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German Government Report Shows Marijuana Legalization Hasn’t Increased Youth Use Or Traffic Accidents

German officials have released a report on the impact of the nation’s marijuana legalization law, finding that fears from opponents about youth use, traffic safety and more have so far proved largely unfounded. However, the illicit market has not meaningfully diminished under the limited legal regulatory model that has been rolled out in the country to date.

The interim report, which was required under the cannabis law enacted last year, assessed a series of health, public safety and economic factors associated with the end of prohibition.

Among the most notable findings in the document published on Monday is the fact that youth marijuana use has continued to decline, even after possession and home cultivation were legalized for adults and social clubs offering access to members opened.

Further, “no clear changes in the previous trend in cannabis consumption among adults could be observed,” the report, conducted on behalf of the federal Ministry of Health, says, according to a translation.

“The percentage increase in adults who have consumed cannabis in the last 12 months, which has been observed since approximately 2011, is likely to continue…without any drastic changes,” it says.

A separate recent study conducted by German federal health officials also found that rates of marijuana use declined among youth after the country legalized adult-use cannabis, contradicting one of the more common prohibitionist arguments against the reform.

Another finding of the new legalization evaluation concerns traffic safety, with researchers determining that there’s been no meaningful change in incidents on the roadways associated with the policy change.

“In the area of ​​road safety, partial legalization has so far shown no significant changes in self-reported driving under the influence of cannabis or in the number of people killed or injured in road traffic,” the report states.

Early data on the impact of legalization on the illicit market indicates that the law has “not yet made a significant contribution to the displacement of the black market intended by the legislature,” the report found.

One reason for the continued presence of the illegal market could be related to how Germany’s legalization law is being rolled out, with a limited number of social clubs that grow cannabis for members to consume—but without a comprehensive commercial industry that could provide wider access to adults. And even if broad retail launches, it may take time to substantially transition consumers to the legal market, which has been the case in Canada and U.S. states that have enacted the reform.

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Former Friend of North Carolina Shooter Says He Tried to Warn People Suspect Was Suffering Mentally: ‘This Was 100 Percent Predictable’

As the Gateway Pundit reported over the weekend, a young man named Nigel Max Edge was arrested and charged with three counts of first degree murder after opening fire on the American Fish Company restaurant dock in the North Carolina coastal town of Southport.

Edge is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. Unfortunately, he was battling some personal demons.

One of his former friends is now speaking out and saying that he tried to get help for the man and that his warnings to authorities went unheeded.

It’s a tragic reminder that we have a serious mental health crisis in the country right now.

RedState reported:

We’re learning more about Sean DeBevoise, a/k/a Nigel Edge, the man suspected of killing three people and injuring many others in Southport, North Carolina on Saturday night, from a post one of his best friends made to Facebook on Sunday.

DeBevoise, a Purple Heart recipient, is a Marine sniper who served in combat in Iraq and was severely injured. Since that time he has had major mental health issues, and according to Marc Simmons’ post, DeBevoise had been “diagnosed with delusional disorder, after a short stay in a mental hospital.” Simmons and his wife, who’d asked DeBevoise to be their son’s godfather, distanced themselves from him around 2019, when DeBevoise’s “paranoia grew.”

A few years later, DeBevoise showed up at Simmons’ workplace and accused him of being part of conspiracies against him. Simmons eventually got a no contact order and “notified the courts that this was a person that was not only mentally ill, but was also a trained SNIPER and steps should be taken and taken serious.”

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YouTube Bows to Trump in Censorship Lawsuit, Will Pay Millions to Avoid Court

And then there were none.

YouTube, a Google subsidiary, became the last of three tech titans to settle a lawsuit brought forth by President Donald Trump, according to a blistering report from The Wall Street Journal.

The video sharing platform agreed to pay a hefty $24.5 million to settle lawsuits brought forth by Trump in 2021.

At the time, the president’s YouTube account had been banned following the Jan. 6 incursion at the U.S. Capitol.

YouTube claimed that they had gone to those extraordinary lengths to remove Trump’s channel to nix potential videos that may incite violence.

(The channel was reinstated in March 2023.)

The YouTube settlement is the second-biggest of the lawsuits brought against various tech titans by Trump — and that appears to be intentional.

The biggest settlement Trump had was with Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, which was for $25 million.

“Google executives were eager to keep their settlement smaller than the one paid by rival Meta, according to people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

While $24.5 million does come in lower than the $25 million Meta paid, it’s more than double what X, formerly Twitter, paid Trump for a similar lawsuit, as the now-Elon Musk owned platform paid $10 million.

Interestingly, while Trump will “keep” most of this settlement money — $22 million — none of it will actually be going to him.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the money will be immediately rerouted to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall, tasked with building a grand ballroom near the White House.

The other $2.5 million will be dispersed among various other plaintiffs. There is no mention of attorney fees.

This decision comes months after YouTube was apparently having “productive conversations” with the Trump administration in June, per The Hill.

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Snowflakes are ‘triggered’ and ‘feeling unsafe,’ poor babies

Few things are more irritating than when the snowflakes among us are “triggered” and claim that they are “feeling unsafe” because of something someone said, or, as happened most recently, by the décor in a hotel.

On Thursday, Serena Williams was caught on her own video saying that she was triggered in a 5-star New York hotel because the lobby exhibited a decoration with cotton blossoms in it. She took a video of the blossoms and posted something to her social media where she said, “All right, everyone, how do we feel about cotton as decoration? Personally, for me, it doesn’t feel great.”

She doesn’t feel great because of decorative flower arrangements. How snowflaked up do you have to be, how pathetically weak, to be triggered by a cotton blossom? None of her family were slaves. She’s not a slave. She’s a wealthy, privileged woman whose name is recognized everywhere in the country.

I am of Jewish descent all the way down the line. I don’t cringe when I see a Mercedes-Benz or products by Bosch, Siemens, Miele, Stihl, Zwilling, or Wüsthof. I use some of these products.

For God’s sake, women, grow up and grow a spine. They should stop trying to garner sympathy by claiming they are “triggered” by this and that because they’re black and people should be more sensitive to their triggers. All that really does is to make others view them as tiresome and annoying. No one wants to be around someone who is always finding fault with something in America that causes them to be “triggered.”

A parallel phenomenon to being triggered is something I have noticed recently, which is that many (mostly) women, many white, claim that some things or words “made them feel unsafe.” This is yet another manipulation. They learned this garbage from their schools. Teachers instilled in these people the notion that they are entitled to irritate everyone around them by censoring their language. Don’t use this word. Better not use that phrase. It makes them feel “unsafe,” they say. They also feel “unsafe” every time a conservative speaks because “words are violence.” Right.

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‘PREPARE FOR WAR’: Pete Hegseth announces new mission, high standards for US Armed Forces

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke to military leaders at Quantico on Tuesday morning, letting them know just what the change from Department of Defense to Department of War really means. The new mission of the War Department, he said, is “preparing for war.”

“Fighting, preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit, not because we want war—no one here wants war—but it’s because we love peace,” Hegseth said. This mission is alongside his intense effort to eliminate “wokeness” from the military, which is an element in the Armed Forces that the administration believes puts service men and women at risk.

He announced 10 new directives, including that the “highest male standard” will be in place for all of those in the Armed Forces. A combat field test will also come into place, “that must be executable in any environment at any time and with combat equipment.” 

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Foreign Countries Forget That They Have No Say in US Policies

President Trump recently delivered a scathing address at the United Nations, criticizing Europe for allowing unbridled immigration and warning it would lead to the continent’s destruction. He contrasted this with his own record, noting his policies had reduced illegal entries into the United States to about 5 percent of the level under Biden.

Trump was criticized in Europe and elsewhere for his immigration policies, even though they were clearly better for the US and despite data showing how immigration is destabilizing Europe. Many world leaders not only rejected Trump’s recommendations but also wanted him to reverse US immigration policies, reopen the borders, and allow 20 million illegal immigrants to remain in the country. Global reactions to his speech reflected the broader belief that foreign governments should have a say in American domestic policies such as immigration.

On the first day of his first administration, in January 2017, Trump withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade deal. He argued it was a bad agreement that would harm American workers while benefiting special interests.

Trump declared that his administration’s policy would be to prioritize the financial well-being of Americans in all negotiations and to create fair, economically beneficial agreements that served their interests. He emphasized his intention to negotiate directly with individual countries on a one-on-one basis rather than through large multilateral deals.

Critics around the world accused him of undermining global trade, but his decision effectively ended the TPP, which was largely scrapped after the U.S. withdrawal. During the campaign, Trump had been blunt, calling the TPP “another disaster done and pushed by special interests” and “a continuing rape of our country.”

Also, during his first term, Trump was sharply criticized for withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. Opponents claimed the move would damage the WHO’s credibility and weaken compliance among member states.

Trump defended the decision by citing the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in Wuhan, its bias toward China, and its lack of independence from political pressure. He also argued the WHO demanded unfairly high payments from the US, while China, with a population more than four times larger, contributed nearly 90 percent less.

Similar criticism resurfaced in 2025 when RFK Jr. urged the US to reject new global health agreements, calling the WHO “moribund.” That May, 124 countries voted for the WHO Pandemic Accord, with only 11 abstentions, but RFK Jr. urged states to reject it. In September, he dismissed a UN declaration on non-communicable diseases, declaring the United States would “walk away” from the agreement.

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Violence And The Permanent Adolescents Of The American Left

Over the past 18 months, the irrational and near psychotic hatred and fear of Donald Trump that permeates the Marxist-inspired American left and its wholly owned subsidiary, the Democrat party, has evolved into violence, upheaval, and murder. This anti-American cabal, fearful that it is on the cusp of being decisively defeated, has unleashed its army of permanent adolescent foot soldiers in a desperate bid to retain its power and influence.

American Leftism is a unique amalgamation of Marxism, Darwinism, and oligarchism that requires an army of brain-dead acolytes who dwell in a state of permanent adolescence. The vast majority of these foot soldiers do not understand that the leadership of their movement consists of avowed Marxists determined to establish a one-party socialist oligarchy in which they will be viewed no differently than the rest of the unwashed masses.

The acolytes’ overriding trait and why they are permanent adolescents is their intractable belief that their lives will only be meaningful if they are part of “the in-crowd.” Over the past six decades, the American left, by seizing the mantle of anti-establishmentarianism on college and university campuses, has evolved into the ultimate in-crowd.

In this way, the left was able to determine what those desperate to belong must fervently believe and act upon. And, as in the fairy tales relayed to them while in childhood, as well as the comic-book-based movies with which they’re obsessed, the leaders of the American left working in academia indoctrinated these future pawns to believe that there is a monolithic entity that can guarantee prosperity, happiness, and equity.

That entity, of course, is a government under the Marxist-inspired left’s permanent control. Once attained, this would then be the true “democracy,” not the bastardized version the slave-owning founders of the United States created 250 years ago.

The other powerful weapon the American left has used to recruit and control these permanent adolescents is guilt. Over the past 60 years, these self-serving would-be oligarchs have made certain that there is always something in the United States to be guilty about. Leftists have used guilt as a weapon to indoctrinate and incite their mind-numbed minions to seek collective absolution by doing their bidding, even to the point of violence directed against the left’s perceived enemies.

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Comey Faces Indictment, but His Real Crimes Remain Untouched

We have no idea whether the current DOJ indictments will lead to a conviction of James Comey, namely that he authorized FBI subordinates to leak to the media and then lied about it, obstructing Congress in the process.

It may come down to the word of Comey, a known fabricator, against the testimony of his former subordinate, Andrew McCabe, an admitted liar. Take your pick.

We know, however, that Comey is not facing a Trumpian $500 million in potential fines, nor 93 indictments, nor the scrutiny of five different local, state, and federal prosecutors. Nor, like some of the J6 arrested, will he be sent to solitary confinement to await a trial in a year or two or be charged with “illegal parading.”

We also know of the crimes or unethical conduct for which James Comey is not currently being indicted or investigated.

He is not being charged with pleading amnesia or ignorance in 2018—e.g., “I didn’t know,” “I couldn’t recall,” “I didn’t remember”—a reported 245 times while under oath to House investigators and misleading them.

He is not being charged with leaking in 2017 a confidential FBI memo of a conversation with then President Trump—which he improperly stored in his personal safe, in violation of FBI protocols—to the New York Times via a third-party Columbia professor.

He is not being charged for falsely assuring the President of the United States in 2017 that he was not the object of the current Crossfire Hurricane “Russian collusion” investigation—when, in fact, Trump, as the Mueller investigation revealed, was the real target of almost that entire ruse.

He is not being charged for deliberately leaking an FBI memo of a conversation with President Trump for the purpose of injuring him by prompting the appointment of his friend and predecessor, Robert Mueller, as a special counsel to investigate the supposed crimes of Donald Trump. Comey’s gambit resulted in a 22-month and $30 million administration hiatus, only to find no actionable wrongdoing by Trump.

He is not being investigated for usurping the role of the DOJ in 2016 when, as an FBI investigator, he served simultaneously as investigator and prosecutor, creating a conflict of interest.

He was tasked with both finding evidence of Hillary Clinton’s alleged wrongdoing and also making the federal prosecutorial decision whether to indict her for transmitting classified material over an unsecured email server. And after finding evidence of her culpability, he chose not to indict her on the grounds that her candidacy at the time meant no reasonable prosecutor (of which he was then not supposed to be one) would bring such a case against her.

He is not being investigated for improperly disclosing his newly reopened investigative case against Hillary Clinton on the eve of the 2016 election. Nor is he being investigated for predetermining that Hillary Clinton was innocent of the charges of unlawfully transmitting confidential material before his own FBI investigation was complete—and before Comey’s FBI had even interviewed her.

He is not being investigated for tasking Peter Strzok to alter his own original condemnation of Clinton’s conduct by replacing the initial and correct term “gross negligence,” a phrase that denotes a federal crime, with “extreme carelessness,” which involves no criminal liability.

He is not being investigated for, nor charged with, birthing the entire governmental role in the Russian collusion hoax that warped the 2016 presidential election and transition by his use of the discredited Christopher Steele as an FBI confidant/source.

He is not being investigated for using the fraudulent Steele dossier as a “central and essential” document to obtain a FISA court writ to improperly surveil Carter Page—an act that even he later admitted was wrong.

He is not being investigated for stumbling upon a rock mosaic on a beach arranged to read “8647” (“get rid of/remove Trump”) and then on social media nonchalantly posting that clear threat to injure/remove/eject the current president.

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What is a sleeper cell, and why are US officials on high alert?

As tensions escalate between the United States and Iran, the threat of sleeper cells has “never been higher,” according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, although no specific or credible threats have yet emerged.

In a memo obtained by NewsNation, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said, “Thousands of Iranian nationals have been documented entering the United States illegally and countless more were likely in the known and unknown got-a-ways.”

While there is no current actionable intelligence, Scott emphasized the need for vigilance: “Though we have not received any specific credible threats … the threat of sleeper cells or sympathizers acting on their own, or at the behest of Iran has never been higher.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media that Israel and Iran have agreed to a “complete and total ceasefire” to be phased in over 24 hours.

Trump said on Truth Social that the ceasefire would bring an “Official END” to war, a major change in the hostilities that follows a U.S. strike over the weekend on three Iranian nuclear sites.

What are sleeper cells, and how do they operate?

Sleeper cells are spies or terrorists who operate in rival countries and remain inactive until they are essentially ordered to act.

NewsNation national security contributor Tracy Walder explained that while the concept of Iranian sleeper cells in the U.S. is not new, there may have been a recent influx of agents.Timeline: How US conducted bombings on Iranian nuclear sites 

“They have sleeper cells here. Quite frankly, they have for decades. … They are just waiting for the right moment,” Walder said.

A recent Homeland Security threat assessment confirms that Iran remains a primary state sponsor of terrorism and continues efforts to target both current and former U.S. officials. That assessment echoes similar warnings issued by the Biden administration in 2024.

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Israel is the main source of instability in the Middle East

Is conflict in the Middle East at an inflection point? It might seem so, given how international outrage over Israel’s lethal conduct in the Gaza Strip has become increasingly intense and widespread in recent weeks.

Several major Western countries that previously had declined to join most other members of the United Nations in formally recognizing a Palestinian state used the opening of the current session of the General Assembly as the occasion to take that step. Popular demonstrations in the West in support of the Palestinians have been as large and conspicuous as ever, and recent polls show a sharp decline in the American public’s support for Israel.

Such responses are the least that can be expected in the face of new lows in barbarous Israeli actions against the residents of the Gaza Strip. An Israeli military assault on Gaza City has added to the rubble to which most of the city had already been reduced. The assault has given remaining inhabitants the choice of suffering and perhaps dying in place or fleeing once again to someplace else in the Strip with still no assurance of safety. The armed attacks and imposed starvation have seen the death toll of Gazans increase to what is now probably several times the officially reported figure of about 65,000.

The international responses, including diplomatic recognition of Palestine by Western governments, fall short of eliciting a constructive Israeli response. The recognition of a Palestinian state has been the target of criticism from some Palestinians who rightly point out that it does nothing to alleviate the immediate misery on the ground. Diplomatic moves and street demonstrations do not speak the only language that Israel appears to understand, which is one of force and compulsion.

The Israeli response to the latest diplomatic moves has been one of defiance and threats to inflict still more depredations on the Palestinians. The Israeli national security minister, right-wing extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, is pushing to make annexation of the West Bank the main Israeli response to Western recognition of Palestine.

Most Israelis, and not just their government or the extremists within it, see international pressure as just more evidence of bias against Israel and of the need for Israel to use force to protect itself, regardless of worldwide outrage. Survey research shows that most Israelis believe there are “no innocents” in Gaza and favor expulsion of residents from the Gaza Strip. An appeal to morality will not get a positive response from a government that has this population as its political base. Only the imposition on Israel of significant costs and consequences would lead it to change its policies.

Although we may not be at an inflection point regarding the Palestinian-Israeli tragedy, the thinking of Arab regimes in the region has reached an inflection point of sorts in recent weeks. The Israeli attack in early September on the territory of Qatar, in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Hamas leaders engaged in Gaza-related negotiations, shocked that thinking.

The attack in Qatar comes amid a fusillade of Israeli armed attacks against other regional states, including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, in addition to the carnage in Palestine. These and other regional states (such as Iraq and Egypt) have been the targets of Israeli attacks — both overt military and clandestine — for many years, but it is the near-simultaneity of some of the attacks over the past month that has added to the shock.

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