News and Headlines. Daily Brief. 9/12/2023.

US, World News. Politics, Commentary and Videos. Often covering what the mainstream media misses.

US News.

Five former Memphis officers federally indicted in Tyre Nichols case

An indictment was filed in federal court Tuesday charging five former Memphis police officers with depriving Tyre Nichols of his rights during a January 7 arrest that led to his death.

The indictment lists four separate counts including excessive force and failure to intervene, deliberate indifference, conspiracy to witness tamper, and witness tampering for former officers, and Emmitt Martin, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith.

It also lists overt acts committed by the officers during the incident.

One of the acts includes Haley and Mills taking off their body-worn cameras and setting them aside before gathering with the other officers to discuss the force used on Nichols and making statements such as “I thought when he wasn’t going to fall, we about to kill this man,” while emergency medical personnel were at the scene.


Government estimates unemployment fraud during pandemic cost up to $135 billion

Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo

That’s according to the latest report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which the U.S. Department of Labor disputes. 

“The full extent of [unemployment insurance] fraud during the pandemic will likely never be known with certainty,” according to the report.

The Department of Labor took issue with Government Accountability Office’s fraud estimate, saying it was likely overstated. However, the Government Accountability Office disagreed.

“The unprecedented demand for UI benefits and the need to quickly implement the new programs during the pandemic increased the risk of fraud,” according to the report. “The increased significance of the UI system during the pandemic drew attention to its vulnerabilities and susceptibility to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.”


American income falls as inflation increases, U.S. Census bureau says

Nam Y. Huh/AP Images

The real median earnings of all workers, including part-time and full-time workers, decreased by 2.2% between 2021 and 2022. Median earnings of those who worked full-time, year-round decreased 1.3%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

More people worked full-time jobs in 2022. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of full-time, year-round workers increased by 3.4%, compared to a 1.7% increase in the number of total workers.

“This suggests a continuing shift from working part-time or part-year to full-time, year-round work in 2022,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5%, with 37.9 million people in poverty – similar to 2021


CCP-tied electric vehicle company awarded more than $500 million in taxpayer money for second US plant

Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Gotion High-Tech Chairman Li Zhen delivered remarks celebrating the factory. (Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity/Video screenshot)

The announcement comes amid growing opposition to the company’s plans to build a billion-dollar factory in Mecosta County, Michigan.

According to Pritzker’s office, the factory will be both the largest ever EV battery production investment in Illinois and the most significant manufacturing investment in the state in decades. The plant is projected to create 2,600 jobs with above-average wages compared to similar jobs in the region.

And the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity said Gotion’s total incentive package from the state is valued at $536 million in taxpayer funds. 

Opponents of the project have particularly noted the company’s allegiance to the Chinese government and often pointed to Gotion High-Tech’s corporate bylaws, which state that the company is required to “carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.” 


America’s Mental Health Crisis Projected to Create $1.3 Billion Industry by 2033

Mental health is at a low point in the U.S., even as more people seek out treatment.

From 2019 to 2022, the use of mental health care services increased by 38.8% among about 7 million adults with private health insurance. Spending on such services also jumped — by 53.7% — during that time, according to a study published in JAMA Health Forum.

But the rise in treatment doesn’t reflect an improvement in mental health. Time magazine highlighted a flurry of statistics that shine a light on the poor state of Americans’ psyches.

For starters, 1 in 8 U.S. adults use antidepressants while the number reporting symptoms of depression or anxiety has risen more than threefold since 2019, from 10.8% to 32.7% in July.

Meanwhile, Gallup reported that Americans’ mental health reached a new low in 2022, with only 31% describing theirs as “excellent” — the lowest percentage in more than two decades.


NYC shredded for slashing overtime pay for first responders to cover migrant costs: ‘Death by a thousand cuts’

City Hall recently confirmed to Fox News Digital that Mayor Eric Adams’ administration informed New York City’s police, fire, corrections and sanitation departments that they must submit overtime pay reduction plans and begin tracking progress each month.

“The migrant crisis has reached epic proportions, and the city of New York is unable to shoulder the financial responsibility,” former NYPD Lieutenant Dr. Darrin Porcher told “Fox & Friends First” Tuesday.

Police unions have voiced similar concerns, warning changes could reduce the number of officers on patrol and exacerbate crime.

Zeldin added that progressive district attorneys, cashless bail policies, taxes on qualified immunity and more are already contributing to officers’ low morale.


Chicago to house migrants in tents, mayor open to budget cuts like NYC

“The City Council was briefed on the Mayor’s plan to establish military grade tent basecamps in order to decompress police stations, whose floors are where over 1,500 asylum seekers will be sleeping tonight, as they have for months,” Chicago Alderman Andre Vasquez said after a meeting Friday, the Center Square reported Monday.

Chicago is projected to spend more than $250 million on migrants in 2023 alone. 

Chicago and Illinois have already allocated $94 million in taxpayer dollars for migrant housing, and the state budget includes $550 million in taxpayer subsidies for migrants over the age of 65 to receive health care.

In addition to housing migrants in police stations, the city has also used YMCA buildings, colleges and an airport as about 14,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago over the past year.


Oil Prices Soar to Highest Level in 10 Months, Threatening More Pain at the Pump

On Tuesday, OPEC said resilient economic growth despite interest rate hikes is expected to support the growth of demand for oil this year and next. 

U.S. economic growth has proven to be much stronger than expected this year, defying predictions that the economy would fall into a recession due to tighter monetary policy and a fading of post-pandemic demand surges.

Higher oil prices have pushed up the prices of gasoline. On Tuesday, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas was $3.836, up from $3.811 a week ago and $3.716 at this time last year, according to AAA.

California has some of the highest prices in the U.S. On Tuesday, the California average rose to $5.464 from $5.439 on Monday. Last week, the average was $5.326. A month ago, prices averaged $5.130. One year ago, the average price was $5.405.

The Midwest is seeing a huge surge in gasoline prices. Prices in Iowa, for example, are up to $3.930 from $3.549 a week ago.


CIA Whistleblower Exposes Agency’s Action to Manipulate COVID-19 Origin Investigation, Offers “Significant Monetary Incentive” to Discredit Wuhan Lab Theory

According to a high-ranking whistleblower within the CIA, the agency offered “significant monetary incentives” to officials on a COVID-19 investigative team to alter their positions on the virus’s origin. Initially, six of the seven members of this COVID Discovery Team were leaning towards a “low confidence assessment” that the virus likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory.

According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The seventh member of the Team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis,” Wenstrup and Turner wrote.

“The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position,” they added.

Wenstrup and Turner have set a deadline of September 26, 2023, for the CIA to turn over all relevant records and are urging a thorough investigation:

This new revelation confirms the allegations by Former EcoHealth VP and whistleblower Andrew Huff that the US government is trying to cover up the origins of COVID-19 because Dr. Fauci and the US were funding the Wuhan lab’s gain of function research.


‘Before They Scrub This History’: Group Documents Stories of COVID Protocol Victims

In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Blakeman said, “They had us all terrified on the news,” referring to the death count tickers, the refrigerated trucks and the claims of how many would die from the virus. “I was already a political blogger, so I took a deep dive into researching this virus and what other countries were using to treat their COVID patients.”

According to Blakeman, her research led her to discover that other countries were using “working early treatments, but we were being denied them.” These treatments included ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

But when Blakeman attempted to spread the word about these treatments online, she found her blogs were getting taken down.


Escaped killer armed with stolen rifle after breaking into home

Fox News’ Brooke Singman provides the latest details on the search for Danelo Cavalcante.


Democratic Virginia House candidate performed sex acts with husband on webcam for ‘tips’

Susanna Gibson, a mother of two young children who is running in a competitive race to represent District 57 in Richmond, showed quite a bit more than skin on the adult streaming website Chaturbate, according to screenshots of archived material reviewed by The Post.

The 40-year-old nurse practitioner hosted more than a dozen of the live romps with her husband on the platform, which was then posted to a publicly accessible archive on the website Recurbate in September 2022 after she declared her candidacy, the Washington Post first reported.

Gibson also apparently maintained her Chaturbate profile after having announced her campaign in July 2022, uploading at least one picture of herself on the sex streaming site the following month, according to a screenshot obtained by The Post.


World News.

China’s defense minister not seen for two weeks

(The Straits Times via Reuters)

With the start of President Xi Jinping’s third term in office, there has been a string of surprise personnel changes, including the replacement of Foreign Minister Qin Gang and the firing of a senior official from the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force.

Li was appointed to the Central Military Commission in October last year and became defense minister in March. Li has not been heard from since giving a speech at the China-Africa Peace and Security Forum in Beijing on Aug. 29.

A U.S. government official hinted it is likely Li’s absence is related to corruption.

“The PLA’s most enduring problem is too big for Xi to fix. These problems have a big impact on what Xi wants to achieve,” the official told Nikkei, using an acronym for the People’s Liberation Army.

In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Rahm Emanuel, Washington’s ambassador to Japan, wrote on Sept. 8: “President Xi’s cabinet lineup is now resembling Agatha Christie’s novel, ‘And Then There Were None.'”


EU To Cease Sanctions Against Three Russian Businessmen This Week

. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

The European Union will not renew sanctions against three men targeted over Russia’s war against Ukraine when the current punitive measures expire later this week, three diplomatic sources told Reuters on September 12.

Western governments have imposed sweeping economic sanctions, including Russian oil import bans, on Moscow for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

The trio are Russian businessman Grigory Berezkin, billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, and the former head of Ozon, a Russian e-commerce firm, Aleksandr Shulgin.

Russian military leader Georgy Shuvaev, who died last year, will also be removed.


Tehran Names Five Iranians For Looming Prisoner Swap With U.S.

Three of the five individuals the U.S. side hope to have released are (left to right) Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, and Emad Sharghi.

Iranian officials have identified five individuals in U.S. custody whom Tehran would like handed over as part of a possible 10-person, $6 billion prisoner swap initially said to have been mapped out last month between the longtime foes.

They include three Iranians — Mehrdad Ansari, Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, and Kambiz Attar Kashani — charged with illegally obtaining advanced or potentially dual-use technology thought to be bound for Iran that has been under tightly reimposed U.S. sanctions since 2018.

Two others — Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi and Amin Hasanzadeh — were jailed for failing to register as a foreign agent and stealing engineering plans on behalf of Iran, respectively.

AP said Ali Karimi Magham, a spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, confirmed the five men’s identities after the Al-Monitor website published their names.

The U.S. State Department has not officially commented on the Iranian list.


Israel-UK bolster strategic ties; IDF urges vigilance; Iran threatens Jordan TV7 Israel News 12.09

1) Israel and the United Kingdom sign a new bilateral roadmap to strengthen the close strategic partnership between the two allies.

2) Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reveals of Iranian preparations to utilize its Iraqi proxies against the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

3) IDF Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi urges vigilance in the face of Israel’s enemies.


China deploys over 40 planes to Taiwan Strait, is massing forces at coastal military bases, Taiwan warns

Taiwanese navy launches a U.S.-made Standard missile from a frigate during the annual Han Kuang Drill, on the sea near the Suao navy harbor in Yilan county. (SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)

Taiwan said it is bolstering its own defenses in response.

The island’s Defense Ministry issued a report on the expansion of Chinese airfields and military activity on Taiwan’s doorstep, saying China has begun probing Taiwan’s territory on a near-daily basis.

“This year, the Chinese Communist Party has aggressively expanded its armaments and continued to build various types of fighter jets and drones,” Maj. Gen. Huang Wen-Chi said of the report.

“The information we have received is that all important military bases along the coast … are being continuously updated.”

The Chinese military also sent nearly two dozen warplanes on a sortie near Taiwan’s territory Tuesday morning.

The Defense Ministry reported that 22 Chinese warplanes and 20 warships entered the Taiwan Strait and that 13 of the aircraft crossed the median line, which has historically served as a demarcation line for military activity.


20 young migrants attacked a group of German teens and children with sticks

Chemnitz has seen a steady uptick in crime due to its migrant population, according to Tag24 newspaper.

The paper describes how a Libyan pepper-sprayed eight people in the downtown district in July, injuring eight customers in a shop.

In addition, there have been mass brawls involving migrant men in the area.

CDU city councilor and police officer Michael Specht told Tag24: “It’s getting worse and worse.”


Commentary.

Abortion Doctors Share How The Most Common Abortion Procedures Take Place

Abortion doctors walk through the four most common abortion procedures in America – D&E abortion, abortion pills, suction D&C abortion, and induction abortions.


Election Interference Nobody is Talking About | The Drill Down | Ep. 131

The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer welcomes Dr. Robert Epstein, Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology.

Dr. Epstein discusses election interference, voter shifts, and his research on how one particular search engine can sway a voter’s opinion.


IMPEACHMENT inquiry ANNOUNCED, but will Biden RESIGN first?

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has officially directed House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

According to McCarthy, the House has found that “President Biden did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings” and that “bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to the Biden family members and associates through various Shell companies.”

But if the inquiry is opened, would Biden resign before things get too intense? And how would the presidency affect VP Kamala Harris? Glenn and Stu discuss why Republicans are making this move now and how it might go.


Politics.

Congressional investigators demand State turn over records on firing of Ukraine prosecutor

Joe Biden and his defenders have acknowledged he as vice president threatened in late 2015 to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine until the country fired Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, but insisted it had nothing to do with Shokin’s probe of Burisma.

They said that Biden was simply carrying out U.S. policy when he made the threat and believe that Shokin was corrupt. 

But the new memos published last week show career professionals in the State, Treasury, and Justice departments had recommended in fall 2015 that Biden give the $1 billion in guarantees to Ukraine because Shokin‘s office and Ukraine had made enough progress on anti-corruption reforms.

State had even sent a letter to Shokin suggesting he was doing a good job the summer before. 

Comer’s letter said the new information raise questions about the narrative and explanations that have been given by Biden is defenders over the years.


Sherrod Brown & Bill Cassidy Announce Supplemental Security Income Program Update


Rep. Gaetz Of Florida Sends House Speaker McCarthy Clear Message “You Are Out Of Compliance”

“On this very floor in January, the whole world witnessed a historic contest for House Speaker,” said Gaetz. “I rise today to serve notice. Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role. The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you in to immediate total compliance or remove you, pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair.”

“I know that Washington isn’t a town where people are known for keeping their word. Speaker McCarthy, I’m here to hold you to yours,” said Congressman Gaetz.

In an interview with conservative podcaster Todd Starnes, the Fort Walton Beach said many Americans he has met while traveling the country are “disillusioned” with how GOP lawmakers are dealing with Biden’s corruption.

“They think that we have not put up a substantial battle to defeat the worst elements of this Biden administration,” said Gaetz.


Terrorists crossing US border? NYC lawmaker says you can presume they are

NYC Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli discusses whether terrorists are crossing the southern border on ‘Varney & Co.


TRUMP TO SPEAK IN D.C. ON FRIDAY AT ‘PRAY VOTE STAND SUMMIT’

President Donald Trump will be speaking on Friday at the “Pray Vote Stand Summit” in Washington, D.C., joining a riveting lineup of faith speakers, politicians, and pastors as he continues his 2024 campaign bid to reclaim the White House.

The event will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in D.C., where the president is expected to speak that evening.

Other speakers who will be delivering remarks at the event over the weekend include Pastor Jack Hibbs of Chino Hills, California, and Dr. Ben Carson, the founder of American Cornerstone Institute.

Additional guests include Illinois Rep. Mary Miller (R), Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R), and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), among others.


MCCARTHY DIRECTS HOUSE TO OPEN FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY INTO JOE BIDEN

As the House has continued to bring forth new information and testimony related to the Bidens’ alleged foreign business deals in places like China and Ukraine, Americans across the country have wondered if an impeachment inquiry would be launched against the man in the Oval Office.

At last, concerned voters have their answer.

“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption and they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives,” Speaker McCarthy explained in an official statement to the press on Tuesday morning.


Highlights from President Trump’s Speech at the Monumental Leaders Rally in SD 9-8-23