Netflix has broken its silence on the controversy over “Emilia Pérez,” the streaming giant’s musical drama, which earned 13 Academy Award nominations. While the film has been heaped in praise for months, things took a turn recently when old social media posts from trans-identifying actor Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the main character, resurfaced and went viral. The posts put forth controversial takes on hot topics, including George Floyd, Muslims, and diversity at the Oscars. Now Gascón has become persona non grata, with many in the film industry, including “Emilia Pérez” director Jacques Audiard, disavowing him.  Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria gave her take on the situation during an interview on “The Town” podcast, echoing what many others have been saying and placing blame firmly on the film’s star rather than defending his actions. “I think it’s really a bummer for the 100 incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,” Bajaria said, per Variety. “And if you look at the nominations, and all of this awards love that it’s received, I think it’s such a bummer that it distracted from that.” She continued, “It really has kind of taken the conversation in a different way [from] this incredible movie that Jacques Audiard — who is an incredible director — has made. It really is a bummer for a lot of the people, like [co-stars] Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. And our awards team did an incredible campaign for that movie.” The Netflix exec responded to a question about potentially vetting a star’s social media accounts by saying, “It’s not really common practice for people to vet social tweets that way … A lot of people are reevaluating that … I do think it is raising questions for a lot of people about reevaluating that process.” Bajaria added, “I think you also have to [ask]: Are we going to actually look at the personal social media of tens of thousands of people, every single day around the world, [given the] amount of original film and TV and co-prods that we make and license? It raises a lot of questions about what that should look like.” She said despite the backlash, it’s all been worth it.  “If you ask me today, everything I know, we would still buy the movie today. That movie is incredible and it’s creative and it’s bold — that’s what you want, and it resonated with a lot of people this year,” Bajaria concluded. Gascón has apologized multiple times but is still being chastised and has been uninvited from events to promote “Emilia Pérez” before the Oscars ceremony. 

Between 2020 and 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reportedly spent $22.6 billion on illegal immigrants, including cash payments for cars and home loans. HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) was found to have also provided assistance in building up credit to start businesses, the New York Post reported, citing a watchdog organization that provided its report exclusively to the outlet. OpenTheBooks reported that “ORR has spent over $22.6 BILLION since 2020 on grants to nonprofits providing everything from help accessing Medicaid to help building [sic] credit, help with home and auto loans, and cash assistance.” PRESIDENTS’ DAY SALE! 40% Off DailyWire+ Annual Memberships With Code DW40 The organization noted that the grants “acted as giant magnets for those seeking to cross the border and claim asylum.” ORR also expanded its criteria to allow more people to receive its funding, OpenTheBooks found. In ORR’s 2023 Congressional Budget Justification, the agency suggested expanding its mandate to include: “Special Immigrant Juvenile Minors” within the “Unaccompanied Refugee Minor” (URM) program have access to the same benefits as refugees, including Medicaid and foster care services. Ukrainian and Afghan children and other URM-designated youth so that they could gain access to legal assistance, which would ensure permanent residency Cash assistance to full-time college or technical school students designated as refugees. Removal of the requirement that refugees obtain economic self-sufficiency “as quickly as possible.” OpenTheBooks also detailed the amount of money ORR spent on its illegal immigrant services each year between 2020 and 2024: In 2020, ORR spent $2,682,493,224.22 In 2021, it spent $2,352,120,351.54 In 2022, it spent $3,378,055,499.50 In 2023, it spent $10,035,487,466.68 In 2024, it spent $4,207,541,746.00 That’s a total of $22.655,698,287.94. ORR came under fire last year after it was revealed that HHS had lost track of nearly 300,000 unaccompanied children who entered the United States illegally, The Daily Wire reported. An inspector general report found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had transferred 448,820 unaccompanied migrant children to HHS between fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2023. ICE is supposed to keep track of the children and serve them with a “notice to appear” for their immigration case, but the report found it had not done so and had failed to locate around 291,000 children that had been handed over to HHS. “ICE must take immediate action to ensure the safety of UCs residing in the United States,” the inspector general said in the report. “Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.”

Sagui Dekel-Chen, the second American to be released in the latest phase of the hostage deal, is set to return home on Saturday. Twenty-nine-year-old Russian-Israeli citizen Alexander “Sasha” Troufanov, and 46-year-old Argentinian-Israeli Iair Horn will also be released. In exchange for the three men, Israel plans to release 36 terrorists serving life sentences and 333 people suspected of terrorism who were arrested after October 7, Jewish News Syndicate reported. When Hamas terrorists entered Nir Oz, 36-year-old Sagui put his pregnant wife Avital and their children in a safe room and went to defend the kibbutz. He was then taken hostage by Hamas. Upon his return, he will reunite with his family and the young daughter he has yet to meet. In an interview with The Daily Wire on the anniversary of October 7, Dekel-Chen’s father, Jonathan, said his life has been a “living hell” since his son was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Jonathan Dekel-Chen said his life has been a “living hell” since his son, Sagui Dekel-Chen — an American citizen — was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists one year ago. My interview with him: pic.twitter.com/CJX7pYCV27 — Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) October 8, 2024 Jonathan said his son was involved in serving the Jewish and Arab Bedouin communities of southern Israel, and was working on converting old buses to usable objects for underserved communities on the morning of October 7. “He’s the son that any parent would dream of,” Dekel-Chen said. “It’s such a terrible waste that he and another 100 — almost all of them civilians — have had their lives and the lives of their families destroyed this way.” During his speech at the Remembering October 7 event hosted Monday by the Philos Project in Washington, D.C., Dekel-Chen said he often wonders how much Sagui knew in captivity about the fate of the rest of his family. “Ever since he was taken, I ask myself, what does he know? Does he know that his wife and two young daughters or anyone from [nearby] all survived the massacre? Does he know that his youngest daughter, Shahar, which means Dawn in Hebrew, was born in mid-December?” Out of about 400 residents of Nir Oz, 51 were murdered and 79 others were taken hostage, according to Jonathan. Troufanov, who was also abducted from Nir Oz, was taken with his parents, grandmother, and partner, Sapir Cohen. His father was killed in captivity and the others were released in the November 2023 hostage deal. It is believed that he is unaware of his father’s death. PRESIDENTS’ DAY SALE! 40% Off DailyWire+ Annual Memberships With Code DW40 Cohen said she saw Troufanov “beaten bloody and thrown face-first into the ground” by terrorists, according to her interview in the Italian newspaper Libero Quotidiano. Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov recently revealed that Troufanov’s “condition is poor,” Israel Hayom reported. Amazon has been under fire since October 7 for failing to condemn the abduction of Troufanov, who worked in the Annapurna Labs division of Amazon. Horn was abducted from Nir Oz with his brother Eitan on October 7. Eitan remains in captivity and is not on the list of names to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Horn, who moved to Israel from Argentina, is known for organizing celebrations and events at the kibbutz, doing stand-up comedy, radio broadcasting, and more. In the first phase of the deal thus far, 16 out of 33 hostages have been released, with five additional Thai hostages being released in a separate deal. Seventy-six hostages remain in captivity, 73 of whom were abducted on October 7. The fate of those not slated for the first phase will be negotiated in later phases. So far, 566 Palestinian terrorist prisoners have been released in exchange for the hostages, with about an additional 1,300 set to be released in the first phase, Jewish News Syndicate reported. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas should be canceled if the terror group does not release “all the Gaza hostages” by noon on Saturday. “If all the Gaza hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 p.m., I would say cancel the ceasefire,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Let all hell break out. Israel can override it.” Trump said that he meant “all the hostages,” a departure from the ceasefire agreement, under which a few hostages were released each week. “Not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two,” he said “Saturday at 12 o’clock, and after that I would say, all hell is going to break out.” In response, Hamas said it was committed to following the deal as it is and would not be releasing all of the hostages. Last Saturday, Trump said he was losing patience with Hamas following the return of three Israeli hostages who were in dangerously poor health. “I watched the hostages return today, and they looked like Holocaust survivors,” Trump said. “They were in horrible condition, emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors. I don’t know how much longer we can take that.” “At some point, we are going to lose our patience,” Trump added. “When I see that scene that I saw today of people coming out of helicopters and airplanes that are emaciated, that look like they haven’t had a meal in a month, there’s no reason for that, and I don’t know how much longer we can take it.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Boston apprehended an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who has been charged with raping a child. Jose Fernando-Perez, 49, was arrested in Framingham, Massachusetts, on February 2, ICE announced. He had been charged with three counts of forcible rape of a child and three counts of aggravated rape of a child in 2022 but was released by a judge. “Jose Fernando-Perez has been charged with some horrific crimes against a minor in our commonwealth,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde said in the press release. “He is exactly the type of alien we are targeting with our ‘worst first’ policy. He posed a significant danger to the children of Massachusetts, and we will not tolerate such a threat to our community. ICE Boston will continue to prioritize the safety of our public by arresting and removing egregious alien offenders from our New England communities.” It is unknown exactly when Fernando-Perez illegally entered the United States or where he crossed the border, but it is known that he wasn’t inspected, admitted, or paroled by any U.S. immigration officials, ICE said. PRESIDENTS’ DAY SALE! 40% Off DailyWire+ Annual Memberships With Code DW40 He was first arraigned in Lynn District Court in Massachusetts on December 6, 2005, after allegedly leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and for having inaccurate license plates. He was convicted of those charges on October 19, 2012 – nearly seven years later. On April 19, 2022, the district court arraigned Fernando-Perez for rape of a child by force but dismissed the case because he was indicted by the superior court. ICE lodged an immigration detainer against him with the Essex County House of Correction on May 16, 2022, but the Essex County Superior Court in Salem, Massachusetts, ignored that detainer. This court arraigned Fernando-Perez on six counts pertaining to the rape of a minor but released him on pre-trial conditions on October 6, 2022, according to ICE. The Essex County Sheriff’s Office told Boston 25 News that once a judge releases someone, they’re no longer in their custody, which is similar to what the Massachusetts Trial Court spokesperson told the outlet. “In order to comply with Massachusetts law, court officers are prohibited from assisting or interfering with ICE agents in executing their obligations under Federal law,” the spokesperson told the outlet. “That means that a court officer will not interfere with ICE arresting an individual who has been released. On the other hand, court officers are prohibited from keeping a released individual in custody awaiting an ICE agent. Massachusetts Court officials do not have the authority to hold an individual in custody solely on the basis of a Federal Civil Immigration Detainer.” After arresting Fernando-Perez, ICE served him with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge, and he remains in ICE custody.

'Fraud, waste, and abuse'

'I call it the force of super-geniuses'