South Africa wants to quit International Criminal Court

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the governing party’s decision is based on the “unfair treatment” of certain countries by the tribunal

South Africa has decided to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Tuesday, citing the tribunal’s “unfair treatment” of certain countries as the reason for the move.

The decision, according to the president, was reached by the African National Congress (ANC) party after a weekend meeting.

“Yes, the governing party has taken that decision that it is prudent that South Africa should pull out of the ICC,” Ramaphosa said following a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, who is on a diplomatic visit to Pretoria.

South Africa first attempted to withdraw from the ICC in 2016, but the move was revoked following a High Court ruling that found it was unconstitutional.

That decision came after the country was found to have violated its obligations to the ICC by failing to arrest former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir during his visit to the country in 2015 for an African leaders’ summit. The former Sudanese leader was facing genocide charges before the court relating to the long-running Dafur conflict.

The latest withdrawal announcement follows the issuance of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin by the ICC in March. The court has accused Putin of the “unlawful deportation” of children from “occupied areas of Ukraine.”

The charges relate to what Russia says were efforts to evacuate civilians from the predominantly Russian-speaking region of Donbass, which was being heavily shelled by the Ukrainian military.

South Africa, which is set to host leaders from the world’s largest emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – at the BRICS summit in August, would be obliged to enforce the ICC’s warrant for Putin’s arrest as a signatory of the 2002 Rome Statute.

Asked on Tuesday if Pretoria would arrest Putin, Ramaphosa said the matter was “under consideration.” His party secretary Fikile Mbalula said, however, that Putin was welcome in the country any time and that the ICC only serves the “interests of a few.”

Earlier this month, Ramaphosa announced that he would send a delegation to Washington to clarify his “non-aligned” stance on Putin and the situation in Ukraine.

https://www.rt.com/africa/575327-south-africa-icc-quit/

Liberal Pollster Nate Silver OUT at ABC News

FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver is OUT at ABC News.

Recall, the liberal pollster gave Hillary Clinton a 72% chance of winning in 2016.

Nate Silver predicted Donald Trump would only win 236 electoral votes.

He was dead wrong.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

The second round of Disney layoffs once again hit ABC News on Tuesday, with Nate Silver’s data-driven politics and journalism brand FiveThirtyEight among those being impacted.

Silver told FiveThirtyEight employees in a Slack message that he expects to leave Disney when his contract is up, which he added would be “soon,” The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

ABC News is expected to keep the FiveThirtyEight brand name, with plans to streamline the site and make it more efficient.

“ABC News remains dedicated to data journalism with a core focus on politics, the economy and enterprise reporting – this streamlined structure will allow us to be more closely aligned with our priorities for the 2024 election and beyond,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. “We are grateful for the invaluable contributions of the team members who will be departing the organization and know they will continue to make an important impact on the future of journalism.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/just-in-nate-silver-out-at-abc-news/

Biohazard risk in Sudan as warring faction seizes lab – WHO

Technicians have been denied entry to a facility where samples of diseases are stored, according to an official

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a potential biological hazard in Sudan on Tuesday, describing an armed faction’s seizure of a laboratory holding samples of pathogens including polio and measles as an “extremely dangerous” situation.

“There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab… by one of the fighting parties,” Nima Saeed Abid, WHO representative in Sudan, told reporters in Geneva via video link. He said technicians have been thrown out with “no accessibility” to the lab, and no way to “safely contain the biological material and substances available.”

Nima said at least 459 people have been killed and 4,072 injured in the fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The country’s capital, Khartoum, and nearby towns have been gripped by nearly two weeks of intense bombardment, causing severe food, water, medicine, and fuel shortages. Doctors Without Borders’ Operational Manager for Sudan, Abdalla Hussein, told RT on Friday that hospitals in Khartoum and surrounding cities have closed due to “heavy shelling.”

According to the Sudanese Doctors Union, 13 hospitals have been bombed and 19 have been forced to evacuate, six ambulances have been attacked by military forces, and others have been denied passage to transport patients and receive aid since the conflict began.

The International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme suspended their operations in Sudan after some of their employees were killed in the fighting. “In areas where intense fighting has hampered our humanitarian operations, we have been forced to reduce our footprint,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, said on Tuesday.

Over the past few days, tens of thousands of civilians – Sudanese and foreign nationals – are said to have fled to Egypt, Chad, and South Sudan. Laura Lo Castro, the UN refugee agency’s representative in Chad, stated that around 20,000 refugees have already arrived in the Central African nation, with up to 100,000 expected in the “worst-case scenario.”

Following unsuccessful attempts to establish a truce last week, the rival factions have now agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire beginning on Tuesday. Despite the deal, Al Jazeera has reported that intense fighting persists near the presidential palace in the northern part of the capital, and new clashes have erupted in the West Darfur city of Geneina.

https://www.rt.com/africa/575314-who-biohazard-risk-sudan/

WATCH: Suspect Accused of Running Secret Chinese Police Stations In America Seen Rubbing Elbows with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and NYC Mayor Eric Adams

Last week, the Eastern District of New York announced the arrests of two New Yorkers for conspiring to act as Chinese agents

The individuals were identified as “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan. Once confronted by the FBI, they allegedly destroyed evidence.

Now, a report suggests one of these wannabe Chinese agents may have ties to some prominent Democrats.

A video has emerged showing Lu mingling with two of the most powerful Democrats in America, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and NYC Mayor Eric Adams. They met at an event earlier this year where the Democrats spoke.

According to Fox News, the gathering was a fundraiser for the Fukien American Association, a cultural nonprofit linked to the Chinese province.

Of course, both Schumer and Adams deny knowing Lu. But one should consider the deep ties so many Democrats in America have to our most dangerous enemy.

The most notable one, of course, is Joe Biden.

Fox News has more:

One of the two men accused by federal prosecutors of running a secret Chinese police station in New York City purportedly has been captured on video attending an event alongside two prominent Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Video recorded on March 18 appears to show Lu Jianwang standing alongside Adams most recently at an event where Schumer also spoke. Lu was arrested last week and charged with conspiring to act as an agent of China’s government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

In a statement, Adams’ office told Fox News that the mayor’s attendance at an event is either to show support for a local community or the city and does not signal any kind of endorsement.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/watch-suspect-accused-of-running-secret-chinese-police-stations-in-america-seen-rubbing-elbows-with-senate-majority-leader-chuck-schumer-and-nyc-mayor-eric-adams/

DuPont Sentenced for Texas Plant Leak That Killed Four

Chemical giant DuPont was ordered to pay $16 million and sentenced to two years on probation for a poisonous gas leak that killed four employees in 2014, federal prosecutors announced.

On Nov. 15, 2014, a DuPont pesticide factory in LaPorte, about 20 miles east of Houston, Texas, released approximately 24,000 pounds of a highly toxic, flammable gas called methyl mercaptan, which killed four workers.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigation released in 2019 refers to “a long chain of failures,” including numerous safety management and prevention shortcomings, including unresolved technical deficiencies.

DuPont and Kenneth Sandel, 52, a former employee and unit operations leader involved in the incident, pleaded guilty to the negligent release of an extremely hazardous substance.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered DuPont to pay a $12 million fine and an additional $4 million community service contribution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

DuPont was further sentenced to two years of probation, which grants federal officials full access to all of the company’s operating locations in the U.S.

Sandel was sentenced to one year of probation.

“Four employees are dead because of DuPont’s criminal negligence,” said Houston-based State Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

“The sentence imposed today sends a clear message of my office’s dedication to holding managers at industrial facilities, and the corporations that own and operate those facilities, accountable for violations of federal criminal laws; laws meant to protect the safety of workers and nearby communities,” he added.

For several days before the accident, operations personnel attempted to clear a blocked pipe outside the manufacturing building. Sandel and DuPont engineers allegedly devised a plan to divert a large volume of methyl mercaptan gas into a waste gas pipe system.

This led to a pressure problem elsewhere inside the building. According to prosecutors, two workers disregarded a federally mandated safety procedure when they opened valves to resolve what they thought was an unrelated, routine pressure problem.

Liquid methyl mercaptan escaped through the valves.

https://www.ntd.com/dupont-sentenced-for-texas-plant-leak-that-killed-four_915394.html

Shall NOT Be Infringed: Missouri Officials Refuse to Cooperate with Feds on Gun Control.

County officials in Missouri are refusing to cooperate with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), asserting that the federal agency is “unconstitutional”.

Camden County presiding commissioner Ike Skelton, County Attorney Jeff Green, County Treasurer Kendra Hicks, and Sheriff Tony Helms were among the six senior elected officials to write to the agency known for its involvement in incidents such as the Waco massacre. They cited a local ordinance as justification for refusing to cooperate.

“Under the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, Camden County was the first county in Missouri, and possibly in the country, to pass an ordinance prohibiting any county employee from assisting your unconstitutional agency in violating the rights of our citizens,” wrote Skelton in comments quoted by a local NPR affiliate.

In a further statement, he argued that “[a]ny and all federal firearms laws, so-called laws, in my opinion, and many others’ opinion, are unconstitutional.”

Challenging the Feds.

Missouri is the scene of a much wider battle between conservative-led state governments backing the people’s right to bear arms and the Joe Biden-led federal government, which is seeking to restrict it.

In March, an Obama-appointed federal judge, Brian Wimes, moved to strike down the Second Amendment Preservation Act of 2021, a law passed by Missouri’s legislature which empowered Missourians to sue local and state officials assisting federal agencies infringing Second Amendment rights for tens of thousands of dollars.

Wimes ruled the act was “unconstitutional” and therefore “invalid, null, void, and of no effect,” arguing that it undermined the supremacy of federal law over state law.

Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, who brought the case, gloated that he was “gratified” by Wimes’s initial decision, but Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey insisted he would “defend this statute to the highest court” — and the judge has conceded that the act can remain in force while the appeals process is ongoing, at least for now.

Wimes’s position that the law unconstitutionally abrogates federal law and is “designed to [do just that” and the Missourian position that states can disapply federal gun laws on grounds that they are unconstitutional are in direct conflict.

Observers well beyond Missouri will be watching closely to see which position wins out, given the enormous implications it could have not just for gun rights, but also states’ rights and the very nature of governance within the Union.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/04/25/shall-not-be-infringed-missouri-officials-refuse-to-cooperate-with-feds-on-gun-control/

British government fends off growing concern over Chinese infiltration in London

The British police are investigating a number of alleged Chinese police stations in the country as it emerged that a businessman with ties to the Communist Party’s United Front operations was photographed rubbing shoulders with then-Prime Minister Theresa May.

Faced with a barrage of questions in parliament, government ministers declined to comment in detail on a report in The Times newspaper about the alleged police stations, which Beijing says are offices to help overseas Chinese with various administrative affairs, but which human rights groups say are used to spy on dissidents and try to bring them back to China.

The Times report included a photo of May and businessman Lin Ruiyou, who has known ties with United Front officials that work to promote loyalty to Xi and spread his personal brand of political ideology, and overseas organizations loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.

“The latest reporting in The Times on the so-called overseas police stations is of course of great concern,” Home Office spokesman Lord Sharpe of Epsom told the House of Lords on Thursday, calling the matter “sensitive.”

“Investigations by the law enforcement community are ongoing,” he said, confirming that the authorities are probing more than one of the alleged police stations.

“It is difficult for me to comment on ongoing matters, but … yes, it is fair to say that there is more than just one,” he added, but said the government is keen to eradicate transnational oppression by authoritarian governments on British soil.

The report comes out after the recent arrests of two men in New York for allegedly setting up an overseas branch of the Chinese government’s Ministry of Public Security in Manhattan that was eventually shut down by the authorities last year.

Beijing has shut down a number of the offices in the wake of a September 2022 report from the Spain-based Safeguard Defenders group listing dozens of such operations, sparking investigations and orders to shut down from governments around the world.

“Through our police forces and the intelligence agencies that work with them, we take a proactive approach to protecting individuals and communities from threats,” Sharpe said. “Where we identify individuals who may be at heightened risk, we are front-footed in deploying security measures and guidance where necessary.”

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/04/british-government-fends-off-growing-concern-over-chinese-infiltration-in-london/