged by
    conspiracy theories about vote fraud during the 2020 election. The
    company has several cases pending against public figures including Mike
    Lindell, the MyPillow executive, and news outlets such as Newsmax.
    The targets of Dominion’s remaining lawsuits, few of which have deep
    pockets and legal firepower at Fox’s level, will likely take a cue from
    Dominion and Fox’s faceoff, legal experts said.
    Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
    “Even though it was a settlement, it certainly was a victory for
    Dominion,” said Margaret M. Russell, a law professor at Santa Clara
    University. “For other possible defendants, I don’t think this will make
    them double down; it will make them fearful.”
    Dominion is the second-largest election technology company operating in
    the United States, where there are few other major players. The company,
    whose majority owner is the private equity firm Staple Street Capital,
    was made “toxic” by the false fraud narratives in 2020, one of Staple
    Street’s founders said in court documents. At one point, Dominion
    estimated that misinformation cost it $600 million in profits.
    Fox said in its court filings that Dominion did not have to lay off
    employees, close offices or default on any debts, nor did it suffer any
    canceled business contracts as a result of the news network’s coverage.
    Fox said in one filing that Dominion had projected $98 million in
    revenue for 2022, which would make Tuesday’s settlement the equivalent
    of eight years of sales...


    5 min
  • France/EU says it's not America's bitch.

    Russia Today:
    Paris is an ally and not a “vassal” of Washington,

    French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on Wednesday. He was defending
    his recent comments about the EU needing “strategic autonomy” in the
    face of rising tensions between the US and China.
    “Being an ally
    does not mean being a vassal... doesn’t mean that we don’t have the
    right to think for ourselves,” Macron said in Amsterdam at a joint press
    conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
    Asked for the
    French position on Taiwan, Macron said Paris supports the status quo,
    meaning the “One China policy and the search for a peaceful resolution
    to the situation.”
    Returning from his trip to China on Sunday,
    Macron argued that the EU can’t just be “America’s followers,” and that
    it is not in the bloc’s interest to stoke tensions over Taiwan. “The
    worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on
    this topic and take our cue from the US agenda and a Chinese
    overreaction,” he told reporters.
    The remarks earned a swift
    rebuke from US Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican on the foreign
    affairs committee, who suggested Washington might leave the EU to handle
    the Ukraine conflict by itself.
    Taiwanese Parliament Speaker
    You Si-kun on Tuesday argued that France had forsaken its motto of
    ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’, and that advanced democracies should
    not “ignore the lives and deaths of people in other countries,” adding
    that Macron’s comments left him “puzzled.”
    Meanwhile, French
    Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that Macron was “perfectly right to
    demand European independence and sovereignty,” while the president of
    the European Council, Charles Michel, noted that “quite a few” leaders
    of EU countries think like Macron, even though they “wouldn’t say things
    the same way.”
    When asked about the French president’s comments
    on Monday, the US State Department said France is a long-standing ally
    and that occasional disagreements do not detract from the “deep
    partnership” with Paris. As for the EU position, a State Department
    spokesman cited a recent speech by the bloc’s president, Ursula von der
    Leyen, which described China as “a national and economic security
    threat,” and said there is “immense convergence” between Washington and
    Brussels on the matter.

    6 min
  • BRICS Countries Look To Dump The US Dollar.

    Firstpost:

    The US dollar has been the official currency for international trade for
    years now. However, in recent times there has been talk of creating a
    new currency in an attempt to dump the dollar and push back against
    American hegemony.
    This de-dollarisation has received a boost in recent times, especially
    after the Russia-Ukraine war began last February. And last week, this
    movement received further impetus when Alexander Babakov, the deputy
    chairman of the State Duma, was quoted as saying that the BRICS nations
    are in the process of creating a new medium for payments — established
    on a strategy that “does not defend the dollar or euro”.
    Is the BRICS nations actually creating a new currency for trade? Who’s
    at the forefront of this movement? Will it benefit India? Will the plan
    actually fructify? There are several questions to this issue and we try
    to answer them all.
    Dethroning the king of currency
    The US dollar has been called the king of currency. It became the
    official reserve currency of the world in 1944. The decision was made by
    a delegation from 44 Allied countries called the Bretton Woods
    Agreement.
    Since then, the dollar has enjoyed a powerful status in the world. It
    has given the US a disproportionate amount of influence over other
    economies. In fact, the US has for long used imposition of sanctions as a
    tool to achieve foreign policy goals.
    However, not everybody likes playing by US rules and countries like
    Russia and China would like to call a halt to dollar hegemony. This
    process is called de-dollarisation — and it refers to reducing the
    dollar’s dominance in global markets. It is a process of substituting
    the US dollar as the currency used for trading oil and/or other
    commodities.
    The proponents of de-dollarisation say that this process would reduce
    other countries’ dependence on the US dollar and the US economy, which
    could help mitigate the impact of economic and political changes in the
    US on their own economies. Moreover, countries can reduce their exposure
    to currency fluctuations and interest rate changes, which can help to
    improve economic stability and reduce the risk of financial crises.
    This move has been gaining speed in the last few years, especially in
    the previous year. In 2022, the International Monetary Fund noted that
    central banks today are not holding the greenback as reserves in the
    same quantities as yesteryear.
    “The dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves fell below 59
    per cent in the final quarter of last year, extending a two-decade
    decline, according to the IMF’s Currency Composition of Official Foreign
    Exchange Reserves data,” the paper stated. “Strikingly, the decline in
    the dollar’s share has not been accompanied by an increase in the shares
    of the pound sterling, yen and euro, other long-standing reserve
    currencies… Rather, the shift out of dollars has been in two directions:
    a quarter into the Chinese renminbi, and three quarters into the
    currencies of smaller countries that have played a more limited role as
    reserve currencies.”
    To punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, western governments froze
    $300 billion of Russia’s foreign currency reserves last year, roughly
    half the total, and expelled Russian banks from the Swift international
    payments system.


    6 min
  • Israel Attacks Palestinian Worshippers in Al Aqsa Mosque & Bombs Gaza.

    Al Jazeera:

    Tensions in Jerusalem have flared after Israeli police attacked
    worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound overnight during the holy
    month of Ramadan.
    The raids continued until Wednesday morning
    when Israeli forces were once again seen assaulting and pushing
    Palestinians out of the compound and preventing them from praying –
    before Israelis were allowed in under police protection.
    What happened in Al-Aqsa compound?
    Before dawn on Wednesday,
    Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East
    Jerusalem, attacking dozens of worshippers in the Qibli Mosque.
    Israeli
    police, who claimed they were responding to “rioting”, beat worshippers
    with batons and used tear gas and sound bombs to force them out of the
    prayer halls, according to witnesses.
    Videos shared on social media showed women screaming for help as a small
    fire erupted in the prayer hall.
    The Palestinian Red Crescent
    reported 12 people injured, including three who were taken to hospital.
    It also said in a statement that Israeli forces prevented its medics
    from reaching Al-Aqsa.
    At least 400 Palestinians were arrested and remain in Israeli custody,
    according to local officials.

    Why would armed security forces enter a mosque?
    Israeli
    police said in a statement that they were forced to enter the compound
    after “masked agitators” locked themselves inside the mosque with
    fireworks, sticks and stones.
    “When the police entered, stones
    were thrown at them and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a
    large group of agitators,” the statement said, adding that a police
    officer was wounded in the leg.
    The Israeli police also said that
    according to a prior agreement with the Al-Aqsa compound authorities,
    no one was to spend the night inside the compound during the month of
    Ramadan.
    “The police said they ‘peacefully’ tried to convince
    people to leave but when that didn’t happen they forced their way into
    Al-Aqsa,” said Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim.
    But Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned
    what happened as “a major crime against the worshippers”, adding that
    “prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque is not with the permission of the [Israeli]
    occupation … it is our right.”
    “Al-Aqsa is for the Palestinians
    and for all Arabs and Muslims, and the raiding of it is a spark of
    revolution against the occupation,” he added.

    7 min
  • Trump Officially Indicted!

    A Manhattan grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump,
    making him the first current or former president to face criminal
    charges.
    It was not immediately clear what the indictment was connected to, or
    what charges Trump will face. The indictment is under seal.
    In a statement released Thursday evening, a spokesperson for the
    Manhattan district attorney's office said, "This evening we contacted
    Mr. Trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.'s
    Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains
    under seal. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is
    selected."
    Trump is expected to surrender in New York early next week, sources
    familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
    Speaking to ABC News, Trump called the indictment "political
    persecution" and "an attack on our country."
    "They are trying to impact an election," said Trump, who is running for
    president in 2024.
    "From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even
    before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the
    Radical Left Democrats -- the enemy of the hard-working men and women of
    this Country -- have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make
    America Great Again movement," Trump said in a subsequent statement.
    "Weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just
    so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the
    leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before.
    Ever."
    Trump has been under investigation by the Manhattan DA's office, which
    has been probing the $130,000 hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels,
    the adult film actress who has alleged she had an affair with Trump,
    which he has long denied.
    Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer who wrote the check to Daniels in
    the closing days of the 2016 campaign, went to prison in part over the
    payment, which federal prosecutors believed amounted to an illicit
    campaign donation, according to court records.
    When Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment, his company logged the
    payments as a "monthly retainer" for Cohen's legal services, according
    to Trump and court documents from Cohen's subsequent plea deal.
    Prosecutors were considering whether Trump should be charged with
    falsifying business records, sources say.
    "This is all about accountability," Cohen told reporters when he arrived
    to testify before a Manhattan grand jury earlier this month. Of Trump,
    he said, "He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds."
    Trump has long insisted he did "absolutely nothing wrong" and has called
    the investigation part of a witch hunt by a Democratic prosecutor. An
    attorney for Trump has said the payment was not meant to protect the
    campaign, but to protect Trump's family.
    "He made this with personal funds to prevent something coming out,
    false, but embarrassing to himself, his family, his young son," defense
    attorney Joe Tacopina told George Stephanopoulos two weeks ago on ABC's
    Good Morning America.
    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last year won a tax fraud
    conviction against Trump's namesake company, and its former finance
    chief, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to tax evasion -- but until now
    Trump himself had never faced an indictment.


    6 min
  • America threatens Mexico.

    Reuters:

    The Biden administration plans to send Mexico an "act now or else"
    message in coming weeks in an attempt to break a stalemate in an energy
    trade dispute as bipartisan calls grow for the U.S. to get tougher with
    its southern neighbor, according to people familiar with the
    discussions.
    The move would represent a significant escalation in already-strained
    tensions between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart,
    Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
    Obrador's decision to roll back reforms aimed at opening Mexico's power
    and oil markets to outside competitors sparked the trade dispute.
    The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is expected
    to make what was described as a "final offer" to Mexico negotiators to
    open its markets and agree to some increased oversight, three people
    familiar with the talks told Reuters. If not, the U.S. will request an
    independent dispute settlement panel under the Unites States Mexico
    Canada Agreement, or USMCA, they said.
    The United States and Canada demanded dispute settlement talks with
    Mexico in July, 250 days ago. Under USMCA rules, after 75 days without a
    resolution they were free to request a dispute settlement panel, a
    third party that rules on the case.
    At an event on Monday, Mexico's Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said
    the United States has been entitled to call for a panel since Oct. 3.
    If the panel rules against Mexico and it fails to take corrective
    action, Washington and Ottawa could ultimately impose billions of
    dollars in retaliatory tariffs on Mexican goods.
    The White House has hoped to avoid escalating trade tensions with Mexico
    as it sought help on immigration and drug trafficking. But months of
    talks have yielded little progress and the administration has run out of
    less-combative options, the sources told Reuters...


    7 min

About IRNews

From the publisher's feed

We all grew up being brainwashed by American propaganda. In American schools, in the US “news” media, in film, television, books, in video games, fashion, music, etc. They all told us that America is one of the “good guys.” They told us that America believed in safe-space fluff concepts like, “freedom,” “democracy,” “civil liberties and individual rights,” etc. It wasn’t until the criminal invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq, that I began to realize that it was all propaganda. America didn’t believe any of it. It practiced loathsome evils against those who opposed it and allied with like-minded states. To this day, this is still true.