Tag: air travel

Dallas Airport Cancels Plans to Install Islamic Foot Washing Stations After Governor Abbott Intervenes

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Friday evening canceled plans to install Islamic “Wudu” foot-washing stations.

As TGP reported this week, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the project “consists of adding Ablution stations to existing concourse level restrooms in Terminal D, one Men’s ablution station in existing men’s restroom and one Women’s ablution station in the existing women’s restroom,” and is privately funded.

The construction was set to begin in about a week and would have cost $300,000.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) earlier Friday evening announced he was working to block Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) from installing Islamic wudu washing stations.

Governor Abbott ordered a review of all state grants to DFW and George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) for possible revocation.

“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” said Governor Abbott in a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

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No Fourth Amendment In American Airports?

Do you, as an American citizen, have to hand over your cell phone — along with the access code to open it — upon a (warrantless) demand by a border agent at the airport?

There’s a case grinding through the courts about that right now because one man, a Mr. Sam Tunick, refused.  

Not only did he refuse but he had an app on his phone that triggered its erasure once you keyed in a particular code to open it.  That was the code he gave CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) when they demanded his code to open it.  And then his phone was, indeed, erased right there on the spot, in the hands of the CBP agent.

That’s when CBP got really p***ed off.

According to the reporting on his case, this man was not a criminal.  He was not under suspicion or surveillance for anything, so far as we know. He is not related to Spencer Tunick, an artist who famously creates mass nude photo shoots in public places. He was, in point of fact, a left-wing activist with environmental interests, but, again, without any contact with or prior interest from law enforcement that we know of.

He was just a guy.  Coming home from an international trip (the Dominican Republic.).

You may well be thinking, “A left-wing activist with an erasure code?  Sounds suspicious!”

Let me pause to explain why I don’t think so.

A “right-winger” I know just traveled internationally recently and she traveled with a burner phone to avoid exactly this kind of search in another country.  It was England specifically.  

In England there is no Fourth Amendment and they can search your phone when you land.  They also have no First Amendment and they have terrible censorship laws now.  You can be arrested and jailed for social media posts.  Even some perfectly benign ones, like “Islam is incompatible with Liberty” — that kind of thing.

The Dominican Republic also has no Fourth Amendment and if they simply suspect you have contraband or are engaged in some other illegal activity (so a very wide berth), they have every right to inspect your phone.  Maybe this young man just didn’t want the hassle. Maybe this app was this “left-winger’s” choice instead of a burner, and in the heat of the moment, decided to deploy it once facing our own CPB here in the U.S.

In short, I don’t find it suspicious at all knowing the legal overreach climate we are living in now.  And we certainly can’t be searching American citizens and seizing their devices based on politics alone.  I hope we can all agree on that.

Back to the case:

One attorney, Mike Fox of the Cato Institute characterized Mr. Tunick’s situation this way: “This is new, uncharted territory.”

The Supreme Court has never ruled on your Fourth Amendment rights as they specifically relate to your cell phone at American airports/border crossings.  They have ruled on whether or not your phone is searchable in the interior of the United States and the answer is “no” — not without a warrant.

But somehow an American in an American airport on American soil has to surrender his rights to an American customs agent?  What is this sorcery?

Let’s review the Fourth Amendment, in its entirety:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The Supreme Court has ruled on Fourth Amendment exceptions at border crossings, but not cell phones in particular.  That’s why you have to go through customs and scanners and open your luggage, etc.  We’ve all been doing it forever without a thought.

But your phone ought to be a separate matter entirely, containing as it does, your digital “papers and effects.”  According to the available reporting, there was no “probable cause” to search Mr. Tunick. CPB wasn’t looking for anything specific, which is what a warrant would demand.  They just wanted to go out on a scenic drive, seeing what they could see on his phone.

Hell. No.

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Climate Doomer Adam McKay Dismisses Questions About His 2nd Home in Ireland While Warning ‘Billions Will Die’ Because of Oil

Filmmaker Adam McKay, a DSA member and hardcore climate doomsayer, has finally addressed — indirectly, at least — the issue of his hypocritical campaign to kill the oil industry while jetting between homes in Los Angeles and Ireland.

Four years ago, Breitbart became the first news outlet to connect the dots between McKay’s frenzied climate warnings (e.g. the satirical Netflix film Don’t Look Up) and a flattering profile in Architectural Digest about his “quiet and relaxing” getaway home on 12 acres in Ireland. In the time since, the Anchorman director has ignored questions about why he won’t sacrifice the luxurious estate — and the 10,000-mile round trip that requires a considerable amount of jet fuel — while screaming at the world to “just stop oil.”

This week, however, McKay appears to have vented some of his frustrations about these “queries,” while massively downplaying the scale of his own carbon sins, in an essay for Current Affairs. The editorial, titled “The Gargantuan Lie That is Collapsing The World’s Climate,” presents a grim thesis: “Thinking we have time left to address climate change… is driving us toward full social collapse.”

And his rage is not directed at fascist chuds who stubbornly believe there isn’t enough evidence to demonstrate that human industry is the one and only determinative variable in global climate variations. The filmmaker is shaming liberal social climbers — “the ruling class, mainstream news media, and corporations” — for believing that the government must only take action that’s palatable to voters, setting far-off targets like “Net Zero by 2050.”

McKay’s warning does highlight an inconsistency in these left-wing, respectability-politics yuppies: if they really think global warming is an existential threat, they’d better act like it:

[I]f our institutions, news and elected officials continue to feed and water the oil company-conceived mega-falsehood that climate breakdown is something just “our great-grandkids need to worry about,” human civilization as we know it will collapse and billions could die. And we’re not talking about the far distant future. We are talking about collapse within years, not centuries. For real. [emphasis added]

On this point, credit the man for consistency. It’s been 20 years since Al Gore’s 10-year countdown to an irreversible “tipping point” for the fate of the planet. It’s been seven since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 12-year countdown to the world’s end. The climate “crisis” looks more and more like a grift when the deadline for urgent action keeps getting pushed back.

Oh wait, never mind; McKay did the same thing.

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Pfizer Freezes Air Traffic Control Funds in Poland and Romania Over COVID Vaccine Contract Dispute

Pfizer has frozen funds owed to air traffic control agencies in Poland and Romania as part of a contract dispute over COVID-19 vaccine deliveries, according to a report published July 31 by Children’s Health Defense [1]. The freeze followed an April 1 ruling by a court in Brussels that ordered Poland to pay about $1.5 billion and Romania about $640 million, plus interest and fees, for vaccine doses ordered under a 2021 European Union contract.

Polish and Romanian authorities stopped accepting further deliveries in 2022, citing falling demand. Both governments have said they will appeal the ruling. The enforcement action has raised questions about the financial stability of the two countries’ air navigation agencies, which rely on the funds.

Contract Origins and Refused Deliveries

The contract was signed between the European Commission and Pfizer in 2021, and it obligated participating member states to purchase additional doses. By 2022, Poland and Romania refused scheduled deliveries as demand declined. Poland cited financial pressure from hosting refugees fleeing Ukraine. Romanian political scientist Dragos Moldoveanu said Romania ordered 120 million doses despite a population below 20 million and had one of the European Union’s lowest vaccination rates.

Pfizer filed suit in 2023 after the countries did not pay for doses they declined to accept. Earlier contract terms had already drawn criticism. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported in February 2021 that Pfizer was demanding countries put up sovereign assets as collateral for expected vaccine injury lawsuits [2].

Legal Enforcement and Appeals

Because the contract is governed by Belgian law, the case is being heard in Brussels. Polish public broadcaster TVP World reported that Poland asked the Belgian court to delay enforcement while it appeals, but the request was rejected.

Dutch attorney Meike Terhorst called the action “outrageous and unethical” and said it could endanger flights. Lukasz Wojdyga of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute said the creditor has a legal right to enforce the judgment but called targeting air-safety funding “disproportionate and irresponsible.” Both governments have said they will protect the financial stability of the agencies and keep services running.

Transparency and Contract Scrutiny

The dispute has revived scrutiny of the EU vaccine procurement. Brussels Signal reported the EU-Pfizer contract was worth 35 billion euros ($40 billion), one of the largest contract awards in EU history. Governments and Pfizer have declined to release contract terms, saying the information is commercially confidential [3].

The European Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that the European Commission violated EU law when it denied The New York Times’ request to review text messages between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla [4]. In 2025, a court ordered the disclosure of concealed texts related to the deal [5]. European Parliament member Gheorghe Piperea said the contract “ought never to have existed” because the EU exceeded its treaty powers. Transparency activist Frederic Baldan said von der Leyen negotiated directly with Bourla through self-destructing Signal messages, and that a Belgian Federal Police anti-corruption report found sufficient elements to establish offenses. Baldan said the European Public Prosecutor’s Office moved to have the investigation annulled.

The scale of the purchases also drew criticism from public health writers. Michel Chossudovsky questioned how a vaccine that normally takes years to develop was launched within months [6]. Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins noted that the trials’ only criterion of success was a reduction of moderate to severe symptoms, not prevention of infection [7].

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GrapheneOS Wipe at Airport Leads to Federal Charge in Atlanta

The Justice Department is asking a federal court in Atlanta to treat a man’s erasure of his own phone as destruction of property, in the first known US prosecution built on a phone’s duress password.

Samuel Tunick faces one count under Title 18, Section 2232(a), a statute covering the destruction of property to stop the government from taking it. Prosecutors say he handed Customs and Border Protection officers a passcode that deleted the contents of his Google Pixel instead of unlocking it. His lawyers appeared before the court for the first time on Monday, arguing that officers ran a custodial interrogation without Miranda warnings, denied him a lawyer, and searched him unlawfully. They want everything obtained from the encounter suppressed.

CBP pulled Tunick into secondary inspection at Hartsfield-Jackson on January 24, 2025, as he returned from the Dominican Republic. An FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force officer and an FBI special agent had coordinated with CBP in advance to question and search him on arrival. The account comes from the defense filing, which draws on the government’s own reports. Officers from CBP’s Tactical Terrorism Response Team opened by telling him they were “looking for people who are pedophiles.”

Officers never read Tunick his Miranda rights. He said early in the interview that he did not want to keep talking without a lawyer, then asked to call one repeatedly. Questioning continued. One officer told him his refusal to talk gave them authority to go through his phone. When he asked again about his attorney, an officer told him customs and immigration work was a different matter, “and we have search authority, we don’t need a warrant.”

Tunick eventually provided a password for his phone and his e-reader. The screen “went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart,” according to the government’s report. Officers seized the devices anyway and told him they would be returned after thirty days. A third officer took him to another room for a pat-down that was not recorded. A DHS agent then told him he was free to leave once the other agents were finished with him.

The government’s reports contain no indication that anyone suspected Tunick of carrying illegal images, his lawyers wrote. The reports record an interest in his association with Defend the Atlanta Forest, the movement opposing the clearing of the South River Forest for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. Opponents call the 85-acre, $115 million police facility Cop City. Federal documents label the movement an “Anti-Government, Anti-Authority Violent Extremist Group.” Tunick has not been charged with any offense connected to it.

Eleventh Circuit precedent favors the government. Its 2018 ruling in United States v. Touset permits forensic searches of electronic devices at the border with no warrant, no probable cause, and no individualized suspicion. Tunick’s lawyers cite decisions from the First, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits going the other way, including a Fourth Circuit holding that warrantless border searches of devices cannot be used to hunt for evidence of domestic crime. They also argue that surrendering a passcode is testimonial, relying on a 2012 Eleventh Circuit decision that decrypting and producing the contents of a hard drive triggers Fifth Amendment protection.

Courts allow suspicionless border searches to keep contraband out of the country. The accusation here is that data left a phone rather than entered the United States, and digital files move across borders over the internet anyway. A ruling on the motion is not expected before the end of October.

GrapheneOS, the hardened Android build that replaces the stock software on Pixel devices, lets an owner set a second PIN or password that irreversibly wipes the device and any installed eSIMs when entered at a credential prompt. No confirmation dialog appears, and nothing distinguishes it from a normal unlock.

Bill Budington, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Runa Sandvik, founder of the security firm Granitt, both said they had seen no comparable prosecution. Sandvik said she had discussed the scenario with activists and journalists for years and advised travelers to leave sensitive data off devices they carry across borders rather than count on wiping it. Christophe Boutry told the Guardian the prosecution “sends the message that [GrapheneOS] is criminal by default.”

Matthew Dodge, an assistant federal public defender on Tunick’s legal team, said the statute is rarely seen in an indictment. Tunick was arrested about ten months after the airport stop. His crowdfunding page says he was pulled over for a purported tail light fault and cuffed by FBI and DHS officers when he stepped out of the car. He has pleaded not guilty. The single-count indictment  accuses him of acting to delete the digital contents of a Google Pixel to impair the government’s lawful authority to take it, in violation of Title 18 of what the document calls the “Untied States Code.”

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UNBELIEVABLE: Male Passenger Invokes Sharia Law to Refuse Sitting Next to Woman, Then Attacks Female Flight Attendant

A 29-year-old Turkish migrant living in Germany refused to sit next to a woman on a flight because of Sharia law, then punched or slapped the female flight attendant who dared to confront him.

According to BILD, the suspect was arrested after the June 1 flight landed in Düsseldorf.

Police say witnesses told investigators the man refused to remain in his assigned seat because it was next to a woman, claiming his actions were based on Sharia law.

When a female flight attendant approached him in an effort to defuse the situation, the passenger allegedly punched or slapped her in the face, according to police.

German Federal Police took the suspect into custody immediately after the aircraft landed. Authorities say he later admitted to assaulting the flight attendant during questioning.

The incident reportedly escalated further during police questioning when the suspect allegedly insulted officers in Turkish, apparently unaware that one of the federal officers understood the language. He now faces charges related to both the alleged assault and insulting law enforcement officers.

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United Airlines Offers Free Flight Changes to Avoid Landing at Newly Named ‘President Donald J. Trump International Airport’ – Company Calls Internal Memo “Poorly Worded” After Exposure

The radical left is having an absolute, total meltdown, and corporate America is once again bowing at the altar of woke madness!

Just days after Florida officially renamed Palm Beach International Airport in honor of President Donald J. Trump, United Airlines was caught instructing reservation agents to let passengers switch flights for free if they don’t want to land at the newly named President Donald J. Trump International Airport.

According to an explosive internal memo obtained by Live And Let’s Fly per FOX Business, United Airlines executives actively instructed their reservation agents to give free pass upgrades to anti-Trump crybabies.

The leaked memo ordered agents to use their “empowerment” to waive fees and offer no-cost flight changes to Miami or Fort Lauderdale for anyone triggered by President Trump’s name!

The guidance was explicit:

“If a customer does not want to fly to the airport, use your empowerment to offer acceptable alternatives such as Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL) or Miami International Airport (MIA).”

Look at the pathetic script United allegedly wrote for their agents to soothe these unhinged leftists:

“I understand that you’d rather not fly to this airport anymore. We can look at nearby airports like Fort Lauderdale or Miami instead. Is that an acceptable alternative?”

The changes were to be processed as even exchanges, meaning no extra fees for passengers who simply can’t stomach seeing President Trump’s name on an airport terminal.

United Airlines quickly went into damage control after the memo surfaced. The company told FOX Business that “the message was poorly worded and not accurate.”

A United spokesperson added: “United customers are able to make changes to a ticket without a fee for many reasons. However, our policy doesn’t allow for changes because of an airport’s name or three letter code.”

The airport, formerly known as Palm Beach International (PBI), officially became President Donald J. Trump International Airport on July 9, 2026, after Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation earlier this year. The FAA approved the change, and the three-letter code will shift to DJT on August 18.

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Houthis Say Forces ‘Repelled’ Saudi Warplanes From Threatening Iranian Civilian Airliner

Yemen’s Houthis announced Friday that they had “repelled” an attempt by Saudi warplanes to prevent an Iranian civilian aircraft from landing at Sanaa airport.

Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said that Saudi warplanes violating Yemeni airspace were targeted with several air-defense missiles, forcing them to withdraw.

Saree stressed that the Iranian civilian aircraft was carrying more than 200 Yemeni citizens who had been stranded in Iran, including many who were sick or wounded.

“We warn the criminal Saudi enemy against repeating any attempt to violate our airspace or any aggression targeting our country. Such actions will be met with a comprehensive response targeting its airports and vital interests on land and sea,” Saree said in a video statement.

The YAF spokesman further stressed that “our hand is on the trigger” to implement any directives issued by Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi “within the framework of breaking the Saudi-American siege on our people and expelling the occupiers.”

Saree also praised Iran’s role in “breaking the siege” on Yemen by operating flights to transport patients and stranded people and to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Yemen.

After landing in Sanaa, the Iranian plane safely returned to Tehran carrying an official delegation of the Republic of Yemen to participate in the funeral of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has imposed a blockade on Yemen’s land, sea, and air ports, severely restricting vital commercial and humanitarian imports, including fuel and food.

The blockade triggered what the UN called one of the most severe humanitarian crises globally, leading millions towards famine and drastically damaging healthcare and water systems.

The Saudi siege on Yemen was partially lifted following April 2023 negotiations with the Ansarallah resistance movement, which leads the YAF and is closely allied with Iran.

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Man Who Sued Pepsi Over Fighter Jet Finally Gets His Reward 30 Years Later

Three decades after suing Pepsi for refusing to give him a fighter jet, John Leonard finally got a reward that may be even better, according to a post at Supercarblondie. 

Leonard became the center of one of advertising’s most famous legal battles after taking a 1996 Pepsi commercial at face value. The ad, promoting the company’s Pepsi Points loyalty program, jokingly claimed customers could redeem seven million Pepsi Points for a military Harrier jet.

Rather than laugh it off, the Seattle college student raised enough money to buy the required points and submitted a claim for the aircraft. Pepsi rejected it, insisting the jet was never a real prize.

The article says that the case went to court, where a judge ruled that no reasonable person would believe Pepsi was seriously offering a fighter jet in a soft drink promotion.

Although Leonard lost the lawsuit, the bizarre dispute became legendary and was later chronicled in the Netflix documentary Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?.

Now, nearly 30 years later, Frontier Airlines gave the story a happy ending. As part of a Super Bowl campaign called “The Big Redemption,” the airline converted Leonard’s original seven million Pepsi Points into seven million Frontier Miles, effectively giving him free flights for life.

The airline even featured Leonard in a tongue-in-cheek commercial, handing him the keys to an Airbus A320neo as a nod to the decades-old saga.

Now in his 50s with a wife and children, Leonard joked that unlimited airline miles are far more practical than owning and maintaining a military fighter jet. After waiting three decades, he never got the Harrier, but he may have received an even better prize.

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CDC expands Ebola screenings to New York’s JFK airport

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded its passenger screening for Ebola to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The federal agency said the expansion of its around-the-clock Port Health Protection system went into effect at Kennedy airport Thursday night. 

 The CDC also said Kennedy previously conducted enhanced public health entry screening and has established operational procedures in place.

The enhanced screening” is also now underway at Washington Dulles International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in Houston, for air passengers arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Uganda. 

“Public health entry screening serves as one component of CDC’s layered public health approach, which also includes overseas exit screening, airline illness reporting, and post-arrival public health monitoring,” the CDC said in a post on X.

The State Department issued a travel advisory recently, instructing all U.S.-bound American citizens and lawful permanent residents who have been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the U.S. to go through the “enhanced public health screening” carried out by the CDC and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The screenings come ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico next month. The first match will take place in Mexico City on June 11.

The United States has not seen an Ebola case so far, though one American tested positive for the virus while overseas and is being treated in Germany.

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