An Australian judge ruled today that X (Twitter) must block users from accessing videos of the knife attack on the Assyrian bishop in Sydney. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Elon Musk is an “arrogant billionaire”.
In other news, a judge in Arizona declared a mistrial in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the border.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Daniel Greenfield, JW, LP, McN, MM, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Americans Struggle the Most in Cities Controlled by Radical Democrats
A new Census Bureau survey highlights the 15 largest US metro areas where residents face the most financial difficulties, almost all of which are under Democratic leadership. This comes as no surprise as issues of elevated inflation, high taxes, soaring violent crime, and a migrant crisis are spiraling out of control across many blue cities.
The survey asked 70,000 respondents between March 5 and April 1 in major metro areas these three questions:
Difficulty paying for usual household expenses, food scarcity, and unable to pay energy bill.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“Our Cities Turn Into War Zones Every Night”
From coast to coast, radical prosecutors and progressive politicians have been pushing illogical criminal justice policies that not only have backfired but transformed many once-safe Democrat-controlled cities into crime-ridden hellholes.
Go down the list of cities. Whether it’s New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Chicago, or San Francisco, and the list goes on and on — these metros are plagued with violent crime, out-of-control youth, carjackings, murders, drug crises, the homelessness crisis, theft waves, and unvetted migrants.
The latest sign some of the bluest American cities continue their transformation into ‘war zone’-like conditions while progressive lawmakers ignore law and order is an illegal “teen takeover” event in Democratic-controlled Memphis, Tennessee.
On Saturday evening, Memphis police initially reported 16 people were shot during a block party in the 2400 block of Carnes Avenue in the Orange Mound neighborhood. It was later reported that five victims had gunshot wounds — two males were pronounced dead at the scene, and three others were taken to the hospital in critical condition.
X video shows the moment when a Chevrolet Corvette was burning out in the middle of the street. Gunfire erupted, and everyone ducked for cover.
“Our cities turn into war zones every night and weekend, but the media refuses to even talk about it,” X user End Wokeness said.
X user SaltyGoat said, “I’m willing to bet if there was a red MAGA hat anywhere in the crowd, it’d be all over the news.”
The explosion of illegal teen takeover events nationwide is happening at a time when the youth is not respecting the law — thank Democrats for this phenomenon.
According to Bloomberg data, there has been a surge in “teen takeover” news stories in corporate media since the start of 2023.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Alan Dershowitz Says He is No Longer Loyal to Democratic Party After Columbia Protests
Harvard Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz stated he no longer has any “loyalty” to the Democratic Party on Monday, and that he would not exclusively vote Democrat in future elections.
Dershowitz, a long-time Democrat who has been a major critic of President Joe Biden and the current administration, said his party has been an “extraordinary disappointment” because they have not been very vocal about the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, which have been ongoing since last Wednesday.
“We’re hearing nothing from Democrats. We are hearing nothing from Chuck Schumer,” Dershowitz said on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “We’re hearing nothing really direct from President Biden. He made a very disappointing statement. In the same breath, he talked about the demonstrators in passing and he said, ‘but you have to understand the Palestinian situation.’ No, you don’t have to understand the Palestinian situation. When people are calling for rape and murder and beheading. The Democrats are an extraordinary disappointment.”
“I am no longer presumptively voting for Democrats,” he said. “I’m gonna vote for whoever is the best candidate, that may include Democrats, but I have no loyalty anymore to the party.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Alec Baldwin has been caught on camera punching the phone of a pro-Palestine protester who accosted him inside a New York City coffee shop.
The protester, who hosts an anti-fascist interview show called Crackhead Barney & Friends, posted a video of interaction on Twitter.
‘Alec can you please say free Palestine one time,’ the protester repeatedly shouted at Baldwin.
‘Free Palestine, Alec, just one time and I’ll leave you alone. I’ll leave you alone, I swear, just say free Palestine one time.’
A coffee shop employee tried to ask the protester to stop quibbling with Baldwin, as the actor walked towards the door and asked her to leave.
‘Why did you kill that lady? You killed that lady and got no jail time,’ the protester said referencing the fatal Rust set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Israeli students at MIT set up an encampment on the school’s campus in protest over the school’s ties to the Israeli Defense Forces amid further bombing in Gaza.
This encampment follows one similar that was set up on the campus of Columbia University last week where students also decried the Ivy League college’s dealings with the Jewish state.
The protest at Columbia became so extreme it even attracted the ire of the White House with the Biden administration condemning the actions in a statement.
As a result, the NYPD has offered to provide walking escorts to Jewish students during Passover, according to Brian Cohen, executive director of the Kraft Center for Jewish Life at Columbia University.
‘It is unacceptable that I need to send this email in 2024. The University continues to fail to enforce its rules despite escalating antisemitic harassment and around-the-clock protest activity on and around campus,’ he wrote in an email to students.
In addition to the police protection, Cohen said that his group would organize for any Jewish students to feel unsafe to stay off-campus with alumni hosts.
There are similar protests ongoing at The New School, Yale, the University of North Carolina and Washington University.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Two Seattle public school teachers and an Antifa militant with ties to the MS-13 gang were among those charged for shutting down the Interstate 5 freeway in January as part of an anti-Israel demonstration.
On Friday, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) filed misdemeanor charges against six people in connection with the January 6 blockade, during which hundreds of anti-Israel activists flooded the northbound lanes of the freeway and trapped thousands of motorists and emergency vehicles for over 5 hours, according to KING 5.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Appeals Court Upholds Police Right to Compel Biometric Device Unlocking
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has issued an opinion in a case involving the police forcing a suspect to unlock their phone via a biometric feature on the device.
The court said this practice, at least in the case it considered, is not unconstitutional.
The appeal was lodged by Jeremy Payne, a defendant in a drug distribution case, who was forced (“compelled”) by the police to unlock his phone with his thumbprint.
We obtained a copy of the opinion for you here.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CNN — Yale University police arrested dozens of protesters after they allegedly refused orders to leave the scene of a pro-Palestinian, pro-divestment protest Monday, Connecticut police said.
The rally echoed a spate of pro-Palestinian demonstrations unfolding across other college campuses.
Tensions have escalated at many US universities since the October 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas, in which about 1,200 people were killed, and Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza, which has since killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore City Accuses Dali Owners of Negligence in Key Bridge Disaster
The owners of the Dali were negligent in sailing an unseaworthy ship out of the Port of Baltimore and should be held fully liable for the Key Bridge collapse that killed six people, the city said Monday in a court filing.
“None of this should have happened,” a claim filed by the Mayor and City Council in Baltimore’s U.S. District Court said. “Even before leaving port, alarms showing an inconsistent power supply on the Dali had sounded. The Dali left port anyway, despite its clearly unseaworthy condition.”
In a claim seeking damages, the city responded to Dali owners request before a federal judge to clear them from liability or limit damages to the value of the ship plus the revenue it stood to make from its cargo.
Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the owner, and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., which manages the 984-foot cargo ship, both based in Singapore, filed the claim April 1, which estimated the damaged ship’s value and expected revenue at $43.7 million.
Cargo ships have made thousands of trips each year for more than four decades under the Francis Scott Key Bridge without incident and no conditions on March 26 should have changed that, the city’s filing says.
By failing to investigate or fix an inconsistent power supply that set off alarms in refrigerated containers hours before the ship departed, the owners were “grossly and potentially criminally negligent,” the claim says. “In no way should their liability be limited.”
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Crushed for Equivocating on Antisemitic Protests: ‘Very Fine People on Both Sides’ Moment
President Biden’s latest comment on antisemitic protests on college campuses is being called his “very fine people on both sides” moment by some on social media.
Following the president’s Earth Day comments at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, reporters caught up with Biden and asked for a comment on anti-Israel protests occurring across multiple universities at the time.
“Do you condemn the antisemitic protests on college campuses?” Biden was asked.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Gates Unveils Plan to Fight ‘Climate Change’ by Targeting Food Supply
Billionaire Bill Gates has unveiled his latest plan to wage war on the food supply as part of an alleged effort to “fight climate change.”
The Microsoft co-founder is specifically setting his sights on meat consumption among the general public.
According to Gates and his globalist “green agenda” allies, beef cattle herds are “destroying the planet” due to their alleged “emissions.”
Gates argues that the only solution to stop the claimed impact of cattle on “global warming” is to either “modify” cows or eliminate them.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
BlackRock Triples Larry Fink’s Home Security as Anti-Woke Backlash Accelerates
BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink’s efforts to push ‘wokesim’ or environmental, social, and governance policies across corporate America have been in reverse in recent years amid the backlash from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill and 19 state attorneys general in conservative states, including Arizona and Texas, who have been fed up with ESG-related policies hurting the economy.
Supposedly, the backlash by anti-woke activists has forced BlackRock to triple Fink’s home security spending. Financial Times says the CEO has become “a target for anti-woke activists and conspiracy theorists.”
According to FT’s numbers, the $10.5 trillion money manager spent $563,513 to “upgrade the home security systems” at Fink’s residences during 2023, on top of $216,837 for bodyguards.
The ESG movement has been highly politicized. Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the Republican party’s presidential candidates before Donald Trump was nominated, called Fink “the king of the woke industrial complex [and] the ESG movement.”
In December, Fink said his firm was unfairly targeted by candidates in the fourth Republican presidential debate, calling it a “sad commentary on the state of American politics.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called BlackRock the “economic power” to instill a “left-wing agenda.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Schools Join Gaza War Campus Protest; Kraft Speaks Out Against Columbia
College students across Boston are standing in solidarity with Columbia University students who have been protesting Israel’s actions in the ongoing war in Gaza.
Members of the MIT, Tufts University and Emerson College communities started protesting Sunday, calling on administrators to take action. The conflict has left thousands dead after the terrorist group Hamas, which governs Gaza, launched a surprise attack on Israel, prompting an Israeli ground invasion.
Elsewhere in New England, dozens of people were arrested in similar protests at Yale University.
The pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia that demands the school divest from companies they claim “profit from Israeli apartheid” has drawn massive attention and blanket antisemitism, threats and outsiders descending on the New York City campus, leading the university’s president to move all classes remote on Monday.
On Monday, university alumnus New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft issued a statement saying he was “no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” urging the school’s leadership to end the protests.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Columbia Faculty Stage Walkout in Support of Student Gaza Camp on Campus
Columbia University faculty joined students on Monday in staging a walkout. The faculty were opposing the university administration’s use of the NYPD to arrest occupying students who have set up a Gaza Camp in the campus quad.
Professors stood in their robes and addressed the students.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Change Protesters Block Moakley Bridge in South Boston
Climate change protesters gathered in Boston for Earth Day, marching in an event that shut down traffic on the Moakley Bridge in South Boston Monday afternoon.
Climate activist group Extinction Rebellion organized the event, which they called Boston’s Earth Day party. Earlier in the afternoon, the group had gathered at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park.
The same group took credit for a demonstration at Lawrence G. Hanscom Field in Bedford on Saturday. At that event, 20 people were arrested after they trespassed on the tarmac, according to Massachusetts State Police. Organizers said the intent was to stop planes from taking off.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Community Notes for the Win: VP Kamala Harris’ Post Gets Instantly Debunked
X has depended on Community Notes, a crowdsourced fact-checking feature, to address the rampant spread of misinformation. It’s a much better alternative than leftist fact-checking websites that push routine misinformation and disinformation for their corporate sponsors.
Elon Musk has called Community Notes “the best source of truth on the internet” and “is by far the best fact-checking system on the internet.”
Community Notes has smoothed out the playing field, as most fact-checking websites have a leftist lean. So when radicals in the White House, such as space cadet Vice President Kamala Harris and or her social media team, post on X, they will be met with the same rigorous fact-checking as conservatives.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Cougars in the Classroom: The Alarming Rate of Teachers Charged With Raping Young Boys in America
A shocking number of female teachers are being charged with sexually abusing under-age students — with new cases being reported almost every week.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Duda’s Meeting With Trump Helped to Get the Aid Package for Ukraine Through, Says Western Media
The recent meeting between Polish President Andrzej Duda and Donald Trump could have helped to push the latest aid package for Ukraine over the line in the House of Representatives, Western media has claimed.
According to The Economist weekly magazine and CBS news network, the pair’s two-hour dinner meeting at Trump Tower in New York last week was instrumental in unlocking the funds being held up by Republicans in Congress.
The Economist noted that the aid package for Ukraine was delayed and that it would take time for the equipment to reach the Ukrainian frontline, and even then it will not solve the problem of the lack of soldiers that Ukraine faces. There is no doubt that the complicated political situation in the U.S. during a presidential election year has not helped, but despite Trump’s reservations about aid for Ukraine, in the end, he did not want to block it, as he is all too aware of the consequences of the geopolitical fallout from a Ukrainian defeat.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Emerson College Students Set Up Encampment to Protest War in Gaza
BOSTON — Pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment near Emerson College in Boston on Monday to protest the war in Gaza.
Emerson students set up the encampment in an area off Boylston Street. Students and faculty said it’s in solidarity with the pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Columbia University.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Harvard Suspends Palestine Solidarity Committee Amid Wave of Protests on College Campuses
Updated April 22, 2024, at 6:13 p.m.
Harvard College suspended the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and ordered the group to “cease all organizational activities for the remainder of the Spring 2024 term” or risk permanent expulsion, according to an email obtained by The Crimson.
The suspension comes amid a wave of pro-Palestine student demonstrations across the country, with students staging occupations at universities including Columbia and Yale Universities. Though there have not been occupations at Harvard this semester, the University restricted access to Harvard Yard on Sunday in anticipation of student protests.
The PSC was one of several student organizations, including some unrecognized student organizations, to stage a rally in Harvard Yard on Friday in solidarity with student activists at Columbia, more than 100 of whom were arrested on Thursday by the New York City Police Department.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hawley, Cotton Call on Biden to Deploy National Guard Over Gaza Protests at Colleges
GOP Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) called on President Biden on Monday to deploy the National Guard to colleges, particularly Columbia University in New York City, where pro-Palestinian protesters have staged sit-ins and other disruptive activities to focus public attention on the war.
“Eisenhower sent the 101st to Little Rock. It’s time for Biden to call out the National Guard at our universities to protect Jewish Americans,” Hawley posted on the social platform X.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
House Judiciary Opens Formal Inquiry Into ATF Killing of Arkansas Airport Executive
The House Judiciary Committee on Monday launched a formal inquiry into federal agents’ fatal shooting of an Arkansas airport executive during the execution of a gun case search warrant at his home, demanding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) explain why it carried out the search without knocking and without using required body cams.
The ATF’s fatal shooting last month of Bryan Malinowski, an administrator at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, has reignited concerns about the agency’s enforcement of gun laws and regulations under President Joe Biden as well as prompted a criminal investigation by Arkansas authorities.
The death and the circumstances of ATF’s pursuit of Malinowski was the focus of a recent Just the News investigation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On Sunday, the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, wrote a letter to the president of Columbia University calling for the “expulsion and termination of employment” of students and faculty who have violated university rules by participating in the antisemitic demonstrations and occupation of the campus.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent the letter to Columbia’s President Minouche Shafik and the co-chairs of the university’s board of trustees. In the letter, Foxx cited 22 separate incidents of antisemitism and wrote, “I am gravely concerned by the ongoing chaos at Columbia University caused by the radical, unlawful Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which has now entered its fifth day. … Multiple Jewish students have already sought shelter off-campus. Columbia’s continued failure to restore order and safety promptly to campus constitutes a major breach of the University’s Title VI obligations, upon which federal financial assistance is contingent, and which must immediately be rectified.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Jewish Columbia professor has been blocked from campus after he created a pro-Israel demonstration to counter the student-led Gaza encampment.
Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at the Business School was shown on camera in a fiery face-off with pro-Palestine students on Monday morning.
A source told DailyMail.com Davidai’s employee card was deactivated after he refused to hold his counter-protest in the designated area and instead staged it beside the pro-Gaza demonstration.
Footage shows him remonstrating with security guards at the campus gates before climbing onto a small wall and addressing protesters.
‘They have deactivated my card, they are not letting me on campus,’ Davidai says. ‘I have not just a civil right as a Jewish person to be on campus, I have a right as a professor employed by the university to be on campus.’
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Jewish student at Columbia University said anti-Israel protesters snatched and burned his Israeli flag, then struck him in the face with rocks during campus unrest over the weekend.
Jonathan Lederer, 22, told cops he was displaying the Israeli flags shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday when a protester grabbed one of them and took off — while another agitator burned a second flag.
According to police, Lederer started shooting video of the incident when two other anti-Israel protesters hurled rocks at him, hitting him in the face before taking off.
“On Saturday night, the situation on campus hit a new low,” Lederer wrote in an article he penned for The Free Press and published Monday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Rules Against NY Attorney General, Says Trump’s $175M Judgment Bond Will Stand
Former President Trump’s $175 million bond judgment stemming from his non-jury civil trial will stand, a New York judge ruled Monday after New York Attorney General Letitia James attempted to invalidate it.
Lawyers for James on Monday argued that the court should void Trump’s slashedjudgment of $175 million in his non-jury civil fraud trial. James questioned whether the company that posted the massive bond, Knight Specialty Insurance, could actually pay the bond if needed.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
LAPD Foundation Tries to Use Trademark Claim to Shutdown Critical Merch
A clothing company faced pressure from a police department’s private foundation. The incident revolved around a shirt boldly emblazoned with “ the LAPD,” a direct critique of the Los Angeles Police Department. Legal representatives for the Los Angeles Police Foundation (LAPF) issued a threat, asserting they owned the copyright to the acronym “LAPD” and demanding the removal of the contentious merchandise. But the company, Cola, defiantly responded with a brief retort: “LOL, no.”
Cola’s controversial shirt prominently displayed the words “ THE LAPD” over a basketball, evoking the Los Angeles Lakers logo.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Megyn Kelly blasted the daughter of ‘Squad’ Congresswoman Ilhan Omar after the Bernard College student said she was left homeless and without food after being suspended for participating in pro-Palestine protests.
Isra Hirsi, 21, was part of a now days-long protest on the campus of Columbia University in support of Palestine that has drawn heavy condemnation from both sides of the political spectrum, including the White House.
She and two of her Barnard College classmates — the college is a sister school with Columbia — are among the more than 100 protestors have been arrested, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed to DailyMail.com.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On Monday, 49-year-old Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell was taken into custody on suspicion of first-degree burglary in connection with an alleged home invasion in Detroit Lakes, a small community 45 miles from the North Dakota border.
Mitchell, who represents the Minneapolis suburbs of Woodbury and Maplewood over 200 miles to the southwest, had publicly advocated for creating “safer communities” in her state just days before.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
MIT Students Stage Anti-Israel Gaza Camp to Match Yale, Columbia
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has become the latest university in the United States to have a tent-filled anti-Israel “liberated zone” erected on campus.
The “Scientists Against Genocide” encampment, which was set up Sunday night on the Kresge Lawn, mirrors those established by students at Columbia and Yale last week.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Most Do Not Believe Trump Will Get a Fair Trial in NYC: Poll
The majority of respondents to a recent poll do not believe that former President Donald Trump will get a fair trial in New York City, which began with opening statements on Monday.
Trump is currently facing 34 counts of doctoring his financial documents to hide payments to his former attorney Michael Cohen in 2016, which prosecutors claim ultimately went to former porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair she had with Trump years earlier.
More than half of the poll’s respondents, 51%, said it is not likely that Trump will see a fair trial in Manhattan, including 31% of survey takers who say a fair trial is “not at all likely,” according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday. Roughly 42% of respondents claimed that it is likely he will get a fair trial, including 27% who say it is “very likely.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
America First Legal (AFL) has sued the Biden administration’s Health and Human Services (HHS) department as well as the National Archives (NARA) for allegedly deleting the emails of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees.
Last week AFL took legal action against HHS and NARA for allegedly deleting files against the law from CDC employees’ emails. In a press release from AFL, the law firm stated that it was suing “Secretary Xavier Becerra, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for illegally destroying federal records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in violation of the Federal Records Act.”
The lawsuit stated that by federal law, government agencies have to “make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization” and other operations “to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency’s activities” as seen in 44 U.S.C. § 3101.
However, NARA and HHS allegedly “have a pattern and practice of removing the emails of employees who separate from employment within as little as thirty days from the date of separation” as stated in the lawsuit brought by AFL.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On Monday, a version of Donald Trump’s motion to compel discovery in the Mar-a-Lago documents case was released by Judge Aileen Cannon with much of the information originally redacted by Biden’s special counsel Jack Smith being unredacted.
In one section titled “Early Indications of NARA Bias,” which was heavily redacted in its original, January 16 version, it now states that NARA General Counsel Gary Stern sent an internal email attaching a draft letter to President Trump’s [Presidential Records Act] representatives. Stern noted that he ‘had several conversations’ with [White House Office of Records Management]’s [redacted] and that [redacted] had ‘raised some of these concerns directly with David [Ferriero, NARA’s Archivist].”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Northwestern University Dean of Students Attends Protest Targeting Campus Jewish Community Center
The dean of students at Northwestern University attended an anti-Israel protest this week targeting Hillel, the school’s Jewish student community center, to defend the demonstrators’ “right to free speech.”
Dean of Students Mona Dugo said she showed up at the rally on Monday to support anti-Israel activists’ “right to protest” and to “protect the right to free speech,” according to the Daily Northwestern.
Protest organizers demanded that the university end its relationship with Hillel, a 100-year-old nonprofit group that operates Jewish community centers on campuses around the world, including Northwestern. The protest took place during Northwestern’s Admitted Students Day, which seeks to introduce incoming students to campus life.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NYPD Cops in Riot Gear Arrest Dozens of NYU Students, Faculty at Anti-Israel Encampment on Campus
The NYPD began arresting dozens of student and faculty protestors at New York University Monday night where anti-Israel demonstrators had earlier set up a “Gaza Solidarity” encampment, according to the college’s newspaper.
The cops in riot gear cuffed the protesters — who are demanding NYU divest from holdings tied to Israel over the ongoing violence in Gaza — with zip ties and led them to police buses that had arrived near the campus hours earlier, the university’s student-run newspaper Washington Square News reported.
Moments earlier, police blasted a message over a megaphone, ordering the protesters to disperse or face arrest for trespassing, according to the newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Prosecution, Defense Deliver Opening Statements in Trump Hush Money Trial in Manhattan
The prosecution and defense delivered opening statements in the trial of former President Trump, who was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with falsifying business records.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On Friday, a registered sex offender was caught on security camera attempting to abduct a student at an elementary school in Aurora, Colorado.
The suspect, 33-year-old Solomon Galligan, was subsequently tracked down by police and taken into custody on suspicion of second-degree kidnapping.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
REPO Act Passage Has Authorized Biden to Confiscate Russian Assets & Transfer to Ukraine
When the House voted to pass Biden’s long sought after foreign aid package Saturday, which will deliver over $60 billion to Ukraine, included in this was passage of the REPO Act, which paves the way for the Biden administration confiscate billions in Russian sovereign assets which sit in US banks.
The US administration has been pursuing a controversial plan to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine for reconstruction, and has been aggressively lobbying G7 countries to jump on board, also given most of the $300 billion in Russian assets are held in Europe — particularly France, Germany, and Belgium.
A summary of the REPO Act — H.R.4175 — on the Congressional website, reads: “This bill requires or authorizes various actions related to the confiscation and disposition of Russian sovereign assets (which include funds and other property of Russia’s central bank, direct investment fund, or ministry of finance).”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
RFK Jr.: ‘I’m Gonna Put the Entire US Budget on Blockchain’
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he wants to put the “U.S. budget on blockchain,” a ledger of transactions typically associated with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
“I’m going to put the entire U.S. budget on blockchain so that any American — every American can look at every budget item in the entire budget anytime they want 24 hours a day,” Kennedy said Sunday during a rally in Michigan.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Resurfaced comments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. show the independent presidential candidate blasted voter ID laws as “racially rancid” and a “scam to steal your vote.”
The left-wing presidential candidate, who ran in the Democrat primary before launching an independent campaign, has been a longtime opponent of requiring voters to show proof of identification to cast a ballot, his past comments show.
The material was published throughout 2008 in the run-up to that year’s presidential election.
At the time, Kennedy argued that voter ID laws were “racist” and claimed voter fraud was “non-existent.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
SCOTUS Will Hear Lawsuit Challenging Biden’s ATF “Ghost Gun” Rule Before Elections
On Monday, the Supreme Court said it would review a lawsuit filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and FPC Action Foundation (FPCAF) challenging President Biden’s “frame or receiver” rule, which was enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The nation’s highest court plans to decide if certain gun parts that complete ‘ghost guns’ fall under the definition of a “firearm” under the federal Gun Control Act.
Ghost gun rules require kit manufacturers and sellers to obtain licenses to sell the parts kit, apply serial numbers to frames and receivers, and conduct FBI background checks.
Last year, the Fifth Circuit struck down the ghost gun rule, but the Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court. Biden’s DoJ desperately claimed that 80% lower kits were considered “firearms” under the Gun Control Act of 1968 because it included “any weapon…which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,” as well as “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Kari Lake, Mark Finchem’s Electronic Voting Machine Case
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a federal lawsuit from 2022 regarding electronic voting machines that Arizona GOP U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake and former Arizona GOP secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem had brought.
The Supreme Court denied Lake and Finchem’s writ of certiorari that was filed last month, along with numerous other cases on Monday, indicating the court would not hear them.
In April 2022, before the midterm elections, Lake and Finchem filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court, arguing that electronic machines in certain Arizona counties are in violation of constitutional rights and had been wrongly certified for use.
A federal judge rejected the lawsuit in August 2022, per AZ Central, but Lake and Finchem appealed it to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year. The appellate court upheld the district court’s dismissal last October, The Hill reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Poised to Allow Camping Bans to Stand in Major Homelessness Case
The Supreme Court appeared poised Monday to clear the way for cities across the US to restrict homeless encampments by allowing local laws that ban public camping to take effect.
The case, which revolves around a challenge to an ordinance in the southern Oregon city of Grants Pass, is the most significant on the issue to come before the court in decades as official stats show record numbers of Americans are out on the street.
The Grants Pass measure bars camping or sleeping on public property or city parks, while defining a campsite as “any place where bedding, sleeping bag, or other material used for bedding purposes, or any stove or fire is placed.”
Advocates say the Grants Pass measure violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, and a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ruling in a September 2022 split decision that Grants Pass could not issue citations for “the mere act of sleeping outside … or for sleeping in their car at night, when there was no other place in the City for them to go.”
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Texas Rep. John Carter’s Office Vandalized With ‘Free Gaza, ‘ Red Liquid
GEORGETOWN, Texas — U.S. Rep John Carter (R-Texas) says his Georgetown office was vandalized recently.
Carter posted a photo of the vandalism to his X (formerly Twitter) account. The front door of his office had been splashed with a red liquid, possibly paint, and on the sidewalk in front, the words “Free Gaza” were spray-painted in red.
“My first thought was they got in here and broke some things, and tore up the computers or something like that. That would have been much worse,” says Congressman John Carter.
In his post, Carter says the vandalism was perpetrated by “[u]nhinged anti-Israel activists.”
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The New Jihadists Are Our Kids
“I will use my knives and machete to slit their throats and kill them.”
Coeur d’Alene, an Idaho city with a population of over 50,000, had too many churches. Alexander Scott Mercurio, a new teen convert to Islam, had a plan to “fix that real soon.”
Ramadan was almost over and Mercurio was unhappy because he believed that he was a bad Muslim who hadn’t even assaulted, let alone killed any Christians, and would go to hell.
“I am a hypocrite who has not even spat in the face of a kafir (non-Muslim),” he complained in online chats. “Let alone spilled their blood and induced terror into their hearts and minds.”
Mercurio wasn’t sure if he could be considered a good Muslim without killing Christians.
“I really don’t want to miss out on the opportunity for jihad in Ramadan,” he worried.
While the bloody Islamic holiday of Ramadan is often used as a pretext to warn America, Israel and other countries to stop fighting Islamic terrorists lest it offend Muslims, it’s actually a time of redoubled terrorism. And Mercurio wanted to get in on that murderous spiritual opportunity.
“I’ve been thinking about Jihad. Well, I always am, but I mean it’s Ramadan,” Mercurio agonized. “I have motivation for nothing but fighting, like some kind of insatiable bloodlust for the life juice of these idolaters, a craving for mayhem and murder to terrorize those around me… primarily against churches.”
There are “three or five churches within walking distance of me” who would be objects of his “insatiable bloodlust: for the blood of non-Muslims.
Mercurio decided that he would strike on “the last few days of Ramadan, probably on Sunday, their special day.”
| — Hat tip: Daniel Greenfield | [Return to headlines] |
Top-Rated NYPD Cops to Get $12K More Each Year in Pensions as City Tries to Slow Staff Exodus
Top-rated cops who stick around despite being eligible to retire are now getting a sizable bump in pension — as lawmakers try to retain qualified officers after a massive exodus at the NYPD, The Post has learned.
The incentive, which was buried in one of Albany’s recently signed budget bills, will increase elite NYPD cops’ retirement salaries if they delay putting in their papers past 20 years, leading to an added pension payout of up to $12,000 annually.
Under the bill, first-grade cops who retire with 25 years on will get a bump from $105,000 to $112,000 as part of their two-year aggregate salary used to calculate retirement benefits.
That increases to $125,000 after three decades.
The change comes after a bipartisan group of 28 New York City Councilmembers lobbied Albany to help with the department’s recent retention issues, which has led to hundreds of cops calling it a career as soon as, even before, they hit their 20-years.
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Fearing political blowback of a TikTok ban, Donald Trump is laying blame on President Biden for any restrictions that could come out of the foreign aid package passed by the House over the weekend.
‘Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok. He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party. It’s called ELECTION INTERFERENCE!’ the former president sounded off on Truth Social on Monday.
In 2020, Trump signed an executive order banning the platform in 45 days if it were not sold by ByteDance, but a court blocked the ban before it could take effect.
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Update 4/22: The article has been updated to include a statement from the Michigan ADL on U-M protests.
Update 4/22: This article has been updated to include a statement from the University.
About 40 pro-Palestine University of Michigan student protesters set up an encampment on the Diag Monday morning, with the earliest arriving at about 6 a.m. From a distance, passersby can see a collection of tents, Palestinian flags and signs asking the University to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel.
The demonstration follows six months of protesting for the University’s divestment, beginning with a sit-in outside the University President’s House on Oct. 13. Since then, pro-Palestine student protesters have chanted for the University to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli military campaign in Gaza at Pierpont Commons, throughout the Michigan Union and inside the Alexander G. Ruthven Building.
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Canadians Feel Highest Levels of Anger, Pessimism Towards Trudeau Government Since 2018: Nanos Poll
A survey recently conducted by Nanos Research found that anger and pessimism towards the Trudeau Liberal-NDP coalition have reached their highest levels since 2018, with nearly two thirds of Canadians saying they harbour primarily negative feelings towards those in power.
During that same time period, optimism and satisfaction with the federal government has continued to fall.
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Vandals Smash Windows of Toronto Synagogue
Toronto Police Services responded to a break-and-enter call from Kehillat Sharei Torah synagogue in Toronto, Ont. at 3:52 a.m. on Friday.
When officers arrived at the synagogue on Bayview Avenue and Fifeshire Road, they discovered five windows were damaged.
According to the police, there was no graffiti found and nothing was stolen from the location.
The representative said the police are still canvasing security footage to get the suspect’s description.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“No Migration, No Gender, No War: “ Hungary’s Fidesz Launches EU Election Campaign
Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz, officially launched its European Parliamentary election campaign last weekend, positioning itself as the leader of an emerging pro-peace block in Europe, whose main goal is to prevent the country and the EU from being dragged into a conflict with Russia by the Brussels elite.
The national conservative Fidesz has been heavily criticizing what it calls Brussels’ “failed” Ukraine policy: sanctions that have failed to dent Russia’s economy but heavily impacted Europe, as well as endless financial and military aid given to Ukraine that doesn’t seem to make much difference on the battlefield.
On top of the questionable strategic decisions that only seem to draw out the war and stack up the casualties, the Hungarian government believes that the policies and rhetoric coming out of Brussels might also slowly escalate the conflict, dragging the whole of Europe into war with Russia. Avoiding such an outcome is the biggest priority of Fidesz among everything that’s at stake at the coming EU elections, PM Viktor Orban said in his speech at the party’s campaign launch event.
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Belgium: No Consequences for Official Who Failed to Deport Brussels Terrorist
A magistrate who committed a “gross and unacceptable error” that allowed Islamist Abdesalem Lassoued to commit October’s terror attack in Brussels will not face disciplinary action.
An internal investigation exonerated both the magistrate and his secretary, leading to a war of words with the governing liberal-conservative OpenVLD party.
Last year, it was revealed that the magistrate in question had failed to act on a request from Tunisia to have Lassoued extradited a year before the Islamist murdered two Swedish soccer supporters. The political backlash from the revelation led to the resignation of Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne last October.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Duda: Poland in Talks to Host U.S. Nukes
Poland is ready to host American nuclear weapons on its territory and has been in talks with Washington about the deployment for some time now, President Andrzej Duda confirmed in an interview with the Polish daily Fakt, published on Monday, April 22nd.
After discussing the president’s recent trip to the U.S. and the importance of NATO’s collective deterrence in preventing war with Russia, the interviewer asked Duda whether Poland’s possible participation in NATO’s Nuclear Sharing Program—an arrangement that lets non-nuclear members host U.S. nukes—was on the table in Washington.
“[Hosting nuclear weapons in Poland] is the subject of Polish-American talks for some time,” Duda confirmed, citing concerns about ongoing Russian militarization in the region. “I must admit that when asked about it, I reported our readiness,” he said.
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Joey Barton, the former Manchester City and Newcastle footballer, has been experiencing incessant police visits as a result of his Twitter posts, creating what he describes as an uncomfortable atmosphere of intimidation akin to North Korean strong-arm tactics.
Barton, who has risen to prominence as a controversial figure in the sporting world, reported three visits from the UK police in just four days, aimed at “intimidating” his family and him.
On social media platform X, Barton opened up about his experience, detailing the instances of police disruption. He stated that he had shared his lawyer’s information with the police in response to their requests for a voluntary interview—a discussion regarding the content of his tweets.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Finnish Supreme Court Considers Twitter Bible Verse Case in Fight for Religious Freedom
The Finnish Supreme Court will be making a landmark decision relating to free speech and freedom of religious expression. This unprecedented legal battle has its roots in the sharing of Bible verses on Twitter and will be the third time a Finnish lawmaker Päivi Räsänen will have her day in court.
Opponents of government censorship are closely observing the developments, seeing significant implications for the freedom of speech globally. They view this as an opportunity for the Supreme Court to reaffirm democratic values and uphold citizens’ rights to share and engage with religious texts freely in the country.
Räsänen is facing trial for the third time over a tweet that contained a Bible verse. This is despite being acquitted twice of “hate speech” charges. The Finnish Supreme Court will be hearing the case following an appeal by the State prosecutor.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Former Senior Policy Advisor to Obama White House Charged With Child Sex Offences in British Court
Rahamim ‘Rami’ Shy, 46, who co-ordinated the US strategy to combat terrorists, is accused of arranging the commission of a child sex offence, court documents reveal.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
France is Being ‘Bombarded’ With Russian Interference Campaigns, French Minister Alleges
Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister of European Affairs, has warned that France is being “bombarded” with attempts of political interference by Russia.
The minister alleged France was increasingly becoming the target of co-ordinated international efforts aimed at disrupting public discourse, especially concerning the forthcoming elections in June.
“We are bombarded by propaganda from [President] Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” he claimed, arguing there was evidence the Kremlin was looking to “interfere in the [European Parliament elections] campaign”.
“Hardly a week goes by without France being the target of co-ordinated and deliberate manoeuvres to disrupt public debate.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Reconquête Party Spokesman Attacked in Paris
Stanislas Rigault, president of the youth movement of Éric Zemmour’s right-wing party, was attackedin the centre of Paris. Recognized by a gang of six or seven people, he was called a “facho“ (fascist) and a “Nazi” before being spat in the face.
The incident occurred on the evening of Friday, April 19th in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, in the area near Montparnasse station. The young man was waiting for an Uber with a friend when he was recognised in the street. The face of the young man, a regular on television, is quite easily identifiable.
The 24-year-old son of a military officer founded the magazine L’Étudiant Libre in 2019, followed in 2021 by Génération Z, or Génération Zemmour, the youth wing of the Reconquête party, which he still heads today. Throughout Zemmour’s presidential campaign, he played a major role in the party’s viral communication on social media. He is now also the party’s spokesman.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Unions Denounce Olympics Volunteering as ‘Disguised Employment’
French labour unions slammed the use of 45,000 volunteers scheduled to work at the upcoming Paris Summer Olympics, labelling it “disguised employment”.
The schedule indicates volunteers will be engaged for eight to 10 hours per day, six days a week over a 15-day period.
French labour unions argued that the lack of clarity within employment laws allowed for what it said was staff exploitation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Left-Wing BSW Party Knocks AfD From First Place Position in Eastern State
In a recent poll for the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has seen its leading position drop by four points, bumping it into second place, with most of that loss attributed to the new left-wing party, the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance.
Pollsters had predicted that the BSW, known for its opposition to German arms for Russia and its left-wing positions mixed with “anti-woke” sentiment, would cut into AfD’s vote share. However, once the party was formally launched, it appeared to have a negligible effect on AfD’s polling results.
Now, in Saxony-Anhalt, BSW may be showing signs of strength at the expense of the AfD. Six months ago, an Insa poll showed AfD in first place at 33 percent, and the Christian Democrats (CDU) in second with 32 percent. In the latest poll, the CDU’s vote total is unchanged while the AfD dropped four points to 29 percent, putting it in second place.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Arrests Three Suspected of Spying for China
Three German nationals have been arrested on suspicion of working with the Chinese secret service to hand over technologies that could be used for military purposes, German prosecutors said on Monday.
The suspects were identified as Herwig F. and Ina F, a married couple who run a company in Dusseldorf, and Thomas R., whom prosecutors described as an agent for an employee of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS).
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A study on juvenile delinquency in the German province of Lower Saxony found that radical ideology is widely prevalent among the Muslim youth population, with nearly half favouring an Islamic caliphate over democracy.
A “dark field study” conducted by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN) has raised concern over the Islamist beliefs held by young Muslim students in the province, about 300 of whom were surveyed for the study.
According to the research, almost half (45.8 per cent) of grade nine Muslims — with an average age of 15 — said that they believe that Islamic theocracy is the best form of government, the Bild newspaper reports.
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Majority of British Public Does Not Trust Police to Solve Crimes: Survey
Britain is descending into a low-trust society as over half of the British public does not have faith in their increasingly woke police forces to actually solve crimes.
A survey conducted by YouGov for the Times of London found a “devastating lack of confidence” in the police, which in recent years have become increasingly preoccupied with professing their progressive bona fides and acting as woke censors on the internet while real-life criminals run rampant.
The poll found that more than half of Britons lack faith in law enforcement to solve crimes, while a third said they do not trust the police to maintain law and order in the country. The poll also found that just 26 per cent would expect police to make an arrest if they were burgled and just seven per cent believed that a pickpocket would be caught.
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Netherlands: Wilders Presses Charges Against Timmermans, Alleges Incitement of Violence
PVV leader Geert Wilders refused to back down from his accusation that GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans was guilty of inciting violence against Wilders. The allegation stems from a speech Timmermans gave to party members on Saturday.
Wilders pressed charges alleging Timmermans incited criminal acts, according to a copy of the report his attorney sent to the Public Prosecution Service on Monday. Wilders was represented by Herman Loonstein, an attorney based in Amsterdam. Wilders already announced that he was going to press charges on Saturday evening, but said he wanted to first consult with his lawyer.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Global Alliance of China, Iran and Russia Threatens to Dethrone US
The looming specter of new wars is becoming increasingly apparent on top of the wars that are already taking place — in fact, historians may one day coin a collective term for these events, whether it be a new Thirty Years’ War, Fifty Years’ War or A Hundred Years’ War, leading to the formation of an unforeseeable global power dynamic.
For Poland, this signals an unsettling reality that the post-Cold War Western world, which it has endeavored to anchor itself to for over three decades, may no longer be a secure haven.
The new alliance of China, Iran and Russia targeting the West aims to dethrone the United States and, in the process, divide the spoils left by the faded European powers. However, among the trio, only China possesses the capability to assume the role of a truly global player capable of decisively shaping the future power balance alongside America. Yet, the foundation of this anti-Western alliance may not be as robust as perceived, as conflicting interests among the three revisionist states could quickly prevail.
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PM Orban’s Warning to Europe: ‘World Wars Are Never Called World Wars in the Beginning’
Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has issued a new warning about rising tensions in Europe, saying that world wars are never called world wars in the beginning, noting that the First and Second World Wars were initiated by a series of smaller conflicts.
“Brussels is playing with fire. What it is doing is an act of temptation. World wars are never called world wars in the beginning. The Third Balkan War, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the partition of Poland, and the end was a world war twice over,” he warned.
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Poland May Obtain Nuclear Weapons if Trump Wins Presidency
Polish President Andrzej Duda confirmed engaging in discussions with former U.S. President Donald Trump on the topic of NATO nuclear sharing — a framework involving the deployment of nuclear weapons on Polish territory.
During an interview with the tabloid Fakt, President Duda disclosed that the dialogues with Trump included considerations for Poland to host nuclear arms.
“I admit, when questioned, I demonstrated our willingness. Russia is increasingly militarizing the Kaliningrad region and has lately been relocating their nuclear arsenal to Belarus,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish agriculture will not avoid competition from Ukraine, as sooner or later the Ukrainians will join the EU, so Poland better get prepared, says agricultural economist professor Wawrzyniec Czubak.
Prof. Czubak from the University of Poznan has told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that Poland must prepare for the inevitable competition from Ukraine and that blocking roads will not help it to do that. If Poland fails to prepare, it will face a painful confrontation with market realities.
The agricultural economist believes that Poland must seek to enable a value-added approach to its agricultural production and to boost its food processing industry and individual brands. He denied that Ukrainian grain will demolish Polish agriculture, even as farmers contend that will be the exact outcome.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Political Quagmire Postpones Bulgaria’s Euro Zone Entry
Bulgaria’s central bank has signalled a postponement of the country’s entry into the euro zone until mid-2025 at the earliest.Bulgaria aimed to become the 21st country using the currency as part of a decades-long post-Soviet pivot to the West.
Although the Bulgarian lev (BGN) has been pegged to the euro since 1999, euro zone membership had already been delayed a year in Bulgaria. Failing to live up to inflation expectations along with serial government crises are the official explanation. At the same time, an Austrian veto is preventingfull Schengen zone membership due to concerns over migration and asylum.
Speaking to the national media, Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev dismissed fearsthat joining the euro would result in tax hikes. Radev also pointed out that the fact the Bulgarian lev was already tied to the euro meant the central bank had “more limited options to control inflation.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Two citizens of Romania and Italy have been sentenced to 12 years in prison each for beating, raping, and robbing a 58-year-old woman in Austria, who was left lying battered just 150 meters from her front door on Christmas of last year.
The two defendants, both who are 22 years old, were convicted of beating the woman near the Floridsdorf train station, raping her, and then stealing her bag and cell phone.
In court, the Italian citizen in the case spoke of a “test of courage” in court to explain his actions, while the Romanian brother-in-law accused the 58-year-old victim of being “pushy,” telling Judge Eva Brandstetter that the woman approached them in the middle of the street and claiming that the woman would not let them go, resulting in the men pushing her away. They claim this is what caused the woman’s injuries, according to Austrian news outlet Kroner Zeitung.
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Spain: Basque Separatist Parties Tie in Historic Regional Election
The results of Basque regional elections in Spain are bad for Spanish unity but not as bad as polls had predicted. As expected, the regional separatist parties won the elections but instead of the radical left pulling ahead of the long-ruling mainstream nationalist party, the two have tied.
This means that the Socialist Party, which came in third place, gets the chance to pick who governs the region.
As in Catalonia, the region has had a separatist movement since the end of the nineteenth century. Two parties toe a strong separatist line, the historically conservative Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV) and the radical left party Euskal Herria Bildu (Basque Country Unite), which is also the political arm of the now disbanded Basque terrorist group ETA.
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Spanish PM Sanchez is a Pupil of ‘Narco-Chavist Dictatorships’, Rival Claims
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is a student of “narco-chavist dictatorships”, the leader of Spain’s VOX party, Santiago Abascal, has claimed.
Abascal claimed that his Socialist Party rival represented “the European paradigm of corruption, the suppression of liberties and attacks on public property”.
Speaking at the opening of a joint event between the conservative group’s think-tank, Fundación Disenso, and the American conservative group, the Heritage Foundation, Abascal described the premier as an “advanced pupil of narco-chavist dictatorships, Xi Jinping’s China and Iran’s theocratic regime”.
The dangers posed by such politicians, he continued, were not limited to just Spain.
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Two Years Into Ukraine War ‘EU Still Depends on Russian Gas,’ Says Energy Regulator
he European Union still cannot do without Russian liquefied natural gas, despite it being two years since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU Agency for the Co-operation of Energy Regulators (ACER) claimed.
That came as Sweden, Finland and the Baltic countries plan to lobby the European Commission to impose an immediate total ban on Russian LNG.
EU purchases of Russian LNG increased by 40 per cent between 2021 and 2023, according to data provider Kpler on April 19.
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UK: London’s Met Police in Hot Water Over Pro-Palestine Rallies
Calls are growing for the head of London’s Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, to resign over the force’s persistently poor handling of pro-Palestine demonstrations in the city.
The row has gained particular traction after police stopped kippah-wearing Gideon Falter, who is chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, from crossing a road on which a rally was taking place, telling him “You are quite openly Jewish,” and therefore “your presence” might cause a negative “reaction.”
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UK: Met Police Officer Admits Protest Ban Against Tommy Robinson May Have Been Unlawful
A top officer of London’s Metropolitan Police admitted at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court that a dispersal order banning activist and self-styled citizen journalist Tommy Robinson from a protest in the city may have been unlawful.
Tommy Robinson, 40, was arrested on November 26th for allegedly refusing to comply with an order to leave Westminster after the Campaign for Antisemitism reportedly told police that he would not be welcome at a demonstration they were holding in the area at the time, despite Robinson’s long history of supporting Israel and the Jewish people.
During a hearing on Monday, Met Police Inspector Steve Parker-Phipps told the court that he had made an error on the dispersal order against Robinson, the BBC reports, claiming that due to his laptop battery “dying”, he mistakenly put the date of November 24 on the form rather than November 26th, the day of the protest.
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UK: Quad-Vaxxed Young People 318% More Likely to Die Than Unvaxxed
Alarming figures revealed in official government data expose the shocking impact on young people from the global Covid mRNA vaccination campaign.
Official data published by the UK government’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that young people who have received four Covid shots are a staggering 318% more likely to die than their unvaxxed piers.
The data shows a huge spike in sudden deaths and major health complications of quad-vaxxed young people aged 18-39 years old.
An analysis of the data by The Exposé revealed that February 2023 shows the widest margin of mortality rates between the unvaccinated group and those who had received four shots.
The other months analyzed showed quad-vaxxed young people were between 221% and 290% more likely to die than those who didn’t get the shot.
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Built in 1917, the De Wadden ferried coal and food through the Irish Sea to southern England between 1939 and 1945 while Hitler’s infamous submarines lurked under the waves.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
CCTV footage shows the three masked robbers charge into a Deepak Foodstore in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, and leave with thousands of pounds worth of goods from the cigarette counter.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Residents of four Serb-majority municipalities on Sunday overwhelmingly boycotted a vote on removing their ethnic Albanian mayors…
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Footage that has been shared on X showed the man storming through an overgrown field as he marched toward a solitary Palestinian flag that had been erected in the middle of the grassland.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Military Chief Resigns Over Failure to Prevent Oct 7 Attack
The head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate has resigned over the failures surrounding Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack, the military said, becoming the first senior figure to step down over his role in the deadliest assault in Israel’s history.
Maj Gen Aharon Haliva’s resignation sets the stage for what’s expected to be more fallout from Israel’s top security brass over Hamas’ attack, when militants blasted through Israel’s border defences, rampaged through Israeli communities unchallenged for hours and killed 1200 people, most civilians while taking roughly 250 hostages into Gaza. That attack set off the war against Hamas in Gaza, now in its seventh month.
“The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I carry that black day with me ever since, day after day, night after night. I will carry the pain with me forever,” Haliva wrote in his resignation letter, which was provided by the military.
Shortly after the war, Haliva had publicly said that he shouldered the blame for not preventing the assault as the head of the military department responsible for providing the government and the military with intelligence warnings and daily alerts.
The military said in the statement that the military chief of staff accepted Haliva’s request to resign and thanked him for his service.
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Ukraine Becomes Testing Ground for New Western Weapons
The French defense industry’s new weapons, especially anti-drone weapons, will be testedduring defense operations in Ukraine, highlighting the role Ukraine increasingly plays as the top testing ground for Western weapons.
More advanced weapons may also be on the way, as Ukraine’s growing deficit in manpower may need to be compensated with technology. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Statistics, Ukraine’s armed forces may need high-tech solutions if they want to win the war.
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Indian Prime Minister Modi Accused of ‘Hate Speech’ Towards Muslims in Campaign Rally
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under fire for invoking anti-Muslim tropes in a speech on Sunday as he campaigns in the nation’s ongoing general election.
Speaking to a large crowd at a rally in the western state of Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader made controversial remarks describing Muslims as “infiltrators.” Modi said that if the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, is voted into power at the end of the weeks’ long election, they would unfairly distribute wealth.
“When they were in power, they said Muslims have first right over resources. They will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” Modi told a crowd of supporters. “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators? Would you accept this?” he said of India’s Muslim population, which consists of around 230 million people.
The remarks appeared to be a reference to harmful tropes that accuse Muslims of displacing Hindus by building large families. The comments have been widely criticized by opposition leaders and prominent Muslim figures and triggered anger worldwide. Local polls officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that they had received two complaints calling for Modi’s campaign suspension and arrest.
[Comment: I like Modi.]
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‘Arrogant Billionaire’: Australia: Musk in War of Words Over Censorship
Australia and Elon Musk have escalated their war of words over censorship after an Australian court ordered social media platform X to remove footage of a church stabbing.
An Australian judge on Monday ruled that X must block users worldwide from accessing videos of a knife attack on an Assyrian Christian bishop in Sydney after the country’s internet watchdog sought an injunction.
The Federal Court in Sydney granted the temporary global ban after X had said it would challenge eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s notice to remove posts related to last week’s attack on Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the government was prepared to take on Musk, whom he labelled an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency”.
| — Hat tip: McN | [Return to headlines] |
Auction Goes Viral After Five-Bedroom Luxury Home in Strathfield Sells for $8.6 Million
A five-bedroom ‘uber-luxury’ home in Sydney’s inner-west has sparked controversy after selling for $8.6 million, with foreign investors blamed for pushing up prices.
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A number of Australian politicians, both those in government and opposition, are pressuring social media to demonstrate “more vigilance” when dealing with content related to the Sydney stabbing attacks.
This refers not only to mass censorship in the form of removing content designated as “misinformation,” but also to pushing for online age verification, with the incidents and the subsequent events utilized to give a fresh impetus to such broad policies.
And there seems to be a high degree of consensus, since the demands are coming both from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the leader of the opposition, Peter Dutton.
Albanese reacted by criticizing social media for not reacting fast enough to “protect users” and revealed he is “prepared to take whatever action is necessary to haul these companies into line.”
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Amid political unity against X Corp’s defiant stance to keep potentially harmful content online, the nation’s internet cop launched the matter in the Federal Court on Monday evening.
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Australia has been rocked by another stabbing which has left onlooking shoppers horrified.
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An aerial photo capturing a suburb with thousands of densely packed standalone homes has sparked a debate about the future of housing in Australia.
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Arizona Judge Declares Mistrial in the Case of a Rancher Accused of Fatally Shooting a Migrant
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The decision came after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision after more than two full days of deliberation in trial of George Alan Kelly, 75, who was charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.
“Based upon the jury’s inability to reach a verdict on any count,” Judge Thomas Fink said, “This case is in mistrial.”
The Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office can still decide whether to retry Kelly for any charge, or drop the case all together.
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In what may be one of the most impassioned and epic speeches against the EU migration pact in all of Europe, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis warned in Czechia’s parliament that immigration was a “cancer” that had already destroyed Western Europe but which would now slam Central and Eastern Europe as well.
The center-left Czech government of Petr Fiala helped approve the pro-migration pact, which has led to sharp criticism from the opposition led by Babis, who says the pact will lead to a wave of immigration from the Middle East and Africa to Czechia.
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Denver Illegal Aliens: 6 Months of Free Rent & Food is ‘Offensive’ and a ‘Slap in the Face’
An illegal alien in Denver has slammed taxpayers as “offensive” and blasted the “sanctuary” city’s offer of free housing and food for six months as a “slap in the face.”
Denver has established a new “Asylum Seekers Program” that diverts tax dollars away from city resources such as police to pay for the flood of illegal alien “newcomers” in the city.
Under the program, foreign nationals can illegally cross the border into the United States and expect six months of free food and rent once they arrive in Denver.
However, illegals and a migrant advocacy group have decried the offer as “insufficient.”
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France: Media Silence Greets Violent Afghan Demonstrations in Paris
On Friday, April 20th, the French capital was the scene of street violence from the Afghan community. While the trouble went unnoticed by the mainstream press, the nation’s Right condemned the wilful blindness of the national media.
The violence was sparked by a sordid episode of murder and arson that occurred on April 7th in the Rue de Charonne, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. According to the initial investigation, Afghan refugees settling scores led to the deaths of three men. One man allegedly shot dead his two guests in the flat he was renting. He then tried to erase the traces of his crime by soaking his home with fuel before setting fire to it. He is said to have died after throwing himself out of a window to escape the flames.
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A police officer in Germany has been convicted of racial discrimination for asking an Afghan migrant where he “really” came from after stopping him for talking on his mobile phone while riding a motorbike.
The Mitte District Court in Berlin ruled on April 15 that the officer’s line of questioning was discriminatory after pulling over the man during an incident dating back to July 2020.
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An Afghan cab drive has been convicted of raping a 34-year-old psychology student after she spent a night out partying, with the man committing the act inside the woman’s house while her 5-year-old child slept in the other room.
The incident, which dates back to April 2022, saw the cab driver bring the intoxicated woman to her apartment. The woman, who Bild described as having “long blonde hair,” was unable to make it up to her apartment, when the cab driver, 28-year-old Mojib M., an Afghan refugee, brought her upstairs.
The 27-year-old babysitter, Julia A., who is from Brazil, was waiting for the woman. Julia A. thought that the man was a friend of the victim who had taken her home and did not know he was the cab driver. He laid the victim on the sofa, covered her up, and then Julia A. said goodbye and left.
However, that is when the horror began for the victim. The public prosecutor in the case, Thomas Franz, said that Mojib M., ripped off the woman’s dress and proceeded to rape her.
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Judge Declares Mistrial for AZ Rancher Charged With Murder of Mexican National Near Southern Border
A judge has declared a mistrial in Arizona on Monday, after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict, in a case where a rancher allegedly killed a Mexican national on his property.
George Alan Kelly was accused of second-degree murder for the death of Gabriel Cuen-Baltimea, who was found fatally shot on Kelly’s ranch near the southern border on Jan. 30, 2023.
The judge overseeing the case declared the mistrial after the jury could not reach a decision after several days. The prosecutor told jurors that if they did not believe there was enough evidence to convict Kelly on the second-degree murder charge, they could convict him on a lower charge of manslaughter, aggravated assault, and negligent homicide, according to Fox News.
The jury had begun deliberating last week, on April 18.
[Comment: Wow. ]
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Rishi Sunak has claimed a crucial victory after the Rwanda Bill was finally passed by the House of Lords.
Peers admitted defeat in their desperate efforts to water down the legislation just before midnight, with one describing the moment as a ‘funeral’.
The capitulation came after five rounds of Parliamentary ‘ping-pong’, which saw the proposals batted back and forth between the chambers as MPs repeatedly removed amendments made by peers.
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A ten-fold increase in Vietnamese migrants has driven a surge in illegal Channel crossings this year, the Government has revealed.
Some 6,265 people have arrived in Britain by dinghy since January, the Home Office said yesterday — a 24 per cent rise on the same period of 2023.
And migrants from Vietnam made up one in five of the arrivals (1,266), up from just 3 per cent (125) a year earlier.
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Tory support has slumped to its lowest level since Rishi Sunak became Prime minister, a gloomy new poll reveals tonight.
The Conservatives have slumped two points to 20 per cent in a week, allowing Labour to open up a 23-point lead, the Redfield & Wilton Strategies research found.
The last time the firm recorded Tory support this low was after then PM Liz Trusssacked chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng amid the 2022 economic turmoil that ended her short-lived premiership.
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Italy Set to Allow Pro-Life Activists Into Pregnancy Clinics
Italy’s Parliament voted to let pro-life activists be present in clinics that offer consultations about abortions.
Using an April 16 amendment to its European Union post-covid recovery plan, the Government said “non-profit groups with qualified experience in supporting maternity” will be allowed into abortion counselling centres.
European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Veerle Nuyts insisted the pro-life activists and any State funding they may receive “have no connection” with the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility cash hand-outs. Italy is the biggest recipient of those funds and is due to receive a further €194.4 billion by 2026.
The issue has now become an EU-wide row, with other governments in the bloc having since come out to criticise the move.
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UK: “Watershed” Transgender Report Author Warned Against Using Public Transport
Paediatrician Dr. Hillary Cass began her report into the treatment of children who say they are transgender—praised even by senior Labour figures as a “watershed” paper—by highlighting that the “toxicity of the debate is exceptional.”
As if to confirm the truth of this statement since its publication less than a fortnight ago, Dr. Cass has received “vile” emails and has been advised not to use public transport due to safety fears.
Cass’s long-awaited review found that the treatment of children unsure about their gender “is an area of remarkably weak evidence” which sees studies “exaggerated or misrepresented” to support political—as opposed to medical—viewpoints. It has received a good deal of backing among the political classes and has already prompted the National Health Service to say that it will review all of the transgender treatment it provides.
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UK: London Museum’s ‘LGBTQ Audio Guide’ Wrongly Claims British Monarch Was “Person of Colour”
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news
A London museum is facing backlash after it was revealed that a special ‘LGBTQ audio guide’ it is providing to visitors is claiming that the wife of King George III was mixed race.
The audio guide is being used in the Queen’s House in Greenwich, a publicly funded part of Royal Museums Greenwich.
A section of the guide references a large golden sculpture of Queen Charlotte, claiming: “Queen Charlotte, the nation’s first royal person of colour.”
The guide then states “Yep, you heard me. The insecure white boys writing history conveniently forget to mention that bit, because… well, structural racism.”
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It was difficult to find this news in English. This news does not include one detail: the Tajik called the female fighter and her friend “Russian pigs.” The girls in shorts were riding bicycles, which the Muslim did not like – he tried to hit them with a car.
Foreigner who clashed with UFC fighter Alekseeva will be deported from Russia
https://athletistic.com/boxing/561505.html
https://athletistic.com/boxing/561074.html
“I condemn the antisemitic protests…I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians….” —Prince Aricept (23 Apr 2024)
Memo to The Prince and other ‘toddlers: Ever since they massacred Jews at the 1972 Munich Olympics (and celebrated 9/11!), “what’s going with the Palestinians” has been the same: “Almost three in four Palestinians believe the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel was correct.” —Reuters
“Dozens arrested at Yale; Columbia pauses in-person classes after ‘burn Tel Aviv’ calls”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/dozens-arrested-at-yale-columbia-pauses-in-person-classes-amid-anti-israel-protests/
“In-person classes at Columbia University have been canceled today—on the Jewish holiday of Passover—in response to a days long, illegal pro-Hamas demonstration.” —Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) (23 Apr 2024)