New York Gov. Kathy Hochul could be giving two politically-connected slot parlors — including one whose lobbyists donated to her campaign — a leg up over competitors to win awards for full casino licenses downstate, sources told The Post.

Critics charge the process was rigged in favor of the Aqueduct and Yonkers race tracks through language inserted into the state budget by Hochul and approved by the Democratic-run legislature.

The language gives the two "racinos"- Genting NY-Resorts World at Aqueduct and MGM-Empire City Yonkers — credit for having existing infrastructure as part of the criteria in Albany selecting operators for up to three licenses to offer table games.

Lobbying firms or lobbyists for Genting NY-Resorts World have donated more than $50,000 to Hochul's campaign committee/Friends for Kathy Hochul — notably $25,000 from lobbyist John Cordo in August and $15,250 from Patrick Jenkins over the past year, state Board of Election records show.

Genting-NY at Aqueduct itself has donated $2 million to politicians and political parties across the spectrum over the past decade and has spent millions more lobbying the executive and legislative branches.

Each gaming operator is expected to deliver the state a $500 million upfront for the privilege of obtaining a casino license.

Israel has remained officially silent regarding reports that a team of Mossad agents were captured during a botched operation to kidnap a Hamas operative in Malaysia.

On Tuesday, the first images of the group of 11 suspects — 10 men and one woman — were published as they were brought to the court where they were charged.

In a recent article by regular Daily Sceptic contributor who writes under the nom de plume Eugyppius, in homage to a fifth century monk, the subject of people who deny the existence of viruses was brought up. In my experience of writing about these people in the Daily Sceptic and in other places such as CIEO and Country Squire Magazine, they object to being called 'virus deniers' (smacks of holocaust denial) and prefer to be referred to as 'virus sceptics'. Eugyppius, who clearly has previous form for daring to challenge this fringe minority, concludes that "people who deny the existence of viruses won't accept any arguments or evidence to the contrary, and these debates aren't productive". And Eugyppius is not far wrong.

Nevertheless, it is worth keeping an eye on what the viral sceptics are pushing. Of course, they are not pushing anything new; they have a series of points including that no virus has ever been isolated and that experiments purporting to show that they can infect cells are not properly controlled to account for artifacts. What they do, instead, is to repackage their points in increasingly vitriolic and increasingly long tracts where they preach to the converted in ever more strident terms. Enter the latest such missive from 'virus sceptics central' located in Christchurch New Zealand and the good offices of Dr. Mark Bailey, husband of the incomparable Dr. Sam Bailey. The document titled à la Hemingway, A Farewell to Virology and modestly sub-titled Expert Edition is 67 pages long. Where a scholarly publication would set out with the aim of investigating a phenomenon in order to arrive at a conclusion, the conclusions here are presented up front and the rest of the document is written to justify them.

Thus, the opening sentence of the abstract begins: "Virology invented the virus model but has consistently failed to fulfil its own requirements." Later "'viruses' such as SARS-CoV-2 are nothing more than phantom constructs" which should be good news to the millions of people across the world - this author included -who have been struck down by a condition which floored them for a few days, made expensive wine taste like something that oozed from a compost heap and then gave the same condition to his wife. We watched the initial lateral flow test nearly explode with colour at the first dab of liquid but observed this fading away over the next 10 days in direct correlation with recovery. Presumably we were just imagining it.

Inflation has taken an average of 25 percent - at least $2.1trillion - off the 401Ks of American workers, despite President Joe Biden's insistence Sunday that the 'economy is strong as hell.'


The analysis was done by conservative economists Stephen Moore and EJ Antoni, who said that the balance of Americans' 401ks will 'ruin your whole day, week and month.'

Moore and Antoni note that inflation has been going at 8 percent for the past seven months, despite the White House claiming things were temporary.

Massive protests against the high cost of living met with a heavily-armed police crackdown in Paris on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of striking union members and their supporters filled the city streets to denounce President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies and demand better wages in the face of massive inflation.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk argued on Monday that Russia views Crimea as an integral part of its territory, and that Ukrainian or Western attempts to seize the peninsula could end in nuclear war. While Musk has previously backtracked on pulling his technological support for Ukraine, he has courted controversy for insisting that Crimea is Russia.

"If Russia is faced with the choice of losing Crimea or using battlefield nukes, they will choose the latter," Musk wrote on Twitter. "We've already sanctioned/cutoff Russia in every possible way, so what more do they have left to lose?" he asked, in response to a commenter asking him whether he reckoned the Ukraine conflict could devolve into a nuclear war.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly stated that he intends to seize control of Crimea, along with the four former regions of Ukraine that recently voted to join the Russian Federation. Crimea overwhelmingly voted to rejoin Russia in 2014, and therefore falls under the protection of Moscow's nuclear arsenal.

Footage has emerged showing the exact moment a Russian Su-34 multirole fighter jet crashed in the city of Yeysk on Monday evening, causing a fire at an apartment building, where at least three people have died as a result.

Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed that the jet crashed soon after taking off from a local airfield for a training flight, meaning that the plane was not equipped with ammunition. The crash was caused by the "combustion of one of the engines at take-off," the pilots, who managed to eject before impact, said, according to the ministry.

Damage has been detected in the feedwater pumps of Finland's Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor during maintenance work, which will likely delay the commissioning of the plant and the startup of regular production, operator TVO said on Tuesday.

The damage to Europe's largest nuclear reactor is a setback for Finland, where the national grid operator has warned of potential power blackouts in the coming winter if OL3 could not reliably supply electricity.

Imports of power to Finland from Russia stopped in May after Russian utility Inter RAO said it had not been paid for the power it sold, increasing Finland's need for OL3's output.

The public has had it with the border chaos caused by President Joe Biden's policies and "overwhelmingly" want a coast-to-coast wall built as former President Donald Trump once promised and delivered 458 miles on.

In a new I&I/TIPP poll, voters decried the surge past 2 million illegal immigrants crossing into the United States this year and said they believe Republicans would handle the problem better. But they also said that the administration should stop blocking construction of a wall and get back to finishing it.

"By 57% to 33%, Americans overwhelmingly support building a wall," said the poll analysis shared with Secrets on Monday.

"Among Republican voters, support is very strong, with 85% favoring and just 11% opposing. Independents support it: 47% to 37%. Even Democrats show surprisingly strong support for building a wall: While 48% oppose it, 45% support it," said the analysis.

The pollster cited several reasons for the growing support, noting the string of problems along the border, including increased illegal crossings and the surge in crime. Just over the weekend, Texas police arrested over 700 illegal immigrants and seized drugs along the border.

The blasts that ripped through the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines last month were likely caused by sabotage, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing German officials familiar with the investigation. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that NATO had conducted a military exercise this summer close to the location where the leaks were found.

According to the outlet, while German investigators have so far failed to definitively identify the culprits, they are "working under the assumption that Russia was behind the blasts." Moscow has repeatedly denied that it had anything to do with the incident.