Israeli Army Opens Fire at Hundreds of Displaced Palestinians Returning to Northern Gaza (VIDEO)

Earlier in the day, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee dismissed rumors of the Israeli army allowing the return of Palestinians to the area.

“Reports on Israeli army forces allowing the return of the Palestinian population to the northern Gaza Strip area are false and completely baseless rumors,” Adraee wrote on X, adding that “the Israeli army does not allow the return of residents, neither through Salah al-Din Street nor through Al-Rashid Street Street.”

Adraee warned Palestinians against approaching Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip.

“The northern Gaza Strip is still a war zone and we will not allow a return to it,” he said.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1779493122977788406

Right-Wing Media See Traffic Plummet in Wake of Algorithm Changes by Facebook, Google

The Atlantic on Saturday ran an article boasting about right-wing media sites seeing their traffic implode due to algorithmic changes by Facebook and Google – but the joke is on them.

From The Atlantic, "Right-Wing Media Are in Trouble":

As you may have heard, mainstream news organizations are facing a financial crisis. Many liberal publications have taken an even more severe beating. But the most dramatic declines over the past few years belong to conservative and right-wing sites. The flow of traffic to Donald Trump's most loyal digital-media boosters isn't just slowing, as in the rest of the industry; it's utterly collapsing.

This past February, readership of the 10 largest conservative websites was down 40 percent compared with the same month in 2020, according to The Righting, a newsletter that uses monthly data from Comscore—essentially the Nielsen ratings of the internet—to track right-wing media. (February is the most recent month with available Comscore data.) Some of the bigger names in the field have been pummeled the hardest: The Daily Caller lost 57 percent of its audience; Drudge Report, the granddaddy of conservative aggregation, was down 81 percent; and The Federalist, founded just over a decade ago, lost a staggering 91 percent. (The site's CEO and co-founder, Sean Davis, called that figure "laughably inaccurate" in an email but offered no further explanation.) FoxNews.com, by far the most popular conservative-news site, has fared better, losing "only" 22 percent of traffic, which translates to 23 million fewer monthly site visitors compared with four years ago.

Here's the charts from TheRighting showing the shift:

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64385

Israel Conflict Spreads to 16 Nations as Biden Admin Says There’s No War

Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel highlight an America-led regional war spanning Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and others.

The regional war in the Middle East now involves at least 16 different countries and includes the first strikes from Iranian territory on Israel, but the United States continues to insist that there is no broader war, hiding the extent of American military involvement. And yet in response to Iran’s drone and missile attacks Saturday, the U.S. flew aircraft and launched air defense missiles from at least eight countries, while Iran and its proxies fired weapons from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

The news media has been complicit in its portrayal of the regional war as nonexistent. “Biden Seeks to Head Off Escalation After Israel’s Successful Defense,” the New York Times blared this morning, ignoring that the conflict had already spread. “Iran attacks Israel, risking a full-blown regional war,” says The Economist. “Some top U.S. officials are worried that Israel may respond hastily to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attacks and provoke a wider regional conflict that the U.S. could get dragged into,” says NBC, parroting the White House’s deception.

The Washington-based reporting follows repeated Biden administration statements that none of this amounts to a regional war. “So far, there is not … a wider regional conflict,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Thursday, in response to a question about Israel’s strike on the Iranian Embassy. Ryder’s statement followed repeated assertions by Iranian leadership that retaliation would follow — and even a private message from the Iranians to the U.S. that if it helped defend Israel, the U.S. would also be a viable target — after which the White House reiterated its “ironclad” support for Israel.

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U.S. Military Isn’t That Concerned About War With Iran

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Israel Conflict Spreads to 16 Nations as Biden Admin Says There’s No War

Ken Klippenstein, Daniel Boguslaw

Israel and Israel Alone Kicked Off This Escalation — In a Bid to Drag U.S. Into War With Iran

Murtaza Hussain

While the world has been focused on — and the Pentagon has been stressing — the comings and goings of aircraft carriers and fighter jets to serve as a “deterrent” against Iran, the U.S. has quietly built a network of air defenses to fight its regional war. “At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.”

As part of that network, Army long-range Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense surface-to-air missile batteries have been deployed in Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and at the secretive Site 512 base in Israel. These assets — plus American aircraft based in Kuwait, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia — are knitted together in order to communicate and cooperate with each other to provide a dome over Israel (and its own regional bases). The United Kingdom is also intimately tied into the regional war network, while additional countries such as Bahrain have purchased Patriot missiles to be part of the network.

https://theintercept.com/2024/04/14/israel-iran-regional-war/

John Hagee Cheers Israel-Iran Battle as 'Gog and Magog War,' Will Lobby Congress Not to Deescalate

Pastor John Hagee, founder of the Christians United for Israel lobbying group, said Sunday that Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel was the start of the "Gog and Magog war" from the Bible and said he's going to lobby Congress not to "deescalate" tensions and instead support Israel's war.

"Pastor John Hagee this am says Iran's missiles are the prophetic start of the 'Gog and Magog' war from the Bible (that ends w/ Jesus returning and Jews killed or converted)," Lee Fang commented. "Says he will travel to DC to lobby lawmakers not to 'deescalate' and support Israel. Asks for money."

John Hagee's "Christians United for Israel" is funded to the tune of millions of dollars by non-Christian Zionists Robert Shillman, the late Sheldon Adelson (now his wife Miriam) and Bernard Marcus.

This is detailed in a 2023 report from the Public Accountability Initiative LittleSis titled, "The Wealthy Donors Behind Christians United for Israel":

Robert Shillman, Cognex Corporation – Shillman Foundation

From 2012 to 2021, The Shillman Foundation contributed $1.4 million to CUFI. Robert Shillman, founder and trustee of Shillman Foundation, built his wealth as CEO of Cognex, a manufacturer of machine vision and barcode scanning softwares and sensors used in manufacturing automation. His foundation funds several rightwing and pro-Israel groups in the U.S., including the Zionist Organization of America. Shillman is also a former board member of the Friends of Israel Defense Forces and funder of the anti-Muslim hate group, David Horowtiz Freedom Center.

Miriam Adelson, Las Vegas Sands – Adelson Family Foundation

In 2020, the Adelson Family Foundation contributed $1.1 million to CUFI. The late billionaire Sheldon Adelson built an empire operating large casino resorts across the world through the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. His wife, Miriam Adelson (who, as of 2021, was a trustee of the family foundation), is estimated to be worth $32 billion. She is a close Trump ally and megadonor and is currently in line to buy the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. Adelson was a staunch supporter of Israel and instrumental in pushing the Republican party to embrace Israel. His foundation has spent hundreds of millions funding Birthright Israel, pushing anti-Muslim propaganda, and bankrolling a free daily newspaper referred to by critics as the "unofficial mouthpiece of Netanyahu."

Bernie Marcus, Home Depot – Marcus Foundation

In both 2020 and 201, The Marcus Foundation contributed $60,000 to CUFI. Billionaire Bernie Marcus is the co-founder of Home Depot who served as the company's first CEO and chairman until his retirement in 2002. Over the last 30 years, Marcus and his wife have donated more than $2 billion through the Marcus Foundation. Marcus is a Republican super donor, best known for his fervent support of Donald Trump. Marcus, who is worth $8.2 billion, is a prolific ring-wing donor, Trump ally, and union buster. He is also the founding president of the Israel Democracy Institute. This year, he gave $1 million to AIPAC's United Democracy Project, which works to elect candidates who support Israel.

Hagee doesn't need any of the suckers in audience to donate a dime as his megadonors got him fully covered.

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64386

Gaza is not a war. It's ethnic cleansing. Genocide.

https://rumble.com/embed/v3x2wlb/?pub=4

South American gangs armed with knives are running wild on Los Angeles highways targeting terrified jewelers in brazen daytime robberies - slashing tires, shattering windows and even planting trackers on their cars

Jeweler Stacy Nolan Soper, found herself in danger on October 18 as she drove home from downtown LA's jewelry district with a bag of valuable merchandise

Soper's vehicle was suddenly ambushed by masked thieves on the ramp from the westbound 10 Freeway to the southbound 405

Soper's experience mirrors several similar incidents targeting jewelers on LA freeways as armed South American gangs brazenly carry out daytime robberies

South American gangs armed with knives are running wild on Los Angeles highways, targeting jewelers in terrifying daytime robberies.

The criminals brazenly slash tires, shatter windows, and even plant trackers on their victims' cars.

One jeweler, Stacy Nolan Soper, found herself in danger on October 18 as she drove home from downtown LA's jewelry district with a bag of valuable merchandise.

Soper's vehicle was suddenly ambushed by masked thieves on the ramp from the westbound 10 Freeway to the southbound 405.

'It seemed like [he] was going to attack me,' Soper told the LA Times.

As traffic slowed, a car ahead stopped abruptly, and three men, including two wearing ski masks, attacked her vehicle - slashing tires, smashing windows, with one whipping out a weapon - resembling something out of an action movie.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13301383/south-american-gangs-armed-los-angeles-highways.html

Speaker Johnson: ‘President Trump Is 100% with Me’

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on this week’s broadcast of “Sunday Morning Futures” that former President Donald Trump was “100%” with him.

Host Maria Bartiromo asked, “The former president, President Trump has talked about the possibility of turning aid for Ukraine into a loan. Is that what you’re considering?”

Johnson said, “Yes. You know, I had a great visit with him on Friday, and he and I are 100% united on these big agenda items.”

Bartiromo said, “Marjorie Taylor Greene has threatened to come up with the motion to vacate because she’s upset that the Republicans have yet to secure the border.”

She asked, “Did you speak with President Trump privately about what Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing ?”

Johnson said, “I spent hours with the president on Friday. He and I talk frequently, many times, usually, in a week. We have a long relationship. He’s 100 percent with me. And he said, ‘We’ll get this job done.’ That’s a distraction. What Marjorie is done with a motion to vacate is not helpful for our party, for our mission to save the country. Because if we don’t grow the House majority, keep the House majority, win the Senate, and win back the White House for President Trump, we are going to lose the Republic.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/04/14/speaker-johnson-president-trump-is-100-with-me/

Vatican Court Charges Italian Journalist Critical of Pope Francis with ‘Defamation’

Vatican prosecutor has filed charges against an Italian Catholic journalist, accusing him of “defamation” of Pope Francis as well as divulging confidential documents.

Marco Felipe Perfetti, a conservative Catholic who writes the blog Silere Non Possum (“I cannot be silent”), has called the charges against him an attempt at “intimidation.”

“It is no secret that within the Vatican City State there is no protection of freedom of the press and the activity of Silere non possum has annoyed and continues to annoy those who have always acted to the detriment of this State and for their own personal interests,” the editors of the site wrote this week.

The site of the news outlet alleges that the Vatican initiated criminal proceedings against Marco Felipe Perfetti by communicating the charges to the press rather than to the interested party.

Perfetti has also noted that Silere non possum is managed by an Italian citizen and resident in the Italian Republic, and thus, the jurisdiction over him should fall to his place of residence rather than to the Vatican City State.

The Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that in recent years, Silere non possum has become an important “point of reference for those who want to know secrets and affairs of the Holy See.”

Perfetti himself is a Roman lawyer with “many connections” within Vatican walls, the article stated, yet he has not yet received any official notification of the judicial process against him even though the hearing was to begin this week.

According to the popular U.S.-based Catholic news outlet The Pillar Catholic, in essence, “The man behind a well-known, well-read, and well-informed Church news website” has been charged with “doing journalism.”

The Vatican should hope that the charges do not stick, The Pillar added, since convicting a journalist of “disrespecting the pope and exposing dysfunction and scandal in the Diocese of Rome” is about “the worst possible countersign the Church could send in an era supposedly committed to transparency and accountability.”

This is not the first time the Vatican has threatened legal proceedings against what it sees as hostile journalists.

In 2018, the Vatican hired international law firm Baker McKenzie to force a small Spanish website called InfoVaticana.com to close its doors, allegedly for its occasional critical tone toward aspects of the Francis papacy.

The firm threatened a lawsuit if Infovaticana was not shut down and “its internet domain transferred to the Vatican.”

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2024/04/13/vatican-court-charges-italian-journalist-critical-pope-francis-defamation/

IN BRIEF: Ex-Ukrainian intel officer’s car blown up in northern Moscow

The explosion occurred in a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado off-road vehicle parked on Korovinskoye highway in the north of Moscow, when the driver started the SUV

The former officer of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Vasily Prozorov, who has been speaking out against the Kiev regime, has been injured in a car explosion in the north of Moscow.

The man is receiving medical treatment, and the investigative bodies have launched a criminal probe.

TASS has compiled the key information about the incident.

Car explosion

An explosion occurred in a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado off-road vehicle parked on Korovinskoye highway in the north of Moscow, when the driver started the SUV.

The owner of the vehicle was injured in the blast. Later, operational services said that he was a former officer of the Ukrainian Security Service, who had moved to Russia before the start of the special military operation in Ukraine.

The injured man’s close people confirmed to TASS that Vasily Prozorov, a former SBU employee, had been injured in the car explosion. The source said that Prozorov feels normal and is receiving medical treatment.

Two nearby cars were damaged. The explosion caused no fire and no fuel was spilt.

Investigation into the incident

The Russian Investigative Committee’s department for Moscow said that a criminal probe has been launched.

Investigators and forensic experts alongside the operational services are examining the scene. A number of tests, including medical and ballistics ones, will be scheduled shortly.

The operational services said that several versions of the incident are being considered. According to one of them, an improvised explosive device went off, but some other possible versions are also being looked into.

Facts about Vasily Prozorov

Vasily Prozorov was an officer of the Ukrainian Security Service from 1999 to 2018, and he used to work at the SBU counterterrorism center.

He rose to fame in the run-up to the presidential election in Ukraine in March 2019, when at a press conference in Russia he disclosed the SBU’s operations in Ukraine in 2014-2018.

Prozorov is a steadfast critic of the Kiev regime. After the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue, he said at a press conference in Moscow that there were Ukrainian fingerprints on what happened and that the terrorists’ actions bore all the typical earmarks of assaults carried out by Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance.

Similar incidents

Journalist Darya Dugina was killed on August 20, 2022 when her car exploded outside Moscow. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that a Ukrainian woman called Natalya Vovk and her underage daughter, Sofia Shaban, were involved in the attack, after which they made off to Estonia.

On April 2, 2023, military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) was killed in an explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg. According to investigators, the assassination "was masterminded by Ukraine’s special services and their agents, including Russian opposition activists hiding abroad," as following their instructions, Darya Trepova, 26, had given a statuette fitted with explosives as a gift to Fomin.

https://tass.com/emergencies/1774555

GOP-led House schedules votes on Iran sanctions bills Monday after attack on Israel

There are 5 bills up for votes related to Iran on Monday, according to the Monday schedule released by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise

The GOP-led House of Representatives will vote on a series of Iran sanctions bills on Monday in the aftermath of the Iran missile attack on Israel on Saturday.

“In light of Iran’s unjustified attack on Israel, the House will move from its previously announced legislative schedule next week to instead consider legislation that supports our ally Israel and holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise had said in a statement on Saturday before the formal schedule was announced.

There is currently a total of 5 bills related to Iran on the House schedule for Monday, according to Scalise's office.

The bills scheduled for votes includes H.R. 5921, the No U.S. Financing for Iran Act of 2023, H.R. 5923, the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act of 2023, H.R. 6245, the Holding Iranian Leaders Accountable Act of 2023 and H.R. 6015, the Iran Sanctions Accountability Act of 2023.

H.R.6408, which is a resolution that would "amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to terminate the tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting organizations," is also on the schedule for Monday.

According to CNN, "more than 300 projectiles – including around 170 drones and over 120 ballistic missiles – were fired toward Israel in an immense aerial attack overnight" on Saturday.

Iran reportedly launched then attack in response to a suspected Israeli strike on Iran's embassy Syria.

The missile attack has thrown the foreign aid debate to the forefront in Congress. The House has not yet voted on a Senate-passed foreign aid package that would provide $14 billion to Israel and $61 billion to Ukraine as well as funding for Taiwan and humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/gop-led-house-schedules-votes-iran-sanctions-bills-monday-after-attack-israel