Zerohedge

The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan 6 rioter who was unjustifiably shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer’s pistol shot, despite her being unarmed and posing no threat of significant harm to anyone in the vicinity. The news comes weeks after President Trump promised to look into the Department of Justice’s effort to defeat the claim. As of a few months ago, the case had been expected to reach trial phase in July. 

On Friday, lawyers representing the DOJ and Babbitt’s family notified a Washington DC judge that they’d reached an agreement in principle. When filing suit early last year, Babbitt’s surviving loved ones sought $30 million in compensation for her being killed by officer Michael Byrd. The value of the pending settlement has not yet been revealed, and family attorneys say precise details are still being worked out. Beyond a potential monetary reward, there’s also the question of to what extent the federal government will acknowledge Byrd’s wrongdoing. Babbitt family lawyer Robert Sticht said he expects a signed agreement within three weeks. 

Byrd killed then-35-year-old Babbitt as she attempted to climb through a broken window that was part of an interior doorway close to the House chamber. Though the unarmed, 5’2″, 115-pound Babbitt posed no imminent threat of inflicting death or serious injury as she awkwardly navigated the narrow space — with a furniture barricade still ahead of her —  Boyd opted against using any type of nonlethal force, and instead shot her from an ambush position, killing her with a bullet that perforated her trachea and lung. 

In a softball interview, Byrd told NBC News, “I showed the utmost courage on January 6…I know that day I saved countless lives.” To the contrary, he’s the only person who took a life that day. The family’s 32-page complaint alleged Byrd’s weapon-handling violated Capitol Police Policy, saying that he:

• Took it out of his holster before any proportionate threat had been presented
• Didn’t hold the weapon at “low ready,” and proceeded to point it at a variety of people who, like Babbitt, posed no immediate threat
• Put his finger inside the trigger guard, “tapping it on and off the trigger for at least 14 seconds before he shot and killed Ashli.” A finger shouldn’t be put inside the guard until the officer has decided to fire the weapon 

While it’s been little-publicized by major media or leftists who screech that Babbitt “got what she deserved,” Byrd had some serious disciplinary issues before Jan. 6, with some of the incidents involving the irresponsible handling and even firing of his weapon.  Despite the damning facts of the case, leftists in and out of media have treated Byrd as a hero for fending off a nonexistent “insurrection.” The left’s reaction to the wrongful killing demonstrated a glaring double-standard on cop misconduct. 

Byrd was not only officially cleared of wrongdoing, but promoted to the rank of captain in 2023. In a March interview, Newsmax’s Greg Kelly asked Trump how he felt about Byrd still being on duty, with a pay raise and higher authority. The president replied: 

“I think it’s a disgrace. I’m going to take a look at it. I’m going to look at that, too. His reputation was … I won’t even say; let’s find out about his reputation. We’re going to find out. But I watched that and I saw that. And by the way, she was killed, but nobody else was killed.”

He also vowed to look into the DOJ’s decision to fight Babbitt’s family in court: 

“Well, I’ll look into that. I mean, you’re just telling me that for the first time, I haven’t heard that. I’m a big fan of Ashli Babbitt. And Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan. And she was innocently standing there; they even say trying to sort of hold back the crowd. And a man did something to her that was unthinkable when he shot her. And I think it’s a disgrace. I’m going to look into that. I did not know that.”

President Trump addresses the latest on the case of Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot and killed at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, rips the police shooting, the overall treatment of now-pardoned defendants, and the actions of the former House J6 select committee. pic.twitter.com/kPXPyGVuJT

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) March 26, 2025

Hours after being inaugurated in January, Trump granted clemency to some 1,600 Americans who’d either been convicted or charged out of their actions on Jan 6. The move combined both full pardons and sentence commutations. In March, Trump entertained the possibility of a compensation fund for all of them. 

Cover your ears: the left is about to blow its collective stack in irrational indignation that the government will compensate the family of a dead woman who was clearly on the receiving end of wildly excessive force.  

What If Ashli Babbitt Was Black?

If the scenarios were reversed and Ashli Babbitt was a black woman at a BLM protest/riot and Michael Byrd was a white police officer, how would the left have responded to the killing of an unarmed black woman on video? pic.twitter.com/uXq9b00ozx

— Gain of Fauci (@DschlopesIsBack) May 2, 2025

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Florida adults who received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine were more likely to die following vaccination than Moderna COVID-19 recipients, according to a new preprint study that was co-authored by Florida’s top health official.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon general, and other researchers identified nearly 9.2 million Florida adults not living in institutions who received at least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine less than six weeks apart between Dec. 18, 2020, and Aug. 31, 2021.

They narrowed the group to nearly 1.5 million, half who received Pfizer’s vaccine and half who received Moderna’s vaccine, by matching them based on criteria such as age and sex. They then analyzed the records to see which group had the higher risk for all-cause mortality, or death from any cause, in the 12 months following vaccination.

That analysis found that more Pfizer recipients died, with 847 deaths per 100,000 recipients, compared to 618 deaths per 100,000 for Moderna recipients. Pfizer recipients were also more likely to suffer heart-related deaths and COVID-19 deaths.

Pfizer and Moderna did not respond to requests for comment.

The study was published as a preprint, which means it has not been peer reviewed, on the medRxiv server on April 29.

“Did your doctor tell you that you might be more likely to die if you took Pfizer instead of Moderna? That’s what we found in Florida, and other studies have shown similar results,” Ladapo wrote on social media platform X.

Two other employees of the Florida Department of Health are listed as co-authors for the new study.

Both Ladapo and Retsef Levi, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the fourth author, have called previously for the suspension of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines over what they’ve described as alarming findings in various studies.

Limitations of the paper included the matching process reducing the size of the studied population and not including co-morbidities, according to the researchers.

The study adds to a body of research that looks at non-specific effects, or the potential impact of vaccines on all-cause mortality and other measures not directly related to the target of the vaccines.

A previous analysis, published in 2023 and drawn from clinical trial data, concluded that neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines impacted all-cause mortality. Researchers found that the vaccines protected against deaths from COVID-19 but that vaccinated trial participants were more likely to die from heart issues, which offset the effect. A third vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson, performed better, researchers said.

Ladapo and the others in the new paper noted that three previous studies used U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs data to compare Pfizer recipients to Moderna recipients. One study found that Pfizer recipients were at a higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and death. Another study determined that Pfizer recipients were at higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

They said their study is different in part because the size of the population studied is bigger and the matching is more precise.

Critics of the study questioned why it did not also compare the vaccinated to the unvaccinated.

“Why did you not include this comparison in your paper?” Jeffrey Morris, George S. Pepper professor of public health and preventive medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, said on X.

“One of the common methodologies in pharmacovigilance is to compare between different vaccines,” Levi wrote on X. “The advantage of this approach is that it controls for many of the unobserved confounding differences [that] typically exist between vaccinated and unvaccinated.”

Open-source intelligence analyst Mehdi H., known on X as “mhmiranusa” and known for his reporting on Iranian naval developments, reports that the Iranian Navy’s new forward base ship—also referred to as a forward operating base ship—is set to begin sea trials. 

“Iranian Navy will soon start sea trials of a new forward base ship named Kurdestan. This new base (442) like IRIS Makran (441) is a converted crude oil tanker previously named Tabukan (IMO: 8917467),” Mehdi H. said, adding, “The conversion by ISOICO includes a helipad likely for helicopter & UAV ops.” 

Iranian Navy will soon start sea trials of a new forward base ship named Kurdestan.
This new base (442) like IRIS Makran (441) is a converted crude oil tanker previously named Tabukan (IMO: 8917467).
The conversion by ISOICO includes a helipad likely for helicopter & UAV ops. pic.twitter.com/EqXqjRiuOv

— Mehdi H. (@mhmiranusa) April 30, 2025

A separate OSINT account on X by the name of U.S. Homeland Security News commented on IRIS Makran (441), calling it an “Iranian mothership” that “provides intelligence and targeting information to the Houthi rebels in Yemen against US forces in the Red Sea.” 

🚨Update: Iranian mothership is providing intelligence and targeting information to the Houthi rebels in Yemen against US forces in the Red Sea. Will the US target this warship?? US is doing the same for Ukraine against Russia. pic.twitter.com/B7vnyZbqPq

— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) May 4, 2025

Mehdi H. did not provide information on when IRIS Kurdestan (442) will begin sea trials. The Iranians have been converting tankers and cargo ships into military vessels. 

Mehdi H. noted that Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex (ISOICO) was responsible for IRIS Makran’s conversion, which involved significant structural modifications to support its new role as a forward base ship.

Public trade data compiled by counterparty and supply chain risk intelligence firm Sayari shows that the U.S. government has sanctioned ISOICO. These sanctions are part of broader U.S. efforts to restrict Iran’s maritime and defense sectors across critical maritime chokepoints.

In February, Iran inaugurated its first-ever drone-carrier warship, which was converted from a former cargo ship and has the capacity to launch 60 drones. 

Iran Inaugurates First-Ever Drone Carrier Warship In Persian Gulf https://t.co/lQhpig6jFm

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 7, 2025

It appears the U.S. military has new maritime targets.  

Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Most iPhones and other Apple products bound for the American market will no longer be made in China, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on May 1.

The majority of the iPhones heading for the United States in the coming months will be made in India, while Vietnam will be the main production point for products such as iPads and Apple Watches.

During a call with investors discussing the tech giant’s second-quarter results, Cook was asked about how the company planned to adapt to the new U.S. tariff regimen, which significantly targets Chinese-manufactured goods.

“For the June quarter, we do expect the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. will have India as their country of origin and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods products also sold in the U.S,” Cook said.

Trump has imposed a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods shipped into the United States, which experts say would have increased the cost of iPhones and other Apple products.

However, the White House provided temporary exemptions to a range of electronic devices and components imported into the United States last month.

Cook said that China would “continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the U.S.”

“We have a complex supply chain. There’s always risk in the supply chain,” he said. “What we learned some time ago was that having everything in one location had too much risk with it.”

He also said Apple has started to create a stockpile of products so that the majority of its devices sold in the United States this quarter will not come from China.

The tech giant currently makes more than 90 percent of its products in China.

Cook also said that he predicted a hit to the company’s gross margins, saying that for the next quarter ending in June, “assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs.”

However, the CEO said that so far, the ongoing tit-for-tat tariff tumult had not impacted Apple’s sales, and customers had not been rushing to purchase products to beat the impending impact of U.S. tariffs.

The company said that sales and profit for the second quarter ending March 29 were $95.36 billion and $1.65 per share, respectively, compared with analyst estimates of $94.68 billion and $1.63 per share, according to London Stock Exchange Group data.

The outlook for the Cupertino-based company could worsen going forward, however, as although electronics have so far been exempted from import tariffs, Washington has signaled that levies could be imposed in the coming weeks.

Trump said in a Truth Social post on April 13: “We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the whole electronics supply chain in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations. What has been exposed is that we need to make products in the United States, and that we will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China, which will do everything within its power to disrespect the American People.”

On the same call, Cook discussed $500 billion worth of investment inside the United States, telling investors the company would be “expanding” its teams in its “facilities in several states, including Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington.

“And we’re going to be opening a new factory for advanced server manufacturing in Texas,” he said.

Apple shares fell by nearly 3 percent in premarket trading on Friday in the wake of the quarterly results being released.

Local Texas outlet KUT News reported that Boca Chica Village residents voted overwhelmingly—212 to 6—in favor of incorporating Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch site as an official city, now named Starbase, Texas. The move marks a major victory for Musk and highlights the rise of private-sector industrial capitalism as SpaceX leads the global space race.

“Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity’s place in space,” the city of Starbase wrote on X. 

Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity’s place in space 🚀💫

— StarbaseTX (@StarbaseTX) May 4, 2025

Musk celebrated in a post on X, saying, “Starbase, Texas, is now a real city!” 

Starbase, Texas

Is now a real city!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2025

Starbase is about 1.5 square miles and includes some unincorporated Boca Chica Village. 

If you’re wondering on the exact area this vote covers, here are the new City Limits for the City of Starbase, Texas. https://t.co/Rp3ZW4iCyD pic.twitter.com/WNltH3pGcu

— Ryan Caton (@dpoddolphinpro) May 4, 2025

About 260 SpaceX employees live in the area; add in their partners and families, and it’s closer to 500. Another 3,100 workers live 34 miles away in Brownsville. 

Musk first floated the idea of Starbase in 2021. At one point, the county rejected SpaceX’s attempt to build townhouses for its workers—around the same time the company began seriously pursuing incorporation.

Starbase, the New City @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/nJpWcRDgXY

— Kiwi the tesla doge (@kiwithedoge) May 4, 2025

In December, SpaceX sent a letter to officials in southern Texas outlining its move to incorporate the area around the launch facility. This would streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make a world-class town that fuels America’s space industry. 

Popular in the 19th and 20th centuries in the US, towns were built around manufacturing facilities for several key reasons:

1. Proximity to Jobs

2. Factory-Sponsored Housing

3. Resource Access

4. Economic Ecosystem

5. Industrialization and Urbanization

Creating the Starbase city will support SpaceX operations and continue America’s lead in the global space race, which is powered by Elon Musk’s companies. 

Why rebuild collapsing cities under far-left Democrat control when you can create new ones from the ground up?

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

It’s poetic that Warren Buffett is now stepping down at Berkshire Hathaway after one of the most extraordinary investing careers in modern history.

I’ll save you the adulation for his investing acumen and commitment to high-quality American companies, as the financial news will be replete with these testimonials for the foreseeable future.

I’ve occasionally tried to shine a slightly different light on Buffett because, in addition to being a savvy investor, he was also a tremendous beneficiary of monetary policy that simply kept markets moving higher over time. But don’t get me wrong: Buffett’s knack for outperforming the overall market undoubtedly solidifies him as legend.

He’s also far more of a shark than most people believe him to be. Some of the stories that get passed around in the financial underworld paint a very different picture of Warren Buffett than the jolly old man happy to sit and laugh with Becky Quick. His patience was unmatched, and his ability to leverage his brand into extraordinarily favorable transactions with companies who desperately needed capital became the best self-fulfilling prophecy investment tool there ever was.

Because Buffett had all the capital and all the brand equity in the world—and because his cheery demeanor belied his ruthless style—companies sought him out not only when they needed capital, but also a vote of confidence.

As I reflect on it now, Buffett was the perfect balance of cutthroat investor and public relations polish. And whether his “never bet against America” shtick was honestly how he felt or not, it was instrumental in driving decades of goodwill toward the American financial system. He was the cornerstone of the list of reasons people globally wanted to invest in American exceptionalism.

Buffett put an investing face to many of the greatest American companies in history. Names like Bank of America, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, American Express, and Apple all became widely accepted as “blue chips,” with some measure of Warren Buffett’s help, as his image and likeness acted as liaison between major corporations and Main Street investors.

But while many people will spend today celebrating his legendary career and speculating about the future of Berkshire Hathaway, to me the timing really does make it feel like sweet sorrow.

As everybody knows, Berkshire is flush with almost $350 billion in cash. Media has harped on how large its cash position has gotten and everyone has speculated about how and when it said cash may be deployed. Ergo, one way to look at Berkshire today is that the company is waiting to pounce on the next great opportunity. But another way to look at it is that, sadly, there’s nothing worth buying. Buffett’s legacy will not be a couple of major parting investments in America, or in up-and-coming U.S. companies as he has preached, but rather a declaration that there simply isn’t anything out there that deserves his capital right now.

At the same time, a broader debate is raging in the country about whether or not our productive capacity and manufacturing ethos have been stripped from our nation. There’s no more hotly contested topic right now than our nation’s major trade imbalance and our fiscal policy of exporting printed U.S. dollars while importing an unsustainably high quality of life—fueled by a growing debt pile and major fiscal deficits.

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The country that helped make Berkshire Hathaway early on was a country rooted in manufacturing and production. Early on, Buffett acquired Nebraska Furniture Mart, a family-run business, and See’s Candies, an American manufacturer and distributor of candies founded in California in 1921 — quintessential American manufacturing and sales.

Before quantitative easing distorted markets to the point where they are expected to trade at 30x earnings at all times—for no reason other than “unlimited” fiat liquidity from lax central bank policy—companies actually needed to generate a profit and produce goods in order to be successful. And Buffett’s knack was identifying these fairly priced, cash-generative companies with great growth potential.

Nowadays, all companies need to be successful is to get a semi-unvetted listing anywhere on any U.S. stock market through a SPAC, burn through tons of cash while lying about their future prospects, and sell as much equity as possible to financial institutions that will eventually be bailed out for their poor decisions. In the year 2025, the Fed is the rising liquidity tide lifting all dogshit company boats.

When Berkshire was making the meaningful investments that turned it into the monolith it is today, money was sounder, markets were less distorted, and investing required far more calibration toward value and actual analysis. Now, the stock market has simply become an out-of-control casino where valuations, prices, and financial metrics don’t matter—and liquidity is, to quote Fed Governor Neel Kashkari, “infinite.”

Austrian-focused market analysts like myself have argued that there will be a large price to pay for how distorted our public markets have become. I’ve also argued that the gutting of our nation’s productive capacity and manufacturing base, as well as our commitment to borrowing, can’t and won’t last forever.

But as everybody has sat around waiting for us “broken clocks” to eventually be proven right by some exogenous, catastrophic financial unknown, the market has slowly been mutating into an entity that may never be “cheap” again—because all semblance of value investing and active management have been replaced in favor of bullshit CEO storytelling, a relentless passive bid and 0DTE option gamma acting as the tail that wags the market dog.

Whether intentional or not, Buffett’s retirement personifies just how distorted our markets have become and how different the playing field is now than it was 50 years ago. Maybe it’s nothing more than a coincidence that Buffett is going out with a large cash pile and no new major investments at a time when manufacturing in our country has never been more on the ropes. But for me, I’m equal parts in a state of reverence for all Buffett accomplished, and saddened by the “between the lines” commentary his retirement makes about the state of the country and the market today.

It’s easy to crown Buffett as the best that’s ever done it—I don’t think anybody will argue that. But there is an underlying Shakespearean-style tragic element to the timing of his stepping down — one that silently tugs at me in the background, suggesting that the days of investing exceptionalism and of true grit, promise, productivity, and manufacturing in America—are behind us.

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This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

Last week’s GLP-1 headlines included Novo Nordisk partnering with telehealth platforms Hims & Hers, LifeMD, and Ro to offer its weight-loss drug Wegovy directly to consumers at substantial discounts, aiming to improve affordability and access. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly reported robust demand for its rival anti-obesity medication, Mounjaro.

We’ve occasionally highlighted key trends in the GLP-1 space and consumer sentiment around these drugs. The latest consumer pulse comes from a new survey conducted by financial website FinanceBuzz.

FinanceBuzz surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults earlier this year and asked whether they have used GLP-1 drugs and for what purpose. What they found is that more than half of the GLP-1 users (52%) dialed back their spending at restaurants. About 37% reduced spending on alcohol, and about 29% reduced supermarket spending. 

The survey provided a snapshot of top concerns about GLP-1 drugs from users and potential users…

About 20% of Americans have tried GLP-1s.

Most Americans don’t plan on starting GLP-1s. However, many are considering the need to lose weight. 

In a separate survey, a KFF Health Tracking Poll of 1,500 adult participants in late April found that about 6% of U.S. adults, or over 15 million people, were taking GLP-1s. 

One key finding of the KFF poll was that 43% were diagnosed with diabetes by a doctor, 25% were diagnosed with heart disease, and a doctor told 22% that they were overweight or obese. 

The big news of affordability this past week—since that’s on everyone’s minds who wants to take GLP-1s—is the Wegovy addition to Hims & Hers at a very affordable price. 

What’s also affordable is eating healthy and exercising. 

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller announced Thursday that the Trump administration considers it “child abuse” to be change the gender of a minor and that health professionals carrying out the procedures are opening themselves up to charges of medical malpractice.

Speaking to the press, Miller stated “The Department of Justice is coordinating with state and local law enforcement to fight child abuse in our school systems.”

“It is child abuse to change a child’s gender, particularly if you do not inform the parents,” Miller further emphasised, adding “So, if a five-year-old or a six-year-old or a seven-year-old goes to school and the teacher tries to turn the boy into a girl or the girl into a boy, that is child abuse, and this administration is treating that as child abuse, and it is a gross violation of parental rights.”

Stephen Miller (@StephenM): “It is child abuse to change a change a child’s gender, particularly if you do not inform the parents.”

Also: “Children will be taught to love America. Children will be taught to be patriots. Children will be taught civic values…” pic.twitter.com/tC8hIMT3Q7

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2025

“This also includes the administration’s message to our hospital systems that they cannot and will not be allowed to use taxpayer dollars to perform chemical castrations and sexual mutilations of children,” Miller noted.

He added that “Castration surgeries, castration drugs, sterilization treatments of children are barbaric. They violate all sound medical ethics. They are completely unwarranted. They harm children for life, irreversibly. It is child torture. It is child abuse. It is medical malpractice.”

Democrats and feminists used to protest female genital mutilation in Islamic culture.

Now they celebrate it, encourage it by confusing children, and fund it. Even worse than FGM, the children are rendered sterile and completely a-sexual for the remainder of their lives.

— EdelAxelsen (@OlaussenEdel) May 1, 2025

“So the Department of Health and Human Services, under the leadership of Bobby Kennedy, as well as the Department of Justice and other departments of this government, are making clear to our medical providers and our hospital systems that you cannot use taxpayer dollars to perform these barbaric procedures on America’s children,” Miller urged.

He further outlined that “HHS has systematically updated all and eliminated all of the junk, fake science that was produced under the Biden administration promoting sex changes on children, promoting the idea of sterilizing children.”

Democrats love mutilating the genitals of children and feeding them castration drugs. Sick people.

Below are examples from the United States where a child’s gender identity was changed or socially transitioned at school without one or both parents being informed, based on…

— Bongo (@GeorgeFrogger) May 1, 2025

“That’s been cleaned out, that’s been removed, and new guidance is being issued to doctors and hospitals advising them that they cannot perform these horrifying procedures, these irreversible procedures, on our nation’s children,” he added.

Leftists in the comments of the post are claiming en mass that there are no cases of this happening anywhere in the US, and that Miller is making it all up. Yet, there have been accounts in the news, and a deep dive suggests this is happening in places.

Miller also noted that “This administration ended the Biden administration’s policy and the Democrat Party’s policy of allowing men into women’s sports, men into women’s spaces.”

“We are using every single legal and financial tool we have, at President Trump’s direction, to make it clear that schools and universities are—and will—lose federal funds, as you’ve seen in Maine, if you allow men to invade women’s sports and women’s spaces. And this applies to our whole K-12 system,” Miller added.

*  *  *

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Throughout over three years of the Russia-Ukraine war, there has been a sad and tragic trend of churches being struck by missiles, drones, or bombs on both sides of the conflict.

But attacks on religious sites have gone all the way back to 2014, and the start of the conflict in the Donbass, which saw pro-Kiev forces frequently shelling Russia-aligned areas, including attacks on Orthodox churches.

And of course, since then the Ukraine government has actively and openly persecuted Ukraine’s largest Orthodox church for simply maintaining spiritual communion with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Famous, historic monasteries have been shut down or seized by authorities, monks expelled, and churches have been raided by far-right nationalist militant groups. As for the other side, Russian aerial raids have often devastated whole Ukrainian neighborhoods, including destruction of local churches.

In a fresh incident, Russian government and media sources say a Ukrainian drone was sent across the border and struck an iconic, historic church in Belgorord region, which set the church on fire.

Local Belgorod governor Vyacheslav issued a statement on Telegram Saturday saying “the enemy is striking our holy sites again – an enemy drone has attacked Saint George Church in the village of Tolokonnoye.”

Emergency crews were able to extinguish the blaze, but not before the church’s domes caught on fire…

Earlier, Russia claimed a church was hit by FPV drones in Belgorod region.

The St. George the Victorious Church in the village of Tolokonnoe caught fire. The flames were quickly put out and no-one was injured. pic.twitter.com/jDlSCWZmOA

— Tim White (@TWMCLtd) May 3, 2025

Friday into early Saturday saw Ukrainian forces launch over 40 drones and some 150 artillery shells in Russia’s southern Belgorod region. Along with neighboring Kursk, Belgorod has seen repeat incursions by Ukraine’s military over the course of the war.

While it’s impossible to confirm whether all these attacks on churches were ‘deliberate’ and targeted, Russian authorities believe this is the case, given an even more well-known church was just recently destroyed:

Last Thursday, the iconic New Jerusalem Orthodox church complex in the region burned down following a Ukrainian drone strike. Commenting on the incident at the time, Gladkov described it as a “deliberate” attack and also accused the Ukrainian military of subsequently targeting the firefighters who were trying to contain the blaze.

The New Jerusalem Church complex in the village of Sukharevo was entirely made of wood and so went up in flames quickly. That did clearly seem a targeted attack given Ukrainian drones dropped explosives directly on it.

❗️‘New Jerusalem’ orthodox church attacked by Ukraine UAV burnt to the ground in Russia’s Belgorod region.

⚠️The Ukrainian Armed Forces reportedly attacked the temple at least twice, preventing local residents and firefighters from putting it out. At the time of the attack, four… pic.twitter.com/GB8hunxt49

— Russian Embassy in South Africa 🇷🇺 (@EmbassyofRussia) April 25, 2025

Currently, Moscow and Kiev are still far from agreeing on a ceasefire. President Zelensky has accused his Russian counterpart Putin of playing a “game” with offers of very limited, 3-day ceasefires. Kiev instead wants to start with a month-long truce, but Russia has described this as a pretext for Ukraine forces rearming and replenishing along the front lines.

“This is more of a theatrical performance on his part. Because in two or three days, it is impossible to develop a plan for the next steps to end the war,” Zelensky has said in his latest statement.

Via Middle East Eye

Saudi Arabia has executed two people on terrorism-related charges, bringing the total number of executions in the kingdom this year to at least 100, according to an AFP tally.

The Ministry of Interior said the two Saudis were executed for their involvement in acts of “terrorism”, including joining a “terrorist organization” and attending training camps abroad, where they learned to make explosives.

“After being referred to the competent court, a decision was issued confirming the charges against them and ordering their execution as punishment,” it added.

Of the 100 people executed this year, 59 were convicted of drug-related offences, including 43 foreigners, according to AFP.

“While Saudi Arabia positions itself as a positive diplomatic actor, its international partners are showing they are willing to turn a blind eye to its flagrant human rights violations,” Jeed Basyouni of the rights group Reprieve US said in a statement.

“The result? 100+ executions since January, more than half of them for non-lethal drug offenses.”

After a moratorium of approximately three years, Saudi authorities resumed executions for drug-related crimes at the end of 2022.

According to a previous AFP tally, at least 338 people were executed last year, compared to 170 in 2023 – far higher than the previous record of 196 in 2022.

Saudi human rights defenders and lawyers have accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of overseeing a crackdown on freedom of expression since he came to power.

This includes the introduction of a counterterrorism law that Human Rights Watch has criticized for its broad definition of terrorism.

At least 1,115 executions have been carried out under the crown prince’s rule between June 21, 2017 and October 9, 2024.

Additionally, according to Reprieve, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly lied to the UN about its use of the death penalty.