National
The Israel-Gaza War has reached a new height as Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages killed in Gaza last weekend. The development has led to mass unrest, with hundreds of thousands of protestors taking to Israel’s streets to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s perceived failure of securing a ceasefire deal.
The country’s largest labor union said that the “entire Israeli economy will shut down” in an effort to join the protests.
A spokesman for the military wing of Hamas, the terrorist group occupying Palestine, said that the execution of the six hostages were in response to Israels’ successful hostage rescue in Nuseirat in June. The spokesman said that the new protocols were given to Hamas terrorists to execute hostages if Israeli troops were near.
Netanyahu said on Monday that the hostages were shot in the back of the head and that Hamas would pay a “heavy price.”
The hostages include Hersh Golberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. Hostage Yerushalmi was seen in a pre-recorded video, recorded by Hamas, in which she urged Netanyahu to broker a deal to end the war. The video is one of several similar ones recorded by Hamas, which many say are forms of psychological warfare by forcing the hostages to read the statements.
The six hostages were among the 251 taken to Gaza on October 7, when Hamas launched their initial assault on Israel’s border that killed 1,200 people.
In election news, Massachusetts held their primaries on Tuesday.
Two-term Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) was unopposed for renomination. Warren won her first term over Scott Brown (R) in 2012. Brown had won a 2010 special election in the deep-blue state that was seen as an accurate bellwether for the dire electoral year Democrats would have in November. Warren re-election in 2018 with 60% of the vote over Geoff Diehl (R).
This year, Warren faces John Deaton (R), who took 65% of the vote in the three-way Republican primary. He faces a significant uphill battle to take on Warren in one of the bluest states in the country.
The GOP is also taking a pass on most of the state’s congressional districts, as they have only run candidates in MA-08 and MA-09, the least-Democratic leaning of them all.
Democrats currently control all nine of Massachusetts’ House seats, as well as both Senate seats. Democrats are running unopposed in the seven other districts. No Republican has won a House seat from the Bay State since 1994.
The seven unopposed Democrats join a list of twenty-nine other districts without dual-party contests. Twelve Republicans and eleven Democrats are running unopposed.
State
A former aide to Governor Kathy Hochul (D) and former Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) has been arrested and charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government.
Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to Hochul and an aide to Cuomo, was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registrations Act (FARA), which requires individuals and entities to register with the Department of Justice if they work on behalf of foreign entities while in the United States. FARA also requires individuals to disclose their relationships, activities, receipts, and disbursements with foreign entities Sun is also charged with visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy.
Sun’s husband, Chris Hu, was also charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and misusing means of identification.
The charges come after their Manhasset home was raided by the FBI in July.
Prosecutors allege that Sun, while working for the New York State government, influenced the messaging of high-level State officials on issues pertaining to relations with China. She is also accused of blocking Taiwanese government representatives from access to the State officials, as well as obtaining official New York State proclamations for Chinese government representatives without authorization.
Prosecutors have also alleged that Sun and Hu used shell companies, iCloud accounts, and WeChat messages as tools in their crimes. All messages obtained on said accounts are in Mandarin.
Defense attorneys say the charges are “inflammatory” and “overly aggressive.”
A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that he and the agency were unaware of Sun’s actions on behalf of the Chinese government, but that the country opposes “malicious associations and slander against China.”
Sun’s professional record goes back to 2009, when she was hired as chief of staff in now-Congresswoman Grace Meng’s (D, NY-06) when Meng was in the Assembly. Then-Governor Cuomo’s administration hired Sun in 2012 as Director of Asian American Affairs. Afterwards, Sun became Director of External Affairs for Empire State Development, followed by a 2018 return to the Cuomo Administration, where she earned the title Chief Diversity Officer. She was later employed by the State Department of Financial Services.
Sun was hired as Deputy Chief of Staff when Governor Hochul assumed the State’s top job in August 2021. She put in about a year at that post before moving to Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Business at the Department of Labor.
Sun was fired from that position in March 2023, when Hochul’s office found “evidence of misconduct,” although the Governor’s office failed to elaborate, but that they were assisting law enforcement through the process.
Prosecutors say that Sun had been acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, working at their behest and to advance the political interests of the CCP. The indictment also includes Sun’s efforts to obtain “unauthorized invitation letters” from the Governor’s office, which were subsequently used to aid travel of Chinese government officials into the U.S. for meeting with New York State officials.
Prosecutors also allege that Sun and her husband received substantial compensation for their work, including travel benefits, event tickets, employment for Sun’s relatives, gourmet food items, the last of which were delivered to Sun’s relatives.
One of the methods in which Sun allegedly advanced China’s international relations was by ensuring that Governor Cuomo gave praise to China for their help in the response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. She also allegedly stymied U.S. praise for Taiwan for providing 200,000 masks to New York City.
Governor Hochul says that she is “absolutely shocked” at the developments and that it was a “betrayal of trust.”
“The fact that a spy for a hostile nation was embedded at the highest levels of our state government under two administrations is an alarming security failure, jeopardizing both New York and the entire country,” said Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-North Tonawanda) in a statement. “New York should be a beacon of freedom, a place where people flee from oppressive regimes, not a platform for spies to infiltrate our government and undermine our state and nation.”
Both Sun and Hu pleaded not guilty to all charges in federal court on Tuesday. Sun’s bond is set at $1.5 million, while Hu’s is set at $500,000. Their next court date is set for September 25.
Local
Suffolk County detectives are now reeling with an unusual case: human remains found in a suitcase.
The suitcase was discovered at 11:50a.m. on Tuesday morning in a wooded area next to 320 Nassau Road in Huntington.
The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Officer is conducting an autopsy.
The case is somewhat similar to the Babylon case that rocked Long Island in the spring, wherein remains of two humans were found scattered around parts of Babylon Town.
To end on a brighter note, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) has announced that Smith’s Point Beach in Mastic has had its summer hours extended to September 15.
“Keeping open our most accessible county beach allows our residents to beat the heat and enjoy our amenities a little while longer,” said Romaine in a statement. Lifeguards will be on duty on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00a.m. to 5:30p.m. and parking fees will be collected from 8:30a.m. to 5:00p.m.
Visit https://suffolkcountyny.gov/Departments/Parks for more information on Suffolk County Parks.
