A 17-year-old “genderfluid” person named Dylan Butler went on a shooting rampage at a high school in Iowa, killing a sixth-grader and wounding others before turning the gun on itself. The youngster reportedly also had a rudimentary IED in their possession.
In other news, a Florida man is suing Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) after a toilet explosion showered him with feces and urine.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Daniel Greenfield, Dean, DV, JW, LP, McN, Reader from Chicago, Roger, 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.
Inflation in Poland Projected to Drop to 5.5% by End of 2024, According to Experts
Economists anticipate a reduction in Poland’s consumer inflation to 5.5 percent year-over-year by the end of 2024, a decrease from 6.6 percent in November 2023; they also predict a 50 basis point cut in the primary interest rate by the end of the year.
However, some pessimistic forecasts suggest that the inflation rate might escalate higher by the end of this year, with mBank analysts considering a potential increase to over 8 percent. Kamil Sobolewski, chief economist at Employers of the Republic of Poland, predicts a rate of 7.5 percent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
You know it’s bad when… you bring back the ‘c’-word.
House Democrats appear to be reverting to an old playbook with their latest report claiming President Trump violated the Constitution by accepting payments for leases and hotel stays while in office due to the “collusive participation of foreign states.”
The ZeroHedge-esque-titled report: “White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump” is 156 pages of damning evidence of Trump’s dastardly plan to make millions from foreign leaders while in office.
As The Wall Street Journal’s Jack Gillum and Kate O’Keefe breathlessly report, China and Saudi Arabia topped a list of 20 countries whose governments or state-linked entities pumped millions of dollars into Donald Trump’s properties while he was president, according to a new report and previously undisclosed records that shed light on Trump’s potential business conflicts as he seeks a second term.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A video of a woman complaining to McDonald’s employees about a chicken sandwich wrapper being subliminal propaganda in support of Israel is going viral again. But who was behind the original video?
The video, stripped of context and recently reposted across multiple social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter, was originally posted on Instagram on Oct. 19, 2023 by a Chicago Palestinian-American woman running the business account “@makeupbylaureen.” The account is run by Laureen M. Zureikat, a 47-year-old woman based out of Park Ridge, Ill. who was previously known as Laureen Zanayed.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 1 Dead in Shooting at Iowa High School; Scene Now ‘Secured’: Officials
At least one person was killed and others injured in a shooting Thursday morning at Perry High School in Iowa, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the situation.
The scene is now “secured,” according to Dallas County, Iowa, officials.
Two patients were being treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, according to a hospital spokesperson. Their conditions are unknown.
An active shooting incident was reported at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante told reporters during a press briefing.
Infante said an officer responded to the school seven minutes later and located “multiple gunshot victims,” though it is unclear at this time how many or the extent of their injuries. The sheriff did not say who was among the victims.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Clinton Put Pressure on Vanity Fair Not to Cover Epstein Allegations, Accuser Claimed
Bill Clinton put pressure on Vanity Fair not to cover allegations about Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew’s accuser claimed in newly released court documents.
Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of abusing her as a teenager, a claim he strongly denies, discussed selling a now infamous photo of the pair to Vanity Fair in a 2011 email exchange with another journalist.
The exchanges are among a tranche of almost 1,000 legal documents related to the convicted paedophile Epstein made public by a US court on Wednesday.
In one email, Ms Giuffre was encouraged by a journalist to let Vanity Fair purchase the photo of the Prince with his arm wrapped around her waist.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre alleged that billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin was the first person Ghislaine Maxwell instructed her to have sex with — and also claimed she had a sexual encounter with Hyatt Hotels heir Thomas Pritzker, according to newly unsealed court records.
Giuffre testified that Maxwell told her to give Dubin, co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, an erotic message, which she said was a euphemism for sex, according to her 2016 deposition filed late Wednesday.
“When they say massage, that means erotic, okay? That’s their term for it,” Giuffre said. “And I’m telling you that Ghislaine told me to go to Glenn Dubin and give him a massage, which means sex.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Police have confirmed that the one deceased victim of Dylan Butler’s shooting rampage at Perry High School was a sixth-grade student, and that an improvised explosive device was found on site.
Police said that the 6th grade student was at the high school because he was participating in a breakfast program prior to the start of the school day that is located at the high school.
The 17-year-old student killed one and injured five early Thursday morning before turning the gun on himself. None of the victims’ names have been publicly released. Police said that there was no indication that the shooting had anything to do with race.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California Court: Police Drone Footage From 911 Calls is Not Exempt From Public Records Law
The California Court of Appeal for the 4th District has decided that video material from police drones, collected in response to 911 calls, cannot be hidden from the public in every case.
The drones in question operate under a scheme known as, Drones as First Responders (DFR), pioneered by the Chula Vista Police Department, while the court was looking into a case brought by a journalist attempting to gain access to some of this video content as a public record.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton-Appointed Judge Dismisses Trump Ballot Disqualification Case ‘With Prejudice’
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit that sought to keep former President Donald Trump off the Republican primary ballot.
On Wednesday, [Clinton appointed] District Judge David Carter granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit “with prejudice,” which means that it can’t be submitted to the same court again, according to court papers.
A plaintiff attempted to argue that they suffered “emotional injury” due to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and watched the events unfold on television, on the radio, and in various publications. They then argued that the incident caused them “severe emotional distress” and then filed a lawsuit to keep the former president from California’s ballots.
But the judge wrote that because the events occurred “more than two years before the plaintiff” filed suit, it was outside of the two-year statute of limitations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dark Money Nightmare’: How Qatar Bought the Ivy League
The hapless testimony by three Ivy League university presidents from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce can be traced to Qatar and its insidious campaign to buy itself influence in US academia.
Qatar, oil-rich and with an estimated population of only 2.5 million, is the largest foreign donor — that we know about — to American universities, with at least $4.7 billion donated between 2001 and 2021. Many of those billions went unreported to the Department of Education, according to research done by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). Under federal law, colleges and universities that receive donations from foreign sources that total at least $250,000 must disclose such transactions to the Department of Education.
Qatar is far from the only authoritarian nation that donates to American universities.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Famed magician David Copperfield had dinner with an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein at one of the late pedophile’s homes and asked her if she knew girls were being paid to recruit other girls, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.
Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg testified that she had met Copperfield, 67, when directly asked by attorney Sigrid McCawley in a May 2016 deposition — in which several redacted names were made public.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DNA Genetics Company 23andMe Blames Affected Users for Data Breach
In light of being hit with more than 30 lawsuits as a result of the colossal data breach it experienced, 23andMe have sought to lay the blame at the victims’ feet to absolve itself of any liability, as evidenced by a letter this firm dispatched to a group of victims, obtained by TechCrunch.
Genetics testing company 23andMe is under fire. Instead of accepting its part in this monumental failure of data security, the company appears to have chosen to shift the blame onto its customers, as shared in an email to TechCrunch by Hassan Zavareei — one of the legal representatives of the victims.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Epstein Offered ‘Reward’ to Disprove Claim Stephen Hawking Had ‘Underage Orgy’: Court Docs
Jeffrey Epstein said he’d pay a reward to accuser Virginia Giuffre’s friends if they helped debunk her claim that Stephen Hawking had participated “in a underage orgy” in the Virgin Islands, newly unsealed court documents reveal.
“You can issue a reward to any of virginias friends acquaionts family [sic] that come forward and help prove her allegations are false,” the late pedophile wrote in a typo-ridden email to his madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, on Jan. 12, 2015.
“The strongest is the clinton dinner, and the new version in the virgin isalnds that stven hawking partica-ted [sic] in an underage orgy,” the email concluded.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
PALM BEACH, Florida — Former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner for president in 2024, told Breitbart News exclusively during a two-hour-plus interview at Mar-a-Lago last week that the person who gets the nod for vice president will not make much difference in the grand scheme of things regarding winning the election.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A father was shot to death in front of his child and pregnant wife during an attempted break-in at the family’s home in Dallas, Texas on Saturday afternoon. When the suspects opened fire, 24-year-old Juvenal Antero jumped in front of in front of his 4-year-old son, saving him, but losing his own life in the process.
Antero and his wife, Elizabel Cardenas, were just days away from a sonogram appointment at which they would have heard their baby’s heartbeat, however as a result of the criminals’ actions, she will now have to go alone, and their children will grow up without a father.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A US federal institution is getting dangerously close to advocating for restrictions on speech. We have learned a lot about this from Twitter and Facebook Files, but this time pressure is expressed openly, albeit in a careful and subtle way.
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP), funded by Congress and promoting the country’s interests worldwide on the declared premise of opposing violent conflict, is now taking on the task of helping preserve election integrity by censoring speech.
In its post, USIP is careful not to talk about the elephant in the room, the US election, instead mentioning a number of other votes about to take place in 2024 across the planet.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fetterman Renews Calls to Expel ‘Gold Bar Bob’ Menendez From Senate Over Latest Bribery Charges
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has renewed calls for his fellow Democrat senator, “Gold Bar Bob” Menendez (D-NJ), to be expelled from the U.S. Senate.
The calls come after new bribery charges emerged alleging that Menendez high-value accepted gifts in exchange for aiding Qatar.
In a new federal indictment, prosecutors accused the New Jersey Democrat of accepting free race car tickets, luxury watches, and other expensive gifts from the Gulf nation.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Florida Man Sues Dunkin’ After Toilet Explosion Douses Him in Feces and Urine, Lawsuit Says
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A stop for coffee escalated into a “traumatic” ordeal for one Flagler County man who filed suit against a Dunkin’ franchisee, claiming that a toilet exploded on him in the restroom, covering him in human feces and urine.
Paul Kerouac filed the lawsuit in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court on Wednesday against Dunkin’ franchisee HZ O Donuts LLC after the incident he claims happened on Jan. 6, 2022.
On this day, the man from Flagler County visited the coffee shop located at 2265 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park and visited the men’s room. Inside, a toilet reportedly exploded, covering the room and Kerouac with “debris, including human feces and urine,” according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Scott W. Spradley of Flagler Beach.
When he left the restroom and sought assistance from employees to clean himself, they said “they were aware of the ‘problem with the toilet’“ because this wasn’t the first time something similar has happened, the lawsuit said.
Kerouac said as a result of the toilet explosion, he suffered “bodily injury and psychological damages resulting in pain and suffering, disability, permanent and significant emotional injury, mental anguish, loss of the capacity for the enjoyment of life, expense of medical care and treatment,” according to the lawsuit.
| — Hat tip: Roger | [Return to headlines] |
Harvard Corporation Under Fire for Keeping Secrets to Protect Claudine Gay: ‘Must Not be Published’
The resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay over allegations of plagiarism and her disastrous response to antisemitism turns the spotlight on the university’s governing body — the Harvard Corporation.
The 12-member board is led by the billionaire Hyatt hotel scion Penny Pritzker, a former Obama administration commerce secretary, who has vowed to stay on despite Gay quitting.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Homeowner Fights Off, Fatally Shoots Intruder With Suspect’s Own Gun: ‘Like a Movie’
An Indianapolis homeowner described thwarting an attempted home invasion — during which he stole the suspect’s gun and fatally shot him — like an action sequence straight out of a movie.
When a masked man broke into Brent Smith’s home just before 7 p.m. Tuesday, smacking him in the head with his firearm during an attempted robbery, Smith fought back, launching both men through a glass table during the fight.
“It was like a movie, me and him wrestling over the gun,” Smith told FOX 59 Indianapolis.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Houston Jury Will Not Charge Man Who Killed Robber at Houston Taqueria
A grand jury has decided not to file any charges against a man who shot and killed a robber in a southwest Houston taqueria last year.
On Jan. 5, 2023, 30-year-old Eric Eugene Washington walked into El Ranchito taqueria on South Gessner Road right before 11:30 pm waving what appeared to be a gun at customers to give up their belongings.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Jewish family is speaking out after their teen daughter faced antisemitic harassment for wearing an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) jacket to a New Jersey mall.
In the incident caught on video at American Dream in East Rutherford, Palestinian supporters are seen shouting expletive-laced messages while accusing Maya Vaxman-Magid of “supporting genocide.”
“You should be embarrassed,” one unidentified harasser shouted, going on to call the teen a “White piece of s**t” while declaring she is from Palestine and is “proud to say it.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
LA County Residents Demand Action After Car Smashes Into Store to Make Way for Mob of Looters
Californians implored local officials to take action after a mob used a car to smash open a store and loot its goods.
“A mob of over 100 looters purposefully crashed a Kia into a small bakery in Compton, Calif., before they flooded in and ransacked the store during a night of rampage on the streets earlier this week. The thieves had gathered in the area for an illegal street takeover around 3 a.m. Tuesday before making the mile-long trek to Ruben’s Bakery & Mexican Food,” The New York Post reported. “When they got to the locked store, a white Kia backed into the front doors, clearing an entryway for the crowd of pillagers to get to their loot.
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Capt. Melissa Ramirez stated that the looters had stolen items ranging from meat and general groceries to lottery tickets. Police had reportedly received calls just before the looting occurred, alerting them that a car was on fire and a street takeover was underway.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Large Minneapolis Homeless Encampment Set to Close Due to ‘Blight,’ ‘Hindrance of Development’
A massive homeless encampment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is set to close Thursday after a U.S. judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order that would have barred the city from shutting it down.
U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud rejected the plea of two residents Wednesday who wanted to block plans by the city to clear the homeless encampment on Minneapolis’ south side, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The encampment, known as Camp Nenookaasi, will be sold to the Indigenous Peoples Task Force next month, which plans to build an art and wellness center on the land.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Philadelphia Mayor Declares Crime Emergency First Day in Office
Philadelphia Democratic Mayor Cherelle Parker declared crime a public safety emergency her first day in office through an executive order that calls on the city’s police department to “vigorously enforce” existing laws and for officials to develop a plan to increase the number of police officers.
Parker, Philadelphia’s 100th mayor and the first female, took over the office from former Mayor Jim Kenney when she was formally inaugurated Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
North Carolina Snubs Biden’s Challengers for Democrat Primary Ballot
North Carolina’s election board has unanimously decided to snub Democrat President Joe Biden’s challengers on the state’s primary ballot.
On Tuesday, the board ruled to accept the request from the state’s Democratic Party to have Biden as the lone Democrat presidential candidate.
The five-member State Board of Elections voted unanimously to approve the candidate lists provided by the state’s Democrat, Republican, and Libertarian parties.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Silent on Resignation of Harvard’s Claudine Gay Amid Reports He Lobbied to Save Her Job
Despite reported pressure from Barack Obama to save her job, Harvard’s embattled “woke” president, Claudine Gay, finally resigned from her position.
The resignation is a rare example of accountability for powerful bureaucrats protected by affirmative action.
Obama reportedly went to bat for Gay behind the scenes in an attempt to keep her in the university’s top role.
However, he has been silent since the resignation announcement ignited a firestorm on social media.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
One of the first people to highlight widespread plagiarism by now-ousted Harvard president Claudine Gay has bluntly accused her of “lying” by claiming she “promptly requested corrections” to her published work.
Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank, joined those condemning Gay’s op-ed Wednesday in the New York Times in which she complained of being the victim of a racist “well-laid trap.”
“Claudine Gay is lying in the New York Times,” Rufo wrote on X Wednesday in a blunt response refusing to accept Gay’s take on her scandal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Philadelphia’s police department fired its first diversity, equity and inclusion officer — just hours before a new commissioner and mayor took office promising to restore “lawfulness.”
Leslie Marant, who began her job in April 2022, was axed at a 10:30 a.m. meeting Tuesday in one of the final moves by then-acting Police Commissioner John Stanford, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Stanford told Marant, 57, that his replacement as commissioner, Kevin Bethel, would be restructuring the department and no longer needed her services, a source familiar with the discussion told the Inquirer.
It is unclear exactly what led to the firing of Marant, who earned a base salary of $170,568, online records show. The department did not immediately respond to requests for more detail Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A new poll released Thursday revealed an alarming level of fear among Americans over whether the 2024 elections will be “fair” and if ballots will be counted accurately.
According to the Suffolk University/USA Today poll, 46% of registered Republicans said they had no confidence ballots would be accurately counted and reported after people across the country head to the polls in November.
When narrowed to those supporting former President Donald Trump, who argued the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him, 52% said they lacked confidence ballots would be counted accurately.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Andrew Accused of Having ‘Underage Orgy’ on Jeffrey Epstein’s Private Island
Prince Andrew was accused of participating in an “underage orgy” on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, according to a newly-unsealed court document.
A 2014 court filing — included in the nearly 1,000 pages of documents that Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska ordered released last month — alleges an underage girl, only identified as “Jane Doe 3,” was “forced to have sexual relations with this Prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations.”
Those included Ghislaine Maxwell’s London apartment, an unspecified location in New York and “on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other underaged girls).”
The filing also claims Epstein told the “sex-slave” to “give the Prince whatever he demanded,” and alleges that Maxwell “facilitated Prince Andrew’s acts of sexual abuse by acting as a ‘madame’ for Epstein” and helping traffic the victim internationally.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pritzker Family Under Fire as Members Are Key Players in Harvard, Epstein Scandals
Until recently, the most controversial members of Chicago’s ultra-rich and powerful Pritzker family were the billionaire Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker — a longtime Democratic activist and bail reform advocate — and his billionaire transgender cousin Jennifer, who’s funneled millions into universities, medical schools, gender clinics and nonprofits in support of “gender-affirming” medical care.
This week, however, they’ve been overshadowed by family members who are embroiled in two of the biggest news stories of the moment.
The governor’s sister Penny, 64, is front and center with the resignation Tuesday of Harvard president Claudine Gay over multiple instances of plagiarism. Penny has been, since February 2022, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation — the governing board that recruited, hired and protected Gay in light of her scandals, including underplaying antisemitism at the school.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Prosecutor on Jack Smith Team Discouraged FBI From Investigating Clinton Foundation in 2016
EXCLUSIVE: A top prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team discouraged the FBI from pursuing an investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016 due to what he viewed as negligible evidence, despite multiple Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign transactions, Fox News Digital has learned.
Ray Hulser, the former chief of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section (PIN), who serves on Smith’s team currently prosecuting former President Donald Trump, was identified as the official who “declined prosecution” of the Clinton Foundation in 2016 in Special Counsel John Durham’s report.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ramaswamy Warns: ‘The System is Not Going to Let Trump Win’
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has warned the American people that “the system” is going to stop President Donald Trump from winning re-election.
Speaking during a new interview with Tucker Carlson, Ramaswamy said he believes the Democrats are planning to replace President Joe Biden with “another puppet.”
However, Ramaswamy explains that the Democrats are not planning to replace Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom, or anyone else from within the party.
According to Ramaswamy, the Democrats are backing GOP candidate Nikki Haley as a “Trojan horse.”
And Tucker Carlson agrees.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Second Batch of Jeffrey Epstein-Related Court Documents Revealed
A second batch in what’s set to be an avalanche of long-sealed court documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein were filed Thursday.
The trove of newly-unsealed files dropped a day after an initial batch of more than 40 court papers were made public — and featured dozens of rich, powerful and famous names who once socialized or worked with the late pedophile.
So far, a lengthy list of high-profile names — from Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton to late scientist Stephen Hawking — have already garnered a mention in the files released late Wednesday.
Sources said more documents are set to be filed Friday and possibly on Monday, for a total of 240 — and are expected to name more than 170 Epstein associates, ex-employees and victims in total.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Washington, D.C.’s crime spiral took a new turn this week when a flyer calling for shoplifters to “unite” and ransack a local grocery store was discovered outside a vacant building in Columbia Heights, a report shows.
“Shoplifters unite! Take everything that’s not nailed down. Bust windows,” the flyer stated, calling on people to reportedly ransack a Safeway location in the city, according to Fox 5 DC.
The flyer was found on an empty storefront window on Irving Street NW, according to the outlet. The outlet did not post the flyer’s message in its entirety, as it is unclear who posted the flyer and if their intentions to ransack the Safeway are legitimate.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Faces 14th Amendment Ballot Challenge in Illinois
Amid ongoing legal battles over his removal from the Republican primary ballots in Maine and Colorado, former President Donald Trump faces a new challenge to his eligibility for high office, this time in Illinois.
A group five Illinois voters, represented by Free Speech for People, has filed a challenge to Trump’s eligibility under the 14th Amendment, contending that his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot constituted “insurrection” and disqualified him from the presidency, The Hill reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Wants Special Counsel Jack Smith Held in Contempt for Filing Motions Despite Stay
Donald Trump’s legal team demanded Thursday that special counsel Jack Smith’s office be held in contempt for allegedly flouting a DC judge’s stay of further proceedings in the 2020 election subversion case against the former president.
In a 15-page motion, attorney John Lauro contended that Smith’s office continued to submit filings to Judge Tanya Chutkan in violation of the pause she ordered while the 77-year-old Trump’s challenge to the case against him makes its way through the courts.
“President Trump has filed a powerhouse motion to hold Crooked Joe Biden’s henchman, Deranged Jack Smith, in contempt of Court for repeatedly violating the stay order in the Washington DC J6 Witch Hunt,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
White House Staff Invited to ‘Morale Booster’ Party as Biden Bleeds Support: Report
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients on Wednesday invited hundreds of executive office staffers to a party intended to raise spirits as President Biden’s approval rating has plunged ahead of his 2024 re-election push.
The off-campus shindig will be held at a private venue in Northern Virginia later this month and is being described as a “morale booster,” according to Axios.
Zients, who is believed to be the president’s wealthiest aide, is using his own money to throw the bash, according to the outlet. Disclosure forms indicate Zients’ net-worth is between $89.3 million and $442.8 million.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Who is Iowa School Shooting Suspect Dylan Butler?
Gunman Dylan Butler was a student at the rural Iowa high school where cops said he killed at least one and injured five others in a Thursday morning attack.
The 17-year-old was armed with two firearms and a makeshift explosive device when he opened fire at Perry High School at 7:47 a.m., police said.
A sixth-grader was killed and five others injured, one of whom is reportedly the school’s principal.
Butler turned the gun on himself before police could find him, cops said.
He was found with the not-yet detonated improvised explosive device, which cops described as “rudimentary.”
The teenager is believed to have acted alone, though his motive remains unclear.
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Court Says Drug Users Have ‘Constitutional Right’ to Get High in Children’s Playgrounds
In British Columbia, drug addicts can satiate their habit anywhere they want because to prevent them from doing so is a violation of their Constitutional rights to “life, liberty and security of the person.”
BC Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled that it would cause “irreparable harm” to prevent drug addicts from using public places — even children’s playgrounds — to ingest their narcotics, the National Post reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Toronto mayor Olivia Chow has condemned the actions of suspected anti-Israel agitators who vandalized International Delicatessen Foods, a Jewish-owned deli in North York, early Wednesday morning. Chow made it clear that antisemitism is “not welcome” in the city, and slammed the perpetrators for making residents feel unsafe.
The incident comes after weeks of anti-Israel demonstrations across Toronto, many of which involved people carrying signs and chanting explicitly antisemitic slogans.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly Half of Canadians Seek Early Federal Election, Nanos Survey Reveals
A new poll has found that almost half of Canadians want a federal election called before the scheduled date of October 2025.
The survey numbers come from a Nanos Research survey, commissioned by CTV News, indicating that a significant portion of the population is eager to head to the ballot.
According to the poll, nearly one in two Canadians (46%) want to see a federal election held before the scheduled date, broken down further more people want to see it happen as soon as possible (29%) than those who want an election sometime in 2024 (17%). One in three (33%) of respondents would prefer 2025, while a minority (17%) have no preference.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trudeau Showers China With Foreign Aid Despite Human Rights Abuses
Canada is continuing to give foreign aid to China to the tune of $7.59 million, according to figures confirmed by the Department of Foreign Affairs in a new report.
The Statistical Report on International Assistance recently tabled in Parliament revealed that the federal government continues to send money to China, despite being cited internationally for various human rights abuses.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Hamas Terror Network in Europe
Hamas have been described as Nazis and recent arrests shows that the Islamic terror group tried to live up to the name by planning to kill Jews in Berlin.
The first warning that Hamas, an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, was preparing to deploy its international capabilities came when Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas spokesman, called for “violent acts against American and British interests everywhere, as well as the interests of all the countries that support the occupation.”
The question of whether this was anything more than empty rhetoric was settled when 7 Muslim terrorists were arrested across Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. While Islamic terrorist plots are nothing new in Europe, these arrests reveal that Hamas has built an international terrorist network across a number of nations in preparation for carrying out attacks.
The official release from Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office revealed that four of the Muslim men arrested “have been longstanding members of HAMAS and have participated in HAMAS operations abroad.”…
| — Hat tip: Daniel Greenfield | [Return to headlines] |
Declining Desire: Spaniards Shy Away From Parenthood
Spain’s demographic woes show no signs of reversing in the foreseeable future.
Following a year when births in the country hit a historic low, a survey commissioned by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo found that only 13% of Spaniards in their prime childbearing years planned to have children in the next five years.
When asked if they planned to have children in the next five years, 82.9% ruled out the possibility. A small percentage were undecided. In a country where the average age for women to have their first child is 33, there were no significant differences in responses between those under 30 and those over 30. There were slight differences between the sexes, with a greater reluctance on the part of women (84.9%) than men (80.8%).
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Sanctions Russian Diamond Giant Alrosa
The European Union has introduced sanctions against the world’s largest diamond mining company, Russia’s Alrosa, and its CEO Pavel Marinychev, the Council of the European Union announced on Wednesday.
“In line with the diamond ban we introduced with the 12th package of sanctions, the EU today lists Alrosa, the largest diamond-mining company in the world, and its CEO,” EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on social media platform X.
According to the decision, Alrosa’s assets located in the territory of the EU are frozen, and citizens of EU member states and companies operating there are prohibited from conducting commercial activities with the Russian company. In addition, Marinychev, who was appointed CEO of Alrosa in May of last year, was placed under a EU travel ban and his assets there were also frozen.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France to Ban Foreign-Funded Imams to Combat Radicalism
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has announced that foreign imams who are paid from abroad will be barred from entering France as of January 1st of this year, as the country seeks to increase the number of locally trained imams.
French broadcaster BFMTV also notes that after 1 April 2024, foreign imams already in the country will not be able to stay under the current terms of their immigration status.
The new policy is largely directed at around 300 or so imams from overseas, drawn primarily from Algeria, Turkey, and Morocco. The announcement of the new policy was sent to Turkey and Algeria.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz may leave his post prematurely, according to press reports. The German politician may be forced to take this step due to his abysmal poll ratings along with growing pressure behind the scenes over his role in a major corruption scandal dating back to his time as federal finance minister.
The Scholz government is currently immersed in chaos, and as a result, public opinion polls are devastating for the leadership in Berlin. Three-quarters of Germans are dissatisfied with the chancellor’s work, which is the worst result ever. Polling shows Germans want early elections and for the Scholz government to be replaced.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ISPK: Who Are the Jihadists Behind the Christmas Cathedrals Plot?
Following the arrests of three men suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in Cologne and Vienna, details of the plot have emerged showing that the Islamist terrorist group’s plans included buying an anti-aircraft missile in Ukraine.
The Vienna police arrested the three suspects at an asylum shelter in Ottakring, Exxpress reports. They are believed to belong to the terrorist militia Islamic State in the Afghan province of Kohrasan (ISPK).
The group is a UN-designated terrorist organization and analysts consider it the most dangerous of the Islamic State groups.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The majority of Germans believe that the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will win an absolute majority in an eastern state and obtain a prime minister position, according to a poll from the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
The new poll shows that 53 percent of Germans believe the AfD will likely achieve this goal while 32 percent think it is unlikely. In the eastern half of the country, however, the proportion of those who are “betting” on an AfD provincial prime minister is already 58 percent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The leader of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has slammed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his government for its attack on Polish public media and other institutions. Kaczynski said that his party would table a motion of no-confidence against the culture minister responsible for the assault.
Acting on instructions contained within a resolution of parliament, Polish Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz on Dec. 20 used the police to seize power and take over public media. This led to a wave of protests and to President Andrzej Duda vetoing a bill making €700 million available to public media.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Sees Highest Jihadist-Related Terror Arrests in 20 Years
In 2023, Spanish authorities arrested 78 people for offenses related to jihadist terrorism, a 66% uptick compared to the previous year.
The figures, compiled and released by the Ministry of Interior, are the highest recorded in nearly two decades. The rising number of jihadist terror-related arrests represents the continuation of an upward trend that began in 2015, the same year Europe witnessed an unprecedented influx of 1.3 million migrants, the vast majority of whom come from Islamic cultures.
The number of operations targeting jihadist terrorists increased as well, with the National Police and Civil Guard carrying out a total of 36 operations across Spain’s 50 provinces, nine more than the previous year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK General Election Second Half of This Year, Says PM Sunak
The United Kingdom and United States could be going to the polls to choose a new government within weeks of each other this year as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says his “working assumption” is a late-2024 vote.
A general election is likely in the “second half of this year”, UK leader Rishi Sunak has said, narrowing down the range without actually naming a date. There had been speculation of a Spring election this year, and legally it could take place at any time from now until late January 2025.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Officials Lap Up Idea of Facial Recognition Instead of Passports
Most standard passport checkpoints have already been replaced by ‘e-gates,’ reducing the need for human interaction (unless, of course, the technology isn’t working). British officials are now considering going a step further by introducing gates that allow arrivals using facial recognition.
Under the plans, arriving passengers would not be required to carry passports. Instead, they would need to download an application on their mobile device, answer a set of questions, scan their passport, and provide a photo, according to The Times.
Border Force Director-General Phil Douglas said the aim was to develop an “intelligent border” that used “much more frictionless facial recognition than we currently do.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The New Year has brought with it articles in the influential daily Rzeczpospolita arguing that Poland is losing out financially as a result of staying out of the eurozone. These articles cite economists who claim that Poland is losing money each year that it stays outside of the eurozone.
However, the matter is not as simple as euro enthusiasts would like it to be. In fact, economists are clearly divided on the issue, and just as important, so is Polish society.
According to the leader of the Confederation party, Krzysztof Bosak, the arguments in favor of the euro are political rather than economic. He says that it is all about an ever-closer union and the end of national sovereignty, rather than economic pragmatism.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia’s Election Commission Confirms Vucic’s Victory
On the heels of a weekend of large-scale demonstrations sparked by voter fraud accusations, Serbia’s Central Election Commission (RIK) published the final and official results of the December 2023 parliamentary elections on Wednesday, January 3rd, after a re-vote took place across eight precincts.
The RIK’s final results confirmed that President Aleksandr Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), along with its junior coalition partner the Socialist Party, have held onto the comfortable absolute majority they enjoyed in the National Assembly before the snap election, collectively garnering 53.3% of the vote.
The main opposition bloc, Serbia Against Violence (SPN), which had been polling at around 40% nationally before ballots were cast, massively underperformed according to the official results, winning just 23.66% of the vote and 65 parliamentary seats.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Antisemitic Messages Circulated Within Amazon Workforce
Internal communications leaked by a whistleblower reveal how employees of Amazon have been spreading pro-Hamas and anti-Israel messages at work. The revelation comes after the tech giant was itself accused of selling antisemitic materials online.
By leaking from one of the company’s internal Slack channels—an internal communications platform used by many businesses—an Amazon whistleblower has publicised messages that contain pro-Hamas sentiments and defamatory statements toward Israeli hostages captured by Hamas. Some employees shared posts accusing Israel of crimes, including organ theft, rape, and placing explosives in the belly of a child. Other posts claimed that Israeli hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian terrorist group on October 7th were treated well.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Standing Up for National Unity and National Survival
A lot has changed in Israel since Oct. 7, but a lot has also stayed the same.
What has changed is exemplified in the actions of the Kalmanzon brothers, members of the religious community of Otniel in the South Hebron Hills, on Oct. 7.
On Oct. 7, Elhanan Kalmanzon, a reserve major in the Commando Brigade and a Mossad officer, realized almost immediately that Israel was being invaded. He organized the security team in Otniel and messaged his brother Menachem.
“I’m packing up and going south. The nation of Israel needs us. Our brothers need us.”
Menachem joined Elchanan, and with their brother-in-law Itiel Zohar Horovitz, they drove down south, ending up at the gate of Kibbutz Be’eri.
Be’eri was one of Hamas’s primary targets for slaughter. Ninety-seven members of the small farming community were butchered that day. Greeting them at the entry gate were terrified residents.
“My sister is inside.”
“My brother is inside.”
“Please save them.”
The Kalmanzon brothers and Horovitz found an abandoned armored personnel carrier, and entered the kibbutz. For 14 and a half hours they went from house to house, rescuing families through the windows of their safe rooms, filling their vehicle, driving to safety, and returning to the farming community-turned-killing-field, over and over again.
On their final trip into Be’eri, after having saved more than a quarter of the residents, Elhanan was killed as he entered another home.
A delegation of members of Be’eri came to Otniel to pay a condolence call to the Kalmanzon family during their shivah. In the course of their meeting, Menachem praised the heroism and the hardened courage of the residents of Be’eri.
“There were 70-year-old women there. We’d offer them a hand to help them down [from the window].”
Swatting his hand in the air, as if pushing a fly away, Menachem continued, “This 70-year-old woman said, ‘No thank you.’ She’s a tough woman, a woman of labor. We laughed together and, ‘If they told you to go to the cow shed and do the morning milking in half an hour, you’d be off.’“
Be’eri and the surrounding kibbutzim were founded by hardcore Labor Zionists. They believed that the Jewish people would liberate themselves from two thousand years of exile and powerlessness, build their state and secure their freedom into the future through hard work, hard fighting and collective farming. They aspired to build a Jewish socialist state.
Over the years, as they became prosperous, their socialism dissipated. Zionism, it seemed, had finished its job. Socialism was superseded by progressivism, Zionism by post-Zionism.
Like the residents of neighboring kibbutzim, Be’eri’s members believed in coexistence with the Palestinians. They thought the biggest threat to that coexistence was people like the Kalmanzon brothers, who are religious and live in Judea or Samaria. They believed in the founding myth of the so-called peace process with the PLO—that there were “extremists” on both sides. The supposedly “moderate” PLO ruling Fatah faction had its “extremists” in Hamas. The “moderate” Israeli elite, of which the kibbutzim outside Gaza were very much a part, had its “extremist” religious Zionists, otherwise known as “settlers.” To reach peace, the “moderates” on both sides had to defeat their “extremists.”
Oct. 7 shattered that illusion. Hamas didn’t slaughter the people of Be’eri and surrounding communities on its own. It was joined by Fatah terrorists and thousands of “civilians.” These Palestinian “moderates” were full participants in the atrocities committed that day.
On the other hand, the people who arrived at the scene to save them, unbidden, were the Kalmanzon brothers from Otniel who were supposed to be their enemies. Since the ground operation began in Gaza, 45% of the soldiers killed in action have come from the religious Zionist community whose members comprise only 10% of the overall population…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Hostage Whose Body Was Seen in Hamas Video Was Killed During Failed IDF Rescue Mission
A hostage featured in a Hamas propaganda video was killed during a doomed rescue mission by Israeli forces, the military has now confirmed.
The Israeli Defense Forces initially denied Hamas’ claim that Sahar Baruch, 25, an electrical engineering student kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, had been killed in such an operation to free hostages.
But on Wednesday, it notified Baruch’s family that their son’s death came during a special forces mission on the night of Dec. 7, the Times of Israel reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Defence Minister Outlines His Proposed Plan for Hamas-Less, Post-War Gaza
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s defence minister on Thursday laid out his vision for the next phase of the war in Gaza, describing how Israeli forces would shift to an apparently scaled-down “new combat approach” in northern Gaza, while continuing to fight Hamas in the south of the territory “for as long as necessary.”
Ahead of a visit by the U.S. secretary of state, Yoav Gallant also outlined a proposal for how Gaza would be run once Hamas is defeated, with Israel keeping security control while an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body runs day-to-day administration, and the U.S. and other countries oversee rebuilding.
| — Hat tip: McN | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish police will be getting around in style after seizing a $6million fleet of ‘supercars’ from a fugitive Aussie bikie boss and converting them into patrol vehicles.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Claims Responsibility for Blast at Soleimani Grave Site in Iran That Killed 84
ISIS on Thursday claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in Iran at a memorial for slain Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.
The attack left dozens dead and hundreds injured, the terror monitoring group SITE reports.
CNN reports that 84 people are dead and 284 injured.
This is the deadliest attack in Iran since the Iranian revolution.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State (IS) Group Claims Responsibility for Deadly Iran Bombings
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Thursday for two explosions that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020.
The group posted a statement on its affiliate Telegram channels.
| — Hat tip: JW | [Return to headlines] |
US Takes Out Iran-Backed Militia Chief Who Led Attacks on Forces
WASHINGTON — The US military launched an airstrike in Iraq that killed a leader of an Iranian proxy group responsible for recent attacks on American forces in the Middle East, officials said Thursday.
The precision strike in Baghdad targeted a vehicle carrying Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, a high-ranking commander of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba — a US-designated terrorist organization based in Iraq and backed by Tehran.
The Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) — a coalition of Iran-backed militias nominally under the Iraqi military’s control — said al-Saidi, also known as “Abu Taqwa,” had been killed “as a result of brutal American aggression” in a statement after the strike.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
What the West’s Warning to Houthi Rebels Really Means
“The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce” reads a joint statement on Houthi attacks from the UK, America, Germany, Belgium and nine other Western nations. Despite prefacing this threat with the words “Let our message now be clear,” this confrontational approach to controlling the Red Sea poses more questions than it answers.
British warship HMS Diamond, a Type 45 Destroyer, shot down a suspected attack drone in December—the first time in decades that the Royal Navy has downed an aerial target in anger. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said this illustrated that the UK is “willing to take direct action, and we won’t hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”
The other signatories of this latest statement also say they are “determined to hold malign actors accountable for unlawful seizures and attacks.” But in what way, exactly?
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Aid to Ukraine Tops $200 Billion — Russia
by RT
Russia’s Defense Ministry has published statistics detailing the aid supplied to Ukraine from abroad during the conflict with Russia. According to its figures, Kiev’s foreign backers together have spent more than $203 billion on assisting the government of President Vladimir Zelensky.
Some 54 countries have been providing assistance to the Ukrainian forces amid the fighting with Russia, the ministry said on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has called for the execution of family members of suspected criminals who cannot be found.
During a Dec. 30 meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, Kadyrov told security commanders that relatives are acceptable recipients of punishment for criminal suspects who are not apprehended.
“If someone infringes on public safety, an officer or a tourist, and if we don’t even find the offender, we won’t keep looking for them, but we will definitely find their relatives,” said Kadyrov, according to translations from Newsweek.
He continued, “As is customary from time immemorial, if one of the relatives has done wrong and the criminal cannot be found, their brother, their father would be killed.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Hits Ukraine With North Korean Missiles, Seeks Iran Help as US Runs Out of Aid Funds
WASHINGTON — As the US runs out of money to supply Ukraine with more military aid, Russia has used North Korean missiles to attack Ukrainian targets in recent weeks — and is in talks to secure more ballistic weaponry from Iran, US officials said Thursday.
Moscow has launched Pyongyang’s rockets into Ukraine at least twice in recent weeks as it strengthens ties with other US adversaries, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russia and Ukraine Exchange Missiles, But Front Lines Bogged Down
Associated Press — Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that its air defenses shot down 10 Ukrainian air-launched missiles over Crimea, as both sides in the war pounded each other with long-range aerial strikes while fighting along the front line remained largely deadlocked.
One person was wounded by the falling debris of a downed aerial target in Sevastopol, a major port and the largest city on the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, regional Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal Halts Work Permits to Russia and Ukraine After Death of Citizens Fighting for Russian Army
Kathmandu: The Nepal government has suspended the issuance of work permits to its citizens to travel to Russia and Ukraine following the death of at least 10 Nepalese citizens who joined the Russian Army in the ongoing war between the two neighbours, media reports said on Thursday.
Nepal’s Department of Foreign Employment, in a notice, said that the matter was of serious concern as several Nepali youths were being illegally recruited into the Russian Army, My Republica newspaper reported.
‘The DoFE has stopped the approval of work permits to Russians and the Ukranians because of the reports of deaths of Nepali citizens joining the Russian Army. Lately, Nepali youths are being illegally recruited into the Russian Army. So far, 10 Nepalis serving in the Russian Army have died,’ the report said.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
The tightly-wrapped package was found about 1km off North Bondi Beach by a lifeguard on New Years Day.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Sex Crimes Squad detectives have charged a man following an investigation into an alleged sexual assault at an aged care home in NSW.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Man Dies in Pain After Waiting More Than 10 Hours for an Ambulance in Adelaide
In pain and vomiting, an Adelaide man’s 000 call should have resulted in an ambulance picking him up in no more than 60 minutes. He died while waiting for 10-hours.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
McDonald’s Australia Cashless Move Sparks Backlash
McDonald’s is facing a backlash following the decision by certain outlets to shift towards exclusively accepting cashless payments.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A father-of-two has explained why moving overseas with his family due to the cost of living has now ‘ruined’ Australia for him.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Peter Fitzsimons Pushes for Major Constitutional Change That Will Require Another Referendum
Peter FitzSimons has thrown his support behind another major change to Australia’s constitution just months after the failed Voice to Parliament referendum.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Abbott Hits Back at NYC Mayor Over ‘Baseless’ Suit Against Charter Bus Companies
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday excoriated New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams for suing 17 bus companies that have brought illegal aliens to the Big Apple.
Adams is seeking $708 million from the companies, insisting that defendants parties have violated a city executive order requiring that buses carrying ten or more persons that might seek emergency assistance notify New York City authorities in advance of the time and place of arrival. The move comes as Abbott continues his policy of bussing illegals to sanctuary cities in a bid to highlight the situation at the southern border. The suit blamed Abbott for at least 33,600 individuals who have arrived there.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Sues Texas Over New Law Making Illegally Crossing the Border Arrestable Offense
Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed a law making it illegal to illegally cross the US-Mexico border into Texas. This law made it possible for Texas law enforcement officers to arrest illegal immigrants and jail them if convicted. The law, set to go into effect in March, has been challenged by the Biden administration.
President Joe Biden, whose Department of Justice has repeatedly attempted to prevent Texas from protecting their border amid the massive onslaught of illegal immigrants flooding across the Rio Grande, recently sued the state for implementing border barriers, such as razor wire, to deter crossers.
The Department of Justice alleged that the border law is unconstitutional, saying “Texas’s Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) creates purported state immigration crimes for unlawful entry and unlawful reentry, permits state judges and magistrates to order the removal of noncitizens from the country, and mandates that state officials carry out those removal orders.
“But Texas cannot run its own immigration system,” it continued. “Its efforts, through SB 4, intrude on the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate the entry and removal of noncitizens, frustrate the United States’ immigration operations and proceedings, and interfere with U.S. foreign relations. SB 4 is invalid and must be enjoined.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Claims He Doesn’t Have Enough Taxpayer Money to Protect the Border
Democrat President Joe Biden has claimed that he doesn’t have enough taxpayer money to protect America’s borders, despite sending hundreds of billions in federal funding to fuel endless foreign wars.
The comments come as thousands of fighting-age foreign nationals continue to breach America’s frontier every day to enter the country illegally.
Biden was slammed by critics for his comments about doing “something” at America’s Southern Border.
The border is facing unprecedented levels of illegal immigrant crossings.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Admin ‘Actively Facilitating’ Illegal Immigration: Elon Musk
On Thursday, billionaire Elon Musk accused the Biden administration of actively facilitating illegal immigration in the United States. This after recently released data revealed shocking monthly numbers of illegal entries at the US-Southern border since President Biden took over the White House, got rid of strict Trump-era border policies, and created a wide-open border.
“At this point, there is no question that this administration is actively facilitating illegal immigration. The numbers speak for themselves,” Musk wrote on X.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California to Provide Free Sex Changes for Illegal Immigrants
It has been revealed that sex changes and hormone therapy will be included in the healthcare coverage offered to illegal immigrants in California. As of January 1, everyone, regardless of whether they entered the country via legal means, will qualify for Medi-Cal, the state’s public health insurance program. This program had typically been reserved for low-income individuals, families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, people in foster care, pregnant women, and low-income people with diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, or HIV/AIDS.
Prior to the new rules, illegal immigrants were only able to access emergency and pregnancy-related care, however surgical and non-surgical procedures that “bring primary and secondary gender characteristics into conformity with the individual’s identified gender, including ancillary services, such as hair removal” are now covered as well.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: Refugee Board Not Tracking Claimants Who Lie About Age Despite Past Cases
The federal tribunal in charge of approving refugee and asylum claims says it’s not keeping track of adults who lied about their age and claimed they were unaccompanied minors upon arrival in Canada.
True North asked the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada to provide statistics on how many adult claimants were discovered to have misrepresented their age to immigration officials. The board said such data were not tracked.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Internal Border Battles Rage as External Borders Expand
As the Schengen agreement expands to include Bulgaria and Romania, countries within the agreement are in conflict over illegal migrants crossing their borders, pushing the limits of how borderless the agreement actually is.
France and Italy share a common border that has seen emergency border controls enacted by France for nearly a decade, despite the internal border control being a supposed emergency measure meant to be temporary.
A Euronews report notes the growing pressure mounting between Italy and France as migrants often cross into France and are pushed back to the Italian border town of Ventimiglia, despite a ruling by the European Court of Justice stating that systematic pushbacks of migrants were illegal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: African Migrants Charged in Brutal Beating, Gang-Rape of Husband and Wife in Berlin Park
Charges have been brought against three African migrants with extensive criminal records who allegedly participated in the brutal beating and gang-rape of a husband and wife in a park in Germany, according to reports.
The incident unfolded at Görlitzer Park in Berlin on the morning of June 21, but charges and key details about the suspects have just been made public this week.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The spread of political Islam through Western Europe has been made possible by a failed, German-led migration policy that has led to an increased risk of terrorism across the continent, the chief security advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned.
In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt, György Bakondi took aim at the way Western European governments had not just turned a blind eye to, but actively encouraged illegal immigration following the migrant crisis of 2015, and claimed that the future of the continent is in doubt without a radical U-turn on immigration.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
James O’Keefe Exposes Secret Migrant Center Bussing to Illegals to Phoenix Airport
American journalist James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group posted a video on Wednesday in which a person working at what O’Keefe describes as a “secretive Migrant Refugee Facility” in Phoenix, Arizona appeared to offer a bribe in order to have him not report on the facility’s activities.
The alleged facility worker, Jesus Moreno, was seen on video demanding that O’Keefe vacate the facility, despite the fact that he was standing on a public sidewalk.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Venezuelan illegal immigrant male who was arrested last week after he was seen carrying a machete at the US Capitol has been revealed to have been captured and later released in 2022 amid the porous southern border under the Biden administration.
Jose Leonardo Marquez-Marquez, 23, was taken into custody after he was caught with a machete, a butcher’s knife and a brick at the US Capitol, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (CE) reports. He was booked on Dec. 27 by deportation officers from the ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) Washington, DC field office after being arrested by US Capitol Police on Dec. 26.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Jersey officials are deploying cops to send migrants on Manhattan-bound NJ Transit trains as soon as they touch down in the Garden State.
Despite New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy claims that America is ‘open for all to come here,’ he has refused to offer any programs to migrants seeking refuge in his state.
Migrants were dropped off at NJ train stations in an attempt to bypass New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ executive order that has limited arrivals from Texas
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Three Syrian citizens have now been charged and brought to trial for raping an underage girl in Sweden and transmitting child pornography. They are now appearing in Linköping district court for the crime, which was committed in September 2022.
The three suspects, two aged 17 and another one 18, are accused of raping an underage girl in a public toilet at the Garden Association in central Linköping on Sept. 18, but they are only appearing in court now over a year after the incident.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Deportations of Criminals and Failed Asylum Seekers Down by 50 Per Cent Since Brexit
In Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s first full year in office, the number of asylum seekers removed by the government dropped by nearly half compared to 2016, when the British public voted to leave the European Union, in large part in response to mass migration.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Up to 50,000 Migrants Could Cross Channel to UK This Year
Rishi Sunak has already claimed credit for the reduction of illegal Channel crossings in 2023, which is still the second-highest total since records began. But official forecasts for this year add further credence to the view that the drop was simply a “glitch” caused by bad weather.
Leaked Border Force documents contain projections of crossings rising to around 35,000 in 2024, up from 2023’s provisional figure of 29,437. The documents, seen by The Daily Telegraph, suggest that the upper projection for the year ahead of us is as high as 50,000, which would be a record high.
Sunak’s Conservative government described stopping the small-boat crossings as one of its five key priorities for 2023. Having failed to do this, Home Secretary James Cleverly has shifted the goalposts to make 2024 the ‘target’ year to “bring it down to zero.” It is telling that the prime minister’s spokesman has refused to back this line.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Mexican Soldiers Supervise Migration Route as Illegals Rush US Border
Mexican soldiers are being deployed to oversee pathways used by masses of migrants who are given GPS coordinates identifying predetermined crossing points along the Rio Grande.
In Border Hawk’s latest exclusive report from Mexico, correspondent Efrain Gonzalez talks to migrants in a large caravan as they receive instructions from mysterious sources on the final leg of their journey to the U.S. border.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Elon Musk Zings Mavericks’ Mark Cuban as Billionaires Debate DEI Merits
Tesla CEO Elon Musk zinged Dallas Mavericks minority team owner Mark Cuban Thursday as the two debated diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) in business.
Musk responded to Cuban after the billionaire gave his opinions on diversity, equality and inclusion.
“If you don’t think there is a need for DEI and it doesn’t create a competitive advantage for your company, just look at the @x posts/replies/quotes below,” Cuban wrote.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK-based free speech advocates the Free Speech Union (FSU) are warning that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the country’s financial regulator, has come up with a proposal that could end up having a “chilling effect” on free speech.”
The proposal is to start treating what would be perceived as a lack of diversity and inclusion as a non-financial risk, where large companies are concerned.
Proceeding from that, FCA wants that “risk” to be “treated appropriately within the firm’s governance structures.”
And all of this is bad news, as far as the Free Speech Union is concerned.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Lululemon Founder Slams Company’s Inclusion Efforts: ‘Everything to Everybody’
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson criticized his former company’s “whole diversity and inclusion thing” in a recent interview, claiming the sportswear brand is trying to be “everything to everybody.”
“They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody,” Wilson told Forbes in an interview published Tuesday. “And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody… You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”
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New Hampshire House Approves Transgender Surgeries, Sports Bans
The New Hampshire House on Thursday voted in favor of banning doctors from performing gender-related surgeries on minors, but not the proscription of other treatments such as hormone therapy.
The bill passed in a 199-175 vote, according to The Hill. It next heads to the Republican-controlled Senate. The lower chamber also approved a measure requiring that athletes compete on teams in line with their sex.
Twenty-two states have enacted bans on transgender surgeries for minors, according to the pro-LGBT Movement Advancement Project. Twenty-one of those have also banned lesser medical treatments.
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Nolte: Disney Blunders Into 2024 PR Disaster With Man-Hating ‘Star Wars’ Director
We’re only four days into the new year, and because God loves us, the Disney Grooming Syndicate is already dealing with a crippling public relations disaster.
Already, Disney is reeling from the hideous Rachel Zegler’s big mouth. Her inane and breathtakingly arrogant comments about her upcoming Snow White remake forced Disney to push the movie’s release ahead a full year in the hope we all forget how hideous and arrogant its star proved to be.
Already, Disney is dealing with 2023, a disastrous year at the box office filled not only with box office flops but with the kinds of flops that kill franchises forever.
And now, if Disney held out any hope of launching into 2024 with a fresh start, director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has not only s*** all over that; she has caused even more damage to Disney’s faltering Star Wars franchise, a franchise that cannot afford to take another hit.
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The Digital ID Rollout is Becoming a Hacker’s Dream
Governments and corporations around the world are showing great enthusiasm in either already implementing, or planning to implement some form of digital IDs.
As it turns out ironically, these efforts are presented to citizens as not only making their lives easier through convenience, but also making sure their personal data contained within these digital IDs is safer in a world teeming with malicious actors.
Opponents have been warning about serious privacy implications, but also argue against the claim that data security actually gets improved.
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Top Climate Expert Blows Whistle: Carbon Dioxide Does Not Cause ‘Global Warming’
One of the world’s leading climate experts has spoken out to warn the public that the globalist green agenda claim that carbon dioxide causes “global warming” is “wholly untrue.”
In recent years, unelected bureaucrats, corporate elites, and their allies in global governments and the media have been promoting the “decarbonization” agenda.
This agenda, championed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations (UN), alleges that carbon dioxide is causing the so-called “climate crisis.”
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Transgender Athletes to Face Increased Restrictions at Paris 2024 Olympics
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will put increased restrictions on transgender athletes amid controversy over their advantages over women.
The new restrictions will require transgender to have assumed their new gender identity before the age of 12, thereby excluding other transgender athletes who may have hoped to compete in this year’s games. In 2021, for instance, Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand competed in the women’s games for weightlifting at the age of 43 — the oldest competitor that year.
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Obamerica: The Art of Collapse.
“While Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser tries to restore ‘law and order’ to the nation’s Capitol, local CVS stores aren’t waiting around – and have resorted to displaying photos of products on their shelves instead of the actual items themselves.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/crime-ridden-cvs-stores-dc-resort-framed-photos-toilet-paper
“Washington, D.C.’s crime spiral took a new turn this week when a flyer calling for shoplifters to “unite” and ransack a local grocery store was discovered outside a vacant building in Columbia Heights.”
https://nypost.com/2024/01/04/news/dc-crime-spiral-takes-new-twist-with-apparent-call-for-shoplifters-to-unite-against-retailer-report/
At some point, the Guardians of Civilization MUST Draw the Line. Just sayin’..
“The new restrictions will require transgender to have assumed their new gender identity before the age of 12”
Idiots tapdancing. Why do we put up with this?
“Why do we put up with this?”
Boiling frogs.
“The Revolution won’t happen with guns, rather it will happen incrementally, year by year, generation by generation. We will gradually infiltrate their educational institutions and their political offices, transforming them slowly into Marxist entities as we move towards universal egalitarianism.” —Max Horkheimer, Co-founder Frankfurt School
The 11 Recommendations Of The Frankfurt School
1. The creation of racism offences
2. Continual change to create confusion
3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
4. The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority
5. Huge immigration to destroy identity
6. The promotion of excessive drinking
7. Emptying of churches
8. An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
9. Dependency on the state or state benefits
10. Control and dumbing down of media
11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family
You vote your way into ‘toddlerism, but you’ve gotta shoot your way out.
Questions? Peanuts? Popcorn? Bueller??
And here we are, the cusp of civil war.
“And here we are, the cusp of civil war.”
And just one Franz Ferdinand-style shot away..
You have no idea just how correct you are Fred.
The Tavistock Institute here in London, infamous for providing “treatment” for pre-pubescent children, recently revealed that nine out of ten such who present as uncertain about their gender, change their minds after puberty.
This should not be a surprise; most, if not all humans go through a homosexual phase around puberty. but turn out heterosexual as adults.
Any attempt at “gender re-assignment” should be treated as child abuse, like FGM, until the person concerned is adult- I’d say at least eighteen.
________________________________________________________
STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH
Sasha Latypova
Born Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Nationality US
Alma mater Amos Tuck School of Business Administration
Exposed
• Covid-19/Vaccine
• gain of function
• Operation Warp Speed
Member of Howbadismybatch
Former big pharma executive who exposed how all Covid countermeasures, including the biological warfare agents marketed as “Covid-19 vaccines” were created, produced and distributed in a covert military program, where the pharma manufacturers only worked as subcontractors.
Alexandra ‘Sasha’ Latypova is a former pharmaceutical industry executive and entrepreneur. Her research has exposed how all
Covid countermeasures, including the biological warfare agents marketed as “Covid-19 vaccines” were created, produced and distributed in a covert military program, where the pharma manufacturers only worked as subcontractors.
She is the founder of iCardiac Technologies and serves on the board of directors for Innovocracy.
Background
Latypova grew up in the former Soviet Union, in the Ukrainian SSR, city of Zaporizhzhya, and migrated to the United States in the 1990s after the planned economic collapse
Own words
Latypova worked 25 years working in pharmaceutical industry in various roles, countries and ultimately managing her own companies. She worked initially as an econometrics and management consultant, and later as clinical trials contractor for 60+ pharmas, large and small. Her clients included Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, AstraZeneca, GSK, and many smaller biotechnology companies. She worked with “channel partners” such as large contract research organizations (CROs) – Parexel, PPD, ICON, and others. She interacted with the FDA and other regulators on behalf of her clients, and as a member of Cardiovascular Safety Research Consortium on subjects related to assessments of cardiovascular safety of new drugs in clinical trials.
Biological weapons
“The perpetrators desperately, at all cost, need you to to believe that “mutating viruses in a lab” achieves some scary result, that then can be “leaked”. That anyone can do it, even a PhD student in their garage. That our enemies are doing it and will “release” a super scary bug any time now, unless the Government is “prepared” by making a stockpile of “predictive vaccines” that can be deployed in DAYS after a new scary virus is detected in China. Or Timbuktu.
It is, however, a narrative. There is no way to “mutate viruses” in a lab in the way they all imply – to artificially make them deadlier and more transmissible at the same time. This is a propaganda fairytale with a very specific goal. You should be very concerned about any person (on “their” side or “ours”) who repeats it with a serious face.
Sure, scientists can experiment with soups of DNA/RNA and grow things in petri dishes. They can design mutations on the computer and try to make concoctions of things. Are those “viruses” that can “leak from the lab” and “infect the world”? No. The proof of this is that while there are 1000 biolabs in the US and Western world playing with viruses. no pandemics or epidemics have resulted from these activities.”
Sasha Latypova (27 January, 2023)
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Hearing in the Swedish parliament
Sasha Latypova:
The process behind the development, approval and distribution of the Covid19 vaccine – Seminar in the Riksdag
Published 3 hours ago • 1.5K views
https://swebbtv.se/w/npZDwcHCptQJSgkY3pwKLZ
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How safe and effective are the vaccines against Covid-19?
Sasha Latypova:
The process behind the development, approval and distribution of the Covid19 vaccine – Seminar in the Riksdag
Seminar in the Riksdag on 29 September where questions about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine are discussed.
It has now been just over two and a half years since mass vaccination against Covid-19 began. The WHO has called off the pandemic, but the Public Health Agency recommends continued vaccination for people over 50 and for risk groups.
Since the start of the vaccine campaign, data has been compiled from authorities in various reporting systems and independent research has presented thousands of peer-reviewed articles in various scientific journals from all corners of the world. The picture of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness against Covid-19 and how the vaccines have worked and not worked is thus beginning to become clear.
Before Sweden votes to give the WHO increased powers and a greater mandate to control future pandemic measures and vaccination programs, it is important to get a broader perspective on how safe the vaccines that the WHO recommended and still recommend against Covid-19 are. It is also important that we politicians and the media can ask relevant questions about the conclusions drawn by the Public Health Authority and the recommendations given given the data that is regularly published in the scientific literature.
It is also necessary to get clarity on how the process, to quickly launch the emergency approved vaccines to different countries has gone about as well as gain insight into the discussion and arguments about whether there were effective medicines against Covid 19 when the pandemic broke out or about mass vaccination with an emergency approved vaccine was the only and correct way, as the WHO still claims. This is not least important in order to avoid any errors and shortcomings from being repeated during the next pandemic.