This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The nation's "fact-checkers" are in panic mode this week after Facebook announced it has opted for free speech.
WND reported Tuesday that Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has announced he's ending the social media site's censorship practices.
"We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, we're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S," Zuckerberg announced.
Now Business Insider is reporting that the International Fact-Checking Network, a large part of the industry supporting Facebook's previous censorship practices, is in turmoil.
The organization called an emergency meeting of all of its members following the announcement that involves all of Meta's branches, including Facebook.
Zuckerberg said that censorship team will be replaced with "community notes," similar to what billionaire Elon Musk installed on Twitter, now X, when he took it over.
The meeting "is expected to draw between 80 and 100 attendees from the IFCN's network of fact-checkers, which spans 170 organizations worldwide," Business Insider explained.
It confirmed, "The IFCN has long played a crucial role in Meta's fact-checking ecosystem by accrediting organizations for Meta's third-party program, which began in 2016 after the U.S. presidential election that year. Certification from the IFCN signaled that a fact-checking organization met rigorous editorial and transparency standards. Meta's partnerships with these certified organizations became a cornerstone of its efforts to combat misinformation, focusing on flagging false claims, contextualizing misinformation, and curbing its spread."
However, the end result of the so-called "fact-checking" has been for leftists to use the industry to call out what they have labeled as misinformation, disinformation and even malinformation and insist on censorship, regardless of the accuracy of the information. That has left many conservative individuals, web sites, comments and discussions in a black hole of suppression.
The meeting was called for Wednesday, but it was uncertain what results would be announced.
IFCN director Angie Holan confirmed the meeting was in response to Meta's announcement.
"People are upset because they saw themselves as partners in good standing with Meta, doing important work to make the platform more accurate and reliable."
The report explained, "An employee at PolitiFact, one of the first news organizations to partner with Meta on its Third-Party Fact-Checking Program in December 2016, said the company received virtually no warning from Meta before the program was killed."
It was only weeks ago that a congressional report confirmed that the censorship schemes assembled and implemented by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, working with social media platforms, were "blatantly unconstitutional."
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, already had admitted in a letter to Congress that he was censoring Americans on the orders of Biden.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
As flames continue to ravage Southern California on Wednesday, Hollywood star James Woods, a resident of the scorched region, is documenting the apocalyptic devastation and blasting "liberal idiots" including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their incompetence and woke policies.
"To all the wonderful people who've reached out to us, thank you for being so concerned. Just letting you know that we were able to evacuate successfully," Woods, whose home is in Pacific Palisades, posted on X. "I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing, but sadly houses on our little street are not."
"We were blessed to have LA fire and police depts doing their jobs so well. We are safe and out. There are several elementary schools in our neighborhood and there was an enormous community effort to evacuate the children safely. Can not speak more highly of the LA fire and LAPD."
An X user named @LucifersTweetz posted: "The irony of James Woods, known for his skepticism about climate change, losing his home to the very wildfires linked to climate change impacts in California, is striking."
Woods responded: "This fire is not from 'climate change,' you ignorant a**hole. It's because liberal idiots like you elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass. One doesn't understand the first thing about fire management and the other can't fill the water reservoirs."
The actor also posted a photo of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who is "married" to a woman, and is the first female and LGBT fire chief in the LAFD.
Her biography page highlights Crowley's woke ideology, noting: "Creating, supporting, and promoting a culture that values diversity, inclusion, and equity while striving to meet and exceed the expectations of the communities are Chief Crowley's priorities, and she is grateful for the opportunity to serve the City of Los Angeles."
Woods continued: "We cleared and built pathways on our hillside with sprinkler systems that can be remotely managed. We also did brush clearance per local fire prevention mandates. I'm hoping it has done some good. It's hard to beat the winds this time of year though, if someone is careless.
"Actually one of the major insurances companies canceled all the policies in our neighborhood about four months ago," he noted.
KTLA-TV reports: "The worst-case scenario has been realized in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, where an estimated 1,000 structures, many of them homes, have been destroyed by a Santa Ana-wind-fueled wildfire, authorities confirmed on Wednesday morning."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A sheriff in Wyoming has posted a warning sign to wannabe criminals: A red, blinking "vacancy" sign over the door to the county jail.
"We put (the sign) up to make sure everyone knows we're open for business. We take people to the jail that need to be arrested," Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozal told the Cowboy State Daily.
He explained the red neon, all-caps sign is "meant to let people know the jail has room, and that deputies are willing to book suspected criminals charged with crimes into the jail," the report said.
One of the issues is that for more than two years during COVID-19 and after, a prior administration suspended many of its booking protocols and allowed many defendants suspected of nonviolent crimes to remain free.
"We're making it clear we have vacancy, so criminals are welcome in our jail" Kozak confirmed to the publication.
The sign is at a busy intersection of Pioneer Ave. and 20th Street in downtown Cheyenne.
Kozak is not new to unusual ploys. Last year he used part of his advertising budget to advertise in downtown Denver, 100 miles away, that he had open deputy positions for officders "dissatisfied with some of Colorado's laws that are less friendly to law enforcement than Wyoming's," the report said.
The county jail has some 170 inmates now, in a facility with a capacity of about 450.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats' failed candidate for House speaker, has mocked a Republican plan, already voiced by President-elect Donald Trump, that would provide for the United States again to be in charge of the Panama Canal, which originally was built by America.
Jeffries claimed, according to a report from the Washington Examiner, that, "House Democrats believe that we are not sent to Washington to invade Greenland, rename the Gulf of Mexico, or seize the Panama Canal by force."
Those three options all have been discussed by Trump as he prepares to move into the White House and again work to enhance America's security, and indeed, the security of the world.
The threat being addressed is China's increasing influence over other nations through its various Belt and Road infrastructure investment plans, through which is routinely takes control of transportation routes and facilities by building the projects, and then running them.
Trump, in fact, has mentioned the concepts of America being in control of Greenland, and Canada joining the U.S., as various ways to enhance America's security internationally. For example, a military base on Greenland would be only a short 2,000-mile flight from Moscow.
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said, "President Trump is right to consider repurchasing the Panama Canal. China's interest in and presence around the canal is a cause for concern. America must project strength abroad – owning and operating the Panama Canal might be an important step towards a stronger America and a more secure globe."
Johnson has introduced a bill that would empower Trump to negotiate over the canal management.
It also would have Trump report to Congress on the possible outcomes and ramifications.
Some Republicans long have objected to the agreement that provided Panama with supervision over the canal, as the U.S. built it and paid for it.
Panamanian officials said they own the canal … "every square meter."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – As the sun begins to set – although some would argue not quickly enough – on the failed and discredited Biden administration, and President-elect Donald Trump waits in the wings to resume his seat in the Oval Office, it is worth taking a moment to scan the political landscape – in this case with an international slant – and truly marvel at how much the so-called "adults in the room" have so royally managed to mess things up.
Whether one buys the Trumpian line of "having begun no new wars," or not, during his first administration, the facts speak for themselves, and when he left office in January 2021, the world was not aflame. Four years of Bidenism – or was it Obama 3.0? – on the international scene has proved to be an unmitigated disaster. It's hard to think of any region which is better off now than it was in 2021, and this particularly true of the Middle East.
Without question, the main catalyst for this change was the slaughter that was Oct. 7, and Israel's response to it. Large swaths of the region are largely unrecognizable compared with how they were 15 months ago; a more-than 50-year-old dynasty has crumbled to dust in Syria, and a more-than-four-decade foreign policy of the Islamic Republic has similarly been obliterated.
Where some have lost, others have gained; and one of the biggest winners is undoubtedly Turkey. It will be one of the main issues in the Trump inbox as he must now attempt to navigate an Ankara – a supposedly NATO ally – which seems inexorably on the march. It is also a subject vexing Israeli decision-makers.
On Monday, the Nagel Committee, headed by Prof. Jacob Nagel, which is a supervisory and deliberative body, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set up in late 2024 to examine defense spending and IDF military force design for the future, warned Israel should prepare for war with Turkey.
For Michael Rubin, director of policy at the Middle East Forum, Turkey's current posturing is emblematic of the country under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's leadership, which he labeled "an engine of radicalism and irredentism."
"Turkey will now repeat the Iranian pattern: It will use proxies – of which Syria is one – to attack Israel while preparing its own forces to eventually eradicate the Jewish state. The fact Turkey may also follow Iran down the path of a covert nuclear program makes the parallels even greater."
Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak from the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University took a slightly different approach, arguing that now Turkey and Israel no longer have Syria as a buffer state between them, there is a greater likelihood of Israel potentially hitting a Turkish target there, which even if it was by mistake, could be a conflict-igniting spark "Israel seeks to avoid such incidents, as it does not want Turkey – a nation with which it maintains peaceful relations – to transform into a hostile state," he said.
There is no doubt Turkey has been the main beneficiary of the demise of the Assad regime, not least because forces it substantially backed – whatever the ins and outs of Syria's day-to-day administration under Ahmad al-Sharaa and his HTS cronies – are currently running the country. Ankara is clearly feeling emboldened by several elements, which play into its sense of self-confidence, as it has seen the dominoes of many of its most powerful regional adversaries fall, in particular the Islamic Republic of Iran.
These two countries have been locked in a hegemonic struggle for influence over the region for centuries, and now their modern iterations vie to reanimate the luster of fallen empires. As Iran's fortunes have waned over the last few months – particularly with Israel's pounding of Hezbollah in Lebanon, largely responsible for the subsequent collapse of the Assad regime – Turkey's have waxed. Erdogan senses an opportunity for his replacement of Ayatollah Khamanei as the dominant force.
"Just as Iran will use religion, language, and the legacy of the Persian Empire, whatever is convenient at any given moment, to expand its influence, so too does Turkey use Sunnis, Turkish, and the legacy of the Ottoman Empire to claim the right to dominate. Trump may celebrate the Abraham Accords and hope to use them to check Iranian influence but increasingly as great a threat comes from Turkey itself," Rubin warned.
To this end, two additional pieces of information are crucial. Turkey's Russian-built nuclear reactor is due to become operational this year. As Rubin wrote in a recent article published on the Middle East Forum website, "the notion that it is proliferation-proof rests on the assurance of Ankara and Moscow.
Erdogan himself has hinted he finds the idea of Turkey not being allowed to possess nuclear weapons an intolerable one. Also, the Turkish president recently announced Turkey's production of intercontinental ballistic missiles with an increase in range from 500 to 1,250 miles.
For Yanarocak Turkey's desire to increase the range of ballistic missiles could be seen as them being in direct competition with Iran. "After all, compared to Iran, Turkish missiles have a much shorter range."
Neither he nor Rubin thought it was axiomatically true that Turkey's production of longer-range ballistic missiles would necessarily be used to threaten Israel. Indeed, Rubin suggested it might export the missiles to "even the most odious regimes." He assessed it was likely Turkey's clients might use the missiles – as well as its advanced drone technology – to "murder and destabilize."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Middle East/Israel Morning Brief
American Airlines passenger confronts flight attendant over pro-Palestinian watermelon pin
A Jewish passenger boarding an American Airlines flight in Miami encountered an unexpected situation when he noticed one of the flight attendants wearing a watermelon pin, a symbol that has become widely recognized as representing pro-Palestinian solidarity. The passenger subsequently documented the incident and shared it on his Instagram account, providing a detailed account of what transpired.
"The flight attendants became visibly upset and informed me that my act of filming them constituted a legal violation. They prevented me from disembarking and insisted that I remove the video footage, which I refused to do," according to Israel Hayom.
The situation was eventually resolved when law-enforcement officers arrived at the scene and directed the flight attendants to permit the passenger to leave the aircraft.
Unveiled Iranian woman removes cleric's turban in viral airport confrontation
A video has gone viral on social media showing a woman without a mandatory headscarf confronting a cleric at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, removing his turban and placing it on her own head like a scarf during the altercation.
She then searches for her husband, calling his name and asking, "What did you do to my husband?"
The exact date and cause of the initial confrontation remain unclear.
A media outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mashregh News, reported that the incident was unrelated to hijab and claimed the woman had "psychological problems."
Israeli commission warns of real risk of outbreak of war with Turkey
Israel must prepare for a direct confrontation with Turkey, according to the Nagel Committee's latest report on the defense budget and security strategy, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The committee, established by the government, warns that Turkey's ambitions to restore its Ottoman-era influence could lead to heightened tensions with Israel, possibly escalating into conflict.
The report highlights the risk of Syrian factions aligning with Turkey, creating a new and potent threat to Israel's security.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
America is getting a new $20 billion investment in a data company that plans operations in multiple states, President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday.
Fox News reported Trump confirmed the $20 billion will come over a "short period of time" from DAMAC Properties, whose chief, Hussain Sajwani, confirmed plans for Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
The centers are needed to help the development of AI and cloud-based tech, he said.
Trump, who is to be inaugurated Jan. 20, said his administration would have a practice of expediting approvals for companies seeking to invest $1 billion or more in the U.S.
He cited the "quagmire" of regulations that now exist.
Under Joe Biden's presidency, Americans have suffered inflation of more than 20%, have seen millions of illegal aliens flood the southern border and end up competing with Americans for jobs, and more.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he's going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
At a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said: "We're gonna be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring.
"That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it's appropriate. It's appropriate."
Trump noted: "We have a massive deficit with Mexico, and we help Mexico a lot. They are essentially run by the cartels, and can't let that happen.
"Mexico is really in trouble. A lot of trouble. A very dangerous place."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Fani Willis, the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who hired her paramour, at a cost to taxpayers of some $600,000, to create an organized crime case against now President-elect Donald Trump, has long fought against a request for public records regarding her investigation.
Now, apparently, she's going to have to pay for her deeds.
Some $21,578.00.
Judicial Watch, which brought the public documents fight to Willis over her collusion with special counsel Jack Smith and Nancy Pelosi's partisan House committee investigation of Jan. 6, announced that the Superior Court in Fulton County has ordered Willis to pay that amount for "attorney's fees and costs" in the fight.
The court earlier had ruled that she was in default in the case.
Judicial Watch sued last March "after Willis falsely denied having any records responsive to Judicial Watch's earlier Georgia Open Records Act request for communications with Special Counsel Jack Smith's office and/or the January 6 Committee."
After finding her in default, the court held a hearing and that resulted in the payment order.
Those "shall be paid within two weeks of the entry of this Order," the court said.
Judicial Watch had asked for the records of what could be collusion among the various anti-Trump agendas that had been developed in the Democrats' lawfare against him.
Her office apparently responded that no records existed, although Judicial Watch already had uncovered at least one that "should have been in the district attorney's offices' possession."
Ultimately, Willis simply defaulted on the requirements of the court and law.
The court found "relevant and reasonable attorney's fees and costs of litigation are properly awardable to Plaintiff … Defendant is thus liable to Plaintiff for $21,578 pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 50-18-73(b). That amount shall be paid within two weeks of the entry of this Order."
Judicial Watch explained, "Willis by her own admission conducted at least three searches before finding any responsive records not already supplied by [Judicial Watch]. She did not even bother to conduct a search until the Complaint was filed. Her records custodian says he does not know the Cellebrite [digital investigations] equipment he apparently had a hand in ordering can be used to search cell phone texts and other data…. Moreover, the custodian had no standard practice for conducting searches and keeps no records of the methods used in a given search."
That all gives grounds for "grave suspicion that all responsive records have not been found," Judicial Watch said, in asking for a special master to be appointed to supervise and monitor the records searches.
"Fani Willis flouted the law, and the court is right to slam her and require, at a minimum, the payment of nearly $22,000 to Judicial Watch," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "But in the end, Judicial Watch wants the full truth on what she was hiding – her office's political collusion with the Pelosi January 6 committee to 'get Trump.'"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The infamous, and faulty, Roe v. Wade decision that created out of essentially nothing a federal "right" to an abortion remained the controlling standard in America for nearly five decades before it was banished to the ashcan of corrupted legal ideologies.
Campaigners are hoping that it doesn't take that long to get rid of Obergefell, the ruling from just a few years back that even Supreme Court justices admitted was unrelated to anything in the Constitution in its political campaign to promote the LGBT lifestyle choices by legitimizing same-sex "marriage."
There's already a legal case that the constitutional experts at Liberty Counsel are suggesting could be the basis for a reversal.
And now the organization MassResistance has confirmed that there are at least six state legislatures that will have the opportunity in coming months to adopt a resolution encouraging the high court to reverse itself.
The organization said it has drafted sample language and resolutions are pending in Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Michigan, Iowa and Kansas.
For example, MassResistance volunteers in Idaho have been working with numerous lawmakers on pro-family bills in recent years, and now one state representative has offered "to spearhead this effort this year."
In North Dakota, a lawmaker who previously worked on legislation to ban the body-mutilating "sex change" procedures on children is working on filing an anti-Obergefell resolution.
The organization said its proposed text "calls on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its infamous and illegitimate Obergefell ruling. That 2015 decision forced the idea that the U.S. Constitution requires states to allow same-sex 'marriage.'"
There are discussions already, too, with lawmakers in multiple other states.
"The Obergefell v. Hodges ruling was passed by a slim 5-4 majority of activist Supreme Court Justices," MassResistance reported. "It has caused immense societal havoc across the country. States have been forced to ignore their legitimate laws and constitutional amendments regarding marriage. Governments, businesses, and even schoolchildren have been forced to accept same-sex 'marriage' – and by extension homosexual behavior – as normal, under pain of punishments, fines, and even imprisonment."
The problem with that ruling?
"The First Amendment guarantees free speech, freedom of assembly, religious liberty, and the right to petition government for redress of grievance. By forcing same-sex 'marriage' on the country in this way, Obergefell challenged all those rights," the group reported.
Unlike in 2015, when the Supreme Court was dominated by leftist ideologues, there now is a majority of constitutionalists on the bench, the report said.
"In order to invent a previously unknown constitutional 'right' to same-sex marriage, the 5-4 majority of activist Supreme Court Justices used a strategy concocted by the LGBT lawyers. They redefined the Fourteenth Amendment to allow them to effectively change the definition of marriage from one man and one woman to 'two people who love each other,'" the group reported.
But the 14th Amendment actually states: "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," and does not mention marriage.