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Cops probing anti-Israel manifesto allegedly written by terror suspect Elias Rodriguez ahead of DC Jewish Museum shooting: sources

Police are investigating whether the suspected terrorist arrested for fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC, blasted out an anti-Israel manifesto online in the lead-up to the bloodshed, law enforcement sources told The Post.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, had allegedly chanted “Free, free Palestine” just moments before he confessed to gunning down the couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum late Wednesday, cops said.

As investigators probed a motive behind the horrific antisemitic bloodshed, cops were homing in on a 900-word manifesto bearing Rodriguez’s name that started circulating online immediately after his arrest, the sources said.

In addition to trying to determine the document’s authenticity, authorities were trawling through Rodriguez’s electronic devices and probing whether he was self-radicalized, according to sources.

The missive, which was apparently dated May 20 — a day before the slayings — appeared to suggest the killings were an act of political protest ignited by the war in Gaza.

“An armed action is not necessarily a military action. It usually is not. Usually it is theater and spectacle, a quality it shares with many unarmed actions,” the document reads.

The alleged manifesto went on to suggest that those “of us against the genocide” have “forfeited their humanity.”

“But inhumanity has long since shown itself to be shockingly common, mundane, prosaically human. A perpetrator may then be a loving parent, a filial child, a generous and charitable friend, an amiable stranger, capable of moral strength at times when it suits him and sometimes even when it does not, and yet be a monster all the same,” the writings state.

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The UK’s Digital ID Era Starts This Summer

A sweeping transformation of the UK’s identity systems is underway, with the government poised to launch a digital identity wallet this summer. Beginning with a digital version of the Veteran card and expanding to include driving licenses later this year, the initiative is designed to eventually consolidate all government-issued credentials into a single, centralized app by 2027.

While pitched as a modernization effort, this dramatic shift toward a digital-first ID system has sparked serious concerns about surveillance, data security, and individual autonomy in an increasingly watchful society.

To enroll in the system, users will be expected to provide personal documentation.

The Gov.uk Wallet, as it is known, represents a fundamental redesign of the relationship between the state and its citizens.

This overhaul comes at a time when nearly 50 million people across the UK could be affected by the new digital infrastructure. While specific instructions on how to apply for or access the wallet have yet to be detailed, the direction is clear: the UK is moving toward a society where physical IDs may soon be relics of the past.

The government frames the change as part of its larger digitization strategy, yet the scale and permanence of eventual biometric data collection call into question the long-term implications for individual freedoms.

The introduction of digital driving licenses has also been tied to broader regulatory reforms, including newly proposed rules for e-scooter purchases. Buyers will need to provide license details as a form of identity verification, reinforcing the idea that access to everyday services will increasingly hinge on digital ID systems. This entrenchment of digital identity into daily life carries substantial consequences: it embeds surveillance mechanisms into transportation, access to benefits, and public services in ways that may be difficult to reverse.

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Third World Countries Continue Rolling Out Digital Biometric IDs as ID4AFRICA Agenda is Underway

Numerous third world countries are continuing the global push of implementing biometric identification systems for their citizens and incorporate these systems into digital ID smartphone apps for increased tracking abilities. Behind this push are globalist organizations such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. Notably, a digital ID app could be theoretically shut off if the user fails to meet specific requirements, such as vaccination update schedules, although this has not happened, yet.

The ID4AFRICA event going on between May 20-23 in Ethiopia “unites the global identity community to advance the ID4D agenda, and to explore how digital identity and aligned services can support Africa’s socio-economic development and individual empowerment.”

Language on the site says that ‘stakeholders’ are able to attend the event – the word ‘stakeholder’ likely referencing the new globalist economy of ‘stakeholder capitalism‘ that the World Economic Forum promotes.

“The ID4Africa AGM welcomes participation from all stakeholder groups,” the ID4AFRICA about page said.

The ID4D agenda is an operation by the World Bank to roll out digital identification systems globally to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are part of the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 plans for a world government.

“According to the ID4D Dataset, approximately 850 million people lack official ID, and 3.3 billion do not have access to digital ID for official transactions online. The ID4D Initiative works with countries towards reducing this staggering number, and ensure that identification systems are accessible, protect people’s rights and data, and capable of facilitating transactions in the digital age,” the organization said.

In addition to Ghana, Venezuela, Ivory Coast, Edo State, Nigeria and Iraq which take biometrics of voters, a number of other third world countries are now implementing systems which are wider reaching in both scope and use case.

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Human Rights Groups Condemn Israel’s Gaza Aid Plan

A group of British human rights organizations is sounding the alarm on the Trump administration’s plan to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Under the plan, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-based organization, would handle the aid and private military contractors would secure the distribution sites. The Israeli military would provide “necessary security.”

An open letter from 11 NGOs, including Action For Humanity and Christian Aid, refers to the plan as a “politicized sham” and a “blueprint for ethnic cleansing.”

“Despite branding itself as ‘independent’ and ‘transparent,’ the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would be wholly dependent on Israeli coordination and operates via Israeli-controlled entry points, primarily the Port of Ashdod and the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing,” the letter explains. “This entrenches and legitimises the very structures of control that are responsible for cutting Gaza off from food, fuel, and medicine.”

“Limiting aid distribution to restricted collection points would effectively exclude persons with disabilities and those who are injured and unable to move easily through the destruction and rubble, violating the principle of impartial needs-based humanitarian assistance,” it continues. “Let us be clear: the biggest barrier to humanitarian access in Gaza is not inefficiency or corruption, it is the deliberate restriction of aid by the Israeli government. The military siege on Gaza is a form of collective punishment. The restriction of aid is being used as a weapon of war.”

The plan has also been condemned by the U.N.’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which says the system “contradicts Israel’s obligations under International Humanitarian Law to allow and facilitate impartial humanitarian relief for civilians in need.”

“UN involvement would legitimize a military tactic that would have devastating consequences on the population and would damage the organization’s reputation in Gaza and the region,” reads a recent document from the group.

In recent remarks, U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee admitted that the plan will feed only 60% of Gaza initially and blamed the deadly Israeli blockade on Hamas.

“You have to start somewhere, and the somewhere feeds an enormous level of the people of Gaza,” Huckabee said.

The GHF is headed by Jake Wood, a U.S. military veteran who started the disaster relief nonprofit organization Team Rubicon in response to the Haiti earthquake in 2010.

“This plan is not perfect, but this plan will be feeding people by the end of the month, in a scenario where no one has allowed aid in over the course of the last 10 weeks,” Wood said in his first interview since starting the foundation.

“Ultimately, the community is going to face a choice. This is going to be the mechanism by which aid can be distributed in Gaza,” he continued. “Are you willing to participate? The answer is going to be, you know, pretty critical to whether or not this ramps up to sufficiently feed 2.2 million people in a very desperate situation.”

Wood has insisted that the plan would not lead to the further displacement of Palestinians, but the U.N. points out that it excludes northern Gaza, which could force people to relocate from the north.

The plan has also been condemned by the U.N.’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Israeli leaders have also publicly admitted that the aid plan will enable them to continue their genocidal policies in the region.

In a video posted on social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the hunger crisis and said that images of famine would impair Israel’s ability to achieve its war aims.

“Our best friends in the world, senators that I know as enthusiastic Israel supporters, who I’ve known for many years, are coming to me and telling me, ‘We give you all the support for a final victory — arms, support on your maneuvers to destroy Hamas, support at the U.N. Security Council,” Netanyahu said. “There is one thing we cannot endure — pictures of mass famine. This is something we are unable to witness. We will not be able to support you.’”

In the same video, Netanyahu said that Israel would “take control of all the Gaza Strip” while delivering “minimal humanitarian aid: food and medicine only.”

These sentiments were echoed by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who held a news conference to assure his base that the aid plan was a means of continuing the genocide.

“The [aid] that will enter Gaza in the coming days is the tiniest amount,” he explained. “A handful of bakeries that will hand out pita bread to people in public kitchens. People in Gaza will get a pita and a food plate, and that’s it. Exactly what we are seeing in the videos: people standing in line and waiting to have someone serve them, with some soup plate.

“We are disassembling Gaza and leaving it as piles of rubble, with total destruction [which has] no precedent globally,” he continued. “And the world isn’t stopping us. There are pressures. There are those who attack [us]; they are trying to [make us] stop; they are not succeeding.”

NBC recently reported that the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya. Sources say the U.S. government would release billions in funds to Libya that were previously frozen in exchange for the country participating in the ethnic cleansing.

Hamas says it is unaware of any such plans.

“The [aid] that will enter Gaza in the coming days is the tiniest amount.”

“Palestinians are very rooted in their homeland, very strongly committed to the homeland, and they are ready to fight up to the end and to sacrifice anything to defend their land, their homeland, their families and the future of their children,” senior Hamas official Basem Naim told NBC. Palestinians “are exclusively the only party who have the right to decide for the Palestinians, including Gaza and Gazans, what to do and what not to do.”

This week, Israel cleared nine aid trucks to enter Gaza, marking the first delivery in three months. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher called it a “drop in the ocean,” as 500 trucks had been allowed in daily before the war.

The organization has warned that 14,000 babies could die within days if Gaza does not receive immediate, substantial aid.

“This is not food that Hamas is going to steal,” Fletcher told the BBC. “We run the risk of looting, of being hit by the Israeli offensive. We will be impeded, we will run huge risks, but I don’t see a better idea than getting that baby food in to those moms, who at the moment cannot feed their own kids.”

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Joe Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Shouldn’t End Scrutiny of the Cognitive Decline Cover-Up

Former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis has prompted entirely appropriate expressions of sympathy from notable Republicans, Democrats, world leaders, and the public at large. Extending well-wishes, thoughts, and prayers to political opponents is a humane and civilizing instinct that might, in some small way, improve the U.S.’s fraught political climate. Regardless, it’s just the right thing to do.

But the former president’s prognosis must not bring a premature end to the conversation about whether Biden was cognitively fit for office in 2024. On the contrary, the public should demand answers and accountability on this topic with renewed vigor—precisely because of the well-founded mistrust engendered by Biden’s family members and inner circle, Democratic elites, and to some extent, the mainstream media. The reason we cannot necessarily accept, at face value, that Biden himself just learned about his diagnosis last week, is due to Biden’s own actions and the actions of his senior advisors, campaign staff, and party leaders.

It might very well be the case that Biden only recently became aware of this very serious health problem. But the timing is suspicious, coming just after the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s taped interviews with Biden, in which the lie that Hur had mischaracterized Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” was definitively exposed. The Biden White House had attempted to discredit Hur; Biden himself raged at a press conference and blamed Hur for bringing up Beau Biden’s death. The tapes, obtained and released by Axios, explicitly contradict Biden’s version of events—it was the president who first referenced the death of his son, evincing confusion over the exact date.

If anything, Hur was too gentle with Biden. He patiently listened to the president’s rambling, incoherent anecdotes, and attempted to steer him back to the topic at hand: alleged improper storage of classified documents. Biden’s behavior during the five-hour interview raised serious questions about his fitness for office at that time, let alone whether he remained sharp enough to perform the most demanding job in the world for another four years.

Top Democrats, however, echoed Biden’s talking points that behind closed doors, the president was at the top of his game. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) said Biden’s mental acuity was “as good as it’s been over the years,” and that the pair would talk several times a week. The message from virtually every Democratic leader who interacted with Biden was the same: Hur is a partisan actor and shouldn’t be trusted, Biden is absolutely fine. Everyone knows that’s false.

And it’s not just the Hur tapes. Original Sin, the new book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, is slated for release later this week; excerpts from the book have already publicized the elaborate steps taken by Biden’s campaign staff to shield him from press scrutiny. The inescapable conclusion is that party leaders were well aware of Biden’s diminished capacity and were more than willing to mislead the voters—their own voters—about that fact.

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Here’s what we know about the socialist activist arrested for killing Israeli embassy staffers in DC

A socialist, pro-Palestinian activist was arrested for allegedly shooting a couple dead on Wednesday night in Washington, DC, outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The couple were staffers from the Israeli Embassy in the nation’s capital and were about to get engaged.  

Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, has been identified by authorities as the suspected shooter. Video of Rodriguez getting arrested showed him yelling “Free, free Palestine,” and he has a history of engaging in leftist ideologies such as socialism. Israeli diplomat Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were the victims of the deadly shooting; they were set to be engaged.

A person with the same name also belonging to the Party for Socialism and Liberation had made a donation before on a fundraising page for Gaza, and wrote a note stating, “I as an individual cannot stop this violence to the people of Palestine, but I can at least help the little boy who made a difference to me, I urge other to help as much as possible, no child should experience such horrible things. Free Palestine” (sic).

Additionally, the Daily Mail has also reported images appearing to be of Rodriguez at BLM protests in 2017. The alleged killer’s work profile had him working at the non-profit organization, TheHistoryMakers, with his biography stating that he was an “oral history researcher” on African American communities.

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Congressional Bill Aimed At Protecting Kids Online Could Cause Headaches For Marijuana Businesses

A newly filed bill in Congress aimed at protecting children online could create headaches for advertisers trying to promote legal marijuana and other regulated substances.

Titled the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the bipartisan proposal—from Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) as well as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—would create a “duty of care” for online platforms such as social media and streaming video services, requiring them to take steps to prevent access to potentially sensitive content by minors.

That includes advertisements for cannabis products and certain other drugs and services.

A factsheet from Blackburn’s office says the duty of care “requires social media companies to prevent and mitigate certain harms that they know their platforms and products are causing to young users.”

The sponsors say the legislation is necessary to protect children from pernicious practices that keep “kids glued to their screens” for hours a day, alleging that “Big Tech is trying every method possible to keep them scrolling, clicking ads, and sharing every detail of their life.”

The 63-page bill “targets the harms that online platforms cause through their own product and business decisions,” the factsheet says, “like how they design their products and applications to keep kids online for as long as possible, train their algorithms to exploit vulnerabilities, and target children with advertising.”

Much of the proposal is aimed at limiting content that fuels behavioral health disorders. Platforms would need to “exercise reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature to prevent and mitigate the following harms to minors,” it says, listing eating and drug use disorders, suicidal ideation, violence and harassment, sexual exploitation, financial harm and others.

As for controlled substances, online platforms would be prohibited from facilitating the “advertising of narcotic drugs, cannabis products, tobacco products, gambling, or alcohol to an individual that the covered platform knows is a minor.”

The provision around drug use lists the “distribution, sale, or use of narcotic drugs, tobacco products, cannabis products, gambling, or alcohol” as risks that platforms would need to actively guard minors against.

Video streaming platforms meanwhile, would be required “to employ measures that safeguard against serving advertising for narcotic drugs, cannabis products, tobacco products, gambling, or alcohol directly to the account or profile of an individual that the service knows is a minor.”

“Big Tech platforms have shown time and time again they will always prioritize their bottom line over the safety of our children, and I’ve heard too many heartbreaking stories to count from parents who have lost a child because these companies have refused to make their platforms safer by default,” Blackburn said in a press release about the legislation.

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‘A nightmare’: Female inmate describes ‘traumatic’ experience of being housed with biological males

An inmate at Minnesota’s Shakopee women’s prison says she’s been traumatized by the state’s policy allowing transgender-identifying males to be housed alongside female prisoners—calling her experience “the worst time I’ve ever had to live through.”

Jamie Ali, who is currently incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility–Shakopee, spoke to Alpha News by phone and shared concerns about her mental health, physical safety, and what she calls repeated failures by the Department of Corrections (DOC) to protect vulnerable women.

“I am a survivor of sexual assault. I’ve been raped three times,” Ali said. “I also experienced domestic violence growing up and in my previous relationships so the whole thing being here with these men has been a nightmare.”

Ali said the state’s 2023 transgender policy has caused lasting psychological harm in the form of panic attacks, and the presence of biologically male inmates has forced her to isolate—even from beneficial rehabilitation programs.

“I withdrew from every single one of my classes because there are transgenders in them and it’s very traumatic,” she said. “I’ve been having panic attacks since I’ve got here.”

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New York Marijuana Officials Launch Interactive ‘Buy Legal’ Map To Help Consumers Find Licensed Dispensaries

New York officials have launched a new online map that’s meant to help adults locate licensed marijuana retailers—one of their latest efforts to encourage consumers to buy their cannabis from the regulated market.

After a rocky rollout of the state’s legalization law opened the door to a proliferation of illicit marijuana shops, the governor and Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) have prioritized educating the public about the need to purchase their products from licensed dispensaries as a health and safety imperative.

To that end, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) started a “Buy Legal” campaign in 2023. And the latest iteration of that campaign is a “new, consumer-friendly tool that helps New Yorkers locate licensed, open dispensaries across the state,” OCM announced on Wednesday.

“Whether you’re looking for adult-use or medical cannabis, delivery services, or equity-owned businesses, the Buy Legal map makes it easier than ever to shop safer, legal, and local,” it said, adding that people can “search by location, name, or filters like delivery” and also view “operating hours, website links, and real-time directions.”

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Texas House Approves Bill To Ban Consumable Hemp-Derived THC Products

The Texas House late Wednesday gave initial approval to a bill that would ban all products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, likely spelling the end for the state’s short-lived hemp industry.

Under the legislation, which is nearing the governor’s desk for approval, adults would face up to a year in jail for possessing hemp products with any amount of THC—a stricter penalty than what is on the books for possessing up to 2 ounces of marijuana.

The bill’s expected passage portends a minor earthquake for the state’s economy, effectively shuttering a field that, by one estimate, accounts for roughly 50,000 jobs and generates $8 billion in tax revenue annually.

THC products, now a ubiquitous presence at gas stations, convenience stores and thousands of other retailers across Texas, are now poised to be taken off the shelves. The about-face comes six years after the Legislature inadvertently touched off a massive boom in hemp-based products when lawmakers, intending to boost Texas agriculture, authorized the sale of consumable hemp.

Though that 2019 law does not allow products to contain more than trace amounts of delta-9 THC, it did not establish that same threshold for other hemp derivatives. Critics say the hemp industry has exploited that loophole to the tune of more than 8,000 retailers now selling THC-laced edibles, drinks, vapes and flower buds.

The vote ended months of suspense over how the House would handle competing calls to ban or regulate THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana.

This session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who oversees the Senate, has led the charge to eradicate the industry, which he accuses of preying on susceptible minors by setting up stores near schools and marketing products to children. The Senate passed legislation in March to ban all THC products, and the Republican leader threatened to force an overtime session of the Legislature if the House did not get on board.

“I’ve been here for 17 years at the Texas Capitol—10 years as your lieutenant governor. I’ve never been more passionate about anything,” Patrick said in a video posted on social media Monday evening. “I’m not gonna leave Austin until we get this done.”

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