Illegal Alien Guilty of Fatal Machete Attack on MyPillow Employee Named ‘America’

Robert Jonathan
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Illegal Alien Guilty of Fatal Machete Attack on MyPillow Employee Named ‘America’

Editor’s note: Article contains graphic images that may be inappropriate for some audiences.

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) A Minnesota court has found an illegal immigrant who allegedly beheaded his girlfriend in broad daylight guilty of first-degree murder.

The victim, MyPillow employee America Mafalda Thayer, a legal immigrant from Cuba, reportedly had changed her first name to America upon becoming a U.S. citizen.

When the gruesome attack occurred in suburban Minneapolis in July 2021, Thayer and her longtime boyfriend, Alexis Saborit, 44, were in a car together on the way to court.

Saborit, who was also from Cuba, was reportedly facing charges in connection with allegedly setting fire to their apartment.

During the car trip, he allegedly became enraged when Thayer informed him that she wanted to break up. Media reports have suggested that their 12-year relationship was “tumultuous.”

The man allegedly assaulted her with an eight-pound dumbbell and then cut off her head with a machete in the incident that occurred in Shakopee, Minnesota.

According to CBS News, “Witnesses saw a man — later identified as Saborit — pull a headless body out of a car at Fourth Avenue and Spencer Street, dispose of a machete and run away. He was found nearby and arrested.”

Powerline Blog co-founder Scott Johnson previously told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that in 2012, Saborit was subject to two deportation orders but that “ICE was not able to deport him because Cuba wouldn’t take him back.”

In general, first-degree murder requires evidence that a defendant engaged in some sort of advance planning, even on a limited basis.

Judge Caroline Lennon, who presided over the case, asserted that “the court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that [the] defendant acted with premeditation,” the Star Tribune detailed.

Her ruling added that his “decision to put down the dumbbell and use the machete is evidence of a deliberate mental thought process. After the murder, the defendant’s actions in fleeing the scene, disposing of the murder weapon and other evidence in separate locations, and changing his clothing show the defendant’s consciousness of guilt.”

In Minnesota, a first-degree murder verdict, if it holds up, requires life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Minnesota defendants found guilty of this charge have the right to appeal directly to the state supreme court.

The video below purports to have been recorded at the crime scene. Warning for graphic content:

Saborit is due back in court on June 1 for the mental illness phase of the proceedings, although the judge had previously ruled that he was mentally competent to stand trial.

Saborit reportedly told cops during the initial investigation that he “was really mad at that moment,” but also that he acted in self-defense, because Thayer was supposedly trying to poison him.

Former MyPillow co-workers described Thayer “as extremely hard-working, caring and the kind of person that would never hurt a fly” and “a sweet and loveable person who befriended everyone,” Minnesota’s Southwest News Media reported.

Reacting to the verdict, her son, Charles Thayer, said “This monster deserves to be put away for life.”

POLL: GOP Winning Policy Debate but Losing Low-Info Optics Battle over Debt Ceiling

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POLL: GOP Winning Policy Debate but Losing Low-Info Optics Battle over Debt Ceiling

(Headline USA) About 6 in 10 U.S. adults said they wanted any increase in the debt limit to be coupled with agreed-upon terms for reducing the federal budget deficit, according to a new poll.

While the conclusion supports the Republican position of demanding compromise over the Biden administration’s economic brinksmanship, few respondents said they had a solid understanding of the ongoing debt limit negotiations.

In fact, slightly more said they approved of Biden’s handling of the situation over that of congressional Republicans—underscoring either conservatives’ longstanding distrust of pollsters and hesitation to identify themselves, or the success of mainstream media in suppressing relevant details about the two sides and their positions in the negotiations.

At the same time, Americans were more likely to disapprove than approve of how President Joe Biden and congressional negotiators on both sides of the aisle were handling negotiations.

And two-thirds said they were highly concerned about the impact on the national economy if the U.S. debt limit is not increased and the government defaults on its loans.

The new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed 27% approve of Biden and 26% about congressional Democrats, while 22% approved of congressional Republicans. Close to half disapprove of each.

Sixty-six year-old Robert Hutchins said he somewhat approves of how House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Republicans in Congress were handling negotiations.

“At least he’s trying to do something,” the Republican from Milton, Delaware, said of McCarthy’s leadership over his conference. “The Democrats want to spend more money and they don’t want any limit to it.”

Hutchins said he doesn’t have “any confidence whatsoever” in Biden and doesn’t believe in abolishing the debt ceiling, as it serves as a constant reminder of the nation’s debt load, which currently stands at $31.4 trillion.

Otherwise, “you just think you have an unlimited credit card and you can spend whatever you want,” he said.

Overall, about 2 in 10 U.S. adults said they were following negotiations over raising the debt limit extremely or very closely, and about 4 in 10 were following somewhat closely.

Similarly, about 2 in 10 said they understood the situation very well and about 4 in 10 said they understood it somewhat well.

Still, a clear majority—63%—said they think negotiations over the debt limit should be coupled with terms to reduce the budget deficit.

Nineteen percent said the debt limit should be raised without conditions, and 16% said it should not be raised at all.

Overall, 50% of respondents said it should be tied to terms about reducing the budget deficit.

Similar percentages of Republicans and Democrats said they were following and understood negotiations, and concern about the economy if the U.S. defaults was widely bipartisan. But about a third of Democrats said the national debt limit should be increased without conditions, while just 6% of Republicans said the same.

Twenty-three percent of Republicans but just 7% of Democrats say the national debt limit should not be increased under any circumstances.

House Republicans already passed a bill to address the crisis with appropriate cuts to the Biden regime’s unfettered spending—which not only has ushered in the perennial debt debate but also contributed vastly to inflation among everyday Americans. However, the legislation now remains stalled in the Democrat-led Senate.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned this week that a national default would destroy jobs and businesses, and leave millions of families who rely on federal government payments to “likely go unpaid,” including Social Security beneficiaries, veterans and military families.

An AP-NORC poll conducted earlier this year also showed little consensus on cuts that would make a dent in the deficit: While most Americans said the government spends too much overall, majorities favored increased spending on popular and expensive programs including Medicare and Social Security.

Neither of those is at risk in the GOP package, which largely targets Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act and other recent pork-barrel spending sprees.

Aaron Loessberg–Zahl, a 33-year-old Democrat from San Jose, California, said the debt ceiling should be raised without conditions.

“Congress already controls the purse strings, they approve the annual budgets for our government,” Loessberg–Zahl said, “and I think that’s plenty of control over the spending.”

He called the debate over whether and how to raise the debt ceiling “not productive” and said he approved of the president’s handling of negotiations.

“My belief is that those people probably don’t understand the full ramifications of what would happen if the country were to default,” Loessberg–Zahl said,

The poll of 1,680 adults was conducted May 11-15 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Whitmer Kidnap Plot TV Show in the Works, but FBI Entrapment Survivors Not Consulted

Ken Silva
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Whitmer Kidnap Plot TV Show in the Works, but FBI Entrapment Survivors Not Consulted

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A pair of Hollywood writers are reportedly working on a television show that will dramatize the 2020 so-called militia conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but the men found not guilty of the plot have not been consulted.

“They haven’t reached out to Brandon Caserta or any of these victims or their families about portraying them in this show,” journalist Christina Urso, who is working on a separate documentary about the case, said on Friday.

“They haven’t been offered any ability to consult on the project and tell the true story. This is their story, and it makes me angry they seek to profit off it, while offering nothing to these men.”

Caserta and Daniel Harris were found not guilty by a jury of their peers in April 2022. The same jury couldn’t reach a verdict on Adam Fox and Barry Croft, but they were found guilty in a retrial later that year. Croft and Fox are being held in supermax prisons—caged with the likes of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols and 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef—while their appeals are pending.

Meanwhile, four other men have yet to be tried on state charges related to the alleged plan, which was in fact heavily driven by the FBI.

The impending Whitmer kidnap show was first reported by Deadline.

While the nearly entrapped men were not consulted, the good news is that the show will be based off of the reporting of Ken Bensinger and Jessica Garrison, according to Deadline. Bensinger and Garrison did outstanding work exposing widespread FBI malfeasance in the case—breaking stories about an FBI agent in the investigation violently beating his wife to within an inch of her life, low-life informants manipulating defendants and other improper activity.

Bensinger and Garrison are also reportedly working on a podcast about the case.

“Ken and I dug into the Michigan plot thinking we were going to learn about right-wing extremism in America and explore whether the U.S. government is overreaching in prosecuting these cases. And we did that. But we also uncovered a deeply human dark comedy, and we’re so excited to be able to tell that story in a podcast,” Garrison told Deadline.

Bensinger reportedly added, “This was an extreme example of the kind of case that played to public perceptions, shocking the public in its terrifying detail when it was first revealed just weeks before the 2020 election. But the truth was far stranger and murkier, turning the official story very soundly on its head.”

However, both the podcast and television show will likely portray the case as a dark comedy of errors. According to documentarian Urso, the truth is far worse—she believes the FBI engaged in a malicious entrapment against the defendants.

“I think it’s great that more people will hear about this case, but I don’t think it will reflect the whole truth. Brandon Caserta was entrapped and framed by the FBI. He spent 18 months in prison. He lost his job, his apartment, the feds cut and ripped up his car,” she said.

“He’s had no compensation for this injustice and is trying to slowly rebuild. If they are going to profit off his story they should ask for his input and offer to give some proceeds to the families of these men.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

NYC Mayor Bemoans Tourist Loss as Illegals Occupy Half of Hotel Rooms

Molly Bruns
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NYC Mayor Bemoans Tourist Loss as Illegals Occupy Half of Hotel Rooms

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) New York City’s Democrat Mayor Eric Adams once again bemoaned the influx of illegal immigrants arriving in his sanctuary city, many of whom are living in hotels on the taxpayer dime.

According to Bretbart, an estimated 70,000 migrants came to the city in the last year, many of them taking buses from Texas sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

In an attempt to house the migrants, Adams started contracting local hotels to house the thousands of migrants flooding into the city. The city racked up a $75 million bill at just Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel; several other historic hotels are sending the city massive bills for the migrants’ stay, as well as damages.

Adams recently announced that illegals occupy half of all hotel rooms in the city, called the influx of migrants an “onslaught,” and demanded President Joe Biden place illegals in towns and cities throughout the U.S.

“Almost 50% of those hotel rooms are taken up by migrant asylum seekers that we are paying for,” Adams said. “So instead of monies coming from people who are visiting us and spending in our tourism, in our Broadway plays, instead of them using those hotels, we are using those hotels.”

Adams went on to explain that New Yorkers spent about $5 million in tax dollars every day to house the migrants in the last year.

“When I take a hotel offline and use it for migrants, then we are not getting those residual impacts,” Adams said. “So there’s the $4.3 [billion], which is going to be higher, I believe.”

In previous statements Adams said 900 illegal immigrants are arriving in New York City every day, around 13 to 15 full buses.

Millions of legal and illegal migrants have crossed over the border and flooded several of the nation’s southernmost towns, particularly in the city of El Paso, Texas.

Even the city of Portland, Maine, started requesting donations to support incoming migrants.

Nazi-Backer Sean Penn Deploys Dog-Whistle Anti-Semitism against Hollywood Producers

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Nazi-Backer Sean Penn Deploys Dog-Whistle Anti-Semitism against Hollywood Producers

(Headline USA) Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for the Ukrainian military and its controversial, Nazi-linked Azov Battalion.

On Friday, the notoriously hot-headed celebrity and conflict tourist hinted that his own anti-Semitism may be at the root of it, deploying a bigoted trope that likened Hollywood producers to “bankers.”

Both professions are considered in frequently recurring stereotypes to be disproportionately Jewish.

Penn strongly backed the current Hollywood screenwriters strike while speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday.

“The first thing we should do in these conversations is change the Producers Guild and title them how they behave, which is the Bankers Guild,” Penn said in the dog-whistle remark.

“It’s difficult for so many writers and so many people industry-wide to not be able to work at this time,” he continued. “I guess it’s going to soul-search itself and see what side toughs it out.”

The ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, which some consider to be a boon for the overly woke entertainment industry, has revolved around a dispute over artificial intelligence.

Penn, an averred anti-capitalist, accused the industry of “upending the writers and actors and directors for a very long time” during a press conference for his new film, Black Flies.

“There’s a lot of new concepts being tossed about including the use of A.I.,” he said. “It strikes me as a human obscenity for there to be pushback on that from the producers.”

The WGA is seeking better pay, new contracts for the streaming era and safeguards against the use of AI-scripted work-arounds.

Penn’s comments come as the potential for a wider work stoppage in Hollywood may be growing. The Directors Guild is also negotiating a new contract with producers. The board of SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, this week voted to ask members for strike authorization as it prepares to enter negotiations for a new contract.

In Cannes, the strike been a regular topic for American stars. On Thursday, Ethan Hawke wore a shirt that read “Pencils Down.”

On the festival’s opening day Tuesday, juror Paul Dano said he planned to join his wife, Zoe Kazan, on the picket lines soon.

“My wife is currently picketing with my 6-month-old, strapped to her chest,” said Dano. “I will be there on the picket line when I get back home.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Report: FBI Agent Received Illegal $250K No-Show Job

Ken Silva
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Report: FBI Agent Received Illegal $250K No-Show Job

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) As FBI whistleblowers struggle to pay for groceries, a new report shows that a corrupt agent allegedly received nearly $250,000 for hours he did not work.

The report dropped Thursday from The Messenger, which obtained a DOJ Inspector General report about the no-show job via the Freedom of Information Act. According to report, the document shows that the unidentified agent allegedly committed the $246,819 fraud by not showing up to work for about half of all the hours he claimed over more than three years.

The agent retired from the FBI before he could be compelled to sit for an interview with OIG investigators,” The Messenger reported.

“The heavily redacted OIG report indicates that the watchdog’s investigation—completed in November 2021—was conducted by its Houston outpost, but the FBI field office and the name of the supervisory special agent are not listed.”

The FBI declined to comment about the matter. Mike Zummer, a former agent who now heads the non-governmental watchdog group Accountability FBI, reportedly blasted the bureau for failing to bring the fraudster agent to justice.

“Approximately $246,000 of payroll fraud in just over three years—with the employee only working about half of his paid hours—is egregious,” Zummer told The Messenger.

“Considering I worked a case on a police officer who was prosecuted for fraudulently claiming approximately $20,000 of overtime in a two-year period, it raises the question of why this supervisor wasn’t prosecuted.”

Meanwhile, FBI whistleblowers are facing heavy retaliation from their bosses for disclosing information about the bureau’s corruption.

Several of them testified Thursday at a House Weaponization Subcommittee hearing, telling the public about how they’ve been suspended and have had their security clearances—making it tough to support their families. Suspended agent Garrett O’Boyle said he other agents should think twice before following his path.

“I would advise them not to do it … The FBI will crush you. This government will crush you and your family if you try to expose the truth about things they are doing that are wrong,” he told the committee. “We are all examples of that.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Blasphemous Tranny ‘Nun’ Group Scrapped from L.A. Dodgers ‘Pride Night’

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Blasphemous Tranny ‘Nun’ Group Scrapped from L.A. Dodgers ‘Pride Night’

(Headline USA) The Los Angeles Dodgers have disinvited a blasphemous LGBT group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to the team’s annual Pride Night after opposition from conservative Catholic groups.

The subversive activist group was to have received the team’s Community Hero Award in a ceremony during the 10th annual event before the June 16 game against the San Francisco Giants.

“Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,” the Dodgers said in a statement Wednesday.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence first appeared in San Francisco in 1979 in the Castro District in the form of three men wearing nun outfits. But over the decades, it has grown into a number of loosely organized chapters around the world that engage in both charitable and protest work.

The nonprofit claims it is devoted “to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment,” according to a mission statement posted on the group’s website.

“We use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit,” it said.

Opponents, however, urged the Dodgers to retract their decision to honor the group on the grounds that it mocks the Catholic faith.

In a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the sisters dress in “lewd imitation” of nuns.

“Do you believe that the Los Angeles Dodgers are being ‘inclusive and welcoming to everyone’ by giving an award to a group of gay and transgender drag performers that intentionally mocks and degrades Christians—and not only Christians, but nuns, who devote their lives to serving others?” Rubio wrote.

On Thursday, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence said the group wasn’t anti-Catholic, and its members were offended and outraged by the Dodgers’s decision.

“The Dodgers capitulated in response to hateful and misleading information from people outside their community,” the group said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Disney Forced to Abandon $1B Fla. Campus amid Plummeting Profits, DeSantis Feud

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Disney Forced to Abandon $1B Fla. Campus amid Plummeting Profits, DeSantis Feud

(Headline USA) Disney officials on Thursday tipped their hand to the company’s dire financial situation after poorly conceived decisions to go woke have damaged their brand, perhaps irreparably, among concerned parents and other conservative customers.

Yet, the $200 billion entertainment juggernaut remained locked in a losing battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, this time declaring that they would revoke their promise of a $1 billion new campus near their Disney World theme park.

While Democrat figures in California, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Adam Schiff, attempted to spin it as a victory for the Left, it was a clear indication that the pressure campaign on Disney was prevailing as the company desperately tries to triage its plummeting profit margins.

Josh D’Amaro, chairman of the parks, experiences and products division, said in a memo to employees that “new leadership and changing business conditions” had prompted the company to abandon its plans.

“I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World business,” D’Amaro said. “We have plans to invest $17 billion and create 13,000 jobs over the next ten years. I hope we’re able to do so.”

Disney had planned to build the campus about 20 miles from the Walt Disney World theme park resort and relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development.

It now will be forced to remain in the Anaheim area, where burdensome taxes and regulations, skyrocketing crime and homelessness, and overvalued real estate are among the hindrances it is forced to deal with.

Florida officials offered mixed reactions to the news that Disney planned to renege on the relocation agreement.

DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said the state had been unsure whether the new Disney campus would come to fruition since it was announced nearly two years ago.

“Given the company’s financial straits, falling market cap and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures,” Redfern said.

However, Florida Sen. Joe Gruters, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, called Disney’s decision a huge loss.

“I hope we can put this conflict behind us and get back to a more normal working relationship with a company that’s been one of our best business and tourism partners that we’ve had over the last 50 years,” Gruters said.

“Two thousand jobs and a billion dollars worth of investments into our state, I would say that’s a serious blow,” he continued. “The market is much better at dealing with companies rather than heavy-handed government.”

Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani, who represents the Orlando area in the Florida House, released a statement blaming the governor for the lost jobs.

“Governor Ron DeSantis is a job killing moron who cares more about his own political ambitions and culture wars than Florida and our future,” Eskamani said. “According to him, ‘woke makes you go broke’ but this is another example of how it’s actually the complete opposite. DeSantis is not who you want for President—ever.”

Disney and DeSantis have been engaged in a tug-of-war for more than a year after the company sought to speak out against Florida’s anti-grooming law in an effort to exert political pressure.

DeSantis and the Republican legislature responded by revoking Disney’s longstanding privilege to an autonomous zone where it was allowed to operate without government involvement.

The backlash against the company also exposed a Zoom call in which top officials admitted that Disney had been actively incorporating LGBT and transgender messages into its programming as part of an effort to sexualize and indoctrinate children.

Since then, it has seen several of its movies bomb and has been forced to lay off thousands of workers. Former CEO Bob Iger was brought in as part of an attempt to restore its public image but has made little progress in stemming the damage.

On Thursday, Disney also announced that it would close a Star Wars themed luxury hotel as part of the overall effort to cut some $5.5 billion in costs.

Meanwhile, Disney has filed a lawsuit suit against DeSantis alleges the governor waged a “targeted campaign of government retaliation.”

It asks a federal judge to void the takeover of the theme park district, as well as the DeSantis oversight board’s actions, on the grounds that they were violations of the company’s free speech rights.

The creation of Disney’s self-governing district by the Florida Legislature was instrumental in the company’s decision in the 1960s to build near Orlando.

Disney told the state at the time that it planned to build a futuristic city that would include a transit system and urban planning innovations, so the company needed autonomy. The futuristic city never materialized, however, and instead morphed into a second theme park that opened in 1982.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Pentagon Used $3B ‘Accounting Error’ to Circumvent Congress on Ukraine Funding

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Pentagon Used $3B ‘Accounting Error’ to Circumvent Congress on Ukraine Funding

(Headline USA) The Pentagon has overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by at least $3 billion—an accounting error that could be a boon for the war effort because it will allow the Defense Department to send more weapons now without asking Congress for more money.

The acknowledgment Thursday comes at a time when Pentagon is under increased pressure by Congress to show accountability for the billions of dollars it has sent in weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine and as some lawmakers question whether that level of support should continue.

As with many aspects of the Biden administration, it was unclear whether the true source of the mistake was intentional or if the “accidental” aspect of it was part of a deliberate ruse for the military to bypass their legal obligations and duties under the U.S. Constitution.

Either way, the bookkeeping blunder could free up more money for critical weapons as Ukraine is on the verge of a much anticipated counteroffensive—which will require as much military aid as they can get.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said the offensive was delayed because they did not yet have everything they needed.

The “error” was caused when officials overvalued some of the systems sent to Ukraine, using the value of money it would cost to replace an item completely rather than the current value of the weapon. In many of the military aid packages, the Pentagon has opted to draw from its stockpiles of older, existing gear because it can get those items to Ukraine faster.

“During our regular oversight process of presidential drawdown packages, the Department discovered inconsistencies in equipment valuation for Ukraine. In some cases, ‘replacement cost’ rather than ‘net book value’ was used, therefore overestimating the value of the equipment drawn down from U.S. stocks,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

She added that the “mistake” hasn’t constrained U.S. support to Ukraine or hampered the ability to send aid to the battlefield.

A defense official said the Pentagon is still trying to determine exactly how much the total surplus will be.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the comptroller has asked the military services to review all previous Ukraine aid packages using the proper cost figures.

The result, said the official, will be that the department will have more available funding authority to use as the Ukraine offensive nears.

The aid surplus was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

To date the U.S. has provided Ukraine nearly $37 billion in military aid since Russia invaded in February 2022, part of the more than $100 billion in aid that also includes discretionary funding to cover government operations such as salaries and pensions.

U.S. officials with the State Department have acknowledged that once the money leaves its hands, they are unable to account for how it is spent, with many suspecting widespread corruption by the Zelenskyy government.

In late February, the Pentagon’s inspector general said his office has found no evidence yet that any of the billions of dollars in weapons and aid to Ukraine has been lost to corruption or diverted into the wrong hands. He cautioned that those investigations are only in their early stages.

With regard to military aid, the bulk of it has been in weapons systems, millions of munitions and ammunition rounds, and an array of trucks, sensors, radars and other equipment pulled from Pentagon stockpiles and sent quickly to Ukraine.

Members of Congress have repeatedly pressed Defense Department leaders on how closely the U.S. is tracking its aid to Ukraine to ensure that it is not subject to fraud or ending up in the wrong hands.

The Pentagon has claimed it has a “robust program” to track the aid as it crosses the border into Ukraine and to keep tabs on it once it is there, depending on the sensitivity of each weapons system.

However, its failure to properly maintain its own bookkeeping accounts raises serious questions as to how it is able to hold Ukraine’s military accountable.

They have said that a small team of Americans in Ukraine working with Ukrainians to do physical inspections when possible, but also virtual inspections when needed, since those teams are not going to the front lines.

But even those operations have come under suspicion following a leak of files earlier this year that indicated there may already be U.S. boots on the ground.

At least one U.S. citizen appears to have been confirmed dead in Ukraine this week.

Retired Army Staff Sgt. Nicholas Maimer of Boise, Idaho, was killed during a barrage in Bakhmut, and his corpse, with American identification, was discovered by Russian forces who posted a video to Telegram.

“He was shooting back; he died in the battle, so we will hand over his documents tomorrow morning and pack everything, right?” said Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin in the video.

“… We’ll put him in a coffin, cover him with the American flag with respect because he did not die in his bed as a grandpa but he died at war and most likely a worthy [death], right?” Prigozhin added.

Maimer, a former Green Beret, ostensibly was working for a nonprofit group called AFGFree.

In addition to the known funding the U.S. has supplied to Ukraine, it remains unclear how much additional spending has come from the so-called black budget allocated to clandestine intelligence agencies.

Its existence was only confirmed publicly following another whistleblower leak, Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosure. At the time, it amounted to $52.6 billion spread among the 16 intelligence agencies (including $14.7 million for the CIA) and an additional $23 billion for military intelligence programs.

More than 33M Drivers at Risk from Potentially Deadly Airbag Explosions

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More than 33M Drivers at Risk from Potentially Deadly Airbag Explosions

(Associated Press) More than 33 million people in the United States are driving vehicles that contain a potentially deadly threat: Airbag inflators that in rare cases can explode in a collision and spew shrapnel.

Few of them know it.

And because of a dispute between federal safety regulators and an airbag parts manufacturer, they aren’t likely to find out anytime soon.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is demanding that the manufacturer, ARC Automotive of Knoxville, Tennessee, recall 67 million inflators that could explode with such force as to blow apart a metal canister and expel shrapnel. But ARC is refusing to do so, setting up a possible court fight with the agency.

NHTSA argues that the recall is justified because two people have been killed in the United States and Canada and at least seven others have been injured by ARC’s inflators. The explosions, which first occurred in 2009, have continued as recently as this year.

NHTSA tentatively concluded, after an investigation that has lasted for eight years, that the inflators are defective. The agency’s documents show that the inflators date from at least the 2002 model year to January 2018, when ARC installed equipment on its manufacturing lines that could detect potential safety problems.

One of those who died was Marlene Beaudoin, a 40-year-old mother of 10 from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula who was struck by metal fragments when her 2015 Chevrolet Traverse SUV was involved in a minor crash in 2021. She and four of her sons had been on their way to get ice cream. The sons were not hurt.

ARC maintains that no safety defect exists, that NHTSA’s demand is based on a hypothesis rather than technical conclusions and that the agency has no authority to order a parts manufacturer to carry out recalls, which ARC contends are the responsibility of automakers.

In a letter to NHTSA, ARC said no automaker has found a defect common to all 67 million inflators, and no root cause has been identified in the inflator ruptures.

“ARC believes they resulted from random ‘one-off’ manufacturing anomalies that were properly addressed by vehicle manufacturers through lot-specific recalls,” the letter said.

In a statement, NHTSA indicated that both ARC and automakers are responsible for recalls and that it can seek a recall from a parts maker that supplies multiple automakers.

The next step is for NHTSA to issue a final ruling on whether the inflators are defective, then hold a public hearing. It potentially could take ARC to court to seek a recall order. NHTSA would not say when or whether any of this will happen.

In the meantime, owners of vehicles made by at least a dozen automakers—Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Hyundai and Kia—are left to wonder anxiously whether their vehicles contain driver or front passenger inflators made by ARC. (Some vehicles have ARC inflators on both sides.)

Because ARC supplies inflators that are included in other manufacturers’ airbags, there’s no easy way for vehicle owners to determine whether their inflators are made by ARC. Neither NHTSA nor ARC nor the automakers have released a full list of affected models.

The standoff with ARC has sent automakers struggling to find out just how many of their vehicles contain the inflators.

The auto manufacturers are also asking NHTSA whether they must start doing recalls. Automakers know many of the models affected. But many say they’re still gathering information from later model years to determine which vehicles contain the affected inflators.

“We are still investigating,” said Maria Buczkowski, a spokeswoman for Ford. “We have not had any ARC airbag inflators rupture in the field.”

James Bell, a Kia spokesman, said, “We do not have a final count on vehicles that were built with ARC inflators, but the team is collecting the data.”

Toyota confirmed that some of its vehicles have ARC inflators but wouldn’t comment further.

Other automakers said they were trying to find a cause and were working with the government or didn’t respond to requests from the Associated Press for information.

NHTSA contends that byproducts from welding during manufacturing can clog a vent inside the inflator canister that’s designed to let gas escape to fill air bags quickly in a crash. Pressure can build to the point where the canister is blown apart.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, called on NHTSA and the automakers to release a list of affected models.

“Customers, I think, have a right to know if there’s a potential defect in their car, particularly if it’s sitting a few inches from their chest and can explode,” Brooks said.

The situation, he said, is reminiscent of the early stages of the Takata air bag inflator recalls in 2001. It took years for all the affected vehicle models to be announced.

Both ARC and Takata used ammonium nitrate to inflate air bags. Takata’s situation was more dangerous, Brooks said, because in its inflators, the chemical could deteriorate over time when exposed to high heat and humidity.

Unlike Takata, ARC uses ammonium nitrate only as a secondary chemical to inflate air bags. ARC’s problem appears to derive instead from a manufacturing defect.

From 2017 to 2022, the ARC problems triggered seven small recalls from automakers. On Friday, the same day NHTSA announced its action against ARC, General Motors announced the recall of nearly 1 million more.

The company said it’s recalling certain 2014 through 2017 GMC Acadia, Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs because the ARC inflators can explode. The recall came after GM was told this year that the driver’s air bag ruptured in a 2017 Traverse.

GM, which says it doesn’t know what caused the inflator to explode, has hired an engineering firm to help investigate.

“We disagree with NHTSA’s new sweeping request when extensive field testing has found no inherent defect,” ARC said in a statement.

While the recall demand is being sorted out, Brooks of the Center for Auto Safety recommends that owners of vehicles from the 12 affected brands insist that dealers disclose whether their particular vehicle contains an ARC inflator.

“The more customers who complain, the more pressure that puts on the manufacturers,” he said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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