California police union chief charged in international fentanyl ring

The head of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association faces up to 20 years in prison on drug trafficking charges

A San Jose police union chief accused of importing and reselling deadly synthetic opioids from suppliers in half a dozen countries to customers all over the US turned herself in on Friday, according to local media.

Joanne Marian Segovia faces up to 20 years in prison for attempting to unlawfully import valerylfentanyl, a Schedule I synthetic fentanyl analogue.

Segovia allegedly spent nearly a decade of her tenure as executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association trafficking in the deadly drugs, using police resources to move pills and powders around the country.

Using her personal and office computers, she ordered thousands of pills at a time from China, Hong Kong, Hungary, and India, receiving at least 61 such shipments at the union office and her home between October 2015 and January 2023 labeled as party favors, makeup, chocolates, and other innocuous items, according to the US Department of Justice’s criminal complaint. She then used the union’s UPS account to ship the synthetic narcotics to domestic customers right out of her office, taking payment via CashApp.

The Department of Homeland Security found Segovia's name and address on the phone of an international drug smuggling suspect and subsequently intercepted five shipments to her between July 2019 and January 2023, netting over a kilogram of controlled substances, including thousands of pills of the synthetic opioids tramadol and tapentadol.

Confronted about the packages by Homeland Security agents in February, she insisted they were just supplements, claiming to “work for the police department.” In a second interview, Segovia claimed a family friend and housekeeper with a drug problem was responsible, though holes in her story failed to convince the agents.

Segovia is believed to have continued placing orders after the agents' first visit, and an order bound for her address was intercepted on March 13 en route from China. Labeled ‘CLOCK’, its contents included white adhesive stickers containing valerylfentanyl.

Segovia was released without bond and ordered to refrain from travel outside Northern California. In addition to prison time, she could be fined up to $250,000 and serve at least three years’ supervised release.

Fentanyl overdoses, which killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2021, are the “single greatest challenge we face as a country,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday. Customs and Border Protection seized a record 15,000 pounds of fentanyl last year and is reportedly set to double that amount this year.

https://www.rt.com/news/574044-police-union-trafficking-fentanyl-sanjose/

Left-wing Activists Invade Israeli Think Tank Behind Judicial Reforms

Left-wing activists invaded the office of the Kohelet Policy Forum on Sunday in Jerusalem, targeting the free-market think tank that came up with most of the judicial reforms embraced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The reforms are on hold now, after Netanyahu declared a pause in the legislation to allow for more time for negotiation with opposition parties, after weeks of disruptive protests. But Israel’s left-wing activists have not left much room for compromise; on the contrary, they have gone on the offensive.

The Times of Israel reported:

The protesters from a women-led activist group called “Breaking Walls” barged into Kohelet’s offices with signs reading, “There’s no God for racists” and “Kohelet hates the poor.”

The activists said the conservative think tank “is advancing an agenda that hurts the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, public housing, and welfare.”

The protesters initially arrived at the Kohelet offices with a bouquet of flowers, saying they were bringing a delivery to the organization’s management. When a security guard opened the door they burst into the office and remained there until police removed them. Some of the protesters were taken in for questioning.

(For more on the Kohelet Forum, see a recent interview by Jonathan S. Tobin of the institute’s founder, Moshe Koppel.)

As Breitbart News has noted, the judicial reforms largely parallel existing practice in the Untied States. The most controversial reform, allowing the Knesset (legislature) to override the Supreme Court on a majority vote, has been disavowed by Kohelet, amid speculation that Netanyahu intended to use it as a bargaining chip.

Some Israelis fear that reforms to the judiciary, until now a bastion of left-wing power, would allow religious parties to pass laws mandating that the Israeli state follow Jewish religious doctrine. Netanyahu has denied that this is the case, pointing out that his own party, the Likud, has the first gay Knesset speaker.

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/04/02/left-wing-activists-invade-israeli-think-tank-behind-judicial-reforms/

Chinese ‘spy balloon’ made escape attempt – media

US officials shared with NBC News new details about Beijing’s alleged espionage mission

China allegedly tried to speed up its balloon’s flight over the US after the administration of President Joe Biden accused Beijing of sending the vessel to surveil American targets, claimed three anonymous current and former US officials cited by NBC News.

The news outlet unveiled new details on Monday about how the balloon incident was perceived by Washington. The Chinese government has maintained that the aircraft was a scientific weather craft that strayed into American airspace rather than being part of an espionage program as alleged by US officials.

The NBC News sources claimed that China could control the balloon “so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites” it targeted for electronic signal collection. After its presence became public in early February, the operators “increased its speed” in an alleged attempt “to get it out of US airspace as quickly as possible.”

The report stated that the US government had been disrupting the balloon’s mission by moving potential targets around and stopping them from broadcasting. If not for these efforts, “China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites,” according to the unnamed officials.

The outlet said that its sources had declined to say which organization in China was responsible for the mission. Meanwhile, the officials reiterated claims that the aircraft had a self-destruct mechanism, which could have been triggered remotely but apparently didn’t activate for some reason.

The high-altitude aircraft entered US airspace near Alaska in late January and flew over a large swath of the country before being shot down by the US Air Force on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina. The Malmstrom Air Force Base in the state of Montana, where the US stores some of its nuclear weapons, was allegedly among the mission’s intended targets.

Domestic opponents of President Biden criticized him for a perceived reluctance to take out the Chinese craft, a hesitancy that his administration attributed to safety concerns. It said it could not control where the debris would fall and had to wait until the balloon had moved away from land.

The US has a record of identifying what it sees as potential sources of espionage by Beijing, including exchange students from China, Chinese-made cranes in US ports, and the country’s video-sharing platform TikTok.

https://www.rt.com/news/574078-chinese-spy-balloon-escape/

Swiss banking giant plans mass layoffs after Credit Suisse takeover – media

UBS may eliminate more than 30,000 jobs worldwide, a newspaper writes

UBS Group AG will slash its workforce by between 20% and 30% after completing its takeover of rival Credit Suisse, letting go as many as 36,000 employees globally, the newspaper Sonntagszeitung has reported, citing a senior manager at UBS.

The newspaper highlighted that some 11,000 employees would be dismissed in Switzerland, although it did not provide any details about which positions would be targeted. The two lenders together employed almost 125,000 people worldwide at the end of 2022, about 30% of which were in Switzerland, according to the report.

Last month, the two Swiss banks announced a historic merger, with UBS agreeing to pay 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.24 billion) in stock to acquire its embattled rival in a deal underpinned by government guarantees and 100 billion francs (just over $1 billion) in liquidity assistance from Switzerland’s central bank. The government-brokered deal was aimed at shoring up public confidence in the Western financial system and averting a global crisis after the collapses of two regional banks in the US.

The banking crisis exacerbated the troubles of Credit Suisse, which had been already battling a string of scandals, legal issues, and customer outflows. On top of that, its biggest investor, Saudi National Bank, announced in March it would not be able to provide financial assistance due to regulatory and statutory limits. Credit Suisse reported a 2022 net loss of 7.3 billion francs (nearly $8 billion) and warned that it would incur another “substantial” loss in 2023 before returning to profitability in 2024.

https://www.rt.com/business/574066-ubs-layoffs-credit-suisse-takeover/

Fed raises interest rates by a quarter point amid high inflation and now bank collapses

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will make the announcement at the conclusion of the bank's two-day monetary policy meeting.

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it will again raise interest rates – this time by a quarter of a point as it is juggling whether another rate hike will help cool the U.S. economy while still keeping the U.S. banking system secure.

"The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 4-3/4 to 5 percent," the Fed said when announcing the rate hike. The rate was 4-1/2 to 4-3/4 percent, but Wednesday's increase is slightly less than the 0.5% that was projected in December.

"Inflation remains well above our longer-run goal of 2%," Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said at the conclusion of the bank's two-day monetary policy meeting.

While inflation has "moderated" somewhat since last year, "pressures continue to run high," he said, reflecting how the inflation rate in February was up 6% from the year before.

"The process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go and is likely going to be bumpy," he warned.

The central bank has aggressively raised interest rates over the past year, bringing down inflation significantly from its summer peak, according to ABC News.

But the recent collapse of two U.S. banks – Silicon Valley Bank, then Signature Bank – has raised concerns about whether another rate hike will bring the country closer to a banking crisis.

"Our banking system is sound and resilient," Powell said Wednesday. He also said that his agency is working with the Treasury Department to strengthen confidence in the banking system and protect the economy.

The rapid and continuous rise in interest rates tanked the value of bonds held by Silicon Valley Bank, contributing to its failure earlier this month and causing a ripple effect in the financial sector, ABC also reports.

Nearly 190 banks are at risk of collapse amid high interest rates and declining asset values, according to a study by a team of university researchers released earlier this month.

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 4.5% over the past year, the fastest pace since the 1980s.

https://justthenews.com/nation/economy/fed-announce-decision-another-rate-hike-amid-high-inflation-and-now-bank-collapses

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China investigates US chipmaker over ‘security risks’

The probe into Micron Technology comes as Beijing battles the US and its allies for semiconductor supremacy

China has opened an investigation into Micron Technology, an Idaho-based semiconductor firm. The probe comes as the US seeks to curtail Beijing’s access to these vital electronic components amid a deepening tech war.

In a statement on Friday, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said that it opened its investigation in order to “safeguard key information infrastructure supply chain security” and “prevent cyberspace security risks due to problematic products.”

While the Chinese government has not commented further on the investigation, several factors could have influenced the CAC’s decision to probe an American chipmaker, and Micron in particular.

The probe mirrors US investigations into Chinese technology firms like Huawei, which was placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019 and accused by Washington of enabling espionage by Beijing, which both Huawei and the Chinese government deny. Huawei suffered two straight years of declining profits in 2021 and 2022, and the Biden administration is reportedly planning to hammer Huawei with export controls to hasten the Chinese firm’s “demise,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

An investigation into Micron would seriously harm the company’s bottom line, as China accounts for 10% of its sales, the South China Morning Post reported. Furthermore, Micron’s Chinese-made products directly compete with those of domestic firms, meaning the probe stands to benefit indigenous industry.

Semiconductors are used in a host of modern devices, from smartphones to washing machines to guided missiles. The majority of these microchips are made in East Asia, with Taiwan producing more than 60%, and much of the remainder split between South Korea, Japan, the US, and China.

The US has recently moved to extend its control over the industry, offering $52 billion in federal funding to domestic manufacturers last August and imposing export controls last October to block the sale to China of the hardware and software used to produce chips. Furthermore, the US is currently in talks with Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan to formalize the so-called ‘Chip 4 Alliance,’ which Beijing sees as an attempt to exclude China from semiconductor supply chains.

Micron allegedly lobbied the Biden administration to pass the manufacturing funding bill, and closed a chip design center in Shanghai months before it became law, the South China Morning Post reported.

In a statement on Friday, the company said that it is “cooperating fully” with the CAC, and that it “stand[s] by the security of our products.”

https://www.rt.com/news/574039-china-micron-semiconductor-investigation/

Israel’s Deep State Fights Back, Forces Delay in Firing of Defense Minister

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant last Sunday — or so it seemed — after the latter gave an unauthorized speech opposing judicial reform while Netanyahu was abroad.

Gallant was fired because he was perceived to have buckled to pressure from left-wing military reservists, especially elite pilots, who refused to show up for duty while the government pursued its judicial reforms.

But Israel’s defense establishment has fought back. Several former defense ministers — including opposition figure Benny Gantz — and others within the military have opposed Gallant’s firing, which is not yet official.

According to the Times of Israel, the prime minister’s office is delaying Gallant’s official firing because it might compromise national security. There are talks under way to arrange for Gallant to apologize and keep his job.

Gallant has reportedly agreed to apologize for the timing of his speech, but not its substance, as Netanyahu paused the judicial reforms anyway. He has also refused to state that he remains loyal to the elected leader.

The crisis suggests that Israel’s defense establishment — the Israeli version of what American conservatives call the “Deep State” — is challenging the democratically-elected leaders of the country, in the name of “democracy.”

The judicial reforms themselves are democratic, giving more power to the elected legislature to do things that are taken for granted in other countries, such as controlling appointments to the bench, as in the United States.

But Israel’s Deep State appears to have no more enthusiasm than America’s Deep State in allowing democracy to function when there is a conservative government in power that seeks to level the political playing field.

Gallant is living up to his Biblical namesake: King David wanted to fire Yoav, or Joab, as his general for insubordination after the latter jeopardized peace talks by killing his rival, Avner.

King David wanted to punish Yoav, but could not do so, because the fragile security of his reign depended on the general. The most David could do was force Yoav to mourn (2 Samuel 3:31); punishment would await until Solomon had ascended to the throne.

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/04/03/israels-deep-state-fights-back-forces-delay-in-firing-of-defense-minister/

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