A three-day undercover human sex trafficking sting at the San Diego Comic-Con Convention led to 14 arrests and the recovery of 10 potential victims. Authorities said the potential victims included a 16-year-old girl. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the undercover operation was launched by agencies as part of the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force. “Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large-scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit,” Bonta said in a statement, according to USA TODAY. “These arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behavior will not be tolerated,” he added. Authorities arrested 14 people and rescued 10 victims including a 16-year-old during an undercover human trafficking sting at the San Diego Comic-Con Convention. pic.twitter.com/prmN8u0scf — Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 31, 2024 “The 14 people were arrested on suspicion of solicitation, a misdemeanor,” The San Diego Union-Tribune noted. Per USA TODAY: Law enforcement officers went undercover as sex buyers to identify and arrest traffickers, as well as find potential victims, according to the attorney general’s officers. Undercover police also posted ads seeking sex as part of the operation. The comic book and pop culture event that concluded Sunday takes place at the San Diego Convention Center every summer, drawing over 100,000 people. “When people use these events as an opportunity to prey upon minors, (Homeland Security Investigations) HSI and our law enforcement partners will find you and bring you before a court of law to face criminal charges,” Christopher Davis, acting special agent in charge for HSI San Diego, said in a statement. “There is no place for alleged predators to operate in our city.” Authorities arrested 14 people and rescued 10 victims in a human trafficking sting that took place at #SDCC pic.twitter.com/EaDDWwscfF — Culture Crave (@CultureCrave) July 31, 2024 “Working together, teams identified and arrested more than a dozen individuals participating in these illegal acts in our City over the weekend,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said in a statement, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. “These results show our collective dedication to combatting human trafficking and holding criminals accountable are working,” he added. #BREAKING: More than a dozen arrested in Comic-Con human trafficking sting https://t.co/qnxKZ818B5 — KTLA (@KTLA) July 31, 2024 From The San Diego Union-Tribune: Child Welfare Services and support service advocates were on the scene to provide support to the victims, officials said. The task force is a cooperative effort involving the state DOJ, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California Highway Patrol, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, National City and San Diego police, the county Sheriff’s Department, as well as prosecutors and probation officials. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service also assisted in the operation. A DOJ spokesperson said 34 to 50 officers participated in the sting on any given day. WATCH:

Censorship, violent crackdowns, and political repression by the leftist regime. The post After Immigrant Stabbed Kids, UK Gov Cracks Down on Protesters appeared first on Frontpage Mag.

Whenever Israel does anything, the media rants about how they are escalating the war. Meanwhile, Iran can send out their Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah terrorists and get rewarded by the U.S. Once again, after the killing of the Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, the media is ranting. However, Israel has not taken credit for the assassination […] The post Haniyeh Killed by a Bomb Planted Weeks Ago appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

After Italian boxer Angela Carini was powerfully punched twice by an Algerian boxer in the Paris Olympics who had previously been barred from fighting women, she stopped her bout 46 seconds in and broke down in tears, saying she had never been hit so hard. Carini, 25, was fighting Algerian Imane Khelif, who was disqualified from the women’s World Championship in 2023 after failing testosterone and gender eligibility tests. International Amateur Boxing President Umar Kremlev asserted that DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded.” In Carini’s match against Khelif, one punch “dislodged her chinstrap and a second smashed against her chin and bloodied her shorts,” The Guardian reported. IOC allowed this male boxer to fight a woman. He won. Fight abandoned after 46s /4 pic.twitter.com/YwUfZQ6ssb — FairPlayForWomen (@fairplaywomen) August 1, 2024   “I want to show you something. I don’t know if you can hear; he’s my father,” Carini said in tears after the match, holding up a phone to show a photo of her father. “I did the ‘last kilometer’ because one day, I felt tired. Before Tokyo, I felt tired. I said, ‘Dad, I’m tired, the training is intense, but I won’t give up.’ He said to me, ‘Angelina, a champion is a bit like cycling; the champion, when they see the last kilometer, you know what they do? They pedal even harder. So you reach that last kilometer and pedal. Go all the way, because I’ll always be with you.’ And so I did. Until the end, I fought with blood in my eyes because I wanted this victory at all costs just for my father.” “I am heartbroken,” Carini said. “I went to the ring to honor my father. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this. …  I got into the ring to fight. I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m going out with my head held high.” “I wanted this victory at all costs. Just for my father.” Italian boxer Angela Carini emotionally discusses winning for her late father after securing a spot at the Paris Olympics. She just forfeited her match against Imane Khelif, who is male. pic.twitter.com/zypHELjldX — Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 1, 2024 “After the second punch, after years of experience, I felt a strong pain in the nose. I said enough, because I didn’t want,” she continued. ”I couldn’t finish the fight after the punch to the nose. So it was better to put an end to it. I am in pieces because I am a fighter; they taught me to be a warrior. I have always tried to behave with honor; I have always represented my country with loyalty. This time I didn’t manage to because I couldn’t fight anymore. Regardless of the person I had in front, of me, which doesn’t interest me, regardless of all the row, I just wanted to win. I wanted to face the person that I had in front of me and to fight.” “I am not one that gives in easily,” Carini said when asked if she should have eschewed fighting the Algerian. “No, even if they had said that we wouldn’t fight, I would never have accepted it. I have a warrior’s mentality. This time I didn’t manage. I felt too much pain on my nose. I said enough. It’s not a defeat for me, for me if you go in the ring you have already won, regardless of everything else. I’m not here to judge. It’s not up to me to say if it’s fair or not fair. I just did my job. I managed to leave with my head held high. I’m a mature woman, when I feel I cannot continue, it’s not giving in, it’s having the dignity to say enough. I was convinced I would win, I was concentrated, serene. But these punches to the nose hurt, I said enough.” “I am here for gold,” Khelif told the BBC. “I will fight anybody. I will fight them all.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reacted, “I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions. And not because you want to discriminate against someone, but to protect the right of female athletes to be able to compete on equal terms.  I was emotional yesterday when she wrote ‘I will fight’ because the dedication, the head, the character, surely also play a role in these things. But then it also matters to be able to compete on equal grounds and from my point of view it was not an even contest.”

With the threat of the Japanese Navy eliminated, General Smith and his Fifth Amphibious Corps on Saipan were free to continue the fight without fear of being stranded. For Saitō’s men on the island, however, Ozawa’s defeat made their own eventual annihilation a fait accompli. American strength would continue to build while the isolated Japanese force steadily weakened as it was ground down and destroyed. With no hope of reinforcements and resupply, the defenders resigned themselves to suffer the same end as would every Japanese island garrison across the Pacific unfortunate enough to have the weight of U.S. power come down on them with no line of retreat. All that remained was to fight as hard as they could and make the Americans pay for every inch of ground before selling their lives for their god-emperor. This suicidal mindset would set the tone for nineteen days of combat to follow. There were no easy victories on these Pacific islands against an enemy that had been raised to give his life for his emperor without question and never surrender. Said Marine Rick Spooner: “Our principle objective was to stay alive ourselves. Not day-to-day but from one minute to the next.” US Marines moving positions during battle in Garapan, during the Pacific Campaign of World War Two, Saipan, circa 1943-1945. (Photo by US Marine Corps/Getty Images) With the entirety of the Fifth Amphibious Corps ashore, and U.S. warships once again cruising the waters off Saipan to add their air power and big guns in support, the Marines and soldiers embarked on pushing Saitō’s determined defenders off the island. Even with the awesome fire support from offshore batteries and strafing and rocket-firing fighter-bombers, progress was agonizingly slow. The determined Japanese infantry contested every hill, every field, every little town, every ravine and cave using cover to mask machine gun nests, pillboxes, and snipers while their artillery lobbed in shells from protected positions on the other side of steep limestone ridges. And civilians caught in the cross-fire added another dimension of difficulties for the Americans. U.S. planners had originally scheduled the next phase of the Marianas campaign, the capture of Guam, for June 18. Because of the unexpected resistance on Saipan, however, that timetable was scrapped as the true nature of the bloodbath ashore was revealing itself. The Guam invasion was postponed until July 21. US Navy Corpsman tending to injured soldiers during the Pacific Campaign of World War Two, Saipan, circa 1943-1945. (Photo by US Marine Corps/Getty Images) Throughout the rest of June and into July, under a baking sun and often short of water, the Americans on Saipan fought their way northward towards the neck and head of the dinosaur. While the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions moved up the left and right side of the island respectively, the Army 7th Division pushed up the center. Progress was agonizingly slow. Fighting was especially brutal and prolonged around Mount Tapochau with artillery raining down from its slopes into the valleys where the Americans gave the surrounding battle sites names like “Death Valley” and “Purple Heart Ridge.” But the fighting continued. Said 2nd Marine Kenneth Killilea, “There was bayonets, there was K-knives, there was butts of rifles, it was fight and counter-fight all the way to the end.” Marines finally stormed the summit on June 25, D+9, and beat off repeated Japanese attempts to retake Saipan’s highest point. Saipan Operation, June 1944. Marines pose in a foxhole near the Saipan front lines, 1 July 1944. Photo by USS INDIANAPOLIS. Note tattoo on man 2nd from right. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command. By July the remaining Japanese resistance began to crumble as the defenders were being squeezed into the northern tip of the island. Saitō decided the situation was hopeless and sent out orders for the remainder of his forces to perform gyokusai, one final suicide attack to destroy as many of the enemy as possible before dying. He then committed ritual suicide. In the pre-dawn darkness of July 7, an estimated 4,000 Japanese shouting “Banzai!” wielding rifles, swords, bayonets and knives charged in waves towards an encampment of soldiers and Marines near Tanapag Harbor. They overran several positions, including the 105th Infantry Regiment command post, killing or wounding over 1,000 Americans in often hand-to-hand combat before being beaten back with point-blank machine gun fire and artillery. It was the largest Banzai charge of the war. The attackers were killed to a man. Spooner contemplated the grisly aftermath of the enemy corpses baking in the tropical heat: “There were places where they were piled three and four high as they tried to advance over their dead.” But as awful as the night of the 7th was, had the Japanese remained in their positions to be rooted out one by one, as would happen later on Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the final tally in U.S. casualties would have no doubt been much higher. This final desperate gesture of the Samurai spirit effectively ended organized resistance on Saipan. On July 9 the island was officially declared “secured.” First Lieutenant Robert B Sheeks, a combat Intelligence and Japanese Language Officer with the 2nd Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps talks with a Chamorro woman and her children. US Marine Corps Official Photo. (Photo by Angus Robertson/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images). One final horror remained. At the cliffs of Marpi Point on the northern tip of the island the Americans witnessed a tragedy. The Japanese military had brainwashed the island’s inhabitants into believing that if taken by the American “devils” they would be raped, tortured, and murdered and their babies eaten. Over loudspeakers interpreters tried to assure the terrified civilians they’d be treated humanely. Some did come over to U.S. lines where food, medical attention and kindly treatment greeted them. But, sadly, many were not persuaded. The Americans, many still teenagers, watched helplessly as some 1,000 civilians chose to commit suicide by leaping to their deaths to the rocky shore 600 feet below. Some mothers first tossed their babies before taking the death plunge themselves. For many a Marine and soldier hardened by weeks of brutal combat, this was the nightmare that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. “Into The Sea.” USMC photo by Sgt. R. B. Opper. Courtesy: 1-24thmarines.com For the Americans, Operation Forager was an ominous harbinger of the battles to come. In 25 days of combat the U.S. lost some 3,200 killed and another 13,000 wounded. Of the 31,000 Japanese defenders, only 1,800 were taken prisoner (half of them Korean laborers). Thousands of civilians also lost their lives being cut down in the fighting itself or by suicide.  As noted, the invasion of Saipan had been the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific War to date. That it took place just nine days after the massive Normandy landings in France on the other side of the world was a testament to the growing might of a United States now fully mobilized for war. What this heralded for the Japanese war effort was not lost on Tokyo. Raising the flag at Marpi airfield, 9 July 1944. USMC photo by Sgt. Nick Ragus. Courtesy: 1-24thmarines.com As expected, the loss of Saipan, and the subsequent capture of Guam and Tinian after more bloody fighting, prompted Emperor Hirohito to withdraw his support for Tojo’s government which fell out of power. For the Japanese civilians on the home islands, the Marianas campaign initiated a new and much deadlier phase of the war. Once captured, USAAF and Navy engineers constructed six massive airfields on the newly acquired Marianas capable of fielding hundreds of massive B-29s. Two U.S. soldiers watching the takeoff of a B-29 bomber from the air base at Saipan, destination Tokyo. Saipan, 23rd November 1944 (Photo by Mondadori via Getty Images) On November 24, 1944, the first Superfortresses took off from the islands to raid Japan now just 1,200 miles away. Within a few months hundreds of bombers per mission were flying from the new bases to devastate the home islands. On the night of March 9-10, 1945, over 300 B-29s from Saipan firebombed Tokyo, killing an estimated 100,000 residents and burning out fourteen square miles of the city, earning it the gruesome distinction of being the single deadliest event in the history of warfare. By war’s end anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 Japanese civilians would die in the unrelenting bombings, along with five million made homeless. At least 40% of over 60 of Japan’s cities were burned out; the nation’s capacity to wage war eventually ceased to exist. And finally as if to fully express what the loss of the Marianas signified, the B-29s Enola Gay and Bockscar which dropped the atomic bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively flew from Tinian island. Before the Americans took the Marianas, for the Japanese populace the war had been a distant spectacle. Afterwards, hell would come to their doorsteps, and an already brutal Pacific War would escalate to a new strata of violence. Due in large part to the rain of fire coming out of the Marianas, Japan’s nightmare finally came to a merciful end in September 1945 when a victorious American fleet, including many warships that participated in the epic Battle of the Philippine Sea, sailed into Tokyo Bay. Considering the violence and hatred expressed on battlefields like Saipan, one hopes that those who fought there 80 years ago did not do so in vain. Indeed, as per Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Gen. Douglas MacArthur upon accepting Japan’s formal surrender: “It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that a better world shall emerge from the blood and carnage of the past.” Perhaps, in the end, this was what Saipan and all the bloody battles of the Pacific that marked the way to that moment were all about.  * * * RELATED: The Battle Of Saipan, Part One: Invasion RELATED: The Battle Of Saipan, Part Two: The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot RELATED: The Battle Of Saipan, Part Three: Mission Beyond Darkness * * * Brad Schaeffer is a commodities trader, columnist, and author of two acclaimed novels. Along with Daily Wire, his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, New York Post, National Review, The Federalist, The Hill and other media outlets. His newest book, LIFE IN THE PITS: My Time as a Trader on the Rough-and-Tumble Exchange Floors, is a fun and informative memoir of his time as a floor trader in Chicago and New York. You can also find more of Brad’s articles on Substack. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.