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In the latest manifestation of a persistent phenomenon, a race hoaxer at a college stepped in to fill the gap between demand for racism and the supply — by creating fictional racism in the form of a written slur posted on the campus, school officials say.   

This phony incident took place over Thanksgiving break at Rhodes College, a small private school in Memphis with an enrollment of about 4,000. A dozen sheets of paper that paired a racist message with support for then-recently-elected presidential candidate Donald Trump were left at the school’s National Pan-Hellenic Council Plaza, which is a tribute to the school’s historically black fraternities and sororities. Blacks represent 9.7% of the school’s enrollment.  

According to reported accounts, the hand-written pages said “F*CK NI**ERS, TRUMP RULES.” The school immediately issued a campus security alert about a “reported hate crime of intimidation based on racial bias,” and included a list of “resources available for survivors,” which included personal counseling, along with guidance from the college’s Institutional Equity office.

Black students conducted a silent protest in the lobby of the school’s library, wearing black clothing and posting signs with messages that included “Hold Racists Accountable,” “Stop Racists,” and “Hate speech will not be tolerated.” The university’s Office of Inclusion and Diversity held a paradoxical “open meeting” for black people only. “This is a chance for Black students, faculty, staff, and alumni to unite and develop actionable steps toward institutional change,” an announcement said. 

Here’s how the “incident” was initially reported: 

In what will come as no surprise to regular ZeroHedge readers, the whole thing turned out to be phony, as the school confirmed in a statement to Fox News Digital:  

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Campus Safety officers and the Memphis Police Department, the investigation into the hate crime that occurred recently on our campus has ended with the identification of the perpetrator and the conclusion this incident was fabricated. This individual has admitted responsibility…This matter has caused enormous pain to our community, and we are taking the appropriate steps to hold this individual accountable, including all legal avenues that may be available to us.”

Rhodes College’s quest for accountability has its limits: the school is keeping the culprit’s name and relationship with the institution a secret. The college did say the hoaxer reported the incident with hopes of blaming someone else for doing it.  

Between the posting of the racist, Trump-supporting language and the announcement that it was a fraud, black student and Pan-Hellenic Council member Lauren Roberts complained that authorities weren’t working hard enough to find the (non-existent) bigot, telling WREG, “They are saying they are investigating and doing this and that and the third but it’s been two weeks and you still haven’t found anybody that’s kind of like a bummer to the black community, in my opinion.”

The Rhodes College episode is the latest of many campus racism hoaxes. A very small sampling of other such frauds includes:  

• A black male student who wrote racist graffiti on a dorm at Albion College 
• A black female student who reportedly vandalized her own own dorm door at Wayne State
• A black female student who posted a note reading “Black people don’t belong” to her dorm door at Southern Illinois
• Three black female students who falsely claimed to have been victimized by a white mob on a bus at UAlbany

Kentucky State University criminal justice and political science professor Wilfred Reilly wrote a book on race hoaxes and maintains a database which suggests less than a third of reported hate crimes are real. Reilly wrote that, with “absolute confidence,” it can be said that “the actual number of hate crime hoaxes is indisputably large…We are not speaking here of just a few bad apples.” 

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

Mexico is preparing to receive its citizens who have been living in the United States illegally, with government officials planning to open new shelters to accommodate the anticipated influx of deportees.

Some 25 shelters, each capable of housing up to 500 people, will be operational nationwide by Jan. 20 when President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda.

The governor said at a Dec. 23 press conference that six of those shelters will be set up in Tijuana, the largest city in her state and just 20 miles south of San Diego, while two others will open in Mexicali, the state capital.

“We think that this time he [Trump] will be stricter and tougher when it comes to deportations, and we are working to be ready to receive our migrants,” the governor said.

The announcement follows recent discussions between Mexican Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez and the governors of Mexico’s five northern border states about strategies to handle mass deportations promised by the incoming Trump administration.

“We have already held two meetings with the Ministry of the Interior,” she told reporters.

“All the governors on the northern border [of Mexico with the United States] are working on a plan in which 25 shelters will be created.”

She emphasized that the new shelters will exclusively serve the citizens of Mexico.

“These shelters are designed for repatriated people coming from north to south who are Mexican, not foreigners,” she said. “This must be made very clear—Mexicans will be welcomed back to their country. Here, we will receive them and respect their human rights.”

According to the governor, the shelters will be organized to ensure safety and order, with specific facilities designated for different groups.

“Entire families will be housed in one shelter, another will be for women traveling alone, another for single men, another for unaccompanied teenagers, and yet another for unaccompanied children,” she said.

Deportees are expected to only briefly stay in the shelters before being transported to their hometowns. Ávila noted that her state will work with Mexican federal authorities and other states for that task.

Stopping illegal immigration was a cornerstone of Trump’s presidential campaign, and he has promised to initiate “the largest mass deportation program” in the nation’s history starting on his first day back in the White House.

There aren’t many details on how the operation will be executed. Trump has suggested deploying military resources to achieve the goals.

Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming border czar and former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has said the new administration might prioritize deporting individuals who pose a threat to public safety and national security, such as those with criminal records, before moving on to others with court-issued removal orders.

Addressing the issue of families with mixed status—such as U.S.-born children with illegal immigrant parents—Homan has suggested that transitional facilities or halfway houses might be necessary.

“They can … stay at home and wait for the officers to get the travel arrangements and come back to get the family,” he said.

Thanks to the leadership of Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, pressure is growing to unmask the beneficiaries of more than $17 million in taxpayer-funded payments to settle harassment claims leveled against US Capitol officials and offices. In his latest move, a Massie social media post on Thursday prompted a chorus of support from from Marjorie Taylor Green along with former GOP House members. 

“Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie posted on Thursday. “Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do.” 

Georgia Rep. Green quickly voiced her support, saying, “Yes. I want to release the congressional sexual slush fund list. Tax payers should have never had to pay for that.” Former Rep. Mo Brooks jumped in, saying “Massie is spot on – taxpayer [money] must NEVER be used to SECRETLY bail out sexual (& other) harassers. A Capitol Hill harassing supervisor should foot the bill. THAT stops harassment!” Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz also boosted the idea, writing  “Taxpayers deserve to know.”

The controversial payouts are made by the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. Between 1997 and 2017 alone, the little-known office facilitated 260 settlements and more than $17 million in payouts. Given that number is more than seven years old, it’s safe to say the real grand total is significantly higher. Despite its name, the office’s payouts also encompass complaints from workers outside the House and Senate, including the Library of Congress and the Capitol police. 

This isn’t the first time Massie has put a spotlight on the use of taxpayer money to settle harassment claims against members of Congress and their staffs. In June, the libertarian-minded Kentucky representative earnestly brought the topic up in a House Judiciary Committee hearing, as he questioned Federal Election Commission leader Trey Trainor: 

Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices.

Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do.pic.twitter.com/hmqlLDO2h0

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 26, 2024

Massie pointed to the hypocrisy of Democrats’ feigned outrage over Donald Trump using his own money to buy Stormy Daniels’ silence about their alleged sexual encounter, while saying nothing about congressional offices’ use of taxpayer money to brush sexual and other misconduct allegations under the rug.  

“Congress has paid over $17 million in hush money for sexual misconduct inside of the offices in these buildings…[I]t’s taxpayer money. And I do know not a single penny of it has been turned in as a campaign finance expense. Wouldn’t — I mean, is the FEC going to investigate the $17 million that the Congress has paid to settle, you know, behind closed doors, these sexual misconduct allegations?”

Earlier this month, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations of using illegal drugs and paying underage women for sex, publicly daydreamed about taking office for just one day to singlehandedly reveal the names of everyone who’s benefitted from the settlement payouts. 

Someone suggested the following plan to me:

1. Show up 1/3/2025 to congress
2. Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…)
3. Take the oath
4. File a privileged motion to expose every “me too” settlement paid using public funds (even of…

— Former Congressman Matt Gaetz (@FmrRepMattGaetz) December 18, 2024

With the federal government now $36 trillion in debt — and poised to post a $3.5 trillion deficit in 2025 alone — $17 million may not sound like much, but the use of borrowed/printed money to settle sexual and other abuse allegations on Capitol Hill is another symptom of a corrupt and fading empire. 

Authored by RFE/RL staff via OilPrice.com,

• Trump’s proposed tariffs on Chinese, Canadian, and Mexican goods could trigger trade wars and severely impact European automakers.

• Central and Eastern European countries that rely heavily on car manufacturing would be particularly hard hit by these tariffs.

• The German auto industry, Europe’s largest exporter of passenger cars to the United States, is also highly vulnerable to Trump’s tariff threats.

As Donald Trump prepares to take office on January 20, Europe’s already battered car industry is bracing for additional headwinds amid the threat of new tariffs from the incoming U.S. president.

Trump has pledged to impose steep new tariffs on goods coming from China, Canada, and Mexico in one of his first acts in office, a promise that could ignite trade wars.

That is bad news for European automakers who have already seen sales and manufacturing decline in top markets like the United States and China.

The potential tariffs would be felt hard not only by leading European car brands like Volkswagen, Volvo, and Stellantis — the conglomerate that produces Fiat, Chrysler, and Citroen — but also for the Central and Eastern European countries whose economies rely heavily on making them.

Toma Savic, a former director at Zastava, a Serbian international car manufacturer that was shuttered in 2008, said the tariffs would be a particularly hard blow for operations in the Balkan country.

“This inevitably would lead to the shrinking of production in Europe and mass layoffs,” he said.

Zastava later became Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia, which is owned by Stellantis.

Based in Kragujevac in central Serbia, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia has already been struggling to recuperate its foothold in the European auto industry prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s when it assembled 200,000 cars annually and exported them to 26 countries.

Germany’s auto industry is also likely to be highly vulnerable to Trump’s promised tariffs, especially given that Europe’s biggest economy is by far the region’s largest exporter of passenger cars to the United States.

European and American carmakers could lose up to 17 percent of their combined annual core profits if the United States imposes import tariffs on Europe, Mexico, and Canada, according to some estimates.

Trump’s Tariff Vision

While Europe was not specifically mentioned in Trump’s first tariff announcement in late November, he took aim at the European Union while on the campaign trail earlier this year and accused European partners of unfair trade practices and stealing American manufacturing jobs.

“They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, don’t take anything,” Trump said on the campaign trail in October. “They are going to have to pay a big price.”

The U.S. market is the main destination for European passenger cars. Exports amounted to 42.5 billion dollars in 2023, according to Statista, a German online platform that specializes in data gathering and visualization.

In comparison, the value of U.S. vehicles imported to the EU was around 7.8 billion dollars during the same period.

Trump said on the campaign trail in September that he wants German automakers to become “American car companies” and “build their plants here.”

He added that he was prepared to offer low taxes and energy costs to draw more companies to set up manufacturing inside the United States.

In 2016, German carmakers avoided 35 percent tariffs floated by Trump by investing in more production in the United States.

But Trump’s new proposed tariffs could make it more costly for European automakers to set up U.S.-based factories.

A Make Or Break Moment

The threat of new tariffs will add to already growing pressures facing the European auto industry as it looks to compete for the future electric vehicle (EV) market that is dominated by Chinese manufacturers.

Earlier this year, the EU imposed duties of up to 35 percent for EVs from China saying that the “unfairly subsidized” cars have given them a market foothold.

Added to this, car sales for EVs across the EU have dipped downward and some governments have repealed subsidies meant to incentivize consumers to buy the cars.

The rise of Chinese companies, such as EV-leader BYD, has also seen Western car brands lose market share inside China at a steady rate, with Volkswagen in particular grappling with declining sales.

Between tougher competition from China, declining sales at home, and new pressure from Trump, many European automakers are facing a bleak outlook.

Back in Kragujevac, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia is grappling with weak demand, including several fully electric products delayed entirely or produced at tumbling rates.

Jugoslav Ristic, a long-time union official in the car industry in Serbia, said the setbacks are a result of “customs wars and unfavorable business conditions.”

There is also concern that the industry could be further hit by a trade spat if Brussels responds to possible U.S. tariffs. Such an event could increase costs for consumers in both the United States and Europe and particularly hit Germany, the continent’s car behemoth.

The German Economic Institute predicts that if Trump imposes 20 percent tariffs on the EU it could cost the German economy up to 192.5 billion over four years.

Those costs would also have ripple effects in the parts of Central and Eastern Europe that are dependent on car manufacturing.

Slovakia has threatened to cut off electricity to Ukraine if the Russian gas transit route halts at the end of the year, as we detailed earlier. Slovakia is greatly dependent on Russian gas, and Ukraine is not expected to renew a major energy transit contract with Russian state suppliers.

With just a few days away from the start of the new year, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico escalated the standoff by saying he can leverage electricity supplies to Ukraine. “After Jan. 1, we will consider the situation and the possibility of reciprocal measures against Ukraine,” Fico said in a video released Friday.

“If it is unavoidable, we will stop the supply of electricity, which Ukraine urgently needs in the event of grid failures,” he said. The war of words and threats is ratcheting by the day.

Given that Fico just controversially met with Putin in Moscow, the electricity threat is going to add insult to injury at a moment Russian aerial forces have been pummeling Ukraine’s power grid this past week.

Fico lashed out in the most charged statement directed at Kiev to date: “But who cares about Slovakia, right, Mr. Zelenskyy? But when you need something to keep you from freezing in the winter, you scream in frustration,” Fico said.

Zelensky responded Saturday by accusing Slovakia, which is a NATO and EU member state, of opening a “second energy front” against Ukraine on orders from Moscow. 

“It appears that Putin gave Fico the order to open the second energy front against Ukraine at the expense of the Slovak people’s interests,” Zelensky wrote on X.

“Fico’s threats to cut off Ukraine’s emergency power supply this winter while Russia attacks our power plants and energy grid can only be explained by this,” he emphasized. He charged that Putin is “dragging Slovakia into Russia’s attempts to cause more suffering for Ukrainians.”

As Russia’s aerial assaults on Ukraine’s energy grid have grown worse, Ukraine has relied more and more on electricity imports from neighboring and outside countries to survive.

Zelensky has indicated the Slovakia accounts for 19% of Ukraine’s power imports, which is a significant portion, and outsized given Slovakia’s small geographic size. Clearly, Fico does have serious leverage at his disposal.

Today, I reviewed the details of electricity imports from the EU to Ukraine via Slovakia—accounting for about 19% of the total volume. Fico won’t cut off our imports. We are working with other neighbors in the EU.

I have instructed our officials to work together with the… pic.twitter.com/SzhvOAjutl

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 28, 2024

“Slovakia is part of the single European energy market and Fico must respect common European rules,” the Ukrainian leader further said Saturday.

Fico has long been target of vitriol from Kiev officials, given he has consistently and loudly opposed Ukraine’s entry into NATO, in common with Hungary’s Viktor Orban. “As long as I am the prime minister of the Slovak Republic, as long as I lead the deputies, whom I, as the party chairman, have under political control, I will never agree to Ukraine’s membership in NATO,” Fico declared this past October.

Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

Thursday marks the 30-day mark in the 60-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. While plainly obvious that IDF military operations never really ceased, Israel is now openly talking about staying in Lebanon past the 60-day pullout deadline.

Even more concerning, Israel has pushed the offensive deeper into southern Lebanon, seizing the town of Wadi al-Hujeir and firing rounds of machine gun fire as troops advance, forcing the civilian population to flee once again.

Wadi al-Hujeir is nearly five miles over the Blue Line, deeper than Israel’s invasion actually penetrated during the war that was supposed to end with last month’s ceasefire. The town also lies along the Litani River, beyond which Hezbollah was to remove its forces after the war.

But travel in occupied southern Lebanon is a difficult business, even 30 days into the ceasefire, as Israel seems to attack anything and everything trying to return to the towns and villages that were seized.

The roads around Wadi al-Hujeir have now been closed by Lebanese officials in an effort to keep the civilian population safely away from continuing Israeli incursions.

Multiple voices have expressed growing concern about Israel’s looming failure to withdraw from Lebanon and its continued firing on Lebanese territory despite the nominal ceasefire.

UNIFIL issued such a statement about the continuing damage Israel is causing in residential and agricultural areas, and on road networks throughout southern Lebanon.

Israel has issued no statement on the new incursions, nor any official clarification surrounding media reports that it’s looking to stay beyond next month’s deadline.

Since the US was meant to be the guarantor of the ceasefire, it was expected that the US would say something about the hundreds of Israeli violations. So far, however, the US has not even broached the subject.

The US seems to consider the ceasefire announcement all it was prepared to do, and, in actuality, all it is likely ever to do.

Russian media has picked up on a report in Germany’s Bild newspaper which highlights a German government assessment saying the country is defenseless against the Russian Oreshnik missile system.

“The Patriot is not right to combat longer-range ballistic missiles, such as the Oreshnik,” Bild quoted a government document as saying, in reference to the US-supplied air defense missile system. “Any interception would be more like sheer luck.”

The report further underscored that currently Germany has no effective method of intercepting an inbound ballistic missile, following decades of a ‘neutral’ and degraded post-WWII military.

“The order came without any specific reason, such as an upcoming trip. It is unclear why the German Foreign Ministry wanted to document this defense gap in Germany. After all, these facts are known to the Ministry of Defense, and appropriate measures have long been taken,” a military expert was cited in Bild as explaining of the context of the document.

Berlin has over the last few years since the start of the Ukraine war been rapidly seeking to build its defenses and expand military spending.

The fact that Russia has already used the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine on more than one occasion has likely put greater fear and urgency in European defense officials. Moscow was sending a big ‘message’.

Russian state media sources have touted that the Oreshnik reaches speeds greater than Mach 10+, and can reach 5,500km in distance, or 3,400+ miles (as a medium-range weapon).

A retired Russian Army colonel and military analyst, identified as Viktor Litovkin, has described, “The West does not have missiles that fly at such a speed or hypersonic missiles at all.” 

He said further, “Although the US has repeatedly boasted that it has such missiles, it has never demonstrated a missile flight. They appeared to show missiles that flew at a supersonic speed of 5.5 times the speed of sound or Mach 5.5. However, hypersonic speed begins at Mach 6-7.”

With the prior collapse of the INF treaty, which regulated Russian and US ballistic missile deployments throughout the world, Moscow is very wary of a potential US missile build-up in Europe, which it says it is ready to mirror if threatened.

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices soared on Friday by the most in a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the chances of a new deal for Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine are low.

Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, jumped early on Friday in Amsterdam by as much as 5%, before giving up some of the gains by midday.

On Thursday, Putin said that there isn’t time for a new gas transit deal to be reached between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian president was quick to add that the lack of a deal was entirely Ukraine’s fault.

Ukraine has so far refused to extend the gas transit deal currently in place that would see gas transit continue uninterrupted to Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia—a refusal that Putin says only hurts Europe.

The current gas transit deal began nearly five years ago and expires at the end of 2024, and if the deal does in fact expire without a new deal in place, it will indeed bring hardship to several European countries. According to Putin, the few days left in the year are not long enough to reach a new deal.

The volume of natural gas that flows from Russia through Ukraine and onto Europe via the current pipeline deal is about 15 billion cubic meters or less than 10% of the total volume Russia shipped to Europe pre-Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Last week, European Union leaders met in Brussels to discuss the issue of alternatives to Russian gas with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine has emphatically stated that it would not discuss the idea of continued Russian gas transit with Russia.

Some consultations are being held – without Russia – Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Bloomberg on Friday.

Authored by Sam Faddis via ANDMagazine.com,

Biden began his term in office by abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban and allowing the creation of a new terrorist super state. He is finishing his time in the Oval Office by watching helplessly as a new Caliphate is formed in the rubble of what was once Syria. Divorced from reality as always, his hapless State Department now calls the jihadi ruler of Damascus Al-Jolani a “pragmatist” and talks mindlessly about accommodation and cooperation with mass murderers and rapists.

Meanwhile, inside Syria, the new Islamic rulers are losing no time in consolidating their rule and making clear their intentions. On 26 December, Al-Jolani appointed former Al-Qaeda commander and Nusra Front co-founder Anas Hassan Khattab as the head of the country’s general intelligence agency. Khattab was designated a “terrorist” by the United Nations a decade ago. According to the UN, he was involved “in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of” and “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” the Nusra Front. This Al-Qaeda offshoot was rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in 2017.

Those are the guys who now run Syria.

As the head of intelligence Khattab’s job will not be to prepare detailed analyses of foreign developments. He will be in charge of domestic security. His job will be to crush any dissent and guarantee Al-Jolani stays in power. He has already been performing that function in the areas that HTS has controlled for years, where torture and murder are common tactics used to stifle dissent.

Last week, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, a founding member of Al-Qaeda in Syria, was appointed foreign minister for the new terrorist state being created in Syria.

Meanwhile, more information is becoming available on the composition of the jihadist forces that drove Assad from power. Contrary to press reports that want to characterize the ousting of Assad as some sort of liberal, democratic, populist movement, the reality appears to be that substantial numbers of fighters from outside of Syria are present on the ground. Just before Christmas, a video surfaced of a Christmas tree in a town in Syria being burned by Islamists. It now appears the terrorists who carried out this action were Uzbek fighters fighting with Al-Jolani’s forces.

In fact, substantial numbers of Central Asians are in Syria and serving the new Caliphate. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI),

“The exact number of Tajik, Uzbek, and Chinese Uyghur citizens present in Syria is unknown, but these individuals operate in three separate groups under the leadership of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham.”

“Tajik jihadis residing in Syria operate under an organization called Jaish Al-Jihad Imam Abu Hanifa. Members of this group refer to its flag and name as the central focus of their activities on their Telegram channels. Several Telegram channels affiliated with this organization are active, sharing jihadi messages and reports from the Syrian battlefield.”

“One of the Tajik jihadis in Syria, known as ‘Musafir Tactical’, produces videos on YouTube and Telegram to promote and recruit young Tajiks for the war. He also creates content teaching weapon usage, the operation of communication devices, the repair of automatic weapons, and guerrilla warfare tactics.”

“Another member of the group, known as Mohsen Tajiki, also has thousands of followers on social media. Since the start of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham’s offensive on Aleppo, he has been providing updates moment by moment on the advances toward villages and towns under the control of Bashar Al-Assad’s government.”

“The East Turkestan Islamic Party is one of the most active jihadi groups in Syria, and compared to other Central Asian-origin groups, it has more resources and manpower. This group is a Uyghur jihadi organization that has been active in the Syrian civil war since around 2012. Its stated goal is to establish an Islamic state in the Xinjiang region of China (East Turkestan) and it is aligned with various jihadi groups in Syria, including branches of Al-Qaeda.”

“Fighters from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are also present in Syria, having fought under the flag of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham during the attack on Aleppo, and are now on the front lines fighting to advance toward other cities in Syria. These Uzbek and Kyrgyz fighters operate within a group called Katibat Al-Tawhid wAl-Jihad, which was established in northern Syria in 2013.”

“In March 2022, the U.S. Department of State designated this group as a terrorist organization due to its terrorist activities and its connections with international terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda.”

None of this is consistent with the fiction that Syria is now controlled by individuals seeking a liberal democratic order and cooperation with the West. It is a picture of a nation that has fallen to radical Islamic forces and which will now in tandem with Afghanistan serve as a launching pad for attacks on the United States and its allies.

Already Al-Jolani’s boys are moving fast to consolidate power. They are demanding that all rival groups turn in their weapons and disarm. They are beginning to proscribe rules for women’s dress throughout the country. They are also advising that anyone who fears Islamic rule is simply misinformed. You will live under Sharia law and you will like it.

We spent twenty years fighting a war against Islamic terror. That war is not over. We simply stopped shooting back. In a matter of years, we have allowed the creation of two radical terrorist states from which attacks can be launched worldwide. The newest of those is in the heart of the Middle East.

Don’t look now. Al Qaida is winning. There is a brand new caliphate in Syria.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has set his sights on the processed foods industrial complex. Nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has long been an outspoken critic of toxic ingredients in food, including dyes and seed oils.

Trump’s second term has yet to begin, but the merging of the ‘Make America Healthy Again‘ and ‘Make America Great Again’ movements has sparked a dietary awakening among millions of consumers.

It’s not just dyes and seed oils poisoning Americans and ending their lives short; plastic chemicals are increasingly being found in popular fast foods and supermarket staples.

The former CEO of GitHub, Nat Friedman, who is also an investor seeding AI, infrastructure, open source, and frontier tech companies and is focused on health, published data on X about plastic chemicals found in a majority of foods across the San Francisco Bay Area. 

“We did it! We tested 300 Bay Area foods for plastic chemicals. We found some interesting surprises,” Friedman wrote on X. 

Here are the top five findings from the test, most of which are shocking (full results published here): 

1. Our tests found plastic chemicals in 86% of all foods, with phthalates in 73% of the tested products and bisphenols in 22%. It’s everywhere.

2. We detected phthalates in most baby foods and prenatal vitamins.

3. Hot foods which spend 45 minutes in takeout containers have 34% higher levels of plastic chemicals than the same dishes tested directly from the restaurant.

4. The 1950s Army rations we tested contained surprisingly high levels of plastic chemicals.

5. Almost every single one of the foods we tested are within both US FDA and EU EFSA regulations.

Friedman noted:

“An important disclaimer: we have refrained from drawing high-confidence conclusions from these results, and we think that you should, too. Consider this a snapshot of our raw test results, suitable as a starting point and inspiration for further work, but not solid enough on its own to draw conclusions or make policy recommendations or even necessarily to alter your personal purchasing decisions. These results represent point-in-time results of a small number of product samples and may not be representative of actual product contents. These tests, like all tests, have inherent uncertainties, and different testing methodologies are likely to yield different results. And the existence of a chemical in a food doesn’t necessarily imply a safety issue. We’d be thrilled to see serious efforts to replicate our results and we are open to any corrections you may have.” 

“Was the Whole Foods meat from the counter or the packages on the shelves? I get this brand there,” one X user asked Friedman. 

He responded…

https://t.co/dnf3zlydL5 pic.twitter.com/xEL8bNQ5W6

— Nat Friedman (@natfriedman) December 28, 2024

The Ribeye steak from Whole Foods ranked fairly high on the list for plastic chemicals.

Someone else said.

the Whole Foods steak is disturbing

— Will Manidis (@WillManidis) December 28, 2024

The great food awakening continues, broadening from warnings about dyes and seed oils to a new call for Americans to demand changes in food packaging and processing to eliminate plastic chemicals. 

Studies reveal that microplastics accumulate in the body and pose “a significant health risk.” For more details, read here: “A Significant Health Risk’: How Everyday Items Fill Our Bodies With Microplastics.”