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UK Intel’s Fake Terror Plots

Back in the “War on Terror” days, the U.K. security services fabricated multiple fake terror plots. There was, for example, the 2009 Easter Bomb Plot in Manchester, taking entire front pages of newspapers.

Gordon Brown as prime minister hyped it as a “very big terror plot.” It was a total fabrication, nobody was convicted and it eventually emerged that the trumpeted “bomb-making ingredient” the police confiscated from kitchens was sugar — in normal quantities.

The Great Ricin Plot in 2003 was again kitchen obsessed, and the media that ran screaming headlines about the discovery of ricin did not bother to later report that the amounts the police announced they had discovered turned out to be the almost undetectable trace which might be found in any kitchen.

The propaganda was the purpose, all ramping up Islamophobia to justify the Western destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

When the Manchester Arena attack eventually did happen, it turned out that MI5, the domestic intelligence service, had been the perpetrator’s sponsor and he and his father had been ferried from Libya by the British armed forces. Sponsorship of terrorism abroad is always likely to result in blowback at home.

[See: How the West’s War in Libya Spurred Terrorism in 14 Countries and Why We’re Never Told Why We’re Attacked]

The propaganda is now being ramped up again to promote the Islamophobia intended to drive public support in the U.K. for the genocide in Gaza and a forthcoming attack on Iran.

MI5 Head Ken McCallum is arguably the most prolific and sustained liar in the history of the U.K. public service. He has not yet generated the deaths with his lies that Alistair Campbell caused, but give McCallum time for his Goebbels-like repetition to pay off. McCallum has a much more compliant media landscape to work with than existed a quarter of a century ago. 

I have to remind myself that my continued outrage at the destruction of millions of very real and ordinary people in the Middle East from 2003 onwards, to secure hydrocarbons for rich and evil men and based on total lies about Iraqi weapons, is something extremely vivid and fundamental to me, but the average university student was not even born at the time.

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Israeli cabinet votes to formalize annexation of occupied West Bank territory

In a landmark and highly controversial decision, Israel’s cabinet voted on 13 May to take full responsibility for land registration in Area C of the occupied West Bank – an area comprising around 60 percent of the territory and home to the vast majority of Israeli settlements. The move, pushed by far-right Ministers Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, is widely being described by critics as a de facto annexation of Palestinian land.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords, Area C was placed under temporary Israeli control, with an eventual transition to Palestinian Authority (PA) administration expected. That transition never materialized. Now, with the new cabinet resolution, any land registration efforts by Palestinians in Area C will be declared legally void by Israel. Israeli authorities plan to initiate formal land registration processes, conduct widespread land surveys, and potentially reclassify vast tracts as “state land,” opening them for settlement expansion.

Under international law, all Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank is illegal.

“This is a dangerous step toward realizing the messianic vision of the annexationist government,” said Israeli rights group Yesh Din, warning that the move violates international law and threatens the rights of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Palestinian activists, such as Ayed Jafry from the village of Sinjil, say the policy will further entrench dispossession. “We’re now dealing directly with the occupation again,” he told Middle East Eye (MEE). “This opens the door for settlers to seize land without oversight.”

According to Israeli media, the government is changing its policy from restricting land use unless permitted to broadly permitting land claims unless explicitly prohibited. Finance Minister Smotrich declared the move part of a broader campaign of “normalization and de facto sovereignty,” aiming to eliminate any prospects for a future Palestinian state.

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DHS Probes Whether California’s Noncitizen Handout Program Is Paying ‘Ineligible Illegal Aliens’

The Trump administration is investigating whether California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a program that pays state money to noncitizens who are not eligible for Social Security benefits because of their immigration status, is paying “ineligible illegal aliens.”

Noncitizens who are over 65, blind or disabled, and are ineligible for Social Security benefits — specifically Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payment — due to their immigration status alone, can receive CAPI benefits. Those eligible can typically receive up to $1,206.94 a month, according to California Disability Benefits 101.

U.S. citizens are not eligible to receive CAPI. In July 2024 alone, CAPI paid 16,852 recipients, a state report shows.  

CAPI benefits are purportedly reserved for eligible noncitizens who are legally present in the U.S. or meet refugee criteria. However, ICE Homeland Security Investigations served a subpoena Monday to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, which administers CAPI, to “determine if ineligible illegal aliens received Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from the Social Security Administration” from January 2021 to present.

According to the DHS, the subpoena requests applicant information, including name and date of birth, application copies, immigration status, and proof of ineligibility for benefits from the Social Security Administration.

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Department of Defense Orders Halt to Gender Transition Medicine, Procedures

The U.S. Department of Defense said in a new memorandum that it is halting medical treatments and procedures for troops who identify as transgender and other personnel with gender dysphoria (GD).

“Within the direct care component, meaning at military medical treatment facilities … Service members and all other covered beneficiaries 19 years of age or older may only receive mental health care and counseling for GD,” Dr. Stephen L. Ferrara, acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in the memo, which is dated May 9.

“Apart from consults for the diagnosis of GD and provision of mental health care and counseling … staff will refer all other care (e.g., cross-sex hormone therapy) for GD to the private sector.”

The Pentagon did not return a request for comment by publication time.

Gender dysphoria refers to when a person believes they’re a gender that’s different from their sex.

President Donald Trump, after taking office in January, said in an order that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”

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Virginia passes law to limit time teens spend on social media to one hour a day

Virginia teens under 16 will soon face limits on their social media usage after Governor Glenn Youngkin signed new legislation into law.

The law requires social media companies to set default time limits of one hour per day for users under 16 years old, with parents having the ability to adjust that time up or down.

“It’s a good first start, and it’s a good way for parents to be able to have better control over how much social media their kids are on,” said Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D – Henrico), who co-sponsored the legislation.

VanValkenburg, who teaches in Henrico County schools, has witnessed the impact of excessive social media use firsthand.

“You see how much it hinders their ability to do well in school, and you see how much it hinders their socialization with their friends,” VanValkenburg said.

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Colorado now has one of the most restrictive gun laws in the country

Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed into law what may be the toughest gun control regulations in state history. Under the new law, it is illegal to buy, sell and make most semi-automatic firearms without background checks and training.

The governor was under heavy pressure to veto the bill from gun rights advocates, including Colorado’s Republican members of Congress. They say the new law is unconstitutional.

Bill sponsor state Rep. Tom Sullivan says it is lifesaving.

“We have been able to add to the safety of each and every Coloradan,” he said.

Sullivan’s son Alex was murdered in the Aurora theater shooting.

“My family made the decision that we would not be silent or (invisible). We would speak out and be present for all those who have been impacted by the public health crisis that is gun violence,” he said.

He has helped pass nearly two dozen gun laws since becoming a state lawmaker in 2019. The new law is the most far-reaching, although it doesn’t go as far as Sullivan would have liked. The original version banned so-called assault weapons. Polis negotiated several amendments, including an exemption for those who agree to an extensive vetting process.

“We can make sure the people who choose to buy guns, first of all, are able to choose the gun they want, but also that they’re properly trained,” Polis said at a bill signing ceremony.

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Time to end judicial immunity

Chatter and sincere efforts to impeach lawfare judges handing out political favors disguised as legal rulings from their judicial throne is never going to amount to much more than fading headline news.  It is time to end judicial immunity for judges.

End it through constitutional amendments, state by state, and federally by amending the U.S. Constitution.  It’s not too late to listen to Thomas Jefferson.

Even if, by some miracle, Congress jumps through all the hoops to land a despotic judge in the hot seat, it still doesn’t threaten a judge’s fat paycheck and pensions.  More importantly, impeachment is an empty, elusive deterrent that leaves the victims of a judge’s lawless rulings with zero recourse.

The arrest of rogue judges like Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan, who used the bench to aid and abet a criminal, was an unusual step in the right direction, but wait for it.  It’s coming: She’ll wiggle out of it through the escape hatch called judicial immunity.

In other words, thanks to the shield of steel that judges gave themselves long ago, they can do whatever they want and get away with it.

If one of the illegal aliens these impervious judges are ordering to stay put or be returned to America goes off and rapes and murders someone’s daughter, the almighty judge can’t be sued because of the immunity he enjoys.

Her family would have a better chance of suing the flight attendant who helped deplane the deportees or the cop who escorted the busload of them back onto U.S. soil — just not these black-robed self-appointed gods whom we must rise to greet whenever they enter a room.

And they know it.  Absolute immunity is the ultimate safety net.  “Bet it all, because you won’t lose a thing” is basically what immunity says to judges.

Without consequences, the sacred checks and balances that the framers of the Constitution so carefully built into our system of government go out the window, at least when it comes to judges.  The eighteenth-century French philosopher Montesquieu, who invented the concept of “separation of powers” in his famous premonitory treatise “The Spirit of the Laws,” must be rolling in his grave.

Then came Jefferson, warning that it is a “very dangerous doctrine” to make judges “the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions.”  Because it would, as he prophetically wrote back in 1820 to his pal William Charles Jarvis in his now famed Jefferson papers, “place us under the despotism of an Oligarchy.”

“Our judges are as honest as other men,” Jefferson wrote, “and not more so.”  Put judicial review in the hands of Congress, he warned, or else we’ll be sorry.

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Iceland approved the 4-day workweek in 2019: nearly 6 years later, all the predictions made have come true.

In 2019, Iceland made headlines by becoming one of the first countries in the world to adopt the four-day working week, not through a general law, but through agreements allowing workers to negotiate shorter weeks or reduced hours. Five years on, the results are indisputable.

The Icelandic experiment began in 2015 with a pilot phase involving around 2,500 employees, or just over 1% of the country’s working population. Following the resounding success of this initiative, with 86% of the employees involved expressing their support, the project was made official in 2019 . Today, almost 90% of Icelandic workers benefit from a reduced working week of 36 hours, compared with 40 hours previously, with no loss of pay. Initial concerns about the four-day week were widespread, both in Iceland and elsewhere in the world. There were fears of a drop in productivity, increased costs for businesses and difficulties in adapting to maintain service levels. However, the Icelandic experience has swept these fears under the carpet.

Icelandic reports show that productivity has remained stable, and even increased in some sectors. One of the keys to this success lies in improving the mental health of workers, a crucial aspect highlighted by Generation Z. The reduction in stress, combined with a better work-life balance, has had a significant positive impact on employee well-being.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Icelandic experience is the promotion of greater gender equality. By encouraging men to become more involved in family life, the four-day week has contributed to a better sharing of domestic and parental responsibilities. Freed from traditional time constraints, men have been able to devote more time to their children and play an active role in household chores. Unlike some countries, such as Belgium, where the four-day week means that hours not worked are compensated for by longer working days, Iceland is keeping salaries and working conditions unchanged despite the reduction in working hours. This approach has been made possible in part by a proactive policy of digitalising businesses and public services.

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Terrifying moment Mexican mayoral candidate is shot dead alongside three supporters including her daughter during live broadcast

A Mexican mayoral candidate was tragically shot dead alongside three of her supporters including her daughter during a live broadcast of her campaign rally.

Yesenia Lara Gutierrez, representing Mexico‘s ruling Morena party, was gunned down in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz on Sunday night as she greeted residents in the streets of Texistepec.

The horrifying incident was captured on a Facebook livestream, showing people running and screaming as gunshots rang out off camera. Mexican newspaper Reforma reported that the candidate was greeting ‘women with children in their arms’ when the gunfire began.

Footage posted online depicted the chaos, with at least 20 shots head in the clip that was still available on Gutierrez’s Facebook page the following day. Other images shared online appeared to show bodies in the street.

Veracruz Governor Rocio Nahle, also of the Morena party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, said Monday that Gutierrez’s daughter was among those killed by gunmen. 

‘No office or position is worth a person’s life,’ Nahle said in a press conference Monday, where she promised justice.  

Gutierrez had posted several images on Facebook, showing her campaigning throughout the region. ‘The strength of our youth is the vitality that motivates me to keep walking day by day,’ she wrote just hours before the shooting.

This marks the second killing of a mayoral candidate in Veracruz during the current election cycle, following the April 29 murder of German Anuar Valencia, also from Morena. 

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Trump Shames Media for Ignoring ‘Genocide’ of White Farmers: ‘If It Were the Other Way Around They’d Talk About It’

President Donald Trump took a blistering shot at establishment media double standards in a fiery White House rebuke Monday.

While speaking at the White House, Trump took a moment to shame the media for the lack of attention given to some of the atrocities happening in South Africa against white Afrikaners — a topic the president cares deeply about.

“It’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about,” the U.S. president told reporters. “But it’s a terrible thing that’s taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white.

“But whether they’re white or black, makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed, and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”

Trump then swiftly turned his ire toward the establishment double standard when it comes to race-based issues.

“And the newspapers, and the media, and the television media doesn’t even talk about it,” Trump continued. “If it were the other way around, they’d talk about it. That would be the only story they talk about.”

Trump finished by stressing: “I don’t care who they are, I don’t care about their race, their color, I don’t care about their height, their weight, I don’t care about anything.

“I just know that what’s happening is terrible. I have people that live in South Africa.

“They say it’s a terrible situation taking place. So we’ve essentially extended citizenship to those people, to escape from the violence and come here.”

In February, Trump signed an executive order that targeted South Africa for “egregious actions.”

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