“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer on Canadian national David DePape with San Francisco County Jail, Nov. 1, following his Oct. 28 arrest,” the department said.

ICE issues so-called immigration “detainers” to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to inform them that the agency intends to take custody of an individual and requests that ICE be notified before that individual is released.

The detainer is unlikely to affect DePape’s case since deportations often happen after criminal cases are resolved. But after conviction and prison sentence, the US normally would seek deportation.

According to federal records, DePape, a Canadian citizen, entered the country in early March at the San Ysidro port of entry, which is along the California-Mexico border, as a temporary visitor. Generally, Canadians who are visiting for business or pleasure don’t require a visa and are allowed to stay in the US for six months.

DePape, 42, has been charged with a litany of crimes, including assault, attempted murder and attempted kidnapping, following last week’s break-in at Pelosi’s San Francisco home, the US attorney’s office and San Francisco district attorney announced on Monday.

He was charged with one count of “attempted kidnapping of a US official,” according to the US attorney’s office for the Northern District of California. That charge relates to Nancy Pelosi, whom DePape told police he planned to “hold hostage,” according to an FBI affidavit also unsealed on Monday.

DePape entered a not guilty plea Tuesday to all state charges during his initial appearance in court. He has not yet entered a plea in federal court.

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Their one-on-one came as recent polls show a tightening race, with the Democrat’s lead having dwindled to single digits in one survey. No Republican has won statewide office in New York since 2002.

Zeldin, a conservative backed by former President Donald Trump, has campaigned furiously on his opposition to the state’s bail reform law and criticized Hochul’s handling of crime, which has ranked high up on the list of voters’ concerns in nearly every survey of the race.

Both candidates sought to align themselves with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has pushed for new and substantial rollbacks to bail law, but they predictably diverged on Trump and his successor, President Joe Biden.

Zeldin praised Trump’s policy agenda during the debate, but, in a nod to a state that voted overwhelmingly for his opponent, did not directly say whether the former President should run again in 2024.

Hochul, breaking from some tepid statements from fellow Democrats, was clear and concise on Biden’s future. Asked if she thought he should run again, she said, “Yes, I do.”

Here are the four big takeaways from Tuesday night’s debate.

Zeldin talks crime; Hochul talks guns

Crime has emerged as the central talking point of the election and that held for large portions of the debate on Tuesday, with Zeldin criticizing Hochul for not taking more aggressive steps to combat its rise and promising to fire a controversial Democratic prosecutor in Manhattan.

Hochul responded by talking up various initiatives but also frequently tried to turn the tables on the Republican, pointing to his opposition to gun control measures, including a bipartisan deal recently passed in Congress.

“I’m running to take back our streets,” Zeldin said in the first volley of the debate.

Hochul dismissed her opponent’s attacks as vague and cynical.

“You can work on keeping people scared or on keeping people safe,” she said, adding, “There is no crime fighting plan if it doesn’t include guns.”

Zeldin sought to pivot off the gun argument by noting that firearms didn’t play a role in many recent hate crimes or when innocent bystanders have, in recent months, been pushed on to subway tracks.

“They tell me these stories,” Zeldin said of voters he’s met, “about having to hug a pole or grab a guardrail because they’re afraid of being pushed in front of an oncoming subway car.”

“All you have is rhetoric,” Hochul shot back. “I have a record of getting things done.”

The state’s bail reform law, passed in 2019 but rolled back twice since, was also a flashpoint. Even after the moderators rolled out statistics showing it’s difficult to discern whether the law, which makes it more difficult to hold suspects in pre-trial detention, led to a rise in crime, both candidates – Zeldin to a much greater degree – spoke about their desire for further changes.

Hochul has, before and during the campaign, sought new tweaks. Zeldin wants the legislation off the books entirely – a desire in step with even some liberal New Yorkers – calling it “the will of the people.”

Trump and Zeldin’s vote

In a state Biden won by nearly 2 million votes, with more than 60% of ballots cast, Zeldin’s vote in Congress against certifying the election has become a reliable cudgel for Democrats.

On Tuesday night, Hochul wielded it early and often.

When Zeldin talked about trying to remove Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who was elected to the job, Hochul connected it to the congressman’s actions after the 2020 presidential election.

“In Lee Zeldin’s world,” she said, “you overturn elections you disagree with.”

Zeldin said he had the “constitutional authority” and “constitutional duty” to try his best to unseat Bragg, who has been criticized for not more aggressively prosecuting low-level crime.

Eventually, the moderators offered Zeldin an opportunity of sorts to disavow his past actions. Asked if he would, knowing what he does now, still vote against certifying the 2020 election, Zeldin demurred.

“The issue still remains today,” the Republican said. “Election integrity should always matter.”

Pressed then on whether he would accept defeat, should Hochul win in two weeks, Zeldin said he would – but his disdain for the question was obvious.

“First off, losing is not an option,” Zeldin answered. “Secondly, playing along with your hypothetical question: Of course” he would accept the results, he said.

Zeldin’s abortion position comes under the microscope

The Republican also came under consistent attack over his anti-abortion policy views and celebration of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Zeldin has argued the issue is moot: New York state has passed strict abortion rights protections and, even if he wanted to, he could not change them.

Still, he did not directly answer a question from the moderators asking whether he would sign off on new restrictions if Republicans took hold of the state legislature – something Zeldin insisted was immaterial because “it’s not happening.”

Hochul returned to the issue frequently, touting the state law and promising to protect it from conservative politicians like Zeldin.

“What we have in New York state is simply a codification of Roe v. Wade,” Hochul said, when asked if she would put any restrictions on abortion. She then added, “You know why nothing changed the day after the Dobbs decision? It’s because I’m the governor of New York and he’s not.”

Zeldin also sought to fend off questions about a recent remark, which he has since walked back, stating he wanted to appoint an anti-abortion rights state health commissioner.

“My litmus test,” he insisted, “is that (the health commissioner) is going to do an exceptional job.”

Again though, on the issue of whether he would support funding for Planned Parenthood, Zeldin swerved and suggested it would be a bargaining chip with Democratic leaders in Albany.

“I’ve heard from New Yorkers who say that they don’t want their tax dollars, for example, for people who live 1,500 miles away from here,” Zeldin said.

Zeldin hits Hochul on accusations of pay to play and the Buffalo Bills

The Bills have one of the best records in pro football this year, but Zeldin hopes they might be a losing issue for Hochul, at least outside Buffalo.

The state this year approved $600 million in funds to build the team, which is owned by a billionaire, a new stadium in Buffalo. The county is also chipping in an estimated $250 million.

Hochul defended what critics call a corporate handout as a job-creating maneuver – an argument belied by other cities’ past experiences doing the same – and claimed the Bills were “looking elsewhere,” or considering moving to another city, and said she’d heard from people that they’d been in contact with officials in other states.

“You think about the identity of the community – like Broadway is to New York City, the Buffalo Bills are to Western New York,” said Hochul, a Buffalo native.

Zeldin became exasperated at the suggestion the Bills were seriously considering leaving the city – “They’re not,” he snapped – and said the eleventh hour deal to secure the money was “irresponsible on process and substance.”

Throughout the debate, Zeldin also criticized what he described as Hochul’s “pay to play” governorship, accusing her of trading state contract cash for campaign donations.

Hochul rejected the charge, which has been reported on inconclusively by a number of local media outlets.

“There has never been a quid pro quo, a policy change, because of a contribution,” the governor said, before pivoting to an attack on Zeldin’s outside support, specifically the more than $8 million invested in pro-Zeldin super PACs by Ronald Lauder, heir to the cosmetics giant Estée Lauder.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, is trying an unorthodox strategy designed to goad Trump into appearing before the committee: Questioning his manhood.

“I don’t think he’s man enough to show up,” Pelosi said in a recent interview with MSNBC. “I don’t think his lawyers will want him to show up because he has to testify under oath.”

And, just in case you missed it, Pelosi reiterated: “We’ll see if he’s man enough to show up.”

Which, if you know Trump, is a pretty interesting ploy to a) get his attention and b) lure him into considering testifying.

Trump is all male bravado. He spent both the 2016 campaign and his four years in the White House portraying himself as a macho man, a tough guy who couldn’t stand what he viewed to be the softening of American men.

As I wrote back in 2020 of Trump’s masculinity obsession:

‘His idea of strength and toughness is deeply distorted, twisted and gnarled over many decades of grievance and bravado. See, for Trump, being strong and being tough is tied directly to winning, to dominating, to using overwhelming force to get a desired result.

“In his mind, might makes right. And the world is split between people willing to use their power over others and those too afraid to exert it.”

His recent past is littered with an obsession regarding manliness.

When he released his partial medical records during an appearance on Mehmet Oz’s TV show, Oz singled out Trump’s testosterone count for special praise. “Your testosterone is 441, which is actually –” Oz said, before adding: “It’s good.” (Oz is now the Republican nominee for US Senate in Pennsylvania.)

During a 2016 primary debate, Trump felt the need to defend his hand size from attacks by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. “I have to say this, he hit my hands,” said Trump. “Nobody has ever hit my hands. I’ve never heard of this one. Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee you.”

As the nation slogged through the coronavirus pandemic, Trump repeatedly mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask, suggesting it was something short of manly. “I don’t wear masks like him,” said Trump. “Every time you see him he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with biggest mask I’ve ever seen”

Shortly after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, then-Trump spokesman Hogan Gidley was asked whether Trump felt emasculated by being removed from Facebook and Twitter. “The most masculine person I think to ever hold the White House is the President of the United States,” Gidley responded.

So, in questioning Trump’s manhood, Pelosi is going right to the heart of what makes the former President tick. And, she hopes, makes him angry enough that he overrides the any advice he may be receiving to stay as far away from the January 6 committee as possible.

Will it work? Probably not. But it’s a pretty fascinating gambit by Pelosi.

The post How Nancy Pelosi is trying to trick Donald Trump into testifying before the January 6 committee appeared first on APADANA MEDIA.

Australian Federal Police arrested Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, on Friday in the rural town of Orange in New South Wales, and he appeared in court there the same day, court records show and two police sources and his lawyer confirmed.

His lawyer appeared by videoconference, and Duggan was denied bail and taken to the nearby Bathurst jail, two of the sources said.

Duggan is a former US citizen and the federal police were acting on a US request for his arrest ahead of likely formal extradition proceedings, said one of the police sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Duggan’s next court appearance will be in Sydney in November to consider any bail application. Details of the US arrest warrant and the charges he faces are sealed.

“An individual was arrested on October 21, 2022, pursuant to a request from the United States of America for their provisional arrest,” a spokesman for the federal Attorney-General’s Department said in a written statement. “As the matter is before the courts, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”

The arrest came the same week Britain warned dozens of former military pilots to stop working in China or face prosecution on national security grounds under new laws. Australia is also investigating reports some of its former fighter pilots have been approached to work in China.

An aviation source said the FBI sought Duggan because of his work in China. His lawyer, Dennis Miralis of Nyman, Gibson and Miralis, said he could not comment.

Duggan moved to Australia after a decade in the US military and started a business called Top Gun Tasmania, hiring former US and British military pilots to offer tourists joyrides in fighter jets, company records show and aviation sources confirmed.

Duggan also flew ex-military aircraft in Australian air shows, three pilots said.

Top Gun Tasmania’s website says Duggan flew Harrier jump jets in the US Marines and was an air combat instructor.

He moved to Beijing in 2014 and soon after sold Top Gun Tasmania, filings in Australia for the company show.

Duggan’s LinkedIn profile said he has been working in Qingdao, China, since 2017 as the managing director of AVIBIZ Limited, described as “a comprehensive aviation consultancy company with a focus on the fast growing and dynamic Chinese Aviation Industry.”

Hong Kong company records show AVIBIZ Limited was registered there by Australian passport holder Daniel Edmund Duggan in 2017 and dissolved in 2020.

Duggan could not be immediately reached for comment.

Under Australia’s extradition treaty with the United States, the US government will have 60 days to make an extradition request. The treaty allows Australian citizens to be extradited.

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Donald Trump is accelerating his plans for another presidential campaign, buoyed by a belief that Republicans are on the precipice of significant gains in next month’s midterm elections and that many of his handpicked candidates will prevail.

Sources close to the former President, many of whom were not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations, said he is anxious to begin his next chapter even as he battles a web of legal troubles. Trump’s shifting focus to his political future follows recent campaign stops in Nevada, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan, where the success or failure of GOP candidates he’s backed is likely to have an impact on his next act.

Behind the scenes, he has spent the closing weeks of the 2022 cycle preparing his political operation for another presidential campaign, including assembling his campaign leadership, hatching plans for his remaining midterm rallies, and searching for a venue from which to launch his perceived political comeback. His attorneys have also been seeking resolutions to some of his legal troubles – most notably the Justice Department probe into government records he kept after leaving office – to free up time for him to focus on his political future.

One Trump adviser said his political operation would be “very busy after the midterm election,” while others signaled there is little stopping him at this point from mounting another campaign.

“I would be shocked if he didn’t run,” said Matt Schlapp, a Trump loyalist who leads the American Conservative Union. “I think the only things that prevent him at this point are if he thought it was a fool’s errand and he didn’t think he could win, or if there’s some health reason.”

“The wheels are turning so he can be ready to go as soon after as he wants after November 8,” added a person close to Trump.

In a recent interview with CBS News, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager said the former President “would like to” announce after the midterms and before Thanksgiving, echoing sources close to the former President who told CNN they expected an immediate shift to 2024 after Election Day. The exact timing of a campaign launch is still being discussed between Trump and his team. While many advisers believe he will be unable to wait until next year, some have encouraged him to announce after the new Congress has been seated in January 2023.

Trump himself indicated during a rally on Saturday that he is likely to launch a third bid for the White House, declaring in his bluntest terms yet, “I will probably have to do it again.”

The former President’s recent activities certainly reflect a candidate-in-waiting. At his Saturday rally in Robstown, Texas, he arrived in his beloved Boeing 757 jet, a favorite rally prop during his previous runs for office that he and allies have nicknamed “Trump Force One.” The plane, which had only recently completed repairs, is expected to reappear on the campaign trail in the coming weeks. Trump has also been floating different leadership structures for his campaign and soliciting advice from allies on whether he should name a campaign manager and, if so, who that person should be. Four people familiar with the matter said he is widely expected to offer a leadership position to longtime GOP strategist Chris LaCivita, who currently helms one of his primary fundraising vehicles, and has also discussed elevating Sergio Gor to a senior role, two of those people said. Gor is a former Rand Paul aide who now runs a conservative publishing business with Trump’s son, Don Jr.

“Chris makes a lot of sense and has a reputation for being a very good political operative,” said a Trump adviser. “Trump sees value in bringing on an actual political pro this time.” LaCivita declined to comment on the record.

“It will be a similar operation to what we’ve had but now we are building it out,” said a senior Trump aide.

Trump has also been fielding input from advisers on everything from where his campaign should be headquartered to what the broader infrastructure should look like. The former President has spent the bulk of his time since leaving office at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, though several sources described the waterfront compound as too small and expensive to house a presidential campaign. Currently, aides said the leading options are elsewhere in Florida or the Washington, DC, area (Trump’s 2020 campaign was based in Northern Virginia).

“I’m encouraging a Florida campaign headquarters. What he’s gone through with the attorney general in New York, it taints the entire state. And I don’t think he’ll headquarter the campaign at Mar-a-Lago, it’s the priciest real estate in the southeastern United States,” said Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign aide who remains close to the former President.

Sources said the campaign model being discussed is likely to be lean and with limited staff, not unlike the operation that led to his unexpected victory in 2016 but far from the more robust and costly campaign he ran in 2020. Sources also said there would be an emphasis on ensuring that advisers who have helped professionalize his post-presidency operation are installed in key campaign positions. Two of those figures, Brian Jack and Susie Wiles, are already expected to have senior roles on a 2024 Trump campaign, sources said. Jack served as White House political director under Trump and currently leads House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s political operation.

Neither he nor Wiles wished to provide comment for this story.

In September, Trump allies launched a new super PAC called MAGA Inc. to bolster Trump’s endorsed midterm candidates and provide a fundraising vehicle for Trump to utilize in 2024. The group has currently spent $8.8 million on advertising through the November election, according to data from AdImpact.

“It is the campaign-in-waiting. No doubt about that,” said a current Trump aide.

‘Still a 50-50 flip’

Of course, Trump has reversed course before and there are some close to the former President who remain skeptical that he will ultimately put himself through another grueling presidential campaign.

Currently 76, Trump would be nearly 80 at the outset of a second term starting in 2025, and family members who were once intimately involved in his political calculations have expressed little interest in assisting another campaign. That includes his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to two people familiar with their involvement, who said they have been minimally involved in Trump’s political activities after moving to Miami at the end of his presidency.

“I think it’s still a 50-50 flip if he runs,” one adviser said. “Does he want to be President? Yes. Does he want to spend the next two years dealing with this sh*t? No.”

Some suggested Trump, who relishes a good guessing game, has done little to halt speculation about his 2024 intentions while he continues to decide for himself what timing makes the most sense. Waiting until the next Congress is seated, which Trump expects will include a Republican House majority, or even until the Super Bowl next February are two options that have recently been circulated, according to several sources familiar with his thinking.

The outcome of numerous investigations encircling Trump could also become a factor as he plots his political future.

The former President remains embroiled in multiple high-profile legal battles at the state and federal level that sources say have begun to wear on him. On Friday, the House committee investigating January 6, 2021, delivered a subpoena to Trump for testimony about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his activities on the day pro-Trump rioters breached the US Capitol. Last month, the Department of Justice subpoenaed dozens of Trump allies, advisers, and former and current aides as it ramped up its own probe into the deadly riot. Trump also remains under investigation in Fulton County, Georgia for possible interference in the state’s 2020 election results and at least one of his top advisers, Kash Patel, recently appeared before a federal grand jury investigating the former President’s retention of classified documents after he left office.

As CNN has previously reported, Trump’s legal team has sought to alleviate some of the pressure on him by adopting a less combative posture toward investigators – including those looking into his storage of government records at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

But while he remains embattled, some Trump allies said his desire to run again has not waned – and even intensified after FBI agents conducted an unprecedented search at his Florida home in August.

“If you understand Donald Trump, the decisions that have been made by his detractors have prodded him to run,” said Caputo. “They have made it nearly impossible for him to walk away.”

On the trail

While Trump’s midterm travel has been irregular so far, sources familiar with his plans said he is eyeing a flurry of campaign rallies during the final week before Election Day, though nothing has been firmly scheduled.

The former President will be off the campaign trail this coming weekend as his National Doral Golf Club hosts a LIV Golf Tournament, but his aides have been working to schedule appearances in a handful of states and races where they believe he can drive turnout among Republicans and make a difference on the margins. While nothing has been decided, visits to Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania are actively being discussed, sources said.

But as Trump considers using a potential red wave as the backdrop for his presidential campaign launch, some Republicans said he is likely to demand more credit than he’s owed. One Republican who speaks regularly with Trump but requested anonymity for fear of retribution said the former President’s midterm schedule may indicate that a 2024 campaign won’t go as smoothly as he anticipates, pointing to various races where candidates have passed over Trump for other high-profile GOP surrogates.

“You can take [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis anywhere in the country and feel pretty good about it. You can take Ted Cruz anywhere in the country. You can take Tom Cotton anywhere, Nikki [Haley], [Mike] Pompeo,” said the Republican close to Trump.

They continued, “If you can’t go to a state – if a campaign literally doesn’t want you – that tells you a lot about your strength as a candidate. It’s an indication of your level of overall support and your ability to attract swing and crossover voters.”

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Newly obtained police body camera video shows Tampa Police officers arresting confused and stunned convicted felons for allegedly voting illegally in the 2020 election.

“I voted, but I ain’t commit no fraud,” Romona Oliver can be heard saying on police body cam video obtained from the Tampa Police Department. “I got out. The guy told me that I was free and clear to go vote or whatever because I had done my time,” she said. Oliver’s attorney says she received a voter registration card and thought she was eligible to vote.

The videos, first reported by The Tampa Bay Times, provide a fresh glimpse into a far-reaching state operation earlier this summer to crack down on supposed voter fraud.

On August 18, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested 20 individuals accused of illegally voting in the 2020 election. He unveiled the charges at a celebratory news conference at the Broward County Courthouse, where he was flanked by police officers and state Attorney General Ashley Moody.

“As convicted murderers and felony sex offenders, none of the individuals were eligible to vote,” DeSantis said.

“They did not get their rights restored, and yet they went ahead and voted anyway,” DeSantis said at the time. “That is against the law, and now they’re going to pay the price for it.”

Mark Rankin, a Tampa-based attorney, who is representing Oliver pro-bono, told CNN that Oliver served almost 20 years in state prison for a conviction for second degree murder.

“She served her time and got out. And she got out around the time that Amendment 4 was passed, which affected the rights of felons to vote. Her understanding was that felons had their rights restored.”

Rankin says Oliver was approached at the bus stop one day on the way to work by someone registering voters, and she told them she was a felon. The person then told Oliver that she could fill out the form and if she was eligible, she would get a voter registration card and if she wasn’t eligible, she wouldn’t get the card.

Oliver received a voter registration card in the mail. She went to the Department of Motor Vehicles office later to get a new driver’s license and was sent an updated voter registration card with her new address, according to Rankin.

“She was twice told by the State of Florida and the local Supervisor of Elections, ‘Here’s your voter registration card. You are, as far as we’re concerned, legally eligible to vote.’ And so she voted and she was shocked when she was arrested.”

“She was shocked and upset because she thought her rights had been restored by the amendment. She didn’t know any different. And the State of Florida, she believed, was telling her that she was eligible to vote. And now she’s had the rug pulled out from under her. She never would have voted if she knew that she was ineligible,” Rankin said.

Oliver pleaded not guilty to the illegal voting charge and has a trial set for December in Hillsborough County. County records show she was released on her own recognizance the same day she was arrested.

The Tampa Police Department conducted arrests on behalf of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the originating agency for the investigation, a police department spokesperson told CNN.

CNN also reached out to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which was involved in some of the arrests.

The arrests marked the first public demonstration of the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security, a controversial new investigative agency created this year and championed by DeSantis to probe voting irregularities. Created under a sweeping bill passed this year to overhaul voting in Florida, the office was given a staff of 15 to initiate probes and allowed DeSantis to assign 10 state law enforcement officers to help investigate election crimes.

But almost immediately after the state announced the charges, questions began to surface about the arrests and whether the individuals knew they were violating the law when they cast a ballot.

According to state law, it is the job of the Florida Department of State to “identify those registered voters who have been convicted of a felony” and “notify the supervisor and provide a copy of the supporting documentation indicating the potential ineligibility of the voter to be registered.”

In the five counties where there were arrests, the local supervisor of elections office told CNN that the state did not inform the arrested individuals that they were ineligible to vote.

DeSantis continued to defend the arrests and in a later news conference blamed some local election offices who, he said, “just don’t care about the election laws.”

But the Office of Election Crimes and Security wrote a letter to an elections supervisor that the individuals voted illegally “through no fault of your own.” The letter, obtained by CNN, was sent on August 18 by Pete Antonacci, who served as the first director of the Office of Election Crimes and Security until he died September 23 after a medical episode at the Florida state Capitol.

The arrests captured in police body cam footage also are illustrative of the confusion that still surrounds a successful 2018 constitutional amendment in Florida to restore the voting rights of some felons that had completed their sentences.

The constitutional amendment, approved overwhelmingly by voters in a statewide referendum, said people convicted of murder and certain sex crimes were not eligible to have their rights restored.

But the law that implemented the constitutional amendment specified that an ineligible felon who erroneously votes is in violation of the law if they “willfully submit any false voter registration information.” State Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican and the sponsor of that legislation, has said on social media that most convicted felons have no intent to break the law.

After the Tampa Bay Times published the body cam video, Brandes tweeted from his verified account, “Looks like the opposite of ‘willingly,’” and he suggested that state will struggle to prove its case in court.

“I hope they have the courage to drop charges or go to trial and produce evidence of willful intent,” Brandes wrote.

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September 20, 2021

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – N. Korea warned on Monday that the United States risked a dangerous nuclear arms race by providing submarine technology to Australia, criticising its “double standards” and vowing counter-measures.

Last week, the United States clinched a new trilateral security partnership involving Britain to provide technological aid to Australia to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

N. Korea joined China in decrying the U.S. decision as an “irresponsible one” that destroys regional peace and stability and global non-proliferation efforts.

“These are extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of nuclear arms race,” the North’s foreign ministry said in a comment carried by the official KCNA news agency.

The North criticized Washington’s “double-dealing attitude,” singling out White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki’s remarks https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-australia-france-idAFKBN2GC1Y5 that it does not seek conflict with China but the decision was to shore up regional security.

Her comment “amounts to a stand that any country can spread nuclear technology if it is in its interests, and this shows that the U.S. is the chief culprit toppling the international nuclear non-proliferation system,” the ministry said.

“We are closely looking into the background of the U.S. decision and will certainly take a corresponding counter-action in case it has even a little adverse impact on the security of our country.”

N. Korea leader Kim Jong Un agreed to work toward de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula and establish new relations at a summit with then U.S. President Donald Trump, but negotiations have stalled since 2019.

Pyongyang has slammed Washington for supporting its own and allies’ weapons development while condemning the North’s programmes as threats to regional peace and security.

The North’s state media said on Friday that Washington’s double standards and hostile policy hampered a reopening of de-nuclearization talks.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

News | Apadana Media

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