This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – The Biden administration is reportedly furious at Israel for keeping it in the dark about its plans to retaliate Iran's Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel. Washington, fearing any Jerusalem missteps could at least lead to all-out regional war, a situation it is desperate to avoid with the upcoming presidential election less than a month away.

The Wall Street Journal initially reported Israel's reluctance to share specific information about its intended response with the Biden administration, which is still steaming from only learning of the plan to take out Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in his Beirut headquarters while the Israel Air Force bombers were already in the air.

Israel has gone against U.S. wishes multiple times since the war, which Hamas brought to Israel due its bestial slaughter on Oct. 7, 2023, and Hezbollah joined a day later. Vice President Kamala Harris suggested she knew better than Israel's military leaders with decades of experience of kinetic warfare between them about the apparent folly of encircling and entering Rafah, because she had "studied the maps." They didn't listen, went in anyway, and Hamas' military capabilities are on life-support, although not yet dead.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was supposed to meet Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, in hopes of garnering more information about Israel's plans. At the last minute, Gallant's proposed trip was shelved, a move which various media outlets have laid at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's door, suggesting he set last-minute demands.

Netanyahu was alleged to have requested Gallant stay put until he had a chance to speak with Biden about Israel's planned retaliation against Iran, and wanted the security cabinet to first approve the planned response. Biden and Netanyahu's planned Wednesday conversation will be the first time the two have conversed directly since Aug. 21.

Israel has to try and delicately thread the needle in this situation. It has relied heavily on U.S. military aid for the duration of the war, although it is the one in actual existential danger from the Islamic Republic and its ring of proxies, which constantly threaten the Jewish state.

Jerusalem can also point to instances where the Biden administration has very publicly leaked information, giving Israel's enemies a heads-up on planned strikes or operations, including immediately prior to the recent limited ground invasion into Lebanon. Reports also emerged Wednesday that the U.S. is circumventing Israel, and along with several Arab states is directly negotiating with Iran in secret.

The diplomatic wrangling and the claims and counterclaims are playing out against a highly unusual backdrop of the upcoming U.S. election. With Biden a seemingly increasingly peripheral figure following the former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi-led coup – although hysterically he seems to be attempting to torpedo Harris' election bid with some impromptu press appearances in which he tied her past in office directly to his – there is some kind of vacuum at the top of U.S. politics.

Furthermore, recent leaks about Biden have emerged, and reflect how he has gotten almost every foreign policy position wrong during a 50-year-career highlighted by mediocrity. On a phone call with Netanyahu in late July, Biden roared down the phone, "Bibi, what the f***?!" on learning Israeli jets had taken out senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, upon whom the United States had a $5 million bounty for his role in the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut in 1983.

Additionally, a soon-to-be-released Bob Woodward book "War," explores Biden's relationship with world leaders, very much including Netanyahu. On Israel's entering Rafah, which Biden clearly though the IDF would not do, Biden was apoplectic with rage, "He's a f***ing liar!" he said of Netanyahu privately. According to Woodward's account, Biden privately referred to Netanyahu as "That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he's a bad guy. He's a bad f***ing guy!" during a conversation with an associate in spring 2024 as the conflict in Gaza intensified.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

There's been a lot of open speculation about how effective the U.S. Secret Service, under the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, has been in protecting President Donald Trump, who held that office from 2017-2021 and once again is a candidate.

After all, that administration is the same administration that effectively has weaponized the Department of Justice to attack Trump, for his comments about the 2020 election, for his handling of government documents, even for his business operations, as a related state agenda demanded.

Further, he's been targeted by at least two assassination attempts in just the past few weeks, including one that left him wounded. And there have been multiple concerns and complaints that the Secret Service repeatedly denied him the level of protection his own campaign staff said was needed.

Now the situation has gotten worse.

The chief of the agency already has quit in the wake of agents' failures to protect Trump in that assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, a few weeks ago.

Hawley sent letters to the Secret Service chief Ronald Rowe and the Department of Homeland Security inspector general Joseph Cuffan, revealing that at this point government auditors are being denied access to some Trump campaign events in an effort "to hide these apparent protection shortfalls for the former president," the report said.

"You of course have publicly stated that former President Trump is receiving 'the highest level of Secret Service protection' and that 'he's getting everything.' This new whistleblower information troublingly contradicts your public statements," Hawley told the bureaucrats.

Hawley charged, to Cuffan, that, "Secret Service headquarters blocked several of your auditors from accessing recent Trump campaign events."

Hawley continued, "The Secret Service whistleblower alleges that the denial was in order to hide the fact that the former president is not receiving a consistent level of protective assets for all of his engagements. [Y]ou should be aware of these allegations, which indicate that the Secret Service is not in fact cooperating with your auditors and is instead painting a false picture."

Hawley has been hearing from whistleblowers since that July 13 attempt on Trump's life, when he was nicked in the ear by a bullet that likely would have killed him had he not turned his head to look at a poster display at just that second.

He's given credit to God for saving his life.

Hawley already has released a lengthy report detailing a list of allegations against Washington's bureaucracy.

"Hawley found a 'compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding,'" Fox reported.

Trump, besides crediting a higher power for sparing his life, has commented on suspicions that outside enemies, including Iranian interests, are trying to take him out.

The Washington Examiner notes that Trump has charged that Biden should threaten to bomb Iran if those linked to the rogue Islamic empire try to assassinate him.

"Iran has an open threat out for me, and that's bad. And Biden, if he were a real president, if he were the kind of guy he should be, he should say, 'If anybody shoots a former president, who's now the leading candidate, even though he's leading against Democrats, we will bomb that country into oblivion.' And it would stop."

The report noted, "Iran has openly touted plans to assassinate Trump since his administration's assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps leader Qassem Soleimani in January 2020."

The two assassination attempts of Trump in July and September were not linked with the Iranian government.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Apparently it's not a good idea to announce, during a college course you teach, that you believe men who don't support a woman for president should be lined up and "shot."

This conclusion comes from the case of a teacher, apparently in a University of Kansas classroom.

Apparently, university officials weren't pleased with the advocacy for violence, on the state taxpayers' dime and in a public university setting.

"The university is aware of a classroom video in which an instructor made an inappropriate reference to violence," the school announced. "The instructor is being placed on administrative leave, pending further investigation.

"The instructor offers his sincerest apologies and deeply regrets the situation. His intent was to emphasize his advocacy for women's rights and equality, and he recognizes he did a very poor job of doing so. The university has an established process for situations like this and will follow that process."

At a Twitchy commentary was the note, "We love the excuse. He intended to advocate for 'women's rights' and 'equality' but did a 'poor job' of it. No. He said exactly what he meant — there are a million different ways to talk about women's rights and equality that don't involve the mass murder of one's political opponents. The University locked replies (we're not shocked), but the quotes told them exactly how people feel about the professor and his 'apology.'"

It appears the university won't be alone in "investigating."

And one commenter suggested the odd situation that has the university admitting it has "an established process" for "when a professor suggests men who don't vote for Kamala should be 'lined up and shot."'

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The state of Florida is targeting a deceptive pro-abortion ad campaign that has been launched there with cease-and-desist letters to television stations that have aired the lies.

A report from Liberty Counsel, a key legal team that has fought numerous battles against the pro-abortion ideology that has flooded America in recent years, explains it's a political ad that contains what the state Department of Health has determined is "false" information about the state's current law.

"The 30-second advertisement features a woman named Caroline who chose to have an abortion after being diagnosed with brain cancer. She suggests Florida's current six-week 'heartbeat' law would have prevented her from getting the necessary treatment to save her life and that Amendment 4 would 'protect' women like her," the report said.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has ratcheted up his threats to use nuclear weapons against anyone who engages in a confrontation with his country or one of its allies.

According to DW News, state-owned news agency KCNA reported Kim had reiterated he would use nuclear weapons against both South Korea and the U.S., while speaking at a defense university which was named in his honor.

During his speech, Kim also noted North Korea would be working to increase its military might, and its growth, while further advancing its nuclear capabilities.

The comments come just days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said any use of nuclear weapons against them by the North Koreans would be "the end of the North Korean regime."

North Korea further promised NATO allies they will face "tragic consequences" if they continue to "infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty, security and interests" of North Korea, according to an unnamed spokesperson from the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was reported by RBC Ukraine.

"If NATO continues to try hard to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty, security, and interests of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] while persistently pursuing hostile policy toward it, NATO blindly following the U.S. will be held wholly responsible for the tragic consequences to be entailed by it," the spokesperson said.

However, South Korea's Yeol said Kim's disclosure of his nuclear facility was a way to grab attention ahead of the U.S. presidential election next month.

According to the Associated Press, Yeol said in a written response he will be stressing denuclearization of North Korea at the next Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit – a political and economic union of 10 countries in Southeast Asia, which includes Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

"At the upcoming ASEAN-related summits, I will stress the importance of denuclearization of North Korea, which is a prerequisite for realizing a free, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region … This will serve to send a clear message that the international community will never condone North Korea's reckless actions," Yeol said.

North Korea has been previously accused by the U.S. of supplying arms to Russia in its fight against Ukraine, a rumor bolstered by Russian President Valdmir Putin's trip to the isolated nation in June, where both Putin and Kim agreed to a mutual trade agreement.

South Korea's Yeol accused North Korea Tuesday of supplying soldiers to Russia, and further claimed some had already been killed by Ukraine forces. According to Daily Express U.S., the North Korean soldiers were killed in a missile strike in Donetsk last week.

South Korea's defense minister Kim Yong-hyun said it was "likely" these soldiers had already been killed, and noted Kim was expected to send more troops to support Russia.

"We assess that the occurrence of casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine is highly likely, considering various circumstances," he said.

Dr Andrew Monaghan, an expert on Russian grand strategy, told Times Radio the union between Russia and North Korea destabilizes the security of the entire Pacific region, and further noted the alliance is not just about supplying munitions and oil between the two nations.

"For me, the important thing that Putin gets out of this, is positioning in the Pacific. So, if you think in terms of strategy and Russian futures and how they view the future, what we're doing is moving toward a Pacific century, a Pacific 21st century, and what does North Korea offer? Ports and positioning, and a role in that region, quite a strategically important … geographical location," Monaghan said.

Monaghan said it means markets for Russia in terms of agriculture, weapons transfers, military transfer of technology, including access to North Korea's large submarine fleet. Monaghan added Russia's position in the global order has shifted in recent years.

"It provokes a destabilization in the region … there is a double angle to this, not only does it create instability on the Korean peninsula, but it also has ramifications for South Korea," Monaghan said.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Tim Walz has made a statement that America's Electoral College "needs to go."

That process, of course, is what the nation's Founders established to make sure that a handful of major population centers would not, forever, control the results of each election.

It allows even low-population states to have an influence on the results, even if those large concentrations of voters in cities and states still have more influence.

Walz's statement makes it clear that he wants to destroy forever any influence from voters in many Republican states: Oklahoma, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and more.

And his comment also is being seen has an attempt to set the groundwork for a claim that President Donald Trump "stole" the 2024 election, should the candidate who now is leading the race in many polls actually be declared the victor.

The Washington Examiner reported Walz was at yet another fundraiser when he said, "I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go. But that's not the world we live in."

At still another fundraiser, he continued his agenda, with, "This country is deeply divided, and because of that, this election is going to be very, very close — margin of error. And we know, because of our system of the Electoral College, that puts a few states in real focus.

Officials for Kamala Harris' campaign immediately repudiated the leftist idealogy, stating that is not the position she holds."Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket," the campaign said.

However, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt suggested an ulterior motive, given that polls are showing more and more that Trump could win re-election.

She suggested Walz is "laying the groundwork to claim President Trump's victory is illegitimate."

Walz already has taken positive steps to destroy the Electoral College. He has signed legislation in his state of Minnesota that makes a priority of electing presidents by the national popular vote.

Multiple states have enacted a compact to throw all of their support behind that popular vote winner, and it is to take effect when they collect the requisite 270 EC votes.

However, such a plan could be seen as violating the U.S. Constitution and is untested so far in the courts.

Daily Mail reported the Trump campaign responded to Walz's plans by noting that polling suggests Harris could win the popular vote, but Trump has a nearly 60% chance of winning the Electoral College vote and taking up residency in the White House next January.

Actually, the circumstances provide for the same argument that Hillary Clinton used in 2016 to allege that Donald Trump had "stolen" the election from her, a claim that she often repeats even now. She had narrowly won the popular vote, but because of the Electoral College count of state votes, Trump captured the White House.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Kamala Harris' meandering word salads are well-known. Just look online for her description of "passage of time" and how important is the "passage of time" and you'll be treated to a flood of social media evidence.

But this time it's gone way beyond the fact that she has trouble delivering a coherent answer to questions.

Now a television interview has been edited in order to try to make her coherent.

By inserting into the interview an answer that she had not delivered to that question.

See the video (Please be aware of one scatological reference to her comments in the video description):

The interview included Bill Whitaker asking: "But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?"

Harris' actual response: "Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region."

Then "60 Minutes" edited her response, apparently to make it better?

Bill Whitaker: "But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?"

Harris: "We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end."

The Gateway Pundit concluded the deception was done "to make her sound coherent and normal."

"This is the definition of election interference," the report said. "Apparently, Kamala's interview with 60 Minutes was much worse than we first thought. Fake news 60 Minutes was caught editing Kamala's answers to make her sound coherent and normal."

The report noted Harris' answer apparently came from "earlier in the interview."

"This isn't journalism. It's fraud.," the report said.

Social media, which delivered the evidence to some four million viewers – and counting – immediately pointed out that President Donald Trump had declined to do an interview with "60 Minutes," with, "No wonder Trump didn't want to do your interview…"

"First you lied about the Hunter Biden laptop in 2020 and now you plug and play Kamala's answers? Whoa!"

Another said, "So, I guess I can assume that ALL 60 Minutes hard-hitting, investigational reports are lies upon lies upon lies…"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A sharply divided Colorado Supreme Court, a body known for its left-leaning activism, has thrown out a transgender's complaint against a Christian baker for refusing to use his artistry to endorse a transgender "coming-out" by a man who now represents himself as a woman.

The fight involves the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which previously was scolded by the U.S. Supreme Court for its "intolerance" of Christianity, and Masterpiece Cakeshop baker Jack Phillips.

It's also part of a nationwide agenda by leftists promoting the LGBT ideology to force Christian photographers, bakers, florists and others to violate their faith and promote the agenda under the canopy of "nondiscrimination."

Phillips previously won a battle before the U.S. Supreme Court after two homosexuals sued him, before the state-run commission, for refusing to use his talents to promote a same-sex wedding.

At the time that case developed, a lawyer contacted Phillips to attack him as a "hypocrite and bigot," according to the ADF, which has represented Phillips in multiple attacks on his faith over 12 years.

That lawyer, a man, then contacted Phillip's business to demand a pink cake with blue frosting, and specifically bragged it was to celebrate transgenderism.

Phillips again declined to be forced to violate his faith and celebrate a perspective deviant to Christianity.

So the lawyer, now identifying as Autumn Scardino, filed a complaint with the commission, which ruled against Phillips.

However, Phillips, already with the experience of the charges from the homosexual duo, and the Supreme Court's decision to affirm his religious rights over Colorado's "intolerance" of Christianity, brought a First Amendment lawsuit against the commission and state.

Quickly, a confidential settlement was reached and the commission, at an emergency meeting, shut down Scardina's case.

He then went to court to file the same charges, but the state court's majority said the process for discrimination complaints in Colorado doesn't allow that, and tossed the case entirely on the technicality.

"Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It's time to leave him alone," said ADF lawyer Jake Warner. "Free speech is for everyone. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in 303 Creative, the government cannot force artists to express messages they don't believe. In this case, an attorney demanded that Jack create a custom cake that would celebrate and symbolize a transition from male to female. Because that cake admittedly expresses a message, and because Jack cannot express that message for anyone, the government cannot punish Jack for declining to express it. The First Amendment protects that decision."

The 303 Creative decision also came from the U.S. Supreme Court, and also was a loss for Colorado's official position of discriminating against Christians. There, a web designer challenged the state's demand that she promote same-sex weddings in her business, and won at the high court.

The ADF noted, "Phillips won his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018, when the court found that Colorado officials who punished Phillips acted with hostility toward his faith. That ruling did not address Phillips's free-speech rights to decline to create custom cakes expressing messages that violate his faith. Now, the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling has ended the most recent lawsuit against Phillips, dismissing the case because the attorney who filed it did not follow the right process. Like the prior win, this ruling does not address Phillips' free-speech rights."

But those speech rights were addressed in 303 Creative.

That decision "upheld free speech for creative professionals like Phillips."

"We granted review to determine, among other issues, whether [the attorney] properly filed [this] case," the Colorado Supreme Court wrote in its opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Scardina. "We conclude that [the attorney] did not."

Scardina, in fact, not only had demanded a custom cake to celebrate transgenderism, but also demanded Phillips provide a custom cake, "one depicting Satan smoking marijuana, to 'correct the errors of [Phillips] thinking.'"

Phillips repeatedly has made clear he will decline to provide cakes that express messages in violation of Christian beliefs, and the one making the request makes no difference.

Columnist Thomas Jipping at Real Clear Wire had described the attacks on Phillis.

"Phillips and his wife, Debra, are Christian co-owners of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado. In business since 1993, Masterpiece sells pre-made goodies in the store, and custom cakes that Jack designs and creates. Phillips has said that he strives to be obedient to Jesus Christ 'in all aspects of his life,' including in his business and in exercising his personal skill in creating designer cakes. To that end, the Masterpiece website states that Phillips 'cannot create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events that conflict with his religious beliefs.'"

Colorado, meanwhile, created special protections for members of various "sexual orientation" classes and gives them the power of the state government to punish those it considers have committed offenses against its ideology.

He explained, "Here's a recap of Phillips' first round. In 2012, a same-sex couple asked him to create a cake for their wedding. When he declined, they filed a discrimination complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission (CCRC). The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled in Phillips' favor, but on factual grounds unique to that case. Statements and actions by CCRC members, the Court held, 'cast doubt on the fairness and impartiality of the Commission's adjudication of Phillips' case.'"

He explained, "That's a polite way of saying that the CCRC's overt and ugly anti-religious bigotry fell far short of 'the First Amendment's guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion.' The Court stopped there, however, and did not address more generally how to handle these conflicts between civil rights statutes and the First Amendment right to freely exercise one's religion."

That was the situation when Scardina, "a biological male who identifies as a woman," demanded a promotion of transgenderism.

"Scardina could have purchased a pink cake with blue frosting almost anywhere, but chose Masterpiece. Scardina specifically sought a custom cake that Phillips would personally create, asking for one without an explicit message and withholding the information certain to elicit a refusal. This gambit was so that Phillips' religious exercise objection would be based on how the cake was used rather than its objective appearance. One way or another, Scardina was determined to deprive Phillips of any room for exercising his faith while staying in business," Jipping explained.

He explained the lower courts simply were wrong.

"Phillips has no problem making a custom pink cake with blue frosting for a man who identifies as a woman and, had that been the request, would have done so for Scardina. The disclosure of 'what the cake was for,' however, turned that generic request into one that would require Phillips to knowingly contribute to celebrating something that violated his religious beliefs. That, no doubt, was exactly what Scardina had in mind."

He continued, "In other words, Phillips made his decision about making this custom cake not based on anything related to Scardina, but on something very important to him: his exercise of religion. This is what courts, like the one in this case, don't seem to grasp."

Ironically, the state commission put its anti-Christian bias on the record. During the original dispute with Phillips, a publication contacted a number of Denver bakeries run by homosexuals, and asked for a cake quoting the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality.

All refused, and the commission exonerated them on the basis that such a message violated their beliefs.

The Colorado court decision, in fact, specifically said it was not ruling on any free speech rights, or nondiscrimination issues. It said that the case had to be dismissed because none of the paths allowed in Colorado law included Scardina filing the complaint in district court.

The only option open for him, would have been to appeal the dismissal that happened after Phillips sued the state for First Amendment violations, but he did not do that.

Three dissenting justices in the 4-3 ruling, still advocating for state control of religious beliefs, complained that the majority wouldn't "reach the merits of this case"

The dissenters complained, "Substantively, the majority's ruling throws Scardina completely out of court and deprives her (sic) of the opportunity to seek a remedy for alleged discriminatory conduct based on a novel interpretation of law that no party asserted and, to my knowledge, no court has adopted. Moreover, although the majority rules solely on procedural grounds, I am concerned that Masterpiece and Phillips will construe today's ruling as a vindication of their refusal to sell non-expressive products with no intrinsic meaning to customers who are members of a protected class (here, the LGBTQ+ community) if Phillips opposes the purpose for which the customers will use the products."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – Turkey's increasingly authoritarian Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the opening session of its new parliamentary session Monday that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harbored ambitions to invade Turkey and capture Anatolia as part of "Greater Israel."

The Turkish leader claimed (without evidence) Israel's designs stretch further than merely pushing back genocidal enemies from its southern and northern borders – in the form of Hamas and Hezbollah – in Gaza and Lebanon, respectively, and there is, in fact, an intention to invade his country.

Erdogan called out Israel, saying "it will sooner or later pay the price for this genocide it has been carrying out for a year and is still continuing," according to an X post. The Islamist leader has a particularly fractious relationship with Netanyahu, with the former frequently labeling the latter the "Butcher of Gaza," and likening him to Hitler. For a man with authoritarian tendencies and a mustache, it is certainly a bold claim to make.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Christopher Steele, the discredited ex-British intelligence officer who fabricated the wild claims about then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election in the pay of Hillary Clinton's team, now says journalists basically are stupid.

And he says that "disinformation" is actually true.

Steele's "dossier," the salacious, and false, claims about Trump that were used by his detractors during that election, was a series of memos he wrote, in the pay of the Democrat National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign, that made those unsubstantiated claims.