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Zelensky Desperately Pitches Drones For Tomahawks At White House

In a somewhat lengthy Q&A with the press, Presidents Trump and Zelensky fielded a variety of questions before starting a closed-door meeting at the White House, with each leader’s full delegations present.

All eyes have been on the potential decision to transfer Tomahawks to Ukraine, but President Trump at every turn dodged the question, and did not offer anything clear on Tomahawks one way or the other. But he did say at one point when asked about concerns over the Pentagon’s own dwindling missile stockpiles that “I have to make sure we’re stocked up as a country.”

That opened up an interesting moment where Zelensky offered “thousands” of Ukrainian drones in exchange for receiving Tomahawks, though Trump appeared cool toward the idea, and noted that the United States already possesses excellent and cutting-edge drone production. 

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Jack Smith Referred to DOJ For Criminal Investigation and Disbarment

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith has been criminally referred to the Justice Department for a misconduct investigation and possible disbarment.

After publicly stating she was going to take action, Senator Marsha Blackburn on Friday sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi criminally referring Jack Smith to the DOJ for prosecution and disbarment.

Blackburn demanded that the DOJ take action after it was revealed that Jack Smith spied on several GOP Senators.

Joe Biden’s FBI – and later Jack Smith – spied on eight Republican Senators during the ‘Arctic Frost’ investigation into January 6.

Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson earlier this year released new records detailing the FBI and DOJ’s sweeping investigation that formed the basis of Jack Smith’s DC case against President Trump.

Grassley and Johnson previously blew the lid off another sham investigation orchestrated by Biden’s corrupt Department of Justice and compromised FBI.

According to the documents released earlier this year, the FBI and DOJ weaponized their power to target President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, and their allies through a probe dubbed “Arctic Frost.”

“Operation Arctic Frost” was a taxpayer-funded witch hunt launched in April 2022 that seized government-issued cell phones belonging to Trump and Pence while conducting a barrage of interviews across the country.

Jack Smith tracked private phone calls of eight GOP Senators.

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Auto Loan Delinquencies Surge 50% As Cracks Deepen Across U.S. Credit Markets

A month after bankruptcies of subprime auto lender Tricolor and auto-parts supplier First Brands, new cracks emerged in U.S. credit markets. This week, Zions and Western Alliance disclosed they were victims of loan fraud tied to funds investing in distressed commercial real estate. The revelations come amid broader credit trouble, and shifting our focus back to autos, there’s new data this morning about credit products tied to the riskiest consumers that have seen a 50% surge in delinquencies. 

Bloomberg cites data from the credit-scoring company, VantageScore, which reveals that delinquencies among the low-tier consumers have surged 50% since 2010. Fueling the delinquencies is a perfect storm of record-high car prices, elevated interest rates, longer loan terms, and monthly payments that average nearly as much as rent for some folks. 

Since 2019, new vehicle prices have jumped over 25% to $50,000, while average monthly payments reached $767, with 20% of borrowers paying over $1,000 per month. Loan rates now exceed 9%, worsening the affordability crisis.

Notably, prime and near-prime borrowers are now defaulting faster than subprime consumers, as lenders tightened standards for the lowest-credit segment, according to the report. The average auto loan balance has risen 57% since 2010, and many borrowers are “upside-down”, owing more than their cars are worth.

“We’re seeing the cost of cars and the cost related to car ownership increase enormously,” VantageScore chief economist Rikard Bandebo said in an interview. “In the past five years, it has increased even faster.”

Bandebo continued, “That’s a double… You’ve been hit by the increased cost of the car and then the financing cost of the car.”

“Consumers now are in a more precarious position than they’ve been since the last recession,” Bandebo said. “We’ve seen this growing trend over the last several years of more and more consumers struggling to make ends meet, and it’s looking like that trend is going to continue into next year.”

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NYC Wikipedia conference halted when ‘non-offending pedophile’ storms stage, points gun at own head

A Wikipedia conference in Manhattan descended into chaos Friday morning when an unhinged Ohio man jumped on stage and pointed a gun at his own head.

Connor Weston, 27, allegedly clutched the loaded revolver as he declared, “I’m a non-contact pedophile. I want to kill myself” — prompting WikiConference staff to quickly tackle and disarm him before cops took him into custody, sources said.

“It was just adrenaline,” said one of the staffers who stopped the gunman.  “Since you’re on the trust and safety team you’re expected to do this . . . we’re not used to loaded weapons in the same room . . . we’re used to more prank behavior.” 

Weston — who wore a multicolored banner draped over his shoulders and a sign around his neck with the words “ANTI-CONTACT NON-OFFENDING PEDOPHILE” — was detained at the conference, which was hosted at Union Square’s Civic Hall on East 14th Street near Irving Place, sources said. 

“I think we handled it pretty well considering this was not an expected thing,” the worker who helped stop the incident added. “We’re expected to do that for every event but in a place like NYC you’re going to have more people and more chance of it.”

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Dover, NJ Implements AI Surveillance, Expanding Facial Recognition and Public Monitoring Systems

Dover, New Jersey, has joined a growing wave of municipalities embedding artificial intelligence into public spaces, advancing a surveillance system that includes facial recognition and automated video analysis across its government buildings.

The town partnered with technology firm Claro to retrofit its existing camera infrastructure with AI tools, avoiding the need for costly new hardware while expanding its monitoring capabilities.

The system brings a range of features into play, including facial recognition, visible weapons detection, and real-time behavioral analytics.

These tools are now active in locations such as the town hall, police department, fire station, and public library.

Town officials say the technology is being used for incident detection, crime prevention, crowd control, traffic monitoring, and illegal dumping enforcement.

“As a small municipality, we don’t have the budget for constant law enforcement presence,” said Mayor James Dodd. “Claro gave us the ability to enhance safety with cutting-edge technology that works with what we already have.”

The rollout reflects a broader trend where small towns turn to algorithmic systems to fill gaps traditionally addressed by human staff.

AI tools, particularly facial recognition, are increasingly being deployed in public settings, sparking ongoing concern about surveillance practices and the erosion of privacy rights.

Councilman Sergio Rodriguez, who helped lead the initiative, emphasized that the project came together through collaboration rather than off-the-shelf sales.

“Claro wasn’t just selling a product,” he said. “They listened to our needs and delivered solutions that worked for the Town of Dover.” He pointed to the technology’s role in optimizing public safety while helping stretch municipal budgets.

“With AI supporting day-to-day operations,” he said, “we can better protect residents and allocate our budget more effectively.”

Claro markets its AI platform as adaptable to existing surveillance systems and suitable for both real-time alerts and forensic investigations.

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Trans activist who sued female beauty spa for refusing to give her bikini wax is now WANTED by police

A trans woman with a penis who gained notoriety after suing beauty spas that refused to bikini wax has had a warrant issued for her arrest. 

Police in Alberta, Canada, are searching for Jessica Yaniv, also known as Jessica Simpson, in relation to a criminal harassment charge according to Western Standard.

The outlet spoke with the complainant who said they are trying to confirm if the search extends to British Columbia, where Yaniv is from.  

No court records have yet been released in relation to the case and Calgary Police have yet to comment, so further details of the harassment have not been disclosed. 

In Canada warrants can be forced across different provinces if they are filed under a national database or authorized under a interprovincial cooperation agreement. 

Yaniv first made headlines in 2018 after filing suit against a number of salons after they refused to wax her.

She claimed they had actively discriminated against her for her gender identity and male genitalia. The cases were all later dismissed. 

In 2019 she was also hit with accusations that she had engaged in sexually inappropriate communications with a minor.

One woman, Jessica Rumpel, previously told the Daily Mail that Yaniv had sent her her sexually inappropriate messages when she was just 14.

Those are said to have included questions about whether it would be ok for her to change in front of another woman, and how to go about making that happen. 

Rumpel went public with her claims after others posted about similar alleged incidents on social media. 

Yaniv went on to say that she doesn’t know Rumpel and suggested someone posing as her may have contacted her.

Rumpel however shared Twitter messages from 2014 that appear to have come from Yaniv’s current verified account. 

‘I feel [Yaniv] took advantage of me,’ Rumpel told the Daily Mai back in 2019. ‘I felt [Yaniv] kinda took my kindness for granted.’ 

She said that at the time Yaniv sent the message she was unphased and only later realized the behavior was predatory. 

In 2019 she was also charged with possession of a prohibited weapon after she waving a taser while on a livestream, she received a conditional discharge.

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Italy’s anti-Mafia police investigate after a journalist’s car explodes

A car belonging to one of Italy’s leading investigative journalists exploded outside his home overnight, prompting an investigation by Italy’s anti-Mafia authorities and condemnation Friday from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and others. No one was injured.

The explosion late Thursday targeting Sigfrido Ranucci, lead anchor of state-run RAI3’s Report investigative series, occurred on the eighth anniversary of the car bomb slaying of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The investigative program said the explosion was so powerful that it could have killed anyone passing by. Ranucci had just returned home at the time and his daughter had walked by a half-hour before, Report said in a statement. The blast destroyed the car, damaged another family car next to it, as well as the front gate of Ranucci’s home in Pomezia, south of Rome.

Police, firefighters and forensic crews reported to the scene and magistrates from the Rome district of the anti-Mafia police were investigating, Report said. Video shot by Ranucci, who has been under police protection since 2021 because of his hard-hitting investigations, showed the mangled remains of the cars and gate.

Meloni expressed her solidarity with Ranucci and condemned what she called “the serious act of intimidation he has suffered.”

“Freedom and independence of information are essential values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend,” she said in a statement.

In comments to journalists outside the offices of RAI, Ranucci said the explosion was an “escalation” of what he said were two years of threats that he believed were related to Report’s investigations into the links between the Cosa Nostra, ‘ndrangheta and far-right crime groups and notable past Mafia hits.

Asked if the explosion would have a chilling effect on Report’s work, he said his colleagues were used to working under difficult conditions.

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Two Deep State Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia FIRED and Escorted From Building For Leaking Following Letitia James Indictment

The Justice Department is cleaning house as Deep State prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia ‘resist’ Trump and leak to the stenographers in the mainstream media.

Two more Deep State prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) have been fired.

Politico reported on Friday that two federal prosecutors in the EDVA – Elizabeth Yusi and Kristin Bird – were fired.

MSNBC confirmed the firing of the two prosecutors after New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to Julie Kelly, the fired prosecutors were escorted from the building and stripped of security clearances for leaking sensitive information to the media.

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Big Tech is paying millions to train teachers on AI, in a push to bring chatbots into classrooms

On a scorching hot Saturday in San Antonio, dozens of teachers traded a day off for a glimpse of the future. The topic of the day’s workshop: enhancing instruction with artificial intelligence.

After marveling as AI graded classwork instantly and turned lesson plans into podcasts or online storybooks, one high school English teacher raised a concern that was on the minds of many: “Are we going to be replaced with AI?”

That remains to be seen. But for the nation’s 4 million teachers to stay relevant and help students use the technology wisely, teachers unions have forged an unlikely partnership with the world’s largest technology companies. The two groups don’t always see eye to eye but say they share a common goal: training the future workforce of America.

Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are providing millions of dollars for AI training to the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union. In exchange, the tech companies have an opportunity to make inroads into schools and win over students in the race for AI dominance.

AFT President Randi Weingarten said skepticism guided her negotiations, but the tech industry has something schools lack: deep pockets.

“There is no one else who is helping us with this. That’s why we felt we needed to work with the largest corporations in the world,” Weingarten said. “We went to them — they didn’t come to us.”

Weingarten first met with Microsoft CEO Brad Smith in 2023 to discuss a partnership. She later reached out to OpenAI to pursue an “agnostic” approach that means any company’s AI tools could be used in a training session.

Under the arrangement announced in July, Microsoft is contributing $12.5 million to AFT over five years. OpenAI is providing $8 million in funding and $2 million in technical resources, and Anthropic has offered $500,000.

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Smartmatic Indicted For Money Laundering, Bribery Of Philippine Official

Smartmatic — the company involved in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News over the latter’s reporting on the 2020 election — was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on Thursday for allegedly bribing a Philippine official in relation to the 2016 Philippine national elections.

The indictment added the parent company of Smartmatic, SGO Corporation Ltd., as a defendant in the case already underway against three Smartmatic executives. The indictment charges that between 2015 and 2018, Smartmatic executives Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, and others “caused at least $1 million in bribes to be paid” to the former chairman of COMELEC, according to the Department of Justice.

COMELEC stands for the Commission on Elections of the Republic of the Philippines. According to the indictment, COMELEC is an “independent agency mandated to enforce and administer election laws in the Philippines.”

According to the indictment, COMELEC opened the bidding process in 2014 for the lease of 23,000 election machines for the upcoming 2016 election. Smartmatic was awarded a contract in 2015. In 2015, COMELEC awarded a second contract to Smartmatic for the leasing of 70,977 voting machines and services for the 2016 election. Smartmatic was later awarded a third contract.

The indictment alleges that Smartmatic, along with its executives, offered to pay bribes to the COMELEC chairman in order to obtain the contracts, as well as to obtain the “release of favorable value added tax payments.”

In order to pay for the alleged bribes, the indicted co-conspirators allegedly over-invoiced the cost of each voting machine that was used in the 2016 Philippine elections. According to the Department of Justice, “they used coded language, created fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements, and routed transactions through bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including within the Southern District of Florida.”

The indictment charges Smartmatic, along with Piñate and Vasquez, with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

Smartmatic denied the allegations in a statement to The Federalist.

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