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Founder of anti-capitalist group Take Back Power – who dumped manure at The Ritz and threw custard over the Crown jewels – is privately educated son of megayacht insurance executive

The ringleader of a leading anti-capitalist protest group is the son of a top executive at a superyacht insurance broker, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Privately educated Arthur Clifton, 25, is a leading organiser for Take Back Power, the protest group which this month dumped manure at The Ritz Hotel in Mayfair and threw apple crumble and custard at the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.

The group – a successor to Just Stop Oil – has raised £56,000 in an online fundraiser for its campaigns to ‘tackle economic inequality’ and impose greater taxes on the rich.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Clifton’s father, Michael, 58, is a boss at international insurance brokers Chaucer, which boasts of having taken $3.1 billion (£2.3 billion) in premiums in 2024.

Michael is the head of US casualty treaty – where a re-insurer covers a portfolio of risks – and has 30 years’ experience in the business.

In a huge contrast to what Take Back Power stands for, Chaucer boasts on its website of providing insurance coverage for private yachts – the preserve of the superrich – as well as other vessels such as cruise ships and tankers.

A source said: ‘Where Arthur’s dad works is in direct opposition to the aims and objectives of Take Back Power. Arthur has been given a private education and a wonderful lifestyle most young people can only dream of, funded by his dad working in the same environment he claims to want to fight against.’ 

Clifton grew up in an upmarket West London property and attended Latymer Upper School, one of the top public schools in the country where annual fees are £30,000.

Records show he was recently living in a £2 million house.

Clifton was previously a member of direct action group Youth Demand. Earlier this year he was given a 12-month community order, with 120 hours of unpaid work, for causing £5,000 of criminal damage by spraying orange paint at University College London in 2023.

Take Back Power said: ‘It’s time ordinary people decide how to make the super-rich pay their fair share, in order to fix Britain.’

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California Expected To Defy Federal Pressure, And Reissue 17,000 Non-Domiciled CDLs

California is expected to begin reissuing approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses that the state had planned to revoke following federal enforcement pressure. The decision comes despite ongoing corrective action requirements from FMCSA and raises fundamental questions about federal enforcement authority when a state openly defies compliance directives.

State transportation officials confirmed to sources that the Department of Motor Vehicles will begin restoring the contested licenses to immigrant drivers who received 60-day cancellation notices on November 6. The state has not clarified the specific process but points to the D.C. Circuit Court’s November 13 emergency stay of FMCSA’s interim final rule restricting non-domiciled CDL eligibility.

What California apparently misunderstands, or is choosing to ignore, is that the court stay addressed only the September 29 interim final rule. It did not address the separate compliance failures FMCSA documented during its 2025 Annual Program Review, which found that approximately 25% of California’s non-domiciled CDLs were improperly issued under regulations that existed before the emergency rule was ever published.

The federal government threatened to withhold more than $150 million in highway funding from California over these pre-existing violations. Those threats remain fully in effect regardless of the court’s stay of the new rule.

Two Separate Problems California Is Conflating

Understanding California’s legal exposure requires separating two distinct issues that the state appears to be deliberately merging.

Problem One: The Interim Final Rule. On September 29, 2025, FMCSA issued an emergency interim final rule titled “Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers’ Licenses.” This rule dramatically restricted the eligibility of non-domiciled CDL holders to H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas, excluding asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients. The D.C. Circuit Court stayed this rule on November 13, finding petitioners were “likely to succeed” on claims that FMCSA violated federal law, acted arbitrarily, and failed to justify bypassing standard rulemaking procedures. With this rule stayed, states can theoretically continue issuing non-domiciled CDLs under pre-September 29 regulations, except for states under corrective action plans.

Problem Two: Pre-Existing Compliance Failures. FMCSA’s 2025 Annual Program Review found California had been violating federal regulations that existed long before the interim final rule. The agency documented systemic failures: CDLs issued with expiration dates extending years beyond drivers’ lawful presence authorization, licenses issued to Mexican nationals who are prohibited from holding non-domiciled CDLs (unless under DACA), and inadequate verification procedures. These violations triggered a preliminary determination of substantial noncompliance under 49 CFR 384.307, a process entirely separate from the stayed interim final rule.

California remains subject to a corrective action plan addressing these pre-existing violations. The court stay doesn’t change that. FMCSA’s November 13 guidance was explicit: states “subject to a corrective action plan” must maintain their pauses on non-domiciled CDL issuance until demonstrating compliance with pre-rule regulations.

The Nuclear Option: Decertification

Under 49 U.S.C. § 31312, FMCSA has authority to decertify a state’s entire CDL program if the state is found in “substantial noncompliance” with federal requirements. Decertification would prohibit California from issuing, renewing, transferring, or upgrading any commercial learner’s permits or commercial driver’s licenses, not just non-domiciled credentials, until FMCSA determines that the state has corrected its deficiencies.

The consequences would be immediate and severe. Every new driver in California’s CDL pipeline would freeze. CDL schools would halt operations. Testing would stop. Carriers would face weeks or months of disruption in recruiting new drivers. The ripple effects would devastate one of the nation’s most critical freight corridors.

FMCSA recently threatened Pennsylvania with decertification after an Uzbek terror suspect was found holding a Pennsylvania-issued CDL. The agency gave the state 30 days to respond and warned that failure to correct deficiencies could result in losing issuance authority entirely. California’s defiance appears far more egregious; the state is not merely failing to correct problems but actively moving to restore licenses that federal auditors determined were improperly issued.

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The Earliest Winter Solstice Rituals Go All The Way Back To The Stone Age

It’s barely perceptible, but from the morning after December 21 (or June 21 if you’re below the equator), the Sun starts to hang around for just a little longer each day. For most of us, that means we can start dreaming about the day that our morning commute doesn’t begin in complete darkness, but for Neolithic folk, the winter solstice was far more significant.

Relatively new to this whole sedentary lifestyle thing, prehistoric villagers depended on the annual rebirth of the Sun in order to ensure the continuation of their agricultural cycles. It’s unsurprising, therefore, that the Neolithic period saw the emergence of the earliest structures designed to track the movements of the Sun, Moon and other celestial bodies, with the solstices often the central focus. 

Here’s a look at the oldest and most impressive solstice traditions from around the world.

Newgrange (Ireland)

Built around 3200 BCE, Newgrange is the most famous monument in County Meath’s Brú na Bóinne archaeological complex. Consisting of an earthen mound housing several burial chambers, this so-called passage tomb was constructed in perfect alignment with the winter solstice.

At sunset on the shortest day of the year, the Sun’s rays hit Newgrange at the exact angle needed to illuminate the central chamber and its impressive array of engraved artworks. Recent analyses of these designs have determined that the spiralling figures probably represent the shortening and lengthening of the Sun’s path across the sky as the year swings between the summer and winter solstices, underscoring the tomb’s connection with solar cycles.

It’s worth noting that the same effect has been observed at numerous other passage tombs across the British Isles, indicating that Newgrange was probably part of a wider, interconnected Neolithic tradition focused on the observation of the solstices. One particularly noteworthy example is Maeshowe in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, which is also aligned to allow the setting sun to illuminate its central chamber on the winter solstice.

El Castillo, Chichén Itzá (Mexico)

In the Americas, there was no official Neolithic period, and given that humans only reached the continent about 20,000 years ago, it’s understandable that things happened a lot later there than they did in Eurasia. Probably the most impressive winter solstice event can be seen at the famous Maya city of Chichén Itzá, where the central pyramid – known as El Castillo – is eerily lit up by the rising Sun on the shortest day of the year.

By late afternoon, the angle of the Sun’s rays is such that two sides of the pyramid are illuminated while the other two are plunged into darkness, creating a striking visual demonstration of the ancient Maya’s extraordinary astronomical precision.

Built around 550 CE, El Castillo is considerably younger than the likes of Newgrange and Stonehenge, and in fact it’s not even the oldest solstice-aligned structure in the Americas. Woodhenge, for instance, is located at the ancient site of Cahokia in Illinois, and was built around 1,000 years ago. Thought to have served as a type of astronomical observatory, Woodhenge probably held gatherings on the solstices, although the nature of these ceremonies remains the subject of speculation.

Stonehenge (England)

When it comes to solstices, you can’t not mention Stonehenge. Built in multiple stages beginning around 3000 BCE, the famous stone circle is aligned with the summer solstice sunrise to the east and the winter solstice sunset to the west. 

It’s unclear exactly how these events were celebrated during Neolithic times, although the prehistoric residents of the nearby village of Durrington Walls – which housed the workers who built Stonehenge – are known to have slaughtered large numbers of animals around midwinter, all of which hints at massive solstice feasts.

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WMDs for a MIC in Need

In the closing days of 2025, the White House turned an opioid crisis into a national security drama. Standing in the Oval Office during a Mexican Border Defense Medal ceremony on December 15, President Donald Trump declared that he would sign an executive order to classify fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction,” calling the announcement “historic.” Treating a synthetic painkiller like a nuclear bomb says more about Washington’s mindset than about the drug. Though drug overdose deaths declined in 2024, 80,391 people still died and 54,743 of those deaths were from opioids. Those numbers mark a public‑health emergency. Rather than tackle fentanyl abuse as a medical or social problem, the administration reframed it as an existential threat requiring military tools. Labeling a narcotic a WMD creates a pretext for war and sidesteps due process. This move grows out of a political culture that uses fear of invisible enemies—terrorists, microbes, drugs—to justify extraordinary power.

Past and present administrations have blurred the line between law enforcement and warfare. Since September 2025 the United States has launched more than twenty strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific suspected of carrying narcotics, killing over eighty people. Experts note that little proof has been made public that the vessels contained drugs or that blowing them out of the water was necessary. Yet the assaults continued, and on December 10 the U.S. Navy seized a sanctioned Venezuelan oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, sending oil prices higher. Trump boasted it was the largest tanker ever seized and said, when asked about the cargo, “We keep it, I guess.” Caracas denounced the action as “blatant theft.” The administration justified the operation as part of its anti‑drug campaign, but the target was not an unmarked speedboat; it was a carrier of crude oil, the sanctioned state’s main revenue source. Calling fentanyl a WMD makes such seizures look like acts of defense and blurs war and policing.

For students of recent history, this conflation of domestic threats with existential danger is hauntingly familiar. After September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and his advisers claimed Iraq was developing anthrax, nerve gas and nuclear weapons. Vice President Dick Cheney insisted there was “no doubt” Saddam Hussein possessed WMD and was amassing them for use against America and its allies. Those arguments resonated with a populace still traumatized by the attacks. Fear allowed hawks to portray preemptive war as the only way to prevent a “mushroom cloud,” and in March 2003 the United States invaded Iraq. Investigations later found no factual basis for the claims that Iraq possessed WMD or collaborated with al‑Qaida. The smoking gun was a phantom, but by the time the truth emerged, Baghdad had been captured and the region destabilized for a generation.

One of the most tragic figures in that saga was Secretary of State Colin Powell. On February 5, 2003, he sat before the United Nations Security Council holding a glass vial he said could contain anthrax. He described Iraq’s alleged weapons labs and insisted the case was based on “solid intelligence.” The performance helped clinch support for war. Years later it became clear the intelligence was false and cherry‑picked, and no WMD were found. Powell later admitted the presentation was wrong and had blotted his record. Using a decorated officer’s credibility to sell a war built on falsehoods shows how propaganda can override reason.

The consequences of the Iraq War were catastrophic. The Defense Department records 4,418 U.S. service members dead in Operation Iraqi Freedom, including 3,481 killed in hostile action. Brown University’s Costs of War Project estimates that the post‑9/11 wars have cost the United States around $8 trillion and killed more than 900,000 people. About $2.1 trillion of that went to the Iraq/Syria theater. These figures exclude indirect deaths and future costs for veterans’ care. Millions of Iraqis were killed, injured or displaced, fueling sectarian violence and extremism. The war enriched defense contractors and expanded the military‑industrial complex while leaving ordinary people to pay the bill.

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MORE Epstein files are released as sickening details emerge from victims’ testimony in pedophile’s grand jury records

The Department of Justice has released two more batches of the Epstein files, including grand jury transcripts from cases against Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

In one document from a grand jury hearing ahead of Epstein’s 2019 trial, which never occurred because he died in jail, there were horrific details about what young girls were asked to do.

Included in data set 6, the first batch of documents released by the DOJ on Saturday, an FBI agent testified that a 14-year-old girl went to his home in Palm Beach, Florida, to massage him in her underwear. The girl was paid $300 per session, according to the agent’s testimony.

The girl told the agent about how the massage room had lotions and moisturizers. She also detailed how the walls were covered in sketches or paintings of naked females.

A library in the home was straight out of Beauty and the Beast, according to the hearing’s transcript.

The latest disclosure comes after a judge ruled on December 9 that the DOJ was legally allowed to release grand jury materials from Maxwell’s sex trafficking investigation.

Because grand jury proceedings are secret by their very nature, it was unclear whether the DOJ would be able to release these documents as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was signed by President Donald Trump last month.

US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said the grand jury materials had to be released because of that law, but he said mechanisms needed to be put in place to protect victims from disclosures that could ‘identify them or otherwise invade their privacy’.

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Alabama Regulators Approve Hemp Product Rule Despite Opposition From Key Lawmaker

The Alabama Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Board Thursday approved an emergency, temporary rule regulating the sale of consumable hemp products, over the opposition of a state representative who sponsored the law leading to the regulation.

The rule creates the Responsible Consumable Hemp Product Program and establishes warnings and fees for violations of the rule.

David Peacock, chief general counsel for the ABC Board, told board members that on first violation of the rule, retailers would receive a warning, and distributors would be fined $1,000 on first offense for selling a product that is not approved by the board.

“If the distributor were to purchase a product from a supplier that was violative a second time, they would no longer be able to use that supplier unless they provide to us a corrective action plan that we approve,” Peacock said.

Peacock did not say what products would be prohibited or allowed, but that there would be a list of products published on the ABC Board’s website.

Peacock said the rule is needed in accordance with HB 445, sponsored by Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, which passed the Legislature this spring. The law, which goes into effect on January 1, requires testing and labeling for all consumable hemp products and caps THC at 10 milligrams per individually wrapped product and 40 milligrams per package.

It also requires the ABC Board to license retailers of these products; restrict retail establishments selling hemp products and impose an excise tax on consumable hemp products. In October, the ABC Board passed a rule to implement the law.

The emergency rule passed 2-1 with board member John Knight, a former state representative, voting against it.

“I’m opposed to it only because I have a problem with the way it was done,” Knight said.

Whitt, who did not attend Thursday’s meeting, sent the board a letter Wednesday expressing his opposition to the emergency rule.

“In addition to my concerns about the non-compliance with statutory guidelines about emergency rules, there are other areas of the proposal that bother me,” the letter said. “Nowhere in the authorizing legislation does it provide for a Responsible Consumable Hemp Product Program, such as that legislatively authorized by Alabama Code Section 28-10-4 in connection with alcoholic beverages. Therefore, it seems that this proposed regulation goes beyond statutory authority.”

Whitt said in an interview Thursday afternoon that he had a great relationship with the board but reiterated his opposition to the rule.

“I think when it comes down to the emergency rulings, it serves a different purpose than maybe what’s transparent to begin with, maybe a self-serving group,” he said. “I want to make sure that it doesn’t and that the legislative process works.”

Curtis Stewart, the board’s administrator, explained that the rule’s intention is to protect retailers.

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Bombshell Claim: Brown University Was Asked to Cut Cameras Earlier in the Year to Protect Palestinian Activists

After a shooting last weekend at Brown University that left two dead and several others injured, questions are being asked about security lapses that led to those fatal moments.

A new bombshell claim has come out, and if true, it’s completely earth-shattering, not just for the school’s security personnel, but for the entire administration.

On Wednesday, footage of Fox News host Jesse Watters circulated on social media platform X, where the host of “Primetime” claimed leftist activist groups last summer demanded Brown disable their security cameras so pro-Palestine activists could act out with impunity.

“Over the summer, radical left human rights groups demanded Brown disable their security cameras so Palestinian activists could raise hell under the radar.

“Did they cave?

“We asked. No response.”

Brown would by no means be alone in caving to radicals’ demands. Columbia University has seen encampments of pro-Palestine activists.

Harvard has had to fend off claims in recent memory of anti-Semitism against their Jewish students.

The Ivy League is now less known for its academic status and more so for its radical politics.

We have a complete loss of trust in our education systems, and if Watters’ claims about Brown withstand scrutiny, a dangerous situation.

Imagine being a parent to a student at Brown and discovering your child’s life was endangered by the administration’s efforts to appease a group of radical activists, some of whom may not even attend that school.

Likely, most of the students present last Saturday in Tanner Auditorium did not care about nonsensical activist causes.

They were there for an exam review.

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Trump signs order to put Americans on the moon by 2028. But is it feasible?

President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday urging NASA to put Americans on the moon by 2028, signing it the same day NASA’s new Senate-confirmed administrator Jared Isaacman took office. 

The order, titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” emphasizes the role of the upcoming Artemis missions for Americans to journey to the moon and Mars.

NASA has targeted April 2026 for the launch of Artemis II. It would take the American astronauts in orbit around the moon — the furthest mission into deep space in human history. 

Artemis III would put people on the surface of the moon for the first time in the 21st century. NASA’s website has listed a mid-2027 launch date. 

But former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told the Senate Commerce Committee in a September hearing he doesn’t think the U.S. will be able to land astronauts on the moon by that date, nor by China’s stated goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2030. 

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Removal Orders, Obama-Biden Enforcement Gaps, and the Myth of “Missing” ICE Detainees

Every day, emotional posts circulate on Instagram claiming that an illegal alien has “disappeared,” been human trafficked, or kidnapped by ICE, or that thousands of illegal aliens or children are “missing.” These claims are presented without follow-up from families reporting missing loved ones days or weeks later. If large numbers of people were truly disappearing, family members would be searching for them. Instead, the claims are largely amplified by liberal activists, not relatives.

Assertions that illegals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are “missing” typically stem from misunderstandings of immigration law and detention procedures rather than actual disappearances. In most cases, “missing” simply means the detainee has not yet contacted family members. Generally, detainees are able to call home within hours of an arrest, although arrests occurring on Fridays or immediately before holidays can result in brief delays of two to three days. At no point, however, are detainees unaccounted for or missing.

Liberal activists often claim that someone is missing, or that ICE is hiding a detainee, when ICE refuses to provide information in response to their inquiries. Under U.S. law and ICE protocols, however, personal information may be released only to the detainee’s attorney or to an immediate family member. When activists who lack legal standing request information and are denied, they frequently portray that denial as evidence that the individual is “missing,” even though the detainee remains in documented federal custody.

In many widely circulated cases, the individuals involved were subject to long-standing removal orders that went unenforced for years due to policy decisions rather than any change in legal status. When an immigrant fails to appear for a scheduled immigration hearing, an immigration judge issues an in-absentia removal order, which remains valid unless it is successfully reopened or stayed. Once issued, the individual is considered unlawfully present and remains subject to detention at any time.

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Did Rep. Omar Really Marry her Brother?

Rep. Ilhan Omar did, in fact, marry her brother. This is not a rumor but a documented fact.

Ahmed Nur Said Elmi came to the US from London in 2002. He was living as an openly gay man and his Islamic family did not support his lifestyle. A journalist at Free Beacon ran Ilhan Omar’s name through the Minnesota Official Marriage System and found two marriage certificates. One was to her public husband, Ahmed Aden, who later changed his name to Ahmed Hirsi. They applied for a marriage license in 2002, but never legalized the marriage. There is a second certificate dated 2009 for Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Despite being a devout Muslim, her marriage certificate was signed by Christian pastor Wilecia Harris.

Omar’s campaign and lawyers insist she is married to Ahmed Ade,n but there is no official court documentation to show that the couple ever wed. They say that he is the biological father of her three children. However, voter registration records do show Hirsi and Omar living at the same address. Omar and Hirsi filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 despite not being legally married. The paperwork shows that, under US law, her legal husband is Ahmed Nur Said Elmi—her biological brother.

“Like a lot of families, she and Hirsi, the father of their three children, have had ups and downs, have weathered some storms, but what matters is that they came out of it together,” [campaign spokesman Ben] Goldfarb said. He declined to offer more details.

Omar’s campaign has deemed any questioning [Donald] Trump-style misogyny, racism, anti-immigration rhetoric and Islamophobic division.”

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