Many Washington University graduates expressed solidarity with Palestinians at their commencement ceremony today. Meanwhile, Princeton students ended their hunger strike after ten days due to hunger and health concerns.
In other news, a man was arrested in St. John’s, Newfoundland after he assaulted a police officer with a block of cheese.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Daniel Greenfield, Dean, DV, JW, LP, 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.
Argentina’s Budget Back in Black With $589M Budget Surplus in January
Argentina, under newly-elected President Javier Milei, is in the black for the first time in nearly 12 years, as its first monthly budget ended with a surplus of $589 million, at the official U.S. exchange rate.
The country’s economy ministry announced the milestone on Friday, adding the surplus also includes payments on interest accrued on the public debt.
This is “the first (monthly) financial surplus since August 2012, and the first surplus for a January since 2011,” the Economy Ministry said, as reported by the Telam news agency.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Business Bankruptcies Up 47 Percent Since January; the Worst Start Since 2017
Some 1,392 businesses, institutions and organizations were declared bankrupt since January 1, an increase of about 47 percent over the same period in 2023. That was the highest total for the first four months of the year since January-April 2017. On a monthly basis, business bankruptcies rose by 6 percent.
The figures include 167 sole proprietorships that were declared bankrupt during the period, and 1,225 businesses established with another legal form. The totals do not include personal bankruptcies, which also reached 135, the most since the first four months of 2021. That was one year after the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Low Growth and Welfare Cuts Push Attal Government to the Brink
Near-zero growth, coupled with savage welfare cuts and broad perceptions of fiscal mismanagement, look set to push French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government to the brink of collapse after European Parliament elections.
Attal is expected to face, and lose, a confidence vote after an expected heavy defeat for Macron’s Ensemble coalition in the June 9 European contest.
Ensemble, which includes Macron’s Renaissance party and seven others, will receive 17 per cent of votes in June, according to a May 10 Ifop poll, while Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party will receive 32 per cent, or nearly double.
France’s deficit skyrocketed by 22 per cent in one year to 5.5 per cent of GDP, the national statistics institute announced in March.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Biden Ends the U.S.-Israel Alliance at a Fortuitous Moment
Delegations to the Egyptian-hosted hostage negotiations left Cairo on Thursday night after talks collapsed. A member of the U.S. delegation led by CIA director Willian Burns briefed reporters that the talks failed “due to Israel’s operations in Rafah.”
Under normal circumstances—circumstances that would see the United States siding with Israel in its demands for the release of all hostages, as well as the eradication of Hamas’s forces and its regime of terror—such a statement could easily have been interpreted as supportive of Israel’s operation in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, where terrorist strongholds still function.
Israel made an offer to Hamas that U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken praised as “incredibly generous.” Hamas rejected it completely, so Israel renewed its offensive entering Rafah. Nothing weakens Hamas’s negotiating position more than defeat. And now, having rejected the deal, Hamas can only expect a much worse offer from its perspective whenever talks are renewed.
Unfortunately, that isn’t what the U.S. announcement meant at all. It meant that the Hamas and the U.S. positions are in complete alignment. This isn’t new information. The fact that the United States, like Hamas, views the hostages as a means to force Israel to capitulate to Hamas’s demands—including ending the war with Hamas victorious, leaving more than 100 held captive behind in Gaza and thousands of terrorists freed from Israeli prisons—became clear last Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Columbia University Student in Handcuffs Rips Up Diploma on Commencement Stage in Act of Protest
A Columbia University student wearing zip-tie handcuffs tore up her diploma on stage Sunday as an act of defiance following recent concerns about anti-Israel demonstrations on campus.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Comer Investigating Constitutionality of Biden’s Voting Executive Order
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Oversight Committee Republicans are requesting from the White House “documents and communications related to the creation and implementation” of President Biden’s executive order on “Promoting Access to Voting.”
The committee is probing the constitutionality of the order.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Controlled Demolition, Precision Cutting Used to Remove Key Bridge Wreckage in Baltimore
BALTIMORE, Md. (WBFF) — On Monday Unified Command used precision cutting to clear the Key Bridge wreckage on top of the Dali cargo ship in Baltimore.
Following the controlled demolition, crews are working to survey the debris that surrounds the Dali.
From there, they will be able to remove the remaining steel and work toward refloating the ship, ultimately removing it from the channel.
Officials with the Key Bridge Unified Command said the controlled demolition went as expected.
“That will allow us now, over the next 48-hours safely move the vessel Dali inside the Port, from the Federal Channel, and it will also allow us to take out the remaining wreckage, steel truss and concrete pavement at the bottom of the river, get that out of the way, so we can meet our commitment at the end of this month to fully open this navigation channel,” said Lt. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Authentic Campaigns, the digital marketing and fundraising agency run by the daughter of the judge overseeing the falsified business records case against Trump, has been revealed to have worked with a group that has sought to take Trump off the ballot.
Loren Merchan’s company worked with the Brennan Center for Justice, highlighted on the company’s “Our Work” page. The Brennan Center for Justice filed an amicus brief in support of the Supreme Court rejecting Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove him from the ballot, Natalie Winters reported for War Room.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
GameStop Storms 110% Toward Best Day Since 2021 on Return of Meme Stock Folk Hero ‘Roaring Kitty’
GameStop shares skyrocketed Monday as the brick-and-mortar video game retailer once again enjoyed a bump from retail investors celebrating the return of meme stock celebrity “Roaring Kitty” — whose wordless social media post drove the beleaguered company’s stock price up more than 100% at one point.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hunter Biden’s Trial on Federal Gun Charges to Begin June 3 in Delaware
Hunter Biden’s latest attempt to prevent his federal firearms case from going to trial has been quashed, with Judge Maryellen Noreika confirming that proceedings will commence as planned in the first week of June.
Lawyers for the president’s son asked the Third United States Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Noreika’s recent rejection of their bid to dismiss the case, however, the three-judge panel sided with her on Thursday and ordered that the trial go forth.
According to the Associated Press, the panel ruled the way it did not because it had reviewed the merits of the request, but rather because they simply did not have the jurisdiction to adjudicate on the issue at hand.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who now serves as a political pundit and news show host on MSNBC, has been forced to retract a statement from her forthcoming book in which she said that President Joe Biden did not check his watch during a ceremony for 13 deceased military men and women killed in Afghanistan.
Psaki said that future editions of the book would not have this statement. The “detail in a few lines of the book about the exact number of times he looked at his watch will be removed in future reprints and the book,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Lindsey Graham Suggests Nuking Iran and Hamas
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news
Warmonger in chief Lindsey Graham suggested Sunday that Israel, with the help of the US, should use nuclear weapons on Iran and Hamas fighters in Palestinian territories.
Appearing on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” the Republican Senator asked “Why did we drop two bombs, nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?”
“To end a war that we couldn’t afford to lose,” Graham continued, adding “You don’t understand, apparently, what Israel is facing. They’re facing three groups: Iran, who has received $80 billion in aid… They’re taking that money to kill all the Jews.”
Graham claimed that Israel is facing a significant threat to its existence, and therefore should do whatever it takes, just as the US did in World War Two.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Louisiana Parishioners Stop Armed Teen From Entering Church During Children’s First Communion
A 16-year-old male was arrested in Abbeville, Louisiana on Saturday after he attempted to enter St. Mary Magdalen Church armed with a rifle.
Police were called to the church at 10:35 am to reports of a “suspicious person with a gun,” the Abbeville Police Department said in a statement.
Around 48 minutes into the service, a man approached Father Nicholas Dupre and whispered into his ear. Father Dupre told parishioners to sit and he began praying the Hail Mary. People began looking toward the back of the church, and the priest and deacon slowly ducked behind the altar.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Man With Stab Wound, Bloody Hammer Asks Deputies for Help
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — One man was taken to the hospital, and another was arrested following a stabbing Sunday afternoon along North Main Street in downtown Memphis.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said the stabbing happened just outside the county administration building and Memphis Police Department’s headquarters.
Deputies said Aaron Collins, 47, was arrested after he walked by the area and was identified by a witness as the attacker.
Deputies said just before 4 p.m., they were approached by a man who was bleeding and carrying a bloody hammer and said he had just been attacked by three men.
The victim said he was stabbed in the right shoulder and that he used the hammer to defend himself.
A witness told deputies she and the victim were sitting at a table at 160 North Main when he got into an argument with a man. She said two more men showed up, and one of them stabbed the victim with a large knife.
The witness said Collins was the man who stabbed her friend. Deputies said they found a knife covered with blood in Collins’ backpack and an open cut on his left wrist.
| — Hat tip: Roger | [Return to headlines] |
Man Who Attacked Times Square Police Officers With Machete Sentenced to 27 Years
Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
A federal judge has handed down a 27-year prison sentence to the suspect who pleaded guilty to attacking a trio of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2022 in the name of radical Islamic extremism.
Trevor Bickford, 20, of Wells, Maine, pleaded guilty in January to multiple counts of attempting three attempted murder charges and three charges of assaulting U.S. employees or officers just over a year prior on Dec. 31, 2022. Together, the charges carried a maximum potential penalty of up to 120 years in prison.
On Thursday, May 9, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel sentenced Mr. Bickford to serve 324 months in prison for the attack, a period lasting 27 years. The sentence is longer than the 10-year prison term Mr. Bickford’s lawyers requested but less than the 50-year prison term prosecutors had sought.
During the 2022 attack, Mr. Bickford allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase meaning “God is great,” that perpetrators have shouted in past Islamic extremist incidents. Federal prosecutors had alleged and were prepared to present evidence at trial, including post-Miranda statements from Mr. Bickford, indicating he had desired to travel abroad to wage “jihad” but instead chose to carry out his attack closer to home.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A black Marine Corps vet went on a months-long, hate-filled screed threatening to “cause mayhem” by gunning down white victims and aspiring to “progress into a serial killer,” federal prosecutors said.
Joshua Cobb, 23, of Trenton, New Jersey, penned a string of online posts and text messages vowing to gun down white people, and boasted he would “probably OD on my own adrenaline after the 10th body goes down,” the US Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said in a release Monday.
“It’s all a f***ing game and you all are going to die,” Cobb allegedly wrote in one text message last year. “I currently lack the means necessary to kill as many as I intend to but one day I will have the available resources (finance) to purchase the appropriate weaponry for my killings.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
By Mark Glennon of Wirepoints
Whose side will Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson be on if protesters become lawbreakers at the August Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and how will he direct police to respond?
Concerns that Johnson will side with lawbreakers already are common, and Johnson’s interview published Sunday by the Chicago Tribune should increase those concerns.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Melinda Gates Abruptly Quits Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Melinda Gates revealed on X that she is resigning as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with her final day being June 7.
“After careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
My last day of work at the foundation will be June 7th.”
She plans to focus on her own philanthropic efforts, supported by a $12.5 billion grant.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Muslim Terrorists Are in Our Midst’: Florida Imam Calls for Annihilation of All Jews
Jews — who are “tyrannical” and the “brothers of apes and pigs” — should be “annihilate[d],” according to a Florida Islamic cleric, who also accused Israel’s army of being “worse than the Nazis.”
During a sermon at the North Miami Islamic Center in Florida in late April, Imam Dr. Fadi Kablawi called for Allah to support “our oppressed brothers” in Palestine, as well as for the total annihilation of Jews, whom he referred to as “apes and pigs” — a phrase that radical Islamists have historically used to describe Jews.
“Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews… for they are no match for You,” he said. “Oh Allah, annihilate the brothers of apes and pigs… [and] cut off their seed.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Swing State Poll ‘An Absolute Disaster’ for Biden: CNN Data Reporter
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten called new poll results showing Joe Biden trailingformer President Trump in several key swing states calamitous for the president on Monday.
“Frankly, for the Joe Biden campaign, these numbers are an absolute disaster,” Enten said, pointing to the results of a New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer poll showing Trump ahead of Biden in Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona.
“He’s up six [in Arizona]. Look at this, nine in Georgia, 13 in Nevada, my goodness gracious, my God,” he said, describing Trump’s numbers among likely voters. “That is a huge lead. No Democrat has lost [Nevada] since John Kerry lost it back in 2004.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In a new post on X, Elon Musk said that the prosecutions against former President Donald Trump will only propel him higher in polling. Trump, who is running against his old foe President Joe Biden, faces four criminal prosecutions, two at the hands of Biden’s own Department of Justice and two served by Democrat district attorneys in Georgia and New York.
“The more unfair the attacks on Trump seem to the public, the higher he will rise in the polls,” Musk wrote. Many have called the cases against Trump to “political prosecution.” Trump has referred to them as “witch hunts.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nolte: Democrat-Run California About to Get Hit With 50 Cent Per Gallon Gas Tax
In today’s edition of Getting What You Vote For, the dummies in California are about to get hit with a 50 cent per gallon gas tax.
Remember, California voters have handed the Democrat party full power over the former Golden State. Democrats run everything from the governorship on down. Democrats not only hold majorities in the state legislature, they hold veto-proof majorities. In other words…
Republicans are powerless in California. And so…
According to Triple-A, the average cost of a gallon of gas in California today is $5.29.That’s nearly $1.70 more than the national average. In some parts of California, gas costs $6.32 per gallon. The lowest cost for a gallon of gas in that Democrat-run [sump] is $5.02.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Veteran Pollster Scott Rasmussen says recent polling coming out on public opinion on campus protests, economy, and the Trump criminal cases. Rasmussen points out that just shy of six months to Election Day, are good indicators for predicting the winner. “37% of voters say they are better off and 56% say they’re not. And you know, those are horrible numbers if you’re the incumbent. The reason that I find it humorous, is a lot of people on the Biden side of the aisle are mocking Donald Trump for asking that question. Because in their minds, obviously, things were worse four years ago, but again, they’re just kind of misreading where the public is on this issue, and some others as well,” says Rasmussen. Additional interview with Heritage Foundation’ Paul Dans on star witness Michael Cohen’s testimony in the Trump criminal trial in New York City.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Princeton Students End Hunger Strike Due to Hunger, ‘Health Concerns’ After 10 Days
On day 10 of their hunger strike, Princeton students decided to give up their protest and grab a bite to eat. In an Instagram post, the 13 students who had been camped out on the New Jersey campus for 10 days, undertaking a hunger strike for Gaza, gave the update that “the first hunger strike wave ended.” On day 9, there had been 13 students hunger striking, but they swapped out on day 10 for 7 alternates.
“Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment Update: Due to health concerns of the 13 strikers who fasted for 9 days,” they wrote, “the first hunger strike wave ended, and the second wave has begun. In the tradition of rotary hunger strikes, Seven new strikers are indefinitely fasting for a free Palestine.”
However, there is good reason to believe that in this case, indefinitely means 10 days. The graphic they shared reads “we will not rest until divest,” referring to one of their demands, which is for Princeton to divest investment and cultural ties with Israel.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Israel PAC Guns for Massie — Did Speaker Johnson Encourage Attack?
A prominent pro-Israel super PAC is gunning for Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, in retribution for his many recent votes against bills that advance Israel’s agenda in Washington. The group may have had some high-placed encouragement: Massie says House Speaker Mike Johnson recently threatened to sic the Israel lobby on Republicans who didn’t toe the pro-Israel line.
The vaguely-named United Democracy Project — the independent campaign-spending arm of the mighty American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — announced that it’s pouring $300,000 into advertisements on Fox television affiliatesin Massie’s home state of Kentucky. “We are trying to shine a light on the radical anti-Israel record of Tom Massie,” spokesman Patrick Dorton told the Louisville Courier Journal. “We want every single voter in the state of Kentucky to know about his anti-Israel actions.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Palestinian Protests Mark Wash U Graduation Ceremony, Weeks After Campus Arrests
Many of Washington University’s newest graduates at their commencement ceremony Monday expressed solidarity with Palestinians in the war zone of Gaza as dozens of students, alumni and supporters gathered outside campus to protest the university’s continuing investments in Boeing, which supplies the Israeli military with weapons.
More than an hour before the 9 a.m. graduation ceremony began, protesters arrived near Lindell and Skinker boulevards to press their case that Wash U should disclose its investments and withdraw those in companies that provide weapons to Israel.
They’re also calling an end to the latest war in Gaza, where Israeli bombardments have killed thousands. Israel has waged the campaign since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Protesters Heckle Emory University President During Graduation Speech
DULUTH, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — After weeks of student-led protests over the War in Gaza, Emory University’s bachelor’s degree candidates graduated Monday in a ceremony 22 miles from campus.
During an introductory speech, Emory President Gregory Fenves ignored hecklers who could be heard shouting. Others in the audience applauded loudly at times, in an apparent attempt to drown out the hecklers.
Instead of the traditional commencement on the quadrangle on Emory’s campus, known as “the Quad,” the ceremonies were held at Gas South Arena in Gwinnett County near Duluth.
University officials said they moved the ceremony to the venue in Gwinnett County because of safety and security concerns on campus. Access to the Gas South District is highly restricted, unlike Emory, which has an open campus.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Mills Files Articles of Impeachment Against Biden for Withholding Israel Aid
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) formally filed articles of impeachment against President Biden on Friday due to his recent comments about withholding deliveries of heavy bombs to Israel if it launches a major attack on “population centers” in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.
Mills compared his move with the 2019 impeachment of then-President Donald Trump for briefly delaying weapons shipments to Ukraine and claimed Biden abused his power by trying to leverage military aid to get Israel to change its military tactics.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
RFK Jr. Says He Has Enough Signatures to Make Texas Ballot, Potentially Hurting Trump
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday he has enough signatures to make the presidential ballot in Texas, throwing yet another wrench into the Biden-Trump 2024 matchup.
The independent candidate turned in 245,572 signatures to the Texas secretary of state’s office — twice as many as required — after gathering them in just two months, his campaign said in a statement.
The Lone Star State has one of the toughest ballot requirements, with independent candidates being required to submit a petition with a minimum of 1% of the total votes in the last presidential election.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
RFK Jr. Sues Meta Over Film, Super PAC Alleges ‘Collusion’ With Gov’t to Censor Third-Party Hopeful
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and American Values 2024, a political action committee supporting his campaign, filed a First Amendment and election interference lawsuit against Meta on Monday, arguing that the tech giant censored his biographical film, “Who Is Bobby Kennedy?”
Kennedy’s campaign team announced its intention to sue Meta last week, just days after the pact released the 30-minute biographical film, narrated by actor Woody Harrelson, about the independent candidate’s life.
The campaign alleged that viewers who tried to share the film on Facebook and Instagramwere unable to upload the video and that parent company Meta was “inconsistent” with its reasons why.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rumble Sues Google Over Digital Advertising Practices
WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) — Video sharing platform Rumble (RUM.O), opens new tab said on Monday it has sued Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, arguing the tech giant has engaged in anticompetitive practices across its digital advertising products and sought damages in excess of $1 billion.
The suit alleges Google has monopolized the ad stack “by buying companies up and down the chain, concurrently representing both ad buyers and sellers, while also running the exchange that connects those parties.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A $5 million pilot program bringing free beer, wine and vodka shots to San Francisco’shomeless alcoholics aims to relieve the city’s emergency services, but one addict-turned-recovery advocate says the effort misses the mark and only delays recovery for those who need it.
“It’s not a good idea, not when you consider the fact that, over the last four years, San Francisco spent $20 million to basically service a total of a couple of hundred people… by giving them free vodka and beer. For that amount of money, we could have funded 60 drug treatment beds instead,” Tom Wolf, founder of the Pacific Alliance for Prevention and Recovery, told “Fox & Friends First.”
“You really have to ask, where’s the recovery in all of this? What is the desired outcome of this program? They say it’ll save money, but we just spent $20 million bucks over the last four years. You have to really ask, ‘is it saving money, and is it making a difference?’“
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
School That Forced Asthmatic 10-Year-Old Girl to Mask in Class Forced to Prove Its Case in Court
A New York elementary school that forced a 10-year-old student with severe asthma and anxiety to wear a mask during the Covid-19 pandemic despite her a medical exemption will be going to court to defend itself from her lawsuit.
An appeals court recently sided with Children’s Health Defense, who sued the Franklin Square Union Free School District on behalf of the child, identified as Sarah Doe, and her mother. The judges agreed to reverse the dismissal of the suit by a district court last year and ruled that the case must move forward.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Snopes has reversed their previous “fact-check” which claimed that a diary purported to have been written by the president’s daughter Ashley Biden was a unproven to be authentic, indicating it was a fake. In a letter provided by Ashley Biden to a court during sentencing of those convicted for having stolen the diary, Biden herself confirmed the diary’s authenticity.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Blasts ‘Highly Conflicted’ Judge After Michael Cohen’s First Day of Testimony Wraps
Former President Donald Trump slammed Judge Juan Merchan as “highly conflicted” after Michael Cohen wrapped up his first day of witness testimony in the New York v. Trump trial Monday.
“We have a corrupt judge, and we have a judge who is highly conflicted, and he’s keeping me from campaigning,” Trump said outside of the courtroom. “He’s an appointed New York judge. He’s appointed. You know who appointed him? Democrat politicians. He’s appointed. He’s a corrupt judge and he’s a conflicted judge. And he ought to let us go out and campaign and get rid of this scam.”
“This day is truly going to go down as a day of infamy for the New York legal system, which… the whole world is laughing now at the New York weaponized legal system,” Trump added.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Tuberville After Attending Trump Trial: ‘Most Depressing Thing I’ve Ever Been In’
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) emerged from court proceedings Monday in former President Trump’s hush money criminal trial and called the Manhattan courtroom “the most depressing thing I’ve ever been in.”
“First of all, I’m disappointed in the courtroom. I’m hearing, ‘Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump.’ He is ‘former President Trump,’“ Tuberville said to the media outside the courtroom.
“Give him some respect. I mean, that’s what that place is in there. It is no respect. Here is what I’m seeing, too. It is depressing. That courtroom is depressing. This is New York City. The icon of our country. And we got a courtroom that is the most depressing thing I’ve ever been in.”
Tuberville took aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who he said enters the courtroom and “acts like it is his Super Bowl.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees reportedly voted on Monday to dismantle its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and transfer millions in funding instead to public safety and campus police on the heels of anti-Israel demonstrations.
The unanimous decision by the trustees will reallocate $2.3 million that the university spends on DEI programs toward police and public safety measures as part of its annual budget approval process, The News & Observer reported.
Last fiscal year, UNC Chapel Hill’s operating budget surpassed $4 billion.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Unusually Aggressive’ Anti-Trump Grand Jury in Arizona Went Rogue With Indictments
The Arizona grand jury that recently indicted 18 people for allegedly trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election with so-called ‘fake electors’ went completely rogue and took ‘aggressive steps to haul in witnesses,’ to the point where they ‘even brought charges against some’ who were told by prosecutors that they weren’t under investigation, Politico reports.
Their efforts ultimately resulted in a 58-page indictment which has ensnared various national and state Republicans — including one of Trump’s current top advisers, and several individuals who were previously in his orbit — with felony charges. Trump himself was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video Shows NYC Man Stab Random Woman Near Times Square
A New York City man sitting on a walker and smoking a cigarette was seen on video lunging at two women and stabbing one of them with a large knife on Saturday, in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack near Times Square.
The attack took place near Port Gourmet Deli on West 43rd and Eighth Avenue on Saturday evening.
Video obtained by the New York Post shows a man walking out of the Port Gourmet Deli before placing his walker against the building and sitting on the walker’s seat.
The man, wearing gray pants, a bright fluorescent green shirt, black jacket and orange hat then lights up a cigarette, crosses his arms and reaches inside the jacket.
He then appeared to pull a large kitchen knife out of his jacket, lunged toward two women and slashed one of them before returning to his walker seat and smoking his cigarette.
The woman who was stabbed could be seen on video placing her hand where the knife allegedly struck her as she stepped back.
The women then turn around and begin walking the other way.
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Wild Video Captures Moment Fireball Explodes on Delta Jet as Passengers Evacuate on Emergency Slides
Shocking new video captured the moment a Delta plane went on fire, prompting a total evacuation, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport last week.
The newly-released clip obtained by KOMO News shows a fireball exploding and black smoke rising from the nose of the Airbus jet, below the cockpit, shortly after it landed on the night of April 6.
Delta Flight 604 from Cancun, Mexico arrived safely at the Washington airport at around 9:35 p.m. but after plugging the aircraft into the terminal’s electrical network, things went awry.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Wisconsin Senate Plans to Vote on Overriding Evers Veto of PFAS Funding, Other Bills
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans said Monday that the state Senate would vote to override up to 36 of the governor’s vetoes, including a bill to fight PFAS pollution — moves that Democrats derided as desperate election year stunts.
At the same time, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers countersued the Republican-controlled Legislature in a fight over the spending of $50 million on a new literacy program.
Both moves come six months before the election and are just the latest examples of political jousting between Evers and the Legislature. Both are trying to use the stalemate over PFAS funding and other issues to their advantage in the November election as Democrats hope to pick up seats in the Legislature under the state’s new legislative boundary maps.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Member of Parliament Michael Cooper (CPC-St. Albert-Edmonton) told The Post Millennial Friday that he believes House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus “planned” to eject Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre from Question Period and merely found a pretext to do so.
As the vice chairman of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, the need to preserve the non-partisanship of the Speaker is an important part of his role.
And Cooper thinks Fergus has failed on that count.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Man Arrested for Assaulting Canadian Cop With ‘Block of Cheese’
On Thursday, three people were arrested in St. John’s after allegedly assaulting officers with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. One of the suspects was said to have used a block of cheese to carry out the attack.
According to the CBC, officers were called to a disturbance at an apartment building in the west end of the city around 1:30 pm. Upon arrival, they allegedly saw a woman assaulting another woman, and moved in to break things up. At that point, one of the women hit an officer in the face.
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Over Half of Canadians Want Cell Phone Use in Classrooms Banned Completely: Poll
Over half of Canadians believe students should be banned from using cellphones while in classrooms, according to a new survey.
A Leger poll conducted between May 3 and 5 revealed that 55% of Canadians think an outright ban on cellphone use in the classroom is needed, while another 35% don’t think cellphones should be permitted in class unless their teacher allows it.
The data published on Monday, comes shortly after the Ontario government announced plans for a province-wide policy to deal with the issue of cellphone use in schools that will take effect in the 2024-25 school year.
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In a public speech over the weekend, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, argued against adopting the euro for Poland, saying the economic benefits are far from real and would in the long-term only harm Poland.
In a Saturday gathering with the residents of Sompolno in the western region of Greater Poland, Kaczynski stated that it makes “absolutely” no economic sense for Poland to adopt the euro currency at this time.
“It benefits Germany, which does not want Poland to catch up or at least come very close, and this is not a problem today,” he remarked. According to him, switching to the euro would likely lead to a sudden increase in prices and a decrease in the purchasing power of wages.
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America’s Unprotected Class — and Europe’s: An Interview With Jeremy Carl
Three years ago, the left-wing mayor of a Budapest district oversaw the erection of a statue in honor of the U.S. Black Lives Matter movement. When journalists asked her for the point of putting up a monument to BLM, given that Hungary has very few black people, the politician said, “The BLM goals of opposing racism and police brutality are just as relevant in Hungary as anywhere else.”
The unusual Budapest statue (which was destroyed quickly after it was erected) was but one of hundreds of pro-BLM European demonstrations following the death of George Floyd. American racial conflicts have a way of going global in the age of worldwide mass media, as if left-wing crowds in Britain and continental Europe were connected by a central nervous system.
What these Europeans rarely understand is that the news media’s presentation of racial conflict in the U.S.—especially when it involves the interaction of blacks with police—rarely does justice to the complexity of the phenomena. The narrative spread by both American and global media is simplistic at best, and often flat-out wrong. It is distorted in part by the progressive politics of the media, but also by a more widely shared unwillingness to discuss certain aspects of race in America.
Jeremy Carl’s new book, The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart, offers a potent antidote to the powerful but false narrative of race in America that has guided not only journalism, but also law, public policy, and even Hollywood. It offers a calm, reasoned, fact-filled book that explains why the received narrative on race is wrong, but also why demonizing the white majority is a foolish, even dangerous, idea in a multicultural society.
The conservative public intellectual and I recently spoke by video link to his home in Montana. He believes that the information and argument in The Unprotected Class is highly relevant to current events in Europe—not only the way Europeans think of race in American culture, but also in how Europeans think about majority populations in their own nations.
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Armed Gang Storms Pitch During Amateur German Football Match and Attacks Players and Supporters
An amateur football match in Germany was abandoned on Sunday after a gang of around 50 armed men stormed the field with guns and knives and attacked players and supporters.
The brawl occurred at the grounds of Al-Arz Lebanon in the western city of Essen during a match against RuWa Dellwig.
According to the hosts, a group of armed men ran onto the pitch toward the end of the first half of play and began attacking the players.
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Brussels Mayor in Hot Water: Legal Action Looms Over Bid to Shut Down NatCon
MCC Brussels, one of the co-organizers of the recent National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) in Brussels, will issue a lawsuit against local district Mayor Emir Kir for attempting to shut down the conference merely to silence political opposition last month, the think tank announced in a statement on Monday, May 13th.
As MCC’s head of communications, John O’Brien explained,
MCC will issue a lawsuit against the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode mayor, Emir Kir and his attempts on April 16th this year to infringe on the right of citizens to free speech when he issued an administrative police order to close down the NatCon Conference in Brussels, Belgium.
According to Yohann Rimokh, the lawyer filing the case on behalf of MCC, NatCon is only the tip of the iceberg that is a “shameful history of cases that should concern any person, regardless of political persuasion, who believes in the right to free speech and assembly.” But, he added, this is the first time that this unacceptable practice has been put so clearly on display for everyone to see.
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‘Choose France’ Investment Push Bags Record €15 Billion in Pledges
France won a record €15 billion in foreign investment pledges on Monday, allowing President Emmanuel Macron to bask in the limelight with global CEOs and forget about strained public finances and weak polls for a while.
The bumper crop of pledges, in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence to pharmaceuticals and energy, stood Macron in good stead as he hosted business leaders for the annual “Choose France” summit at Versailles Palace.
This year’s figure is up from €13 billion announced in 2023.
The French presidency said the investments included 56 different business projects and could lead to the creation of 10,000 jobs.
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Climate Protesters Interrupt Two Italian Open Matches
Two matches at the Italian Open in Rome were suspended following a protest by climate activists.
The last-16 tie between Madison Keys and Sorana Cirstea was interrupted, along with a doubles match in which Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin were facing Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic.
American Keys was leading 6-2 3-1 when, according to a statement on the Italian Open website,, external two activists wearing orange vests ran on to the court and threw confetti.
Others glued themselves to the stand before police and firefighters arrived.
The protesters were taken away before the match resumed and Keys beat Romanian Cirstea 6-2 6-1.
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Czechia and Slovakia Swap Howitzers for Azeri Gas
Azerbaijan has reached a deal with the Slovak government for the procurement of DITA self-propelled howitzers in exchange for further talks on securing Azeri gas.
The artillery is manufactured by Czech company Excalibur Army, part of the Czechoslovak Group (CSG), one of the fastest-growing arms manufacturers in Europe under Michal Strnad.
The contract with Azerbaijan, however, has been criticized by members of the Slovak opposition. As some parts of the artillery are produced by Slovak state-owned Konstrukta-Defence and ZTS-Special, some lawmakers claim it will use up resources currently being used to supply Ukraine. This concern, however, has been dismissed by the Slovak government and the Czech manufacturer.
The deal is expected to facilitate talks between Prague, Bratislava, and Baku for the procurement by the Visegrad nations of Azeri gas.
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Dutch Artist Expelled From Eurovision Song Contest is Likely to Face Charges, Swedish Police Say
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Netherlands’ contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest who was dramatically expelled from the competition hours before the grand finale will likely be charged for making illegal threats, Swedish police said Monday.
Joost Klein had failed to perform at two dress rehearsals on Friday and the organizer, the European Broadcasting Union said that police were investigating a complaint by “a female member of the production crew” at the competition in the Swedish city of Malmo.
Police spokesman Jimmy Modin told The Associated Press their investigation into the incident was over and that a decision on the charges should come “within a few weeks.” He did not elaborate on the nature of the threats that the Dutch performer is accused of making.
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EC Hopeful Ribera Attacks Von Der Leyen for ‘Climate Mistakes’
Teresa Ribera, Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Ecological Transition, has attacked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for committing “climate mistakes” during her time in office.
Referring to von der Leyen, the Socialist parliamentarian told Brussels-based media that working with what she called the “extreme Right” and diluting the green agenda revealed “an attitude of resignation that is enormously pernicious” and “enormously harmful to European interests”. She went on to attack von der Leyen’s group, the European People’s Party (EPP).
Ribera said she felt von der Leyen’s shift marked “an enormous political and economic mistake” and that moving closer to the Right only revealed “an attitude of resignation that is enormously pernicious”.
“The unacceptable cannot be accepted,” Ribera insisted.
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EU Prosecutor Threatens Commission With Lawsuit for Cutting Its Funds
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an EU body tasked with investigating financial crime involving the Union’s budget in member states and in Brussels, has requested an “amicable settlement procedure.” This procedure—sought in response to the Commission’s planning to cut back on the EPPO budget—is the final available legal step before litigation, if no common ground is found.
The prospect of one component part of the institutional ensemble litigating against another highlights both the incoherence and illegitimacy of the EU.
EPPO’s letter to the Commission was dated April 9th but was leaked to the press on Monday, May 13th.
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EU Says Booking.com Must Comply With Strict Tech Rules, Investigates X
The European Commission said on Monday it had designated hotel reservation website Booking.com as a “gatekeeper”, which subjects it to strict EU obligations, and has opened an investigation to further determine the regulatory status of social media network X.
Online advertising services X Ads and TikTok Ads as such did not qualify as gatekeepers under the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU added.
The Commission said in March that Elon Musk’s X, TikTok owner ByteDance and Booking.com may meet EU criteria subjecting them to tough tech rules as so-called gatekeepers.
While the EU on Monday said Booking.com fell under the DMA — in line with the company’s own view — it had opened a market investigation to further assess the rebuttal lodged by X, opposing the gatekeeper status.
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France: Controversy After Macron’s Lead EP Candidate is Pictured Next to Alleged ‘Neo-Nazi’
Valerie Hayer, French President Emanuel Macron’s head of the list for the European Parliament elections in June, has found herself caught up in controversy after being photographed alongside alleged “neo-Nazis”.
The incident in Paris on May 12 sparked outrage across France, while Hayer defended herself publicly, claiming: “This is a trap set for me by activists from a small neo-Nazi group.”
Some sceptics questioned the validity of her defence, pointing out that there were indicators such as SS symbols on attendees’ attire and slogans such as: “The White Race: save Europe’s identity”.
Hayer countered, claiming she did not notice these elements due to time constraints and that she rarely refused photo requests.
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Germany: Branding Themselves Victims, Islamists Stage New Rally in Hamburg
Following their widely criticized rally in Hamburg in late April, where calls for the establishment of a caliphate were overheard and seen, over 2,300 Muslim protesters again gathered in the city last Saturday, German media report.
Organized by the Islamist group Muslim Interaktiv (MI), this latest rally, which most ironically railed against “censorship and opinions being dictated,” was held in the St. Georg district as a sizable police force looked on.
Authorities allowed the protest to be held only under strict conditions. These included bans on incitement of hatred, violence, and the denial of Israel’s right to exist.
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Germany: Center Right Discusses Reinstating Draft, EU-Wide Conscription Proposed
Germany’s largest opposition and most popular party, the center-right CDU/CSU alliance, has voted to put mandatory military service back on its agenda during their party congress, promising to reintroduce it once it retakes power in Berlin. The announcement comes only days after Manfred Weber, president of the CDU-dominated European People’s Party (EPP) floated the idea of introducing an EU-wide draft as well as equipping Brussels with its own nuclear deterrence capabilities.
Until 2011, Germany used to have a selective service, allowing 18-year-olds to choose between spending one year in the military or in the social sector.
Considering the lack of personnel in the Bundeswehr as well as the geopolitical circumstances the war in Ukraine created, CDU officially aims to reintroduce the system as an intermediary step before shifting to a general draft sometime in the future, Deutsche Welle reported.
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German Court Rules State Can Spy on “Extremist” AfD
A court in Germany ruled on Monday, May 13th that the anti-globalist, anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) can be designated as a “suspected extremist organisation.” This means that the domestic intelligence agency, Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), has the right to spy on the party, using such intelligence tools as phone tapping, intercepting emails, or recruiting informants from inside the party.
In its verdict, the court said “there is sufficient evidence that the AfD pursues goals that run against the human dignity of certain groups and against democracy.” The judges added: “There are grounds to suspect at least part of the party wants to accord second-rank status to German citizens with a migration background.” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser welcomed the ruling as showing that the “state has instruments that protect our democracy from threats from within.”
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Italy’s army is going to war against wild boars and authorizing 117 soldiers for a special one-year deployment within the country’s own borders. Their mission will be to kill as many wild boars as possible in the shortest possible time.
The order to kill boars is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s plan to remove at least 80 percent of the 1 million to 1.5 million feral pig population over the next five years. Feral pigs, which carry African swine fever, are harmless to humans but deadly to domestic pigs, and they are a major threat to Italy’s €8.2 billion pig farming industry specializing in ham and sausage production.
Wild boars have long been rampant in Italy. Not only do they destroy farmland, but they also take over rubbish dumps near big cities and even raid the towns themselves.
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Journalists Barred From Polish Parliament Over ‘Anti-Green Deal’ T-Shirts
Two journalists were refused entry to the Polish Parliament for wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Down with the Green Deal” amid protests in Warsaw against the EU environmental measures.
Both reporters said to have been denied entry on May 10 were accredited staff members with the weekly magazine and online portal Tygodnik Solidarnosc, which is linked to the Solidarity trade union movement involved in the demonstrations.
They were attempting to gain entry to the Parliament to cover the official handing-over of a 150,000-signature petition organised by the union against the Green Deal.
One of the two journalists was Michal Ossowski, the editor-in-chief of Tygodnik Solidarnosc, who was reportedly stopped while accompanying the leader of Solidarity Piotr Duda.
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Le Pen Rejects Idea of Brussels Controlling French Nuclear Weapons
The president of the French National Rally (RN) party, Marine Le Pen, has criticised plans to transfer sovereignty over nuclear weapons to Brussels.
In a commentary published in Le Figaro, the leader railed against what she termed the “Europeanisation” of French nuclear capacity.
“If Emmanuel Macron were to decide to share nuclear weapons with all EU countries, as he has suggested, he would be depriving France of an essential prerogative and betraying its constitutional duties,” Le Pen said.
The RN leader described the proposal as “worrying” and “irresponsible”, expressing doubt that such a proposal could function.
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Media Regulator Says Tusk Government Has ‘Put Poland Into a Process of Liquidation’
Maciej Swirski, who chairs the state media regulator National Broadcasting Council (KRRiTV), has told independent TV Republika that the present liberal government is making state television (TVP) “unwatchable” and that this is all part of a process of “putting Poland in a state of liquidation.”
Swirski has been threatened by the outgoing culture minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, with an indictment before the Tribunal of State for breaching his powers in withholding license fee payments from TVP and Polish Radio. The KRRiTV chairman said he wasn’t surprised by such a move from the ministry because as a historian, he understands that “all tyrants and totalitarians always communicate their messages and act upon them.”
Swirski said he believes that the Tusk government has put TVP and Poland in a state of liquidation.
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Netherlands: University of Amsterdam Closes for Two Days After Pro-Palestinian Protest Turns Violent
All campuses of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) will remain closed on Tuesday and Wednesday after the recent demonstrations there, the university announced on Monday evening. The Executive Board announced that they were unable to guarantee the safety of people at the university locations, and therefore all classes will be cancelled for the next two days, with the exception of the medical and dentistry program.
Those classes are taught in the academic hospitals and clinics, and not at the university campus buildings. The UvA said that it did not expect professors and lecturers would be able to quickly make the switch to online education, and told students to check the Canvas system for more information.
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Spain: Separatists Lose Majority in Catalan Elections
Elections in Spain’s contested Catalonia region have left separatists without a clear possibility of governing the region for the first time in over a decade, but neither is the path clear for any other government to form.
The Socialist party won 42 out of 135 seats in the Catalan parliament, a boost of nine seats compared to the last elections. The separatist Junts party of Carles Puigdemont, who as Catalan president in 2017 led an illegal referendum and attempted to declare the region’s independence from Spain, garnered 35 seats, also gaining seats compared to the last legislature. But the rest of the separatist parties lost seats, principally the left-wing ERC which came in third with only 20 seats in parliament. Altogether, the separatists parties are just shy of a majority to form a government.
The center-right establishment Partido Popular (PP) made something of a comeback in these elections going from three seats in the previous legislature to 15. The national conservative VOX held steady at 12 seats, though it did gain votes.
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Spanish Socialist Minister Eyes Complete Takeover of EU Climate Agenda
Spanish deputy PM and green transition minister Teresa Ribera made her ambitions clear during an interview published in Politico on Friday, May 10th, by slamming Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her “huge” mistake of softening climate targets.
The wannabe-Green Deal chief was nominated by Pedro Sanchez as Spain’s candidate for the next College of Commissioners, and Ribera wants to ensure that she will have the power to push through the most radical green transition goals possible—without any of the compromises with conservatives the Left accuses von der Leyen and the European People’s Party (EPP) of.
“I’m not going to accept being part of the décor,” Ribera said, adding that whatever job she’ll take needs to have “teeth.” Her idea? Combine three relevant portfolios—climate, environment, and energy—into one, to ensure that she implements her radical green agenda uncontested in the Commission.
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The girl also appeared dizzy during the attack in Kortrijk, West Flanders, on April 2, before she turned pale and her eyelids seemed to close, according to statements.
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Brexit leader Nigel Farage has vowed to lead the charge against the “mission creep” of the World Health Organization (WHO), joining a campaign to “take back control” from the globalist institution as it pushes for an international Pandemic Treaty.
Vowing to take on the “billion-dollar global health empire”, Nigel Farage said he has joined the Action on World Health (AWH) campaign group to reduce the scope of the W.H.O., calling for its £5.5 billion budget to be dramatically cut and to fight against the implementation of the controversial pandemic treaty being imposed.
“The W.H.O. is proposing a pandemic treaty that would be legally binding on all 194 member states and is pushing for mandatory lockdowns and vaccinations. I have joined forces with Action on World Health to fight back,” Mr Farage wrote on social media.
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UK: Gaza Protests: Oxford University Steps Up Security After ‘Incident’
A university has increased security measures for students protesting the war in Gaza after an “incident”.
Protest camps, described as “liberated zones”, were set up near Oxford university campuses on 6 May.
Thames Valley Police confirmed it was called to Parks Road on Saturday at 20:50 BST to “reports of disorder”.
Officers issued a section 35 dispersal order to move people on from the area. A force spokesperson said no arrests were made.
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Von Der Leyen Struggling for Majority in European Parliament
Ursula von der Leyen looks increasingly likely to fall short of majority support in the European Parliament for her re-appointment.
With two delegations of her own EPP bloc saying they will not back her, she can only count on 167 votes from her own party—a long way off from the 361 votes she needs.
The “re-election of Ursula von der Leyen seems less likely now than a week ago”, said Mats Engström, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Whether von der Leyen will gain another term as European Commission President — and remain living in the top floor of the Berlaymont building, where she has moved in and rarely leaves — is ultimately up to the European Parliament.
There, she faces a tricky prospect.
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Will NATO Shoot Down Russian Rockets Over Ukraine? German MPs Begin the Debate
Several German MPs from both the ruling and opposition parties have backed the idea of allies defending Ukraine’s western airspace from NATO territory, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported.
FAZ wrote that some experts, such as Nico Lange of the Munich Security Conference and Lieutenant General Heinrich Brauss, a former NATO deputy secretary general, have suggested shooting down Russian missiles over Ukraine’s border regions from Poland and Romania. Polish officials have also mentioned this possibility, but no concrete decisions have been put forward.
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Israeli Forces Press Gaza Offensive From North and South
Israeli forces pushed deep into the ruins of Gaza’s northern edge on Monday to recapture an area from Hamas fighters, while in the south tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah, leaving Palestinian civilians scrambling to find safety.
Some of the most intense fighting for weeks is raging in both the north and south. Israeli operations in Rafah, which borders Egypt, have closed a main crossing point for aid. Humanitarian groups say this has worsened an already dire situation.
Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing again. Around half of Gaza’s population took sanctuary there after Israel ordered evacuations from northern Gaza in October.
Gaza’s health authority appealed for international pressure to reopen access via the southern border to allow in aid, medical supplies and fuel to power generators and ambulances.
“The wounded and sick suffer a slow death because there is no treatment and supplies and they cannot travel,” it said.
A foreign U.N. security staff member was killed on Monday when a U.N.-marked vehicle travelling to a hospital in Rafah was struck — the first international U.N. fatality in the Gaza war, a U.N. spokesperson said, bringing the total death toll of U.N. personnel to around 190.
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In the shadow of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Ukrainian government has been in a state of slow but sure disintegration for weeks, retired U.S. Colonel Douglas Macgregor has claimed.
In a social media post, the former Pentagon adviser suggested the fall of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government could help to shift the conflict towards a conclusion.
“Zelensky is at very high risk of being removed. This is potentially good news, his removal may pave the way for ending this terrible war,” Macgregor wrote.
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Putin’s Choice of New Defence Minister Shows He’s Preparing for Confrontation With the West
At first glance, Andrei Belousov does not appear to fit the mould of a Russian defence minister.
Known for his spreadsheet wizardry and grasp of Keynesian economics, he is more at home with columns of data than of tanks.
But Vladimir Putin has chosen Mr Belousov, described as the Kremlin’s most gifted and most illiberal economist, and given him a clear mission — to win in Ukraine and prepare Russia for a long-term conflict against Nato.
These are projects Putin regards as central to his legacy as Russia’s leader and he wanted a bureaucrat, not a military man, for the job.
Sergei Shoigu had been criticised for his inability to overcome bureaucratic inertia undermining Moscow’s war effort.
Mr Belousov, a 65-year-old Putin loyalist, is known for his sharp analytical mind and head for figures.
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Ukraine in ‘Fierce’ Fighting With Russia at Eastern Border, Zelensky Says
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops are locked in intense battles with the advancing Russian army in two border areas, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while the death toll from a Russian apartment building collapse blamed on Ukrainian shelling rose to 15.
Zelenskyy said “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to hold back a significant Russian ground offensive.
“Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles, on a large part of our border area,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.
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Report: Even in the West, Chinese Students Can’t Escape Beijing’s Gaze
Chinese students pursuing an education at western universities are faced with intimidation by Chinese authorities and their proxies—fellow Chinese students.
This is the conclusion of an Amnesty International report that draws on dozens of testimonials from students in Europe as well as the U.S.
While students feel quietly intimidated by their more ‘patriotic’ peers, such tactics can be also applied to their family members.
The report, entitled On my Campus, I am Afraid, cites the case of a student’s father intimidated by Chinese security forces mere hours after his daughter had participated in a commemoration of the brutal suppression of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
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Elon Musk’s X Scores Victory Against Australian Government Over Church Stabbing Videos
Elon Musk scored a victory against the Australian government on Monday after a court refused a request to extend an order forcing X to hide videos of a violent church stabbing, the latest step in a bitter feud pitting the free-speech crusading billionaire against lawmakers branding him as arrogant and lacking social responsibility.
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Report: Joe Biden Officially Loses Niger, Orders All U.S. Troops Out
The Pentagon has formally ordered all 1,000 American combat troops remaining in Niger to withdraw over the next few months, spelling the end of a vital counter-terrorism operation and giving Russia another victory over the West in its contest for African influence.
The Niger junta made its final decision to expel U.S. forces in the middle of April, but the Biden administration spent weeks pretending the orders had not been given and that Niger’s rulers could yet change their minds. Even if the junta insisted, the Biden team claimed it would take some time to complete negotiations for an “orderly and responsible withdrawal.”
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15.6% of US Population Now Foreign Born, at Least 51.6 Million Amid Biden’s Border Crisis
The foreign-born population in the US, including both illegal and legal immigrants, has hit a record high of 51.6 million or 15.6 percent of the US population during
According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the largest two-year increase of those who are foreign born has happened in the last two years in the US since March 2022.
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A Labor premier has broken ranks to demand the Albanese government slash immigration levels as his state battles a crippling housing crisis.
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German train workers are exposed to insults, harassment, violence, and even the threat of knife attacks from migrants on such a regular basis that it is making their jobs unbearable, warns a German trade union representing railway workers in the state of Thuringia.
German trains are becoming more and more dangerous due to mass immigration, and shocking headlines week after week, along with actual police statistics, confirm this trend. The union warns that young asylum seekers are the main perpetrators in the growing number of cases, and for the staff in Thuringia, train work is “sometimes life-threatening,” according to the trade union.
“I have an average of three employees sitting in my Erfurt office every week for legal advice. They were attacked, spat on, insulted, threatened or pushed,” said Steffi Recknagel, the head of the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) in Thuringia, during an interview with Focus Online.
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Newly released documents about a Washington, D.C. training program for illegal immigrants to vote in local elections prove the need for the SAVE act, according to Rep. Chip Roy.
‘The radical progressive Democrats in the DC city government couldn’t be prouder of the fact that they’re going to have illegal aliens voting in their elections; yet, they want us to believe that it’s going to stop there, and that none of them are going to try — or be encouraged — to illegally vote in federal elections? Give me a break,’ Roy, R-Texas, told DailyMail.com.
‘Without the verification measures in the SAVE Act, we’re basically asking people who are already breaking the law by coming to the US illegally to abide by the honor system. No way; American elections should belong to American citizens, period.’
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Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healey has been forced to convert a former prison into a shelter for homeless people, many of whom are migrants.
The Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk will help house the growing number of families on the waitlist for state shelter.
Almost 4,000 people were granted asylum in the New England state in 2023 — or 20 percent of those who applied, according to US Custom and Border Protection data
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Shocking footage captured the moment a boatload of migrants rushed a busy California beach as stunned locals watched on.
In a viral video shared to X, crowds gathered on Ocean Beach in San Diego as around a dozen migrants departed a valuable-looking white yacht, without any Coast Guard officials in sight.
The migrants were seen hopping into the water before sprinting towards a residential neighborhood, while beachgoers stopped to film them on their phones.
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Scholz Under Pressure: Fewer Than 2 Out of 10 Ukrainian Refugees in Germany Are Working
w data revealing that barely any Ukrainian refugees are actually working in Germany has the left-liberal government struggling to explain the failure, despite promises from the government that this refugee group would help fill in for the country’s declining labor pool.
“More Ukrainian refugees should take up work in Germany,” said Olaf Scholz during a speech in Potsdam over the weekend. The German chancellor was reacting to data showing that fewer than two out of ten Ukrainian asylum seekers are working in the country.
This is a big problem for Germany considering it is the country that has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than any other EU nation, equaling about 1.3 million people, or about a third of all Ukrainian refugees. According to the Polish Economic Institute, which reviewed a number of countries in its study, only 18 percent of Ukrainians were working in Germany as of January 2024, amounting to one of the lowest rates in Europe. In turn, Poland, for example, has 65 percent of its Ukrainian refugee population in the workplace.
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Dozens more migrants have been brought ashore by Border Force as illegal crossings carry on for the tenth consecutive day.
A group of mainly male migrants were seen arriving at the Port of Dover aboard Border Force vessels while wearing orange lifejackets, before being taken into the immigration processing centre.
The arrivals came as it was confirmed that 77 migrants aboard two vessels were intercepted and processed in the coastal town on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
British Teenagers Buying Puberty Blockers on Online Black Market
A British journalist posing as a young teenage girl was this month able to buy “large quantities” of puberty blockers online from Turkey, Hong Kong, and Russia, despite prescription of the drugs being banned for children in the UK.
The Mail on Sunday reporter found that social media sites popular among children—including Facebook, Twitter (or X), and Reddit—have been “flooded” with links to other websites where it is possible to buy puberty blockers without age checks or prescriptions.
The National Health Service (NHS) ban on prescribing puberty blockers to children came into place this March, although officials kept the door open for a possible future U-turn.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
1 in 10 college students answered that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez had created the New Deal. And only 1 in 10 knew James Madison’s role in shaping the Constitution.
That survey from the ‘American Council of Trustees and Alumni’ was one of several warnings about the catastrophic illiteracy of college students and graduates.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute did its own survey of over 28,000 undergraduates from 80 colleges and the average score on the civic literacy exam was an F. At top schools, including Yale, seniors actually knew less than freshmen. A Collegiate Learning Assessment found that after two years almost half of students showed “no significant gains in learning”.
As terrorist riots rage on campuses and Biden’s latest student loan bailout approaches $1 trillion, a basic question that isn’t being asked is whether college is even good for anything.
The Hamas riots like the surveys showing that less than a third of college students are capable of handing everyday literacy and barely half will ever read a book after graduation are all symptoms of a much larger problem that is destroying the country and tearing us apart.
A liberal arts education, originally intended to broaden the minds of the children of the elite, has been applied to the widest possible population while narrowing the minds of a nation. Few college students graduate with their minds broadened and fewer still with usable skills. Employers have been warning that college graduates are not ready for the workforce, but neither are they ready to pay off their debts or coexist with family members and the country.
Higher education in many fields has become an indoctrination factory in which students imbibe values and attitudes rather than ideas. Like Soviet education, American education works only in technical areas while the rest of it is dedicated to analyzing the world through Marxist paradigms. Literature, history and nearly every ‘studies’ field train students to analyze and denounce the past through the same oppressor/oppressed paradigm no matter the subject.
| — Hat tip: Daniel Greenfield | [Return to headlines] |
The German government’s anti-discrimination commissioner, Ferda Ataman, who is known for referring to ethnic Germans as “potatoes,” is voicing her outrage over a ban on gender language in schools in some federal states.
“These are “constitutionally problematic and serve a culture war on the backs of minorities,” she told Der Spiegel.
The German language features gender for each noun, and for many words there is both the male and female form, which also applies to professions. For instance, the word “teacher” has both a male (Lehrer) or female (Leherin) version. Left-wing activists and feminists have been attempting to modify the language towards a gender-neutral form, which has produced words like Lehrperson or Lehrer*innen to denote both genders in one word.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Government ‘Considering Gender-Neutral Conscription’
The German Government is reportedly considering the implementation of a “gender-neutral” form of conscription for its military.
With the country so far failing to find the 20,000 soldiers needed each year to keep its reserves stable, defence minister Boris Pistorius is said to be examining a number of major proposals aimed at revamping the Federal Republic’s military service system.
According to a report by Die Welt on May 10, the most viable of these is the mandatory drafting of both men and women over the age of 18.
This form of “gender-neutral conscription”, the publication said, is seen as having numerous advantages, with politicians even said to believe it would be more acceptable to the German public compared to conscription targeting just men.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New York County Forced to Allow Men to Play Women’s Sports After Court Order
A New York judge has struck down an order from a Long Island county that banned biological males from playing in women’s sports.
Judge Francis Ricigliano of the New York Supreme Court wrote in a 13-page decision Friday, “With the stated goal of protecting women’s and girls’ rights to compete athletically, the County Executive issued an Executive Order aimed at preventing transgender women from participating in girls’ and women’s athletics at Nassau County parks, despite there being no corresponding legislative enactment providing the County Executive with the authority to issue such an order.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Planet Fitness Memberships Plummet Over Man Shaving in Women’s Locker Room
Membership numbers for Planet Fitness have plummeted after a female customer drew national attention to a man shaving in the women’s locker room under the company’s transgender policy.
As Slay News reported in March, Patricia Silva, a female member of Planet Fitness in Alaska, was shocked to find a middle-aged man shaving in the mirror of the women’s locker room.
Silva said the man, who claimed to be “transgender,” refused to leave, despite the locker room supposedly being a safe space for women and girls to change.
She also posted a description of the incident on social media, as the Daily Mail reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Vows to Undo Biden’s Pro-Transgender Rules on ‘Day One’ of His Administration
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
Former President Donald Trump has vowed to reverse the Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX protections for transgender students on “day one” of his administration—if he wins the election in November.
President Joe Biden has set a pro-transgender course for his administration, advancing various policies that promote gender ideology and special protections for individuals who identify as something different from their birth sex.
In a move that sparked widespread controversy and a bevy of lawsuits, the Department of Education (DOE) expanded the decades-old Title IX law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools to now include sexual orientation and “gender identity.” The changes, which stop short of prohibiting schools from banning female-identifying male athletes from competing against females, are slated to go into effect on Aug. 1.
President Trump, who earlier waded into the transgender debate by pledging to punish doctors who provide so-called “gender-affirming” care to children, on Friday promised to undo the Biden administration’s Title IX changes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Christian “Hounded Out” of Political Party Over His Faith
The Liberal Democrats, sometimes viewed as Britain’s third largest political party, have tolerated a “hostile environment” for Christians and deselected a parliamentary candidate because of his Christian faith, in breach of equality law, some of its members have claimed.
David Campanale, who is an award-winning former BBC journalist and, crucially, an Anglican, is set to be replaced as a prospective MP candidate for Sutton and Cheam after what The Daily Telegraph described as “a two-year campaign against him by members of his local party and a number of LGBT activists.”
Human rights campaigner Benedict Rogers said the action against Campanale amounted to “persecution.” It is reminiscent of Tim Farron’s time as leader of the Lib Dems, which came to an end in 2017 after just two years when he concluded that “remaining faithful to Christ” was incompatible with leading the party.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
WHO Moves to Seize Control of Global Food Supply
The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken significant steps to seize control of the global food supply.
The WHO, the United Nations’ “health” agency, is pushing to establish an “alliance” that will allow the unelected organization to monitor and control the food supply of sovereign nations around the world.
Last week, the WHO Alliance for Food Safety concluded its first meeting where bureaucrats laid out plans for establishing global governance of the food supply.
The meeting included UN organizations, WHO collaborating centers, corporate elites, and wealthy donors.
Globalists convened for the meeting to discuss the implementation of the “WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022—2030.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“Claim: A diary authored by U.S. President Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, describes….”showers with my dad”….as “probably not appropriate.”
Rating: Snopes changed the rating of this fact check from “Unproven” to “TRUE” based on testimony provided by Ashley Biden.” —Snopes (29 Apr 2024)
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ashley-biden-leaked-diary-accusation/
“Prediction: The question will be: Is Joe Biden [mentally] competent to stand trial?” —posted to fb (25 Apr 2020)
Assaulting a police officer with a block of cheese should be a perishable offense.
“Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here…This is New York.” —Judge Abena Darkeh (13 May 2024)
https://www.nysun.com/article/amateur-gunsmith-sentenced-to-ten-years-for-assembling-firearms-with-legally-purchased-parts-in-brooklyn-apartment
“As’s been said, they’re anti-American, Muslim-leaning Bolshevik two year-old commie-toddlers. And, as’s been predicted, they’ve just been lying all along.” —posted to fb (Oct 2020)