Monday, December 29, 2025
Pascal's Wager
I'm reading "The Things We Make: The Unknown History of Invention from Cathedrals to Soda Cans" by Bill Hammack Ph.D. and wanted to share this quote with you.
Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/g9T8XHk
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Read on the go for free – download Kindle for Android, iOS, PC, Mac and more
Recognized by the rabbinate, Orthodox converts trapped in legal limbo over Israeli citizenship
https://www.jpost.com/judaism/article-881417
Orthodox converts in Israel – fully recognized by the Chief Rabbinate – are living in legal and social limbo, denied citizenship, as they face systemic bureaucracy and discrimination at the Interior Ministry, despite a lifetime of religious observance.
In response to why the Interior Ministry rejects the aliyah applications of recognized converts, a spokesperson for the ministry's Population and Immigration Authority told the Post:
"There is a difference between the act of registering a marriage based on halachic considerations and the definition of a Jew for the purposes of the Law of Return, because these are two different laws with different criteria. A marriage certificate is a 'public document' that indicates a marriage and on the basis of which one is registered in the Population Registry as married. The certificate is valid for this registration only. However, the certificate does not constitute proof for the purpose of religion and nationality details and, therefore, is not evidence for checking eligibility for return."
Petah Tikva declared 'red city' for measles outbreak, six-month-old children to be vaccinated
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-881644
Petah Tikva has been designated a red city due to a rise in measles cases in recent weeks, the Health Ministry announced on Monday.
As part of the declaration, residents are asked to bring their children for an additional vaccine dose starting at six months of age, which will not count toward the routine vaccination schedule. When the children reach one year of age, they will receive another dose of the vaccine, in accordance with updated guidelines.
Sunday, December 28, 2025
Saturday, December 27, 2025
Joe Rogan Rails Against Trump’s ‘Crazy’ White House Plaques
Rogan repeatedly described the plaques as "crazy" and said that historians should be writing these kinds of plaques, rather than the current president.
He said that somebody "needs to tell him like, ‘Hey, this is not good. You can’t do that, because other people could do that too, and then the White House stops being the White House,’ and it becomes whoever is in its house, where he could just go crazy and say everybody else is a crook."
Friday, December 26, 2025
U.S. clean coal program fails to deliver on promised smog cuts
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-coal-pollution/
U.S. taxpayers have spent billions of dollars subsidizing chemically treated refined coal, but a Reuters analysis of EPA data shows that the power plants burning it often pump out more smog, not less.
Champions of coal say the superabundant fossil fuel can be made environmentally friendlier by refining it with chemicals – a “clean coal” technology backed by a billion dollars in U.S. government tax subsidies annually.
But refined coal has a dirty secret. It regularly fails to deliver on its environmental promises, as electric giant Duke Energy Corp found.
Trump’s Inner Circle Sees Russia as an El Dorado for Business, but Pitfalls Abound
For Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s billionaire envoys working on a deal to end the Ukraine war, Russia is a land of vast natural resources and rich business opportunities.
Welcoming it back into the world economy will make money for American investors and stabilize Moscow’s relationships with Ukraine and Europe, according to their public comments and people familiar with their thinking.
Trump says violence in Nigeria targets Christians. The reality is more nuanced
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/25/africa/trump-nigeria-attacks-on-christians-explainer-intl-hnk
After months of warning that the US could take military action to stop violence against Christians in Nigeria, President Donald Trump announced on Christmas Day that he had done just that – delivering a strike on Islamic State terrorists in the country’s northwest.
US Africa Command said it conducted the strikes in Sokoto state, which borders Niger to the north, “in coordination with Nigerian authorities.” AFRICOM’s initial assessment is that “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps,” according to a news release.
The US strike could “disrupt ISIS operations in the short term, but the long-term issues that surround violence in Nigeria are extremely complex,” said CNN military analyst and retired US Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton, pointing to the economic factors at play.
Alarming survey among British Jews finds 96% feel threatened
https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/12/21/alarming-survey-among-british-jews-finds-96-feel-threatened/
A new survey conducted by Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British non-governmental organisation, paints a bleak picture of the future facing Britain's Jewish community. The results echo a question that has become widespread among Jews across Europe since October 7: whether they, and their children, have a future on a continent undergoing profound change.
The survey finds that more than half of British Jews, 51%, say they do not see a long-term future for themselves in the UK, while fewer than a quarter, 23%, believe they do. Nearly half, 45%, say they do not feel welcome in Britain, compared with fewer than one-third, 32%, who say they do. A clear majority, 61%, report that they have considered leaving the UK over the past two years. Most cite the surge in antisemitism since October 7, 2023, as the main reason, while nearly half also point to broader anti-Jewish prejudice in society and antisemitism within political parties.
Hamas Is Loving Its Revival
The Trump team has come to treat the Gaza terrorists with deference.
Qatar is not a mediator, but an enemy of Israel
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/419935
A new research by Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCSFA) revealed the extent of Qatar's deep and ongoing involvement in advancing a jihadist mindset among the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
The research stressed that, "Qatar is not a neutral mediator but rather a state that provided Hamas with political sanctuary, financial lifelines, ideological reinforcement, and global reach. Through hosting Hamas leadership, sustaining aid flows that bolstered Hamas governance, and supporting clerical networks that sanctified violence and genocide, Qatar enabled Hamas’s transformation into a heavily armed, ideologically driven organization capable of carrying out the October 7 attack and seeking to expand its terror campaign beyond the region."
Trump Says US Struck ISIS in Nigeria in ‘Powerful’ Attack on Christmas
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-us-struck-isis-nigeria-christmas-attack-11270712
President Donald Trump said the United States launched airstrikes against ISIS militants in northwest Nigeria on Christmas, describing the operation as a decisive blow against extremists he accused of targeting Christian communities.
A Department of Defense official told Newsweek on Thursday: "The Department of War worked with the government of Nigeria to carry out these strikes. These strikes were approved by the government of Nigeria.”
Do frum self-help books contain ancient Torah wisdom - or pop psychology?
Conclusion - Update 8/16/13 It is apparent from the comments to this post is that there is no such thing as Torah Psychology or Torah Therapy that was given at Sinai. There are psychological insights which are found in our Tradition which can be used in therapy - but they don't constitue a program of therapy. A psychology or therapy based primarily or exclusive on Torah sources might be desirable - but it doesn't exist at present and it clearly is not part of our Tradition from Sinai.
Lawrence Kelemen's parenting guide, To Kindle a Soul, for example, claims in the subtitle to contain "ancient wisdom." "At the foot of a mountain in the Sinai desert, the Creator of the universe directly revealed His profound wisdom to approximately three million people .... Those present received ... a comprehensive guide for raising great human beings." The book attempts to describe "this ancient, Torah approach to education" which is "more comprehensive and effective ... than any of the schools of child psychology I studied at university." Kelemen describes the "significant" differences between these supposedly "ancient traditions" and the practices of contemporary parents.""Yet Kelemen's parenting approach fits neatly within late twentieth century American parenting discourse, and it differs significantly from that of pre-modern Jewish sources. Kelemen combines an American religious-right critique of supposedly decadent American family life with a child-centered parenting approach advocated by endless American mass-market parenting guides in the 1990s. Criticism of American materialism and permissiveness; advocacy of limiting the mother's time at work; polemics against spanking; emphasis on good nutrition, proper sleep time, and bedtime routine; concerns about the adverse impact of television viewing; claims to provide a "system" for raising moral children; and advocacy of "quality-time" for empathy and close communication between parents and children, all characterized American experts' suggestions to worried middle-class parents at the end of the twentieth century. Even Kelemen's claim that his approach derives from the Bible follows the pattern of American religious parenting guides. Indeed, the book's unstated assumptions - that parenting is a full-time endeavor, and that parents should actively monitor their children's moment by-moment lives - typify experts' advice and popular assumptions in America during the so-called "century of the child."Not only does Kelemen's approach match that of contemporary parenting experts, but it differs from traditional Jewish sources on the topic. While a complete history of Jewish approaches to children and family has yet to be written, it is enough in this context to note that traditional Jewish literature speaks of childhood and parenting in spotty and unsystematic ways, scattered in works focused on other topics. This reflects a historical past in which families were considerably less child centered than they are today, and parents learned how to parent more by imitation, instinct, face-to-face conversation, and osmosis than from the written word of experts. Pre-modern Jews did not write parenting manuals since they assumed that knowing how to parent was an intuitive or natural thing.
Take the example of Kelemen's approach to corporal punishment and spanking. This is a particularly important example because traditional sources do say quite a bit on the topic, and what they do say clashes rather dramatically with the approach of contemporary Haredi parenting literature. Kelemen polemicizes against corporal punishment of children, and even harsh verbal reprimands. Instead - reflecting both contemporary notions of individual autonomy and the voluntary nature of modern religious commitments, which make it difficult to coerce people into religious conformity - he insists that parents should calmly explain to their children what is proper and improper. Parents should then serve as living role models of the proper, hoping thereby to help children come to their own appreciation of and identification with the parents' values.[...]
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Trump Tells Kid Coal Is Beautiful, Touts Election Wins in Christmas Calls
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-kid-coal-beautiful-election-wins-christmas-calls-11269533
Responding to a child calling from North Carolina who asked Trump if Santa would be angry if he did not find any cookies when he got to their home, Trump said: "I think he won’t get mad, but he’ll be very disappointed. Santa tends to be a little bit on the cherubic side, do you know what cherubic means? He’s a little on the heavy side."
He encouraged the child to leave some cookies, adding: "I think Santa has a serious appetite."
The same call has gone viral on social media after Trump told the eight-year-old girl that she sounded "so beautiful and cute." He also added that the child sounded "so smart."
DOJ says it has found more than a million additional Epstein documents
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/24/doj-epstein-documents-new-files-00706387
The Justice Department on Wednesday said it had uncovered more than a million documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case and will need more time to fulfill the release of files ordered by Congress.
In a post to X, the Justice Department said it received the documents from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI — but it may take “a few more weeks” before they can be processed and released to the public in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), co-sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, appeared unimpressed with the Justice Department’s announcement Wednesday.
“Today the DOJ claims the Epstein-Maxwell file exceeds 1.7 million documents. And they still expect you to believe this involves only two guilty people,” Massie posted on X.
Khanna pointed out that six months before the bipartisan legislation passed, the Justice Department was saying the case was closed.
Candace Owens urges audience read antisemitic book, asserts Jews controlled slave trade
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-881052
Political commentator Candace Owens urged her audience to read a 19th-century antisemitic book and accused Jews of orchestrating the transatlantic slave trade and racial conflict between Caucasian and African Americans during her YouTube show over the weekend.
The episode focused on Owens’ grievances with conservative pundit and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro, who had criticized her in his Thursday speech at the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) AmericaFest conference.
Owens railed against Shapiro for the circumstances of her 2024 dismissal from the Daily Wire under allegations of antisemitism and tensions with the editor emeritus.
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
UN spends approximately $100 million in funding to target Israel yearly, new report shows
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-881170
The United Nations spends roughly $100 million per year on reports, debates, special mechanisms, and communication activities dedicated almost exclusively to singling out Israel, the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN said.
Israeli officials said that what has been exposed regarding the UN’s allocation of budgetary funds is not a call to defund humanitarian aid or silence legitimate criticism. Instead, this is meant to put an end to a system that has normalized discrimination, rewarded bias, and wasted vast sums of the public’s money.
Gaetz claims Israeli operation behind prostitution, underage sex allegations
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-881114
“Anti-semitism used to mean somebody who didn’t like Jews. Now it just means somebody Jews don’t like," Gaetz said in the episode.
Former congressman Matt Gaetz asserted Tuesday that allegations of prostitution and sexual relations with an underage girl were part of an Israeli operation to extort him because of his isolationist foreign policy.
During an interview on The Tucker Carlson Show, Gaetz denied that he had committed statutory rape, engaged in commercial sex, and used illicit drugs as alleged in a 2024 House Ethics Committee report, and that the supposed foreign influence operation was evidently fake due to not being given an opportunity to question witnesses and review records in a proper forum.
"It was an op to silence me, and Israel was involved, and I hate to say that," Gaetz told Carlson.
Supreme Court won’t allow National Guard deployment to Chicago in major loss for Trump
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5661555-supreme-court-blocks-trump-guard/
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled President Trump may not deploy the National Guard to the Chicago area for now amid his push for military troops to patrol the streets of Democratic-led cities, a major loss for the president at the high court.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer had argued that the statute Trump invoked to call up the troops was lawful and consistent with a “long historical tradition” tracing back to President George Washington’s response to the Whiskey Rebellion.
“At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the unsigned order reads.
The court explained that to justify calling up the National Guard, a president must be unable to execute laws with the regular forces of the U.S. military.
That would require “exceptional” circumstances because of the Posse Comitatus Act, a centuries-old law that generally bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement.
Right-wing antisemitism must be confronted before it dominates Republican Party - editorial
Right-wing antisemitism must be confronted before it dominates Republican Party - editorial
The Republican Party has not become antisemitic. Its base remains solidly pro-Israel. Its elected officials reject Jew-hatred outright. But antisemitism does not need majorities to thrive.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Banned ‘60 Minutes’ Episode Leaked Online: Watch Here
A 60 Minutes report that was pulled by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss on Sunday has now become widely available on social media after a Canadian outlet reportedly posted it online.
The segment features interviews with Venezuelans deported by President Donald Trump's administration to El Salvador's notorious maximum security prison, CECOT.
How the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Europe had themselves a merry little Nittel Nacht
In his new book, “Christmas in Yiddish Tradition: The Untold Story,” Jordan Chad explores the folklore of Yiddish-speaking Jews in Central and Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages through the Modern period. The study reveals that Christmas was surprisingly one of European Jews’ favorite days of the year, and how Christmas traditions were once transmitted in Yiddish — a language non-Jews didn’t often speak.
The sole remnant of the Jewish observance of Christmas Eve, as it was marked in Europe, is found among the largest Yiddish-speaking community. Hasidic men still vacate the study halls on December 24 and make merry. Those who aren’t up for the fun use the time to catch up on sleep, errands, or housework.
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Chasidic men are not "making merry" on nittel nacht - they are deliberately wasting time, by not learning Torah, so as not to allow any merit to accrue to the world on this night. That at least is the official story. I'm sure that the children - or at least most of them - enjoyed the break from the beis medrash nonetheless.
The Donald J. Trump Center for Everything
Only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.
Under 20 U.S.C. § 76i(a), Congress in 1964 established the Kennedy Center as “a building to be designated as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” The title of the building isn’t a casual naming of the kind that happens when philanthropists donate to a museum and are honored with a wing named after them. The name is enshrined in statute as a memorial to the assassinated President.
Monday, December 22, 2025
‘60 Minutes’ correspondent says CBS’s Bari Weiss abruptly pulled segment on Trump deportations
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/12/21/cbs-news-bari-weiss-intervention/
CBS News abruptly pulled an investigative “60 Minutes” segment on the Trump administration’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison after the Trump administration refused to grant an interview, according to a correspondent who shared her concerns in an email obtained by The Washington Post.
The decision came directly from the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss, according to an internal email sent to producers from the segment’s correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, who called the decision tantamount to handing the White House a “kill switch.”
NY yeshiva sued over 'sexual abuse'
https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewish-news/ny-yeshiva-sued-over-sexual-abuse
A Brooklyn yeshiva and its head administrator are being sued for $10 million over alleged sexual abuse by a rabbi who taught there for several decades. The lawsuit is the fifth to be filed against Yeshiva Torah Temimah and administrator Lipa Margulies alleging sexual abuse by Rabbi Yudi Kolko. Kolko was arrested for a second time in September for allegedly molesting a boy at the yeshiva, and then released on bail. He was previously charged with four counts of sexual abuse, including two felony counts, and with endangering the welfare of a child. The latest case involves the alleged sexual abuse of a minor, identified as John Doe No. 6, who was enrolled at Torah Temimah between the ages of 11 and 13. Lawyers say he was sexually abused by Kolko on a number of occasions at several locations, including inside the rabbi's car, and at the yeshiva in his office at the yeshiva and in the basement. According to the lawsuit, John Doe says that often, when Kolko would press himself up against him in a sexual manner, he would ask, "Does it hurt?" Attorneys Adam Horowitz and Michael Dowd allege that Margulies knew of allegations that Rabbi Kolko was sexually abusing boys at Torah Temimah years before John Doe No. 6 was a student there. "Despite the fact that Rabbi Margulies knew of allegations that Rabbi Kolko was sexually abusing children and was unfit to be a Rabbi or teacher at Torah Temimah, he took no action to protect the young male students at his school and continued to give Rabbi Kolko unfettered access to young children," the lawyers said in a press release. The alleged abuse dates back to the 1980s, and the lawsuit claims Margulies engaged in "tactics of intimidation, threats and coercion and misrepresentations" over years with the "intent of squelching any complaints." "In this case, our contention is that there were countless instances of notice to Rabbi Margulies about the conduct of Kolko," Dowd said. "His response has been threatening people who made complaints." Such cases could be compared to recent allegations against the Catholic Church, said Jeffrey Herman, a lawyer involved in previous lawsuits filed against the yeshiva. "It's similar in the sense of an insular community where these things, unfortunately, allegations that have been around for a long time, never made it to the judicial court system outside the community," Herman said. What was different in the yeshiva case, according to Herman, was the lack of an "institutional" cover-up. "This is one yeshiva, which has no connection to other Jewish institutions," he said. The attorney for Yeshiva Torah Temimah, Avraham Moskowitz, told The Jerusalem Post he had not yet been served with the lawsuit. In the past, Moskowitz has denied all allegations against the yeshiva. Regarding an earlier lawsuit in 2006, Moskowitz told JTA that the yeshiva "adamantly denies the allegations in the complaints and is sure that when the cases are over, the yeshiva will be vindicated."
‘The Wire’ Actor James Ransone Dies by Suicide at 46: What We Know
In 2021, Ransone publicly revealed he was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, posting a detailed account on Instagram describing abuse he experienced from his former tutor in Phoenix, Maryland, in 1992, the Post reports. In his statement, Ransone described how the abuse led to what he called a lifetime of shame and embarrassment, contributing to struggles with alcoholism and heroin addiction.
CBS postpones ‘60 Minutes’ segment on migrant inmates from El Salvador’s CECOT prison
CBS pulled a “60 Minutes” segment on Venezuelan migrants who were sent to El Salvador’s notorious maximum-security prison, CECOT, just hours before its scheduled Sunday broadcast time.
The episode, which was scheduled to air at 7:30 ET on Sunday, was set to show correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing recently released deportees who experienced “brutal and torturous” conditions at the hellhole prison, according to an earlier description on its Paramount Plus website.
A CBS News spokesperson said in an email to Reuters that the segment “needed additional reporting.”
However, in a Sunday email sent to fellow correspondents, Alfonsi blasted the decision to postpone the segment, alleging Weiss had “spiked our story,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Alfonsi added that the choice to delay the airtime was political, not a journalistic judgement, according to the email reviewed by the outlet.
Two lawmakers seek to find Bondi in contempt over Epstein files
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-California) and Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) said Sunday that they will seek to find Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of Congress for not releasing more documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
More than 20 files that the Justice Department initially posted were later deleted without explanation from the agency’s website, according to a Post analysis of the files.
“The administration has struggled for months and months with something that they initially ginned up, and then sort of tried to tamp down,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said Sunday on “This Week” on ABC. “So any evidence or any kind of indication that there’s not a full reveal on this, this will just plague them for months and months more. So my suggestion would be: Give up all the information.”
Tucker Carlson named ‘Antisemite of the Year’ by prominent Jewish organization after alarming interviews
“By an overwhelming vote margin, Tucker Carlson has been named StopAntisemitism’s 2025 Antisemite of the Year,” StopAntisemitism founder and executive director Liora Rez told The Post.
Elise Stefanik Gets the Trump Treatment
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/elise-stefanik-gets-the-trump-treatment-af599479?mod=hp_opin_pos_4
Being an opponent of President Trump is fraught, but being his friend can also be perilous. Witness New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a rising GOP star who thought she had Mr. Trump’s support to run for Governor until she didn’t.
Ms. Stefanik announced her run for Albany shortly after the November election. But on Friday she left the race, despite having raised $12 million, and says she also won’t run for re-election in her upstate district. It’s hard to blame her after her rough treatment by the President.
’60 Minutes’ Faces Backlash For Pulling Trump El Salvador Prison Segment
https://www.newsweek.com/cbs-60-minutes-backlash-pulling-trump-el-salvador-prison-11252176
CBS program 60 Minutes is under fire after posting a notice that a segment on its episode set to air Sunday had been pulled - one featuring interviews with prisoners sent from the U.S. to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.
Democratic political commentator Marco Foster wrote on X: "This is the now deleted teaser for the 60 Minutes report that was supposed to air tonight on the CECOT torture prison in El Salvador that Donald Trump sent hundreds of migrants to. CBS is officially a mouthpiece for the Trump administration thanks to Bari Weiss."
Sunday, December 21, 2025
We are in a religious war
https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/we-are-in-a-religious-war/
Just like in the time of the Hasmoneans, today too—whether in Sydney, Australia, on the Temple Mount, or in the October 7 massacre—acceptance of us comes with a condition: that we Hellenize, or rather, Islamize. This is the demand of Iran and its proxies, and also of the Palestinian Authority, which continues to reject recognizing Israel as the Jewish state.
At Turning Point’s annual gathering, young conservatives fret about the future
Many young voters say they plan to express their dissatisfaction by sitting out the next election. While that sentiment is strongest among independents, apathy is more pronounced among Republicans than Democrats. Only half of young people who voted for Trump in 2024 said they definitely plan to vote in 2026, compared to 66 percent of Kamala Harris’ young voters.
Divisions remain, though, over whether Trump should attempt to win over the generation with more targeted policies. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro delivered a different message to young people on Thursday: “Get off your ass and go do the thing.”
“Finish high school, get a job, get married, have kids, go to church. Those are all in your control,” he said from a studio at AmericaFest. “You pretending those things are not in your control is grievance culture BS.”
Tucker Carlson inflames a raging battle for MAGA’s future
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/20/tucker-carlson-maga-trump-fuentes-antisemitism/
Tucker Carlson had some concerns. So he called President Donald Trump.
The right-wing podcaster and provocateur wanted to understand why the U.S. was attacking alleged drug smuggling boats off the coast of Venezuela and he warned against pursuing regime change there — a prospect that has alarmed the more isolationist “America First” Republicans in Trump’s movement.
The conversations last weekend, which Carlson recalled in an interview, show how the Fox News castoff is at the center of some of the most heated disputes in MAGA — over foreign policy, antisemitism and conspiracy theories, among other topics heightening tensions in the movement. As the right wrestles with what it should stand for and against in the coming years, Carlson is a divisive and influential figure with an audience — on social media, among MAGA commentators and inside the White House.
Turning Point Embraces MAGA Debate on Night Two of AmericaFest
https://www.newsweek.com/turning-point-embraces-maga-debate-on-night-two-of-americafest-11247849
In contrast, Bannon—a critic of the H1-B visa program—utilized his speech to embrace the “America First” platform, denouncing “Israel First” conservatives like Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro, whom he labeled a “cancer.” Bannon followed these statements in saying conservatives must continue winning because “We have to Christianize this country.”
As Bannon focused on Israel and America First—indirectly defending Carlson who’s taken flak for conducting an interview with far-right Holocaust skeptic Nick Fuentes—Ramaswamy denounced Fuentes by name. He centered his speech on combating what he described as the “online right” who push the idea of “Heritage Americans,” those who can trace their lineage to Colonial America, as being the “true Americans.”
Some may see this debate as evidence of the MAGA coalition ripping itself apart, and that could be the case. However, it could also be true that conservatives have found an effective forum to litigate their internal issues that could lessen the amount of time spent on such discussions as the calendar nears 2028. Either way, Turning Point appears to be positioning itself as the premier forum for discussion in the Republican Party, and that’s a win for Erika Kirk.
Trump says Venezuela stole U.S. oil, land and assets. Here’s the history.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/20/venezuela-oil-nationalization-expropriation/
President Donald Trump said this week that the expropriation of American oil company assets justified a “total and complete blockade” of oil tankers arriving and leaving Venezuela in defiance of U.S. sanctions. The blockade will remain, he wrote on Truth Social, until the South American nation returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
“They’re not going to do that again,” Trump told reporters. “We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.”
But U.S. companies never owned oil or land in Venezuela, home to the world’s largest proven reserves of crude, and officials didn’t kick them out of the country.
“Trump’s claim that Venezuela has stolen oil and land from the U.S. is baseless,” said Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver.
16 Epstein files, including photo of Trump, disappear from DOJ website: Report
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5658618-doj-redactions-epstein-files/
At least 16 files on the Justice Department’s (DOJ) webpage containing files on Jeffrey Epstein, including a photo featuring two pictures of President Trump, were found to have disappeared from the department’s website as of Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
One photo of the desk included two pictures inside an open drawer that featured Trump. The first printed picture shows Trump surrounded by a group of women in bathing suits. The second partially covered photo shows Trump with first lady Melania Trump, Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000.
“This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee stated in a post on the social platform X. “[Attorney General Pam Bondi] is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”
Saturday, December 20, 2025
DOJ’s Epstein disclosure draws fire for website glitches, missing documents, redactions
The Department of Justice's efforts to release all of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking cases by the legal deadline fell short of expectations on Friday, resulting in complaints ranging from technological glitches to excessive redactions and missing documents.
The most common criticism, however, focused on what critics described as an incomplete release and extensive redactions. The DOJ has said it was required to redact information that could identify victims or minors.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., highlighted the statutory language of the Epstein Files Transparency Act on X.
"Unfortunately, today’s document release by @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago," Massie wrote.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a co-sponsor of the legislation, said he and Massie were "exploring all options," including potential contempt proceedings or other actions against DOJ officials.
"It is an incomplete release with too many redactions," Khanna said.
Israeli Gefen Bitton in critical condition after confronting Bondi Beach terrorist
Thirty-year-old Israeli Gefen Bitton has been identified as one of the victims of the Bondi Beach terror attack. Bitton was shot three times and is fighting for his life after he rushed to confront one of the shooters in the antisemitic Hanukkah attack.
Bitton, an Israeli national who, according to Australian media, has worked in Australia for the past three years as a garage door technician, appears in dramatic footage from Sunday’s attack alongside Ahmed Al Ahmed, who wrestled a weapon from one of the two gunmen and aimed it back at the attacker, Sajid Akram.
MAGA civil war over Israel erupts into the open at Turning Point USA conference
Shapiro attacks conservative leaders for not calling out conspiracy theorists; Bannon: Shapiro a ‘cancer’ who wants US to put Israel’s interests first; Kelly: Rift revolves around Israel
5 initial takeaways from DOJ’s release of Epstein documents
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5657940-epstein-justice-department-document-dump/
While Trump may have appeared sparingly in the Epstein documents, Clinton showed up in several photographs made public on Friday.
A spokesperson for Clinton said in response that the former president was among those who “knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light.”
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever,” Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña said in a statement. “So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be.”
While Friday’s release featured thousands upon thousands of documents, it was not the entirety of the DOJ’s materials pertaining to Epstein.
That prompted criticism from Democrats in particular who argued the administration was not in compliance with the law.
Friday, December 19, 2025
‘Don’s best friend’: How Epstein and Trump bonded over the pursuit of women
To shed light on their friendship, the Times interviewed more than 30 former Epstein employees, victims of his abuse and others who crossed paths with the two men over the years. The Times also obtained new documents that illuminate their relationship and scoured court documents and other public records.
Minneapolis police chief criticizes ICE after officer drags woman through street
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5655923-minneapolis-police-brian-ohara-ice/?tbref=hp
Minneapolis Police Department Chief Brian O’Hara criticized federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this week after an attempted arrest on Monday led to a chaotic scene in which an officer dragged a woman through the street as agents fended off protesters.
Video of the incident shows an agent kneeling on a woman’s back as she lies face down in the snow. Onlookers descended on the scene, yelling at ICE agents to release the woman, saying she’s pregnant and couldn’t breathe, according to The Associated Press.
An agent later dragged her by the arm, as she lay on her back, through the street toward a vehicle. Observers continued to yell, and the agent released her, the AP reported.
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Five Falsehoods From Trump’s Year-End Address
https://www.newsweek.com/five-falsehoods-from-trumps-year-end-address-11231600
President Donald Trump opened his national address Wednesday night with a familiar phrase, one he’s used since returning to office nearly a year ago: “I inherited a mess.”
In a speech that moved rapidly from economic claims to immigration, energy, housing, health care and crime, Trump painted a sweeping picture of national revival under his leadership and offered a long list of promises and boasts
Instead of outlining new policy in detail, Trump leaned heavily on declarative claims about prices, border security, the job market and his own election results. He described a country that had been “absolutely dead” before his return, and one that is now, he said, “the hottest anywhere in the world.”
Inflation: Trump Says It’s Over, But Prices Are Still Rising
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
New York Stands at a Crossroads: The Fight Over Legalized Killing
https://vinnews.com/2025/12/15/new-york-stands-at-a-crossroads-the-fight-over-legalized-killing/
The bill is called the “Medical Aid in Dying” act. The name itself is a masterpiece of political dishonesty. “Aid” suggests help. “Dying” suggests something inevitable. But strip away the euphemisms and you find the truth: this is a law that would put poison in the hands of vulnerable people, with almost no way to take it back, and call the killing “medicine.”
Hochul agrees to sign Medical Aid in Dying bill
https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2025/12/hochul-agrees-sign-medical-aid-dying-bill/410219/
After months of negotiations over a controversial measure that would permit doctors to help some terminally ill patients end their lives, sources told City & State that Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to announce a deal to sign it on Wednesday.
‘Extremely demoralizing’: Republicans respond to the bombastic Wiles interview
White House aides and allies on Tuesday rushed to publicly defend Susie Wiles after a jaw-dropping interview in Vanity Fair had her pointedly criticizing the president and many in the Cabinet.
Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff on Trump’s Second Term (Part 1 of 2)
Throughout the first year of Donald Trump’s second administration, Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple has interviewed Wiles amid each moment of crisis. This insider’s account joins a portfolio of portraits for an unflinching, up-close look at power—and peril.
Sen. Chris Murphy after boat strike briefing: There’s ‘no fentanyl’ and ‘no legal justification’
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5651822-trump-administration-strikes-questioned/
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Tuesday’s classified briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirms the Trump administration has no legal or national security justification for the strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Murphy said in a video on the social platform X that the two Cabinet officials admitted to lawmakers that the accused drug-trafficking vessels are believed to be smuggling cocaine, not fentanyl. He also said Rubio and Hegseth said intelligence suggested the boats were going to Europe, not the U.S., contradicting the administration’s public justification for the strikes.
6 takeaways from Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles’ unvarnished interviews
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/16/politics/takeaways-susie-wiles-interview
The money quote from the interview might be Wiles saying that Trump – a known teetotaler – has an “alcoholic’s personality.”
(Wiles denied those quotes to The New York Times, but the Times says Vanity Fair played its tape of Wiles saying these things.)
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Rav Yitzchok Abadi zt”l – A Light That Illuminated Generations
https://vinnews.com/2025/12/16/rav-yitzchok-abadi-ztl-a-light-that-illuminated-generations/
Rav Yitzchok Abadi zt”l was not simply a rav—he was an embodiment of what Torah greatness looks like when combined with brilliance, courage, humility and unwavering dedication to truth.
MAGA leaders warn Trump the base is checking out. Will he listen?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/15/trump-base-maga-midterm-voters/
Savanah Hernandez, a conservative commentator who serves as a Turning Point USA contributor, described the second Trump term so far as “underwhelming,” while crediting Trump with making positive, lasting changes to the conservative movement.
“All we’ve really seen is punchy tweets, cool video edits, but really no follow-through on any of the promises,” she said of the messaging coming from the White House.
“And if he listened to his base and he was connected to us, even just through social media, you would see that the average person is still struggling to buy groceries, that the housing crisis is still on the mind of everybody, that inflation is still a really big issue, and when Americans see billions of dollars going overseas to any country, it really feels like a betrayal when we’re struggling here at home,” Hernandez said.
Monday, December 15, 2025
Trump says looking into whether Israel violated ceasefire by killing Hamas leader
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-880379
US President Donald Trump on Monday said his administration was looking into whether Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire by killing a Hamas leader on Saturday.
The White House sent a scolding message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, expressing
Washington’s anger over the assassination of senior Hamas official Sa’ad Ra’ad, which it described as an Israeli violation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, two American sources told Axios.
Donald Trump’s Response to Rob Reiner’s Death Sparks MAGA Backlash
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-response-to-rob-reiners-death-sparks-maga-backlash-11214421
"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood," Trump wrote in a Monday morning post on Truth Social, his preferred method for communicating directly with the American public."Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS," the president continued.Trump's Monday post about Reiner concluded: "He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!"
Listen to the people, President Trump — they really DO feel economic pain
President Trump is stepping out of his White House bubble to address economic gloom; we expect he’ll make time to listen as well as speechify.
He needs to be careful: Slamming Democrats’ talk of “affordability” as a “con job” is readily twisted to make it seem like he doesn’t think people are suffering.
We realize that he means that Dems are responsible for the nation’s current woes; they can’t credibly claim to be the party of strong economic growth, which is the only way out of this box.
The prez can and should offer genuine assurances, but must admit the frustration is painfully real: Three-quarters of Americans view the economy negatively, a Fox News survey found last month.
RFK Jr.’s lunatic war on vaccines puts kids at risk
https://nypost.com/2025/12/14/opinion/rfk-jr-s-dangerous-war-on-vaccines-puts-kids-at-risk/
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still chipping away at one of the biggest public health wins of the last century: the widespread use of disease-eradicating vaccines.
On Dec. 5, his handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices tossed the recommendation for universal hepatitis B vaccines for infants at birth, instead advising it only for babies whose mothers tested positive for the disease — and recommending that babies who don’t get the jab at birth don’t receive it earlier than 2 months.
But … why?
The hep B vaccine has a stellar safety record, and relying on testing is a bad plan; it’s usually done in the first trimester or during birth, but can go wrong in plenty of ways — like moms being exposed post-test, or not getting tested at all.
Universal at-birth vaccination is a low-risk, very effective strategy for preventing a disease that has a 90% chance of becoming a chronic, liver-damaging, possibly deadly illness for babies who get infected.
Bondi Beach Terror Attack: At Least 16 Killed as Gunmen Target Jewish Holiday Event
https://time.com/7340702/bondi-beach-shooting-terror-attack/
At least 16 people have been killed and dozens injured after two gunmen opened fire on a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, in what officials have described as the deadliest mass shooting to hit Australia in 30 years.
The shooting, which Australian authorities have declared a terror attack, targeted hundreds of people celebrating Hanukkah at the beach. One witness said people who were not part of the Hanukkah event were ushered aside by the shooters. The victims were aged between 10 and 87.
At least 40 people were confirmed wounded in the shooting, which began around 6.45 p.m. on Sunday at one of Sydney's most popular tourist destinations. One gunman was shot and a second was arrested.
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Saturday, December 13, 2025
How a Manosphere Star Accused of Rape and Trafficking Was Freed
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/us/andrew-tate-barron-trump-romania.html
Barred from leaving Romania, Andrew Tate courted powerful figures on the American right, from Tucker Carlson to Barron Trump. Then an extraordinary order let him go.
When Andrew texted in January that the Trump administration was “on top of things,” he didn’t name names.
But several of his supporters had found roles in the incoming government.
Paul Ingrassia, who was initially named White House liaison to the Justice Department, had once been part of the Tates’ legal team. Alina Habba, a counselor to the president who would later serve a brief stint as New Jersey’s top prosecutor, told Andrew on a podcast in January that “I got your back over here.”
And Mr. Grenell, a special presidential envoy, privately discussed the Tates’ case with Romanian officials, The Times found.
Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro denounced the Tates. Some Republican leaders spoke out, too.
“I certainly don’t think that we should be using any influence in our government to try to get him out of what seemed to be extremely serious charges in Romania,” Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri told HuffPost, referring to Andrew.
Trump Supporter despite his supporting Drug Trader and antisemite
https://mishpacha.com/trump-flunks-the-test/
“I supported Trump with full awareness that he would frequently embarrass himself, and, by extension, me.” One such moment took place this week when the president pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who had served only two years of a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking.
That pardon created an air of complete incoherence around American policy. At the very moment when the president has basically declared war on Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro for running drugs into the country, and has claimed the right to blast speedboats allegedly carrying those drugs out of the water, he pardons another Latin American leader-cum-drug lord.
Another of those embarrassing Trumpian moments — and one of greater consequence for the Jewish community — took place recently, when he weighed in on the controversy around Tucker Carlson’s softball interview of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
Can one urge rounding up and killing Jews, as Fuentes has done, and still be part of the MAGA movement? That’s one question. The other: Is Carlson complicit in those ideas when he provides them with a broad audience? And if he is complicit, is he still part of the MAGA team?
Friday, December 12, 2025
‘Mamdani Effect’ Is Seeing More People Moving to New York, Not Leaving It
https://www.newsweek.com/mamdani-effect-more-people-moving-new-york-city-not-leaving-11193747
A month after Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in New York City’s mayoral election, the mass exodus of wealthy residents that landlords and real estate agents—especially down in Florida—had predicted has so far failed to materialize.
Instead, sales of luxury homes in the Big Apple—priced above $4 million—were up by 31 percent in November compared with October to 151 properties, according to the latest data by real estate brokerage firm Olshan Realty.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Environmental group sues Trump for replacing national park pass photo with his own image
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit Wednesday to prevent President Donald Trump's face from appearing on next year's National Parks Pass.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., argues the Trump administration violated the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act by substituting the winning picture from the National Parks Foundation's annual public lands photo contest with an image of President Trump.
"Blotting out the majesty of America’s national parks with a closeup of his own face is Trump’s crassest, most ego-driven action yet," Kierán Suckling, the center's executive director, said in a statement. "The national parks are treasured by Americans of every stripe. Their timeless power and magnificence rise above even the most bitter political differences to quietly bring all Americans together."
Suckling continued, "It’s disgusting of Trump to politicize America’s most sacred refuge by pasting his face over the national parks in the same way he slaps his corporate name on buildings, restaurants, and golf courses.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Loomer on boat strikes: ‘Fentanyl isn’t being manufactured in Venezuela’
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5638688-laura-loomer-trump-venezuela-drug-strikes/
Far-right activist Laura Loomer noted inconsistencies with the Trump administration’s justification of strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats off the coast of Venezuela.
Loomer said Monday on the social platform X that while she has “no sympathy for narcoterrorists being killed,” it is “worth noting” that the majority of drugs, including fentanyl, brought into the U.S. are trafficked through Mexico.“Fentanyl isn’t being manufactured in Venezuela,” she added.
Fact check: Trump’s absurd claim that he saved 100,000 lives by attacking alleged Venezuelan drug boats
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/08/politics/venezuela-drug-boats-trump
The total number of US overdose deaths from all drugs in 2024 was about 82,000, according to provisional federal data. (Even adding in reported Canadian opioid and stimulant deaths doesn’t bring the total to 100,000.) Trump is essentially claiming, in other words, that his decision to attack a small number of boats in the Caribbean – there have been at least four US strikes since the beginning of September – prevented more than a full year’s worth of deaths.
There are other issues with Trump’s claims. The White House and Defense Department have not presented proof that the boats were carrying either drugs in general or the “fentanyl, mostly” Trump claimed last week they were carrying, nor that the people on the boats were planning to try to get such drugs into the US. The Caribbean is not known to be a significant fentanyl-smuggling route, and Venezuela is not considered a significant source of the illicit fentanyl trafficked into the US. That fentanyl is primarily manufactured in Mexico and smuggled across the US border in vehicles – generally by US citizens.
Fact-checking Trump’s claim that each boat strike off Venezuela’s coast saves 25,000 lives
President Donald Trump said U.S. military strikes on five Venezuelan boats have saved more than 100,000 lives because the maneuvers thwarted drug smuggling.
Several aspects of Trump’s statement make it wrong.
There is no way of knowing how many lives are saved as a result of drug interception efforts, drug experts have told PolitiFact.
Additionally, if Trump’s statement were accurate, the strikes on five boats in less than two months would have saved nearly double the number of U.S. lives lost to drug overdoses in an entire year.
The administration has provided no evidence about the type or quantity of drugs it says were on the boats. This lack of information makes it impossible to know how many lethal doses of the drugs could have been destroyed.
Even if the boats were carrying 25,000 lethal drug doses each, that doesn’t mean that destroying them saved 125,000 lives. There were 73,000 U.S. drug overdose deaths from May 2024 to April 2025. That means the drugs on five boats would have been responsible for 125,000 deaths, nearly double the number of U.S. overdose deaths in one year.
The amount of drugs that are stopped from entering the U.S. doesn’t indicate how many lives were saved.
We rate Trump’s statement Pants on Fire!
Honduras issues arrest warrant for ex-president Hernández recently pardoned by Trump
Luis Santos, the director of Honduras’ Specialized Unit against Corruption Crimes, told CNN a few days ago that Hernández had “an open case in the Supreme Court of Justice for money laundering and fraud,” and that an earlier international arrest warrant had been in the possession of the Ministry of Security and Interpol since September 2023.
Trump formally pardoned Hernández on Dec. 3, telling reporters at the White House “I feel pretty good about it,” and calling the prosecution a “Biden horrible witch hunt.”
The move was criticized by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress, who questioned Trump’s decision to pardon someone with a drug trafficking conviction when his administration has been so focused on disrupting drug trafficking in Latin America, ramping up military activity and launching controversial strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
Alina Habba Resigns as US Attorney, Blames ‘Politicized’ Courts
https://www.newsweek.com/alina-habba-resigns-us-attorney-new-jersey-11175799
President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Alina Habba, said Monday she is resigning as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, ending her effort to remain in the post after a federal appeals court ruled she had been serving unlawfully.
Habba, 41, rose to prominence as one of Trump’s most outspoken legal defenders during his four years out of office, representing him in civil cases and appearing regularly on cable news as his “legal spokesperson.” Despite her public profile, she had limited federal prosecutorial experience before her appointment to the powerful New Jersey post, which oversees federal criminal and civil enforcement across the state.
Monday, December 8, 2025
Dem rep: ‘Pretty clear’ Trump administration does not want boat strike video released
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5637591-adam-smith-trump-administration-drug-boat-video/?tbref=hp
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Sunday it is “pretty clear” that the Trump administration does not want to release video of a second strike on an alleged drug boat in September.
“If they release the video, then everything that the Republicans are saying would clearly be betrayed to be completely false,” Smith added.
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Saturday, December 6, 2025
‘Relax’ is not a winning economic message
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/06/economy-consumers-affordability-vance-johnson/
Republicans have a holiday message for cash-strapped Americans: chill out.
“Relax,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) advised on Thursday, assuring voters they will feel better once provisions from the Big Beautiful Bill kick in next year. “We are exactly on the trajectory of where we’ve always planned to be. Steady at the wheel, everybody. It’s gonna be fine."
There’s nothing as soothing as being told to calm down when you’re struggling to pay for groceries, let alone Christmas presents.
Consumers don’t see it that way. Gallup said Thursday that its Economic Confidence Index has slipped seven points to -30, its lowest reading in 17 months. Consumers estimate they will spend an average of $778 on holiday presents, down from $1,012 at this point last year. Growing numbers are using buy now, pay later services, another indication people feel strapped for cash. Data released Wednesday by ADP showed an unexpected drop in private payrolls by 32,000 last month.
Report Double-Strike Vessel Was Not Bound for U.S. Sparks Reactions Online
In September, U.S. forces struck a vessel in the Caribbean suspected of transporting narcotics. According to CNN, Bradley, who oversaw the operation, told lawmakers that the allegedly drug-laden boat was preparing to rendezvous with a larger vessel destined for Suriname, not directly to the United States. Intelligence suggested plans to transfer drugs midsea, CNN reports.
Bradley maintained in his congressional briefing that there was still a "possibility the drug shipment could have ultimately made its way from Suriname to the U.S," CNN reports, citing sources. The thought "justified" striking the smaller boat. The outlet reports that the U.S. military "was unable to locate" the larger vessel.