'So he clearly is just moving to get more money from Britney to fund his lifestyle,' said one fan of the pop singer

Elon Musk reportedly said Vivian 'went beyond socialism to being a full communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil'

IRVING, Texas & ABERDEEN, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 19, 2023--

A pair of top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are asking Chairman James Comer to look into whether the accused foreign agent who claims to be a “whistleblower” against President Joe Biden and his son was acting to further Chinese interests when he accused the Bidens of crimes. In a letter to Mr Comer, Ranking Member Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Representative Daniel Goldman of New York expressed “concern” that the Oversight Committee “has been manipulated” by alleged arms dealer Gal Luft, who they described as “an apparent con man who, while a fugitive from justice, attempted to fortify his defense by laundering unfounded and potentially false allegations through Congres”. The alleged GOP whistleblower, an Israeli-American think tank founder, was indicted last November on charges that he allegedly trafficked arms, acted as a foreign agent for China and violated US sanctions on Iran. Mr Luft, who was arrested in February by Cypriot authorities, jumped bail while awaiting extradition to the US and has been on the run ever since. While he claims he is being persecuted by the federal government because he provided derogatory information about the Biden family to the FBI in a 2019 interview, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement that he “engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes”. “He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement,” Mr Williams said. Mr Raskin and Mr Goldman noted that the false statement charges against Mr Luft “eviscerate” his credibility, even as Mr Comer has continued to call him “a very credible witness” despite the fact that Mr Luft remains a fugitive from justice. They also pointed out that Mr Luft is alleged to have lied to FBI agents during the same March 2019 interview at which he claims to have provided information to the bureau about Hunter Biden, and suggested that Mr Luft’s claims against the president and his son may be part of a Chinese-backed effort to undermine US interests and Mr Biden’s presidency. “It appears as if Mr. Luft sought ‘whistleblower’ status from you in an effort to defend himself from criminal prosecution while a fugitive from justice. Worse yet, this latest episode also raises concerns that Mr. Luft may be manipulating your investigation not only for his own self-interest but perhaps also in furtherance of the CCP’s efforts to undermine U.S. security interests and the President of the United States,” they said. “These recent revelations naturally raise broader concerns about the credibility and motivations of other purported whistleblowers that Congressional Republicans have relied on to support unfounded and baseless allegations. Sadly, the Luft episode severely undermines the credibility of the critical function of whistleblowers in this body”. The Democratic representatives called on Mr Comer to stop withholding documents relating to Mr Luft from members of the minority on the committee, and asked him to initiate an investigation into whether his panel has been manipulated by Mr Luft in service of a foreign power. “In order to protect the Congress’s institutional credibility and to reassure the American people that the CCP is not using Republicans’ investigations as a vehicle to undermine the United States government, we urge you to immediately initiate an investigation into whether the Committee may have been unwittingly duped by Mr. Luft in furtherance of the CCP’s interests, as well as any potentially false statements made by Mr. Luft to Members of Congress or congressional staff,” they said. Read More He claimed to have dirt on the Bidens. Now the DoJ say he’s a Chinese spy. Who is Gal Luft? GOP cries foul over spy charges for Biden ‘whistleblower’ ‘Whistleblower’ who accused Bidens of corruption is charged with arms trafficking and violating Iran sanctions DC promises a 'very, very robust' police presence to maintain public safety over July 4 holiday GOP had evidence disproving Biden bribery claims in 2019, top Democrat says Finland's new finance minister apologizes for racist comments in 2008 blog post

'Botched' Season 8 Episode 7 is set to return with Dr Terry Dubrow and Dr Paul Nassif, who are renowned for tackling complex plastic surgery challenges

By now you are probably aware that the Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has been a massive success at the box office, smashing all kinds of records and reducing men to nervous wrecks. Yes, the inevitable has happened where a pro-female movie has angered so many men that they just have to tell everyone about how much a movie about a doll upset them. We've had the likes of Piers Morgan and plenty of men on IMDB but one man who has made it his personal mission to tell the world how much he hated Barbie is Ben Shapiro. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The outspoken conservative commentator first spoke out against Greta Gerwig's widely acclaimed film on Saturday in a 43-minute rant on YouTube where he called the film a "s**tshow" and one of the "worst movies ever." He also burned a Barbie and Ken doll. The 39-year-old, who mostly objected to the "smug" message of the film was promptly roasted for his scorching hot take and as a result felt compelled to make another video about how badly he was treated because of his views. In the second view shared on Tuesday, titled "Barbie Is Garbage, But You’re Not Allowed To Say So," Shapiro spent 20 minutes of a 1-hour video talking about the reaction to his reaction to the movie. Barbie Is Garbage, But You’re Not Allowed To Say So www.youtube.com At one point Shapiro said the reaction to him burning the Barbie dolls was similar to the reaction of someone burning a copy of the Quran in Sweden. Elsewhere he attacked Gerwig for promoting a new religious worldview and for the movie for pushing "left-wing propaganda." These are all valid points if you subscribe to Shapiro's politics but he wasn't done there. In a third video, Shapiro collaborated with a regular contributor of his and fellow conservative commentator Brett Cooper, who did enjoy the movie. This debate is for 30 minutes and if you enjoy this sort of format for a video then they both make valid point depending on how much you enjoyed the movie. Ben Shapiro and Brett Cooper Debate Barbie for 30 Minutes www.youtube.com At this point, Shapiro has spoken about Barbie for 93 minutes on YouTube and presumably longer elsewhere in edits that didn't make the cut. If he makes another 30 minute video on the film he'll have spoken about it longer than the actual length of Barbie, which is quite an achievement. That being said his original view of Barbie has been viewed more than 1.7 million times so something is clearly working for him. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 17, 2023--

US meteorologists warn of a "potentially catastrophic" storm Otis when it makes landfall in southern Mexico.

A United States Marine has been taken into custody for questioning after a 14-year-old girl who was reported missing was found at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California, last month, authorities said.

Fox News has quietly changed a headline on a highly controversial article that equated a Pride flag hung at the White House with “grooming and paedophilia”. After a furious response from LGBTQ+ advocates and White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates, who accused the network of “characteristically lying through its teeth”, Fox altered the headline while keeping the central “grooming” allegations in the article. The original headline and a since-deleted tweet by Fox News’ lifestyle reporter Kerry Byrne read: “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that promotes grooming and pedophilia, say critics.” The article quoted a founder of the far-right Gays Against Groomers activist group who claimed the flag was a political statement about “indoctrinating kids and trans kids and pushing kids to sterilize and mutilate themselves”. Mr Bates later shared a screenshot of Mr Byrne’s request for comment on Twitter which made no mention of a link to paedophilia or grooming. “FoxNews is characteristically lying through their teeth,” Mr Bates tweeted. “Please see Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network. Fox never even communicated the malicious and discredited foundation of this article to the White House. Then they lie about whether we responded at all,” he tweeted. After the backlash, Fox News revised the headline on Wednesday to “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that troubles some critics in the gay community”. Fox Digital did not add a footnote explaining that the article had been changed. The flag in question, known as the Progress Pride flag, was designed by artist Daniel Quasar in 2018 and is based on the original multi-coloured rainbow flag and the transgender pride flag, according to Northwestern University. The White House confirmed to Mediaite that it had responded to Fox News to say it had been flying the flag for three years at Pride events. Fox News later updated its story after publication to include the response. The edited version included a line saying: “The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the flag’s design and meaning.” Twitter users pointed out that Fox’s parent company wrapped its logo in the same flag to promote inclusiveness in a corporate responsibility report in 2022. Fox News did not respond to The Independent‘s request for comment. A White House spokesperson referred The Independent to Mr Bates’ tweets. Fox News, other right-wing media organisations and far-right personalities have repeatedly pushed a narrative linking transgender rights to paedophilia. The “grooming conspiracy theory”, which has led to state legislatures passing dozens of punitive laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community, is based on “discredited research and junk science”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre. On Wednesday night, a Biden administration source told CNN: “Fox paid the biggest settlement in media history because they platformed dangerous lies, and the lesson they took from that experience is to repeat the same behaviour, including spreading baseless QAnon filth?” This comes after Fox News came under fire earlier this week for describing President Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator” who tried to have “his political rival arrested” during Donald Trump’s post-arraignment speech. Read More White House condemns Fox News chyron calling Biden ‘wannabe dictator’ as broadcaster walks back accusation Trump news – live: Trump rejected efforts to settle classified papers as Melania spotted in NYC on birthday Barr, Pompeo, Pence, Haley: All the Trump allies who have now changed their tune over indictment After expulsion and reinstatement, Tennessee Reps. Pearson, Jones advance past Democratic primaries US, Japan, Philippines agree to strengthen security ties amid tensions over China, North Korea Commerce Department announces nearly $1 billion in grants for 'middle mile' internet access

Jodie Comer and James Burke have not been seen together since 2020