This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The fall of Syria's bloodthirsty dictator, Bashar al-Assad, has obliterated 40 years of the Iranian regime's political, economic and military investment. The state-run newspaper Ham-Mihan described the scale of the loss in its Dec. 9, 2024 edition: "In one week, all political, economic, and military investments went up in flames."
Just hours before the fall of Damascus, the state-run outlet Khabar Online ominously warned: "Their objective is to reach Sar-e Pol-e Zahab (a border city) in western Iran. Based on our assessments, we realized their plans are far more serious than Syria and Iraq. … To prevent the war from spilling into Iran, serious and comprehensive measures at the highest levels must be taken. We are witnessing the defensive pillars of the Syrian army collapse one after the other."
The Assad regime – a 'central pillar' of Tehran's regional strategy
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the Assad dictatorship has served as the cornerstone of the Iranian regime's regional strategy. From Ayatollah Khomeini's war with Iraq in the 1980s to the era of Qassem Soleimani's orchestrated massacres in Iraq and Lebanon, and his indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of children and hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria, the Assad family's 50-year rule was critical to Iran's ambitions.
The phrase "Syria is the central pillar" was famously used in 2019 by Hassan Nasrallah, the now-deceased leader of Hezbollah, quoting Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Nasrallah explained:
"If I were to summarize the importance of Syria, it would be in the words of the Supreme Leader [Khamenei]: 'Syria is the central pillar. Today, without Syria, resistance in Lebanon and Palestine would be marginalized. Syria is one of the principals, major and vital components of the body, mind, culture, thought and will of the resistance in the region.'" (Khamenei's website, October 16, 2019)
Billions wasted to keep Assad in power
To prop up Bashar al-Assad's regime, Tehran funneled at least $50 billion into Syria between 2011 and 2019, according to credible reports. These funds, allocated through Qassem Soleimani, came at the expense of the Iranian people, who faced widespread poverty and starvation. Over two-thirds of the population lived in abject poverty while the regime diverted resources to repress and massacre freedom-seekers, children, and civilians in Syria to sustain Assad's grip on power. During Iran's 2017 nationwide protests, demonstrators expressed their frustration with chants like: "Leave Syria, think about us!"
Khamenei's Justification: 'Strategic Depth'
Ali Khamenei has repeatedly described his regime's interventions in the region as essential to maintaining Iran's "strategic depth." On several occasions, he asserted that if the regime did not fight in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, it would inevitably have to confront its enemies "in the streets of Kermanshah, Hamedan, and other provinces in Iran."
In 2016, Khamenei further justified the deployment of Revolutionary Guards and Quds Force mercenaries to Syria, stating: "Those who leave here to stand against the takfiris in Iraq or Syria are, in reality, defending their own cities." (Khamenei's website, June 25, 2016)
The collapse of the 'Central Pillar' shakes Tehran
By Khamenei's own logic, the collapse of Syria – his regime's "central pillar" – and the erosion of its so-called "strategic depth" will undoubtedly have repercussions in Tehran. The fall of Assad signals a critical loss of influence, destabilizing the very foundations of the Iranian regime. If Khamenei cannot protect his key ally in Syria, his ability to maintain power in Iran will be severely weakened.
Mehdi Taeb, a senior official in the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence branch, explicitly acknowledged this reality in 2013: "If the enemy attacks us and tries to take Syria or Khuzestan (Iran's oil-rich province), our priority is to preserve Syria. Because if we hold onto Syria, we can regain Khuzestan. But if we lose Syria, we won't even be able to keep Tehran." (Asr-e Iran newspaper, Feb. 14, 2013)
Conclusion
After the decline of Hezbollah, Khamenei has now suffered another major strategic blow with the fall of Bashar al-Assad – leader of a country Khamenei once referred to as Iran's "35th province." The liberation of the Syrian people and the region from Assad's dictatorship could have been achieved nine years ago, in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254. Yet Khamenei deliberately obstructed this resolution, choosing instead to waste billions of dollars and thousands of lives to prolong Assad's rule.
Without a doubt, the fall of Assad represents a devastating defeat for Khamenei. More importantly, it is a clear indicator of the inevitable and unstoppable movement toward democratic change in Iran.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Media outlets across America were headlining Joe Biden's announcement Thursday that he has granted a couple dozen more pardons and hundreds and hundreds of commutations.
But one headline getting attention was that about Biden's grant of clemency for a couple of Chinese spies, and the fact Biden did it without making any announcement.
The Biden family links to China long have been the subject of speculation about their extent, and their impact on his presidential decisions. Son Hunter Biden once traveled to China with then Vice President Biden and came back with a multi-million dollar business deal.
The secret clemency acts were described by the Federalist.
"X user Nick Sortor posted that 'Joe Biden just pardoned multiple Chinese spies and an individual convicted of possessing child p*rnography. WHY?'" charged the report, which noted Biden "did it quietly only days before Thanksgiving."
"While most Americans were finalizing their menus and getting into the holiday spirit, Biden commuted the sentence of Yanjun Xu on November 22. Xu was convicted in 2022 for 'conspiracy to commit economic espionage; conspiracy to commit trade secret theft; attempted economic espionage by theft or fraud; attempted theft of trade secrets by taking or deception.'"
Biden's conclusion, as he said in his pardon, was, "it is in the national interest that the term of imprisonment related to the aforesaid conviction not be served in its entirety."
Xu was told to leave the U.S. and never return.
"Similarly, spy Ji Chaoqun was convicted of 'conspiracy to defraud the United States; impersonating agents of foreign governments; statements or entries generally,'" the Federalist report said.
He had arrived in the U.S. in 2013, later enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserves under a program for those with "special skills."
Federal authorities in Illionois said, "Ji worked at the direction of high-level intelligence officers in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, a provincial department of the Ministry of State Security for the People's Republic of China."
Biden commuted the sentence, with the Chicago Sun-Times confirming it was "with no fanfare or public announcement."
The report continued, "Even more disturbing, Biden also granted clemency to Shanlin Jin, who was convicted after 'police found more than 47,000 images and videos of child pornography in his computer.'"
The Financial Times suggested the executive actions were "part of a prisoner swap" involving Mark Sweden, Kai Li and John Leung. However, such swaps typically are promoted by the president making them.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joe Biden, who just days earlier had delivered a special get-out-of-jail-free card to his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted on multiple gun charges and pleaded guilty to a list of tax felonies that could have put him in jail for years, has announced another 39 pardons and the commutation of sentences for almost 1,500 people.
Joe Biden's earlier pardon of Hunter was the result of his own stunning flip-flop on the issue. He repeatedly had promised the American people he would abide by the decisions of the judges and juries in Hunter Biden's criminal cases.
He apparently lied, however, delivering an unprecedent grant of pardon for any and all crimes committed by Hunter Biden over the course of more than a decade.
The move prompted immediately speculation that Joe Biden now will issue pre-emptive pardons to other personalities in Washington who have launched vicious attacks on President-elect Donald Trump, sometimes edging over into what could be described as illegal behavior, such as members of ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan January 6 committee who destroyed evidence following their campaign against Trump.
Specific names brought up in the pardon speculation game include Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney, former members of the U.S. House who repeatedly used their offices and power to launch unsupported attacks on Trump, and Anthony Fauci, who manipulated the American public with his demands during the COVID pandemic.
The White House Biden also promised more announcements.
The latest move issues pardons for 39 people "convicted of non-violent crimes."
The clemency for 1,500 was the "most ever in a single day."
Those people, the White House charged, have "shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer."
Those individuals had been placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Together, these actions build on the president's record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society," the White House statement claimed.
The White House comments continued: "He is also the first president ever to issue categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation. In the coming weeks, the president will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations."
The statement boasted that those receiving relief include: "A decorated military veteran and pilot who spends much of his time helping his fellow church members who are in poor health or unable to perform strenuous tasks."
But there was no mention of the offense committed.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
On the heels of the capture of Aleppo and Hama, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was ousted as opposition forces quickly took control of Damascus a few short days ago. But the international community is wary, wondering into whose hands any of the Assad regime's suspected chemical weapons arsenals could fall.
The United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are tracking the possibility of chemical weapons remaining in Syria. Izumi Nakamitsu, the U.N. high representative for Disarmament Affairs, considers the presence of such weapons "extremely worrying."
Ryan Mauro, a veteran national security analyst who has focused on Syria and the Middle East for over 20 years, told WorldNetDaily that Assad once claimed he had destroyed all weapons of mass destruction, when in fact he did not. The investigative researcher for the Capital Research Center pointed out, "Assad lied about his deck [of cards] – about what he had destroyed."
Although Israeli airstrikes have targeted chemical weapons sites for destruction, Mauro said, "We do not have an accurate account of what Assad possessed." Without knowing if any of Assad's chemical weapons arsenal remains, Mauro conceded, "It's likely some of these weapons could end up in the hands of terrorist-tied rebels, including Hayat Tahrir al Sham," known as "HTS."
Despite its early affiliation with Al-Qaida, he said, today "the HTS group is more concerned with diplomacy and public relations, trying to win popular support [in Syria]."
"If they find chemical weapons," Mauro speculates, "they're not going to use them. They're benefiting too much from taking a diplomatic approach, and that's what I expect them to do in at least the near future." In fact, he said, he would "not be surprised" if HTS found chemical weapons and actually facilitated their destruction under international supervision.
The problem, warned Mauro, is that "these rebels are not a singular force, [as] there are other Al-Qaida/Salafi-type jihadist groups that follow them and work with them." Indeed, says Mauro, there are countless rebel groups – "some operating in different coalitions and others operating independently."
Therefore, warns Mauro, "it's very possible some chemical weapons and other sensitive materials could end up in the hands of a jihadist group that isn't HTS."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The inspector general for the Department of Justice has confirmed that there were at least 26 undercover federal agents on duty at the Jan. 6, 2021, protest-turned-riot at the U.S. Capitol.
There long has been speculation about such agents, and accusations back and forth about who they were and what they did.
Such "confidential human sources" are used by the DOJ to obtain information that can be used in criminal charges against others, and those CHS individuals sometimes are given permission by the government to violate certain laws in order to maintain their undercover identity, and more. IG Michael Horowitz suggested that was not the case in this situation.
The Washington Examiner said it was Horowitz who confirmed the undercover agents were in use during the riot, and explained it was a "revelation that lends clarity to an aspect of the event that has long been a source of speculation."
The report said Horowitz said in an 84-page report that the sources, mostly unpaid, were in the riot.
"Some of them were embedded among rioters in restricted areas, and four FBI sources also entered the Capitol with them," the report confirmed.
Horowitz did claim the FBI did not authorize any of those undercover agents to enter the Capitol or otherwise break the law.
But he said those who did enter restricted areas have not faced any charges.
The report pointed out that the DOJ, through the activist agenda of Matthew Graves in Washington, has charged some 1,500 people with violations in connection to the riot.
Most faced offenses like trespassing, for which prosecutors sought jail time. There were some other more serious cases that included vandalism or assaulting police officers.
The only person killed that day was an unarmed protester, Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed without warning by a Capitol Police officer who then was protected by the government.
Because of the years it took for that confirmation to be revealed, speculation suggested that law enforcement agents were part of the riot, or even organized and abetted it.
"While the FBI undertook significant efforts to identify domestic terrorism subjects who planned to travel to the Capital region on January 6 and to prepare to support its law enforcement partners on January 6 if needed, we also determined that the FBI did not take a step that could have helped the FBI and its law enforcement partners with their preparations in advance of January 6," he found.
In fact, President Donald Trump repeatedly had offered to authorize National Guard troops to be at the Capitol that day to make sure there wasn't any significant violence, but his offer was rejected by Democrats in Washington, including both at the city and federal levels.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A federal appeals court has trashed the rules imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that required companies to have quotas from various population groups.
The decision found the SEC had no authority to impose its demands.
"We are grateful the court reached the right conclusion in this case," Stefan Padfield, of the Free Enterprise Project, told USA Today. "The SEC was reaching beyond its statutory authority to try and engage in progressive social engineering. The court's decision here is not only correct on the law, but also consistent with the will of the American people, who are sick and tired of seeing their government engage in divisive identity politics."
The New Civil Liberties Alliance had fought the case on behalf of the National Center for Public Policy Research's FEP and the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment.
The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the SEC's adoption of quotas for boards.
That agenda was to impose race, sex and orientation quotas on corporate boards across the U.S.
But the SEC Act of 1934, "required companies listed on a registered stock exchange to comply with SEC disclosure regulations. … SEC may not approve even a disclosure rule unless it can establish the rule has some connection to an actual, enumerated purpose of the Act.'
The decision was written by Judge Andrew S. Oldham in National Center for Public Policy Research v. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The ruling determined the race, sex and orientation of board members had "no connection" to the purposes of the law.
"SEC has intruded into territory far outside its ordinary domain," the judge said. And he said Nasdaq "offered little support for its claim that there is an empirically established – even logical – link between the racial, gender, and sexual composition of a company's board and the quality of its governance."
In fact, the law "explicitly forbids SEC from approving Nasdaq rules that regulate matters unrelated to the Act's purposes. Gender, race, and sexual orientation fall outside the Act's purposes. Even SEC itself determined these demographic characteristics have no rational relationship to corporate performance and investor returns," the legal team said.
Peggy Little, NCLA counsel, said, "The en banc majority hewed closely to the plain text of the Exchange Act and its 1975 Amendments. It adopted NCLA's statutory construction analysis that not only did Congress fail to confer such extraordinary power on this financial regulator, but SEC is statutorily forbidden to approve rules unless they further the 'purposes' of the Act to ensure fair and open markets."
And NCLA chief Mark Chenoweth explained, "The en banc Fifth Circuit has now agreed with NCLA for the third time in the last three years. This time, the Court held that Congress did not authorize SEC to adopt disclosure rules willy-nilly. Today's decision should chasten SEC to stick to its knitting and stop trying to abuse its market-regulating power."
The ruling noted, "Nasdaq proposed rules that compel the companies listed on its exchange to disclose information about the racial, gender, and sexual characteristics of their directors, and to have (or explain why they do not have) at least two directors who meet Nasdaq's definition of 'diverse,' SEC approved those rules. We hold, however, that the diversity rules cannot be squared with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934."
It continued, "It is obviously unethical to violate the law or to disregard a contractual promise. It is not unethical for a company to decline to disclose information about the racial, gender, and LGTBQ+ characteristics of its directors. We are not aware of any established rule or custom of the securities trade that saddles companies with an obligation to explain why their boards of directors do not have as much racial, gender, or sexual orientation diversity as Nasdaq would prefer."
As part of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to uproot "woke" ideology in the U.S. government, he's already nominated former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to be the next SEC chairman. Current SEC Chair Gary Gensler said last month he'll quit when Trump takes office in a few weeks.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed he is open to the idea of his nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., investigating the long-suspected link between childhood vaccinations and autism.
In fact, reports of autism cases, after being almost insignificant for decades, starting growing in the late 1970s. In 1986 the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was adopted which protected vaccine makers from any liability whatsoever for problems their products caused and since then the cases have exploded.
Trump's comments came during a recent interview with Meet the Press, where he was asked if his nominee would review the facts on the issue. He said he was "open to anything."
"When you look at some of the problems, when you look at what's going on with disease and sickness in our country, something's wrong," Trump said. "I think somebody has to find out. If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it."
John Leake wrote at the Substack page for Peter McCullough, who long has pursued the medical evidence about shots, especially those for COVID-19, that, "As readers of this Substack are aware, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has long been concerned about the possible link between childhood vaccines and autism. He found it especially notable that the incidence of autism began to rise rapidly in the late 1980s, shortly after the passage of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which granted vaccine manufacturers immunity from all civil and criminal liability for injuries or deaths caused by their products."
The report noted "children may receive up to 24 immunizations by age 2 years and up to 5 injections in a single visit."
"Might all of these antigens injected into the bodies of small children result in an inflammatory response that could—in some way that is not yet fully understood— injure their developing brains?"
Leake wrote, "In my experience as a true crime writer, whenever individuals or groups object to a suspicious incident being merely investigated, one can be virtually certain that such individuals or groups are concealing something. It seems to me that all Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. proposes to do is commission unbiased researchers to conduct a proper investigation. What reasonable person who cares about kids would object to such an investigation?"
WND long has reported on the charges that a vaccine-autism link should be investigated.
In fact, in a column published on WND nearly a decade ago, Kennedy himself explained some of the questions that need to be addressed.
There, he cited the case of a defendant in a criminal indictment, for wire fraud and money laundering, that happened "in connection with more than $1 million in research grants he allegedly pilfered from CDC as he was ginning up fraudulent studies to 'prove' that vaccines don't cause autism."
He noted that fugitive, Poul Thorsen, "is one of the co-authors and data manager for two leading foreign studies offered by CDC as the foundation of its claims that vaccines do not cause autism."
One of the suspected factors is thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines, and a study in Denmark showed that when thimerosol was banned, autism reports increased – but that was linked to new reporting requirements that massively enhanced the population suffering from autism.
Further, he charged that CDC scientists "deliberately manipulated the final dataset [of a study] to prevent public disclosure of the decrease in autism since it did not support the study's conclusion that there was no association between thimerosal and autism."
Kennedy explained, "It would be difficult to overstate the cataclysmic impacts of Thorsen's mischief on global health. The study he is accused of fabricating was an instrumental piece of evidence cited by The Institute of Medicine to justify its infamous 2004 conclusion that thimerosal was not causing autism. IOM's declaration laid the foundation for dismissal of some 5,000 autism cases by the United States Court of Claims (The Vaccine Court). The Madsen et al. 2003 study has been repeatedly cited by public health agencies to justify the inclusion by CDC of thimerosal in 50 million flu shots given to Americans, including pregnant women, and the World Health Organization's (WHO) decision to inoculate 100 million children in developing nations annually with thimerosal preserved vaccines."
The scandal spread worldwide, with Australia banning a film documenting the link between vaccines and autism.
Three years later, WND reported on a video in which two parents tearfully told the story of their tragedy – triplets all becoming autistic within hours of getting a vaccination at the age of nine months.
That came to light just as Mark Green, then elected to the U.S. House but not yet seated, publicly raised the issue of a vaccine-autism link to the national level.
At the time Green, a medical doctor, questioned data from the CDC and other institutions that purport to disprove the vaccine link.
"Let me say this about autism," Green said at the time. "I have committed to people in my community, up in Montgomery County, to stand on the CDC's desk and get the real data on vaccines. Because there is some concern that the rise in autism is the result of the preservatives that are in our vaccines.
"As a physician, I can make that argument and I can look at it academically and make the argument against the CDC, if they really want to engage me on it," Green said.
Jane Orient, M.D., at the time a former president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, said the real problems are a lack of adequate research and the medical industry's apparent effort to conceal any link between vaccines and autism.
"We just really don't know [the causes] and we're not doing the research" that is needed, she told WND then.
It was the McDowell family of Michigan on video on Brighteon.com that got tens of thousands of views in just days.
Natural News reported, "The video shows below, healthy triplets all became autistic within hours of vaccination, once again demonstrating that vaccines cause autism. The parents, the McDowell family in Detroit, Michigan, have spoken out publicly against the horrific medical violence being committed against children every day across America through toxic vaccines."
The parents, David and Brenda McDowell, explain in the video:
On June 25th, 2007, we brought them in for the [vaccine] shot… we went in at 10 am. All three. My daughter still has the mark on her leg from the shot… we did the boys as well. By noon, Claire shut completely off. It was as if she was blind, and deaf, and complete failure to thrive, from super super happy, smiley girl to… she had full blown eye contact, and she shut right down. All she did was stare at the ceiling.
At 2:00 we watched Richie shut off. All his mama, dadda, and the furniture walking and everything just shut of. All the giggles, all the smiles, again failure to thrive. They lost all their reflexes… they stopped blinking, yawning, coughing, sneezing, they lost their startle reflex… that was 2:00.
The worst was when we saw the final one shut down. We lost Robbie, he looked like he was hit by a bus. He had a stunned look on his face… he acted deaf, he lost his happiness. They were no longer engaged in anything or anyone. They lost their smiles. They never held hands again, never looked at each other again."
The McDowells explained that they later were informed the vaccine their children got was contaminated and was recalled after it killed a two-year-old.
But they said they were told there was no legal recourse for them.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Almost two-thirds of America's abortion industry businesses are breaking federal law by handing out abortion pill chemicals for use after the Food and Drug Administration's deadline of 10 weeks, according to a new report.
It is the "2024 survey: American abortion facilities," done by Operation Rescue that provides the alarming details.
Dispensing those drugs for use beyond the FDA's limit increases "the chances mothers will experience harmful – and potentially deadly – side effects," the report confirms.
Chemical abortions, using mifepristone and misoprostol, accounted for about 56% of all abortions in 2022, and while the FDA originally wanted those drugs not to be used beyond seven weeks of pregnancy, Barack Obama unilaterally changed that limit to 10 weeks in 2016.
But the survey says a large majority of abortion businesses are violating even that.
"Sixty-four percent of abortion clinics have gestational cut-off limits set between 11 and 13 weeks for abortion pills. This range indicates a significant majority of clinics provide abortion pills to women beyond the FDA's limit of 10 weeks," confirms the Operation Rescue report.
"Twenty-six percent administer or mail pills from 7 to 10 weeks, and the remaining 10% that limit the pills to 6 weeks or less are located in states with heartbeat protection laws in place. … The latest gestational age at which pills are administered at clinics nationwide is 13 weeks — three weeks beyond the FDA approved limit."
The complications from that pro-abortion agenda already is evident, explained a report in the Washington Stand.
"Complications of the abortion pill, and doctors' refusal to administer legally sanctioned miscarriage care, claimed the lives of at least two mothers in Georgia: 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman and 41-year-old Candi Miller," the report said.
Operation Rescue confirmed, "We know women are dying from these dangerous abortion pills, especially when taken with little or no medical oversight. If the pro-life movement stands united in holding drug companies and abortion pill suppliers accountable for these egregious deaths, we have the opportunity to win back some ground — which will save preborn lives as well as the lives of their mothers."
It maintains an archive of maternal deaths.
"A 16-year-old black girl underwent a chemical abortion at New York City's Choices Women's Medical Center in 2018, which left her 'sick, sore, lame and disabled.' Her child survived the abortion and was born with 'severe brain injuries' and other 'profound birth defects,'" according to various court records.
The report explained from 2000 to 2021, the FDA confirmed 4,207 "adverse events" from the abortion drug use, "including 26 deaths" and 1,045 hospitalizations.
The flagrant violations are just part of the record of the industry, OR said.
"Abortionists continue to exist as a privileged class of 'physicians' who cannot be touched. Their barbaric work of child-killing is too sacred to ever be lessened by disciplinary actions, meanwhile preborn children and their mothers pay the cost," explained OR chief Troy Newman.
Also revealed was that more than one in four (28%) — or 189 of 674 abortion facilities — hand out the chemicals without the mother actually seeing a doctor.
"Concerning abortion pills, it is deeply concerning to consider the appalling lack of oversight and accountability and the disturbing consequences we are already witnessing," Newman told the Washington Stand. "How many life-altering injuries and unnecessary deaths will be needed to establish standing for a lawsuit that ultimately addresses the dangerously under-regulated drugs?"
The report also noted that after the fall of the faulty Roe v. Wade precedent that fabricated a federal right to abortion, 14 states remain abortion free in 2024: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
And Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina have heartbeat protection laws that typically protect unborn babies after six weeks gestation.
Other states, like Colorado, are turning their pro-abortion ideology into an industry, drawing women from surrounding states for abortions.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A lawsuit over anti-Semitism by officials in the New York village of Atlantic Beach is being revived because they refused to abide by a settlement reached earlier that would have allowed a Jewish organization to operate a center in town, according to a report from First Liberty Institute.
The fight is over scheming by officials there to exclude Chabad of the Beaches, a Hasidic Jewish group, from opening a religious center.
In private messages Mayor George Pappas said, "Very true," when a fellow town official said, "Most people don't want the Chabad and just don't want to say it. Any secular Jew doesn't want them."
The private messaging deteriorated further, with comments like that Jews "procreate" too much, "don't tip" and "are "buying the world."
The town had claimed that it wanted to condemn the property, an old bank, and take it for municipal use, as soon as the Jewish group bought it.
But the lawsuit earlier noted that the property had been for sale for years, and the town never made any effort to acquire it until after the Chabad purchased it.
The legal team explained the newly filed complaint seeking to reopen the case pointed out, "In private communications produced in this case, Village officials freely and frequently engaged in open anti-Chabad and anti-Orthodox sentiment and trafficked in vile antisemitic tropes, including that Jews are 'buying the world,' 'procreate' too much, and 'don't tip.'"
It continued, "These messages reveal that the Village's proffered reason for seizing Chabad's property is and always has been pretextual."
The case came up in 2022, but in 2023 a settlement was reached.
That plan was "subject to several conditions, including the approval of basic building permits. Because the Village refused virtually all of those permits—including the use of the building for religious purposes—the agreement has been terminated and the lawsuit re-opened with an amended complaint," the legal team said.
A federal court already has issued an injunction preventing the village from taking the property, and now the new complaint seeks punitive damages.
"What we once suspected is now confirmed: Village leadership has been driven by blatant, openly expressed religious animus against their Jewish neighbors," said Jeremy Dys, First Liberty Institute lawyer.
"Rather than a neutral act by an unbiased city council, what we now know is that the decision to try to take Chabad's property by eminent domain was driven by a religious hostility to Hasidic and Orthodox Jews that has no place in our country."
When the Jewish group bought the bank, the town demanded to take it for a community center.
"In the two years since Chabad first challenged the attempted taking of its property, the Village has not had a single meeting, presented a single plan, or lifted a single shovel to build the community center it claimed was central to the future of the village. Those claims appear to have been pretext shielding the Village's religious animus," the lawyers explained.
WND reported earlier when U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert imposed a preliminary injunction against any action against the property until the case is fully resolved.
The judge expressed concern over the town's actions: "It is not the taking of the property, but rather the alleged resulting interference with Chabad's constitutional Free Exercise rights, that warrants finding irreparable harm upon the present record."
The judge had noted the town's decision "to acquire the property by eminent domain will burden Chabad's religious exercise by curtailing its outreach mission to the Jewish community and by eliminating its highly visible presence in the Village. Based upon the record evidence, and considering 'the historical background of the decision under challenge, the specific series of events leading to [it], and the . . . administrative history,' as well as statements made by community members, the Village's acquisition decision was made in a manner intolerant of Chabad's members' religious beliefs and which would restrict Chabad's practices because of its religious nature. Thus, the Village's acquisition decision was targeted and not done neutrally, thereby requiring the Court to apply strict scrutiny in deciding whether that decision is constitutionally permissible."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A U.S. congressman dropped a bombshell Wednesday concerning the source of mystery drones flying over New Jersey, saying they're being launched from an Iranian "mother ship" off the eastern seaboard of the United States, a claim being denied by the Pentagon.
"From very high sources, very qualified sources, very responsible sources, I'm gonna tell you the real deal," said U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J.
"Iran launched a mother ship probably about a month ago that contains these drones. That mother ship is off … the east coast of the United States of America. They've launched drones is everything that we can see or hear and again these are from high sources. I don't say this lightly."
Van Drew, a member of House Judiciary Committee, told Harris Faulkner of Fox News: "Iran made a deal with China to purchase drones, mother ships and technology in order to go forward. The sources I have are good. They can't reveal who they are because they are speaking to me in confidentiality.
"These drones should be shot down whether it was some crazy hobbyist that we can't imagine or whether it is Iran. I think it very possibly could be. They should be shot down. We are not getting the full deal and the military is on alert with this."
Realizing the gravity of Van Drew's statement, Faulkner responded:
"Look, you've given us some pretty dire information just here. And I want to make sure that our viewers are digesting this. Iran has the capability to pull up along our eastern seaboard and launch drones the size of an S.U.V. into the skies of several states, particularly New Jersey, where we know the incoming president has a large home. Also in the same county or nearby where some of these drones in New Jersey have been seen.
"That capability exists. It's possible some of those drones are here. So I have two questions. How are they fueling them? They have to land somewhere, drones don't fly forever. Why don't they close down the airspace? Yes it's inconvenient, yes, it's the holidays. Shut it down! But if you start shooting things and you don't know how they are fueled, that's gonna be mass explosions. This isn't like one spy balloon. Congressman, this is serious!"
Van Drew replied: "We've got to bring them down and we've got to find a way to bring them down. I don't know exactly where they are landing, obviously.
"I have some information and again, this isn't just Jeff Van Drew, oh let's get on Harris Faulkner's show and say something outrageous. I'm telling you the straight deal from very high-positioned individuals who are telling me this.
"And the bottom line is they're launching 'em. They are across the country. We don't even have anything like this. Our government and also certainly our hobbyists don't. So think about it. Not only do I have the information, but it's also common sense."
"We've got to get them down, we've got to determine how they function, what they do, make sure that we can get them and, you are right, in a safe way," Van Drew continued.
"When I say shoot them down, get them down any way that you can, but right now they are probably extracting information. This is a clear and present danger to the United States and to our president-elect and it's a serious business."
The U.S. military was asked about Van Drew's claim at a briefing Wednesday afternoon, and completely denied it.
"There is not any truth to that," said Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for the Pentagon.
"There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States and there's no so-called 'mother ship' launching drones towards the United States."