This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Sunday morning brought more Hezbollah rocket fire aimed at Israel's north, as Iran's Shia proxy responded to the IDF targeting and eliminating a senior military figure on Saturday.
This latest barrage, thought to have been at least some 60 projectiles over the course of the day, including drones, followed a much larger attack last week, in response to the IDF killing Abu Ali Nasser, commander of Hezbollah's Aziz Unit.
Incoming rocket alert sirens sounded across Sde Ilan (Ilan's Fields), some 21 miles from the Lebanese border. It was the deepest into Israeli territory that Hezbollah has attempted to penetrate with rockets since it started firing projectiles Oct 8. The terrorists have sent drones further into Israel's interior, though.
Four people were wounded in the missile barrages, including two seriously, one of whom was struck by molten shrapnel. In the first incident this morning, paramedics arrived on the scene quickly and rushed the man to Baruch Padeh Medical Center in Tiberias.
Altaar's elimination was somewhat unusual in that the drone strike taking him down occurred in the Bekaa Valley, some 60 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel has strongly intimated that the continued Hezbollah presence on its border, in addition to the constant rocket, missile and drone attacks, are intolerable, as well as the 60,00-100,000 residents of northern towns, cities and kibbutzim who cannot return home – and military action is being weighed.
In the interim, while no firm decision has been officially made, the IDF has continued to target high-ranking Hezbollah commanders who have been responsible for either carrying out or coordinating attacks against Israel.
Since October, the Shiite terrorist group has acknowledged more than 350 of its fighters have been killed; the majority in Lebanon, although others have been targeted in Syria – parts of which are also home to pro-Iranian terrorist groups, as the mullahs in Tehran attempt to complete the "ring of fire" to encircle Israel.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – As the date ticks over into the tenth month of the war that Hamas started with its murderous rampage through towns and kibbutzim of southern Israel on October 7, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are taking to the streets today to pressure the government to make a ceasefire deal.
Anti-government groups announced a "day of disruption" Sunday, to demand from the current government it increase its efforts to secure the release of the remaining 116 hostages, eight of whom are U.S. citizens, although it is known that three of those are no longer alive. Protesters have warned Saturday night's weekly rally in Tel Aviv, which last night drew according to some estimates some 100,000 people, would initiate a "week of resistance."
The day of disruption started at 6:29 a.m. local time – the exact time Hamas' onslaught began – at Kibbutz Or HaNer (Candlelight) which lies in Israel's south, less than 10 miles from the Gaza border. The day will feature rallies and protests at key intersections across the country, including Highways 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.
Highway 1 connects Israel's capital, Jerusalem, with Tel Aviv. Highway 2 runs north-south along Israel's Mediterranean coastline; Highway 4 stretches from Rosh Hanikra in the north to the Gaza border in the south, inland, and parallel to Highway 2; and Highway 6, also known as the Trans-Israel Highway. The potential for creating gridlock is great, and, likely, those not protesting will simply stay away from Israel's main road arteries for the duration of the action.
Private companies and organizations have said they will permit their employees to work remotely and/or take part in the protests, as part of growing signs there is increasing impatience with the length of the war and the fate of the hostages. The powerful Histadrut, the Israeli Labor Union, is also likely to officially join the calls for an end to the war, as well as the calling of new elections.
Anti-government protesters rallied in the morning outside the homes of several lawmakers and ministers, including those of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Economy Minister Nir Barkat, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter and the Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf.
At Gallant's home in Moshav Amikam, protesters shouted: "Total failure," lampooning the government's touted "total victory" in Gaza, according to the Times of Israel.
One thing that should be noted – in stark contradiction to the protests that have taken place across the United States and countless cities across the Western world – is that the overwhelming majority of protesters carry Israeli flags. They are not arguing for an end to the Zionist project but they are loudly emphasizing an alternative vision of what it should be.
The day is set to end with a march from Jerusalem's Sacher Park, the largest public open space in the city, which abuts the Knesset (Israel Parliament) complex, toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house about a mile away. The official prime minister's residence a short distance away from Netanyahu's home, is undergoing extensive renovations, which started under former prime minister Naftali Bennett's premiership, the approval for which predated his elevation to the post.
Pregnancies of returning hostages?
As both the war and the hostages enter their tenth month of fighting and captivity respectively, heightened attention has fallen on the plight of the young women, in particular, that Hamas holds.
A question that has long been whispered about – and which to be fair does get publicly aired relatively frequently – is the possibility, even probability – that some of the young women who were taken hostage might either be pregnant or have already given birth. Despite the protestations of anti-Israel wonks such as Pink Floyd's Roger Waters that "there were no systematic rapes on October 7," Hamas filmed themselves committing these heinous acts and posting them to the internet in real-time. It is practically unthinkable – and we have the video of them overrunning the army base and taking the women hostages captive to prove it – that these young women were not taken to be used both as sexual playthings and also specifically for impregnation.
The issue resurfaced after the publication of an article in the latest edition of the Israel Medical Association's in-house magazine. The authors – Dr. Lea Shelef from the School of Social Work at Sapir College and psychiatrist Dr. Gil Salzman from Geha Hospital – noted that rape has been used as a weapon of war in several previous conflicts, including the 2014 war in Iraq and Syria, as well as those in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The article explores many different and extremely difficult topics, ranging from the potential for women to be suffering from mental illness, including anxiety, depression, dissociative disorders, sexual dysfunction, alcohol and drug abuse, and suicide attempts. The risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder is also many times more likely in rape survivors or even if captives witnessed the rapes of other women. The Israeli medical system is attempting to prepare for "every scenario," including that there may be some women who want to keep the child, even though it resulted from rape.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Philadelphia radio host for whom the White House provided questions in advance of her interview with Joe Biden has been fired.
WURD Radio made the announcement Sunday concerning broadcaster Andrea Lawful-Sanders.
"The interview featured pre-determined questions provided by the White House, which violates our practice of remaining an independent media outlet accountable to our listeners. As a result, Ms. Lawful-Sanders and WURD Radio have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately."
Lomax said WURD "remains an independent voice that our audience can trust will hold elected officials accountable. As Pennsylvania's only independent black-owned talk radio station, WURD Radio has cultivated that trust with our audience over our 20-year history.
"This is something we take very seriously. Agreeing to a pre-determined set of questions jeopardizes that trust and is not a practice that WURD Radio engages in or endorses as a matter of practice or official policy."
She continued, saying her station "is not a mouthpiece for the Biden or any other administration. Internally, we will commit to reviewing our policies, procedures, and practices to reinforce WURD's independence and trust with our listeners. But mainstream media should do its own introspection to explore how they have lost the trust of so many Americans, black Americans chief among them."
"Black media matters. As always, we will listen, dialogue and engage with our community, bringing credible information, experts and insights to address the needs, concerns and interests of our people. This is essential as black Philadelphians gear up to be a pivotal player in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime."
In the pre-recorded interview that aired Thursday, Joe Biden famously told Lawful-Sanders he's proud to be the first black woman to serve with a black president.
"And by the way, I'm proud to be – as I've said – the first vice president – first black woman to serve with a black president," Biden said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A woman who works at Scotland's National Health Service is going to court to be punished after she objected to a man using a changing room for women.
The situation is becoming more and more common as men who say they are women invade spaces that society for millennials has deemed for women only.
The newest case is being profiled by the Christian Institute, which explained the woman, whose name is not being released, complained to NHS Fife after she "encountered a male worker in the female-only changing room late at night."
In response, the politically correct officials in her organization suspended her for three months.
Her legal team was successful in getting that repealed, but NHS Fife has continued to pursue punishing her, and now the woman plans to take her employer to an employment tribunal.
NHS Fife stands accused of violating the nation's Equality Act 2010.
The report said the NHS at this time allows men into spaces previously reserved for women only, if they claim they are women.
Fiona McAnena, of the women's group Sex Matters, said: "Making a female employee share changing facilities with a man who identifies as a woman and then suspending her from work for raising her concerns shows that gender ideology has been allowed to trump all other considerations.
"Do women who work in NHS Scotland not deserve privacy from the other sex? This looks like a Scottish government body prioritizing the feelings of men over the safety and wellbeing of female staff members."
A Daily Mail report on the fight confirmed that the nation's Equality Act has provisions "for possible exemptions concerning single-sex spaces."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Government censorship of people's ideas, statements and thoughts is flourishing not only in the United States, according to a new report from the Foundation for Freedom Online.
In America, the Supreme Court essentially gave such First Amendment-trashing operations a pass, in the recent Murthy lawsuit, by claiming that states and individuals weren't being injured by the instructions from the Joe Biden administration to social media companies on what ideas to suppress.
But that's minor next to what's going on in Europe, the report explained.
There, there's a new censorship "superweapon" in place.
Ready to use.
Each country now has a "digital services coordinator" with the power to penalize online platforms if they fail to adequately address "systemic risks," the report pointed out.
Included is "hate speech" and "misinformation," which is known to include speech that is correct and reasonable, but just conflicts with the politically correct talking points. Comments, for example, about there existing in science two sexes, male and female, has been condemned as both hate speech and misinformation.
"These official speech commissars can deputize third party entities to act as 'trusted flaggers,' empowering the global network of NGOs, research institutes, and private companies that make up the censorship industry," the report said.
The act actually went into effect at the beginning of the year, and is "the European Union’s flagship online censorship law," the foundation said.
"Other than China’s Great Firewall, it is arguably the most elaborate and wide-reaching instrument of government control of online content in the world."
It categorizes its targeted communities as Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines, and can be used to impose fines "for non-compliance" of up to 6% of a providers' global annual turnover.
Those corporations, under the law, are required to "identify, analyze, and assess systemic risks" and then install procedures to oppose those "risks."
"In other words, the EU wants platforms to identify and suppress content proactively — something that, realistically, can only be accomplished at scale using AI censorship tools," the foundation reported.
Included in its vast overreach is information dealing with "public security and electoral processes," "gender-based violence," "discrimination" or "illegal content."
Also "hate speech," which, the foundation confirms, "has been used as a pretext to criminally penalize political candidates and members of the public for political expression in a number of European countries."
Also, the law boosts the censorship industry by requiring for "vetted researchers" to have access to the data from platforms, opening the door for more censorship.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A state court has ruled that government entities must pay "just compensation" to citizens when it is due.
The fight has come up in a number of cases across the nation in recent years, several times because homes have been destroyed by police actions and the owners want compensation.
Another was when authorities built a dam that caused repeated floods on – and damage to – several agricultural businesses.
The newest is a series of problems created by the actions of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that such judgments must be paid.
According to the Institute for Justice, "From 2013 to 2016, several landowners in New Orleans had their property either damaged or their ability to use their home and church interfered with while the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans worked on a flood control project called the Southeast Louisiana Urban Drainage Project."
The legal team said, "Following the damage to their properties, the neighbors sued the SWB for the damage. The property owners won an inverse condemnation claim, and the court awarded them $998,872 in cumulative damages and $517,231 in attorney’s fees. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal of Louisiana upheld that ruling."
The board, however, refused to pay.
"The Constitution’s requirements are just that – requirements, not suggestions," said IJ Deputy Litigation Director Robert McNamara. "The government’s argument that it could withhold payment when it damages someone’s property was always absurd, and property owners across Louisiana should sleep a little better now that the Louisiana Supreme Court has said so."
The court ruling said governments that take private property must actually pay for what they take, rejecting a local sewerage board’s argument that it had fulfilled its constitutional duty to pay "just compensation" by giving property owners what amounted to an unenforceable IOU.
"Until Friday, Louisiana government agencies took the position that the Constitution required them to pay just compensation when they took property but also didn’t require them to actually pay anything on the judgments courts entered ordering them to pay for the property they took," said IJ lawyer Brian Morris. "This ruling closes one of the biggest loopholes in American property rights, and it ensures that 'compensation' means actual payment, not meaningless IOUs."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The jokes about Joe Biden's cognitive decline, made apparent to shocked Americans during the presidential debate with President Donald Trump, now are legion.
One cartoon has a military leader explaining to Biden, "Sir, the Russian army is failing, and Putin feels only nuclear weapons can deter NATO." The second panel then reveals Biden, with his back to the general, reaching out to shake hands with … no one.
But the cognitive issues Biden obviously is experience are nothing to laugh at, really, according to a government watchdog.
In a column,Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch cited videos of Biden "freezing, getting lost in his thoughts, shuffling, slurring his words, wandering off and simply checking out."
He continued, "Mr. Biden and his increasingly bizarre behavior have become the punch line for jokes and memes. But cognitive decline isn’t funny; it’s tragic. In that respect, the president deserves our empathy and compassion. But Americans are right to be concerned about the immediate national security and other consequences caused by Mr. Biden’s evident disability."
He called for Kamala Harris and Biden's cabinet members to "do their duty under the 25th Amendment and consider whether the president's cognitive issues preclude him from continuing to discharge his duties."
He said a medical review should be first, and that could, if its results are positive for Biden, close the matter.
"If the results confirm a cognitive issue, there must be no delay in invoking the 25th Amendment to protect the country," he said. If fact, he's one among a multitude seeking application of the 25th Amendment.
Given that Biden has stated he will not drop out of the presidential race, his voluntary departure from the White House is unlikely, the commentary said.
But the dispute could end up in Congress, with a two-thirds vote required for Biden to be set aside from Oval Office powers and duties.
The commentary said, "The process is designed to make it difficult to remove Mr. Biden or any president from office without a bipartisan consensus and agreement by the president. But we have all seen the alarming signs leading up to the present presidential competency crisis."
The piece concluded, "I have a simple question: Would any American trust Mr. Biden to be a judge deciding a case in court?"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A spokeswoman for President Joe Biden has reassured Americans their president is up to the job the Constitution requires him to do.
"365 days a week."
The questions have been raised because of Biden's catastrophic debate failures, in which a cognitive decline was apparent to shocked voters.
It is spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre who made the comment while aboard Air Force One.
"He is human, just like we all are," she said. "It is a 24-7 job, it is 365 days a week. That doesn't change."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A youth ministry operating in Oregon has filed a notice of appeal with the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals asking the judges to reverse a plan that discriminates based on the organization's religious faith.
Officials with the ADF are representing Youth 71Five Ministries, which works to serve at-risk youth.
The organization was approved earlier for state funding, but it abruptly was stripped away because the organization asks employees and volunteers to sign a statement of faith.
The lawsuit over the fight was filed a few months ago, and a lower court declined to give it a responsive hearing.
"71Five provides vital support and care to anyone who needs it, but Oregon state officials are punishing it because it's a Christian ministry that simply and reasonably asks volunteers and staff to agree to Christian beliefs," explained lawyer Jeremiah Galus. "By stripping 71Five of its funding, Oregon is putting religious ministries to an impossible choice: hire those who reject your beliefs to receive funding that everyone else can access or go without the funding. We will be urging the 9th Circuit to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedent that upholds the First Amendment freedom of faith-based organizations to hire like-minded individuals."
The organization reported from 2017 to 2023, 71Five Ministries applied for—and was granted—funds from Oregon’s biennial Youth Community Investment Grants program.
When it applied for the next cycle, the ministry was first approved and then denied funding due to a new rule that requires that applicants "do not discriminate" based on religion "in [their] employment practices"
The scheme is one of the ways that leftists in power, including those in the Joe Biden administration, have used to attack Christian organizations.
The strategy is simple, and involves forcing Christian organizations, in order to participate fully in their communities, to hire LGBT individuals and thus give the minority special interest group a greater influence.
A lower court had dismissed the case by the organization that serves at-risk youth.
"71Five Ministries welcomes everyone to participate in its programs, and it serves young people in Oregon of all faiths and backgrounds, including at-risk youth, young people in detention centers and correctional facilities, and expectant and parenting teens. The ministry’s mission statement says it 'exists to share God's Story of Hope with young people through trusting relationships in any relevant way.' It achieves its goal through employees and volunteers who share its mission and beliefs, as outlined by its statement of faith," the ADF reported.
The report noted that the state continues to fund other programs with blatantly discriminatory requirements, including one that serves girls but not boys.
"In 2021, 71Five had the top-rated application for the Youth Violence and Gang Prevention grant. After applying for several grants during the 2023-2025 grant cycle, the state first accepted the applications, and 71Five was set to receive more than $400,000 in grant funding. But three months later, an Oregon state official contacted the ministry’s executive director and informed him the ministry had been disqualified because of the statement of faith that employees and volunteers sign," the ADF reported.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Midway through 2024, members of the U.S. Armed Forces continue to demand answers regarding the thousands of denials of religious accommodation service members requested in response to the military's controversial 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
One of them is Lt. Chad Coppin, who retired Monday after 22 years, three months and five days in the U.S. Coast Guard. Toward the end of his career, Coppin faced an uphill battle against the Department of Homeland Security's enforcement of the now-rescinded mandate.
Like thousands of others across all branches of service, Coppin's request for religious accommodation was initially denied. In the months to follow, his appeal of the decision was also denied. He found himself in the process of being discharged via an administrative separation board for refusing to comply with the mandate.
"The only reason I did not get discharged when others did was because it is much more difficult to get rid of a commissioned officer as per U.S. law," Coppin told WND. "An enlisted member is on a contract and can be kicked to the curb for little more than the 'needs of the service.'"
For Coppin, he was in the middle of the formal separation process from the Coast Goard when the mandate was rescinded in January 2023. "I was left in my job to continue on as normal, as if nothing happened," he told WND.
"Meanwhile, the fallout was huge, trust was lost and hundreds of Coast Guard families lost their careers and were treated horribly."
Although he is now retired after two decades of honorable service, Coppin still questions the Coast Guard's blanket denial of religious accommodation, particularly the "Religious Accommodations Appeal Generator" that allowed Coast Guard adjudicators to "select from a pre-populated list of two dozen possible religious objections or noted defects that applicants had raised in the initial dismissal decision."
According to Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, a letter to Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda L. Fagan alleged that the nation's premiere maritime first responder "created a digital tool to assist in more efficiently denying appeals."
Knowing this, Coppin told the Gateway Pundit he began to investigate the Coast Guard's refusal process. Working for Fox News at the time, Kelly Laco shared a document with him that had "wording on how to deny religious accommodation based on where an individual was stationed." For example, the locations included an air station, a cutter or a land unit, he explained.
Upon reading the document concerning his own religious accommodation denial, he noticed that the job description did not match his actual assignment as a Chief Inspections Division of Sector Southeast Alaska. "I worked shoreside," Coppin told WND, "but it made it sound like I was attached to a cutter or small boat station."
In other words, said Coppin, "[The Coast Guard] copied and pasted the wrong paragraph into [my] denial, one that would have fit best with a member of a small boat station – the exact opposite of my actual job!"
Coppin responding by writing an affidavit and entering the error into the court record. He also approached senior leadership and a Coast Guard headquarters office to no avail. Despite explaining the "ridiculous" mishap, he was simply told by a commander at Coast Guard Headquarters (CG-133) to resubmit his religious accommodation request. For Coppin, this was a "foolish response."
In March 2022, Coppin submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Coast Guard Commandant (CG-6P), asking for any and all information related to the denial of his religious accommodation request and denial.
"I've asked for everything electronic, voice-related, or written," he told WND, adding that "I submitted a signed statement that I would pay their $192 estimated fees for their response as they requested."
"It's now closing in on two-and-a-half years and I still haven't received any of the information I requested," he said. To date, the only information he has received from the Coast Guard FOIA office was "a 38-page document about all these other people's FOIAs information and requests, including private entities and various law firms." For Coppin, this should be "an incredible embarrassment" to the sender.
"At a minimum, they just committed a Privacy Act violation and they don't care. They've never gotten back to me or acknowledged their blunder," he explained.
"It's not like I asked one time and I quit," Coppin noted. "I've asked multiple times for follow-ups on all this and I've been ignored." He is aware of other "Coasties" who have been subject to the same situation and have also had their FOIA requests ignored. Still others, he said, "have gotten their FOIA requests, and they've come to them so heavily redacted that you can't make any sense of them."
"These heavily redacted FOIA requests are not new for the Coast Guard," he told WND. "On June 11, 2024, at an oversight committee hearing with Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Fagan," he said, "Sen. Johnson held up an almost all-blacked-out piece of paper the USCG had submitted in relation to the Operation Fouled Anchor sexual assault scandal that the USCG is being accused of covering up." Redacted documents can be viewed at the 14-min mark on the video hearing covered by C-SPAN.
"The Coast Guard is not being transparent, and Congress needs to hold them accountable. Someone needs to ramp up their oversight efforts," Coppin asserted. "I and the other 1,200-plus Coast Guard members that were unjustly denied, just want the truth and accountability because we know 100% that they illegally used a method to deny us all."
"If the Coast Guard was serious about us being a family and looking out for each other as shipmates," he argued, "they need to start with accountability." For Coppin, "Accountability is the foundational element to bring back trust in senior leadership, and until that happens, we will have a broken service. … The American public deserves so much better."
"Our Coast Guard exists to safeguard and serve the American public, to rescue those in distress, stop illegal drug trafficking and protect our environment," he stated. "How are we to continue to do that well if we can't trust our own leadership? The COVID shot mandate debacle is just one instance of many, as to why the efforts of the Declaration of Military Accountability are so important for the integrity of our military to our nation." Readers can sign the petition there, in support of 231 service members and veterans who originally signed the declaration.
"Is there any chance Congress will hold someone accountable for the unlawful mandate and its ridiculous implementation?" Coppin asked.
Coast Guard Office of FOIA and Privacy (CG-6P) didn't respond to requests by WND for comment about the status of Coppin's request.