Hezb'allah vows to expand its Venezuela drug operations and other ugly news

 

By Monica Showalter

This week, a coterie of leftist Senators and a couple Republicans put forward a vote aiming to stop President Trump's bombings of drug trafficking vessels coming out of Venezuela.

According to Politico:

The Senate on Thursday rejected legislation that would have required approval from Congress before President Donald Trump could take military action against Venezuela, despite bipartisan misgivings about the administration’s secretive efforts in the region.

Just two Republicans broke ranks to oppose Trump. The 49-51 vote is the second failed bid in a month to rein in the U.S. military campaign against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in Latin America that has led to the deaths of nearly 70 people.

Mercifully, the measure failed. Now we're beginning to get news as to why that is so:

Hezbollah plans to expand its operations in Venezuela, focusing on money laundering, and the production and smuggling of cocaine and Captagon, according to Lebanese diplomatic sources who spoke to UAE-based EREM News. The group reportedly seeks to recruit young supporters in…

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) November 6, 2025

Here are some more specifics:

For the unfamiliar, Hezbollah has cultivated significant networks and influence in South America, especially Venezuela, over the past two decades.

Their primary focus has been generating revenue through narcotics trafficking to support their operations in Lebanon. https://t.co/H8bOSYUITv pic.twitter.com/TTdH8Yq1fi

— John Ridge 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇹🇼 (@John_A_Ridge) November 7, 2025

According to this RAND analysis:

There is evidence that Hezbollah has actively sought to develop operational capabilities both within the United States and in Latin America. In the United States, this is exemplified by the 2017 arrests of alleged Islamic Jihad organization operatives who had surveilled potential targets in New York City on behalf of Hezbollah (Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice, 2017). The group’s operational presence in Latin America was most recently demonstrated in November 2023, when Brazilian authorities disrupted a suspected Hezbollah cell planning attacks against Jewish targets (Grattan, 2023). Although robust U.S. homeland security measures may better contain such threats domestically, Hezbollah’s illicit activities in Latin America—where security infrastructure may be less developed—pose a distinct risk to U.S. interests throughout the region. Geopolitical realities exacerbate these concerns. The deaths of Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and his presumed successor Hashem Safieddine in Israeli airstrikes, combined with growing direct U.S. support of Israel, could prompt the organization to leverage its global networks more aggressively (Jackson, 2024; Jones et al., 2024). This leadership transition period may be particularly volatile for Hezbollah’s international operations, including its sleeper cell capabilities in the United States and Latin America.

RAND says Hezb'allah is primarily focused on fundraising for its nefarious activities in the Middle East, but it's been known to strike out at U.S. and Israeli targets in this hemisphere, too:

These funding mechanisms reportedly encompass drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, illegal mining, identity theft, and money laundering schemes (Hesterman, 2005, pp. 34–45). 

And Venezuela is the epicenter:

The Chávez and Maduro regimes have established Venezuela as an operational hub for Hezbollah. Building on longstanding connections with Iran, the Venezuelan government has created an environment that allows Hezbollah to maintain active cells engaging in drug trafficking, money laundering, and illicit smuggling (Clarke, 2019; Young, 2024). This permissive atmosphere extends deep into Venezuela’s political sphere, in which Hezbollah collaborates extensively with government officials on intelligence infrastructure, securing arms, identification documents, bank accounts, and pipelines for moving operatives and equipment (Humire, 2020). The variety of ways that this threat is characterized in public discussion is evident in unclassified documentation: Although the State Department’s 2018 and 2019 Country Reports on Terrorism briefly noted the presence of Hezbollah sympathizers in Venezuela, the 2021 and 2022 reports contained no references to Hezbollah activities (U.S. Department of State, undated-a, undated-b, undated-c, undated-d, 2019). Evidence of these state-level connections emerged clearly when Venezuelan politicians were found issuing passports to Hezbollah operatives (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020). The U.S. Department of the Treasury has identified key figures in this network, including Venezuelan businessman Fawzi Kan’an and diplomat Ghazi Nasr al-Din—who facilitate ideological training, militia preparation, and illicit arms and narcotics trafficking networks (Humire, 2020; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020). The 2020 indictment of former Venezuelan lawmaker Adel El Zabayar—who was charged with coordinating cocaine and weapon trafficking between Maduro’s government and Hezbollah—further demonstrates these state-level connections (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020). Iran’s strategic partnership with Venezuela has strengthened Hezbollah’s regional position significantly. In June 2022, Iran and Venezuela formalized a 20-year cooperation agreement, in which Maduro explicitly aligned his country with Iran’s Axis of Resistance (“Maduro: We Are All Part of Axis of Resistance,” 2022). The alliance manifests in practical support through various channels: State-run airlines, such as CONVIASA, reportedly transport operatives and illegal items while Iranian oil tankers deliver fuel to Venezuela, demonstrating the intertwined nature of these relationships (Berg, 2022; Zerpa, Bartenstein, and Millard, 2020). The Iran-Venezuela axis has provided Hezbollah with substantial resources, diplomatic protection, and operational flexibility.

There are other ugly things coming out of Venezuela to suggest it is a threat, besides Hezb'allah dealing drugs -- such as this news from Colombia:

El dinero para asesinar a Miguel salió de Venezuela https://t.co/0nXWkmOcnv

— Miguel Uribe (@migueluribel) November 7, 2025

The father of murdered presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who was assassinated in broad daylight last year, stated that investigators have found that the cash used to pay the assassins, came from Venezuela.

Venezuela again.

Does anyone think they wouldn't try that here? They already have against Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Assassination is their chief export now, from both them and their Hezb'allah ally.

The U.S. under Trump is not letting up:

The Trump Administrations has a zero tolerance policy for narco-terrorists bringing poison into our country.

Thanks to @POTUS, the United States is taking action to keep Americans SAFE! 💥🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/5YquwDVuvX

— Department of State (@StateDept) November 8, 2025

And that's good -- they seem to be staying steady on course, and now have a greener light with the Senate vote failure. They should keep going, because Hezb'allah and Venezuela itself are clearly threats. It would be awful if we were to just react to potentially disastrous acts.

 

If there's any doubt Venezuela is a bigger threat than it looks, check out what Hezb'allah and other rogues are doing.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/11/hezb_allah_vows_to_expand_venezuela_drug_operations_and_other_ugly_news.html

94% Match: New Clues Emerge In Jan. 6 Pipe Bomber Identity

 A new forensic analysis into the Jan. 6 pipe-bomb case has concluded that a former US Capitol Police officer's gait is a 94%-98% match to the 'unique stride' of the Jan. 6 pipe-bomb suspect, Blaze Media reports, following an investigation which was confirmed by several intelligence sources. 

According to the investigation, former U.S. Capitol Police officer, Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, is a high-probability match to the unidentified pipe-bomb suspect seen on surveillance video on Jan. 5, 2021. Kerkhoff, who served four and a half years on the Capitol Police force before leaving in mid-2021 for a security position later described by the CIA as “campus security,” was matched through a forensic gait-analysis software tool that compared her stride to the suspect’s.

Software used in the analysis placed the match at 94%, however the forensic analyst who conducted the review estimated the similarity closer to 96%-98%. Several intelligence officials who reviewed the findings concurred, according to the report. 

Interestingly, Kerkhoff’s residence in Alexandria, Va., appeared to be monitored by law enforcement officers last week - as Blaze News’ editor in chief, Christopher Bedford, said he was pulled over by police after stopping to observe the home and later released.

• Of note - the Blaze report has been disputed by Headline USA and journalist Breanna Morello. so pop over and read their takes. 

FBI Surveillance Near Suspect in 2021

The new analysis has revived scrutiny of the FBI’s handling of the case. Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin told Blaze News that, in the days immediately after Jan. 6, he and his team conducted surveillance “one door away” from the residence now tied to the suspected individual. He says the team was pulled off the assignment without explanation, and requests to interview a person linked to the suspect’s movements were denied.

Seraphin said he has recounted these details publicly since 2021, and that the Blaze News findings “vindicate” his account.

The FBI tied a SmarTrip Metro card allegedly used by the suspect to an Air Force civilian employee. Agents conducted two days of surveillance but were instructed not to interview him, Seraphin said. The bureau has not addressed the claim publicly.

A Career in Law Enforcement and Security

Kerkhoff, 31, is a former Division 1 athlete from Ohio who played goalkeeper at Temple University and later for the Columbus Eagles Football Club. A significant leg injury in college required surgery and left her with a slight limp - an element noted by the gait analyst who reviewed her movements from Capitol Police security footage.

Former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff (above) playing soccer in Columbus, Ohio. The pipe bomb suspect approaches the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 5, 2025.

Kerkhoff joined the U.S. Capitol Police in 2018. She served in the Civil Disturbance Unit and was a training officer for crowd-control munitions deployed on Jan. 6. Blaze News also reported this week that surveillance video shows Kerkhoff and other officers firing “less-lethal” rounds that struck multiple individuals above the waist on the Capitol’s West Plaza.

She left the force months after the riot and later worked in security at the CIA.

Suspicion Around the Pipe-Bomb Videos

Blaze News’ analysis relied on surveillance footage of the pipe-bomb suspect that was not the publicly released FBI version. A private researcher who spent more than a year studying the videos told the outlet the bureau-released clip was downsampled, reducing motion clarity. The higher-quality footage used for the gait analysis reportedly shows smoother movement, allowing for more accurate comparison.

The FBI has said the suspect placed pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee and near the Republican National Committee between 7:54 p.m. and 8:16 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021. The devices were discovered the following day shortly after noon—at the same time Capitol Police resources were being stretched by the breach of the Capitol grounds.

The mysterious handling of the bombs drew scrutiny from Congress and the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. Surveillance footage later released by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) showed Secret Service agents responding slowly after being told a device was found at the DNC. Agents remained in their vehicle eating lunch for roughly two minutes before investigating and allowed pedestrians and cars to pass near the device.

Read the rest of the report here...

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-analysis-suggests-jan-6-pipe-bomber-former-capitol-police-officer-turned-cia-security

Sam Altman Denies OpenAI Needs A Government Bailout: He Just Wants Massive Subsidies

 About one month ago, when the Mag 7 stocks were screaming higher every day without a care in the world, and before the masses had even considered who would fund the trillions in future capex needs once the organic cash flow topped out - something we had just discussed in "AI Is Now A Debt Bubble Too, Quietly Surpassing All Banks To Become The Largest Sector In The Market" in which we explained why attention would very soon turn to AI companies issuing gargantuan amounts of debt (something we first discussed in July, long before anyone was considering this issue) as has now become the case - we decided to move even further beyond the curve and said that not even the debt would be the gating factor for the AI revolution-cum-arms race, but rather access to energy. That's because at some point - somewhere around the time companies realized they would no longer be able to rely on either equity or debt capital markets - the US government itself, if it wanted to win the AI war with China where the state directly subsidizes local data centers and AI figures, would have to step in and provide the required capital. 

Specifically, we said that "The money is not the problem: AI is the new global arms race, and capex will eventually be funded by governments (US and China). If you want to know why gold/silver/bitcoin is soaring, it's the "debasement" to fund the AI arms race."

Even Elon Musk decided to respond to that particular observation. 

And since it had become the norm, we thought it would take the market the usual 6-9 months to catch up to what we - and our readers - were already considering, especially since there still was ample "dry powder" capital among the hyperscalers to delay the rather unpleasant conversation of who would fund what once the money was gone, or so we thought. 

Because this time it took less than a month.

What happened, as the market learned the hard way this week, is that OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar, with all the finesse of a bull in a China data center, slammed the growing market skepticism that AI would cure cancer, slice bread and lead to universal utopia, and said “I don’t think there’s enough exuberance about AI, when I think about the actual practical implications and what it can do for individuals." 

Her comments came in response to a podcast in which her boss Sam Altman participated, and where he was grotesquely - in a Jeff Skilling sort of way - defensive when billionaire Brad Gerstner asked how a company with $13BN in revenue can afford $1.4T in commitments. Altman’s reply? “If you want to sell your shares, I’ll find you a buyer." 

Gerstner did not want to sell his shares - at least not yet - but the fact that Altman did not have a clear answer (that would have to come several days later in an Bill Ackman-size tweet), and instead responded by attacking what would be considered a very rational question, while refusing or being unable to give a clear answer. 

However, what Friar did say - and what promptly spooked the market on Wednesday - is a mangled explanation of where the $1+ trillion in required funding would come from, saying OpenAI is “looking for an ecosystem of banks [and] private equity” to support its ambitious plans. But what triggered the selling is when she explicitly said that the US government would have to “backstop the guarantee that allows the financing to happen." 

In other words, when all the other sources of funds dried up - clearly a scenario the company is considering judging by her response - the company would have to come to the US taxpayer.

She further explained that "Federal loan guarantees would really drop the cost of the financing," enabling OpenAI and its investors to borrow more money at lower rates to meet the company's ambitious targets. Right... because there is nothing like a company with $14BN in revenue, $1 trillion in "valuation" and $1.4 trillion in commitments, than loading up to the gills with government-backstopped debt. See, if only Enron and Lehman could do the same, both would still be around...

Her comments from Wednesday afternoon immediately spooked the market and NVDA shares suffered their biggest weekly drop since April. 

And the reason for the drop is precisely the fact that OpenAI was clearly considering what it would do when the money to fund the trillions in spending - first cash from operations, then debt, then equity - and circular deals dried up, the capital that had lifted NVDA to a $5 trillion market cap and OpenAI reportedly worth around $1 trillion ahead of its looming IPO (which will come just as the AI bubble truly peaks).

The fact that US taxpayers were basically the source of that money, is a little truth the market wasn't read to hear just yet.... a truth which we laid out clearly one month ago.

The reaction - both in the market and within the heretofore complacent narrative surrounding the AI bubble - set off fire alarms, and prompted Sam Altman to publish his longest yet post (clocking in at almost 1100 words), in which he meant to "clarify a few thing", namely that Friar had "misspoken" and that the ChatGPT maker was not seeking a bailout for its infrastructure commitments, and contrary to what his CFO mentioned, he "does not have or want government guarantees." 

Only, he does... but don't call it a guarantee, or bailout.

You see, Friar's comment was a carefully planted trial balloon, one meant to not only gauge the market's reaction to what is obviously coming, but also to plant the seed of expectation that one day, Sam Altman would crawl to the White House, tell Trump that OpenAI is now too big to fail as it would take down not only the market but about 20% of GDP growth (which is roughly what datacenter construction accounts for these days), and demand a bailout, only of course it wouldn't be called that. 

Things got worse when Trump's tech/AI advisor David Sacks said "There Will Be No Federal Bailout For AI... If One Fails, Others Will Take Its Place" refusing to let what had by now become the biggest and most uncomfortable market narrative (i.e., why does the company at the forefront of the AI revolution need government guarantees, or a bailout), leave the front page. And then it got even worse, when it emerged that Sam Altman was - once again (just ask Elon Musk) - lying, after it was revealed that on Oct 27, OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane, had submitted a document in which they advocated for including datacenter spend within the “American manufacturing” umbrella.

As Bloomberg explained, contrary to Sam Altman's representation that he wants nothing to do with the government, OpenAI had in fact asked the Trump administration to revamp a Chips Act tax credit to help lower the cost of artificial intelligence infrastructure, as the startup was exploring additional ways the US government can support an industrywide data center build-out for AI.

In the letter, Lehane suggests the administration work with Congress to expand a 35% chips-focused tax credit to AI data centers, AI server producers and electrical grid components, such as transformers and the specialized steel used to produce them. 

Broadening the tax credit will “lower the effective cost of capital, de-risk early investment and unlock private capital to help alleviate bottlenecks and accelerate the AI build in the US,” Lehane said in the letter. 

Caught up on this latest web of circular lies (what is it about OpenAI and circles), which is suddenly existential to the viability of the circle-jerk complex^TM Altman had to publish yet another "explainer" today to discuss just how he sees his relationship with the government, now that this very touchy topic was all anyone could talk about... not to mention was hammering NVDA stock which has long been the barometer of sentiment toward the AI bubble.

In its letter, OpenAI advocated for the government to issue grants, cost-sharing agreements, loans, or loan guarantees to “manufacturers” in the AI industry broadly, without specifying exactly which kinds of companies. It is clear that OpenAI would be one of the beneficiaries since it is at the center of the entire AI circle-jerk complex^TM.

Altman said an effort to revitalize the US chip industry “across the entire stack — fabs, turbines, transformers, steel, and much more — will help everyone in our industry, and other industries (including us).”

“To the degree the government wants to do something to help ensure a domestic supply chain, great.” Altman wrote. “But that’s super different than loan guarantees to OpenAI, and we hope that’s clear.”

Yes, it's "super different", because what Sam is asking for is subsidies, which is precisely what China is bestowing upon its companies. The only difference is that in China all companies are effectively state owned. Meanwhile OpenAI hopes to one day become Zorg Industries and control everyone, including nation states. 

And here we go back to square one - namely what we said a month ago is the emerging AI arms race between the US and China, one which OpenAI quietly hoped to piggy back on and supercharge its returns and equity value. OpenAI said the type of financial support it is asking from the government, would help counter China in instances where it is “distorting the market,” such as copper, aluminum and electrical steel. Direct funding would also help shorten lead times for critical grid components such as transformers.

In a separate September white paper on infrastructure policy, OpenAI actually came much closer to admitting it does in fact want explicit government guarantees, in that it supports loan guarantees to allow AI companies to “confidently purchase US-made chips at scale.” The move would shore up demand for US semiconductor facilities while reducing costs for AI companies purchasing chips, the white paper said.

Which it not to say OpenAI hasn't done its homework: the US has a prototype for loans and loan guarantees for strategic industries, as it offered these incentives to the semiconductor industry as part of the Chips Act. As of the end of January this year, only $5.5 billion of up to $75 billion were awarded, per a Commerce Department report.

OpenAI’s requested tax credit aligns with the Trump administration’s consistent messaging about winning the AI race and its high-level determination to remake the Chips Act of 2022. Earlier this year, it converted a Chips Act grant in Intel Corp. into an equity stake, marking a significant departure from the original plan. 

But here's the thing: sure, go ahead and demand - sorry, politely ask for - government guarantees, backstops, or bailouts - whatever you want to call it - but be prepared to compensate the government by handing over a sizable chunk of equity so that everyone can participate in the upside, and not just be stuck with the soaring electricity and water bills which are needed to fund the explosion of data centers across the nation.

It happened with Intel, which gave up a major equity check to US taxpayers in return for US government support, it happened to rare earth minerals company MP Materials, and all other companies the US has directly invested in as part of Trump's new industrial policy. To be sure, all those companies which the Chinese government is directly subsidizing, none of them are truly private enterprises! This may come as a shock to Sam, but China is a communist nation, which explains the far greater generosity to engage in collective investment on behalf of the state.

Which is why, in our response to Sam, we said "It's not a loan guarantee. It's just the government - ie taxpayers - onboarding the risk for your expansion and growth of your equity value."

Which then became a question: "What do taxpayers get in return: Intel gave them an equity stake. Will OpenAI do the same? Or is it just higher electricity prices"

Sam Altman already stole incalculable value by working at an Elon Musk-funded non-profit for years - with all the inherent benefits of such an organization as opposed to a traditional Corporation - before uprooting its corporate structure and transforming it into a traditional corporation, one in which he plans to have the biggest chunk of ownership. And now he is doing it again, only this time he hopes to benefit from taxpayer generosity by pretending it is all for the greater American good without handing over even one share to Uncle Sam.

Don't let him. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sam-altman-denies-openai-needs-government-bailout-he-just-wants-massive-government

Are Americans Better Or Worse Off Since January?

 by Victor Davis Hanson

The left wing and media rage hysterically from one Trump psychodrama to the next, while President Donald Trump trolls both on social media.

But all that is verbiage.

What matters is the data and facts of Trump’s first nine months since Jan. 20, 2025, in comparison to either former President Joe Biden’s prior year or the averages of his four years in office.

Take the border. No one knows how many illegal aliens entered—or stayed in—the U.S. during Biden’s four years of open borders. What is clear is that he set a presidential record of well over seven million illegal entrants.

The border under Trump is now tightly closed. Prior to his administration, it was common for 10,000 people to cross illegally in a single day. In just nine months, approximately two million illegal aliens have been deported or self-deported. The rate of border crossings is now the lowest it’s ever been since 1970.

How about energy? For Trump’s first nine months, gas prices have averaged $3.19 versus Biden’s 2024 average of $3.30 a gallon. Over Biden’s four years, gas averaged $3.46 a gallon.

During the Biden years, oil production averaged 12.3 million barrels per day, compared to 13.5 million barrels during Trump’s first nine months. Biden removed 200 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, leaving office with only 394 million barrels in the SPR.

The reserve has already inched upward under Trump’s initial months to 406 million barrels. Releases have been canceled. Purchases of replacement oil have been scheduled.

Regarding the economy, Biden’s four years averaged 2.9 percent GDP growth per annum.

Trump’s GDP rose 3.8 percent in the second quarter, with final estimates for 2025 ranging around 3 percent.

Inflation under Trump so far averages about 3 percent. Under Biden’s tenure, inflation increased by 21.4 percent over four years, or on average about 5.3 percent a year.

How about U.S. deterrence and defense?

Under Biden, the military fell short by approximately 15,000 recruits per year, crashing to a shortfall of 41,000 in 2023.

Following Trump’s election and throughout the first nine months of 2025, all branches of the military met or exceeded their recruitment goals.

The number of NATO nations meeting their promise to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense rose from 23 in 2024 to a likely total of 31 in 2025, with several pledging to spend as much as 5 percent.

Trump left office in 2021 with no major ongoing wars. His first administration had nearly bankrupted Iran, destroyed ISIS, decimated the Russian Wagner group in Syria, and birthed the Abraham Accords.

Under Biden, the Middle East exploded into a four-front war against Israel.

Iran boasted that it was within months of developing nuclear weapons after the Biden administration lifted prior Trump sanctions and courted Tehran to return to the so-called “Iran Deal.”

Over the last decade and a half, Russian leader Vladimir Putin had only kept within his borders during Trump’s first term, invading neighboring countries during the Bush, Obama, and Biden presidencies.

In 2022, Putin attacked Kyiv during Biden’s second year in office—leading to a full-scale Ukrainian-Russian war, incurring the greatest combat losses in Europe since the Second World War.

In August 2021, in one of the greatest military humiliations in U.S. history, Biden ordered the abrupt flight of all U.S. personnel from Kabul, Afghanistan. The skedaddle resulted in utter chaos, the deaths of 13 Marines, and destroyed U.S. deterrence.

Thousands of U.S. contractors and employees were left behind, and the administration abandoned billions of dollars of new weapons and military equipment to the terrorist Taliban.

In contrast, there is now a tentative calm across the Middle East. After Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the theocracy is not expected to be able to acquire a nuclear weapon for years.

Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis are decimated and increasingly impotent.

No wars broke out during Trump’s current year. Tentative Trump-inspired ceasefires helped stop violence between India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, Egypt and Ethiopia, Serbia and Kosovo, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Trump’s tariffs so far have not caused, as critics predicted, a recession or stock collapse. Instead, the stock market has reached all-time highs.

Trillions of dollars in promised foreign investments in the U.S. have set a record. And China, for the first time in 50 years, is facing an American-led global pushback against its exploitative, mercantilist trade policies.

The left is outraged about many of Trump’s executive orders.

But the public largely supports destroying the cartels’ seaborne drug shipments bound for the U.S. Polls show majorities favor banning transgender males from female sports, ending DEI racialist fixations, and enacting long-overdue higher education reforms.

Yet the daily news is about politicians’ f-bombs, government shutdowns, Trump’s social media trolling, and street violence. But the facts tell a different story of national recovery from the self-inflicted disasters of the recent past.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/are-americans-better-or-worse-january

Comey's Daughter Reportedly Sought To Cut Deal With Epstein To Smear Trump

 by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

The former cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein claimed that James Comey’s prosecutor daughter offered the billionaire pedophile a deal to implicate President Donald Trump.

Maurene Comey, who recently resigned as the walls closed in on her notorious FBI father, began serving in 2016 as assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

That put her front and center in the investigations of Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell after Epstein was arrested in July 2019.

While detained in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, Epstein was assigned to a cell with Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer who was serving time for kidnapping  and quadruple murder.

Tartaglione was convicted of killing a man he suspected of stealing some $250,000 in drug money, as well as his nephews and a family friend who “were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” prosecutors said, according to the New York Post.

During the month that Epstein was incarcerated before his apparent suicide, Tartaglione claimed in a recent pardon application that his cellmate had the opportunity to save his skin by throwing the sitting president under the bus.

“Prosecutors … told Epstein that if he said President Trump was involved with Esptein’s crimes he would walk free. in a petition to be pardoned,” according to the Post, which said it had obtained a copy of the filing.

“Epstein told me that Maurene Comey said that he didn’t have to prove anything, as long as President Trump’s people could not disprove it,” the pardon application added.

“According to Maurene Comey, the FBI were ‘her people, not his [President Trump’s].’”

Maurene Comey’s father was forced out of his role as FBI director roughly two years prior. However, questions have continued to swirl about the dubious loyalties of officials including then-Attorney General William Barr and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Even so, questions about Tartaglione’s credibility may outweigh the suspicions against the Deep State.

Epstein reported that his cell mate had attempted to attack and kill him during their time together, according to a memorandum from the responding officer.

lol this is the guy who probably tried to kill Epstein the first time https://t.co/lW11rKK0ar pic.twitter.com/a2BCOdHyud

— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 6, 2025

“He sat up on the bed and began telling me that he [thinks] his bunkine … tried to kill him,” the memo said.

Tartaglione contradicted the report, saying he had, in fact, tried to revive Epstein.

No camera footage was available due to issues with the surveillance system.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/comeys-daughter-reportedly-sought-cut-deal-epstein-smear-trump

Chinese Astronauts Stranded in Orbit Following Suspected Debris Impact

 by Lily Zhou via The Epoch Times,

China has delayed the planned return of Shenzhou 20’s crew after the spacecraft was possibly hit by debris, the regime’s spaceflight agency said on Wednesday.

The three-person crew was originally set to return to the Dongfeng Landing Site in Inner Mongolia on Wednesday, after their six-month rotation at the Tiangong space station.

They handed over of the operation of the space station on Tuesday to their replacements, who arrived aboard Shenzhou 21 on Nov. 1.

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said Shenzhou 20’s return mission was delayed to ensure the astronauts’s health and safety, as well as the success of the mission.

It did not provide details about where and when Shenzhou 20 was likely hit, but it did say an impact analysis and risk assessment are underway. It did not set a new date for the return mission.

If the return capsule can not be repaired, under protocols established since 2021, there is a backup rocket and spacecraft on standby that can be launched within days to rescue the crew in case of an emergency.

In April, the Shenzhou 19 crew’s return mission was delayed by one day due to weather conditions at the Dongfeng landing site. This is the first time a return mission has been delayed by space debris.

The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of space debris. The debris, also called space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or vessel parts that float around hundreds of miles above the Earth, risking collisions with countries’ active assets.

According to NASA, there are millions of pieces, or nearly 6,000 tons, of debris in low Earth orbit, most of which is flying seven times faster than a bullet.

The Chinese military tested an anti-satellite missile in 2007 and destroyed weather satellite Fengyun-1C, causing global outcry. NASA said China’s “deliberate destruction” of its own Fengyun-1C and and “the accidental collision of an American and a Russian spacecraft in 2009” increased the amount of large space junk by about 70 percent.

In 2016, Mallory Stewart, then-deputy assistant secretary for emerging security challenges and defense policy at the State Department, called the destruction of Fengyun-1C a “remarkable incident of irresponsible behavior” during a speech at the speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington. She said the Chinese regime had since conducted more such tests, albeit they were not debris-generating.

Beijing complained to the United Nations in 2021 that Tiangong had to perform two emergency avoidance manuevers to avoid fragments produced by Starlink satellites, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which predominate in the Earth’s lower orbital paths.

Shenzhou 20’s delayed return comes after a similar incident last year, when U.S. astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams were stranded in space for months because of a spacecraft malfunction.

The NASA astronauts were initially expected to stay in space for just over a week in June 2024, but the capsule returned to earth without them after it was deemed unfit to return them safely. The pair were retrieved in March this year by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinese-astronauts-stranded-orbit-following-suspected-debris-impact