JESSE WATTERS: What powerful people were on Epstein’s plane?

Jesse Watters discusses how the flight records for Jeffrey Epstein have yet to be released years after death on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

JEFFREY EPSTEIN FLIGHT LOG SUBPOENA REQUEST DENIED BY DEMOCRAT-LED SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, BLACKBURN SAYS

JESSE WATTERS: The government has been hiding Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs since he committed suicide four years ago. Fighting international sex trafficking should appeal to everybody, no matter what political party. We care about women and children. We care about law and order. 

We care about corruption. So when Senator Marsha Blackburn from the great state of Tennessee tried to subpoena the flight logs of Jeffrey Epstein, we were surprised that Senator Dick Durbin from the great state of Illinois was making it difficult. And why hadn’t Dick Durbin subpoenaed the flight logs himself? 

Why hasn’t any politician until Marsha Blackburn tried to find out who flew on the world’s most notorious child sex traffickers plane? Perhaps they have a good explanation for flying on Jeffrey’s jet. Like Bill Clinton, who was on humanitarian missions, we’re told. Are these flight logs being used as blackmail? 

What powerful people were on the plane and what kind of intelligence operation was Epstein running? And why would Senator Dick Durbin be running interference for a dead pedophile? 

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Yankees land Alex Verdugo in trade with AL East rival Red Sox

The New York Yankees struck a trade with their bitter AL East rival, the Boston Red Sox, to land star outfielder Alex Verdugo.

The Yankees acquired Verdugo in exchange for right-handed pitchers Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice, the team announced. ESPN first reported the deal.

It’s just the eighth time since 1969 the Red Sox and Yankees have made a deal together. 

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But for New York, GM Brian Cashman was looking for left-handed outfield help, and he gets a 27-year-old that fits the description.

Verdugo has been a fan favorite with the Red Sox over the past four seasons after spending his first three MLB seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. So he knows how to handle playing in a big city. 

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The Yankees are very familiar with his work, especially in their own ballpark. Verdugo has a career .252/.299/.437 slash line at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx with five homers, seven doubles and 12 RBI over 31 games. 

The Yankees were a righty-dominant team last season in a ballpark that favors lefties, which is why Cashman had an emphasis on adding that aspect to his 2024 roster. While the Yankees remain in on players available via trade, like Juan Soto, and free agents like Cody Bellinger, adding someone like Verdugo who has shown he can play in one of the hardest cities to produce is a smart strategy. 

Verdugo had a .264/.324/.421 line in 142 games with the Sox last season, and that batting average is low for his standards. A high-contact hitter, Verdugo hit .280 in 2022 and .289 in 2021, so he’ll be looking to bring that average up next season for his new squad. 

For his career, Verdugo is a .281/.337/.428 hitter with 152 doubles, 57 homers and 255 RBI in 651 games. 

This is just one of what’s expected to be a few moves made by Cashman and the Yankees’ front office after not making the postseason in 2023 following a 2022 campaign that ended with an ALCS appearance. 

The Yankees have been linked heavily to Soto, Bellinger, and Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 

Verdugo has just this year left on his rookie contract before becoming a free agent in 2025. 

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Crackdown on non-Chinese San Fran politicians using ‘Chinese names’ to win elections: ‘Cultural appropriation’

Political candidates in San Francisco have long used both English and Mandarin names on ballots to help win over the city’s considerable Chinese population. But that tradition may soon be discarded, according to The San Francisco Standard

“After an inquiry from Supervisor Connie Chan, the Department of Elections has decided to follow a 2019 state law saying self-submitted Chinese names may only be used if candidates can prove that they were born with them, as many Chinese immigrants or Chinese Americans were, or they have been using the names for at least two years,” according to the report. 

If that’s not the case, candidates will then be given a transliteration-based name, which are often wordy and based on Mandarin phonetics.

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The decision may affect how the name of some political candidates, like Daniel Lurie, appear to voters. Lurie’s choice for his name in Chinese includes characters that mean “auspicious” and “virtue,” according to the report, while a phonetic approximation of his name — “DAN-knee-er LOO-lee — doesn’t have any special meaning. 

Supervisor Chan has led the policy to make it more difficult for political hopefuls to self-submit “Chinese names,” with the exceptions being candidates who can prove that “they were born” with the name or have been “using the name for at least two years.” 

Cultural appropriation does not make someone Asian,” Chan told The Standard. “There is no alternative definition to whether someone is Asian or not. It should be based solely on a person’s ethnicity and heritage. That’s what this law is about.”

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The “specific incident’ that spurred the Department of Elections policy change was when “Natalie Gee (who is Chinese American) accused a non-Chinese candidate, Emma Heiken, of using the same Chinese given name in her campaign,” according to the outlet. 

The Standard previously reported in May that politicians give themselves “flowery Chinese names” on purpose to “court” voters. 

San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, “who is of German descent,” according to The Standard, “requested to appear on the ballot as “潘正義,” which means “Justice Pan” in Chinese. Previously, he was “迪恩‧普瑞斯頓” on the ballot, a long and transliteration-based Chinese name.”

Chan and the San Francisco Department of Elections did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

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US says Russia rejected proposal for release of Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich

The U.S. on Tuesday said Russia rejected a new and a “significant” proposal that would have freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan.

“This was a new proposal in recent weeks. It was a significant proposal,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press conference. “And it was rejected by the Russians, but it does not, it will not deter us from continuing to do everything we can to try and bring both of them home.”

He added that the two American citizens should never have been arrested “in the first place,” calling on the Russian government to immediately release them.

“They never should have been arrested in the first place. They should be released immediately,” Miller said. “But we have made a number of proposals, including a substantial one in recent weeks and we will continue to work every day to bring Evan and Paul Whelan home. There is no prior higher priority for the Secretary of State. There is no higher priority for the president.”

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While the State Department declined to provide details of the proposal to free Gershkovich and Whelan, the proposal is confirmation that Washington is continuing to secure the release of the two American citizens.

The U.S. government has declared both Whelan and Gershkovich to be wrongfully detained.

Whelan was arrested in December 2018 on charges of espionage and spying for the U.S. government and sentenced to 16 years. 

He and the U.S. have denied the charges as the 53-year-old remains imprisoned at a labor camp in Russia’s Mordovia republic.

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Whelan was arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service while staying in a hotel in the Moscow area. 

At the time, he had reportedly arrived in the Russian capital to attend a friend’s wedding and act as a travel guide for the groom’s family. However, Russian officials claimed that Whelan had met with an unnamed Russian citizen who gave the former Marine a USB drive containing classified material.

Gershkovich was detained on March 29 of this year during a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in Russia, and accused of being a spy. 

The U.S. has asserted that Russia’s allegations against the 32-year-old are ridiculous.

Coworkers and loved ones have described the American-born son of Soviet immigrants as a diligent reporter who is being used as a political pawn due to his high profile. 

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Romney rips ‘clueless’ Democrats for trying to negotiate border spending

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, says Republicans want the border “closed” as part of a potential congressional agreement for additional emergency spending requested by the White House and criticized “clueless” Democrats who want to negotiate border provisions.

“Dems want $106B—GOP wants a closed border. That’s the trade. But clueless Dems want to negotiate the border bill. Not going to happen,” Romney said on X, formerly Twitter. “Is an open border more important to Dems than Ukraine and Israel?”

Republicans and Democrats have been struggling to find common ground over how to handle the crisis at the southern border as part of a supplemental spending agreement that includes border security and funding to Ukraine and Israel.

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The White House requested $14 billion to help it deal with the massive crisis at the southern border. The request includes $6.4 billion for “border operations,” which includes $4.4 billion for holding facilities and reimbursement of support from the Pentagon. It also includes money for DNA collection and over $1.9 billion for Health and Human Services “to support eligible arrivals and unaccompanied children.” 

Related to migrant care is $1.4 billion for shelter and services for migrants released from DHS custody. This is in addition to $800 million distributed to states and non-governmental organizations by the administration to aid the many migrants who have been released into the U.S. interior.

But Republicans want to see higher standards for asylum, limits on parole and other inclusions to make it harder for migrants to be released into the U.S. interior. 

House conservatives have been pushing Speaker Mike Johnson to refuse to accept anything less than H.R. 2, the GOP’s marquee border bill, which would reinstate Trump administration-era measures such as Remain In Mexico and restart border wall construction.

SENATE DEMS SAY ANY CHANGES TO ASYLUM SYSTEM MUST BE COUPLED WITH AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has teed up a vote on Biden’s aid request for later this week, but so far GOP leadership is urging a no vote until there are “meaningful” changes at the border.

Meanwhile, some Senate Democrats have said policy changes should not go ahead unless they are linked to an amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

“As negotiations surrounding the supplemental aid package progress, we are concerned about reports of harmful changes to our asylum system that will potentially deny lifesaving humanitarian protection for vulnerable people, including children, and fail to deliver any meaningful improvement to the situation at the border,” a coalition of 11 Democratic senators said Wednesday. 

“Using a one-time spending package to enact these unrelated permanent policy changes sets a dangerous precedent and risks assistance to our international partners,” they said. “Any proposal considering permanent changes to our asylum and immigration system needs to include a clear path to legalization for long-standing undocumented immigrants.”

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

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