Death toll rises in Iran as anti-government protests spread Australian Broadcasting Corporation
from news.google.com
04 Culture
Russia Asks US to Halt Chase of “Stateless” Oil Tanker Fleeing Coast Guard in the Atlantic UNITED24 Media
from news.google.com
As regularly as Obama appointee Judge Indira Talwani finds some creative new way to temporary scuttle a provision of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that bars organizations that provide elective abortion from federal Medicaid funding for one year if they received more than $800,000 in federal funding in 2023, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit says no siree Bob.
Yesterday, in a brief opinion vacating Judge Talwani’s injunction, the appeals court panel, composed of judges appointed by President Biden, concluded that HHS and other federal officials have “made a strong showing at this preliminary stage that they are likely to prevail on the merits.”
Map Shows Anti-Government Protests Spreading Across Iran Newsweek
from news.google.com
Iranian anarchists: Uprising is “genuine self-organisation by ordinary people” Freedom News –
from news.google.com
The Rumford Fire Department is preparing to open Maine’s first Safe Haven Baby Box in February to prevent incidents of deadly infant abandonment.
“I hope we never use it,” Rumford Fire Chief Chris Reed said, according to News Center Maine. “But at least it’s an option.”
Safe Haven Baby Boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals, and can be accessed from outdoors. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Once the baby is inside the baby box, the outside door locks, and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off to alert first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and is often quickly adopted.
Originally published Dec 12, 2025 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
STAFF
“Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.” – John Locke
“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community.” – Valerie Jarrett
Our Bellwether storyline of 2025 is the dramatic erosion of individual liberty standards in three nations that were early leaders in the project that gave rise to those standards, “liberalism.” The first nation, England, may be ahead of the second nation, Canada, in killing that individual liberty spirit, but the third nation, America, is not far behind.
Last month, we suggested our top story of the year would be the first year of the second term of President Donald Trump. However, that story is only part of the much-larger story, the death of John Locke’s civilization and the emergence of a new one (or new ones).
In America, buttressed as it is through vast swathes of its territory populated by legally armed American citizens, John Locke is making a comeback in many ways, even if just it’s just in slowing down the bleeding.
In other ways, however, he’s all-but died already, especially (but not exclusively) behind enemy territory, Democrat-ruled lands.
We will highlight some of the bellwether stories within each nation’s own John Locke narrative. We will begin our analysis with a brief explanation of why we chose John Locke to be the bellwether of the larger story this year’s bellwether is framed within.
A. JOHN LOCKE’S BODY
John Locke was a 17th Century philosopher who created the underlying presupposition regarding the nature of valuing in governance that has created the civilizations featured in this report, Britain, Canada, and America. That underlying presupposition is that a society cannot progress if it cannot pursue truth. It cannot pursue truth if it does not respect the rights of others to be wrong.
The way we Americans would word it is this: Your rights end where your actions harm others. This is not only the standard individuals should live by, but it’s also the standard that will allow truth to flourish, and thus people to flourish, as a result. But where truth is oppressed in the name of protecting the weak from wrong thoughts, truth dies, followed by flourishing.
While Locke was a Christian, he was also an Empiricist, meaning he believed meaning was mostly derived from the perception of the material. He advocated the notion that the human mind was a blank slate, a tabula rasa.
He got to God through material understanding, saying, “We are capable of knowing certainly that there is a God. Though God has given us no innate ideas of himself; though he has stamped no original characters on our minds, wherein we may read his being; yet having furnished us with those faculties our minds are endowed with, he hath not left himself without witness: since we have sense, perception, and reason, and cannot want a clear proof of him, as long as we carry ourselves about us.”
The enemy attacking John Locke was born from his “liberalism,” though some “classic liberals” still claim a liberal center can hold. As of now, that does NOT appear to be case anymore for the liberal project. Perhaps it has hit that Kantean dialectical wall, where reasons pushes through into nonsense, which is what many claim liberalism ultimately did through “wokeness,” the alleged natural outcome of liberalism.
From Locke, for instance, we get the notion of “progress” as a necessary component of “human flourishing,” a notion the “Woke” still rely on today. From Locke, though, we get the American justification for these same restrictions on government power, though we add the assumption of a creator as the source for the recognition of “rights” of individuals. Still, that assumption of a creator is based on “reason” (or at least the mere capacity for reason), it does not come from a revelatory source.
This puts the liberal project in danger, but need we use the Lockean justification for an “individual liberty” respecting government or can we provide another justification for that claim? We believe we can provide an alternative justification, but one which is limited to communities that themselves are not compelled to use coercion as a means of socio-cultural or political influence.
This justification does not rest on anything but the pragmatic realization by such communities that a government bounded by individual liberty allows all participating communities opportunities to sustainably flourish on their own unique terms.
A government bounded by individual liberty allows member communities the space to freely practice their own standards and beliefs while also benefiting from the enriched value exchange potential between like-minded “neighbors,” other communities with their own standards and beliefs.
“Americanism” can be a pragmatic bridging standard between communities not willing to bear the sword in the name of their “god.”
This last year delivered serious blows to the corpse of John Locke. One hopes what rises has the spirit of individual liberty without the need for “justification” beyond an agreed standard between peaceful communities.
It is not the state’s role to settle such matters, it is merely the state’s sole justification for power, the fruit of a state that limits its power in recognition of individual liberty.
B. SOVIET UK
Here is the UK’s descent into madness told through the briefs we created through 2025. They are listed not in chronological order but in our editorial view of their importance and relation to one another. This format will be used for Canada and the U.S. as well:
- JANUARY 2025 – UK CONTINUES DESCENT INTO LEFTIST AUTHORITARIAN MADNESS – The Labour Party is making every effort it can to destroy what’s left of Britain, with three actions showcasing the further devolution of the country towards authoritarianism.
Kier Starmer went to Ukraine to sign a “100-year deal,” meaning he envisions a one-party state if he feels he can make such guarantees. That one-party state will move closer to the Chinese Social Credit Score model with the start of its authoritarian Digital ID program, which it hopes will make all of its citizens, especially the natives, trackable. The coup-de-gras might be the Labour Party’s decision to not open an inquiry on child rape gangs that have been forming in Pakistani “communities.”
- NOVEMBER 2025 – UK THINKS WE’RE STILL A COLONY? – Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s communications regulator has recently declared that Americans are not protected from UK prosecution for violating their soviet-styled speech laws when their social media posts reach their citizens. So far, talk of bills being written to deal with this foreign intrusion on American sovereignty is all that’s been seen in response to this assertion by the UK. They do this while they push forward with Online censorship, Digital ID, and now mass arrests of UK protesters.
- 3. SEPTEMBER 2025 – AFTER MASSIVE “UNITE THE KINGDOM” RALLY, STARMER’S RESPONSE IS TO CALL THE RALLY RACIST – Prime Minister Keir Starmer is relying on the old rules of engagement when dealing with resistance to his anti-British planvasion plans. This time, in response to a half a million plus rallying in support of the British nation and national identity, Starmer chose to spread misinformation and lies about the rally.
He declared, “People have a right to peaceful protest. It is core to our country’s values. But we will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the color of their skin. Britain is a nation proudly built on tolerance, diversity, and respect. Our flag represents our diverse country, and we will never surrender it to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear, and division.”
- JULY 2025 – UK LABOUR TO CHANGE VOTING LAWS TO MAKE CHEATING EASIER– The anti-UK government currently controlling the UK, Labour, has announced plans to rig the next election by lowering the voting age to 16 so they can get more freshly indoctrinated children to vote for their own demise. They also promise to “soften” voter ID laws to assure illegal alien invaders of the country can keep the anti-UK party in power.
- JUNE 2025 – BRITAIN PASSES BILL THAT LEGALIZES EUTHANASIA – The Terminally Ill Adults bill passed the UK parliament by a narrow 314-291 vote. The bill will allow mentally competent adults with 6 months or less to live to choose to be euthanized by medical staff. The concern is that the bill will start off with limited candidates for euthanasia, but keep expanding like Canada’s law has, which now even allows the mentally ill to “choose” death.
- APRIL 2025 – UK’S WOKE POLICIES LEADING TO “MISINFORMATION,” GOVERNMENT UNWITTINGLY ADMITS – The United Kingdom’s Parliamentary Home Affairs Committee issued a report that cited the policy of concealing the ethnicity of a suspect led to race riots. Those race riots happened after “false claims” spread online that an illegal immigrant stabbed three children to death. These “rumors” spread because the police failed to offer an identification to begin with.
ED.NOTE: The non-illegal was the son of illegal immigrants. Axel Rudakubana, 18, was the “British teen” the media reported on. His parents are Rwandan “immigrants.” He was later sentenced to 52 years minimum in prison, where he is currently enjoying reading Harry Potter books.
On December 18, 2026, Luke Yarwood was sentenced to 18 months in jail for tweeting in response to the Southport stabbings, which happened in 2024. His posts were seen a total of 33 times. They called for “slaughter in the streets” and encouraged people to “head for the hotels housing them and burn them to the ground.”
C. CANADA
Canada’s descent into anti-liberty values can be seen in its doubling down on the “woke ideology” and its continued expansion of “euthanasia” as a means of culling from the social the unproductive and disruptive.
Here is the bellwether of their reality told in briefs from 2025:
- FEBRUARY 2025 – CANADA’S UNELECTED NEW PRIME MINISTER COMES OUT HARD AGAINST TRUMP, AMERICA – Now former PM Justin Trudeau’s party, the Liberal Party, has selected their new leader, and thus Canada’s new unelected Prime Minister, Mark Carney. The new PM faces re-election by this October. He has a well-documented history of being “anti-Trump.” He came to power after Trudeau announced his resignation in the face of wilting polling numbers for his party.
He began his campaign by telling his supporters, “Canada will never become part of America in any way, shape, or form… Donald Trump, as we know, has put unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living. He’s attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses. We cannot let him succeed. And we won’t.” He later demanded, “American, SHOW US RESPECT.”
His bellicose anti-American rhetoric was presaged by a high-ranking member of his party, Chrystia Freeland, who was also a Liberal Party Leader candidate. She stated in her leadership campaign, “The U.S. is turning predator and so what Canada needs to do is work closely with our democratic allies, our military allies. I would start with our Nordic Partners, specifically Denmark, which is also being threatened, and our European NATO allies. I would be sure that France and Britain were there, who possess nuclear weapons.” Read full report
- MAY 2025 – CANADA DOUBLES DOWN ON WOKE AS ALBERTA CONSIDERS SEPARATION – Canada has doubled down on its commitment to woke authoritarianism, re-electing a Liberal government led by woke globalist Mark Carney, who promises to mostly keep the same dystopian course Canada is already going down.
At one point the conservative, Pierre Poilievre, led the Labor Party by 20 points, then PM Justin Trudeau stepped aside, and Poilievre chose to run away from Trump and MACA, Make Canada Great Again. Carney’s party holds a minority plurality with 170 seats, 2 seats short of a majority.
As a response, the province of Alberta has introduced Bill 54, which would allow for a referendum on Albertan separatism in light of Canada’s doubling down on a far-left government that puts ideology over people, party over Albertan sovereignty, and well-being. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith stated “I believe in Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada. However, there is a citizen referenda process that if citizens want to put a question on a ballot and get enough of their fellow citizens to sign that petition, then those questions will be put forward. Again, I don’t want to prejudge what a question might be.”
- APRIL 2025 – SUICIDE IS BEING PUSHED ON AILING CANADIANS? – Dr. Ramona Coelho, a committee member on Ontario’s MAiD Death Review Committee, is accusing doctors of pushing patients aggressively towards suicide in increasingly questionable situations. She accused the institution itself of “rushing to death” through quick approvals of Canada’s euthanasia program, called MAiD (Medical Aid in Dying).
She said, “These cases highlight how vulnerable individuals, having lost the capacity to consent, may be coerced or unduly influenced to die – whether through financial abuse, caregiver burnout, or other pressures – reminding us that the stakes are high – life and death, no less.”
- OCTOBER 2025 – 90K PEOPLE EUTHANIZED BY CANADA SINCE “ASSISTED SUICIDE” BECAME LAW IN 2016 – So far, 90,000 people have taken advantage of Canada’s law, MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) which legalizes assisted suicide. In 2024, there were 16,500 MAID suicides, which accounted for 5% of total deaths that year.
Canada’s average wait time to see a specialist is now at 27.7 weeks, an all-time high, and this fact alone has led to documented suicides, including from a Winnipeg woman who wrote just before her MAID suicide, “I could have had more time if I had more help.”
- NOVEMBER 2025 – CANADA WANTS MOLOCH TO HAVE A DOCTOR’S LICENSE – Canada is now moving to add children to the growing list of people who can be “eligible” for “medically assisted in dying” suicide (MAID). So far, being poor, being disabled, being chronically ill, being depressed, suffering for autism, suffering from PTSD (even if you’re a veteran) qualifies you for MAID. Now, euthanasia advocates are moving their demands from MAID for the ADULT TERMINALLY ILL ONLY to “let’s not let age be a limit.”
D. AMERICA
In America, we have Trump’s MAGA turning a blind eye while Trump does decidedly un-American things, while the DNC’s base increasingly supports violence as a means of political persuasion. The briefs of 2025 will follow first with the DNC, then with President Trump. The briefs start off with the true bellwether of the DNC Progmerica, Virginia’s Attorney General Jay Jones, who easily won the election despite being caught wanting to MURDER his political opponent and his family:
- OCTOBER 2025 – VA AG WANTS TO MURDER GOP CHILDREN, DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO SUPPORT HIM – Virginia’s current Attorney General, Democrat Jay Jones had private text messages exposed that revealed his desire to kill his GOP opponent. He claimed that if he had two bullets, his GOP opponent, and two of the evilest people in human history, he’d use both bullets to kill his opponent. He later expressed desire to kill the opponent’s children.
Since his text messages were revealed, it’s also been exposed he promoted killing cops as a way to change their racist behavior. Yet despite all that, the Democratic Party, including their candidate for Governor, continue to support Jones. No top national Democrat has called on him to quit the race. He remains endorsed by all the major gun control groups and top members of the Virginia General Assembly.
ED.NOTE: He went on to win the election. Less than half of VA voters thought his text were disqualifying. John Locke’s spirit was not in Virginia that night.
- JULY 2025 – DNC CRIMINAL MEDIA, POLITICIANS, PUSH TO INCITE, ENABLE VIOLENCE AGAINST ICE AGENTS – The Democrat Party is overtly becoming the party of insurrection, inciting violence against Americans. Michigan Democrats are pushing for a law that would make it illegal for ICE agents to wear masks.
The criminal media is doing its part, pushing lies intended to incite violence against ICE agents. Daily Kos’ headline, “ICE is paying big bucks to come back and terrorize immigrants,” might as well be an order to its insurrectionist base to kill the fascist. Crooks and Liar’s headline, “Tom Homan Shifts ICE Detention Goal Posts, As Fascists Do,” puts an assassination target directly on the border czar himself. against the republic.
- SEPTEMBER 2025 – CALIFORNIA LAW WOULD UNMASK ICE; DHS TELLS THEM TO POUND SAND – The insurrectionist state of California passed legislation intended to blunt efforts by the Trump administration to remove illegal aliens from their lands. One bill, signed into law by Gavin Newsom (D-CA), would make it illegal for Federal ICE Agents to wear masks during their operations. The move is intended to help terrorists find the agents at their homes and hurt them and their families.
- NOVEMBER 2025 – FOREIGNERS GAVE THE DNC NGOS OVER $2 BILLION – In recent years, more than $2 billion has been sent to DNC-aligned far-left anti-Americanist groups, many with ties to Antifa affiliations, with no checks by regulators. A report from Americans for Public Trust (APT) has exposed the foreign money pipeline driving anti-American hate through DNC-affiliated groups.
- NOVEMBER 2025 – DEMOCRATS TELL SOLDIERS TO DISOBEY TRUMP’S ORDERS – Senator Mark Kelly (R-AZ) led 5 Democrat U.S. legislators in a viral video campaign appealing to the military to “refuse illegal orders.” Now, Kelly could face a military recall and court martial, while all six face potential treason charges, The video campaign was called “Don’t Give Up the Ship.” One legislator, Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), when pressed, could not identify any specific “illegal orders.”
President Trump’s suggestion that treason means hanging triggered House Democrats to call the Capital Police for reasons not given. Since the viral video, more Democrat legislators have come out in support of the open call for military members and intelligence officials to commit, in essence, treason.
- NOVEMBER 2025 – TRUMP ADMIN MOVING ONTO MILITARY BASES IN WAKE OF RISING PROGMERICAN THREATS – U.S. officials are increasingly moving themselves and their families onto military bases in response to rising threats from within that are connected to the usual Progmerican, DNC blue shirts threats. In addition to the DNC threats, the officials are also facing an “ongoing foreign threat.”
In response to this ratcheting up of threats, the Trump administration is building “a quick reactionary force” in every state through the National Guard to deal with the rising DNC blue-shirts threats. Some of the officials include Marco Rubio.
- SEPTEMBER 2025 – TRUMP LOOKS TO RESTORE GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA BAN LIFTED UNDER OBAMA, TO BE CALLED THE “CHARLIE KIRK ACT” – In what would be another blow to the DNC’s narrative control machine, President Trump has endorsed the plan to reactive the Smith-Mundt act. This act prevented the U.S. government from creating or paying for propaganda aimed at U.S. citizens. The act was rescinded in Section 1078 of the National Defense Authorization Act in 2013 under President Obama. The act will be called the Charlie Kirk Act.
ED.NOTE: This promise has yet to be fulfilled and appears largely forgotten.
- MAY 2025 – PALANTIR GIVEN KEYS TO SPY ON AMERICANS – The Trump administration has handed over American personal data to the data management company Palantir, a company headed by Peter Theil, who was also a major early supporter of Vice President JD Vance. The administration’s efforts to create a central database for multiple departments to share seem incongruous with his anti-Deep State public stance.
There is unease amongst Trump’s base about the creation of a tool the Deep State has always wanted to have, central monitoring of Americans’ personal daily data. Right now, Palantir will be (or allegedly has already been) using this tool to help round up illegal aliens, and it is in this guise that the administration may hope to convince his base to go along with such an anti-MAGA action.
- AUGUST 2025 – TRUMP DEFENDS DECISION TO ALLOW 600K CHINESE STUDENTS TO COME TO AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES – In a move that seems to be an absolute reversal of his previous policies, President Trump has announced plans to allow 600,000 Chinese students to go to American universities, though they can only stay for 4 years. Trump defended the decision, claiming, “We’re getting along very well with China…it’s very insulting to say ‘students can’t come here.’” The White House also clarified this is not allowing MORE students in than were already being allowed, it’s simply not decreasing in numbers from the previous administration.
He offered more defense, further claiming, “Because they’ll go out and start building schools … but I like that [China’s] students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here. And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell, very quickly. … And it wouldn’t be the top colleges; it would be colleges that struggle on the bottom. …
And I told this to President Xi: That we’re honored to have their students here. Now with that, we check, and we’re careful, and we see who’s there … But we have a tremendous college system, the best in the world. Nobody even close – that’s why China sends them here. You can call it an industry if you want … I’m honored to have the students from China come here.”
- AUGUST 2025 – IS NATIONALIZING INTEL THE CONSERVATIVE THING TO DO? – Efforts by Donald Trump to de facto nationalize a part of the chipmaking company Intel are being met by stiff resistance and confusion from his conservative base. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said of Trump’s plan to purchase 10% of the company, “If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism? Terrible idea.”
SUMMARY
In the UK, a statement of faith in a public street could get you plaudits or prison, depending on whether your god was Christian or any other god. In the UK, a statement of pride in the English race will get you imprisoned, while a statement of pride in any “non-white” race will get you plaudits.
Now, their laws reflect the woke ideology. Social justice has replaced individual justice. The case is decided by the party’s social class; if it’s English, or even just culturally British, not only is it not protected, but defending it publicly is likely committing a felony.
In some ways Canada is ahead of the UK, but in other ways the UK is ahead of Canada. When it comes to free thought, the UK is now rocketing past Canada as far as assaulting it. Under Starmer, jury courts are now suspended for criminal charges threatening less than 3 years prison time. This unilateral decision alone should show the British that a constitution might be better than common law after all, for, in principle, the common law standards of the British would never allow such moves, not even from the King. Ask Charles I about overstepping his authority, or James II.
AP’s coverage of the news reflects its ties to the globalist left regime. It sanitizes the news with the sales pitch Labour itself is using. Its headline said, “UK government plans to scrap some jury trials in an attempt to clear a court backlog.”
While the UK is just pushing through Euthanasia bills, Canada reveals its assault on the principles of individual liberty by pushing euthanasia on an increasingly broad swathe of people, which soon will include children and already includes the disabled and the depressed.
In Canada, the wait list to see a doctor is already leading some to choose euthanasia instead.
The commodification of the soul is even more advanced in Canada than it is in the UK, though the UK most likely is about to surpass them should their power remain as consolidated as it currently is (despite the government’s historic unpopularity).
In all three nations we see the national press, the established press, the corporate press in each country acting as content marketers for the far-left party either in power or seeking to return to power. The press is not the fourth estate, as it would emerge first in England and then in America (and then, through most Western countries), it is the PARTY ESTATE.
In America, the press seems to push knowing lies intended to get Americans harmed or killed, all in service of the party, the DNC. The party itself is more than willing to incite violence against Americans and will openly continue to endorse major candidates for major offices even AFTER they are exposed as wanting to murder their political opponent’s family.
They are social justice warriors, meaning they’re willing to destroy things to change the values in America from individual justice to social justice. While this anti-American “justice” hasn’t fully taken over in American courts, it’s certainly increasingly encroaching on it.
So long as Democrats rule, it will continue to encroach until it becomes the new Rule of Law in a land that used to be America, but is now Progmerica, the nation that grew within America as a parasite then shed her dead body when the beast could emerge on its own.
Social Justice is justice based on your social identity, not American Rule of Law. Its standards are on their face unconstitutional whenever they are forced on Americans, be it by government or corporations. The case is not judged impartially, according to the facts, and according to the same legal standards that are applied to everyone else; the case is judged by the standing of your social identity.
Yet even the only credible opposition to the DNC, MAGA, is led by a man who appears to associate greatness with wealth more than he does individual liberty. Trump is to America what Canada once was to America, a close facsimile, but lacking a fundamental Americanist bulwark (as witnessed by how rapidly Canada lost its gun rights once the far left decided it was time to disarm the opposition).
Thus, this year, John Locke has nearly died in the UK, is all but dead in Canada, and is on his last legs in America.
FURTHER RESOURCES:
Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty – Dan Jones
America’s Founding Documents – National Archives
A growing number of ultra-wealthy Chinese nationals are turning to U.S. surrogates to have children on American soil, taking advantage of America’s largely unregulated market and birthright citizenship, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
In one such case, Chinese video game billionaire Xu Bo has sought parental rights for at least four unborn children in Los Angeles, having already fathered or arranged surrogacy for at least eight additional children, according to the WSJ. The trend coincides with intensifying debates over the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the country, a policy the Trump administration has sought to reinterpret.
Why this matters for Egyptian history
The Second Intermediate Period, dated roughly 1782–1550 BCE, has long been understood as a time of political fragmentation, military innovation and shifting power. It saw the introduction of new technologies such as the horse-drawn chariot, multiple competing capitals, and weakened central authority. If this period lasted longer than previously thought, historians must rethink how quickly Egypt recovered from collapse, how long the Hyksos ruled, and how the early New Kingdom developed its military and administrative strength. Just as importantly, the revised dating helps resolve a decades-old problem in Mediterranean archaeology: how Egyptian history lines up with Minoan, Levantine and Aegean chronologies. By placing the Thera eruption firmly before Ahmose’s reign, the study removes one of the most persistent points of chronological tension between Egypt and its neighbours.
A conservative Christian woman from Alabama has been identified as one of the two fatalities from Saturday’s shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island that left at least nine others wounded.
Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore at Brown, was a parishioner at Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama, where Rev. Craig Smalley made the announcement during his Sunday service.
“Some of you haven’t heard, a lot of you have heard … [about] the tragedy yesterday at Brown University, the shooting of a number of people,” Smalley said.. “Tragically, one of our parishioners, Ella Cook, was one of those who was killed yesterday.”
The Little Sisters of the Poor have again asked a federal appeals court late Friday to block a nationwide ruling that rejected their protection from the federal government’s contraceptive mandate. Represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Clement Murphy, the Little Sisters have spent more than a decade in court fighting to defend their ministry from a federal mandate forcing them to either provide contraceptives in their healthcare plan or pay tens of millions of dollars in fines.
They have already prevailed twice at the Supreme Court, including a 2020 ruling that upheld the federal conscience rule shielding them from the mandate. But Pennsylvania and New Jersey have fought in court to strip the Little Sisters of that protection. Earlier this year, a federal district court sided with the states, forcing the Little Sisters back to federal appeals court yet again.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that its Office for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) has launched an investigation into certain housing practices implemented by the City of Boston over alleged racial discrimination in housing.
The investigation focuses on policies described as “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) initiatives, which HUD alleges may violate the Fair Housing Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by incorporating race-based preferences.The notification to the City of Boston was issued recently, following a prior letter from HUD expressing concerns that the city was using federal grant assistance in ways that include prohibited race-based preferences.
Examples include efforts under the city’s Fair Housing Assessment to target homebuyer outreach specifically at Black and “Latinx” families. This involves the Mayor’s Office of Housing, the Boston Planning Department, and the Boston Housing Authority collecting racial and ethnic data to evaluate programs through a racial equity and social justice perspective.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that New York Attorney General Letitia James cannot stop pro-life pregnancy centers within the state from speaking about abortion pill reversal (APR).ADF Senior Counsel Caroline Lindsay, who argued before the court on behalf of three pro-life pregnancy care organizations, celebrated the ruling, stating, “The court is correct to affirm that women in New York have the right to access information about safe and effective supplemental progesterone through their local pregnancy centers, regardless of what the attorney general may personally believe. The First Amendment clearly protects the right to speak and hear about this potentially life-saving option.”
The case goes back to May 2024, when James announced that she was suing Heartbeat International, a group of pro-life pregnancy care centers that provide referrals for women seeking APR, along with 11 other New York crisis pregnancy centers. James claimed that APR is unproven and unsafe and wanted to block the centers from advertising its availability or discussing it with women.
Representative Haley Stevens (D-MI) has filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying that he “has turned his back on science” and failed to protect the American people.
Stevens, who is currently running for Senate in Michigan, had threatened to file articles of impeachment back in September after claiming that his actions and public comments had endangered public health, raised healthcare costs and cut medical research programs.
In a statement posted on social media, Stevens said: “Today, I formally introduced articles of impeachment against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. RFK Jr. has turned his back on science and the safety of the American people. Michiganders cannot take another day of his chaos.”
Stevens, who calls herself “a very serious lawmaker,” told NBC News, “But I’m not going to sit quietly by while people’s health and safety and lives are on the line.”
Supposed censorship of library books took off as a faux-major issue during the Biden’s Handlers’ Administration. This was almost entirely in response to local efforts to remove LGBTQWERTY+- books from public and school libraries, or to at least place age-appropriate limits on them.
Among the most commonly banned books of all time has been Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That beloved book has weathered fire from the left and right. Some on the right have wanted to ban it because it depicts a child—Huck Finn—often outsmarting adults. Much of the left thinks the entire book racist, which is odd considering Twain labors mightily to depict slaves as human beings worthy of kindness.
What remains most odd is removing a book from library shelves, or simply applying age restrictions, isn’t censorship by dictionary definition or in practical application. In America, no one is preventing authors from writing whatever they please, nor are publishers prevented from printing a book or book sellers from selling it. There is no prior restraint. This is a happy result of the First Amendment, unlike anything enjoyed by any other nation, including England. Anyone, or any parent, can buy such books at will, and outlets like Amazon make that fast and easy.
According to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, “we cannot incarcerate our way out of violence.” He justified this by claiming “we tried that and we ended up with the largest prison population in the world without solving the problems of crime and violence.” He added that this is “racist, immoral and unholy” and most certainly “is not the way to drive violence down.”
Now, if Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has a better idea, we would like to hear it, but I certainly hope he’s not advocating for the release of prisoners. Because if there is one thing you would assume we should agree on, it’s holding people accountable when they commit violence — but something tells me he believes otherwise.
Members of the Scottish Parliament, which is the latest Western legislative body to consider expanding assisted suicide, rejected efforts in committee to restrict the practice with young people, disabled people, and others.
Liam McArthur, a member of the body, introduced a bill last year that would “allow terminally ill adults in Scotland, who are eligible, to lawfully request, and be provided with, assistance by health professionals to end their own life.”
The legislation is moving through the committee process.
Some of his colleagues introduced a bill restricting the more shocking cases of assisted suicide, under which patients can legally opt to have a doctor take their lives.
Republican Greg Abbot of Texas is calling for a criminal investigation into Islamists operating Sharia courts illegally on Texas soil. Abbot wrote to Texas AG Ken Paxton and relevant law officials, “It has come to my attention that certain entities in Texas—including in Collin and Dallas Counties—may be masquerading as legal “courts” staffed with “judges” issuing orders that purportedly carry the authority to bind individuals to Islamic codes, thereby preempting state and federal laws. Such practices appear to cross the line from permissible internal religious decision-making to violations of state criminal laws.”
Tex Governor Abbot Abbott Calls for Criminal Investigations Into Sharia Courts Operating in Texas – gellerreport.com
We applaud Governor Abbott for addressing this oppressive, parallel government operating in our midst. Under Islamic law, there is no equality for all before the law.
Muslims are the only immigrant group who come to the West with a ready made model of society they believe to be superior to Western law and they work furiously, by all means, to impose it. Under Islam, shariah (Islamic) law supersedes Western law. Anywhere Western law and Shariah law conflict, it is always Western law that must give way. What those of us working in defense of freedom did not expect, was the craven capitulation and cowardice by Western left elites to Islamic supremacy.
California is violating federal law, according to a new lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.
The state effectively in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, which violates a federal prohibition against the practice. University of California does so, for example, by allowing for in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants who attended school for three years in the state and graduated from high school.
Federal law forbids states from offering better tuition deals to illegal immigrants who reside in the state than it does to Americans from other states.
This illegal “unequal treatment,” according to the lawsuit filed on Nov. 20.
Plaintiffs include Governor Gavin Newsom and the regents for the state university and community college systems.
The North Dakota Supreme Court on Friday restored a near-total ban on abortions, delivering a major victory for pro-life advocates who hailed the decision as a critical step in safeguarding unborn children across the state.
In a 3-2 ruling, the high court found that the state’s pro-life law banning abortions, enacted by the Legislature in 2023, remains constitutional, rejecting a lower court’s earlier decision to strike down the law.
The measure, Senate Bill 2150, classifies killing a baby in an abortion as a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Exceptions are permitted only to save a patient’s life or protect their health, and such rare abortions must occur in hospital settings.
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On Monday, November 17th, the City Council of Wolfforth, Texas (pop. 9,600) became the 85th city in the nation, and the 68th city in the State of Texas, to pass a Sanctuary City for the Unborn Ordinance.
The “Ordinance Outlawing Abortion, declaring Wolfforth a Sanctuary City for the Unborn” passed in a unanimous 5-0 vote, as part of their consent agenda. The City of Wolfforth, located between Ropesville (pop. 434) and Lubbock (pop. 272,086), is the fifth city in Lubbock County to adopt a Sanctuary for the Unborn Ordinance. Wolfforth is also the 15th city and the 20th political subdivision to pass such a measure in 2025.
The Trump administration on Tuesday made a big move forward in its effort to effectively dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, announcing the agency will transfer a lot of its workload to other federal departments.
The new partnerships with the Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services, and State departments will help streamline and consolidate a lot of bureaucracy and red tape, the Education Department announced in a news release.
“By partnering with agencies that are best positioned to deliver results for students and taxpayers, these [interagency agreements] will streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students and grantees,” the release stated.
New York Times Houston bureau chief J. David Goodman sounded aggrieved in his Texas-based story in Wednesday’s paper, “Texas Declares Muslim Civil Rights Group a Terrorist.” This is how liberal papers routinely describe leftist agitators. They’re “civil rights groups.”
As for the phrase “Muslim Civil Rights Group,” the Times is actually talking about the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Hamas-linked Islamic pressure group. “Civil rights group” should not describe a radical group whose national executive director Nihad Awad declared himself happy about the October 7 massacre by Hamas — a story covered by the Times in December 2023 but ignored in this new story. “I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land,” Awad said.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas declared on Tuesday that one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights groups is a foreign terrorist organization, saying the move will prohibit the organization from acquiring land in Texas and authorize the state attorney general “to sue to shut them down” in Texas.
In his declaration, Mr. Abbott said that the group, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, had direct ties to Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government. The nonprofit, known by its initials, CAIR, has denied having any such ties.
Under the reality-denying concept of “transgender,” which was enshrined in federal regulation in 2012, more and more incarcerated men have been permitted to opt into women’s prisons based on self-identification. There have been some legal challenges to this, but, until now, these efforts have not yet been successful.
In the wake of President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) on Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, two women incarcerated at the sole women’s medical center in the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) system filed suit. This EO included a provision requiring federal agencies to “ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.” Due to the DC district court issuing Preliminary Injunctions on behalf of male inmates demanding to continue to be housed in women’s prison, the EO has not been implemented.
Texas Christian U. to end gender, race studies departments
Texas Christian University will dissolve its Departments of Women and Gender Studies and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies at the end of this academic year, merging both programs into the English Department.
The decision, announced earlier this month, has sparked debate over whether the action could mark a return to traditional Christian values or is a cosmetic response to donors and political pressure.
Provost Floyd Wormley told faculty the merger is driven by low enrollment and broader budget restructuring that will also combine other small departments. “Decisions are not based on academic content but on data,” a university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed.
The Ohio House of Representatives advanced two pro-life measures on Wednesday aimed at curbing chemical abortions and educating students on fetal development.
The pro-life bills are drawing praise from advocates who hailed the votes as a victory for mothers and unborn children.
House Bill 324, dubbed the Patient Protection Act, cleared the chamber 59-28. The legislation would classify the abortion drug mifepristone as a “dangerous drug” due to its severe side effects in more than 5% of patients. It prohibits mail-order sales and remote prescribing, requiring women to visit a doctor in person for informed consent about the risks.
“She ran because of me,” Chad “Charly” Mecca said, adding that he had been cited for criminal trespassing and obstructing identification.
Authorities say the trans friend found with Morgan Geyser after her escape from a Wisconsin group home is a biological man who insists the 23-year-old fled because of their friendship, and because she believed staff were trying to keep them apart.
Police located Geyser and Chad “Charly” Mecca, 43, late Sunday night at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, roughly 150 miles from the Madison area facility she walked out of the day before. Officers had responded to reports of two people lingering behind the building before confirming Geyser’s identity, reports the New York Post.
Late-term abortions can reportedly be performed without a medical reason in Canada, contrary to previous reports.
“There does not have to be a specific medical concern that is named” in order to get an abortion after the first trimester, said TK Pritchard, the executive director of Abortion Care Canada.
Pritchard’s response was in reference to videos taken secretly by Alissa Golob, co-founder of RightNow, a pro-life organization, when she was about five months pregnant. Golob was interested in learning whether she could receive a late-term abortion, “No questions asked, specifically for no medical reason,” according to the National Post.
Canada’s healthcare crisis has entered a new and disturbing phase as the Liberal government funnels a billion dollars to fund care in foreign nations while Canadians at home are being euthanized because they cannot get the treatment they need to survive.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s latest move, pledging over a billion Canadian dollars to fund healthcare overseas, has become the tipping point for many who have watched Canada’s single-payer system crumble for years.
The announcement landed as the country continues to face a wave of avoidable deaths, including cases where desperate citizens are offered Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) instead of the care they were promised.