This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump has sanctioned the International Criminal Court, an international group that has no jurisdiction over the United States or its ally Israel, but yet issued arrested warrants for a number of key Israeli officials.
The sanctions target ICC officials, their family members and even their properties. Financial sanctions and visa restrictions are a part of the plan.
The action was in response to the ICC's claim to have issued an arrest warrant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a move that followed the ICC's leftists claims about Israel's military response to the war started by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, when those terrorists invaded Israel, slaughtered some 1,200 civilians and abducted hundreds more.
The determination by Trump is that those officials, employees and agents, "as well as their immediate family members," would be "detrimental to the interests of the United States" if they enter the country.
"I therefore determine that any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute protected persons, as defined in section 8(d) of this order, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to address that threat."
He determined others will be added to the order, following a determination by State and Treasury officials and the attorney general.
Trump said, "I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the International Criminal Court (ICC), as established by the Rome Statute, has engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel. The ICC has, without a legitimate basis, asserted jurisdiction over and opened preliminary investigations concerning personnel of the United States and certain of its allies, including Israel, and has further abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant."
He pointed out that neither the U.S. nor Israel has agreed to be subject to the ICC.
"Neither country has ever recognized the ICC's jurisdiction, and both nations are thriving democracies with militaries that strictly adhere to the laws of war. The ICC's recent actions against Israel and the United States set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces, by exposing them to harassment, abuse, and possible arrest."
He called out the ICC's "malign conduct."
A number of nations around the globe have submitted to the ICC, and in fact said they would be arresting Netanyahu if he ventured onto their territory.
That means, Trump explained, there need to be "tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC's transgressions," including blocking of property and assets and denial of entry.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
"Wow."
That is DOGE leader Elon Musk's reaction to the discovery that Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, has allegedly received some $84 million in U.S. taxpayer funding.
"USAID gave Chelsea Clinton tens of millions of dollars and partnered with their sex trafficking organization The Clinton Foundation," wrote author and journalist Liz Crokin on X.
"In 2010, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped oversee $4.4 billion that Congress had earmarked for 'recovery' efforts in Haiti by the USAID in 2010."
"So USAID was funding organizations sex trafficking kids and lining the pockets of their family members all while the USAID also funded media organizations to cover up that they were sex trafficking kids AKA Pizzagate and all with YOUR hard earned taxpayer money!"
Crokin continued: "The level of corruption and criminality – including crimes that are deemed capital offenses with death penalty as a potential punishment – are astounding and unprecedented.
"We must demand accountability and justice for these crimes."
"The depravity and sickness of these people requires a public preparation for the crimes. Put on the Armour of God," wrote one commenter.
In May 2023, Chelsea Clinton was in the news pushing for multiple shots for every child.
She said there's a problem with "vaccine hesitancy" as well as those who simply reject vaccinations.
"No one should die of polio, measles, or pneumonia – including in this country, where we also need people to vaccinate their kid," she indicated.
In 2018, as WND reported, Chelsea Clinton said she "abhors" the actions of President Donald Trump in his first term, and floated the idea of her own possible run for office in the future.
"At federal level, as much as I abhor so much of what President Trump is doing, I have a great amount of gratitude for what my congresswoman and my senators are doing to try to stop him at every point," Clinton said.
"While I disagree with the president … I think my family … is being really well represented," she added. "But if that were to change, if my city councillor were to retire, if my congresswoman were to retire, my senators, and I thought that I could make a positive impact, then I think I would really have to ask my answer to that question [of whether to run for office]."
"For me it's a definite no now, but it's a definite maybe in the future because who knows what the future is going to bring."
Chelsea could not hold back on her disdain for Trump's initial term in the Oval Office, with special emphasis on what was happening at U.S. border with Mexico.
"I'm outraged every day by something our president has done or said or left undone or neglected, or who he has recently bullied on Twitter or television.
"For me, sometimes, I think I'm just so fundamentally my mother's daughter that I'm far more outraged by the Trump administration ripping children away from their families at the border and not having reunified those children with their families now for months, than I am about anything he has ever done to my families."
She continued: "In some ways I think this is the greatest sin of the moment in our country and we very much are doing everything we can to stop this from happening."
Clinton was also in the news in 2018 for controversial remarks on abortion.
She claimed the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision helped add $3.5 trillion to the U.S. economy.
"It is not a disconnected fact, to address this t-shirt of 1973, that American women entering the labor force from 1970 to 2009 added three and a half trillion dollars to our economy. Right?" Clinton said. "The net, new entrance of women – that is not disconnected from the fact that Roe became the law of the land in January of 1973. So, I think, whatever it is that people say they care about, I think that you can connect to this issue."
In direct response, evangelist Franklin Graham said on Facebook: "What a lie. Hitler probably also claimed that killing the Jews would be good for their economy."
"Legalizing abortion hasn't added anything to our country, it has only taken away," Graham continued. "It has cost this nation more than 60 million lives – lives precious to God. Just think of the contribution these people would have made. There will be another high cost. I believe God will judge America for allowing the heinous murder of our own children in the womb. And to everyone who has had an abortion, that is murder in God's eyes. But I am happy to tell you the wonderful news that God will forgive you. He can take the shame and guilt you have been carrying around all these years and take it away if you are willing to turn to Him and put your faith and trust in His Son Jesus Christ. Not only will He forgive you, He will save you for eternity – and you will be reunited one day in Heaven with that child."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Under Joe Biden's agenda to promote transgenderism to all, including those horrific body mutilations done on children, it was routine for prison inmates to demand, and be provided, tax-paid surgeries.
But it appears that might be coming to a halt.
A new report at HeadlineUSA explains Indiana's prison system was told by a judge to arrange for such "treatment" for one inmate, but now cannot find a doctor to participate in the procedure.
The report cited social media documentation that, "Indiana's prison system can't find a single doctor in the state willing to give a sex change to the baby-killing, self-purported trans Muslim inmate. It also looks like doctors around the country are shuttering their sex-change practices. Moreover, 15 states refused to even consider giving the baby-killer a sex change, while the rest of the states have signaled they probably won't, either."
HeadlineUSA said a federal judge had ordered the sex-change operation last year to "self-purported Muslim transgender inmate Jonathan Richardson."
He's in jail for 55 years for murdering his infant stepdaughter.
His case has been complicated by a report from psychologist Kelsey Beers who recommended against the procedure, citing the inmate's "co-morbidities of borderline and antisocial personality disorders—not gender dysphoria."
He also pointed to the inmate's history of faking mental illnesses.
Notwithstanding, the prisons division has been asking doctors to do the surgery, a result of Richardson's lawsuit over a law banning such treatments.
The report noted, "However, no doctor in Indiana is willing to conduct such a surgery, parties to the lawsuit revealed in a status report Wednesday."
One doctor said he was unwilling to move on the case and others said they had discontinued such treatments.
Reaching across state lines, the request either was rejected outright, or put on hold pending developments, by officials in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia, Wyoming.
So far, what is happening in the case is an order for a mental health evaluation for the inmate, the report said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has unleashed on the spending by the American government … for what she believes is abuse of animals.
Right now, the government's spending in a bull's-eye because of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which has already singled out money lavishly spent by USAID in wildly inappropriate projects, such as promoting transgenderism worldwide. Spending by other departments also are being reviewed.
Mace, in a hearing for the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, cited government spending on animal experimentation.
The hearing was titled, "Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer Funded Animal Cruelty."
She called out the White Coat Waste Project that last year exposed more than $10 million in tax dollars spent "creating transgender mice, rats, and monkeys."
"These DEI grants funded painful and deadly transgender experiments that forced lab animals to undergo invasive surgeries and hormone therapies at universities across the country," she charged.
"For example, the Biden-Harris Administration spent $2.5 million taxpayer dollars to study the fertility of transgender mice. $1.1 million dollars were spent to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapies to mimic transgender men were more likely to overdose on a party drug commonly used in the LGBTQ community to induce drug-fueled 'chemsex.'
Federal funds were also used to forcibly transition male monkeys to see if hormone therapy made them more susceptible to HIV," she said.
She said the work emanated from the Biden-Harris insistence on spreading their transgender ideology "across all facets of American society," so that they ignored the fact such experiments not only were cruel, but unneeded.
"It is well known that because of the differences between animal and human biology, animal testing frequently does not produce results relevant for humans. In fact, 90 percent of novel drugs that are successful in animal tests fail in human clinical trials," she said.
And she said now there are tech tools that "can more accurately model human biology and identify solutions that are more useful for human patients."
She said experiments on animals now are done by 27 NIH branches as well as the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Defense and more.
Those actions cost Americans $20 billion a year, she said.
Donald Trump Jr. has been accused of illegally hunting a rare species of duck on a trip to Italy, causing an outcry among local politicians.
In a video promoted by his lifestyle brand, Field Ethos, Don Jr. was seen with an unusual orange duck after a shoot in a lagoon near Venice.
"This is actually a rather uncommon duck for the area,” Trump Jr. said, pointing to the bird. “Not even sure what it is in English. But incredible shoot.”
The beautiful orange-brown duck, known as a ruddy shelduck, is listed as a species of "least concern" by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Italian Green Party politicians have lodged a complaint with Italy's environmental ministry, alleging Trump Jr. broke laws on conservation.
Andrea Zanoni, a Green Party politician, states unequivocally that foreigners cannot hunt in Italy and that it is illegal to kill the ruddy shelduck.
But some say the matter is more complicated than that. First, it's unclear who shot the duck, and Don Jr. was with a hunting guide, Oliver Martini, who owns land in the area. Martini previously took actor Stanley Tucci on a duck hunt in the same area, Outdoor Life reported.
“Italian law allows the possibility for foreigners to hunt under strict guidelines. They have to have a valid hunting license in their home countries, and they must be sponsored by an authorized Italian hunting guide,” Leone Rossi di Montelera, who runs a travel hunting outfit catering to foreigners called Italian Safari, told CNN. “There is nothing exclusive or abnormal about the duck hunt in question.”
An Italian safari organizer told Daily Mail that the ruddy shelduck is a rare sight in Europe, but the fowl is "not at risk."
"Even if it's proven who shot it," the safari organizer said, "the level of the penalty is the lowest level in current legislation – is a fine."
Trump's team says his hunting party was in a "legally allowed area" with multiple other groups - but the president's son will cooperate with an investigation.
"While it’s unclear whether this single duck was unintentionally shot by someone in Don’s hunting group, another hunting group or killed in a different manner and retrieved by the group’s hunting dog, Don takes following all rules, regulations and conservation on his hunts very seriously and plans on fully cooperating with any investigation," Trump's spokesperson, Andy Surabian, told the Daily Mail.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
We all have a hard time believing that President Donald Trump took office just two-plus weeks ago. All those phenomena we accepted as givens – DEI, transgenderism, DoJ weaponization, medical tyranny, foreign aid, fentanyl deaths, endless wars, illegal immigration, bureaucratic bloat, government censorship – were, to say the least, no longer inevitable.
For 30 years the Left imposed its agenda through a media that lied to sustain that agenda. To be sure, American Marxists have always shown an indifference to the truth as profound as that of their Soviet role models.
Until 1994, however, media lies were generally plausible, their suppression of facts subtle. Although liberals dominated America's cultural and political institutions, they were confident enough to do so with something of a gentle hand.
If any one individual embodied the post-war establishment spirit, it was Walter Cronkite, "America's most trusted man." The CBS News anchor from 1962 to 1981, Cronkite represented the gold standard of useful journalism during that era, namely the ability to feign objectivity.
But objective he never was. Biographer Douglas Brinkley quotes Cronkite as saying, "I thought that some day the roof was going to fall in. Somebody was going to write a big piece in the newspaper or something. I don't know why to this day I got away with it."
The "it" was Cronkite's liberalism. After retirement, he could be more forthcoming. At a 1988 dinner honoring Democrat Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, Cronkite went full Howard Beale:
"God Almighty, God Almighty, we've got to shout these truths in which we believe from the rooftops, like that scene in the movie 'Network.' We've got to throw open our windows and shout these truths to the streets and to the heavens." Cronkite made perfectly clear to this friendly crowd that "these truths" were the soft-core Marxist orthodoxies of the moment.
One powerful source of establishment confidence was the House of Representatives. Coming into November 1994, Democrats held an 82 seat majority in the House. They had controlled the House for 40 consecutive years and 58 of the previous 62.
Yes, Republicans could elect a president, but Democrats could, if need be, dispose of one. Richard Nixon may have won 49 states in 1972, but he lost the District of Columbia, then and now the power source for the WMD known as "lawfare."
What changed the game, I'm convinced, was the midterm election of 1994. Democrats lost an incredible 52 seats in the House, eight in the Senate, and control of both. Going forward, a shocked media would do and say whatever was necessary to keep President Bill Clinton and the Democrats in power.
In the 30 years that followed, the Marxist infection metastasized. Ever more aggressively, our left-leaning elites labored under the grand illusion that "truth" was what they said was true and "just" was what they said was just.
Too bourgeois to be full-blown Marxists, these elites came to mimic, if anyone, the French Jacobins. In their fondness for the state and their hostility to faith, they launched a revolution of their own, a "fundamental transformation" of America, however dishonest and improvised.
Our Jacobins quickly moved beyond liberalism to progressivism. Here, as in revolutionary France, Jacobin orthodoxies were what the moment warranted, what the mobs demanded.
They used that open-ended ideology as bait to corral the radical among their intersectional ranks – the blacks, the browns, the greens, the gays, the lesbians, trans, the feminists, the Muslims, and any other "marginalized" group willing to make noise in the street.
Club members in the know did not really care about issues. For them, the ultimate goal was always power, global power. Having transcended the nation-state, they allied themselves with Jacobin elites throughout the world and proudly alienated those citizens who clung bitterly to their gods and their guns.
By 2020, every elected Democrat in Washington, some elected Republicans, much of the intelligence community and most of the administrative state belonged to Club Jacobin.
Jacobin clubs in Hollywood, on Broadway and in Silicon Valley exercised nearly monopolistic control over their respective industries. Jacobins ruled higher education and, through their unions, controlled the public-education establishment. They dominated almost every commercial newsroom and TV network as well as NPR and PBS.
By 2021, with the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Jacobins controlled the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and many of the instruments of justice, including the D.C. courts and the FBI. They told America what it was permissible to think and say and were eager to punish those who thought and said differently.
If the Jacobins said the election of 2020 was "free and fair," to say otherwise was to perpetuate "the big lie."
If they said January 6 was an "insurrection," to call it anything less was to side with "white supremacists."
If they said President Biden was "sharp as a tack," to say he was slipping was to pull a "deep fake" and risk rebuke from more enlightened members of the club. "I can tell you, I talked to Joe Biden in private for decades," insisted MSNBC's Joe Scarborough in March 2024. "This is the best Joe Biden."
Even a child could pinpoint the moment the woke empire imploded. That would be, of course, June 27, 2024, when a senescent President Biden took the stage to debate former President Donald Trump and fell harder than Humpty Dumpty.
Biden promptly shattered the grand illusion that had sustained his coalition for the last four years, and not even the media could put it together again.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
It's been called, by President Donald Trump's government efficiency chief, Elon Musk, a "criminal organization" that must "die," and now it appears that process is under way.
USAID has confirmed in a statement posted online that nearly all of its employees are on leave as of Friday night. Thousands of people are affected, and only those in "mission-critical functions, core leadership, and specially designated programs" are exempted.
Trump and Musk earlier announced that the organization likely will end up being discontinued as a separate bureaucracy, and its duties will be rolled into those of the State Department.
It has been exposed under the Trump administration as a leftist organization giving American tax money, without accountability, to far-left agendas around the world.
The USAID statement says, "On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST)."
A report at RedState explains the move is part of Trump's efforts to remove fraud, waste, abuse and more from the nation's spending system.
USAID has been targeted now by Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.
The report said, "News of the department placing the entirety of its staff on leave, with the exception of essential personnel, comes following an order to shut down all overseas missions and recall staff by the same deadline. Deputy administrator for the agency, Pete Marocco, said USAID had until Friday to recall all overseas employees. Those who were not successfully returned by that deadline were to be 'evacuated' by the United States military."
The report noted the virulent opposition coming from Democrats, but explained, "You know you're on the right path when Democrats are actively losing their minds over what amounts to their party's personal slush fund being eradicated. Over 96 percent of donations coming from USAID go to Democrats and Democrat causes, and a mere 4 percent to Republicans, according to a Heritage Foundation report from 2023."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
As Elon Musk continues his deep dive into wasteful government spending, reports are now emerging that big names in left-leaning American news, including Politico and the New York Times, have been propped up by millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars.
"Many media outlets are going to experience a mysterious drop in revenue," the head of DOGE posted on X Wednesday morning.
USASPENDING.gov, the government-spending tracker, reveals Politico received up to $27 million – some counts indicate $32 million – from different federal agencies during Joe Biden's term in office.
"What they found was absolutely shocking," Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge said concerning the internet sleuths that unearthed the information.
Some $500,000 was reportedly spent on 37 Politico "pro" subscriptions.
The New York Times received $3.1 million in taxpayer funds, while the BBC in Britain collected $3.2 million.
During a briefing Wednesday at the White House, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed media outlets have been receiving federal tax dollars, and that "will no longer be happening."
"The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now," she said.
Interestingly, Politico staffers on Tuesday were told that a "technical error" prevented their paychecks from being distributed.
The Shore News Network noted of the financial hiccup at Politico: "The timing of these payroll issues is particularly sensitive as it coincides with broader discussions about government funding for media.
"Posts on X (formerly Twitter) have expressed skepticism and concern, with some users suggesting that the inability to pay employees might be a consequence of government funding cuts, although no official confirmation or denial has been issued by Politico on this matter."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The chief of one of the nation's biggest teachers' unions, Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, has "endorsed" the idea of shutting down the federal Department of Education.
That's one of the goals President Donald Trump has expressed, because of the department's agenda that has included spending hundreds of millions of dollars to inculcate discriminatory gender and race ideologies in children amid its failure to improve the test scores of American children.
Trump has appointed a secretary of education with instructions to see how much of the federal agency's responsibilities can be given back to states and local communities. In Congress, there's already a plan to shut down the bureaucracy.
Now, in an interview, Weingarten "accidentally endorses ABOLISHING the Department of Education," according to a report.
"States and localities run education… they should run it. The federal government should not run it," she said.
Her quote was, "States and localities run education. It's basically. That's where 90% of the funding for education goes. They already run it. They should run it. The federal government should not run it."
Under Trump's administration, already dozens of Education Department bureaucrats have been put on leave because they were promoting the ideological diversity and equity campaigns to students.
The moves are part of the shakeup of federal government that is being implemented under Trump, who appointed Elon Musk to his administration's Department of Government Efficiency to look for ways to cut the size and expense of government.
Twitchy commented, "Yesterday, Twitchy covered Weingarten's appearance on MSNBC to rail against President Trump's call to end the Department of Education. It wasn't so much an interview that Ana Cabrera conducted with Weingarten; it was more like a mutual admiration society, with both participants spending their time agreeing with each other and patting each other on the back for their brilliant insights. But even in that softball environment, Weingarten still couldn't help but step on a massive rake as she accidentally agreed with Trump that the DOE shouldn't even exist."
Other social media responses:
"Finally she has a good idea."
And, "Ma'am we literally been saying this for decades."
They also noted Weingarten "makes over $560,000 per year, 9 times average teacher."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced President Donald Trump is signing an executive order Wednesday to protect women, and women's sports, from men who call themselves women.
Transgender ideologies were one of the highest priorities of the ended administration of Joe Biden, who actively promoted the anti-science agenda through the whole of government in the United States and where it has influences around the world.
The fact is that being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level and doesn't change. In fact, one of Trump's earliest orders was a recognition that for the U.S. government, there are two sexes, male and female, only.
The order was scheduled for signing at the White House Wednesday afternoon.
"Gender-ideology insanity is over," Leavitt said.
Leavitt noted that among the results of Biden's gender agenda was that women were being "forced to shower with biological men," which is "incredibly unfair and unsafe."
And, she said, it's "incredibly unpopular with the American people."
She noted that there have been some popular female athletes who have had the courage to speak out against the powerful institutions, including universities and athletic associations, that had adopted the leftist gender beliefs. She said the administration expects them to follow the new precedents being set.
She described as "disgusting" the "betrayal" of women by the Biden administration, where members "catered to radical activists who wanted men to be treated as women."
She said Trump's order simply will uphold the promise of Title IX, which was adopted to provide equal opportunities for men and women in sports. Biden wanted to change that law by redefining the word "sex" so that it no longer would mean "sex" but would encompass a wide range of extremist gender ideologies.
Leavitt said the plan is for "immediate action" against "schools and athletic associations that deny women single sex sports and single-sex locker rooms."
She also responded to questions about revelations that among other inappropriate uses of USAID money, millions of dollars of taxpayer money were being directed to news publications such as Politico and the New York Times, and promised that was ending.
"The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now," she said.
And she confirmed members of the violent and criminal Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela are being arrested and deported … to Venezuela.
And there already are 79 miles of border wall projects in the planning or construction stages.
Another topic that came up was Democrat threats that they would be fight Trump's agenda "in the streets," and she said such rhetoric is from people who "don't even know what they're talking about."
And she said Trump's plans for rebuilding Gaza is part of his agenda for "lasting peace" in the Middle East.