Western Media Begins Damage Control After $100 Million Corruption Scandal Rocks Ukraine

Update (1120ET): Ukrainian President Zelenskiy confirmed the dismissal of two key ministers and deployed personal sanctions on his former business partner as the corruption scandal in the country’s energy sector widens.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that, amid all this, there are also some schemes in the energy sector,” Zelenskiy posted on X.

Justice Minister German Galushchenko was suspended from his post earlier on Wednesday amid the probe, but more officials are falling…

Western mainstream media almost immediately launched into damage control, with one op-ed in Bloomberg trying its best to say it's not at all Ukraine's fault, but is actually somehow… the Kremlin behind it(!). Here's how it begins:

There are at least two legitimate responses to allegations that a group of highly placed Ukrainian officials have skimmed $100 million from contracts to repair and protect their nation’s critical energy infrastructure, even as Russian attacks plunge the nation into darkness and cold. One is to despair, the other to celebrate. The second, strange as it may sound, is more logical.

This episode goes to the heart of why Ukrainians are fighting at all. The war began in 2014, after then President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled by mass protests against the epic scale of his corruption and the captivity to Moscow this created. Graft was the glue with which the Kremlin had held…

So even with high officials in Zelensky's government are caught red-handed by a Ukrainian internal investigation, the ultimate fault lies in Moscow, according to some MSM accounts.

It must be remembered that a very short few months ago Zelensky himself found himself at the center of EU pushback and controversy when he attempted to eliminate NABU's independence, sparking outrage in Brussels some sectors of the Ukrainian populace.

As Remix News detailed earlier, in yet another sign of the rampant corruption in Ukraine, Ukrainian security forces raided the apartment of Timur Mindich, a businessman associated with President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, the oligarch had already left the country just hours before, likely after being tipped off by an insider.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/100-million-corruption-scandal-rocks-ukraine-zelensky-associate-flees-country-police

@DHSgov

In partnership with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Operation Criminal Return arrested OVER 230 criminal illegal aliens, including MORE THAN 150 ILLEGAL ALIEN SEXUAL PREDATORS.

Their crimes include attempted premeditated murder with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, and lewd and lascivious molestation of children, possession of narcotics, possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance, and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.

https://x.com/i/status/1988593024394228110

NATO-Russia war becoming inevitable – Serbian president

European nations are arming themselves at an alarming rate, Aleksandar Vucic has warned

A direct military confrontation between Western nations and Russia is becoming unavoidable, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has warned, citing widespread rearmament efforts across Europe.

Speaking during a televised interview on Tuesday, Vucic said the possibility of such a war is no longer hypothetical, pointing to an acceleration of military spending. The European Union seeks rapid militarization over a perceived threat from Russia, which Moscow has dismissed as misleading political rhetoric aimed at distracting from internal economic troubles.

“My conclusion is that there is a growing certainty that a war between Europe and Russia will happen,” Vucic said. “They are preparing for war – or for defense, as they call it. Romania, Poland, Finland, smaller countries too. And the Russians as well.”

“Everyone is preparing,” the president continued. “What can come from that? Only conflict.” He added that Serbia itself is caught “between a rock and a hard place,” and therefore must also strengthen its military readiness.

Although Serbia continues to pursue EU membership, its application has effectively been frozen due to Belgrade’s refusal to adopt sanctions and other measures targeting Moscow. The two nations maintain deep cultural and historical ties, and Russia remains one of Serbia’s key energy suppliers.

Moscow has repeatedly accused NATO and the EU of provoking instability in Europe through continued expansion and by ignoring Russian proposals for a shared continental security architecture, which it says could have prevented the current confrontation over Ukraine.

https://www.rt.com/news/627666-vucic-war-europe-inevitable/

Epstein, Wolff Colluded to Blackmail Trump, New E-Mails Show.

Democrats from the House Oversight Committee have made public a series of 2015 emails between deceased pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and author Michael Wolff, concerning President Donald J. Trump. However, while the Democrats are promoting the redacted emails in an attempt to damage Trump, what they actually appear to show is Epstein confirming to Wolff that Trump “asked [G]hislaine to stop,” and Wolff advising Epstein on how he could blackmail the America First leader by “generating a debt.”“Trump said he asked me to resign [from the Mar-a-Lago club], never a member ever,” Epstein claims in one of the released emails to Wolff, adding, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked [G]hislaine to stop.”

In another exchange, Wolff writes to Epstein, “I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you–either on air or in scrum afterwards.” Epstein responds, “[I]f we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”

At this point, Wolff advises Epstein at length on how to manipulate the situation, writing, “I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.”

The emails reference an Epstein victim whose name has been redacted being at Mar-a-Lago. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt identified her as the late Virginia Giuffre, stressing that Giuffre had “repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.”Notably, Giuffre did report seeing former Democrat President Bill Clinton and former Democrat Vice President Al Gore on Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, dubbed ‘Pedo Island’ by the media.“

The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre,” Leavitt said, adding: “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”

https://thenationalpulse.com/2025/11/12/epstein-wolff-colluded-to-blackmail-trump-new-e-mails-show/

Jeffrey Epstein Allegedly Claimed Trump ‘Knew About The Girls’ and Referenced Mar-a-Lago in Newly Released Emails

A new series of bombshell emails obtained by the Daily Mail has revealed that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly claimed former President Donald Trump “spent hours” with Virginia Giuffre, who was recruited at age 16 by Ghislaine Maxwell from Mar-a-Lago—but that Giuffre herself stated Trump “never did anything wrong.”

The unredacted emails, released Wednesday by House Oversight Committee Democrats via subpoena, show Epstein telling Maxwell in April 2011, “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. virignia [sic] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there.” Maxwell reportedly wrote back, “I have been thinking about that…” The context remains unclear, but the exchange has added new intrigue to the ongoing congressional fight for transparency in the Jeffrey Epstein saga

Though Democrats redacted Giuffre’s name from their releases, the Daily Mail independently confirmed her identity from the original email. Giuffre has said repeatedly that Trump did not engage in any wrongdoing, telling the press he “couldn’t have been friendlier” to her.

The communications are part of a trove of material from the Epstein estate obtained by Congress after a months-long battle. Trump was not a sender or recipient of any of the emails, has never been criminally charged in the Epstein-Maxwell cases, and previously banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for recruiting underage spa employees—allegedly including Giuffre.

In a separate 2019 email to journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein claimed that “Trump knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” referring to Maxwell. In another email, Wolff wrote that CNN planned to confront Trump at a primary debate about his relationship with Epstein. Epstein, strategizing over potential messaging, asked Wolff, “If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”

Trump has long maintained he cut ties with Epstein over his behavior, saying aboard Air Force One in 2019 that he declared Epstein “persona non grata” for poaching young women from the Mar-a-Lago spa and that Giuffre “might have been” among the employees recruited. White House officials this week criticized selective leaks by Democrats, reiterating that there’s no evidence Trump was involved in illegal activity or misconduct with Giuffre or others.

Meanwhile, Maxwell’s legal counsel is reportedly seeking immunity in exchange for congressional testimony, as House Republicans up pressure to release all Epstein-related Justice Department files. Congressional votes on further document releases could come as lawmakers end the recent government shutdown.

https://nationalfile.com/jeffrey-epstein-allegedly-claimed-trump-knew-about-the-girls-and-referenced-mar-a-lago-in-newly-released-emails/

Former Pastor at Greg Laurie’s Megachurch Accused of Child Abuse and Trafficking in Romania Lawsuit

Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, led by prominent pastor Greg Laurie, faces explosive allegations after two Romanian men filed federal lawsuits claiming years of sexual abuse and trafficking at a shelter run by former Harvest pastor and missionary Paul Havsgaard.

The lawsuits, submitted in U.S. District Court, claim that Havsgaard preyed on vulnerable children at the Bucharest facility over nearly a decade, subjecting them to repeated sexual and physical abuse and orchestrating their coercion into sex work.

Plaintiffs Marian Barbu and Mihai-Constantin Petcu say they, along with dozens of others, endured a regime of severe abuse. The court filings allege that Havsgaard lured street children with offers of food and shelter, only to subject them to what Barbu described as “a torture chamber inside a prison.” The complaints detail not only sexual misconduct—such as Havsgaard entering bathrooms while boys showered, leering, or masturbating—but also cruel punishments. According to the filings, children were forced to kneel on walnut shells or were tied to furniture as part of the regular abuse.

Both men also claim Havsgaard “pimped out” older boys for sex work, facilitating paid encounters via video chats or in local bathhouses and collecting a cut of their earnings. The lawsuits contend that Havsgaard justified his actions by telling children, “I know what God wants; what I want, God wants.”

https://nationalfile.com/former-pastor-at-greg-lauries-megachurch-accused-of-child-abuse-and-trafficking-in-romania-lawsuit/

https://www.antiwar.com/

Israeli Spy Stayed for Weeks at a Time With Jeffrey Epstein in Manhattan

Leaked emails show Epstein working on a wire transfer to Ehud Barak's top aide, Yoni Koren, who regularly stayed at his apartment.

With the looming end of the U.S. government shutdown amid a deal in the Senate, the House will soon be swearing in Adelita Grijalva to her rightful seat from Arizona, after a historic delay at the hands of Speaker Mike Johnson, taking direction from President Donald Trump, all aimed at blocking her from becoming the final signature needed to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files.

In mid-October, the House Oversight Committee released an interview with former U.S. prosecutor Alex Acosta, who told the panel that—contrary to widespread public reporting—he had never told Steve Bannon that Epstein “belonged to intelligence.” Acosta denied ever discussing Epstein with Bannon, and claimed to have “no knowledge as to whether he was or was not a member of the intelligence community.”

Yet, along with Acosta’s interview, the House panel also released a new cache of documents from Epstein’s estate containing direct evidence of Epstein’s links to Israeli intelligence: Epstein’s personal calendars reveal that a senior Israeli intelligence officer, with personal ties to former CIA Director Leon Panetta, lived at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment for multiple stretches between 2013 and 2016. When cross-referenced with emails leaked from the inbox of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, a portrait emerges of Epstein at the nexus of high-ranking intelligence officials in both the U.S. and Israel.

This is the fourth piece in Drop Site’s ongoing series on Jeffrey Epstein’s role in brokering intelligence deals for Israel.

In the first, we exposed Epstein’s role in brokering a security agreement between Israel and Mongolia. In the second, we identified Epstein’s effort to set up a backchannel between Israel and Russia during the Syria civil war. In the third, we showed Epstein’s role as a key facilitator of a security agreement between Israel and the West African nation of Côte d’Ivoire.

Meanwhile, we’re left wondering why the rest of the media, which has demonstrated no lack of excitement when it comes to the saga of Jeffrey Epstein, has all of a sudden lost its reporting capacity, in the face of reams of publicly available newsworthy documents. A question for editors reading this newsletter: What are you doing?

More

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israeli-spy-yoni-koren-stayed-jeffrey-epstein-apartment-ehud-barak

Tourists 'paid £70,000 to shoot innocent people in "human safari" hunting trips to Sarajevo - with extra charged to kill children'

Prosecutors in Milan have opened an investigation into Italian tourists who allegedly paid £70,000 to shoot innocent people in 'human safari' hunting trips to Sarajevo, with extra charged to kill children.

The wealthy foreign gun enthusiasts are accused of travelling to the city for 'sniper tourism' during its four-year siege in the 1990s by Serb-Bosnian militias amid the Bosnian War.

Between 1992 and 1996, more than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo by shelling and sniper fire in the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.

The tourists, who are understood to have had ties to hard-right circles, allegedly paid members of the Bosnian Serb army for weekend trips to the besieged city where they participated in the massacre of residents for pleasure.

According to the case, they flew from Trieste to Belgrade on the Serbian airline Aviogenex to be 'weekend snipers' and join in the bloody siege, reportedly paying between £70,000 and £88,000.

The killing of children cost more, El Pais reported.

The investigation originated from a 17-page legal complaint submitted by Milan-based writer and journalist Ezio Gavazzeni, with the support of former magistrate Guido Salvini and Benjamina Karic, mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024.

The allegations came to light in the 2022 documentary 'Sarajevo Safari' by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanic, who gathered testimonies about the possibility of wealthy Italians and other nationalities paying to travel to Sarajevo to shoot at residents.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15283069/Tourists-paid-70-000-shoot-innocent-people-human-safari-hunting-trips-Sarajevo-extra-charged-kill-children.html

🚨Female illegal aliens are running child sex trafficking rings across Palm Beach County Florida after illegally crossing the border under the disastrous Biden-Harris administration.

Children as young as 10 are being sold for sex.

This is who the Democrat Party fights for.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1988390872954925098

OOPS! Paid protestors get BUSTED! This group in Daytona accidentally slipped up and admit they're WORKING! Is anyone surprised? 🤣

https://twitter.com/i/status/1988080439123472729

FBI Director Kash Patel revealed he has read the entire JFK file, including all classified secrets.

He insists that the answers everyone is looking for are already out there.

"The things we can't release have nothing to do with the questions you're asking."

https://twitter.com/i/status/1902025889228947796

Remember when Pennsylvania courts ruled that Democrats could keep accepting ballots days after the election, even if they weren’t dated?

And this happened in other swing states and Democrats “magically found” enough votes to help Biden?

Yeah, the Supreme Court just agreed to review that whole scam.

And I have a feeling they aren’t going to certify it as proper.

https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1987954371473129595

How many times has Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire? Here are the numbers

Since the ceasefire took effect one month ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 242 Palestinians and injured 622.

One month into the declaration of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Israel has violated the agreement with near-daily attacks, killing hundreds of people.

Israel violated the ceasefire agreement at least 282 times from October 10 to November 10, through the continuation of attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings, the Government Media Office in Gaza reports.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/11/how-many-times-has-israel-violated-the-gaza-ceasefire-here-are-the-numbers

🚨 UN CHIEF DEMANDS CENSORSHIP CRACKDOWN

António Guterres has called for tighter control of social media, claiming that “false narratives” threaten the UN’s Agenda 2030 goals and global stability.

He condemned what he called “a tsunami of conspiracy theories” and demanded action against platforms that allow them to spread.

Translation: the UN wants the power to decide what’s true — and to silence whatever challenges its agenda.

When unelected bureaucrats start policing speech in the name of “safety,” it’s not protection.

It’s digital authoritarianism in disguise.

https://x.com/i/status/1987797288148730156

There are approximately 5.2 million people from India living in the United States. While 70% of College Grads can’t find work in their profession.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Indian Americans have become the largest “Asian alone” group in the United States, surpassing Chinese Americans. The term “Asian alone” refers to individuals who identify solely as Asian, without combining it with any other race or ethnicity. In this category, Indian Americans now outnumber Chinese Americans. However, when considering individuals who identify as Asian in combination with other races or ethnicities, Chinese Americans remain the largest group

Indian Americans or Indo-Americans make up 1.54% of the U.S. population and are the largest group of South Asian Americans and the second largest group of Asian Americans after Chinese Americans. As per the United States Census Bureau 2023 estimates, the Total Asian Indians Population in the United States is 5,160,203 (5.1 million).

https://www.findeasy.in/indian-population-in-united-states/

Only 30% of 2025 & 41% of 2024 graduates find jobs in their field, while 48% feel unprepared to apply for entry-level positions

56% of unprepared grads cite job-specific skills as their biggest gap

Employers and educators disagree on workforce skill priorities, educators emphasize soft skills, while employers want practical, job-specific skills

https://www.cengagegroup.com/news/press-releases/2025/cengage-group-2025-employability-report/

A 1963 Secret Service memo reads: “Our new backers are the jews — as soon as they take care of Kennedy.”

Why was that line erased from history?

https://x.com/JeffreyxEpstein/status/1988317709889577078

Senate bill to end shutdown includes money for members to sue over secretly obtained phone records

The measure follows revelations that phone call data from eight GOP senators was collected as part of investigation by DOJ special counsel Jack Smith.

Aprovision in the Senate's spending bill to end the government shutdown includes money for members to sue the government if their phone records are investigated without their notice.

The provision appears to be in response to eight Republican senators who had their phone records subpoenaed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith in 2023 as part of his investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The Senate measure is now in the House and is expected to pass Wednesday in the GOP-controlled chamber to end the record-long shutdown, now over 40-days long.

If passed, the measure will allow members to sue in federal court for damages of $500,000 or more.

Smith and the FBI reportedly collected the private phone records of eight Republican senators and one GOP House member as part of his investigation into the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, sparked by the outcome of the 2020 election in which President Trump lost his first reelection bid.

An unearthed FBI record from 2023 indicated that investigators at the bureau had “conducted preliminary toll analysis on limited toll records” tied to phone calls related to GOP Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.

The spending bill states that “any Senator whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the United States if the violation was committed by an officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any Federal department or agency.”

​​The provision says that this applies only to “any acquisition, subpoena, search, accessing, or disclosure of Senate data … and to any failure to disclose such an acquisition, subpoena, search, accessing, or disclosure, occurring on or after January 1, 2022” — suggesting the provision is aimed at those senators targeted by the Biden Justice Department.

The spending bill adds that “if a Senator prevails on a claim under this subsection, the court shall award — for each instance of a violation of this section, the greater of statutory damages of $500,000 or the amount of actual damages.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, first disclosed Smith’s efforts to obtain phone records on Republican members of Congress.

“This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into ‘election conspiracy’ Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith's elector case against Trump,” Grassley said in an October tweet as he shared the FBI record that had been provided to him by current FBI Director Kash Patel. “BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE.”

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/spending-bill-allows-senators-snooped-jack-smith-sue-500000

DHS Is Deploying a Powerful Surveillance Tool at College Football Games

Last weekend, Charleston’s tiny private military academy, the Citadel, traveled to Ole Miss.

This game didn’t have quite the same cachet as the Rebels' Week 11 opponent this time last year, when a one-loss Georgia went to Oxford.

A showdown of ranked SEC opponents in early November 2024 had all eyes trained on Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Including those of the surveillance state.

According to documents obtained by FOIAball, the Ole Miss-Georgia matchup was one of at least two games last year where the school used a little-known Department of Homeland Security information-sharing platform to keep a watchful eye on attendees.

The platform, called the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), is a centralized hub for the myriad law enforcement agencies involved with security at big events.

According to an Event Action Plan obtained by FOIAball, at least 11 different departments were on the ground at the Ole Miss-Georgia game, from Ole Miss campus police to a military rapid-response team.

HSINs are generally depicted as a secure channel to facilitate communication between various entities.

In a video celebrating its 20th anniversary, a former HSIN employee hammered home that stance.“When our communities are connected, our country is indeed safer," they said.

In reality HSIN is an integral part of the vast surveillance arm of the U.S. government.

Left unchecked since 9/11, supercharged by technological innovation, HSIN can subject any crowd to almost constant monitoring, looping in live footage from CCTV cameras, from drones flying overhead, and from police body cams and cell phones.

HSIN has worked with private businesses to ensure access to cameras across cities; they collect, store, and mine vast amounts of personal data; and they have been used to facilitate facial recognition searches from companies like Clearview AI.

It’s one of the least-reported surveillance networks in the country.

And it's been building this platform on the back of college football.

https://archive.is/bbTST#selection-611.0-631.169

Donald Trump confirms on live TV Marjorie Taylor Green has been banned from MAGA, she’s lost her way and needs to go

President Donald Trump on Monday said that MAGA-aligned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., had “lost her way” with her criticism of the administration’s focus on foreign policy.

“I don’t know what happened to Marjorie. She’s a nice woman, but I don’t know what happened. She’s lost her way, I think,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“But I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally. I mean, we could have a world that’s on fire, where wars come to our shores very easily, if you had a bad president,” he added.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Greene said in a statement: “I haven’t lost my way. I’m 100% America first and only!”

Greene chastised the White House in a social media post Monday over the bilateral meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former jihadist, that was expected to center on a U.S.-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State militant group, two officials previously told NBC News.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1987993930055417914

Trump backflips on visas for foreign workers as he stuns Laura Ingraham with brutal take on America's workforce

Donald Trump has angered some of his MAGA base after claiming the United States needs foreign workers because it doesn’t have enough talented people in its own workforce.

The president made the controversial remark during a sit-down with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night where the pair sparred over his administration’s policy on H-1B visas, which allows the US to hire highly-skilled foreign workers.

Trump signed an executive order in September that slapped a $100,000 one-time fee on the work visa but he appeared unwilling to consider any further limits during a tense interview with Ingraham.

The conservative host and known Trump ally pressed him on the issue, asking: 'Does this mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration? Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can't flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.'

Trump snapped back: 'I agree but you also do have to bring in talent.'

'Well, we have plenty of talented people here,' insisted Ingraham.

'No you don't, no you don't,' Trump said.

Ingraham again asked: 'We don't have plenty of talented people here?'

'No, you don't have certain talents and people have to learn,' Trump explained.

'You can’t take people off the unemployment line and say, I'm gonna' put you in a factory, go make missiles.

The US currently awards 85,000 H-1B visas annually on a lottery system, with India understood to account for around three-quarters of these recipients.

Data obtained by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) indicated that applications for the immigration visa for the upcoming fiscal year fell to around 359,000, the lowest figure in four years.

Ingraham continued to squeeze Trump: 'How did we ever do it before, when you and I were growing up?'

Trump went on to reference a September incident where almost 500 South Korean nationals were arrested in the largest Homeland Security raid in US history as agents descended on a Hyundai factory in Georgia.

'Let me give you an example in Georgia. They raided because they wanted illegal immigrants out. They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives,' he said.

Trump effectively said that the raid was a mistake.

'You know, making batteries are very complicated. It’s not an easy thing and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, a lot of problems. They had like five or six hundred people, early stages, to make batteries and to teach people how to I do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the kind you’re going to need that, Laura.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15282663/Trump-visa-foreign-workers.html

62% of U.S. adults say the two major political parties are doing such a poor job that a third party is needed, per Gallup

The majority of Americans think there should be a third political party in the U.S. — but few voters would be “very likely” to back a third-party candidate, according to a Gallup survey released Monday.

The newly released poll found that 62% of Americans thought a third political party would be needed, while 30% said the Republican Party and the Democratic Party each “do an adequate job of representing the American people.” While 55% of voters said they are at least “somewhat likely” to vote for third-party candidates only 15% said they are “very likely” to do the same, the survey found.

Meanwhile, about seven in 10 Americans under the age of 50 favor having a third party, while 61% of voters between the ages of 50 and 64 and 48% of those aged 65 and older said the same, per the poll.

Moreover, 83% of Americans who hold an unfavorable view of both the GOP and the Democrats think a third party is necessary, according to the survey. Still, even 54% of respondents who view one or both of the parties favorably said the same, the poll found.

https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/10/20/third-party-voters-gallup-poll/

Trump pardons Michael McMahon, who was convicted of assisting China’s Operation Fox Hunt

President Donald Trump pardoned a former New York Police Department officer convicted in federal court of acting as an agent of China, though he had two GOP lawmakers in his corner, proclaiming his innocence.

A federal jury found Michael McMahon, a retired NYPD sergeant turned private investigator, guilty of acting as a foreign agent and interstate stalking after a two-week trial in June 2023. The jury acquitted him on a count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.

According to prosecutors, McMahon was “a critical member” of a Chinese campaign to intimidate dissident Xu Jin, a former Wuhan city official, and his family, with the end goal of pressuring Xu into returning to China.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-pardons-ex-nypd-cop-234200934.html

Israel: Bill to shut harmful foreign media passes first reading

Israel's parliament on Monday passed the first reading of a bill allowing authorities to shut down foreign media deemed "harmful" to national security without a court order.

The proposal, approved by 50 votes to 41 in the Knesset, still requires two more readings before becoming law.

Put forward by Likud MP Ariel Kallner, the measure seeks to make permanent what is known as the “Al Jazeera Law” - a temporary order taken during the war allowing Israel to close foreign media outlets.

Formally titled the Law to Prevent Harm to State Security by a Foreign Broadcasting Authority, the bill empowers the communications minister to block or shut down foreign channels and websites, seize their equipment, and raid offices without judicial oversight.

New amendments would also allow the minister to instruct internet and satellite providers to restrict online content or disrupt broadcasts.

If enacted, the government could exercise broad control over foreign media regardless of the security situation or international objections.

The bill comes amid growing concern over Israel’s crackdown on press freedom during its war on Gaza.

Earlier this year, Israel banned Al Jazeera and other outlets from reporting across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. It has long barred foreign journalists from freely entering Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed at least 256 Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past two years, in what has been described as the “most dangerous ever” war for reporters.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-approves-preliminary-vote-bill-barring-harmful-foreign-media

US pays African nation $7.5mn to accept deportees

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen has criticized the “highly unusual” payment to Equatorial Guinea

Washington has transferred $7.5 million to the government of Equatorial Guinea under a deal to accept non-citizens deported from the US, according to US Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee noted the “highly unusual” payment to “one of the most corrupt governments in the world.”

The Central African country’s history of corruption and alleged complicity in human trafficking “raises serious concerns over the responsible, transparent use of American taxpayer dollars,” she said.

The payment, which came from the US State Department’s Migration and Refugee Assistance emergency fund, marks the “first ever government-to-government transfer” from the fund intended for global refugee and humanitarian crises.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has pursued controversial arrangements with several African states to host migrants Washington deems ineligible to remain in the US.

https://www.rt.com/africa/627636-us-pays-equatorial-guinea-accept-deportees/