At Police Officer’s Wake, Trump Seeks Contrast With Biden on Crime

MASSAPEQUA PARK, New York — Donald Trump attended Thursday’s wake of a New York City police officer gunned down in the line of duty and called for “law and order” as part of his attempt to show a contrast with President Joe Biden and focus on crime as part of his third White House campaign.

The visitation for Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop on Monday, was held in suburban Massapequa on Long Island. Police said the 31-year-old Diller was shot below his bulletproof vest while approaching an illegally parked car in Queens.

Diller, who was married and had a 1-year-old son, was rushed to a hospital, where he died.

The visit by Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came as Biden was also in New York for a previously scheduled fundraiser with former Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Trump has accused Biden of lacking toughness, and his campaign sought to contrast his visit with Biden’s fundraiser.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, in a post on X, noted Trump’s visit and said, “Meanwhile, the Three Stooges — Biden, Obama, and Clinton — will be at a glitzy fundraiser in the city with their elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the president has spoken with New York City’s mayor, but she said she didn’t have any “private communications to share” when asked if Biden had spoken to the family of the officer who was killed. Jean-Pierre said the administration’s hearts go out to the officer’s family.

Speaking aboard Air Force One, she said Biden has supported law enforcement throughout his entire career and took a dig at Trump’s record.

“Violent crime surged under the previous administration,” Jean-Pierre said. “The Biden-[Vice President Kamala] Harris administration have done the polar opposite, taking decisive action from the very beginning to fund the police and achieving a historic reduction in crime.”

After visiting in the funeral home with Diller’s family, Trump spoke outside to news reporters with about a dozen local police officers, half in patrol uniforms, half in tactical gear, forming as a backdrop behind him.

“We have to get back to law and order. We have to do a lot of things differently. This is not working. This is happening too often,” Trump said.

He did not elaborate.

Mixed views on law enforcement

Trump has deplored crime in heavily Democratic cities, has called for shoplifters to be shot immediately, and wants to immunize police officers from lawsuits for potential misconduct. But he’s also demonized local prosecutors, the FBI and the Department of Justice over the criminal prosecutions he faces and the investigation while he was president into his first campaign’s interactions with Russia.

He has also embraced those imprisoned for their roles on the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of his angry supporters overran police lines and Capitol and local police officers were attacked and beaten.

Massapequa and the surrounding South Shore towns have long been a popular destination for city police officers and firefighters looking to set down roots on Long Island. Though Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York, this area is a heavily Republican part of Long Island that Trump won in the 2020 presidential election.

On Thursday, prosecutors in Queens charged Diller’s alleged shooter, Guy Rivera, with first degree murder and other charges. Rivera, who was shot in the back when Diller’s partner returned fire, was arraigned from his hospital bed. Rivera’s lawyers at Legal Aid declined to comment, according to spokesman Redmond Haskins.

Biden has pledged that the federal government will work more closely with police to combat gun violence and crack down on illegal guns.

New FBI statistics released earlier this month showed that overall violent crime in the U.S. dropped again last year, continuing a downward trend after a pandemic-era spike. The FBI data found murders dropped 13% in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period the year before, and violent crime overall was down 6%.

The FBI’s report was in line with the findings of the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which found that homicides were down an average of 10% from the year before in a survey of 32 cities, though it found violent crime still remained higher than before the coronavirus pandemic in many cities.

Civil Rights Icon Malcolm X Gets Day of Recognition in Home State of Nebraska

lincoln, nebraska — Malcolm X has garnered the recognition many have sought for his contributions to the civil rights movement in the conservative Midwest state where he was born, after years of being rejected as too controversial to be honored.

The Nebraska Legislature on Thursday passed a bill to recognize the civil rights icon every May 19, the day Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. The legislation falls short of declaring the day a state holiday, which was introduced in a bill by Omaha Senator Terrell McKinney — one of two Black members of the Nebraska Legislature.

McKinney’s bill failed to gain traction mainly because of objections to the projected cost of more than $500,000 a year to declare a state holiday. That cost comes from holiday pay for state workers.

Instead, McKinney added an amendment to a bill that declares October 17 as Missing Persons Day. The amendment recognizes May 19 as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X Day, to allow Nebraska schools to hold exercises to recognize the civil rights icon.

The day of recognition comes in the same year that a ceremony will be held in May to observe Malcolm X’s induction into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

During that ceremony, a bronze bust created by Lincoln artist Nathan Murray will be unveiled and displayed among the busts of other inductees in the halls of the Nebraska State Capitol.

“Malcolm X is one of the most fundamentally misunderstood people in American history,” McKinney said last year during a committee hearing on his bill. “And perhaps the stigma around him would be extinguished if his achievements and contributions were recognized.”

Malcolm X was selected last year as the newest inductee into the Nebraska Hall of Fame, making him the state’s first Black honoree. His selection came 15 years after being rejected as too controversial.

Born the son of a Baptist preacher, Malcolm Little was still a baby when he and his family left for Milwaukee after threats from the Ku Klux Klan.

At 20, he was convicted of burglary in Boston and sentenced to nearly seven years in prison, where he converted to Islam and later changed his name.

He emerged as a fiery Nation of Islam minister with a message that Black people should cast off white oppression “by any means necessary,” before later splitting from the Nation of Islam and renouncing racial separatism.

He was assassinated in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom by gunmen who opened fire during a speaking engagement.

The firebrand was first nominated for Nebraska’s Hall of Fame in 2004 but was passed over by a commission made up solely of white men who instead selected a mid-1900s U.S. senator who made a name for himself with his campaign to remove gay men from government posts in the 1940s and 1950s. The pick of Senator Kenneth Wherry was later nixed because of an open-meetings violation.

Malcolm X was passed over again in 2007 for little-known botanist Charles Bessey.

Не через Хуея – в ОП пояснили, чому Зеленський звільнив Данілова

Радник керівника Офісу президента Михайло Подоляк заявив, що за умов тривалої війни виникає потреба в ротаціях на керівних посадах, щоб ефективніше відповідати викликам, які змінюються

Fallen Crypto Mogul Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

NEW YORK — Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unraveled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world’s most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency. 

Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy — a dramatic fall from a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David. 

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence in the same Manhattan courtroom where, four months ago, Bankman-Fried testified that his intention had been to revolutionize the emerging cryptocurrency market with his innovative and altruistic ideas, not to steal. 

Kaplan said the sentence reflected “that there is a risk that this man will be in position to do something very bad in the future. And it’s not a trivial risk at all.” He added that it was “for the purpose of disabling him to the extent that can appropriately be done for a significant period of time.” 

Prior to sentencing, Bankman-Fried had said, “My useful life is probably over. It’s been over for a while now, from before my arrest.” 

Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried had cost customers, investors and lenders over $10 billion by misappropriating billions of dollars to fuel his quest for influence and dominance in the new industry, and had illegally used money from FTX depositors to cover his expenses, which included purchasing luxury properties in the Caribbean, alleged bribes to Chinese officials and private planes. 

Bankman-Fried was worth billions of dollars on paper as the co-founder and CEO of FTX, which was the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world at one time. 

FTX allowed investors to buy dozens of virtual currencies, from Bitcoin to more obscure ones like Shiba Inu Coin. Flush with billions of dollars of investors’ cash, Bankman-Fried took out a Super Bowl advertisement to promote his business and bought the naming rights to an arena in Miami. 

But the collapse of cryptocurrency prices in 2022 took its toll on FTX, and ultimately led to its downfall. FTX’s hedge fund affiliate, known as Alameda Research, had bought billions of dollars of various crypto investments that lost considerable amounts of value in 2022. Bankman-Fried tried to plug the holes in Alameda’s balance sheet with FTX customer funds. 

Three other people from Bankman-Fried’s inner circle pleaded guilty to related crimes and testified at his trial. 

The biggest name among the three was Caroline Ellison, once the girlfriend of Bankman-Fried. Ellison described Bankman-Fried as a calculating individual who knew that he was likely committing crimes when he directed the use of customer funds. Two other onetime friends of Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, also testified they felt they were directed by Bankman-Fried to commit fraud.

Під покровом ночі: на Херсонщині працює артилерія морської піхоти

На півдні України тривають активні бойові дії. Артилеристи морської піхоти ВМС ЗСУ працюють на Херсонському напрямку із САУ 2С1 «Гвоздика» – це самохідна артилерійська установка радянського зразка.

Yellen Warns She’ll Confront China on Its Energy Subsidies

washington — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday that Chinese subsidies for clean energy industries create unfair competition that “hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”

Yellen said that during a visit she has scheduled to China, she intends to warn China its national underwriting for energy and other companies is creating oversupply and market distortion, among other problems.

“I intend to talk to the Chinese when I visit about overcapacity in some of these industries, and make sure that they understand the undesirable impact that this is having — flooding the market with cheap goods — on the United States, but also in many of our closest allies,” Yellen said in a speech in Norcross, Georgia.

Yellen said she believes those subsidies will enable China to flood the markets for solar panels, electric vehicle parts and lithium-ion batteries, thus distorting production in other economies and global prices.

“I will convey my belief that excess capacity poses risks not only to American workers and firms and to the global economy, but also productivity and growth in the Chinese economy, as China itself acknowledged in its National People’s Congress this month,” Yellen said. “And I will press my Chinese counterparts to take necessary steps to address this issue.”

Yellen is set for meetings in China in April, according to Politico. The Treasury has not yet confirmed her itinerary.

The secretary visited Georgia to see a newly reopened solar cell manufacturing plant, which according to the Treasury closed in 2017 because of competition from factories in China. It is reopening now, though, after tax credits in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act fueled increased anticipated demand for solar panels.

On Tuesday, China filed a complaint against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization, arguing the U.S.’s requirements for electric vehicle subsidies are discriminatory. Chinese officials did not comment on what prompted the decision.

Yellen said she hopes to have a “constructive” dialogue with Chinese officials about subsidies and oversupply issues. She said outreach to businesspeople and governments around the world had prompted her to issue this warning.

“These are concerns that I increasingly hear from government counterparts in industrialized countries and emerging markets, as well as from the business community globally,” Yellen said.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. 

Trump Blasts Judge and His Daughter After Gag Order

NEW YORK — Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, suggesting without evidence that the veteran jurist was kowtowing to his daughter’s interests as a Democratic political consultant. The former president objected in particular to what he said was her specious social media photo showing him behind bars. 

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, posted on social media that the gag order issued Tuesday was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.” He said Judge Juan M. Merchan was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals and urged him to step aside from the case. 

The gag order, which was requested by the prosecution, bars Trump from either making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about jurors and potential witnesses in the hush-money trial, such as his lawyer-turned-nemesis Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels. It also prohibits any statements meant to interfere with or harass the court’s staff, prosecution team or their families. 

It does not bar comments about Merchan or his family, nor does it prohibit criticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat whose office is prosecuting Trump. 

Merchan’s daughter, whose firm has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, “makes money by working to ‘Get Trump'” and recently posted a fake photo on social media depicting her “obvious goal” of seeing him behind bars, Trump said. He argued those circumstances make it “completely impossible for me to get a fair trial.” 

Trump did not link to the purported photo, but an account appearing to belong to Loren Merchan on X, formerly known as Twitter, showed a photo illustration of an imprisoned Trump as its profile picture Wednesday morning. It was later changed. Loren Merchan’s consulting firm had linked to that same account in a previous social media post. 

“So, let me get this straight,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “the Judge’s daughter is allowed to post pictures of her ‘dream’ of putting me in jail … but I am not allowed to talk about the attacks against me, and the Lunatics trying to destroy my life and prevent me from winning the 2024 Presidential Election, which I am dominating? 

“Maybe the Judge is such a hater because his daughter makes money by working to ‘Get Trump’ and when he rules against me over and over again, he is making her company, and her, richer and richer,” Trump continued. “How can this be allowed?” 

Messages seeking comment were left with Merchan, his daughter and a spokesperson for New York’s state court system. Bragg’s office declined to comment. 

Trump’s three-part Truth Social post was his first reaction to the gag order. His focus on Merchan’s daughter and her ties to Democratic politics echoed his lawyers’ arguments last year when they urged the judge to exit the case. The judge had also made several small donations totaling $35 to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, including $15 to Biden. 

Merchan said then that a state court ethics panel found that Loren Merchan’s work had no bearing on his impartiality. The judge said in a ruling last September that he was certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial” and that Trump’s lawyers had “failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete, or even realistic, reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on these grounds.” 

“The Judge has to recuse himself immediately, and right the wrong committed by not doing so last year,” Trump wrote Wednesday. “If the Biased and Conflicted Judge is allowed to stay on this Sham ‘Case,’ it will be another sad example of our Country becoming a Banana Republic, not the America we used to know and love.” 

In a recent interview, Merchan told The Associated Press, that he and his staff were working diligently to prepare for the historic first trial of a former president. 

“There’s no agenda here,” Merchan said. “We want to follow the law. We want justice to be done.” 

Trump’s hush-money case, set to be the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial, centers on allegations that he falsely logged payments to Cohen as legal fees in his company’s books when they were for Cohen’s work during the 2016 campaign covering up negative stories about Trump. That included $130,000 Cohen paid Daniels on Trump’s behalf so she wouldn’t publicize her claim of a sexual encounter with him years earlier. 

Trump pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, although there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in jail time. He denies having sex with Daniels, and his lawyers have said that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses, not part of any coverup. 

In issuing the gag order, Merchan cited Trump’s history of “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” remarks about people involved in his legal cases. A violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed. 

Although not covered by the restrictions, Merchan referenced Trump’s various comments about him as an example of his rhetoric. The gag order mirrors one imposed and largely upheld by a federal appeals court panel in Trump’s Washington election interference criminal case. 

Trump’s lawyers fought a gag order, warning it would amount to unconstitutional and unlawful prior restraint on his free speech rights. 

Merchan had long resisted imposing one, recognizing Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and not wanting to trample his ability to defend himself publicly. 

But, he said, as the trial nears, he found that his obligation to ensure the integrity of the case outweighs First Amendment concerns. He said Trump’s statements have induced fear and necessitated added security measures to protect his targets and investigate threats.