WND

Former CNN host Don Lemon said that blacks and other racial minorities should exercise their Second Amendment rights to fight United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a Thursday appearance on “The Left Hook” podcast.

ICE facilities in Chicago and Portland, Oregon, have been the scene of multiple riots as opposition to the agency’s operations targeting illegal immigrants has intensified. Lemon told podcast host and “Daily Beast” columnist Wajahat Ali that “black people” and “brown people” should be ready for when the agency came knocking on the door.

“Black people, brown people of all stripes, whether you’re an Indian-American or a Mexican-American or whoever you are, go out in your place where you live and get a gun. Legally,” Lemon said.

A person fired at ICE agents with a pistol when ICE raided a California marijuana farm in July after obtaining a warrant, with the FBI offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s identification, arrest and conviction.

WATCH:

“Get a license to carry legally,” Lemon said. “Because when you have people knocking on your door and taking you away without due process as a citizen, isn’t that what the Second Amendment was written for?”

“Go back and read what the Second Amendment says and perhaps it will knock some sense in the heads of these people who are saying, ‘Well, it’s all great. I don’t believe they’re doing it without due process. They’re asking people for papers. They’re not really beating people up. These people are doing things that are illegal,’” Lemon continued. “Nobody is illegal. It is a misdemeanor to cross the border.”

ICE agents have experienced a 1000% increase in assaults year-over-year, according to an August Department of Homeland Security release. During ICE operations in Chicago, agents were attacked by multiple assailants who used cars to ram vehicles used by the agency with Chicago police allegedly standing down rather than assisting ICE agents being assaulted during one Oct. 4 incident.

Prior to those incidents, the Department of Homeland Security said in a Sept. 26 post on X that there had been multiple violent attacks on an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Other ICE facilities across the country have been attacked as well, notably in Portland, Oregon, where violent protesters reportedly attacked conservative journalists covering the riots and planned to use lasers against aircraft used by federal law enforcement agencies.

Two people were killed during a shooting at an ICE office in Dallas on Sept. 24, with the gunman taking his own life. In Texas, there were two previous incidents where shots were fired at ICE or Border Patrol facilities in July, with ten people being charged with attempted murder in connection with the incident in Alvarado, Texas.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

In less than a year, Donald Trump’s second term as president has seen spectacular improvements in many areas of government, including notably in the U.S. military. However, at least one major area of support for America’s armed forces – the Department of Veterans Affairs – is reportedly failing in its commitment to veterans. Case in point: Howard “Buck” Sheward, an 80-year-old Vietnam vet suffering from leukemia, who many believe deserves much better treatment than he is receiving from the VA.

WorldNetDaily spoke to retired Army Lt. Col. Francesca Graham, who currently serves as chief operating officer of Walk the Talk Foundation, an advocacy organization for members of the U.S. military. As Graham put it, “The Oklahoma VA system lacks connectivity between the systems in place to help Buck, a veteran who is undergoing chemotherapy and has almost died a couple of times.”

For example, she said, “At the end of 2023, he unexpectedly spent nearly a month in a non-VA hospital in and out of lucidity fighting leukemia. While there, the VA kept calling to tell him he was missing pre-scheduled VA cancer treatment appointments.”

In the rare moments that Sheward was lucid and able to talk, Graham said, he told the VA representatives where he was, but the calls to him did not cease. “According to Buck,” she told WND, “he was berated for missing the VA appointments and was told that the VA would cancel his referrals if he continued to no-show his appointments.”

“He’s been asked why he was at a community care facility without a referral when he was actually taken there by ambulance,” she shared. “Where’s the common sense and connectivity?”

When it comes to community care facilities and the VA, she said, “These systems need to be talking to each other.”

Not only is the lack of communication problematic, but so is the bureaucracy itself, Graham argued. “When a veteran travels to an appointment outside of the VA hospital, the veteran is supposed to receive travel reimbursement for that appointment,” she said. Yet Sheward has not been reimbursed for the last six months. “He’s submitted the paperwork,” Graham said, “and then he hears nothing.”

“There are also days where he’ll submit paperwork for two different trips on the same day and only get reimbursed for one,” Graham added. “Given his sickness and his age, is the VA not capable of helping him navigate getting his reimbursements and the ever-changing forms, or is the bureaucratic machine too large to really care about his health?”

Between February 2023 to May 2025, Graham said Sheward submitted 113 travel claims for cancer treatment and routine care. Out of these, 46 were approved for payment, while 67 claims, or 59%, were denied. Another 18 are still awaiting a decision. Interestingly, some trips that received approval one day were denied the following day.

In addition to the “bureaucracy and apathy” issue, the Walk the Talk Foundation’s executive offered this shocker: “Buck discovered that a behavioral health provider, assigned to help veterans, including him, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, had been tried and convicted of a federal crime but still continued to see patients until it was time for him to report to prison.”

“Just think about the implications of trusting your mental health to the VA, only to learn that your therapist has a criminal record,” she said. “Buck brought up the issue, but it was swept under the rug.”

“Buck is very frustrated because his concerns are not being acknowledged in any sort of meaningful way,” Graham told WND. In fact, he is beginning to think the gradual accumulation of his problems and the indifference toward his health is retaliatory.

“Is this the position an 80-year-old Vietnam vet should find himself in?” she questioned. “I can assure you that he’s not the only one facing these kinds of struggles.”

Buck Sheward has reached out to several congressional offices in Oklahoma, including that of GOP Sen. James Lankford, regarding his concerns. “Unfortunately,” Graham told WND, “those efforts have been hampered by a combination of bureaucratic inertia and a limited understanding of the complexity of his case within the state’s VA system.”

WND asked Sen. Lankford’s office what steps, if any, his office is taking to address the lack of record integration between the VA and community care providers in Sheward’s case. The office did not reply to request for comment by publication time.

Read the WTTF’s newsletter about Sheward, titled “Cruel Care: Vietnam Veteran Dying for Answers – and the VA Keeps Looking the Other Way.”

Chinese military leadership was thrown into chaos after Chinese President Xi Jinping fired a slew of his top military leaders in an ongoing purge, the Chinese Ministry of Defense announced Thursday.

Xi ousted nine military officials from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Friday after the government accused the officials of “serious violations of party discipline,” according to the Defense Ministry. The purge has reportedly shaken the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to its core as Xi moves to tighten his iron grip on power in the nation and its bureaucracy.

“In accordance with the Party regulations and national laws, the CPC Central Committee decided to expel the nine from the Party and transfer their suspected criminal matters to military procuratorial authorities for further review,” the Chinese Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The Central Military Commission (CMC) “had earlier decided to strip them of their military status,” the Ministry said.

The purge marks the first time that a member of the Politburo, the second-highest committee in the Chinese government, fell out of favor with the Party since 2017, according to Bloomberg.

China has made its massive military buildup a top priority in its policy objectives, with the nation aiming to make an attempt at invading Taiwan by 2027, according to U.S. projections. The PLA is the largest standing army in the world, with over 2 million ground troops.

It is unclear what punishment may await the generals following their ouster.

The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

A young boy thanked President Donald Trump on Thursday for deploying the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, to fight crime.

The child, who is named Braylon, said in a TikTok post uploaded by his mother that he could not play outside before the arrival of the National Guard because he feared that he would get shot. He said that the National Guard’s presence has made the city “peaceful” and safer for all of the residents.

“My name is Braylon and I live here in Memphis. I’ve been noticing not just a slight change, more of a detrimental change of how peaceful Memphis is ever since the National Guard came,” the child said. “There were a lot of things that I couldn’t do before the National Guard came because I had to worry about guns and stuff. I couldn’t play because I was worried that somebody might pull out a gun or something. But now I can do that. And I just wanted to thank the President of the United States for bringing the National Guard here.”

WATCH: Young man in Memphis thanks POTUS for making Memphis safe pic.twitter.com/mC3nLLUZn1

— Kaelan Dorr (@Kaelan47) October 16, 2025

Troops arrived in Memphis on Oct. 10 to quell the high crime rates and increase arrests of violent criminals throughout the city. As of Thursday, the Memphis Safe Task Force has made 978 total arrests and seized 197 illegal firearms.

In 2024, Memphis had the highest violent crime rate out of every major U.S. city, with 2,501 incidents per 100,000 residents, according to Stateline, citing Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data. Despite this, Democratic Memphis Mayor Paul Young said on CNN that he was “certainly not happy” about the National Guard deployment.

The administration first deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. in August, which has led to over 4,000 arrests and the seizure of over 400 firearms as of Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed. While the liberal media claimed crime was down by 34% in Washington, local police data excluded aggravated and felony assault, whereas the FBI indicated that crime had only fallen by 10%.

A majority of voters in Washington believed Trump’s crime crackdown was “justified and necessary.”

The National Guard has also been deployed to Chicago, which has experienced a significant surge in homicides in the past decade. Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have repeatedly lamented the presence of the National Guard and begged Trump not to deploy any troops.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The Democrats’ leader in the U.S. House, Hakeem Jeffries, has lashed out at White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt as “demented, ignorant, a stone-cold liar, or all of the above,” and she has responded with a sledgehammer.

It started when Leavitt unleashed a critical statement about Democrats.

BREAKING Karoline Leavitt says the Democratic Party’s main constituency “is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

Hit the if you’re a Democrat and aren’t ANY of those.

Let’s show Karoline she’s full of sh*t!

pic.twitter.com/FcLwpuGzsO

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) October 16, 2025

She suggested the party is loyal to its “main constituency” of “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

Jeffries bashed her, complaining that Republicans are “ripping the sheets off in plain view.”

“You’ve got Karoline Leavitt, who’s sick, she’s out of control. And I’m not sure if she’s just demented, ignorant, a stone cold liar, or all of the above,” he charged.

He said that’s why Republicans are on “the wrong side of public sentiment.”

However, polling actually has revealed that huge numbers of Americans support President Trump in his Middle East policy, his economic policy, his border security policy and more.

JEFFRIES: “You’ve got Karoline Leavitt, who’s sick, she’s out of control. And I’m not sure if she’s just demented, ignorant, a stone cold liar, or all of the above.” pic.twitter.com/6tlMqYu2dR

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 17, 2025

It then was Leavitt’s turn to explain:

Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats are lashing out because they know what I said is true.

The Democrat Party’s elected officials absolutely cater to pro-Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.

House Democrats voted against a resolution condemning Hamas following…

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) October 17, 2025

“Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats are lashing out because they know what I said is true. The Democrat Party’s elected officials absolutely cater to pro-Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals. House Democrats voted against a resolution condemning Hamas following the horrific October 7th terrorist attacks, and Democrats cheered on pro-Hamas radicals while they hijacked America’s college campuses and harassed Jewish students.”

She continued, “Democrats opened our borders and allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country over the past four years, including rapists and murderers, because they view them as future voters. Democrats coddle violent criminals and support soft-on-crime policies like cashless bail that let violent offenders back on the streets to hurt law-abiding citizens. Democrats do NOT serve the interests of the American people. Hakeem Jeffries is an America Last, stone-cold loser. Now open up the government and stop simping to try to get your radical left-wing base to like you.”

The Democrat party is responding with increasingly strained rhetoric as the Schumer shutdown approaches its fourth week. They refused to support a routine continuing resolution to keep the government funded as they were angry that Obamacare subsidies are set to expire.

That expiration was scheduled in legislation that they originally created.

They’ve been demanding Republicans add another $1.5 trillion in spending for favored Democrat projects to the continuing resolution before they’ll support it. Republicans have refused to reach into taxpayer pockets for that amount of spending.

WND reported a week ago that there was a campaign under was to seek the disbarment of Jack Smith, the one-time Joe Biden-picked special prosecutor who ran multiple lawfare cases against President Donald Trump, which eventually failed.

Now that request has formally been submitted.

It is the New York Post that has confirmed a letter from elected officials, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to Attorney General Pam Bondi, accuses Biden’s DOJ of having “spied on duly elected members of Congress.”

It demands that Smith be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility.

“As part of Jack Smith’s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,” Blackburn charged.

The letter continued, “We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records.”

Other lawmakers joining the demand were Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Penn.

Smith is accused of using his power as a government appointee to infringe on the constitutional rights of elected officials and “trampled on this separation of powers principle that underlies our system of government.”

Jack Smith shouldn’t be able to get a job as a DOG CATCHER after he SPIED on EIGHT U.S. Senators.

He should be DISBARRED and THROWN IN JAIL. pic.twitter.com/HUHzymn4PB

— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) October 12, 2025

Ex-Trump special counsel Jack Smith referred to DOJ for misconduct probe, potential disbarment https://t.co/qUFJGeTv5S pic.twitter.com/OF2J3pqsAl

— New York Post (@nypost) October 17, 2025

The lawmakers continued, “This is especially true given the invasion of our privacy was directly connected to our core legislative functions protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of our Constitution. To the best we can tell, Smith’s team went on this fishing expedition for one simple reason: we are Republicans who support President Trump.”

They asked for Smith to be referred for disbarment to the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility and the New York Attorney Grievance Committee, since he is licensed to practice law in both states.

They charged that the scheming from Smith and his team “harkens back to a dark chapter in American history that we have not seen since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, and the completely corrupt investigation and prosecution by the FBI and DOJ of the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. We must ensure that we never return to these disgraceful eras.”

The other found lawmakers targeted by Smith’s spying included Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

Commentators have speculated the spying was done by Smith as part of a scheme to possibly file additional legal cases against Trump should Kamala Harris win the election, and the lawmakers’ telephone data would be used as evidence.

Harris, of course, lost in a landslide.

Blackburn previously sent letters to Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile asking why the phone carriers let “this invasion of privacy … occur wholly unchallenged.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chief of the Senate Judiciary Committee, described the scandal as “arguably worse than Watergate.”

 

Consumers’ Research sent a letter to several members of the Trump administration Thursday, urging agencies to ditch any association with the company First Street over its allegedly inaccurate climate risk modeling.

In the letter, Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild notes that recent reports captured doubts from homeowners and industry insiders over the reliability of First Street’s flood risk assessments and calls for “an interagency review of how federal collaborations are referenced in First Street press.” Consumers’ Research addressed the letter to the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Consumer Financial Protection Board Acting Director Russ Vought, among several other agency heads.

“First Street is attempting to push a radical climate agenda onto consumers by implying federal agencies endorse its politically motivated climate risk models. This practice is purposefully misleading, as First Street’s climate models undermine [Federal Emergency Management Agency] FEMA’s role as the legal and regulatory standard for climate risk scoring and arbitrarily distorts consumer property values,” Hild told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is why we are urging these federal agencies clarify they do not endorse First Street and demand the removal of agency branding from all public materials. Consumers’ Research stands with homeowners and buyers who deserve accurate, transparent, and federally-validated information, not metrics driven by climate activists.”

Hild notes in the letter that some federal agency announcements and materials referenced First Street’s risk assessment data and argues that this is a concern due to recent reports and complaints that the company’s data may not accurately reflect flood risks. Major real estate platforms like Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com have factored First Street’s flood data into their listings, the letter notes.

“Recent reporting and public complaints indicate that First Street’s property level scores can be materially wrong and difficult to remedy,” the letter states. “Your agencies’ names and logos — through formal agreements, data integrations, or research use — are cited by First Street as evidence of federal alignment with its property level climate risk scores. … I write to urge your agencies to (1) publicly renounce or suspend any partnership language and implied endorsements that lend federal imprimatur to First Street Foundation and its affiliated public benefit corporation, First Street Technology, and (2) clearly state that First Street/Risk Factor outputs must not be used in lieu of FEMA flood maps for regulatory, insurance, lending, disclosure, or listing purposes.”

First Street states on its website that the FEMA’s flood risk differs from its estimations as it “calculates flood risk on the property level, accounts for changing climate conditions, and considers the risk of flooding due to high-intensity rainfall,” whereas FEMA “determines flood risk on the community level, their risk projections capture risk from a single 1-in-100 or 1-in-500 event from storm surges and overflowing rivers and streams.”

First Street’s website states that “we exist to make the connection between climate and financial risk at scale for financial institutions, companies and governments.”

Several local homeowners told North Carolina-based ABC News 13 that they believed they were struggling to sell their homes due to receiving high flood warning designations from First Street data. The homeowners argued that the data did not make sense as their close neighbors had vastly different flood warnings despite no seemingly feasible explanation.

One Tennessee-based real estate broker told the DCNF that she believes she and others in the industry have lost sales due to First Street flood data being displayed on real estate platforms.

“Buyer interest dropped off. Before we realized what was going on, we had canceled showings,” Stephanie Cross told the DCNF. “It’s crippling the seller. It’s crippling by putting this misinformation out there — and at the same time, basically devalues the property.”

A spokesperson for Realtor.com referred the DCNF to its flood risk information website page and noted that every listing displays both FEMA data and First Street data.

“A home is often a family’s most valuable asset, which is why Realtor.com believes it’s essential to help homeowners, sellers, buyers and renters understand any potential risks to a property so they can make informed decisions,” the spokesperson told the DCNF. “We think providing both ratings on the property listing paints a clearer picture of potential risks. If a home’s flood ratings appear particularly low or high, or in conflict, consumers are encouraged to consult a real estate agent or local floodplain official for guidance.”

First Street, Zillow and Redfin did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

A federal grand jury in Miami on Thursday charged multinational election technology company Smartmatic and several of its top executives with orchestrating a multimillion-dollar bribery and money-laundering scheme.

In 2024, prosecutors charged Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez and co-defendant Jorge Miguel Vásquez with laundering bribe money tied to inflated voting machine contracts in the Philippines. Prosecutors allege that from 2015 to 2018, Smartmatic executives Martinez and Vasquez funneled at least $1 million in bribes to then Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman Juan Andres Donato Bautista to secure favorable treatment during and after the 2016 Philippine national elections, according to the indictment.

The payments helped Smartmatic obtain contracts, release value-added tax reimbursements, and receive other financial benefits from the Philippine government. Investigators say the defendants financed the bribes by overcharging for voting machines used in the 2016 election, then concealing the illicit payments through fake contracts, coded language, and international bank transfers routed through Asia, Europe, and the United States.

U.S. prosecutors charged SGO Corporation Limited—Smartmatic’s parent company—along with Piñate, Vasquez, Bautista, and Elie Moreno, with conspiracy to commit money laundering and international money laundering. Piñate and Vasquez also face charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison on the laundering counts and up to five years for the FCPA violations. Bautista and Moreno remain fugitives. U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida announced the charges, alongside officials from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Homeland Security Investigations, and the IRS Criminal Investigation unit.

HSI’s El Dorado Task Force in Miami led the investigation, with support from IRS-CI Miami and coordination with Philippine authorities.

In addition to the Philippine bribery case, federal prosecutors in South Florida charged Smartmatic co-founder Piñate with transferring a luxury home in Caracas to Venezuela’s top election official as a bribe. Piñate has been accused of bribing Venezuelan authorities to protect Smartmatic’s business dealings with the Maduro regime.

Smartmatic did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

John Bolton, formerly an official in President Donald Trump’s first term who after he was removed from his post unleashed vicious criticism of the president, has pleaded not guilty to a long list of serious charges.

He was indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple counts of mishandling classified materials.

He was accused of transmitting and retaining national defense information, “over allegations he sent ‘diary-like entries’ to two relatives about his day-to-day as Trump’s adviser and kept classified records at his home in a Maryland suburb after leaving the position,” said the Hill.

“Not guilty, your honor,” Bolton said during a court appearance in Greenbelt, Md., on Friday.

The report noted, “Bolton is the third of President Trump’s proclaimed foes to face federal charges from his Justice Department.”

He is facing 18 counts.

Justice Department Statements Regarding Indictment of Former National Security Advisor John Bolton https://t.co/lrNzDZqzvi @FBIBaltimore pic.twitter.com/yLcEqSjkLF

— FBI (@FBI) October 16, 2025

He agreed to surrender his passport to counsel and was ordered released after processing. The next hearing in the case is set for Nov. 21.

A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Bolton, who served during Trump’s first term from April 2018 to September 2019.

The Daily Caller News Foundation revealed documents with “confidential” and “secret” markings “were found inside Bolton’s Washington, D.C. office during an Aug. 22 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raid, including some with references to weapons of mass destruction, according to a September court filing. Federal agents searched Bolton’s Maryland home that same day but did not find classified materials at the location.”

“These materials, many of which are documents that had been previously approved as part of a pre-publication review for Amb. Bolton’s book, were reviewed and closed years ago,” Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell previously has said.

The DOJ resumed investigating him for possibly infringing the law over Bolton’s book, which he used to level scathing criticism at Trump.

Previously indicted were ex-FBI chief James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress, and Democrat New York Attorney James over alleged mortgage fraud.

 

Authorities in the U.K. have banned Israeli fans from attending a forthcoming soccer match in England over security risks.

“Following a thorough assessment, we have classified the upcoming Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv fixture as high risk,” West Midlands Police said in a statement Thursday as the department expressed support for a decision to “prohibit away supporters from attending” the game.

A U.K. body responsible for issuing safety certificates for games, known as the Safety Advisory Group, made the decision, but is now being asked to reconsider.

“I am shocked to my core with this outrageous decision to ban me, my family, and my friends from attending an Aston Villa game in the U.K.,” former hostage Emily Damari wrote on X.

Hamas took Damari hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. She was released in January and, as a self-described “die hard fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv,” an Israeli professional sports club, Damari says she hopes authorities in the U.K. will come to their “senses and reconsider.”

“I do wonder what exactly has become of British society, this is like putting a big sign on the outside of a stadium saying, ‘No Jews allowed,’” Damari said. “What has become of the U.K. where blatant antisemitism has become the norm? What a sad world we are living in.”

I was released from Hamas captivity in January and I am a die hard fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
I am shocked to my core with this outrageous decision to ban me, my family and my friends from attending an Aston Villa game in the UK.
Football is a way of bringing people together… https://t.co/ngqsP2qbKI

— Emily Damari (@EmilyDamari1) October 17, 2025

The controversy over Israeli fans attending the soccer game in November is not the first time an Israeli sports team has faced the threat of violent protests in Europe.

In July, the Australian Football League Europe faced pressure to bar the Israeli team from competing in a tournament in Amsterdam over concerns of violent anti-Israel protests amid the ongoing war in Gaza. The league and event organizers did not capitulate to political pressure, but instead increased security to ensure all players were kept safe and protesters were kept outside the arena.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also criticized the decision to bar Israeli fans from attending the game in England on Nov. 6.

“This is the wrong decision,” Starmer said on X. “We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets. The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation.”

In September, Starmer announced that the U.K. would formally recognize Palestine as a state. This week, the prime minister praised the role the U.K. played alongside the U.S. in securing a peace deal between Israel and Hamas.

“We’ve worked behind the scenes for months with the U.S., Arab, and European nations to help deliver a ceasefire, get the hostages out, get aid in, and secure a better future for Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank,” Starmer told the House of Commons this week after attending the signing of President Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan in Egypt.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold despite the fact that Hamas has failed to return the remains of 19 deceased hostages, claiming the bodies are inaccessible without special equipment. Israel continues to pressure Hamas to abide by the terms of the ceasefire and hostage deal.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]