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DC Crime is ‘Down’? ABC News Anchor Says She Was Jumped, Coworker’s Car Was Stolen

ABC News anchor Kyra Phillips said Monday that she was assaulted just blocks from the network’s Washington, D.C., bureau within the last two years, adding to concerns over public safety in the nation’s capital despite official reports of declining violent crime.

Phillips shared her experience during a live broadcast, referencing multiple recent crimes in close proximity to ABC’s offices.

“We’ve been talking so much about the numbers and yeah, usually that’s how you play devil’s advocate, is you talk about, ‘Oh, well stats say crime is down,’” she said.

“However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown D.C. where we work right here around our bureau just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot. One person died literally two blocks down here from the bureau.”

She continued, “It was within the last two years that I actually was jumped walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning one of my coworkers said her car was stolen a block away from the bureau. So we can talk about the numbers going down, but crime is happening every single day because we’re all experiencing it firsthand while working and living down here.”

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The USAID Of Broadcasting: PBS Parent Company Funnels Tax Dollars To Cushy Lobbying Firm

When DOGE dug into the financial tentacles of USAID, it found troubling examples of overspending and funding of unchecked, woke programs outside the agency’s mission. At the now defunded Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) a similar Gordian knot of spending patterns has diverted millions of dollars from broadcasting content to the public, enriched elite nonprofit leaders, and wedged public television (PBS) and public radio (NPR) into producing left-leaning content.

With the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill, Congress gave CPB no funding at all — a shock for CPB, which was expecting $1.07 billion for 2026 and 2027.

As The Federalist previously reported, CPB is a nonprofit created by Congress in 1967 to administer funding for public radio and television stations. It has many highly paid employees in Washington, D.C., and an elderly CEO, Patricia Harrison, 86, who received $524,000 in compensation in 2022, according to the CPB’s most recently available 990 tax exempt form.

CPB announced on Aug. 1 that it will both “wind-down” operations and advocate for Congress to restore funding. The defunding will be felt by the many nonprofits that received money from CPB or that exist because of public broadcasting. One of them is the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS).

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Age-Restricted Taxi Tracking? The Absurd Consequences Of Britain’s Online Safety Act

I was recently travelling in the UK and, after a lot of sightseeing on foot, decided to order a taxi to go back to my hotel.

I searched the internet for a local taxi firm and found one with relative ease. I called the number and went through an automated process which worked well. I managed to book a taxi quickly. The computer-generated voice told me that my taxi was on its way. I was sent a link so that I could monitor the progress of my taxi. The message also said that I would know the taxi driver’s name and the type of vehicle and registration number that was on its way….

I can’t understand why anyone would consider a link to show you the progress of a taxi that you have ordered to be age-inappropriate content.

I can only assume that it is to do with the recent Online Safety Act, although coincidentally I had recently changed mobile providers, so it might purely have been that the mobile provider that I’d switched to had a different standard as to what was considered adult content.

I doubt this on the basis that the company I moved to, Talkmobile, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company I had used previously, Vodafone, and, as you can see, the block was from Vodafone.

Whoever has decided that this link contains age-restricted content hasn’t necessarily thought this through.

Consider the scenario where a 17 year-old girl can’t get hold of her parents and it’s too far away or she does not want to walk home, so she orders a taxi through a reputable taxi service.

A link is sent to her so she can see the progress of the taxi that she has ordered.

Of course, she can’t open it because it’s considered age-inappropriate and, being only 17, she’s not in a position to prove that she’s over 18 and thus get the link to the taxi.

Thankfully it’s rare, but we do know that there are predators out there who will look for people who are vulnerable, and it’s not difficult to spot someone who’s waiting for somebody to pick them up or waiting for a taxi, because every time a car approaches the person will look up from whatever they’re doing to see if it’s the car that’s picking them up.

All it would take would be for a predator to be around at that time, pull the window down and say, “Did you call for a taxi?” and, of course, because she’s just ordered one, she believes this is her taxi, so she gets in, perhaps never to be seen again — all because some moron has decided that a link to follow the progress of a taxi is something you’re not allowed to see if you’re under the age of 18.

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Whistleblower Ties Clinton Campaign to Fake Russia Hack

A whistleblower report declassified last week suggests that Hillary Clinton’s campaign efforts to manufacture evidence tying Donald Trump to alleged Russian hacking in 2016 were deeper than previously known – as were Obama administration efforts to conceal them.

According to the report, a former seniorU.S. intelligence analyst who investigated alleged Russian attempts to breach state voting systems during the 2016 election suspected the breaches may have been “related to activities” of the computer contractors involved in the Alfa Bank hoax,who were accused of manipulating Internet traffic data. 

In that well-publicized case, a Clinton campaign lawyer worked with federal computer contractors and the FBI to create suspicions that Russia was communicating with Donald Trump through a secret server shared by Alfa Bank of Russia and Trump Tower in Manhattan. 

The anonymous whistleblower – who served as the deputy national intelligence officer for cyber issues in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from 2015 to 2020 – told Special Counsel John Durham he stumbled onto “enigmatic” data while leading the investigation of alleged Russian cyber activity for the Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He said that his discovery took place in December 2016 when President Obama ordered the ICA. 

After examining state-reported breaches of election networks, the whistleblower said, “It seemed only brief interaction was occurring – in some cases, no unauthorized access, or even attempted access, was detected on ‘victim’ systems.” Though the suspicious activity initially was attributed to Russian actors, further analysis raised doubts. 

But when he brought his findings to his boss, ODNI’s national intelligence officer for cyber issues, he was ordered to stop investigating and not include his findings in the final ICA draft. 

“After being directed to conduct analysis of Russian-attributed cyber activity for the ICA, I had been abruptly directed to abandon further investigation,” the whistleblower analyst said.

He added that his boss, whose name was blacked out in the whistleblower statement, “directed me to abandon analysis of these events, stating reports of Russia-attributed cyber activity were ‘something else.'” 

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Denver Post Doxxes Citizens For Sharing Pictures And Public Records About Crime

On Aug. 1, The Denver Post exposed the names, locations, voter registrations, and employment of three private citizens who legally obtained public information and sent some to the popular social media account Do Better Denver. On Aug. 7, a Denver Post columnist defended the paper’s decision to dox the three women for sharing public information.

“People who claim to be citizen journalists must stand by their work with a byline and endure the negative comments and threats that come with the job,” wrote Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer.

The Post identified the three people it doxxed by doing a public records request for those women’s public records requests: “The Post filed open records requests to obtain copies of requests tied to DoBetterDNVR,” wrote The Post’s crime reporter Shelly Bradbury in her Aug. 1 article. On Aug. 5, the Denver Gazette confirmed the three doxxed women are not the account administrator. The public records they shared with the accountholder comprise less than 1 percent of Do Better Denver posts.

Bradbury also wrote that the Post targeted the women specifically for exercising their legal rights to view public information. The three, Bradbury wrote, “stand out because of their involvement in the account since its early days in 2023, their connections to each other, and because they did not just send a single video or photo to the account but pursued information through open records requests.”

Do Better Denver alleged the Post did this at the behest of local government officials angry about public disclosures of their activities. One public record one of the women discovered, for example, showed the city paid $2.1 million for vacant rooms for illegal immigrants. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s spokesman did not respond to Federalist requests for comment Monday.

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‘Nothing will be left’: Israel prepares for Gaza City battle

In a dense urban landscape, with likely thousands of Hamas fighters lying in wait, taking Gaza City will be a difficult and costly slog for the Israeli army, security experts say.

On Aug 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his vision of victory in Gaza following 22 months of war, with the military  ordered to attack the last remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City and the central camps farther south.

With a pre-war population of some 760,000, according to official figures, Gaza City was the biggest of any municipal area in the Palestinian territories.

But following the  unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 that sparked the war, its population has only swelled, with thousands of displaced people fleeing intensive military operations to the north.

Gaza City itself has come under intense aerial bombardment, and its remaining apartment buildings now rub shoulders with tents and other makeshift shelters.

Mr Amir Avivi, a former Israeli general and head of the Israeli Defence and Security Forum think-tank, described the city as the “heart of Hamas’ rule in Gaza”.

“Gaza City has always been the centre of government and also has the strongest brigade of Hamas,” he said.

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Politico Hacks Insist Gerrymandering Is Different When Democrats Do It

On Sunday, Politico’s Gregory Svirnovskiy regurgitated talking points by Illinois Democrat governor J.B. Pritzker and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder to suggest Democrats’ gerrymandering is permissible, while smearing Republicans’ attempt to redistrict in Texas as a Trump-backed “attempt to cheat mid-decade.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called a special legislative session to, in part, consider new maps “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.” This came right after the DOJ expressed “serious concerns” that four Texas districts were unlawfully gerrymandered on racial grounds. Last week, close to 60 Texas House Democrats abandoned the state and headed to Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts to protest a new redistricting proposal that could give Republicans five more congressional seats.

As The Federalist reported, Illinois is the most gerrymandered state in the country. In fact, as Nathaniel Rakich and Tony Chow wrote in 2022 in FiveThirtyEight, Illinois’ “gerrymandered congressional map seems hell-bent on making Republican congressmen from Illinois an endangered species.” Democrats — who were in charge of redistricting in the state — “drew a map that packed all five Republicans” in Illinois’ U.S. House delegation “into just three.” And despite Democrats not winning even 60 percent of the popular vote in 2024, the party holds 14 out of the state’s 17 congressional seats.

In New York, Democrats at the state level blocked a proposal drawn by the state’s bipartisan Independent Redistricting Committee (IRC) last year and instead approved a map which, as NBC News’ Jane C. Timm wrote, gave “Democrats a slight boost.”Notably, New Yorkers passed a constitutional amendment in 2014 creating the IRC, which is tasked with drawing new maps every 10 years. Democrats had previously been shot down by the courts after they, as Timm described, passed maps “that so significantly boosted their congressional prospects” in 2022.

In Massachusetts, there are a total of zero Republican congressional districts despite the state swinging more than 36 percent for Trump in 2024.

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Colombian senator and presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay dies after two months in critical condition fighting for his life.

The death of Colombian senator and presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, which occurred today, August 11, 2025, after two months in critical condition due to an armed attack, has shaken Colombia and the continent.

This tragic event, perpetrated on June 7, 2025, by a hitman barely 15 years old, not only claimed the life of a prominent conservative leader from the Democratic Center party, but has also raised alarms about the deterioration of democracy in Colombia under the government of Gustavo Petro.

Uribe Turbay, known for his staunch opposition to Petro’s leftist policies, became a symbol of resistance to what many perceive as an authoritarian drift.

On June 7, 2025, Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in Bogotá by a teenager who fired at close range.
The senator was struck twice, once in the head, and was rushed to a hospital where he remained in critical condition until his death.

The attack, described by Interior Minister Armando Benedetti as a possible “link in a chain of terrorist attacks,” evoked the worst moments of political violence in Colombia, such as the assassinations of leaders in the 1980s and 1990s.

Uribe Turbay, 38, was a rising figure within the Democratic Center, the party founded by former president Álvaro Uribe.

His critical stance on Petro’s social and economic reforms—especially regarding security and relations with armed groups—made him a target of threats.

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Democrats Promise To Turn Illegal Aliens Into Voters

Democrats are increasingly explicit about their goals to turn illegal aliens into future voters — making Republican talk of amnesty or compromise more worrisome. Those efforts would be nothing less than hammering the final nails into the coffin of both the Republican Party and America.

At a Fort Worth “The People vs. The Power Grab” rally, Beto O’Rourke laid it out plainly.

“We absolutely failed to live up to the expectations that we set, so next time we win power, we’re going to drive that car like we stole it,” O’Rourke said. “We’re going to legalize every DREAMer, every DREAMer’s parents, every hardworking American doing backbreaking work that makes this country so g-dd-mn great in the first place, even greater as US citizens.”

O’Rourke isn’t the only Democrat to suggest turning illegal aliens into citizens. Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost said in June that he wants to “document every single [illegal alien] with a speedy path to citizenship.”

Given the chance, Democrats will choose voter registration over deportation. They are simply waiting for their next chance at power to pull the trigger.

It’s comments like these that underscore why there is absolutely no room for exception or compromise on mass deportation by Republicans. There’s a host of issues with giving illegal aliens citizenship or legal status or a carveout — but the most consequential is voting. Legalizing millions of illegal aliens would reshape the electorate overnight. States like Texas could flip blue, while congressional toss-ups like New York Rep. Mike Lawler’s district could disappear for Republicans — not because voters changed their minds, but because Democrats imported and legalized new ones.

It’s a possibility not far out of reach — which is why President Donald Trump must keep his foot on the gas with mass deportations and ignore big agriculture and hospitality, as well as spineless Republicans in Congress demanding mass amnesty.

Trump has floated an amnesty-like program for illegal aliens working in the hospitality or agricultural industry.

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

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Judge Says Don’t Unseal Epstein Grand Jury’s Transcripts

Transcripts of grand jury testimony that led to sex trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell shouldn’t be released, a judge ruled Monday in a stinging decision suggesting the Trump administration’s real motive for wanting them unsealed was to fool the public with an “illusion” of transparency.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written decision that federal law seldom allows the release of grand jury materials and that making the documents public casually was a bad idea.

The judge also belittled the Department of Justice’s argument that releasing grand jury materials might reveal new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, calling that premise “demonstrably false.”

The decision was a blow to President Donald Trump, who had called for the release of transcripts as he seeks to dispel rumors and quell criticism about his long ago involvement with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019.

Trump campaigned on a promise to release files related to Epstein, but was met with criticism — including from many of his own supporters — when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked any real bombshells.

In his ruling, Engelmayer wrote that after privately reviewing the grand jury transcripts, anyone familiar with the evidence from Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking trial would “learn next to nothing new” and “would come away feeling disappointed and misled.”

“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes,” Engelmayer said.

He said the materials also don’t reveal new locations where crimes occurred, new sources of Maxwell and Epstein’s wealth, the circumstances of Epstein’s death or the path of the government investigation.

The best argument to release the transcripts might be that “doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal,” Engelmayer wrote.

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