Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defence minister, its judiciary said on Saturday, defying calls from London for his release after he was handed the death sentence on charges of spying for Britain.

Britain, which had declared the case against Alireza Akbari as politically motivated and called for his release, condemned the execution. Akbari, 61, was arrested in 2019.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it “a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people”.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported the execution without saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said Iran must not follow through with the sentence – a call echoed by Washington.

The execution looks set to pile more pressure on Iran’s long strained ties with the West which have deteriorated further since talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal hit deadlock and as Tehran unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters last year.

In an audio recording purportedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he said he had confessed to crimes he had not committed after extensive torture.

“Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security through espionage for the British government’s intelligence service…was executed,” Mizan said.

The Mizan report accused Akbari of receiving payments of 1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds, and $50,000 for spying.

Sunak said on Twitter he was “appalled by the execution”. Cleverly said in a statement it would “not stand unchallenged”. “We will be summoning the Iranian Charge d’Affaires to make clear our disgust at Iran’s actions.”

British statements on the case have not addressed the Iranian charge that Akbari spied for Britain.

Iranian state media, which have portrayed Akbari as a super spy, broadcast a video on Thursday that they said showed that he played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in an attack outside Tehran which authorities blamed at the time on Israel.

In the video, Akbari did not confess to involvement in the assassination but said a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.

Iran’s state media often airs purported confessions by suspects in politically charged cases.

Reuters could not establish the authenticity of the state media video and audio, or when or where they were recorded.

Akbari was a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, now the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was defence minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy as part of the administration of reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

He fought during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s as a member of the Revolutionary Guards.

It marks a rare case of the Islamic Republic executing a serving or former senior official. One of the last occasions was in 1984, when Iranian navy commander Bahram Afzali was executed after being accused of spying for the Soviet Union.

Reflecting Iran’s worsening ties with the West, London-Tehran relations have deteriorated in recent months as efforts have stalled to revive the nuclear pact, to which Britain is a party.

Britain has also been critical of the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on anti-government protests, sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in September.

Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of the crackdown, executing at least four people.

A British foreign office minister said on Thursday that Britain was actively considering proscribing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation but has not reached a final decision.

In the audio recording broadcast by BBC Persian, Akbari said he had made false confessions as a result of torture.

“With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness… and forced me to make false confessions by force of arms and death threats,” he said.

An Iranian state TV report broadcast on Saturday – details of which Reuters could not independently verify – said he was arrested on espionage charges in 2008 before being freed on bail and leaving the country.

It said in 2009 he went to Austria under the pretext of medical treatment, then to Spain and eventually to England.

In an interview with BBC Persian broadcast on Friday, Akbari’s brother Mehdi said he had returned to Iran in 2019 based on an invitation from Shamkhani.

California’s parade of atmospheric rivers may be nearing an end but not before at least two more of the rainstorms are due to drench the waterlogged state starting on Saturday, forecasters said.

A series of atmospheric rivers rarely seen in such frequent succession has pounded the state since Dec. 26, killing at least 19 people and bringing floods, power outages, mudslides, evacuations and road closures.

The storms have dropped half the average annual rainfall on the agricultural Central Valley and as much as 15 feet (4.5 m) of snow in the mountains.

The six-day forecast called for 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) more rain in California’s north and 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.5 cm) in its south, the state’s water resources department said on Friday.

At least seven waterways were officially flooded, it added.

The latest storm, the season’s eighth, is expected to begin dumping heavy rain on California from early on Saturday, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said.

The ninth and final atmospheric river of the series is due to make landfall on Monday and last a couple of days.

Among the waterways of concern, the Salinas River in northern California flooded roads and farmland on Friday, when 24,000 people were urged to evacuate.

In southern California, officials will release water on Saturday from Lake Cachuma, which provides drinking water near Santa Barbara, as the chronically low lake has filled to capacity.

The storms have mitigated but not solved the region’s drought.

“You can have flooding and drought at the same time, because drought is long-term dryness,” said David Roth, meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.

“You need a long period of precipitation to cancel out a drought, even if some areas have had the equivalent of 30 inches of liquid.”

The U.S. Drought Monitor revised on Thursday its assessment to lift virtually all of the state out of extreme drought or exceptional drought, the two worst categories, though much of it is still considered to be suffering moderate or severe drought.

“There’s also the danger that if we get excessive temperatures later, we could get evaporation, the snowpack evaporates, the water evaporates, and we’re right back to where we’ve been,” said Roger Bales, an environmental engineering professor with the University of California.

Excess snow has been both good and bad for the ski industry, likely leading to a long season but also forcing disruptions from power outages, road closures and delays at some resorts, said Michael Reitzell, president of Ski California.

“It has been a bit challenging, but we will take all of it,” added Reitzell, whose industry association represents 35 resorts.

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If you’re not on Twitter, we understand. It’s full of left-wing activists, liberal reporters pretending to be offended, and an army of bots. But there are also many good accounts that expose insanity that would otherwise get lost in the left-wing echo chamber.

The Washington Free Beacon‘s account is the place to go not only for investigative reporting, but also for posts exposing the lunacy you might not otherwise see if you’re a sane person who doesn’t watch MSNBC.

You can follow us here, but Twitter can be overwhelming, so we’re boiling down the best material here for those who want to keep tabs on the enemies of freedom.

Here’s what you might have missed on Twitter this week:

1. The View‘s Joy Behar says Biden gets the “benefit of the doubt” on classified documents. Trump isn’t so lucky.

When President Joe Biden was caught mishandling classified documents, the mainstream media jumped to differentiate between his classified documents and former president Donald Trump’s.

“We all know that Trump is a liar and a thief,” Joy Behar said on Tuesday’s episode of The View. “So it’s not that big a jump to say that he obstructed and he lied. We don’t think that Biden is a liar and a thief, so we give him the benefit of the doubt.”

At least she’s honest.

Joy Behar on Biden’s classified documents: “We all know that Trump is a liar and a thief. We know that. So it’s not that big a jump to say that he obstructed and he lied. We don’t think Biden is a liar and a thief, so we give him the benefit of the doubt.” pic.twitter.com/w7y5Dou1Ml

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 10, 2023

2. Kevin McCarthy elected speaker of the House—but not without a fight.

It took 4 days, 15 rounds of voting, and many tense conversations before Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) was elected speaker of the House. McCarthy on Friday assured CNN that he would “have the votes” to win that night, so the stakes were high—but when the 14th ballot rolled around, he lost. Four of the six holdouts voted against McCarthy, and two—Reps. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) and Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.)—voted present. McCarthy and other lawmakers were not happy.

Reps. Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert both voted present on the 14th ballot, and the 4 other holdouts voted against McCarthy. This means McCarthy will not have enough votes to become Speaker.

There is now a heated conversation on the House floor. pic.twitter.com/fVmam0vpFU

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 7, 2023

3. CNN guest is suddenly concerned about “over-criminalizing” the mishandling of classified documents.

Former CIA attorney Brian Greer told CNN that he was concerned about “over-criminalizing” mishandling classified documents.

“This type of mishandling happens all the time,” Greer said. “I do worry about over-criminalizing it. … Launching these full investigations that become political footballs is dangerous because it can disincentivize people from serving in the federal government.”

CNN guest on Biden’s classified docs:

“This type of mishandling happens all the time…I do worry about over-criminalizing it…launching these full investigations that become political footballs is dangerous b/c it can disincentivize people from serving in the federal gov’t.” pic.twitter.com/T70DErYqkI

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 10, 2023

4. CNN “fact-checkers” are running defense for Biden’s IRS.

When the House GOP passed a bill to roll back $80 billion in IRS funding, CNN ran a two-minute defense of the Biden administration that the network described as a “fact check.” The segment claimed, among other things, that “Republicans are going after an army that doesn’t exist.” As the Free Beacon reported in August, however, the additional 87,000 employees would more than double the size of the IRS—making the agency larger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined.

CNN also repeated the White House’s talking point that new IRS employees will go after “wealthy tax cheats.” But poor people are five times more likely to be audited by Biden’s IRS than the average earner, the Free Beacon reported, and the poorest families were at least 550 percent more likely to be audited.

CNN “fact-checkers” come to the defense of Biden’s plans for an army of new IRS employees.

They’re now saying that “Republicans are going after an army that doesn’t exist.” pic.twitter.com/LirQBnlLRM

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 10, 2023

5. Mexican president thanks Biden for not building “even one meter” of a wall.

Biden, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau met on Tuesday for the North American Leaders’ Summit. The Mexican president expressed gratitude for Biden’s lax immigration policies.

“You, President Biden, you are the first president of the United States in a very long time that has not built … even one meter of wall,” López Obrador said. “We thank you for that.”

During his presidential campaign, Biden promised that there would “not be another foot of wall constructed” during his administration.

The border crisis has spiraled out of control under the president’s watch, with the United States seeing the largest influx of illegal immigrants in history. The border patrol has apprehended a record-high number of migrants, 1.8 million, at the southern border since October 2021. The staggering number has prompted the border city of El Paso to declare a state of emergency.

Mexican President López Obrador: “You, President Biden, you are the first president of the United States in a very long time that has not built not even one meter of wall. We thank you for that.” pic.twitter.com/ZFyndvTx0p

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 10, 2023

6. Fox News’s Peter Doocy calls out Biden for his trip to the border.

After two years of an unprecedented migrant crisis, Biden finally visited the border. But it doesn’t look like he saw much, and Fox News’s Peter Doocy called him out on it.

“Why didn’t President Biden want to see what’s really going on at the border?” Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday. “He didn’t talk to any migrants, and he didn’t go anywhere that people actually cross illegally. Why not?”

Jean-Pierre said that Biden “went to the migrant center” but that “there happened to be no migrants at the facility at the time that he visited.”

Ahead of Biden’s visit, the border city of El Paso, which has been hit especially hard by the immigration crisis, cleared out migrant encampments from the streets and moved them to less visible areas.

Doocy on Biden’s border visit: “He didn’t talk to any migrants and he didn’t go anywhere that people actually cross illegally.”

Jean-Pierre: “He went to the migrant center … there happened to be no migrants at the facility at the time he visited.” pic.twitter.com/7Y5WgAdthr

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 11, 2023

7. Andrea Mitchell scolds a reporter live on-air for using the term “pro-life.”

NBC correspondent Garrett Haake was reporting on two abortion-related bills that passed the House when MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell interjected.

“At the end of the day she was, as she described herself, pro-life,” Haake said, and “she felt that it was important to vote for these measures despite their potentially politically damaging, or politically unappealing, appearance, if you will, for future vo—”

Mitchell jumped in to scold him:

“Let me just interrupt and say that pro-life is a term that they may—that an entire group wants to use, but that is not an accurate description.”

“I’m using it because that’s the term she used to describe herself, Andrea,” Haake responded.

The House on Tuesday passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires doctors to provide medical care to infants born alive after an attempted abortion, and a bill condemning attacks on pro-life centers and groups. Attacks on crisis pregnancy centers, churches, and other pro-life groups have skyrocketed since a Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May.

Andrea Mitchell chides a reporter for using the term “pro-life”

“Let me just interrupt and say that pro-life is a term that they—an entire group wants to use, but that’s not an accurate description.”

Reporter: “I’m using it because it’s the term she used to describe herself.” pic.twitter.com/fdh3FLouz5

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 12, 2023

The post What You Missed on Twitter This Week, Vol. 1 appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The congressman’s many lies are the product of a political system that incentivizes dishonesty and punishes sincerity

It’s hard to keep track of what, exactly, the newly elected Republican congressman George Santos has said about his own life. His story changes and contradicts itself; his lies seem indiscriminate, and largely ad hoc. He says he worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, which he didn’t. He said he graduated from Baruch College – he didn’t do that, either. Some of his fabrications are so trivial and specific that it’s impossible to ascribe a nefarious motive to them.

What could Santos possibly have to gain, for instance, by claiming, as he apparently did to a local Republican party leader, to have been a college volleyball champion? Others are transparently self-serving, his attempts to cover them up so brazen as to be frankly hilarious. On the campaign trail, running in the heavily Jewish third district of New York, on suburban Long Island, Santos claimed that he was “a member of the Jewish community”, and descended from Ukrainian refugees. When this turned out to be untrue, he later tried to claim that he merely meant that he was “Jew-ish”. It was like a line from Seinfeld; punning, implausible, shameless. At times like this, it’s hard to take Santos’s dishonesty seriously. It seems less like an affront to the dignity of the democratic process and more like some kind of durational satire, a piece of performance art.

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