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Public assemblies banned for 14 days across Sydney as police enforce new powers under protest laws

Public assemblies have been banned for two weeks across Sydney after the NSW Police Commissioner activated powers prescribed after the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach. 

Reforms to the state’s laws on gun ownership and public assemblies were passed by parliament after a marathon debate in the early hours of Christmas Eve in response to the mass shooting on December 14 that left 15 people dead.

Under the laws, the Commissioner has the power to temporarily designate public areas as “restricted” from assemblies following a declared terrorist incident, which was made on the day of the mass shooting.

In a statement, Commissioner Mal Layon said any protest action at this time would “aggravate fear and divisiveness in the community”.

“The NSW Police is committed to exercising these new powers responsibly and transparently,” he said.

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Macron accuses US of ‘intimidation’ against EU

US visa restrictions against several senior EU officials amount to “intimidation and coercion” aimed at undermining the bloc’s digital policies and sovereignty, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

On Tuesday, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced new sanctions targeting Thierry Breton, the former European Commissioner for Internal Market appointed by Macron himself, and four other officials over what it described as “efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose.”

At the core of the dispute are the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, which impose strict competition and transparency obligations on large online platforms. Given that most such firms – including Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon – are headquartered in the US, American officials have argued the framework is discriminatory. Breton in particular was among the officials who played a pivotal role in establishing the EU digital rulebook.

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Whites Protected by Employment Discrimination Laws

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told Newsmax on Wednesday that Minneapolis Public Schools will learn they cannot discriminate against white people.

The Department of Justice’s civil rights division, which Dhillon leads, is suing Minneapolis Public Schools, accusing them of imposing race-, sex-, and national origin-based preferences in hiring, layoffs, reassignments, and reinstatements in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Dhillon noted on “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE,” that it has always been against the law to discriminate based on skin color, even against white people.

“The Department of Justice was never run before by an administration that cared about protecting the rights of all Americans,” Dhillon said.

“And yes, white Americans and men are protected by our employment discrimination laws.”

The complaint filed by DOJ says that since July 2021, the district has enforced collective bargaining provisions that intentionally favor “underrepresented” teachers — defined as Black, Indigenous, and other people of color — over white and Asian teachers.

According to the lawsuit, the 2021-2023 and 2023-2025 collective bargaining agreements required Minneapolis administrators to override standard seniority rules during layoffs and involuntary reassignments when a teacher was deemed “underrepresented.”

In those cases, district officials were instructed to skip the protected teacher and instead excess or reassign a “nonunderrepresented” teacher with more seniority.

“When we see egregious examples like paint-by-numbers and color-by-numbers, hiring in Chicago and Minneapolis, we open investigations,” Dhillon said.

“When we gather the evidence; we file lawsuits,” she added.

“This is a very clear case of not only disparate impact run amok but the types of affirmative action we are not having anymore in this country.”

“Disparate impact, DEI, that’s all over from the federal government’s perspective,” Dhillon concluded.

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Former Madera County worker arrested in CalFresh benefits theft case

55-year-old Leticia Mariscal, a former benefits eligibility worker in Madera County, has been arrested on charges of stealing over $40,000 in CalFresh benefits.

Investigators said she used the identities of more than 15 individuals, including the elderly and deceased.

U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced her arrest, saying she allegedly accessed county databases from December 2020 to April 2025 to carry out the scheme.

She reportedly approved benefits for these individuals, printed EBT cards in their names, and used the funds herself.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Madera County District Attorney’s Office, conducted the investigation.

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UK says ‘committed’ to upholding free speech after US visa bans

The UK government said Wednesday it is “fully committed” to upholding free speech, after the US slapped visa bans on five prominent Europeans working in the tech sphere, including two Britons.

“While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the Internet free from the most harmful content,” a British government spokesperson said.

“The UK is fully committed to upholding the right to free speech,” the spokesperson added.

The US State Department announced sanctions Tuesday against Britons Imran Ahmed — of the anti-misinformation nonprofit the Center for Countering Digital Hate — and Clare Melford, who leads the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI).

It also targeted former EU commissioner Thierry Breton and two others.

It accused them all of promoting “censorship crackdowns by foreign states — in each case targeting American speakers and American companies”.

It follows Washington ramping up its attacks on EU regulations after Brussels earlier this month fined Elon Musk’s X for violating rules on transparency in advertising and its methods for ensuring users were verified and actual people.

The US administration of President Donald Trump has also been highly critical of the UK over tech and free speech, attacking its Online Safety Act that seeks to impose content moderation requirements on major social media platforms.

In August, the State Department said Britain had “significant human rights issues”, including restrictions on free speech, and last week the White House suspended implementation of a multi-billion-dollar tech cooperation deal.

It emerged that this was due to opposition to the UK’s tech rules.

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EU state denies entry to Russian athletes

Latvia has denied entry to Russian athletes ahead of a crucial Luge World Cup stage hosted by the EU country, its foreign minister, Baiba Braze, has announced.

Like its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia has been one of the staunchest opponents of Moscow since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, calling for more military aid to Kiev and increasingly harsh sanctions on Russia. Riga has provided almost $1 billion in assistance to the government of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky since February 2022.

On January 3 and 4, the Latvian town of Sigulda hosts the fourth stage of the Luge World Cup. The points scored in the event are essential for athletes to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Italy’s Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in February 2026.

Braze wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that Russian lugers “are not welcome in Latvia.”

“I have decided to include 14 Russian Federation citizens on the persona non grata list,” she said.

According to the foreign minister, the entry ban, introduced in line with the country’s immigration legislation, is indefinite.

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Bill Gates Thinks Anything He Disagrees with Is ‘Misinformation’ that Should Be Policed by AI

Billionaire tech tycoon Bill Gates has expressed concern about the impact of “misinformation” on future generations, claiming that AI should be used to police ideas he disagrees with online. The creepy Microsoft founder has a long history of taking radical positions on issues including climate alarmism that he’d like to stifle dissent against.

Fortune reports that in a recent interview, Bill Gates discussed what he sees as the growing problem of misinformation and its potential to negatively affect the lives of his children and future generations. Gates, who reinvented himself as a creepy advocate for climate alarmism and other leftist causes,, noted that the spread of false information online has become a significant concern for him and his family.

The billionaire’s comments came in light of a recent incident involving his daughter, Phoebe Gates, who claims she was subjected to online harassment. This experience led Gates to reflect on the broader implications of misinformation and its ability to cause harm to individuals and society as a whole.

“Seeing my daughter targeted by false claims and harassment online was a wake-up call,” Gates said. “It made me realize that the problem of misinformation is not just about the present, but it’s also about the future we’re leaving for our children.”

Gates argues that the spread of what he considers to be “misinformation” can have far-reaching consequences, from undermining public trust in institutions to hindering progress on critical issues such as public health and climate change. He noted that the proliferation of false information online has the potential to erode the foundations of democracy and create a more polarized and divided society.

“Misinformation is a complex problem that requires a multi-faceted approach,” Gates explained. “We need to invest in media literacy programs, support fact-checking organizations, and encourage responsible behavior from social media platforms. But we also need to foster a culture of critical thinking and healthy skepticism, so that people are better equipped to distinguish between credible information and false claims.”

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Kremlin responds to Zelensky’s ‘unhinged’ Christmas address

Vladimir Zelensky’s “strange” Christmas address raises concerns over the Ukrainian leader’s ability to make any rational decisions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. 

Zelensky published a video on his Telegram channel on Wednesday in which he wished Ukrainians a happy upcoming Christmas. However, in the same video, he also wished for a certain unnamed person – presumably Russian President Vladimir Putin – “to perish” before urging everyone to pray for peace.

Commenting on the video, Peskov said it appeared “uncultured, embittered, and coming from a seemingly unhinged person.”

“One wonders if he’s capable of making any rational decisions towards a political and diplomatic settlement,” the Kremlin spokesman added, referring to the ongoing Russia-US efforts to end the Ukraine conflict. Moscow has accused Kiev and its European backers of repeatedly undermining peace talks by making unacceptable demands.

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Infant Vaccination Increases Death Risk by Up to 112% vs Unvaccinated

A new study by Drs. Karl Jablonowski and Brian Hooker of Children’s Health Defense titled, Increased Mortality Associated with 2-Month Old Infant Vaccinations, analyzed linked Louisiana Department of Health immunization and death registry data to evaluate whether routine 2-month infant vaccinations (administered at 60–90 days of life) are associated with mortality in the subsequent month (90–120 days).

Using individual-level records from 1,225 infants who later died before age three, investigators compared infants vaccinated in the 2-month window with those unvaccinated during the same period, while holding age-at-death constant.

Infants vaccinated at 2 months showed consistently higher odds of death in the following month, with statistically significant risk increases spanning individual vaccines, cumulative exposure, sex, race, and combination products.

Most alarming, infants who received all six recommended 2-month vaccines had a 68% higher odds of death overall (OR = 1.68; p = 0.0043), with the risk surging to +68% in Black infants and +112% in female infants (OR = 2.12; p = 0.0083).

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Fears New York handyman is a serial killer as he’s charged with third murder… and cops warn there could be more victims

An upstate New York handyman who has already pleaded guilty to murdering two women is now feared to be a serial killer, as he was charged with a third homicide.

Richard Fox, 62, has been charged with second-degree murder for the death of 32-year-old Crystal Curthoys after her decomposed body was found in a home he once owned in Niagara Falls, WBKW reports.

The former handyman is already behind bars for the murders of 40-year-old Cassandra Watson in 2003 and 50-year-old Marquita Mull in 2021.

He had pleaded guilty to killing the two women and dumping their bodies off the path of Chautauqua Rails to Trails, near where he grew up.

Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said he now considers Fox to be a ‘serial killer,’ noting that there are still about two or three homicides in the New York county that remain unsolved.

‘I do believe that there [are] other victims,’ he said in September, when Fox was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison, according to WIVB.

‘We’re hopeful that Richard Fox will hopefully try to ease his conscience a little bit and give us some more information.’ 

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