Month: May 2023

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivered remarks before the Israeli Knesset, the national legislature of Israel. McCarthy led a bipartisan congressional delegation, consisting of 20 lawmakers, to the country to celebrate its 75th anniversary of independence. The trip is McCarthy’s first foreign trip as House speaker and marks the second time a sitting speaker traveled to Israel since Newt Gingrich did so in 1998.

Receiving a standing ovation for his remarks, McCarthy reinforced U.S.-Israeli relations and announced the formation of a House-Knesset parliamentary friendship group. He said the newly formed friendship group will allow the House to engage more directly with the Israeli Parliament, travel to Israel to strengthen existing relationships and host Knesset members traveling to the U.S: “This will be part of a new chapter of U.S.-Israel relations … If we remain united, then the forces of freedom and democracy will always prevail … This is the foundation of our special relationship.”

McCarthy emphasized Israel’s efforts to achieve independence in his speech to the parliament, calling the nation’s rebirth “nothing less than a modern miracle,” and said that the United States and Israel are the only two countries “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all our equal.” Said McCarthy: “My greatest hope is that our special relationship can serve as a foundation for greater peace across the Middle East. The progress towards peace in the past few years have simply been remarkable.”

The House Speaker said the Iranian regime is the main threat to peace in the Middle East: “Most of the turmoil in this region, the violence and instability, can be traced back to that source,” and added that as long as he is House Speaker, the United States will continue to fully fund security assistance for Israel and ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon: “We cannot allow the Iranian regime’s evil campaign to succeed.”

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On Monday, a federal judge in New York denied former President Donald Trump’s bid for a mistrial in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit alleging that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.

Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina filed an 18-page motion hours ahead of his second day of cross-examining Carroll, which accused U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of making “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” against his client. Tacopina requested that Kaplan “correct the record for each and every instance in which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the jury” and allow Trump’s counsel to “have greater latitude” to cross-examine Carroll.  The motion added that Kaplan’s “one-sided rulings” demonstrate “a deeper leaning towards one party over another,” including comments that express “favoritism.”  It also stated: “Here, despite the fact trial testimony has been underway for only two days, the proceedings are already replete with numerous examples of Defendant’s unfair treatment by the Court, most of which have been witnessed by the Jury.”  Kaplan, however, denied the motion shortly before the jury was brought in to hear Carroll’s testimony on Monday.

Last week, Carroll took the witness stand for her lawsuit against Trump and told jurors: “I’m here because Trump raped me.” Carroll alleges Trump assaulted her in 1995 or 1996 at a Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. In her testimony at the civil trial in federal court in lower Manhattan last week, Carroll said Trump “lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m trying to get my life back” after she came forward with her allegations in 2019.

Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations during the trial.

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The search for a Texas man who allegedly shot his neighbors after they asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard headed into a second day Sunday, and authorities saying the suspect ‘could be anywhere’ by now. The suspect, 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza, fled after the shooting on Friday night near the town of Cleveland (north of Houston) that left five people dead, including an 8-year-old boy.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said that neighbors had asked the suspect to stop shooting his gun in the front yard because there was a baby trying to sleep. Oropeza, who allegedly had been drinking, responded, “I’ll do what I want to in my front yard.” Capers said all of the victims were shot from the neck up, “almost execution-style.”

Authorities had widened the search to as far as 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting, adding that investigators found clothes and a phone while combing a rural area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent. FBI Houston field office agent James Smith told reporters during a press briefing that the AR-15-style rifle that Oropeza allegedly used in the shootings was recovered, but believe he is likely armed with another AR-15-style rifle, and is a “threat to the community,”

FBI spokesperson Christina Garza said investigators believe the victims were from Honduras, and do not believe they were all members of a single family. The victims were identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.

Investigators describe Oropeza as a 5-foot-8 Hispanic man with a goatee and short black hair. He was last seen wearing jeans, a black shirt and work boots.

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Authorities confirmed that one person was fatally shot and five others were injured by gunfire at a house party in Lawrence, Massachusetts early Sunday morning. Lawrence lies about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Boston, and has a population of about 89,000,

According to statement from Essex District Attorney Paul Tucker’s office, police responded to a disturbance call at a third-floor apartment in Lawrence at about 3 a.m., which is when they found the victims. All six victims were transported to Lawrence General Hospital, where one of them was pronounced dead. Two of the remaining victims were flown to Boston hospitals by medical helicopter to receive additional treatment, according to Tucker. Names and other information about the victims is being withheld until their next of kin are notified.

At this time, investigators believe the shootings are not a random act of violence, but did not disclose what may have sparked the shooting. No arrests have been made as of press time, and state and city police are continuing to investigate.

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