The son of US president-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser — who has pushed wild conspiracy theories on social media — has been dismissed from the president-elect’s transition team, US vice president-elect Mike Pence confirmed on Tuesday.
“Mike Flynn Jr is no longer associated with general Flynn’s efforts or with the transition team and we’re focused eyes forward,” Pence told CNN, saying the younger Flynn had been helping his father with scheduling and other administrative work.
The ouster of 33-year-old Michael G. Flynn, son of retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn — who was tapped last month for the powerful national security adviser role — came after he made controversial statements about an armed man’s weekend attack at a popular pizza restaurant in Washington.
Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, said he was investigating online “reports” that Comet Ping Pong was at the center of a pedophile ring linked to US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
No one was hurt after Welch fired off a round from his AR-15 assault rifle.
Police quickly arrested him, discovering two more weapons, and said he had told them he drove up from North Carolina to personally investigate “Pizzagate.”
Michael G. Flynn said on Twitter that “Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it’ll remain a story.”
He also retweeted the comments of others promoting the fake stories about the restaurant.
The incident raised questions about Lieutenant General Flynn. He had not commented publicly on the Comet incident, but in early November he tied Clinton to pedophile rings in a tweet of his own.
“U decide — NYPD [New York Police Department] Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc...MUST READ!” he wrote ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
He also provided a link to a related fake news story.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of