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BREAKING: Japan’s Prime Minister Assassinated

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Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down on Friday while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country where guns are tightly controlled and political violence almost unthinkable.

Abe, 67, was pronounced dead around five and a half hours after the shooting in the city of Nara. Police arrested a 41-year-old man and said the weapon was a homemade gun.

“I am simply speechless over the news of Abe’s death,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Abe’s protege, told reporters.

Earlier, as Abe still lay in hospital where doctors tried to revive him, Kishida struggled to keep his emotions in check.

He was giving a speech right before he was shot.

“This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections – the very foundation of our democracy – and is absolutely unforgivable,” he said

Abe had been making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out. Security officials were then seen tackling a man in a grey T-shirt and beige trousers.

“There was a loud bang and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was at the scene, told Reuters. “The first shot, no one knew what was going on, but after the second shot, what looked like special police tackled him.”

Kyodo news service published a photograph of Abe lying face-up on the street by a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. People were crowded around him, one administering heart massage.

The assassin (right) with his homemade gun right after he shot Shinzo Abe.

Abe was taken to hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest and showing no vital signs. He was declared dead at 5:03 p.m. (0803 GMT), having bled to death from deep wounds to the heart and the right side of his neck.

He had received more than 100 units of blood in transfusions over four hours, Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, told a televised news conference.

Police said the gunman had admitted to shooting Abe with a handmade firearm he had fashioned out of metal and wood.

Media reported his name as Tetsuya Yamagami. Police said he was a Nara resident who worked at Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Forces for three years but now appeared to be unemployed. They were investigating whether he had acted alone.

Investigators found “several” other handmade guns at his one-room flat in Nara city, police added.

The suspect said he bore a grudge against a “specific organisation” and believed Abe was part of it, and that his grudge was not about politics, the police said, adding it was not clear if the unnamed organisation actually existed.

FLOWERS LAID

Members of the public laid flowers near the spot where Abe fell. TV Asahi reported that Abe’s body would be transferred to his Tokyo home on Saturday.

It was the first killing of a sitting or former Japanese leader since a 1936 coup attempt, when several figures including two ex-premiers were assassinated.

Post-war Japan prides itself on its orderly and open democracy. Senior Japanese politicians are accompanied by armed security agents but often get close to the public, especially during political campaigns when they make roadside speeches and shake hands with passersby.

In 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot and killed by a yakuza gangster. The head of the Japan Socialist Party was assassinated during a speech in 1960 by a right-wing youth with a samurai short sword. A few other prominent politicians have been attacked but not injured.

‘STUNNED, OUTRAGED’

“I am stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened by the news that my friend Abe Shinzo, former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and killed while campaigning,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him… He was a champion of the alliance between our nations and the friendship between our people.”

The United States is Japan’s most important ally.

Similar messages of sympathy and shock poured in from around the world following news of Abe’s death, including from neighbouring Taiwan, China and Russia, as well as from across Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The yen rose and Japan’s Nikkei index (.N225) fell on news of the shooting, partially driven by a knee-jerk flight to safety.

Abe is best known for his “Abenomics” policy of aggressive monetary easing and fiscal spending.

He also bolstered defence spending after years of declines and expanded the military’s ability to project power abroad.

In a historic shift in 2014, his government reinterpreted the postwar, pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.

The following year, legislation ended a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defence, or defending a friendly country under attack.

Abe, however, never achieved his goal of revising the U.S.-drafted constitution by writing the Self-Defense Forces, as Japan’s military is known, into the pacifist Article 9.

Abe hailed from a wealthy political family that included a foreign minister father and a grandfather who served as premier.

He first took office in 2006 as Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War Two. After a year plagued by political scandals and an election drubbing, Abe quit citing ill health.

He became prime minister again in 2012, winning three election landslides in a row before stepping down in 2020, again citing his health.

“Children Cannot Consent”: Teen Who Had Double Mastectomy Regrets ‘Gender Journey’

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A 17-year-old girl who regrets having both of her breasts removed as a result of so-called “gender-affirming care” testified before a California Assembly committee hearing June 28, urging state lawmakers to reject proposed legislation that would make California a transgender sanctuary state.

I was medically transitioned from ages 13 and 16,” Chloe Cole from the Central Valley told the public safety committee, saying she suffered irreversible consequences from surgeries and hormone treatment.

The committee passed the controversial Senate Bill (SB) 107, which proponents say would “provide refuge” for trans youth, their parents, and those who advocate for and provide “gender-affirming health care ” for minors.

The bill would prohibit law enforcement agencies from arresting or extraditing parents charged in other states or nations for child abuse or other crimes related to allowing minor children to receive these medical treatments.

A California Assembly committee passes Senate Bill 107 in Sacramento on June 28, 2022. (Screenshot)

Cole said when she was younger, her parents took her to a therapist who “affirmed my male identity” and “brushed off” concerns about the efficacy of hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries.

My parents were given the threat of suicide as a reason to move me forward in my transition,” she said.

Cole said at age 15, she told her therapist she wanted to remove her breasts. She attended a top surgery class with a dozen other girls her age or younger.

None of us were going to be men, we were fleeing from the uncomfortable feeling of becoming women,” Cole said.

She went through with the surgery and her endocrinologist put her on puberty blockers and injectable testosterone after two or three appointments, she said.

“Despite having a therapist and attending the top surgery class, I really didn’t understand all the ramifications of any of the medical decisions I was making. I was incapable of understanding, and it was downplayed consistently,” she said. “My parents, on the other hand, were pressured to continue my so-called ‘gender journey’ with the suicide threat.

I will never be able to breastfeed a child. I have blood clots in my urine. I am unable to fully empty my bladder. I do not yet know if I am capable of carrying a child to full term. In fact, even the doctors who put me on puberty blockers and testosterone do not know.”

She urged the committee to reject the trans sanctuary state bill and put safeguards in place so that “painful” experiences like hers are not repeated.

Children cannot consent,” she said.

Erin Friday, an attorney, argued against the bill, claiming it unconstitutional for California to disrespect the laws of other states.

She argued SB 107 would not just provide sanctuary for parents fleeing the law in other states, but would make California a refuge for all children who want to access transgender medicine and surgery.

“No questions asked. No real mental health assessment, no minimal diagnosis and no parental consent. So long as the minor child can get to California, she can order up any type of irreversible treatment,” she said.

Erin Friday speaks at an Assembly committee meeting in Sacramento on June 28, 2022. (Screenshot)

Friday, a parent of a teen who once suffered from what’s called Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, but no longer identifies as trans, has previously testified that SB 107 would be a big mistake that would only worsen the “largest medical scandal in history,” and spread transgender ideology, which she described as a “social contagion.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who authored the bill, said it’s intended to protect families and trans youth and medical professionals from being prosecuted for child abuse in other states.

Texas, for example, is cracking down on the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones on minors, and—in some cases—gender surgery on minors.

These parents, who are doing just trying to do right by their kids and accepting their kids for who they are and supporting them are being told ‘you’re a criminal for doing that,’” Wiener said. “It’s disgusting; it’s despicable, and California should have no part of that.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) speaks at an Assembly committee hearing for Senate Bill 107 in Sacramento on June 28, 2022. (Screenshot)

Martin Campos of Trans Family Support Services said the group is currently working with out-of-state residents faced with the decision of whether or not “to uproot their family and livelihood to seek out refuge in an affirming state such as California” to flee “anti-trans legislation” at home.

“Parents should not be concerned about facing legal ramifications while seeking medically necessary gender-affirming services for their youth. Nor should youth have to endure the trauma that is created by having their parents face those ramifications,” Campos said. “… All this bill is seeking to do is allow transgender youth to thrive.”

Ebony Harper, the executive director of California Transcends, shared a personal story with the committee.

“I identify as the black trans woman,” Harper said. “… I was a trans youth at 13. I grew up in South Central California and at 13 I was kicked out of my house, which was the story for most transgender people from my era, if you were between the particular intersections of being black and transgender. And I spent many years on the streets, in jails institutions because it was the Dark Ages. Trans folks were considered mentally confused people that could not participate in society.”

In the ’90s, a lot of trans people died because they didn’t get the health cares they needed, but today the transgender community in California is thriving and prospering, Harper said.

“The 13-year-old me thought I was going to end up dead before I hit 21. And here I am advocating in my 40s and still going strong and having the fortitude of support with senators like Scott Wiener, the Lieutenant Governor and other folks in government,” Harper said.

“I think trans transcends politics,” Harper said. “…And so you have seen that our community recently has been politicized, which is causing a lot of trauma and pain in our community.”

Suspected Russian spy was well-liked by classmates, but something just seemed a little off

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Gregarious, smart, and often seen toting a helmet for his beloved motorcycle, “Muller” was known, and even liked, by his fellow students and the faculty at SAIS. But his muddled accent caught the ear of a few classmates. On one occasion, a fellow student asked him outright: Are you Russian?

The spy brushed off the question. He was from Brazil, he said in what turned out to be part of the elaborate cover identity he spent years building.

“Looking back, it was a red flag,” the former classmate told CNN, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “I remember thinking at the time it didn’t really make sense.”

A Dutch intelligence agency publicly identified “Victor Muller” as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov.

“Muller” graduated from SAIS in 2020. Last week, a Dutch intelligence agency publicly identified him as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian military intelligence officer who in April traveled to the Netherlands to start an internship at the International Criminal Court (ICC). From there, he would have had a perch to spy on war crimes investigations into Russian military actions in Ukraine and elsewhere, sources say.

Dutch officials stopped him at the border and sent him back to Brazil, where he had been living under the forged identity of a Brazilian man whose parents are deceased, according to Brazilian police.

It was not immediately clear when the US became aware of Cherkasov’s true identity. The FBI has an active investigation open, according to one source familiar with the intelligence. US and Dutch intelligence agencies shared information about Cherkasov some time ago, according to a separate US official, though it’s not clear when that occurred. Yet another US official wouldn’t address how the Russian intelligence connection came to light, adding that the FBI worked closely with the Dutch authorities on tracking his activities.

Cherkasov attended Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies

The revelation of Cherkasov’s true identity has roiled faculty at SAIS. But to former intelligence officials, Cherkasov fits a well-known pattern: Russia, among other foreign powers, seeks to place young intelligence operatives in American academic institutions to help build their deep cover identities.

Often, the mission of so-called “illegals” — a spy operating under an identity not linked to the Russian government in any way — is to do little more than simply establish legitimacy as a student, said John McLaughlin, a former deputy director of the CIA who now teaches at SAIS.

“It’s not unusual,” McLaughlin said. “My sense is that passing through SAIS was a kind of laundering experience for him. These Russian illegals tend to go through a long process of credentialing themselves in order to establish credibility as who they claim to be.”

SAIS declined to comment when reached by CNN on Friday. But in an email to faculty and students obtained by CNN, SAIS dean Jim Steinberg confirmed that Cherkasov graduated in 2020.

“We are continuing to monitor developments, but we have no further information to share at this time,” Steinberg wrote.

Cherkasov did not respond to a phone call or text message seeking comment on Friday.

‘Teacher’s favorite’

Cherkasov appears to have carried out that mission quite successfully. One of Cherkasov’s professors — who taught a class on genocide — wrote his reference letter for the internship at The Hague.

In another SAIS class, “he was the teacher’s favorite,” said another classmate, who like other former classmates spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the Russian security services. “He was a very nice guy, very open-minded, very active in class.”

“This guy I would have never suspected [of being a spy],” the former classmate told CNN.

A third former classmate of Cherkasov, a US military officer, struck up a conversation one day with Muller about their shared love of motor bikes. Eventually he got the impression that he and Muller might go for a ride together, the military officer told CNN.

But then, he asked Muller if he spoke Russian, since it sounded like he might based on his accent.

Muller denied being able to speak Russian and became withdrawn, the military officer said. The motor bike ride never happened.

Multiple former intelligence officials told CNN it would not be unusual for US counterintelligence officials to allow a Russian “illegal” to continue his studies in order to watch him and try to learn who his contacts are, whether he is operating in a larger network inside the United States, and how he is building his cover. It’s possible the US tipped off the Dutch intelligence service, these people said.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the case.

But another former counterintelligence officer noted that US intelligence services sometimes aren’t aware of student spies until they become more actively engaged in carrying out espionage — and only then, do they trace their histories back to SAIS or other academic institutions in the United States with a foreign policy bent.

‘Insider threat’

Why the Kremlin would want to plant a spy in the International Criminal Court is clear, former intelligence officials say: It would offer Russia a crucial window into the investigation into alleged Russian war crimes — in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2022.

“For those reasons, covert access to International Criminal Court information would be highly valuable to the Russian intelligence services,” Dutch intelligence said in its statement.

Effectively planting a spy is increasingly difficult for intelligence services across the globe, thanks to ubiquitous surveillance technology and the degree to which most people live their entire lives online in 2022. An online profile that only popped up a few years ago, or a profile that suddenly goes inactive, can be a tip-off for counterintelligence officers trying to spot spies.

The problem is equally difficult for American spies operating abroad under “nonofficial cover,” a so-called NOC.

“Any sort of durable long-term illegal is not a dying breed but far more difficult to do now than it once was,” said one former US counterintelligence official. “And that’s true for everybody.”

The US arrested and deported 10 Russian operatives as part of a spy swap with Moscow in 2010, one of whom had graduated from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government 10 years before and had been living in Cambridge with his wife and two children. Harvard subsequently stripped Andrey Bezrukov — who went by the name Donald Heathfield — of his degree. His wife, Elena Vavilova, graduated from McGill University and was deported as part of the same swap.

Cherkasov had similarly sought to quietly build an alternate identity over the course of years. The Dutch intelligence agency published a crude “legend” that it says was probably written by Cherkasov in mid-2010, laying out his false history as a Brazilian man born in Rio de Janeiro in 1989. He details this fake family history through multiple generations, offering a myriad of small personal idiosyncrasies: a hatred for fish, a beloved aunt, a crush on a geography teacher.

In 2014, Cherkasov began attending college at Trinity College Dublin, studying political science and graduating in 2018. The same year, he traveled to the United States to obtain his master’s degree at SAIS.

Unanswered questions

Throughout his time as a student, Muller maintained an active digital life. In 2017, he started a blog on geopolitics, according to the open-source intelligence company Bellingcat. He maintained a Facebook and a Twitter account, full of friends from both schools and, in September 2018, published a YouTube video introducing his new motorcycle. In the video, a man whom Bellingcat identifies as Cherkasov can be heard chuckling and greeting at a trolley of tourists riding near the Potomac River.

Although it’s not clear how far back Russian intelligence plotted to place Cherkasov at The Hague — some former intelligence officials said it might have been opportunistic rather than a long-running plan — Cherkasov did take classes that made sense for a student interested in The Hague as a career path, including a class on genocide.

A policy memo that Cherkasov wrote for one of his SAIS classes exhibits the sober and anecdote-rich analysis one might expect from a student of international affairs. The memo, obtained by CNN, advocates potential US responses at the United Nations to help stop a genocide. It’s the sort of US policy discussion that has in recent months applied to trying to curtail Russian violence in Ukraine.

And according to multiple people familiar with him while at SAIS, Cherkasov was a good student — smart, engaged and talkative in class.

One class that Muller either enrolled in or audited was on strategic diplomacy, popular with US military and intelligence professionals, and taught by Steinberg, a former deputy secretary of State in the Obama administration and current dean of SAIS, according to one of the former SAIS students.

SAIS faculty and students have been left stunned by the revelation that the Brazilian student with the funny accent was, in fact, a Russian spy. SAIS faculty who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity say that the school’s communication to them has been bare bones, little more than an acknowledgment of the public reporting.

“It’s off-putting,” said the former SAIS student who pressed Cherkasov on his accent. “For me, it raises a lot of questions about how he was admitted to SAIS, how he was able to travel.”

A woman’s brutal killing shocks the Arab world

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The brutal killing of a young woman in broad daylight on an Egyptian street has shocked the Arab world, bringing the country’s gender-based violence crisis into the spotlight.

Naira Ashraf, 21, was fatally stabbed on Monday by a man whose advances she rejected, according to Egyptian prosecutors who said the suspect was arrested outside northern Egypt’s Mansoura University, where the incident took place and where Ashraf was studying.

Video from a nearby CCTV camera showing a man attacking a woman outside the university went viral across the Arab world this week. A lawyer for Ashraf’s family confirmed to CNN that the video shows the incident in which Ashraf was killed.

The Egyptian prosecution said that the suspect had been referred to the criminal court and will stand trial for premeditated murder. The first court hearing is scheduled for Sunday. CNN could not reach the suspect or his family for comment, and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney.

Women’s rights experts in Egypt say that the problem of gender-based violence is widespread in the country, and that a number of social and legal shortcomings continue to hamper proper action.

“Definitely, Naira’s killing was not an isolated incident,” Lobna Darwish, gender and human rights officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told CNN. “[But] we are [now] seeing more coverage of violence against women.”

Data is lacking since such incidents are not properly documented by the state, Darwish said, but cases of abuse are seen in the news on an almost monthly basis. “We are seeing patterns that are alarming,” she added.

The Arabic equivalent of the hashtag #Justice_for_Naira_Ashraf has been widely trending across Arab countries since the killing.

“We need a law that fights violence,” said Azza Suliman, an Egyptian lawyer and chairwoman of the Center for Egyptian Women and Legal Assistance. There also needs to be a discourse around women that is respectful and dignifying in order to create trust between women and the state apparatus, she added.

The slain woman’s father, Ashraf Abdelkader, told CNN that the suspect had asked to marry her several times but was rejected. The suspect had also allegedly created fake accounts to follow her on social media, he added. Eventually Abdelkader filed for a restraining order in April.

“She did not want to get married, she wanted to follow her career … and wanted to be a flight attendant,” Abdelkader said.

Darwish said that the victim and her family exhausted all measures to protect Ashraf, “and yet again, the whole system — whether social or legal, failed.”

Suliman said that for women to feel comfortable reporting such incidents, there is a need to “rehabilitate the channels for justice, which include the police, judges, and the prosecution.”

Some responded to the killing by laying the blame on the victim. A controversial former TV host, Mabrouk Atteya, said in a video on social media that women “should cover up” to stop men from killing them.

“Women and girls should cover up and dress loosely to stop the temptation… if you feel like your life is precious, leave the house completely covered up to stop those wanting you from slaughtering you,” Atteya said in a live stream.

Atteya’s comments sparked outrage on social media and spurred a social media campaign calling for his arrest.

Darwish noted that while Egypt is moving forward with tougher sexual harassment laws, enforcement is still lacking among both police and society, which in turn discourages many women from seeking legal assistance.

Egypt’s State Information Services did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. Egypt’s National Council for Women could not be reached.

Harassment is illegal in Egypt, and in June of last year, the state tightened sexual harassment laws, raising fines and extending prison sentences, according to state media.

The United Nations Development Program in 2019 ranked Egypt 108 out of 162 countries measured on gender inequalities in health, empowerment and economic activity.

Last year, nine women were prosecuted on charges of violating family values after they posted videos in which they danced and sang and invited millions of followers to make money on social media platforms, Reuters reported.

“When the state supports this kind of discourse in any way by criminalizing women for the way they dress or how they present themselves, it gives a green light for these people,” Darwish said, referring to men who put the onus of modesty and morality on women.

“This happens a lot,” said Darwish, referring to violence against women. “Just not on camera.”

Ghislaine Maxwell Claims Inmates Have Been Offered ‘Money To Kill Her’, Begs For Leniency

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By themindunleashed

Ghislaine Maxwell is attempting to get her sentence reduced by saying that other prisoners at the facility are making death threats against her. In December of 2021, the court determined that Maxwell was responsible for five out of the six counts of sex trafficking of kids for which she was being prosecuted, UNILAD notes.

The former socialite and girlfriend of convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein has been recommended to serve a sentence of twenty years in jail by the prosecutors.

Prince Andrew denies close friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell in US court files – Though he has been expelled from the Royal from by the Queen.

After their attempts to overturn Maxwell’s convictions for sex trafficking were unsuccessful, on the 15th of June, Maxwell’s legal team instead pushed for a reduced sentence.

According to a pre-sentencing document acquired by Insider, Maxwell’s attorneys have asserted that the 60-year-life old’s is in danger from the behavior of other prisoners at the facility. “One of the female inmates in Maxwell’s housing unit told at least three other inmates that she had been offered money to murder Maxwell and that she planned to strangle her in her sleep,” the memo reads.

A true love story: Ghislaine Maxwell was girlfriend and pimp of Jeffrey Epstein: She organised young girls for her boyfriend to have sex with.

According to the allegations made by the lawyers, Maxwell was informed by the prisoner that they believed murdering the former socialite would be worth the additional 20 years added to their sentence for being in jail.

On the other hand, the report said that the convict has ‘presumably’ been transferred to a separate institution for Maxwell’s own protection since it was written.

INVESTIGATORS discovered a trove of nude photos on display at Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. Video of the 2005 raid by the Palm Beach police …

The attorneys for Maxwell have also argued that the woman, who is now 60 years old, should serve a shorter sentence since she has a history of allegedly being the victim of abuse. They claim that Maxwell’s father – “a man of large physical stature with a booming voice” [would] “explode, threaten, and rant at the children until they were reduced to pulp”.

 “Mr. Maxwell was relentless, with children ending up in tears, punishments being doled out, and the whole family in utter distress,” they continued. The defense attorneys for Maxwell have also attempted to place the blame on Epstein.

“Indeed, had Ghislaine Maxwell never had the profound misfortune of meeting Jeffrey Epstein over 30 years ago, she would not be here,” they said. They said that Epstein was the “mastermind” behind the abuse and that Maxwell should not be penalized for his wrongdoings since it was Epstein who was responsible for it.

Maxwell might be sentenced to anywhere between 20 and 55 years in jail, although the prosecution believes she should only serve 20. The lawyers for the former socialite have requested that their client get a sentence of little more than five years in prison. The sentence for Maxwell is scheduled to take place on June 28th, as determined by US Circuit Judge Alison Nathan.

Related articles:

A Federal Judge Has Reduced Ghislaine Maxwell’s Max Sentence By 10 Years

Police Sketch Of Woman Implicated In Madeleine McCann Disappearance Looks Like Ghislaine Maxwell

Judge upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction

Strong Evidence Suggests Ghislaine Maxwell Secretly Ran One Of Most Powerful Reddit Accounts in History

Unsealed Maxwell Docs Reveal Testimony Of Bill Clinton With “Two Young Girls” On Epstein’s Island