Federal judge halts secret FEC plot to target GOP groups

(Worthy News) – A federal judge has blown the whistle on a secret Federal Election Commission scheme to punish some Republican groups and their donors, the latest sign of an anti-GOP bias at the elections watchdog.

In a newly released decision, Trump-appointed District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden shined a spotlight on the FEC’s general counsel who recommended action against four Republican groups but dismissal of similar charges against supporters of a Democratic group, “Black Men Vote.”

In the case, the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center charged that the FEC wrongly voted to drop charges against three of the Republican super PACS accused of taking “straw donations” through corporations. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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Trump to slap tariffs on nearly $50 billion in Chinese goods

(Worthy News) – President Trump is ready to slap tariffs on nearly $50 billion in Chinese goods, according to reports, reigniting fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The president is due to announce the tariffs after the original batch — on about 1,300 Chinese products — was put on hold for trade talks.

He trimmed the list to 800 product categories, Reuters news agency reported, citing industry sources familiar with the list. Some reports set the price tag of the tariffs at between $35 billion and $40 billion. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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Comey ‘insubordinate,’ FBI wracked by leaks in 2016 campaign investigation

(Worthy News) – Fired FBI Director James B. Comey was “insubordinate” and a top agent’s political bias might have skewed the bureau’s focus on candidate Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton in the waning days of the 2016 presidential race, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report that cast shame on the storied bureau.

The agent, Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, was caught in a text message telling paramour Lisa Page, then an FBI lawyer, that they would prevent Mr. Trump from winning the White House, according to the report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Ms. Page asked Mr. Strzok for reassurance that Mr. Trump couldn’t win the election. Mr. Strzok replied: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”

Investigators concluded that while Mr. Comey wasn’t motivated by political bias, he did repeatedly break department rules — including with his striking July 2016 exoneration of Mrs. Clinton and his October 2016 letter suggesting she may once again be in jeopardy. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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Gene-edited ‘designer babies’ offer miracle cures, questionable ethics

(Worthy News) – A generation of designer babies is both an exciting and a daunting prospect for scientists who dare to imagine a future free of genetic disease but can’t say how the effects of choice and accessibility will affect society.

Driving such innovation is CRISPR-Cas9, a technology that cuts and replaces faulty DNA in cells and has become more widely available and easier to use over the past few years.

“I believe everyone who works in a laboratory is looking forward to [CRISPR],” said Ludmila Volozonoka, a molecular geneticist at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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In North Korea, children watch Christians being executed

(Worthy News) – A North Korean who escaped from the country and now lives in the UK has spoken via persecution charity Open Doors about his life under the regime there.

Against the backdrop of the much-heralded summit meeting between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, John Choi (not his real name) said: ‘I grew up believing Christians were evil and dangerous. We watched the government’s propaganda alongside public executions. It told us that Christians wanted to kidnap children and that the cross was evil.

‘The first time I saw a man being executed it was because he had smuggled Christian things into the country and enticed people into the church. The whole village was told to come and watch, the children were allowed to sit at the front to get a good view. It enforced that belief that Christians were dangerous.’ [ Source: Christian Today (Read More…) ]

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Netanyahu: Iran has brought 80,000 Shiite fighters into Syria

(Worthy News) – Israel has attacked Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militias in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, casting such actions as potentially helping to stem a Syrian Sunni Muslim refugee exodus to Europe.

Israeli officials have previously disclosed scores of airstrikes in Syria to prevent suspected arms transfers to Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah fighters or to Iranian military deployments, who have been helping the Syrian regime beat back the seven-year-long rebellion.

But Israel has rarely provided official details on the operations, or described non-Lebanese militiamen as having been targeted.

Speaking at the International Homeland Security Forum in Jerusalem on Thursday, Netanyahu accused Iran of bringing in 80,000 Shiite fighters from countries including Pakistan and Afghanistan to mount attacks against Israel and “convert” Syria’s Sunni majority. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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Israel warned to avoid Syria strikes as World Cup kicks off in Russia

(Worthy News) – With the 2018 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament kicking off on Thursday, host nation Russia has made it clear that it expects Israel and other Middle Eastern states to avoid an escalation in the Syrian civil war during the month-long championship, Israel Hayom has learned.

The fighting in Syria has subsided somewhat recently, following the retaking by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime of almost all of the rebel-held enclaves, particularly in the Damascus area.

However, the situation remains fragile as anti-regime forces are still holding out in a number of locations. Moreover, Iran’s increased involvement in the civil war in support of the regime has put Syria in Israel’s crosshairs, with Israel repeatedly saying it will not permit Iran to establish permanent bases or advanced weapons facilities in Syria. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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UN report confirms debris from missiles that hit Saudis from Iran

(Worthy News) – The United Nations has determined that debris from five ballistic missiles launched from Yemen into Saudi Arabia since July 2017 contained components manufactured in Iran and shared key design features with an Iranian missile, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a new report.

But the UN chief said in the report to the Security Council obtained Thursday by The Associated Press that the United Nations has been unable to determine whether the missile parts and technology were transferred from Iran after Jan. 16, 2016, when UN restrictions came into force.

Guterres said the UN is also “confident” that some arms seized by Bahrain and recovered by the United Arab Emirates from an unmanned vessel laden with explosives were manufactured in Iran. But he said it found “no indications” of whether the items were transferred from Iran after UN restrictions took effect.

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Palestinians prep 5,000 kite bombs in Gaza to mark end of Ramadan

(Worthy News) – The IDF struck a target in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, two hours after it fired warning shots in the same area toward Palestinians who were preparing airborne incendiary devices near the Bureij refugee camp.

“The IDF struck an infrastructure near the area where a squad had previously been preparing Molotov cocktails in the southern Gaza Strip,” the IDF said. “The IDF considers the use of incendiary kites and balloons to be severe, and will act to prevent their use.”

The announcement came shortly after Palestinians reported that a drone launched a missile at people near the border fence who were flying balloons with Molotov cocktails attached, and unconfirmed reports by Israeli media that Palestinians planned to launch 5,000 incendiary balloons and kites toward Israel from the Hamas-run Strip to mark Eid al-Fitr on Thursday night. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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Classified Israeli report raises doubts over Trump-Kim summit

(Worthy News) – A classified report from Israel’s foreign ministry raises doubts over President Trump’s optimistic statements about his summit with Kim Jong-un, and determines the U.S. retreated from its positions on several issues relating to North Korea’s nuclear program.

Two main points:

The summit left many question marks. There are substantive gaps between U.S. policy statements before the summit on the need for “full, irreversible and verifiable” denuclearization and the joint statement signed at the end of the summit, which only referred to “complete denuclearization.”

Trump’s readiness to accept Kim’s demand to halt U.S. military exercises with South Korea is a retreat by the U.S. and an acceptance of China’s “freeze-for-freeze” approach. The Israeli foreign ministry analysts note that the U.S. had previously rejected the Chinese position. [ Source: Axios (Read More…) ]

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