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Booker Previously Labeled Filibusters An ‘Abuse Of Power’ Years Prior To Setting Senate Speech Record

Democrat New Jersey Senator Cory Booker previously labeled Senate filibusters an “abuse of power” in 2022, prior to launching yesterday’s 25-hour filibuster on Tuesday — the longest in U.S. Senate history.

A filibuster is “a loosely defined term for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question,” according to the U.S. Senate website.

Booker (D-N.J.) began his speech at 7 p.m. on Monday, going on to speak for “25 hours and 5 minutes,” highly contradicting his previous comments — when he referred to the tactic as “abuse.”

“The filibuster has been abused to stop reforms supported by the vast majority of Americans–from background checks to protecting the right to vote. We must stop this abuse of power,” Booker wrote in January 2022.

Booker’s historically lengthy speech surpassed former Senator Strom Thurmond, who previously held the record, speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

The New Jersey senator accomplished the feat without “eating any food” or drinking any water for the entire duration of his speech, which helped him avoid the need to use a restroom. However, other reports have claimed that he only took a few quick sips of water throughout his speech.

“I don’t want my doctor to be mad at me, but I really spent time dehydrating myself beforehand, so I did not have to go to the bathroom,” Booker stated on Tuesday night.

“My challenge was, was that my strategy was to stop eating, I think I stopped eating on Friday, and then to stop drinking the night before I started on Monday, and that had its benefits and it had its really downsides,” he continued. “And so instead of fighting or figuring out how to go to the bathroom, I ended up, I think really, unfortunately, dehydrating myself.”

To retain the floor, Booker had to remain standing and was not able to leave his desk for the duration of his “marathon” speech.

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Third Former Rotherham Police Officer Arrested Over Child Sex Abuse Investigation

A former police officer accused of raping a teenager in child-sex scandal town Rotherham has been arrested, the third such arrest in the investigation so far.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced a former police constable of the South Yorkshire Police was arrested on Monday. The former officer, a man in his 50s, is suspected of raping a teenage girl in the town of Rotherham in 2004.

IOPC spokesman Emily Barry said the investigation into the South Yorkshire Police is being conducted by the South Yorkshire Police under the Office’s direction, and that they have received complaints against police officers from six women. This new arrest pertains to the sixth and latest woman to come forward, she said.

Barry said: “These complaints are being handled sensitively and thoroughly investigated and a third former officer has now been arrested. At the end of the investigation we will decide whether a file of evidence will be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider criminal charges.”

As previously reported, two former police officers were arrested on suspicion of child sex abuse last year. One of those former officers, a man in his 60s has been arrested twice over the course of the investigation in relation to separate allegations, including alleged child sex abuse against a victim between 1997 and 2002, and indecent assault against two other girls between 1995 and 1999.

A second former officer, a man in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of “sexual assault and misconduct in public office and one count of indecent assault in connection to incidents that reportedly occurred around 1995-1996.”

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Nashville Police Final Report: Trans Shooter Audrey Hale ‘Spent Years’ Planning Attack

After an extended waiting period, Nashville police have published their final report on the Covenant School massacre—a deliberate attack in March 2023 on a Christian school by a transgender assailant, resulting in the tragic deaths of three third-grade students and three adult staff members.

The report revealed that the now-deceased shooter, Audrey Hale, 28, a biological woman who identified as a transgender man, going by “he/him” pronouns, had multiple notebooks, art sketchbooks, and computer documents that detailed the future attack plans.

Police noted that Hale had hoped to gain publicity from the tragic shooting, and they also stated that she was clearly inspired by the Columbine school shooting in 1999, as evidenced by her writings.

According to investigators, while she was still alive and in the early stages of planning the attack, Hale had been “fantasizing” about and researching mass shootings since 2017.

A year later, she wrote “detailed fantasies” about shooting up the Isaac T. Creswell Middle Magnet School for the Arts. She also wrote about murdering her father and her psychiatrist.

Additionally, investigators are now seemingly claiming that the previously released manifesto pages, obtained by Steven Crowder, the host of the “Louder with Crowder” podcast, as well as pages that were obtained by the Tennessee Star outlet — were fake.

“Facebook is now censoring the Nashville Manifesto,” Crowder posted in November 2023, and he included a screenshot of a warning he received after attempting to post the content online.

Nevertheless, the authorities’ explanation of their most recent Audrey Hale investigation update continued.

“In this case, a manifesto didn’t exist,” the document claims. “Hale never left behind a single document explaining why she committed the attack, why she specifically targeted The Covenant, and what she hoped to gain, if anything, with the attack.”

However, in June 2024, pages of Hale’s alleged manifesto writings were reported as being obtained by The Tennessee Star outlet. They cited an anonymous source familiar with the investigation.

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Two Million User International Paedophile Child Porn Ring Busted by Europol

A massive international pedophile network spanning across over 30 countries was shut down, and dozens of arrests were made relating to child pornography, the Europol police agency announced on Wednesday.

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation said that the Darknet child porn platform “Kidflix” has been shut down under the direction of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office in Germany.

Europol said that the platform had an estimated 1.8 million users throughout the world, with investigations being coordinated across 35 counties.

So far, 79 people have been arrested and nearly 1,400 further suspects have been identified, over one hundred of whom were located in Germany, broadcaster NTV reports.

The platform, which was created in 2021, is said to have been one of the largest of its kind in the world and the largest to date to have existed in Europe.

According to the investigators, the site had over 91,000 child porn videos before it was shut down, with an average of three and half videos being uploaded to the site every hour. In exchange for paying a fee to the site, users were able to stream and upload videos of child sex abuse.

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mRNA Vaccines Linked to Genetic Changes That Can Cause Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders

A new peer-reviewed study links the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to long-term changes in genetic structures that can provoke an inflammatory response, and lead to the onset of cancer and autoimmune disorders.

The study by 19 German scientists was published last week in Molecular Systems Biology. The researchers said their findings may account for “post vaccination inflammatory diseases which occur in a small number of vaccinated individuals.”

Journalist Alex Berenson said the study shows that mRNA vaccines can alter human chromosomes in ways linked to leukemia and brain tumors. This occurs when the mRNA vaccines “train” immune cells to sustain a pro-inflammatory immune response.

According to epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher, “This study adds to the large body of evidence describing potent immune dysregulating effects of mRNA injections.”

Hulscher said the study raises “serious concerns about long-term immune homeostasis and the potential for chronic inflammatory disease, autoimmune sequelae, and even oncogenic processes.”

Immunologist and biochemist Jessica Rose, Ph.D., said the study confirms what is already known about the risks of mRNA vaccines. She said:

“Repeat injection leads to a boatload of immunological modifications. This is not new information. We know that these kinds of changes can occur. It is not surprising to me that they found this.

“If the systemic reach goes far enough, such as to stem cells, then repeated injection could potentially induce epigenetic changes in these cells, especially since hematopoietic stem cells are known to develop innate immune memory in response to certain stimuli like infections or other vaccines.”

Epigenetics refers to how human behavior and the environment can cause changes that affect how genes work. According to Berenson, the changes caused by the mRNA COVID-19 shots are epigenetic, as “they occur around DNA’s core and activate genes in ways that can promote tumor growth.”

“The risk here is, of course, prolonged and excessive inflammation, which might contribute to tissue damage or chronic inflammatory conditions in some contexts, which we do see in pharmacovigilance data,” Rose said.

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Following the Money on RFK’s Top Targets, Pharma Ads & Soda

What do Big Pharma ads on TV and Diet Coke have in common? Both are targets of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the new head of the Health and Human Services department.

In his early efforts to press the “Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy has singled out two seemingly different issues: those ubiquitous television ads for pharmaceuticals, and whether people on federal food assistance programs should be able to buy soda and junk food on the taxpayer dime.

Popping open a can of Diet Coke to open the latest episode of The Drill Down, host Peter Schweizer savors the taste of crony capitalism.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign to swiftly bar the use of food stamps to buy soda is fueling tensions between his team and the Agriculture Department. Of course, the American Beverage Association, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of “Big Soda,” is firing back, too.

HHS wants the Trump administration to approve petitions from the governors of Kentucky and West Virginia to ban soda purchases from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) program for the first time. But the USDA controls the program, not HHS. So that sets up a conflict, and for the beverage industry the stakes are very high.

The SNAP program costs $100 billion per year and serves about 42 million Americans.

Co-host Eric Eggers says that Coca-Cola would see a 2.5 percent decline in worldwide sales if sugary sodas were no longer covered by SNAP nationwide. Coca-Cola is just one of many makers of soda. Moreover, about 25 percent of all SNAP program spending is done at the cash registers at Walmart, so its influence will be felt as well.

The show also takes on another perennial issue and MAHA target — pharmaceutical advertising on television.

Every American is used to hearing and seeing ads for miracle drugs when watching television, especially news programs and sports. They often show bright, happy old people whirling around in golf carts or briskly walking while a voiceover speed-reads a cocktail of terrifying potential side effects.

“I’m generally a free-speech guy, but what is the purpose of these ads? They are meant to create demand for new, expensive drugs,” Schweizer points out.

Here also is the brewing conflict with those who make money based on those ads — media companies that sell those ad spaces to Big Pharma. About 30 percent of the ads sold for any news show on TV are for pharmaceuticals. Many people have noticed how generally easy the news media at those networks go on pharmaceutical companies.

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Which AI Chatbots Collect The Most Data About You?

The harbinger of the AI revolution, ChatGPT, remains the most popular AI tool on the market, with more than 200 million weekly active users.

But amongst all its competitors, which AI chatbots are collecting the most user data? And why does that matter?

Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes data from Surfshark which identified the most popular AI chatbots and analyzed their privacy details on the Apple App Store.

At first place, Google’s Gemini (released March, 2023) collects 22 different data points across 10 categories, from its users.

Data collected ranges from general diagnostics (that all bots in this study collect) to access to contacts (that no other bot identified collects).

xAI’s Grok (released November, 2023) collects the least unique data points (7).

China’s DeepSeek (released Jan 2025), sits comfortably in the middle of the pack at 11 points.

The kind of data collected by each of these AI tools varies. All of them collected general diagnostics information. However, only Gemini and Perplexity look at purchases.

And then, nearly all but Perplexity.ai and Grok collect user content.

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Massie Bill Demands Federal Candidates Reveal Dual Citizenship

Seeking to spotlight federal office-seekers who may have a conflict of interest, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie has introduced a bill that would require candidates for federal office to disclose any non-American citizenships they hold.  

“Personally, I don’t think dual citizens should serve in Congress, but I ultimately decided to introduce a transparency bill requiring full disclosure of citizenship,” said Massie in a Monday Fox News interview with Will Cain. “Voters can then make the decision.” So far, Massie’s Dual Loyalty Disclosure Act (HR 2356) has attracted four co-sponsors, all of them Republicans: Andy Biggs (AZ-5), Clay Higgins (LA-3), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) and Nicholas Begich (AK at-large).

While it’s not a provision of his transparency-focused bill that would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act, Massie thinks dual citizens in Congress “should… abstain from votes specifically benefitting those countries,” the libertarian-minded MIT grad said in a press release accompanying the introduction of his bill. “We swear an oath to the Constitution, and the question is, if you’re a citizen of two countries, which oath are you taking more seriously, or can you take them both seriously?” Massie told Fox’s Cain. 

Underscoring the mystery that Massie is seeking to end, it’s unclear how many current members of Congress have citizenship in a foreign country. Indeed, ZeroHedge wasn’t able to identify any members who have disclosed dual citizenships on their own. According to Pew Research, there are 19 foreign-born members of the 119th Congress, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to holding citizenship abroad. Among those 19, the countries of birth are Mexico (4 members), India (3), South Korea (2) Ukraine (2), Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Japan, Peru, Somalia and Taiwan.    

“I’m not picking on any particular country,” said Massie. However, American social media and other discourse regarding US officials’ potential dual citizenship has overwhelmingly focused on Israel, which receives billions of dollars in US military aid every year, in a relationship that foments intense foreign resentments against the United States, and terrorism against Americans. 

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Javier Milei’s Free Market Reforms Are Starting To Pay Off

Argentina’s poverty rate fell sharply in the second half of 2024, according to official data released this week, marking a major milestone for President Javier Milei’s sweeping economic reforms.

According to the country’s official statistics agency, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), the poverty rate fell to 38.1 percent between July 2024 and December 2024—down nearly 15 percentage points from the first half of the year. Household poverty also declined by 13.9 percentage points, hitting 28.6 percent. And extreme poverty was cut by more than half, falling from 18.1 percent to 8.2 percent.

It’s a major turnaround from the beginning of Milei’s presidency. When he took office in December 2023, he inherited a poverty rate of 41.7 percent, which quickly surged to 53 percent as his administration launched a “shock therapy” program to end Argentina’s economic misery.

One of the biggest drivers behind the poverty decline is the sharp drop in inflation. Annual inflation, which reached 276.2 percent a year ago—one of the highest in the world—dropped to 66.9 percent last month. Monthly inflation has also dropped, from 25.5 percent in December to just 2.4 percent in March.

“These figures reflect the failure of past policies, which plunged millions of Argentines into precarious conditions while promoting the idea of helping the poor, even as poverty continued to increase,” Milei’s office said in a statement following the release of the INDEC report. “The current administration has shown that the path of economic freedom and fiscal responsibility is the way to reduce poverty in the long term.”

In other words, Milei’s bet on free market reforms is starting to pay off. 

It’s worth remembering the situation he walked into. “Milei inherited a country suffering from more than 200% inflation in 2023, 40% poverty, a fiscal and quasi-fiscal deficit of 15% of GDP, a huge and growing public debt, a bankrupt central bank, and a shrinking economy,” writes Ian Vásquez of the Cato Institute.

In response, Milei promised a radical shift in Argentina’s economic model. His government slashed government spending, eliminated price controls, devalued the peso, cut subsidies, suspended public works, and laid off thousands of government workers. The changes weren’t popular, but they were necessary. And now, the numbers are catching up.

The economy is growing again. Gross domestic product grew in the last two quarters. The gap between the black-market dollar and the official rate has narrowed. Rents have fallen and the housing supply has increased since rent control laws were scrapped. Meanwhile, investor interest in Argentina is beginning to return, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is in talks with Milei’s government over a new program. The IMF projects a 5 percent growth for Argentina in 2025. 

Still, challenges remain. Despite the improvement, over 11 million Argentines are still living in poverty, with 2.5 million facing extreme poverty. And more than half of all children ages 14 and under in Argentina are poor. 

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Newly Revealed FBI Messages Expose Agency’s Suppression of Hunter Biden Laptop Story Ahead of 2020 Election: Report

Newly revealed internal FBI messages have uncovered a startling effort by the agency to quash the explosive Hunter Biden laptop story in the lead-up to the 2020 election. These documents, released by the House Judiciary Committee, show a coordinated effort by senior FBI officials to suppress any discussion of the laptop, which could have severely impacted the Biden campaign.

The documents reveal that on October 14, 2020, the FBI had possession of the laptop and confirmed its authenticity but still sought to downplay its significance. One internal message from that day advised agents, “Please do not discuss Biden matter,” despite the fact that the story was breaking across news outlets.

This coordinated effort allowed Big Tech companies to censor the story, claiming it was “Russian disinformation” without evidence, according to Trending Politics.

In testimony to Congress, Laura Dehmlow, head of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, confirmed that an FBI analyst attempted to confirm the laptop’s authenticity to Twitter, only to be admonished and silenced by senior officials. These actions contradicted the FBI’s public stance that it was working to combat foreign interference, raising concerns about the agency’s role in suppressing free speech.

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