Democrat Senator Menendez Charged with Conspiring to Act as Foreign Agent in Superseding Indictment

Embattled Democrat Senator Bob Menendez on Thursday was charged with acting as a foreign agent in a superseding indictment.

The new indictment filed by a federal grand jury in Manhattan claims Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.”

Last month federal prosecutors announced that Democrat U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and his wife, have been indicted on charges of bribery and corruption.

Federal prosecutors out of the Southern District of New York obtained a 3-count indictment against Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez.

Fred Daibes, a real estate developer, New Jersey businessman Wael Hana and Joseph Uribe were also charged.

“The Senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes….. cash, gold, home mortgage payments, jobs, cars, and other things of value” in exchange for “using his power and influence to protect and enrich [New Jersey] businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said.

Nadine Menendez was given a “no-show” or “low-show” job, a Mercedes Benz and other things of value, Damian Williams said.

Special agents discovered $500,000 of cash stuffed into envelopes in closets. “Some of the cash was stuffed in the Senator’s jacket pockets. Some of the envelopes of cash contained Daibes’ fingerprints and Daibes’ DNA,” Williams said at a press conference last month.

“It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere,” Menendez said.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/breaking-democrat-senator-menendez-charged-conspiring-act-as/

Not 40 beheaded babies - this stinks

Office of Prime Minister Netanyahu Releases Horrifying and Disturbing Photos of Babies Murdered and Burned by Hamas Terrorists That Was Shown to Anthony Blinken

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/office-prime-minister-netanyahu-releases-horrifying-disturbing-photos/

Thai Hookers, Chinese Bribes: 'Star Witness' Ellison Unveils Chaos Behind FTX's Fake Balance Sheets

What would a second day of testimony in the FTX trial for Caroline Ellison have been without mentions of identity theft from Thai prostitutes and bribing Chinese officials?

Taking the stand on Wednesday, Sam Bankman-Fried's former love interest turned star government witness against him, Ellison, spoke about the balance sheet that led to the downfall of Bankman-Fried's companies.

Ellison stated that this balance sheet was a manipulated version of what Alameda had sent to its lenders, deliberately crafted to give the impression that the firm was in a more robust financial condition than was actually the case. She described the document as "deceptive."

However, even the manipulated figures were concerning—laden with FTX's FTT token and other tokens closely affiliated with Bankman-Fried—casting doubt on the financial viability of both Alameda and FTX. Among potential lenders was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ellison testified Wednesday.

She also lied to Genesis, one of FTX's lenders, about Alameda's balance sheet, @teddyschleifer reported on X Wednesday.

"Caroline Ellison testified that Sam Bankman-Fried ordered her to lie in mid 2022 to Genesis, one of FTX's lenders, about Alameda's balance sheet," he wrote. "Caroline prepared a bunch of bullshit balance-sheets that they could send, and Sam chose 'Alternative 7' as the best lie of the bunch."

Ellison reportedly said: "I didn't want to be dishonest, but I didn't want them to know the truth."

Ellison testified on Wednesday: “I was in a constant state of dread. I knew we would have to take the money from our line of credit and that was money that could be called in at any time.”

And where was the money going? Ellison testified that she and Alameda executives had “paid a large bribe to Chinese officials” to obtain funds that were locked on a Chinese exchange.

After initial attempts to unfreeze funds by negotiating with the Chinese government through lawyers proved unsuccessful, Ellison stated that the FTX/Alameda team then endeavored—yet failed again—to access the funds by setting up fictitious exchange accounts using IDs that she believed belonged to "Thai prostitutes."

Ultimately, Ellison was able to secure the funds after making a $100 million payment to a cryptocurrency account she believed was somehow connected to Chinese government officials. Ellison recounted an episode where an employee, whose father was a Chinese government official, voiced objections to the plan during a meeting. In response, Bankman-Fried became increasingly irritated and eventually told the employee to "shut the f*** up."

In a confidential "State of Alameda" memo authored by Ellison in November 2021, shortly after the payment was executed, she included an entry labeled "-150m from the thing?" under a section outlining "notable/idiosyncratic" financial events. During her testimony, she explained that this entry was a reference to the payment made to Chinese authorities, stating, "I didn’t want to put in writing that we paid what I believed were bribes."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/thai-hookers-chinese-bribes-star-witness-ellison-unveils-chaos-behind-ftxs-fabricated

EU gives Zuckerberg 24 hours to address ‘disinformation’ concerns

Commissioner Thierry Breton has warned Meta about the alleged spread of fake news at the threat of fines

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has warned Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the spread of false information on its platforms, Facebook in particular. The official has given Zuckerberg, who is also the corporation's founder and Chairman, 24 hours to respond and comply with bloc law.

In a letter to the Meta boss published on Wednesday, Breton stated that the warning concerns disinformation in light of upcoming elections in the EU.

According to the official, although Meta has addressed the risk of the spread of misinformation during elections, there is still a significant amount of deep fakes circulating on social media.

“I remind you that the DSA [Digital Services Act] requires that the risk of amplification of fake and manipulated images and facts generated with the intent to influence elections is taken extremely seriously in the context of mitigation measures,” Breton said.

The platform’s obligation to moderate posts and remove illegal content in the EU stems from the new European Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in August. Failure to comply with the rules will result in penalties, including fines of up to 6% of total global annual turnover.

Moreover, the letter noted an increase in illegal content and disinformation spread in the EU by “certain platforms” following the Hamas attack on Israel. Breton has therefore urged Meta “to be very vigilant” in removing alleged illegal content.

A Meta spokesperson responded to the allegations by saying that their teams were working “around the clock” to take action on content that violates their policies or local law, and coordinating with third-party fact checkers in the conflict to limit the spread of misinformation, the BBC reported.

Breton sent a similar warning to the owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, on Tuesday. Musk responded that their policy was “open source and transparent.” He then asked him to flag any offending content publicly on X, but Breton declined the offer, claiming Musk was already made aware of violations by its users.

Subsequently, X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted a letter to Breton, telling him the platform had removed or labeled “tens of thousands of pieces of content” linked to Hamas.

The latest surge of violence began on Saturday when Hamas, a Palestinian militant group which controls much of Gaza, launched ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’, firing rockets and sending commandos deep into Israeli territory. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) responded by bombing Gaza and cutting off all of its utilities, as Israel made an official declaration of war.

https://www.rt.com/news/584754-eu-warned-meta-disinformation-content/

Syria accuses Israel of bombing international airports – media

Sites in Damascus and Aleppo have reportedly been damaged in a “simultaneous strike” by the Israeli military

International airports in the Syrian capital of Damascus, and the western city of Aleppo, have been hit in “simultaneous” missile strikes by Israel, the state SANA news agency reported on Thursday, citing a source within the Syrian military. The incident comes amid a major flareup of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The airports were struck at around 2pm local time, a source told SANA, adding that an attack on each of the two airports involved several missiles that damaged their landing strips and forced both facilities to close.

There have been no reports of casualties linked to the attacks and West Jerusalem has not commented on the incident, which took place as Syrian President Bashar Assad discussed the situation in Gaza with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Israeli PM Netanyahu met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Assad and Raisi reaffirmed their support for Palestinians and what they called legitimate Palestinian resistance aimed at restoring their rights. The Syrian leader also called on the Israeli air raids on Gaza “targeting women and children” to stop.

The Israeli military fired artillery and mortar shells towards Syrian territory on Tuesday, following shelling targeting Israel’s border regions. Reuters reported at the time that a Palestinian faction in southern Syria had fired three rockets at Israel. The Israeli military said that they were targeting the alleged missile launch sites with return fire.

The developments came amid a major escalation between Israel and the Gaza-based Hamas group, which broke out after a massive militant attack on Israel. Thousands of rockets were fired at Israeli territory and fighters briefly overran Israeli settlements near Gaza over the weekend. The attack reportedly claimed the lives of more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians, according to officials.

West Jerusalem responded with a massive bombing campaign against Gaza, along with a “total blockade” of the Palestinian enclave that cuts off any water, electricity, or fuel until Hamas frees Israeli hostages, the nation’s energy minister, Israel Katz, said on Thursday. The death toll in Gaza linked to the Israeli air raids currently stands at 1,200, local officials have reported.

https://www.rt.com/news/584766-syria-accuse-israel-airport-hitting/

UN detains peacekeepers in DR Congo over sexual exploitation claims

The organization said the troops have been suspended from duty and confined to quarters pending an investigation

The United Nations has issued a statement saying it has detained peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that it is investigating allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse.

It added that the Office of Internal Oversight Services is investigating the matter and the suspension is in line with its “zero-tolerance policy for sexual exploitation and abuse and other forms of misconduct.”

The statement, issued on Wednesday, does not indicate how many peacekeepers belonging to the Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) have been detained, but media reports based on the internal documents of the Mission say they belong to the South African contingent of the UN force.

These documents indicate that eight peacekeepers had been detained on October 1 in connection with allegations of sexual misconduct, while a ninth had been suspended a week later for intimidating and threatening UN personnel.

Further details in the documents reported that bars and brothels named after South African townships and cities had popped up around the MONUSCO base at Mavivi, near Beni.

According to the UN, 1,184 South African peacekeepers serve in the country.

“These initial measures include the suspension from duty, detention, and confinement to quarters of concerned peacekeepers pending receipt of additional information on the allegations, including through the conduct of a full-fledged investigation,” the UN statement said.

The organization condemned behavior unbefitting of personnel and irestated its commitment to continuing to “support the rights and dignity of the victims.”

Last month, the DR Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi told the UN General Assembly there was a need to accelerate the departure of the peacekeeping force, saying that it had failed to cope with rebellions and armed conflicts, despite being deployed for 25 years.

Tshisekedi added that he wanted the withdrawal to be accelerated from December 2024 to December of this year.

The Mission has also been involved in clashes with citizens. In February, eight people were killed and 28 wounded when a MONUSCO convoy was attacked in the east of DR Congo. Locals accused the UN peacekeeping mission of failing to protect them last year when a rebel group known as M23 staged a violent offensive that displaced hundreds of thousands and caused dozens of deaths in the region.

The Mission had said that it was conducting a joint investigation with local authorities into the circumstances of the incident.

https://www.rt.com/africa/584748-dr-congo-un-peacekeepers-sex-scandal/

Judge caught on phone during toddler’s murder trial sent 500 texts, called dead boy’s mom ‘liar, liar’

An Oklahoma judge caught playing with her phone as a mother sobbed about the murder of her child faces a formal push to remove her from the bench after it emerged she sent 500 texts to her bailiff — including some ridiculing the prosecutors and calling the dead toddler’s mom “liar, liar.”

The chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court recommended the removal of Lincoln County District Judge Traci Soderstrom in a court filing Tuesday following an investigation by the state’s Council on Judicial Complaints.

Soderstrom — who had only been sworn in as a judge in January — had been caught on surveillance footage in June constantly playing with her phone during Khristian Martzall’s trial for the murder of beaten 2-year-old Braxton Danker.

When the toddler’s mom, Judith Danker, took the stand as a key prosecution witness against Martzall, her boyfriend, Soderstrom texted: “Can I please scream ‘liar, liar?”

“State just couldn’t accept that a mom could kill their kid, so they went after the next person available,” one text said, according to the complaint board’s findings.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/12/judge-on-phone-during-murder-trial-sent-500-texts-could-lose-job/