A federal agency quietly approved a $5 billion loan on Thursday to fund a liquefied natural gas facility in Mozambique owned by TotalEnergies, a French company that has a history of working with foreign adversaries, including Iran, Russia, and China.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank’s decision to finance TotalEnergies’ LNG project is facing backlash from conservatives wary of foreign aid spending, as well as the U.S. LNG industry, which says the facility will compete with American businesses. Critics note that a long-awaited Alaska LNG pipeline proposal, which President Trump touted in his address to Congress this month, would face direct competition from the TotalEnergies facility.

The company was one of the largest importers of Russian LNG last year, according to the Associated Press. It was also the first Western company to sign an oil deal with the Iranian government during a break in U.S. sanctions in 2016.

Rick Perry, Trump’s former energy secretary, told the Washington Free Beacon that the TotalEnergies Mozambique project “directly competes with the U.S. LNG industry, at a time when the President is looking to expand it.”

“President Trump and his cabinet have been very clear that this administration will restore American energy dominance and protect the U.S. energy industry and the millions of people that support it,” said Perry. “The proposal for ExIm bank to send $5 billion in taxpayer dollars to fund a foreign owned project in Africa contradicts this priority.”

The Ex-Im Bank originally greenlit funding for the Mozambique facility at the end of the first Trump administration, but the proposal was paused due to ISIS-linked terrorist activity in the area. The project remained in limbo during the Biden administration, which was reluctant to fund fossil fuel companies.

In 2019, Ex-Im said the loan would boost the U.S. economy by funding the “export of U.S. goods and services from multiple states for the development and construction” of the Mozambique facility, while supporting “an estimated 16,400 American jobs over the five-year construction period.”

On Thursday, Ex-Im’s board approved the $4.7 billion loan in a closed-door meeting.

Daniel Turner, director of the energy lobbying group Power the Future, slammed the closed-door Ex-Im vote as an example of “weaponized bureaucracy” and said the loan would go toward “building a company that will now directly compete with America.”

“Ex-Im is an organization that is indifferent to the voting will of the American people, the national ethos, and the conversation around savings,” said Turner. “Why does a French company need $5 billion from U.S. tax dollars?”

Opponents are also voicing concerns about TotalEnergies’ involvement with adversarial countries. A former White House official, who served in the first Trump administration, said the Total Mozambique loan raised alarms when it was first proposed in 2019.

“We’re an administration that is ‘America first,’” said the former official. “Basically anywhere the United States says this is an area where we don’t want anybody going and investing, and we’re sanctioning this country … TotalEnergies looks at that and says, ‘Okay, so that’s where we’re going to go invest,’” said the official.

TotalEnergies continues to hold investments in the Russian LNG sector, including a nearly 20 percent stake in Novatek, one of Russia’s largest natural gas producers. The company also inked a cooperation deal last year with the Chinese government-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC), and has been working to help China produce “sustainable jet fuel,” according to a press release.

After the Obama administration lifted sanctions on Iran, TotalEnergies was the first Western company to strike a major oil deal with the regime. The company pulled out of Iran after the renewal of U.S. sanctions but maintains a small office and staff in Tehran, according to its 2023 financial report.

Total also held investments in Cuba and Venezuela until 2022, according to the financial report. The company is the largest shareholder in Yemen LNG, which operated a gas plant that was allegedly used by Emirati forces as a military prison, according to a 2023 lawsuit.

The Ex-Im loan has already faced some backlash from conservative media, a sign that it could become a flashpoint in the Republican fight to curb government spending and overseas funding. Last month, the Wall Street Journal editorial board called the TotalEnergies proposal a “risky foreign project that competes with American businesses” and denounced Ex-Im as an agency “in need of the DOGE treatment.”

Steve Forbes, the conservative media publisher, told the Free Beacon it was a “risky and nonsensical investment.”

“DOGE’s admirable work is intended to cut unnecessary foreign aid, especially projects which would directly compete with American LNG,” said Forbes.

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Democrats in Congress have finally unburdened themselves from the state of disarray plaguing their party since losing the 2024 election—by uniting in outrage against one of them their own. Democratic politicians and activists are livid after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said he would support passage of a Republican-backed funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives released a blistering statement in response to Schumer’s announcement. “The far-right Republican funding bill will unleash havoc on everyday Americans,” they wrote. “House Democrats will not be complicit.” The six-month funding measure narrowly passed the GOP-controlled House earlier this week. Congressman Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat who voted in favor. Senators have until the end of the day on Friday to approve the measure before funding runs out.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) vowed to mobilize her social media fans in an effort to force a government shutdown, slamming Schumer for his decision to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.” There was a “deep sense of outrage and betrayal” among her Democratic colleagues in the House, she told reporters on Thursday. Some of them are so “infuriated” by Schumer’s actions, according to CNN, they’ve started urging AOC to run against him in the Democratic primary when he comes up for reelection in 2028. One House Democrat said they had “never seen people so mad.”

Schumer’s colleagues in the Senate were similarly aggrieved. A number of them released statements Thursday denouncing the Republican plan to keep the government open. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware called it a “dirty deal.” Andy Kim of New Jersey called it a “disaster” for democracy. Mark Kelly of Arizona slammed Schumer for refusing to “stand up” for what is right for the country. Jon Ossoff of Georgia suggested the Democratic leader was failing to fulfill his obligation to uphold the Constitution. Ruben Gallego of Arizona accused Schumer of endorsing a “grab bag of extreme policies” that would harm American families. Michael Bennet of Colorado lashed out during a private meeting, attacking leadership for having “no strategy, no plan, and no message.”

On Friday, former speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Democratic senators to “listen to the women” and defy Schumer by blocking the bill, which can only pass if at least eight Democrats join Republicans to end a filibuster and move to a final vote. In a vehement statement, Pelosi blasted Schumer for his “unacceptable” refusal to “fight back.” She praised Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) and Rep. Rose DeLauro (D., Conn.) for proposing a better alternative and denounced the GOP funding measure as a “devastating assault on the well-being of working families” that would be “worse” than a government shutdown.

The anger was most pronounced among partisan activists. Jim Acosta, the former CNN host, argued Schumer was taking a “serious gamble that risks alienating not just the liberal base of the party, but outraged Americans from all political stripes.” Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Democrat-aligned Lincoln Project, said Schumer was acting like a “GOP sleeper agent.” Reed Galen, another Lincoln Project co-founder, agreed. “Call Chuck Schumer anything you want,” he wrote. “But don’t call him a leader.” Allison Gill, a former bureaucrat and liberal activist, was incensed. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” she fumed. “WHAT THE FUCK, CHUCK?”

Pass the Torch, a Democratic political action committee formed in 2024 to pressure then-president Joe Biden to drop out of the race, called on Schumer to resign after “betraying Democrats and the Constitution by supporting the GOP’s radical budget proposal.” The group accused the Democratic leader of “enabling” President Donald Trump’s “fascist takeover of our democracy.” Liberal activist Ron Filipkowski concurred. “It is time for new leadership,” he wrote. “[Schumer] isn’t the person for this moment in history, and the longer he clings to power the worse off we all are.” Some Democrats complained that Schumer had shown “more energy” in his efforts to persuade Biden to drop his reelection bid than he had in trying to thwart Trump’s agenda. “Fuck that,” wrote some guy named José, a self-described “Hillarybot” and “Democratic Party bootlicker.”

Trump, as he is wont to do, poured fuel on the fire by congratulating Schumer for showing “courage” and “doing the right thing.” Backing the GOP funding bill, Trump said, was a “really good and smart move by Senator Schumer.”

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President Donald Trump has shut down a little-known Pentagon office that paid more than $1 million to an FBI source who spied on the Trump campaign as part of its 2016 investigation into Trump’s links to Russia.

The Department of Defense announced Thursday it is “restructuring” the Office of Net Assessment, an internal Pentagon think tank that studies long-term geopolitical military trends.

“As part of the Department’s ongoing commitment to strengthening our national defense, the Secretary of Defense has directed the disestablishment of the Office of Net Assessment (ONA) and the development of a plan to rebuild it in alignment with the Department’s strategic priorities,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. Parnell said employees of the office will be “reassigned to mission-critical roles.”

The move comes after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voiced concerns to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about ONA’s budget and its links to Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI counterintelligence probe into the 2016 Trump campaign’s purported ties to Russia.

ONA paid more than $1 million between 2012 and 2017 to Stefan Halper, a professor and former White House official who served as an FBI confidential source beginning in 2011. In 2016, the FBI tasked Halper to meet with multiple Trump campaign aides as part of Crossfire Hurricane.

Halper used the guise of his ONA gig to cozy up to Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, an early target of the FBI probe. In September 2016, Halper offered Papadopoulos $3,000 to write a report for an ONA assessment about the Middle East. Halper, a longtime professor at Cambridge University, paid Papadopoulos’s travel expenses and lodging in London. Halper introduced Papadopoulos on that trip to Azra Turk, an undercover FBI agent who Halper claimed was his research assistant.

But it was all a ploy to elicit information from Papadopoulos about the campaign. Halper plied Papadopoulos with questions about Russia and the Trump campaign, according to FBI recordings of the conversations. During the meetings, Papadopoulos said he had no links to the Russian government and had no knowledge of Russian hacks of the DNC during the summer of 2016. But Halper, who served in the Ford and Reagan administrations, bragged about his connections to Russian intelligence officers, according to a transcript of the recording. As part of his work for the ONA, Halper developed a relationship with Vyacheslav Trubnikov, the former head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR.

Federal investigators ultimately found no evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in 2016. A Department of Justice inspector general report released in 2019 found that the FBI admonished Halper in 2011 for his “aggressiveness” and “questionable allegiance” to a target of an FBI investigation.

ONA has denied that it paid Halper in his role as an FBI source. But the office acknowledged that it provided lax oversight of Halper and other contractors. According to Grassley, the office “could not provide sufficient documentation that Professor Halper conducted all of his work in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.”

Grassley cheered Trump’s decision on Thursday.

“Praise the Lord. This wise move saves American taxpayers over 20 million dollars a year,” he said.

“After years raising Cain about the Office of Net Assessment’s failure to strengthen our national defense and its rampant abuse of taxpayer dollars, I’m thrilled to hear the news that President Trump is abolishing this wasteful and ineffective office.”

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Hamas says it is willing to release the last living American hostage, Edan Alexander, as well as the bodies of four other dual citizens the terror group murdered in captivity. At the same time, it is rebuffing deals that would secure the continued release of both living and dead hostages, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing the terror group of “manipulation and psychological warfare.”

Hamas’s Friday statement did not provide details on what it requested in return for the releases. Earlier this month, the terror group rejected Israel’s request to extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which consists of hostage releases without a commitment to end the war. Hamas has also refused a proposal from Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel had accepted, that would extend the ceasefire for another month and spur the release of five living hostages. “Hamas stands by its refusal and has not budged a millimeter” on that deal, Netanyahu said Friday.

“While Israel has accepted the Witkoff proposal, Hamas persists in its refusal and continues to wage psychological warfare against hostage families,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement issued in the wake of the Hamas announcement. “The Prime Minister will convene the ministerial team tomorrow evening for a detailed briefing from the negotiating team, and to decide on steps to free the hostages and achieve all our war objectives.”

The ordeal comes as Israel readies a plan, first reported in the Washington Free Beacon, to resume war in the Gaza Strip and “eradicate Hamas.” It signaled the start of that plan earlier this month, when it halted any entry of goods into the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’s rejection of Witkoff’s phase one ceasefire extension.

President Donald Trump has backed Israel’s resumption of the war against Hamas. He also sent Witkoff to Doha on Tuesday to negotiate a ceasefire extension that would delay the war’s restart until after Ramadan and Passover.

Alexander, an Israeli-American soldier, has been locked in the Gaza Strip for the last 17 months, and the Trump administration has made it a priority to secure his release. Witkoff told reporters last week that “Edan Alexander is very important to us as all the hostages are.”

As part of the efforts to free him, Trump directed White House envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler to engage in direct negotiations with Hamas, also in Doha. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called those negotiations a “one-off” that “hasn’t borne fruit.” Shortly thereafter, on Thursday, news broke that the administration had sidelined Boehler from Hamas negotiations.

Trump, for his part, has talked tough on Hamas, ordering the terror group earlier this month to release all hostages or face swift repercussions.

“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

Hamas, meanwhile, is angling to initiate the ceasefire’s second phase, which would require Israel to remove its military from the Gaza Strip and cease all operations. Netanyahu’s government is not yet prepared to take this step, instead requesting that the deal’s first phase be extended so that more hostages can return home.

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Several House Democrats have privately called on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) to launch a primary challenge against Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer after he backed a Republican-led funding bill to avert a government shutdown.

Even centrist Democrats are outraged by Schumer’s decision, with some “so mad” that they are “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate,” according to a Democratic lawmaker who spoke with Ocasio-Cortez at House Democrats’ annual policy retreat Thursday evening, CNN reported.

Schumer had announced hours earlier on the Senate floor that he would vote to advance the GOP funding bill. “I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,” Schumer told his colleagues, adding that “while the [House bill] is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.”

The infighting comes as Democrats still struggle to regain their footing nearly two months into President Donald Trump’s second term. A recent poll of voters in 62 swing districts found that nearly 70 percent see congressional Democrats as “too focused on being politically correct” and that more than half of voters believe the Democratic Party is “elitist” and does not share their values.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted mostly along party lines to approve the funding bill to keep federal agencies running for the next six months. The bill will need the support of at least eight Senate Democrats to pass.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has declined to say whether she plans to run against Schumer, slammed Schumer’s move to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution” and vowed to mobilize Democrats against the bill.

“I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters at the Thursday retreat. “Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think, is a huge slap in the face. And I think there is a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned.”

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House and Senate Republicans are introducing legislation Friday modifying the Clean Air Act of 1970 to revoke California’s authority to issue vehicle emissions rules that are stricter than federal rules.

The Stop California from Advancing Regulatory Burden Act, introduced by Rep. Troy Nehls (R., Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah), would immediately dismantle California’s efforts to mandate electric vehicles, electric trucks, and electric trains. Since California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) took office, the California Air Resources Board, the state’s main environmental regulator, has pursued dozens of Clean Air Act waivers as part of its climate-related efforts to slash the transportation sector’s emissions.

Newsom’s so-called California Climate Commitment plans to end reliance on fossil fuels, deploy green energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2045, and decrease oil demand by a staggering 94 percent.

The Republican bill would deal a significant blow to those plans and represent a major setback for the broader left-wing climate movement. It also aligns with President Donald Trump’s priorities to scrap electric vehicle mandates, boost consumer choice, and roll back regulations targeting fossil fuels.

The legislation could receive committee consideration in the coming weeks.

“The radical liberal state of California should never be able to govern for our great state of Texas,” Nehls said in a statement. “California should not be legislating for the rest of the country. My bill will ensure that California only governs California, not hard-working patriots in my district, by repealing California’s waiver.”

“California has abused the Clean Air Act’s waiver provision for years, essentially imposing ridiculous emission standards on the other 49 states,” added Lee. “Fortunately, the rest of the country isn’t governed by far-left extremists like California, and we shouldn’t have to answer to them. By putting an end to this overreach, our legislation will keep costs lower for hardworking American families, increase consumer choice, and restore economic freedom.”

Overall, the California Air Resources Board has more than 100 active federal waivers allowing it to set higher emissions standards than the Environmental Protection Agency. The Biden administration greenlit many of the state’s waivers as part of its own climate agenda.

But critics argue that the size of California’s economy means its emissions standards effectively preempt federal standards and force all states to comply. Automakers, for example, said California’s electric vehicle mandate—which bans new gas-powered cars by 2035 and which the Biden administration issued a waiver for—will depress economic activity, increase costs, and limit vehicle choice across the country.

In addition, under the Clean Air Act, other states can choose to adopt standards set by California and allowed via federal waiver—12 states and Washington, D.C., have adopted California’s electric vehicle mandate. The Stop California from Advancing Regulatory Burden Act would also axe that provision from the Clean Air Act.

“Americans rely upon gas-powered cars to reliably and affordability meet their mobility needs. Americans rely on trains to get us the goods that make modern life possible,” Daren Bakst, the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, said in a statement.

“Yet one state, California, would like to kill off gas-powered cars and severely hinder supply chains, and it is possible that such actions would not only be allowed within the borders of California, but across the country,” Bakst continued.

Industry groups American Petroleum Institute, Association of American Railroads, American Short Line and Railroad Association, and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers endorsed the Stop California from Advancing Regulatory Burden Act.

Reps. Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.), Wesley Hunt (R., Texas), Scott Perry (R., Pa.), Eric Burlison (R., Mo.), Pete Sessions (R., Texas), and Derrick Van Orden (R., Wis.) are listed as cosponsors on the House version of the bill.

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), Pete Ricketts (R., Neb.), Roger Marshall (R., Kan.), Steve Daines (R., Mont.), James Risch (R., Idaho), Rick Scott (R., Fla.), Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.), Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska), Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.), Mike Crapo (R., Idaho), Jim Justice (R., W.Va.), Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.), and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) are listed as the bill’s Senate cosponsors.

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Under Joe Biden, the Iranian regime raked in billions from its “shadow fleet” of tankers ferrying illicit crude. Enter Donald Trump, who imposed sanctions targeting that fleet and its leader, Iranian oil minister Mohsen Paknejad.

The sanctions mark the first time Paknejad has been personally sanctioned, our Adam Kredo reports. He oversees “the export of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil and has allocated billions of dollars’ worth of oil to Iran’s armed forces for export,” the Treasury Department wrote in a press release.

The move came just a day after the White House warned Iran of a military response if it rebuffs negotiations around its nuclear weapons program. A spokesman for the National Security Council told Kredo there are “two ways Iran can be handled: militarily or by making a deal.”

READ MORE: Trump Admin Slaps Fresh Sanctions on Iran’s Oil Minister and ‘Shadow Fleet’ Ferrying Illicit Iranian Crude

No melanin, big problem: Illinois is already fending off a lawsuit over a state scholarship program that provides financial aid to minorities pursuing teacher licenses. A second active suit targets racial hiring quotas at the University of Illinois Chicago. A third could be coming soon, based on information we’ve obtained about a program known as Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois.

The program, our Aaron Sibarium reports, provides financial aid to “members of traditionally underrepresented minority groups,” including “African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Asian American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.” At participating universities, an “institutional representative” helps “verify” that applicants meet “all eligibility criteria.” You know what that means.

“That structure means that participating institutions, which include the top public and private universities in the state, are directly involved in an application process that violates federal law, according to five attorneys who reviewed the program requirements,” Sibarium writes.

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights member Gail Heriot had this to say: “This isn’t a hard one. The program was illegal and unconstitutional since its inception” back in 2004.

Two decades later, the Trump administration is threatening to pull funding for schools with race-based programs. Tick tock, J.B. Pritzker.

READ MORE: Illinois Runs a Scholarship That Excludes White Applicants. It Could Get the State’s Top Universities Defunded.

First, Lydia Mugambe was a human rights fellow at Columbia University. Then she became a UN judge. Now she’s a convicted slaveholder. A British court on Thursday found her guilty of trafficking a young Ugandan woman to the U.K. and forcing her to work as an unpaid maid and caregiver.

In 2017, Mugambe became an Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability fellow with Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, which works to develop “human rights leaders, organizations, and universities around the world.” As part of the program, she developed “a project around women in northern Uganda who have suffered severe human rights abuses.”

Her stint at Columbia came in the wake of a much-celebrated judgment Mugambe handed down while sitting on the High Court of Uganda. She ruled against a local hospital accused of neglecting a newborn baby, and it earned her a Gender Justice Uncovered award for “advancing the rights of women and girls.”

READ MORE: UN Judge, Onetime Columbia University Human Rights Fellow, Found Guilty of Slavery

Away from the Beacon:

• Larry Jameson, the Penn president who replaced Liz Magill on an interim basis and declined to discipline a blood libel cartoonist on his staff, will retain the job on a permanent basis.
• Senate Democrats held a private meeting about the merits of blocking the GOP’s 60-day funding bill and forcing a shutdown. Kristen Gillibrand screamed so loudly in opposition to that strategy reporters could hear her outside of the room.
• Coming to a city near you: The Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will visit NYC, LA, Chicago, and Boston discuss their leaders’ responses to growing anti-Semitism.

The post Trump Gets Tough on Iran, Illinois Excludes Whites From Scholarship Program appeared first on .

A progressive agitator who leads a local chapter of the left-wing group Indivisible and was once arrested for trespassing in a Republican senator’s office is behind weekly protests against Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio).

The Ohio Progressive Action Leaders coalition has organized a series of actions aimed to disrupt Moreno’s district office in Cleveland since early February, including weekly gatherings outside the office and regular phone banks to “bombard Bernie’s phone lines” with upwards of 1,600 calls a day until his voicemail boxes are full. At the same time, local media outlets have provided favorable coverage to the activists, publishing stories centered around their complaints over a lack of “accessibility” from the freshman senator in part because his office can’t accept any more voicemails.

“Moreno and his staff have been impossible to reach by phone, and his office does not return calls,” the coalition said in its most recent call for activists to convene outside Moreno’s office. “Biden won by 4+ percent in 2020, Trump won by 1.5 percent in 2024. And even fewer votes in 2016. This election is not a mandate. We demand to be seen AND heard.”

The coalition’s claim that Moreno and his staff have been “impossible to reach” stands in contrast to the fact that one of its leaders, Meryl Neiman, filmed herself on Wednesday meeting with a member of Moreno’s staff at the senator’s Cleveland office, according to footage she uploaded to her Facebook page.

In addition to her work with the coalition, Neiman is also a longtime leader of the Central Ohio chapter of Indivisible, a dark money group that has raised a staggering $82.7 million since its founding in 2017, thanks in part to contributions from liberal billionaire George Soros’s philanthropic network. Indivisible has been at the center of ongoing demonstrations against GOP lawmakers across the country during President Donald Trump’s second term. During the Wednesday meeting, Neiman told the Moreno staffer that neither she nor the activists involved in the persistent protests outside the senator’s office are being paid by dark money interests.

Neiman knows a thing or two about disrupting Ohio Republican lawmakers, having been arrested in 2018 for participating in a sit-in inside the district office of former Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) to demand he take action against the Trump administration’s family separation policies for illegal immigrants, a policy Portman opposed.

The progressive activist spent 24 hours in jail for criminally trespassing in Portman’s office. She later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection to the incident, according to Franklin County court records. Neiman later wrote an op-ed complaining about the inhumane treatment she said she was subjected to during her stay at Jackson Pike Correctional Facility, which she called “one of the country’s worst jails.”

But Neiman’s more recent statements indicate she’s willing to let bygones be bygones. In February, she publicly praised Portman for setting somewhat of a gold standard for constituent accessibility now that she has her sights set on Moreno.

“It used to be with Senator Portman, for example, that people could go, constituents could stop in, and they would call them up,” Neiman told Spectrum News in February without mentioning her 2018 arrest. “And if the staffers weren’t in the meeting or otherwise unavailable, you could just go up and see your representative.”

The ongoing disruptions against Moreno’s district office come as Indivisible is ramping up its efforts to disrupt town halls and district operations of Republican lawmakers across the country. Earlier in March, Indivisible pledged to pay activists and groups up to $200 to cover costs to protest upcoming town halls for Republican lawmakers. Eligible expenses include cardboard depictions of members of Congress and “chicken suits,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Known donors to Indivisible include Soros and his fellow Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman.  The full extent of the dark money group’s funding sources, however, is unclear. As a nonprofit organization, Indivisible does not have to disclose the sources of its funding to the public.

Moreno spokeswoman Reagan McCarthy in February described the left-wing efforts to disrupt the senator’s district offices as “petty political projects” from “Democrat dark money groups.”

“Assisting Ohioans in need is Senator Moreno’s top priority,” McCarthy said. “While the Senate has been dealing with an exceptionally high volume of calls, our office is committed to responding to each and every Ohioan in need of assistance and working through all requests as quickly as possible.”

Neiman maintained that Moreno has been “impossible to reach” in a statement Thursday to the Free Beacon but conceded that she has been able to make contact with his staff. The activist also confirmed her roles as a member of the Ohio Progressive Action Leaders coalition leadership team and as a volunteer with Indivisible Central Ohio.

“We are all regular people, none of us paid or dark money funded,” Neiman said. “The group in Cleveland that has been protesting there is composed of Cleveland constituents who will have had their own distinct experiences.”

The post Activist With Criminal Record Spearheads Weekly Bernie Moreno Protests appeared first on .

Columbia University disciplined radical student activists nearly a year after they stormed a campus building, imposing multi-year suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations.

The Ivy League institution, mired in anti-Semitism scandals in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, announced Thursday evening that its University Judicial Board (UJB) issued the sanctions on the students involved in the April storming of Hamilton Hall.

“With respect to other events taking place last spring, the UJB’s determinations recognized previously imposed disciplinary action. The return of suspended students will be overseen by Columbia’s University Life Office,” read the statement. “Columbia is committed to enforcing the University’s Rules and Policies and improving our disciplinary processes.”

Dozens of students with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD)—the university’s most anti-Semitic student group—and outside radicals stormed a campus building last April, hammering in glass windows, covering security cameras, dragging chairs and metal tables to barricade themselves inside, and holding one janitor captive. The extremists renamed the academic building “Hind’s Hall” and refused to leave until then-president Minouche Shafik authorized the NYPD to forcibly remove them.

Even though 22 students were arrested, the school only disciplined 4, while the other 18 remained in “good standing with the university” and were able to begin the fall semester normally. Columbia didn’t disclose how many students were disciplined Thursday and didn’t respond to a request for comment.

It’s unclear if radicals who participated in the illegal campus encampments last spring were included in the sanctions. Columbia initially suspended 31 students, but those were later reversed, with three facing campus bans and a fourth placed on probation. Two weeks before the fall semester began, no expulsions had been delivered.

The decision comes a week after the Trump administration’s multi-agency task force to combat anti-Semitism slashed approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia over its failure to curb anti-Semitism in the aftermath of Oct. 7. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump also began to deliver on his campaign pledge to crack down on Hamas supporters Saturday, arresting Mahmoud Khalil—a Columbia University graduate student and vocal pro-Hamas activist—after revoking his visa and green card.

Last April, Khalil, who remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention as his deportation case plays out in court, led negotiations with Columbia administrators during the illegal student encampments. He promised to stir further unrest in the weeks ahead of the fall semester, telling The Hill he would continue to push Columbia to divest from the Jewish state by “any available means necessary.”

“And we’ve been working all this summer on our plans, on what’s next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history,” Khalil said in August. “We’re considering a wide range of actions throughout the semester, encampments and protests and all of that. But for us, encampment is now our new base.”

Last week, Khalil again served as a negotiator for CUAD after a mob of radical Columbia activists stormed a Barnard library. Once inside the building, the agitators distributed Hamas propaganda meant to justify Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. A week earlier, CUAD stormed a separate campus building at Barnard, resulting in the hospitalization of a security guard and $30,000 in damages.

One of Khalil’s attorneys, Ramzi Kassem, defended al Qaeda terrorists including Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Kassem has also defended multiple Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a “close associate” of Osama bin Laden.

The arrest of Khalil sparked a nationwide walkout at colleges on Tuesday, culminating in Thursday’s attempted occupation of Trump Tower in New York City, where dozens of agitators left in zip tied cuffs.

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Police arrested dozens of Jewish Voice for Peace agitators after they stormed Trump Tower in New York to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Hamas Columbia University activist in ICE custody.

“We want justice. You say how, free Mahmoud Khalil now,” the JVP activists chanted. “We will not comply, Mahmoud, we are on your side.”

As Jews, we are taking over the Trump Tower to register our mass refusal. We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalize Palestinians and all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people. And we will never… pic.twitter.com/t2Ql8qRBgw

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) March 13, 2025

They also held banners proclaiming, “Fight Nazis, Not Students,” “You Can’t Deport A Movement,” “Come For One, Face Us All,” and “Free Mahmoud, Free Palestine.”

BREAKING: Hundreds of U.S. Jews and friends are taking over the Trump Tower to say: Come for one, face us all. pic.twitter.com/m14JGQIxwU

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) March 13, 2025

The NYPD warned the demonstrators before moving in to make arrests, carrying some away by their hands and feet. NYPD did not immediately provide an exact figure of how many were arrested.

NOW: NYPD is warning protesters to leave the building or face arrest. The large group continues to occupy Trump Tower. pic.twitter.com/Z1mX5x2CQD

— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) March 13, 2025

Liberal billionaire George Soros’s philanthropy, the Open Society Foundations, has given $525,000 to JVP to fund its human rights work in the Middle East. The philanthropy has reported giving another $650,000 to JVP’s lobbying arm and political action committee, awarding it a three-year grant in 2023.

“Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, the Trump regime is using attacks on the movement for Palestinian freedom as an opening to dismantle civil liberties and the entire progressive movement, ” JVP, which calls itself the “largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world,” wrote in an Instagram post Thursday. “This is how fascism works. We refuse to be divided or silenced.”

 

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“We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalize Palestinians and all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide,” the group added in a post to X.

The protest came one day after Khalil and his legal team appeared in court. The Trump administration’s efforts to deport the Columbia student activist and foreign national over his pro-Hamas campus organizing are on hold as proceedings play out.

One of Khalil’s attorneys, Ramzi Kassem, has defended al Qaeda terrorists including Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Kassem also defended multiple Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a “close associate” of Osama bin Laden. He went on to serve as an immigration policy adviser to former president Joe Biden on the White House’s Domestic Policy Council.

The Obama-appointed federal judge overseeing the case, Jesse Furman, is a prolific Democratic donor, contributing over $20,000 to Democrats, including President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee. He also once threw out a terrorism lawsuit against the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations sued Columbia and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Thursday on behalf of Khalil and several anonymous Columbia and Barnard students. They aim to stop Columbia and the panel from releasing disciplinary documents related to anti-Israel students’ activities.

On Tuesday, meanwhile, anti-Israel agitators in New York clashed with police over the detainment of Khalil, which also led to several arrests. The demonstration was part of a coordinated nationwide walkout by students and faculty at elite colleges across the country. Among the crowd was Aidan Parisi, a Columbia graduate student who was arrested last spring for storming Hamilton Hall and suspended for his role in an event featuring terror-tied speakers who called for violence against Jews.

Tuesday’s crowd first gathered at Washington Square Park before marching to City Hall as part of a protest organized by New York University’s Faculty and Students for Justice in Palestine chapters and joined by the anti-Semitic group Within Our Lifetime. During the event, billed as a “rally against compliance with fascist policies,” hundreds chanted in unison, “We want justice. You say how, release Mahmoud Khalil now.” One attendee sported a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine headband, while others displayed posters of militants holding rifles with the caption, “Palestine will be free.”

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