Watters: The most rotten thing you’ll ever hear in DC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3iWRCx2Qk
Watters: The most rotten thing you’ll ever hear in DC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3iWRCx2Qk
Rapid Response 47
@RapidResponse47
@POTUS greets @brysondech andn@bengriffingolf at the @RyderCup: "Here comes President Trump — we understand he's got golf shoes on…" 🤣
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1971617384948703571
Durham County, NC ends Pride sponsorship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmzJzKMogbg
Liverpool: £4.7m to be spent buying and refurbishing 24 properties to house refugees and homeless people
Three more homes have been bought to house refugees and homeless people in a Merseyside area with a total of £4.2m expected to be spent buying up 24 properties, with a further £500,000 refurbishing them.
Wirral Council was awarded funding previously to help house those fleeing from Ukraine and Afghanistan. According to a decision notice published September 23, this was in recognition of the borough welcoming these refugees.
Wirral Council was awarded £2.4m from one round of local authority housing funding to quickly buy 25 properties or up to the budget allocated by the government. The council decided to buy 30 properties but two new builds were not delivered, while the vendors withdrew from a further three.
That left 25 properties available but issues with three of these may mean only 22 properties will be completed. However two more properties have been able to be bought with the current round of funding.
This means 24 homes will be delivered which will be offered to both refugees as well as the homeless. The total spend on properties as it stands is £4.2m while the three properties currently having issues could be bought in another funding round.
£2.8m of council ring-fenced funding has also been used to support the purchases on top of the government grant. This comes from income taken from developers to provide affordable housing in the borough as well as existing funding for refugee programmes.
The notice published by the local authority said: “15 of these properties must be provided to Afghan nationals who have been given settlement status by the UK and have been living in bridging hotels but must now move to settled long-term accommodation. 10 properties must be used as temporary accommodation, helping to alleviate significant homelessness pressures in the borough.”
Unlike some areas, most of the social housing in Wirral is not council-owned with a large percentage of their stock handed over to Magenta Housing in 2005. Handing the funding for these properties over to an organisation like Magenta was considered.
However council’s preferred option was to buy them itself “so that an income can be generated in the future from rental income and reduce the burden on housing subsidy loss for use of bed and breakfast.” There is an agreement in place for the council to manage these homes too.
Leader of the council’s Conservative group Cllr Jeff Green previously welcomed the funding, adding: “We know these families’ lives were put at significant risk when the Taliban retook power and it is heartening we are making good on the debt of honour we owe these brave people.”
In 2023, the UK Government gave out £250m to councils across the country in the latest round of funding. When the funding was announced, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs at the time Johnny Mercer said: “I saw first-hand the invaluable contribution many Afghans made to the British military and our international partners, with many more standing by the UK to uphold democratic values. Others were fleeing genuine persecution and rightly came here through safe and legal routes.
“Our commitment to the people of Afghanistan is unwavering, and our new plan, complete with new funding, will speed up the resettlement of Afghans into suitable, long-term housing so they can successfully make Britain their home and find the certainty that brings.
“We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the people of Afghanistan, and I would encourage a whole of society effort to help them rebuild their lives here.”
https://www.liverpoolworld.uk/news/ps47m-to-be-spent-buying-and-refurbishing-24-properties-to-house-refugees-and-homeless-people-5335428
Natalie Winters: Inside The Secret Meetings Between Chinese Spies And U.S. Agriculture Officials Helping China Buy Farmland
https://nataliegwinters.substack.com/p/exc-inside-the-secret-meetings-between
Citizen Free Press
@CitizenFreePres
Awesome scene from Ryder Cup in the last hour. The Donald along with his granddaughter Kai Trump, who is a college golfer at Univ of Miami, get introduced to the crowd. This is definitely MAGA country at Bethpage.
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1971632507683807382
Rapid Response 47
@RapidResponse47
@POTUS salutes as The Star-Spangled Banner is sang and a flyover roars over Bethpage for the 2025 @RyderCup 🇺🇸
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1971609878939791780
Atlanta airport forfeits $37 million in federal grants in order to keep DEI policies
Atlanta is turning down more than $37 million in federal money for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after rejecting a grant tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The money would have been used for projects aimed at improving the passenger experience, including taxiway upgrades and bathroom renovations.
In a statement to CBS News Atlanta, the city — which owns the airport — said it is confident the work will still get done using money from the airport's capital program.
"It's confident that the airport will be able to pursue alternative funding to advance these projects without impacting customers or airport service providers," the city said.
Mayor Andre Dickens has been outspoken about Atlanta's commitment to diversity. In his State of the City address earlier this year, he said, "When they try to tell us that diversity and inclusion are something to run away from, we will fight back and show them that our diversity is what makes us strongest."
For now, the city says it is evaluating its options to ensure its policies align with federal law.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed some of the funding could still be available if the city chooses to sign a grant agreement in the next fiscal year.
https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/diversity-dispute-costs-atlanta-airport-millions-in-federal-funding/
Austria: First court approved deportation in 13 years
Europe’s top human rights court has ruled that a 19-year-old Syrian criminal can be deported, marking the first such approval in over a decade. The September 23 verdict by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) could mark a major turning point in Europe’s migration battles.
The young man, identified as A.F. and originally from Syria’s Hasaka governorate, fled in 2022 after local militias began recruiting young men. He sought asylum in Austria, but his request was denied. Following convictions for theft and robbery in 2024 and 2025, he served his sentence and was placed in a detention center awaiting deportation.
However, his lawyers appealed to the ECHR in August, citing risks to his life and safety under Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court initially halted the deportation under its emergency powers, but it has now lifted the suspension, saying A.F. faces no imminent danger in Syria and noting he is young, healthy, speaks the language, and has family support in the country.
Austria had already deported two Syrians earlier this year, the first such returns since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last December.
The ECHR ruling follows a joint letter from nine European leaders—including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Poland’s Donald Tusk, and Austria’s Christian Stocker—urging Strasbourg to give states more leeway to expel foreigners convicted of crimes. The signatories warned that limits on deportations undermine public safety and erode trust in institutions.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/austria-wins-landmark-case-to-deport-syrian-migrant/
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
ABC News reporting that career prosecutors in the Eastern District of VA office prepared a “declination memo” citing reasons the DOJ should not pursue charges against Jim Comey.
One of the top prosecutors in the office—now demoted—was Maya Song. My sources have not confirmed she helped author the memo but seems highly likely.
Maya Song recently worked for none other than Lisa Monaco in the Biden DOJ…
https://x.com/julie_kelly2/status/1971304717360718005
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
NEW: Maya Song, former aide to Trump foe Lisa Monaco and part of the internal resistance to the Comey indictment, has been fired.
https://x.com/julie_kelly2/status/1971652894383542557
The illegal alien from Guyana that was a Supernintendo in Iowa was making $306,000 per year.
https://x.com/DanielleNorgedm/status/1971658679691923867
Washington, DC, superlawyer Bob Barnett dead at 79
Robert B. Barnett, a Washington, DC, lawyer and dealmaker who represented some of the most notable American political figures over the last half century, has died. He was 79.
His death was confirmed to CNN by his wife Rita Braver – a longtime CBS journalist. “He was the greatest husband ever,” she said.
While Barnett was well traveled among the ranks of the Washington establishment, he stood apart for something few lawyers of his caliber did: representing those on both sides of the aisle.
His Democratic politics were well known, but he was eagerly sought out by Republicans when they had books to sell or deals to close.
For more than four decades, Barnett built a celebrity client list that read like a page from the history of modern American politics, working closely with politicians who spanned the ideological divide from Hillary Clinton to Sarah Palin and so many in between, signing myriad multimillion-dollar deals along the way.
A longtime partner at one of the most prominent law firms in the nation’s capital, Williams & Connolly, Barnett also helped advise and broker deals for scores of the city’s top journalists and commentators as they signed with television networks and publishers.
His political work – woven throughout all facets of the industry – helped build a reputation as “Washington’s consummate insider,” as Politico described him in 2017.
Long before political divisions deepened in the capital and the country, Barnett worked on 10 national presidential campaigns and often took on a stand-in role for the opponents of candidates he was prepping for nationally televised debates.
He played the role of George H.W. Bush while helping to prepare Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro for her historic candidacy in 1984. Four years later, he played Bush again in helping Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.
He practice-debated Bill Clinton more than 20 times through the bitter Democratic primary fight in 1992 and subsequent general election battles.
He played the role of Dick Cheney in debate practice sessions with Joe Lieberman in 2000 and four years later, played Cheney again to help prepare John Edwards for his Democratic vice-presidential run.
He also helped to prepare Hillary Clinton for her 2008 presidential primary debates before moving on to help her then-opponent, Barack Obama, after he won the Democratic nomination.
One of his most prominent roles of all was trying to bring the Clinton and Obama camps together after the acrimonious primary campaign. He would later tell friends it was one of his most complicated, but important, assignments.
Barnett returned to helping Clinton’s campaign during her 2016 presidential run, standing in as both Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and Mike Pence in vice presidential debate prep with Tim Kaine.
A proud son of the Midwest, Barnett was born in Illinois and attended the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago, where he received a law degree. He was married to Braver for 53 years.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/politics/robert-barnett-dies