A very sad end to a statewide search for missing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck. During a police conference update today, Ms. Lueck was identified as a murder victim. A suspect has been arrested.

(Via NBC) Salt Lake City police on Friday arrested and charged a man with the murder of missing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck.

Ayoola Ajayi, 31, is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, obstruction of justice and desecration of body, authorities announced.

Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said he personally telephoned Lueck’s parents in Southern California to tell them their 23-year-old daughter was dead.

“This is one of the most difficult phone calls I have ever made as both Greg and his wife, Diana, are devastated, are heartbroken by this news,” Brown said.

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North Korea state-run news agency is reporting on a letter from U.S. President Trump to North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-Un.    In an interesting aspect to the media report, KCNA releases a picture of Chairman Kim reading the letter.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reads a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump, in Pyongyang, North Korea in this picture released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 22, 2019.

On the hostage dynamic…. last week the hostage taker (Chairman Xi), finally positioned the public optics of Chairman Kim as the hostage; and indicated a likelihood Beijing would negotiate terms for release (better trade deal) with President Trump.  Therefore the rescuer (Trump) now communicates with the hostage (Kim) against an entirely different geopolitical background.
Additionally, both President Trump and Chairman Kim know the picture will be analyzed by high-tech software (Beijing, China and Russia) and the content is easily discoverable.   The message itself, as well as the answer to the message (from Kim), is likely in the picture.  [Note: the White Shirt, business office, is part of the reply].
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Lots of differing opinion on the decision by POTUS to cancel a retaliatory strike against Iran.  Some praise and some criticize.   Here’s President Trump’s reason for cancelling the strike against Iran:

As it relates to the Trump doctrine, CTH would note any current ally of the U.S; and/or any entity engaged with significant economic interests attached to the U.S; including any EU entity who might have previously been skirting the sanctions against Iran (think Turkey); would now be very cautious about appearing on President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin’s proverbial radar.

Iran didn’t just shoot down a simple ‘drone’, Iran used a surface-to-air missile to shot down one of the most technologically advance U.S. aircraft costing $123 million; more than the price of an F-35 stealth fighter jet.
The targeted aircraft was a US Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS-D); a RQ-4A Global Hawk high-altitude long endurance (HALE) drone, flying in international airspace over the Gulf of Oman.

“The RQ-4 flies at upwards of 65,000 feet,” Tyler Rogoway, the editor of The War Zone, wrote. “So this would have been a sophisticated radar-guided surface-to-air missile that shot the aircraft down, not a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile.”

(Business Insider)The US military called the incident “an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset in international airspace” over the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The Iranians have accused the US drone of entering Iranian airspace, an allegation Central Command characterized as completely false.

President Trump responds below:
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In August 2016 a Syrian named Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, now 21, entered the U.S. under President Obama’s refugee program.  Today he was arrested in an ISIS plot to bomb a Christian church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(Via DOJ) Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was arrested today based on a federal complaint charging him with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and two counts of distributing information relating to an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction in relation to his plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh.

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This entire story is creepy, really creepy.  God bless those poor people on the jury who had to sit and hear all these skeezy details….
Following a six-week trial the Democrats favorite sex trafficker, Keith Raniere (58), was convicted on all charges including: sex trafficking, racketeering, wire fraud, forced labor and attempted sex trafficking; all conspiracy charges. He will be sentenced Sept. 25.
Here’s the statement by U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue after the conviction of Keith Raniere outside the Brooklyn federal courthouse:

NEW YORK – NXIVM’s founder Keith Raniere was convicted on Wednesday on all seven counts against him, for creating what prosecutors described as a sex cult in which female members were branded with his initials and kept in line through blackmail.

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No-one seems to know why Americans are dying of ‘heart attacks’ during vacations in the Dominican Republic, but many people are beginning to suspect intentional poisoning by hotel workers.   Another mysterious death today:

(Dominican Republic) The son of a New York hospital technician who died suddenly in her room at an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana says Dominican authorities are resisting doing toxicology tests and pressuring him to have her body cremated or embalmed before its return to the U.S.

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In the early hours of this morning, two vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz towards the Indian Ocean were attacked by unknown entities causing hull breach explosions that rendered the vessels inoperable.  The sailors were evacuated.

The Norwegian owned “Front Altair” (cargo: 75,000 tonnes of naphtha), and the Japanese owned “Kokuka Courageous” (cargo: 25,000 tonnes of methanol) were struck in the Gulf of Oman; the same strategic sea lane where four oil vessels were sabotaged last month.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has identified Iran as the government responsible for the attacks.  [Press Conference Video]

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No doubt Iran feels empowered to attack Western interests partly due to the support expressed by former Secretary of State Kerry and former President Obama.  Both have created an open window for Iran by undermining President Trump.
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The hypocrisy and ideology of the Mexican position would indicate the tariffs are certain to take place.  Factually, after Mexico has made their “red line” position clear, one could argue there’s no reason to go through the graduated timeline; the U.S. might as well just start applying the full 25% tariff amount on June 10th.

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico said on Monday it would reject a U.S. idea to take in all Central American asylum seekers if it is raised at talks this week with the Trump administration, which has threatened to impose tariffs if Mexico does not crack down on illegal immigration.
[…] Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the country was committed to continuing to work to keep migrants from Central America from reaching the U.S. border.

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More than 600 Iranian-funded Hamas terror missiles have been fired into Israel from Gaza. Four Israeli civilians have been killed.  In retaliation, Israel has carried out military strikes against Hamas leaders in Gaza.  President Trump tweets support for Israel.

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel while Israeli strikes killed 14 Palestinians, most of them militants, in surging cross-border fighting on Sunday, according to Gazan officials and the Israeli military.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the military to continue “massive strikes” against Gaza’s ruling Hamas group and Islamic Jihad in the most serious border clashes since a spate of fighting in November.

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