Two of the top leaders of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel have been taken into custody by the Department of Justice to face charges for their roles in the cartels, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James has lost a bid to change judges in a lawsuit challenging a state law banning the sale of body armor. [She wanted a friendlier judge.] New York passed a law banning the sale and possession of body armor. Gov. Hochul signed the law after a lunatic in Buffalo massacred […] The post Letitia James Can’t Have a New Judge in Body Armor Case appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Members of the delegation traveling with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu were disappointed following their meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris, a high-level source told Jewish Insider. The senior Israeli diplomat was concerned about Harris’s support for Israel. Other sources said the delegation did not have an encouraging first impression of the vice president. The two leaders exchanged pleasantries during a photo-op and met for about 40 minutes in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. After the meeting, Harris delivered remarks where she took a critical stance on Israel’s role in the Gaza war, stating that the Jewish state had a right to defend itself but “how it does so matters.” “I also expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians,” Harris said. “And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there, with over 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.” Harris also called the situation in Gaza “devastating” and said “we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” adding that she “will not be silent.” Netanyahu rejected claims that Israel is deliberately starving Gazans during his joint-address to Congress on Wednesday, stating that Israel “enabled 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza” and deliver half a million tons of food. “If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t getting enough food, it’s not because Israel is blocking it, it’s because Hamas is stealing it,” he said, calling the accusations “a complete fabrication” and “utter nonsense.” Harris said she told Netanyahu that it’s “time to get this deal done,” despite Hamas recently rejecting a ceasefire proposal. Netanyahu reportedly told President Joe Biden in a meeting Thursday that the more united the United States and Israel are, the greater the chances of securing hostages through negotiations become, according to Jewish Insider. Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel on Friday afternoon near the city of Ashkelon.  Harris added that she supports a two-state solution because it is “the only path that ensures Israel remains, secure, Jewish, an democratic state and one that ensures Palestinians can finally realize the freedom, security, and prosperity that they rightly deserve.” The Israeli delegation was reportedly surprised that Harris took a more aggressive tone in her speech than in their meeting. In an interview earlier this month, Harris commented on the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel protests that escalated to violence and caused graduation cancellations, saying the protesters “are expressing exactly the human emotion that is appropriate in response to Gaza.” “I understand the emotion behind it,” Harris said. The vice president opted not to preside over Netanyahu’s address in Congress on Wednesday, choosing instead to participate in a convention for the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta in Indiana. Netanyahu will meet with former President Donald Trump Friday afternoon at Mar-A Lago.

Likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ national security advisor has spoken more than once to a lobbying group that advocates for positions sympathetic to the Iranian regime, and told then-President Donald Trump to “keep quiet” about supporting anti-government protesters in Iran. Philip Gordon, who served as Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region, rose from Harris’ deputy national security adviser to the top spot in 2022. Gordon has spoken at least twice before the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which, according to Tablet Magazine, was “a willing advocate for a theocratic regime that brutally tortures and murders its own citizens while spreading death throughout the Middle East.” Tablet added, “The convergence of views between the Obama administration and the pro-Iran lobby helped NIAC and its partners to evolve from a pressure group to a high-level White House player. Philip Gordon, special assistant to the president and White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region spoke at the NIAC 2014 annual conference and in September 2016.” Gordon was a keynote speaker at the 2016 National Iranian American Council Conference. In December 2017, Gordon ripped then-President Trump for vociferously supporting Iranians rallying against the Iranian regime. In an address in October 2017, a clear-eyed Trump declared, “Iran is under the control of a fanatical regime that seized power in 1979 and forced a proud people to submit to its extremist rule. This radical regime has raided the wealth of one of the world’s oldest and most vibrant nations, and spread death, destruction, and chaos all around the globe.” Gordon wrote in The New York Times, “I, too, want to see the government in Tehran weakened, moderated or even removed. So let me offer Mr. Trump some unsolicited advice: Keep quiet and do nothing,” adding, “We can be fairly certain that high-profile public support from the United States government will do more harm than good…. if Iranians do choose to rise up and push aside their government, it will not be the result of support from Washington.” “One reason to worry that Mr. Trump may try to seize the moment by championing the protesters is that it has become an article of faith among President Barack Obama’s critics that in 2009 he missed a golden opportunity to do just that, when many Iranians took to the streets after a disputed election result. But it was never clear what difference American rhetorical support would have made then, other than allowing the Iranian government to depict the protesters as American lackeys, giving the security services more of a pretext to crack down violently,” Gordon asserted.