Andy Ngo in a file photograph. (Brendon Fallon/The Epoch Times) US News

By Zachary Stieber April 18, 2021 Updated: April 18, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

Members of the infamous Antifa cell in Portland are anxious after an informant in their midst gave information to police, leading to arson charges, Antifa expert Andy Ngo says.

“They’re panicking because this may possibly mean that somebody has infiltrated high … and there’s a lot at risk, because this is a criminal cartel,” Ngo said Saturday on NTD’s “The Nation Speaks.”

“And if there’s somebody in there and they don’t know who it is who’s informing on them, it could bring down the entire cell,” Ngo added. “I’m hopeful that that will happen, although I’m not sure if there’s the political will for the investigators to actually go through and fully investigate all the links and ties that this individual suspect has. But this is at least a little bit of good news in regards to months and months of really terrible things happening in Portland with no changes happening.”

Portland has seen repeated rioting since the spring of 2020. At least some of the violence has been linked to members of Antifa, a far-left, anarcho-communist network that has carried out violent acts in cities across the country.

Last week, prosecutors announced they were charging Alma Raven-Guido, a 19-year-old who has attended multiple riots, with arson, criminal mischief, and rioting—all felonies.

Raven-Guido is accused of pouring flammable liquid onto a fire that had been started at the building housing the Portland Police Association, a police union, during a riot on April 13. That liquid “resulted in the fire growing,” Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said.

A witness saw one of the bottles Raven-Guido use catch fire and start melting and also told police that they saw her place the three bottles into a backpack. In a court document, a police officer described the witness as “the informant.”

Portland police officers found an accelerant and lighters when they arrested Raven-Guido shortly after the fire was set. They also found her to be in possession of a crow bar, spray paint, and heavy marker.

The fire caused an estimated $25,000-plus damage to the police union building. Daryl Turner, executive director of the union, said in a statement that no one was inside the building when it was set on fire and that neighboring homes were not damaged.

The arsonists were “a splinter group of rioters” who broke off from a peaceful march, Turner said.

Slogans favored by Antifa were scrawled on the side of the building, including “ACAB,” an anti-police acronym.

A court-appointed attorney for the defendant, who was released after being arraigned last week, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Antifa network in Portland does not have a public-facing brand, such as a spokesperson.

After publications started reporting on the informant’s information helping lead to Raven-Guido being charged, a lot of Antifa members on social media “were trying accuse one another, saying, ‘who was it?’” Ngo, the journalist who has tracked the network for years, was beaten by alleged members in 2019, and later left the United States because of threats, told NTD.

“And they’re really scared, so they’re locking down their social media accounts so that you can’t see what they’re saying anymore,” he added.

Screenshots shared by Ngo on Twitter, and other posts that are still publicly available, show people wondering about who informed on Raven-Guido.

“Somebody sold us out. Somebody sold every single one of us out. There’s somebody out there that would rather send a 19 year old indigenous person to prison than protect a single one of us. [expletive] you. Absolutely [expletive] you. I hope we find out who the [expletive] you are,” one wrote.

“So where did this happen and what’s that snitches address?” another posted.

Another user shared a meme that stated, “snitches get stitches.”

Ngo said he’s hopeful that the anxiety that has set in among Antifa members will lead to a decrease in the violence in Portland.

“I think that the group of people who are organizing, carrying out the violence is relatively small. So they stand a lot to lose actually if there’s going to be a high level of distrust within the ranks and Portland Police and even federal authorities have not been effective at clamping down on the violence in Portland, which is still ongoing to this day,” he said. “But hopefully, this—Antifa’s own paranoia—can be their undoing. One can hope.”

New York police officers were hit with liquid chemicals and Molotov cocktails during a traffic stop in Brooklyn on Saturday. (NYPD) US News

By Jack Phillips April 18, 2021 Updated: April 18, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

New York police officers were hit with liquid chemicals and Molotov cocktails during a traffic stop in Brooklyn on Saturday.

When NYPD officers stopped a car on Saturday morning for running a red light, the driver tossed “a chemical” at an officer before “speeding off,” the NYPD wrote on Twitter.

Later, the car was stopped by officers, and the driver “threw a lit Molotov cocktail at cops” and sped off before crashing, said the NYPD.

After the man was arrested, several other Molotov cocktails were recovered, the NYPD wrote.

It’s not clear if the attack is related to the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests and anti-police rhetoric in the wake of two police shootings in Chicago and Minnesota.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said that anti-police graffiti had appeared in New York City before the attack.

“Words matter. Earlier this week we said that again after graffiti that proclaimed ‘kill cops.’ This morning..a Molotov cocktail thrown at an occupied marked police car,” he wrote in a tweet over the weekend. “Now more than ever is the time to come together, to move forward together.”

Meanwhile, a large NYPD union, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, released a statement that condemned the attack.

“Make no mistake: this is the environment that our elected officials have created. This is the violent behavior that their anti-police rhetoric has inspired. Until politicians stop encouraging hatred and violence towards police officers, we must be prepared to face such attacks AT ALL TIMES, both on and off duty,” Patrick Lynch, the head of the NYC PBA, wrote in the statement. “Remain alert and back each other up.”

On Friday night and Saturday night, demonstrations, looting, and rioting erupted across several major U.S. cities following the two police shootings.

Rioters in Portland, Oregon, smashed windows at a number of businesses after police fatally shot a man at a nearby park. At the same time, police said that rioters were arrested for setting fires.

In Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, after 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot by an officer carrying out a warrant on him, agitators tried tearing down fencing surrounding the police headquarters. Around 100 people were arrested, officials said.

Riots and looting incidents also broke out in Oakland, California, where hundreds of demonstrators allegedly assaulted an officer and at least one person, smashed windows, set a car on fire, and engaged in other acts of vandalism, authorities said. No arrests or citations were made.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a meeting of the premiers in Montreal on Dec. 7, 2018. (Martin Ouellet-Diotte/AFP via Getty Images) Canada

By The Canadian Press April 17, 2021 Updated: April 17, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

TORONTO—Furious criticism of new anti-pandemic powers that allow police in Ontario to stop any motorist or pedestrian and ask where they live and why they’re not home prompted the provincial government on Saturday to reconsider the measures.

As the number of infected people in hospital reached record levels, Premier Doug Ford tweeted that the measures, which also included shutting down all outdoor recreational facilities and playgrounds, would be clarified.

“Ontario’s enhanced restrictions were always intended to stop large gatherings where spread can happen,” Ford said. “Our regulations will be amended to allow playgrounds, but gatherings outside will still be enforced.”

Earlier, a government source speaking on background told The Canadian Press that a “clarification” of the police powers was pending final approval.

“We have heard a lot of feedback on this in the last 24 hours in terms of the scope and applicability,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Civil libertarians, and pundits have attacked new anti-pandemic restrictions announced Friday by Ford as misguided.

The added police powers aimed at enforcing stay-at-home orders, they said, were overkill.

The closing of outdoor spaces puzzled many public health experts, who said the measures didn’t make sense.

“Outdoor activities are vital for mental and physical health, especially with stay-at-home orders,” Dr. Isaac Bogoch, who sits on the province’s COVID?19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force, said in a tweet.

“Science is clear: Outdoor COVID transmission is extremely rare.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki calls on a reporter during a press briefing in the White House in Washington on April 16, 2021. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo) Executive Branch

By Zachary Stieber April 17, 2021 Updated: April 17, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday shifted its portrayal of ongoing discussions with Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, acknowledging no formal agreements were reached on those countries building up their forces at their respective borders.

There was no “formal agreement,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

“We never described it as a formal declaration or a formal agreement, but additional steps that they were taking to increase personnel at the border. And those are steps you can confirm with those countries that they have taken,” she added.

Earlier in the week, Psaki said it was fair to say that agreements with the three countries were struck recently, in the past few weeks.

“There have been a series of bilateral discussions between our leadership and the regional governments of Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. Through those discussions, there was a commitment, as you mentioned, to increase border security,” she told a reporter at the White House.

Tyler Moran, special assistant to the president for immigration for the Domestic Policy Council, went on MSNBC that same day and said the administration “secured agreements for them to put more troops on their own border,” adding, “Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala have all agreed to do this.”

But Guatemala told citizens that there was “no document signed” with the United States, saying it had already sent the 1,500 personnel Psaki mentioned to its border in January. Mexican officials said in late March they were increasing the troop level at its borders slightly while Honduran officials stated there “was no commitment” to put more soldiers in place to disrupt migration.

U.S. State Department officials seemed to contradict others in Biden administration, including during a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

“No, there were no agreements concluded with governments regarding border security,” Ricardo Zuniga, the special envoy for the northern triangle, told Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas).

“We do agree that it is very important to continue to work together, to collaborate, to manage migration, in a way that enhances the security of every country and allows governments to enforce their borders, just as the United States does,” he added.

A State Department spokeswoman also told The Washington Free Beacon that “no agreements have been established.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in a tweet that the White House “needs to come clean about this.”

“This is a series of bold-faced lies,” Issa added to the Free Beacon. “The [Biden administration] has deliberately said something that wasn’t true affecting foreign policy. … He’s taking credit for what is the unilateral efforts of these countries to deal with the crisis that he’s created for them.”

President Joe Biden speaks to the media during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, on April 13, 2021. (Pete Marovich/Pool/Getty Images) Executive Branch

By Jack Phillips April 18, 2021 Updated: April 18, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

President Joe Biden has for the first time described the recent surge of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border as a crisis, in the midst of Republican-led pressure to do so.

Over the weekend, Biden was asked by a reporter in Delaware about his policy on refugee admissions.

“We’re going to increase the number [of refugees allowed into the country]. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people,” Biden said in response. “We couldn’t do two things at once. But now we are going to increase the number.”

There has been a public-relations battle on the language surrounding the unprecedented surge at the southern border since Biden took office. Republicans have pressed Biden and White House officials to refer to the situation as a crisis, while his surrogates have refused to do so, preferring to call it a “challenge.” Some news outlets, including The Associated Press, have told their editors and reporters not to refer to the surge as a “crisis.”

Data provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) showed that agents have apprehended 172,000 illegal aliens along the border in March, leading Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, to say it is “the biggest surge that we’ve ever seen in the history of the Border Patrol.”

Republican lawmakers and governors have accused Biden of facilitating the border crisis by reversing several of President Donald Trump’s orders meant to curb illegal immigration, including border wall construction and the “Remain in Mexico” policy. The governments of Mexico and Guatemala have also faulted the Biden White House for sending out what they have said is mixed messaging on immigration.

“I’m nobody to make a judgment here, but I believe in the first weeks in the Biden administration, messages were confusing,” Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said in an interview with MSNBC last week. “They were compassionate messages that were understood by people in our country, especially to coyotes [border smugglers] to tell families, ‘We’ll take the children, the children can go in, and once they’re there, the children can call their parents.’”

On April 16, the Biden administration released a memo to keep in place the Trump-era 15,000 cap on refugees who can be allowed into the United States.

Hours later, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a statement reversing the administration’s announcement and asserted that the order was “the subject of some confusion.” The statement was posted after left-wing members of Congress, including “Squad” members Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), criticized the administration’s move.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment.

Although YouTube would likely permit the following little song, since they did remove a LAME for content a short time time ago, well, I just don’t feel comfortable using their CENSORED PLATFORM for any new offerings of “Lew’s Almost Music Expression”. None of them are important anyway as I am only one of millions of citizens within this country who have had their Constitutional Rights denied compliments of obvious election fraud and ballot manipulation conducted by elements of the Democrat party and their leftist supporters in the private sector.

What is done is done but I am not comfortable continuing with such an Anti-American organization and philosophy where a PRIVATE COMPANY can censor such publicly presented material but hey, after all, it is their their private platform so the US CONSTITUTION does not apply. OK.

Since I do not have the server space like YouTube for the large video/audio file, please accept only the lyrics. (Heck there’s always a silver lining, yeah? ……look at the bright side of this ANTI-AMERICAN CENSORSHIP by private corporations – your imagined music is no doubt better than what I was going to present using YouTube anyway! lol)

Sick of watching TV news
Long needles stuck in arms
To prevent infection
And COVID related harm

Even as a small child
Never cared much to watch
Going to get stuck anyway
I saw what silver tray brought

Then that sterile alcohol smell
A cold wet wipe or swab
Any moment I would feel ….
Yeeow! “All done – it’s over – good job”

Not bad at all I’ve thought for decades
That whole needle must not go in
But thanks to COVID news videos
As an old man now watch and cringe.

Up to the hilt that slender spike
A rubber bumper stops the drill
Can no longer ignore or just pretend
It’s ALL THE WAY IN for real!

My best to you and yours, Lew

Then-President Donald Trump participates in the Salute to the Heroes of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection in the East Room at the White House in Washington on Aug. 20, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Social Media

By Zachary Stieber April 16, 2021 Updated: April 16, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

Facebook’s Supreme Court equivalent is set to announce its decision on whether to overturn the suspension of former President Donald Trump in weeks, it announced on Friday.

The independent Oversight Board, which has the power to overrule Facebook, is reviewing the technology giant’s January move to indefinitely suspend Trump from the social media platform.

The board typically rules on cases within 90 days of referrals. Facebook referred the ban to the board on Jan. 21.

“The Board will announce its decision on the case concerning former US President Trump’s indefinite suspension from Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks. We extended the public comments deadline for this case, receiving 9,000+ responses,” the board said in its new statement.

“The Board’s commitment to carefully reviewing all comments has extended the case timeline, in line with the Board’s bylaws. We will share more information soon.”

Members of the public were told on Jan. 29 that they could submit comments on the suspension by Feb. 8.

Five members of the board are reviewing the case, but their decision must be signed off by a majority of the board.

Facebook initially blocked Trump from his account on Jan. 7, a day after a group that included some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington. “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time, claiming that Trump decided “to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building.”

In one video, Trump told people who stormed the Capitol to “go home peacefully” but also said “we love you” and “you’re very special.”

Facebook later said Trump was banned indefinitely. The company has since moved to scrub any content “posted in the voice of Donald Trump,” such as an interview conducted by his daughter-in-law.

Trump has called his remarks in the wake of the breach “totally appropriate.”

Big Tech, which includes Facebook, is “doing a horrible thing to our country,” he added while speaking to reporters while still in office, calling the suspension “a catastrophic mistake.”

Trump is working on a social media alternative to Facebook, former and current advisers have said. The ex-president enjoyed a large following on Facebook and Twitter, which also banned him.

While Trump could be allowed back on Facebook, Twitter’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal, said earlier this year that he will never be able to rejoin the platform, even if he runs for president in 2024.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki calls on a reporter during a press briefing in the White House in Washington on April 16, 2021. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo) Executive Branch

By Zachary Stieber April 17, 2021 Updated: April 17, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday shifted its portrayal of ongoing discussions with Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, acknowledging no formal agreements were reached on those countries building up their forces at their respective borders.

There was no “formal agreement,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

“We never described it as a formal declaration or a formal agreement, but additional steps that they were taking to increase personnel at the border. And those are steps you can confirm with those countries that they have taken,” she added.

Earlier in the week, Psaki said it was fair to say that agreements with the three countries were struck recently, in the past few weeks.

“There have been a series of bilateral discussions between our leadership and the regional governments of Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. Through those discussions, there was a commitment, as you mentioned, to increase border security,” she told a reporter at the White House.

Tyler Moran, special assistant to the president for immigration for the Domestic Policy Council, went on MSNBC that same day and said the administration “secured agreements for them to put more troops on their own border,” adding, “Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala have all agreed to do this.”

But Guatemala told citizens that there was “no document signed” with the United States, saying it had already sent the 1,500 personnel Psaki mentioned to its border in January. Mexican officials said in late March they were increasing the troop level at its borders slightly while Honduran officials stated there “was no commitment” to put more soldiers in place to disrupt migration.

U.S. State Department officials seemed to contradict others in Biden administration, including during a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

“No, there were no agreements concluded with governments regarding border security,” Ricardo Zuniga, the special envoy for the northern triangle, told Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas).

“We do agree that it is very important to continue to work together, to collaborate, to manage migration, in a way that enhances the security of every country and allows governments to enforce their borders, just as the United States does,” he added.

A State Department spokeswoman also told The Washington Free Beacon that “no agreements have been established.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in a tweet that the White House “needs to come clean about this.”

“This is a series of bold-faced lies,” Issa added to the Free Beacon. “The [Biden administration] has deliberately said something that wasn’t true affecting foreign policy. … He’s taking credit for what is the unilateral efforts of these countries to deal with the crisis that he’s created for them.”