Tag: media

China Publishes Furious Screed Against Japanese PM for Not Killing a Cockroach

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday published a bizarrely overheated editorial criticizing Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae for refusing to kill a cockroach.

Among other things, the Chinese communist paper accused Takaichi of hypocrisy for approving weapons exports after sparing the insect’s life.

The anecdote that bugged Chinese propagandists was disclosed by Takaichi in a social media post on Friday. In the course of answering questions about her life in the prime minister’s official residence, she mentioned that she was “shocked when, one day, a cockroach suddenly scurried past my feet.”

Takaichi said she cannot bring herself to kill anything, including insects, because she was inspired to consider reincarnation and the interconnectedness of life by her childhood love for the manga series Phoenix by Tezuka Osamu. Tezuka regarded the story of the mythical immortal bird as his life’s work, begun in 1954, but unfortunately he died in 1989 before completing it.

“For the cockroach that ran through the official residence, I thought things like, ‘Maybe this life is also part of that long cycle of reincarnation,’” Takaichi mused in her social media post, “and for a while, I endured it, hoping it would somehow leave on its own – but when I told my secretaries about it, they were appalled.”

Takaichi’s secretaries proved to be much less reluctant to kill cockroaches than the prime minister was. She concluded by saying she “felt relieved, but also a little lonely, or maybe sad” after the cockroaches were eliminated from her residence.

Takaichi’s critics in Japan used her cockroach anecdote to slam the prime minister for everything from supposedly valuing insects more than human life to being frivolous and unserious for basing so much of her personal philosophy on a childhood comic book.

The Global Times gleefully piled on, and then some, capitalizing on the online cockroach controversy to vent Beijing’s spleen at Takaichi.

The Chinese Communist Party has loathed Takaichi since the moment she became prime minister because she said Japan would regard a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as a threat to its own security. A Chinese diplomat working in Japan threatened to behead Takaichi for her remarks about Taiwan.

“The intense public backlash over Takaichi’s remarks is not about whether she is genuinely squeamish about killing cockroaches,” the Global Times wrote. “Rather, it stems from her attempt to curate a benevolent personal image online to build momentum ahead of the upcoming cabinet reshuffle and personnel adjustments in September.”

“While showing reluctance to kill a cockroach, Takaichi is actively opening the floodgates for lethal weapon exports,” the editorial hissed, referring to Takaichi’s April 2026 revisions to Japan’s guidelines for transferring military equipment.

“The Japanese government can argue that arms exports are subject to strict legal reviews and aimed at deterrence rather than provocation,” the Global Times said, “but if a national leader relies on a ‘reverence for life’ to shape her public image, she must explain why Japan’s prudent arms export controls were dismantled under her watch,”

The lengthy editorial screed also worked in some shots at Takaichi for worrying about cockroaches instead of Japan’s rising cost of living index, and even claimed the Japanese prime minister cared more about bugs than the victims of disasters like the Kumamoto earthquake, which left many local residents without air conditioning during a hot summer.

The editorial concluded:

The public relations backlash against Takaichi’s comments does not stem from a lack of humor among Japanese citizens. Rather, when a prime minister injects private morality into political communication, the public naturally applies that same ethical yardstick to judge the administration’s governance.

Behind the opportunistic hyperventilating of the Global Times lies the simple political reality that Takaichi came into office as prime minister in October 2025 with stratospheric approval ratings and considerable star power, thanks to her status as Japan’s first female PM and her appealing, offbeat personal style.

A year later, those approval ratings have come back down to earth, and anything Takaichi does to draw attention to herself – such as ruminating on the meaning of a cockroach’s life – is likely to open the door to criticism.

Fortune pointed out on Sunday that Takaichi’s astounding personal energy and hard-driving work ethic – which she says can leave her as little as three hours a night to sleep – has gone from being a source of admiration among her constituents to becoming another angle for criticism.

Some of Takaichi’s detractors accuse her of setting a poor example for Japanese professional women and young girls by maintaining such a brutal pace at the age of 65, while others accuse her of cloistering herself at the prime minister’s residence to avoid dealing with lawmakers and the press.

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SUCH A FRAUD: Margaret Brennan Says Biden Regime Did Not Mandate Vaccines for Children – Then This Previous Video of Margaret Brennan Surfaces

It must be difficult being a mainstream media mouthpiece these days. You have to sort through the all the lies from yesterday to promote the newest set of lies you promote to the American public.

Take for example, Margaret Brennan.

The silly CBS News anchor thinks we forgot about the BS she was shoving down our throats about COVID not so long ago.

On Sunday, Brennan lectured the brilliant Dr. Mehmut Oz, the current administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), that the COVID vaccines were NOT forced on American children.

This proves she has no respect for the American public to push such trash on her audience.

Here is Margaret Brennan with Dr. Oz on Sunday:

Dr. Mehmut Oz: “The question again, this comes back to a much more fundamental issue, Margaret. Do parents have the right to ask questions? We already experienced what happened during COVID when we took away that right from parents. They were forced to give their kids COVID vaccines.

Margaret Brennan: (interrupting) They were not forced to give their kids vaccines…

Dr. Mehmut Oz: Well, they were pushed hard and oftentimes hindered from doing what they wanted to do, like going out socially if their kids were not included in these programs…

Margaret Brennan: (interrupting) No, of course it’s not up to the state.

Dr. Mehmut Oz: It’s not up to the federal government. It’s up to the states. States do this. The request of the president is to make sure that states offer parents either eligibility because of religious beliefs or other reasons why they may not want to have their kids take all the vaccines in order. Let’s pick a specific example. Hepatitis B. Hepatitis B vaccine I happen to like. I got the hepatitis B vaccine, but it helps adults avoiding issues if they’re involved. For example, in my case as a doctor, if I were to hit myself with a needle with a patient, but it usually is for drug abusers and for people who are involved in — or infants who could be exposed by a caregiver, by someone in their house, by parent unwittingly, which is why it is provided extraordinarily.

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With Trump’s Ballroom Resuming Construction, Someone Decided to Spill This Secret to Stop It

This is borderline treason: to stop Trump’s ballroom, someone decided to spill that there’s a secret bunker in the White House. President Trump has claimed the new ballroom is necessary because venues like the Washington Hilton are nightmares for the Secret Service to protect adequately. He’s not wrong. Reagan was shot at the hotel, and the president and virtually the entire presidential line of succession could have been wiped out at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this spring. There’s another element as well, namely that the White House, as is, is too small to host state dinners and VIPs appropriately, and tents on the lawn and porta-johns being deployed are unseemly in the extreme (via WaPo):

President Donald Trump has claimed that the White House needs a massive new ballroom because it would provide him and future presidents with a secure, hardened facility. But former officials say the argument fails to acknowledge that the presidential complex already has one.

More than a decade ago, federal officials built a highly protected bunker, embedded deep underground, that can shelter the president and his top aides in a national security emergency, according to three former officials.

The facility, which was secretly completed during the Obama administration, can house dozens of people for up to multiple weeks, two former officials said. It’s buried more than 60 feet underneath the White House complex and built to withstand a nuclear blast, two of the officials said, ensuring the president and his team have a secure command center to run the country in times of extreme duress.

The bunker’s existence, the former officials said, undercuts the Trump administration’s emerging legal argument in the ongoing lawsuit over the $600 million ballroom complex’s construction: that the facility must be completed due to its significance for U.S. national security.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss elements of the secretive facility, some of which have not been previously reported.

The Washington Post is withholding some details of the bunker and its construction in order to not compromise sensitive White House security protocols.

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As Many MSM Outlets Speculate on Zelensky’s Departure, Former Minister Fedorov Becomes Ukrainian Opposition Leader, Says President Should Be Questioned About Rampant Corruption

Zelensky now has a direct political opponent, as the MSM is letting go of his hand.

Yesterday, as Ukraine celebrated its 35th Independence Day, a flurry of heads of state and government and other political leaders converged on Kyiv, making the usual protestations of support.

Today, the new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, made his first international trip to Kyiv, bringing the blueprints for Storm Shadow missiles.

But if you take a look at the world’s headlines, you will find an astonishing change in the wind direction, as several outlets speculate about the end of Volodymyr Zelensky’s power.

A cursory search reveals:

Unherd: Zelensky is running out of political cover;

BBC: The campaign to replace Zelensky;

WSJ: Zelensky’s Leadership Comes Under Biggest Threat Since War Began;

Tovima: How Long Can Zelensky Hold On?;

Berliner Zeitung: Zelensky’s time is up: Only a resignation will make him a war hero;

The Times: Is the tide at home turning against President Zelensky?;

The Telegraph: Is this the beginning of the end for Zelensky?

That level of questioning is unheard of – but, of course, it coincides with dozens of articles and op-eds guaranteeing that ‘Ukraine is actually winning the war’, and that ‘Zelensky is safe as houses’.

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Democrats and CNN Lose it After Pete Hegseth Utters This So-Called ‘Transphobic Slur’ at the Iowa State Fair

War Secretary Pete Hegseth drove the left insane earlier this week after using a politically incorrect term to describe transgender individuals.

As Iowa Public Radio reported, Hegseth appeared at the Iowa State Fair on Wednesday to defend the Department of War’s $1.5 trillion budget request and to support Rep. Zach Nunn, who is facing a difficult re-election fight.

Hegseth later tried to fire up fairgoers with some colorful language referencing the department’s return to fighting bad guys rather than pushing DEI garbage.

“We’re restoring the warrior ethos inside our department because that matters,” Hegseth told fairgoers.

“At the Department of War, we do training — not trannies,” he added.

Upon hearing this remark, CNN’s Jake Tapper was disgusted.

“Calling transgender people trannies, that’s obviously a slur,” Tapper fumed. “Treat people with dignity.”

U.S Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) also flipped out, with both calling for Hegseth’s termination.

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New York Times Journo Admits the DSA Wants to ‘Take Out the Entire Constitutional System’

Last night on the Bill Maher show, one guest was Jeremey Peters, a journalist for the New York Times.

When the subject of the DSA came up, Peters was surprisingly candid and came right out and admitted that the DSA wants to take out our Constitutional system. That is correct.

Some Democrats and people in media are trying to soften the image of the DSA by saying they just want people to have healthcare. That is not true. Their own official platform includes the abolition of the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court.

They also want open borders and amnesty for all illegals, the defunding of police and the closure of prisons. In short, they are completely insane.

You know that people are waking up to this when a NY Times journalist starts talking this way.

Transcript by the Vigilant Fox:

New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters admits to Bill Maher that the DSA’s stated goal is not only to take over the Democratic Party but to “take out the entire constitutional system.”

Maher says what they really want is communism, and you don’t even have to dig deep to prove it.

PETERS: “They’re not running to be members of the Democratic Party. They’re running, many of them anyway, as Democratic Socialists. It’s a totally different political organization. And in fact, they want to take out the Democratic Party. I mean, that’s their stated goal. They not only want to take out the Democratic Party, they want to take out the entire constitutional system that the Democratic Party is allowed to participate in governance.”

MAHER: “And they like communism. I proved it here a couple of weeks ago just by quoting them. They use the word a lot. They’re not actually trying to hide it, although if you ask them they will deny it.”

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Warner Bros. DMCA Takedowns Hit Lanterns Spoiler Discussion

Warner Bros. Discovery has been using DMCA copyright takedowns to remove posts on social media that contained just discussions about the first episode of the HBO series Lanterns, a report by Puck said.

The posts in question didn’t contain any leaked stills or footage from the show – just people’s comments about a major plot twist revealed in the first episode, which had previously been rumored and reported on by some outlets.

The series, a DC one co-created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, premiered on Sunday, and its final moments delivered a shocking fate for one of the show’s characters.

Cosmic Book News (this link contains spoilers for Lanterns), an independent pop-culture site run by editor Matt McGloin, had spent months piecing the twist together from casting, promotional footage, and the show’s timeline; by March, McGloin was predicting the ending outright.

Warner Bros. was not happy about this, and went on to use copyright law to remove posts on X, YouTube, and Facebook. The first takedowns happened on July 10, two weeks before Comic-Con, when an anonymous Reddit post claimed to reveal the twist, and it spread to X. An HBO Max social strategist then filed a takedown notice covering six posts from five accounts, including Cosmic Book News, describing the infringement as “people discussing the spoilers of the first episode of Lanterns.”

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Pentagon Fires Stars and Stripes Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, and Reporter for “Insubordination”

The Pentagon moved Friday to fire three senior employees at the taxpayer-supported military newspaper Stars and Stripes, accusing them of “insubordination” amid an escalating battle over the publication’s direction.

Publisher Max Lederer, Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte were each served with separation notices and given five days to appeal, according to CBS News⁠.

The stunning shake-up comes as the Trump administration works to overhaul the military publication, drag it into the 21st century, and eliminate the “woke distractions” that have infected institutions across the federal government.

Slavin and Korte claimed they were targeted over interviews they gave to CBS News without authorization for a segment that aired in July.

Slavin told CBS that the Pentagon accused him of insubordination after he publicly declared that any effort to control the newspaper’s reporting would cross a “red line.”

“According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line,” Slavin said.

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RFK Jr. Torches CNN’s Erin Burnett After Attempting to Discredit Affordable Meals Featured on MAHA’s New Food Show: ‘TDS Has So Debilitated’ Her That She Abandoned Common Sense and Basic Arithmetic

The far-left hacks at CNN are so terrified of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement that they have completely abandoned basic math just to attack Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasted CNN host Erin Burnett after her program aired a ridiculous “investigation” attempting to discredit the affordable meals featured on Kennedy’s new cooking series, The Real Food Show.

Kennedy’s program, inspired by President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, features chefs preparing nutritious, whole-food meals for approximately $5 or less per serving.

But CNN decided to “fact-check” Kennedy by purchasing full containers of nearly every ingredient—even when the recipe required only a spoonful—and then charging the entire package price to one meal.

During Wednesday’s episode of Erin Burnett OutFront, CNN correspondent Tom Foreman recreated the show’s crispy salmon cakes with apple, white bean, and greens salad.

The official HHS recipe serves four people for approximately $5 per serving using frozen wild salmon—and even less when made with canned salmon.

CNN, however, claimed it cost $70.54 to purchase all the ingredients.

Foreman complained that HHS priced one egg rather than an entire carton, eight cents’ worth of red onion rather than the whole onion, and 40 cents’ worth of avocado mayonnaise rather than the full $11 container.

“Grocery stores don’t sell things that way,” Foreman declared.

Of course, the remaining eggs, onion, mayonnaise, olive oil, mustard, vinegar, herbs, and other pantry staples do not disappear after preparing the meal. They remain available for the next recipe.

CNN also disputed HHS’s salmon price, saying the network paid more than $24 for what it described as the closest comparable frozen wild-caught sockeye salmon, compared with the show’s listed price of $8.99.

Although the CNN segment acknowledged that HHS used “standard recipe costing methodology,” the network nevertheless presented its full grocery-store checkout total as the “real” cost of Kennedy’s meal.

Burnett concluded the segment without addressing the obvious distinction between the upfront cost of stocking a kitchen and the actual amount of food consumed in a single recipe.

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Fake News New York Times Loses Defamation Lawsuit — Ordered to Pay $9.25 Million After Falsely Linking Innocent Alabama Basketball Player to Deadly Shooting

The failing New York Times just suffered a massive and historic defeat in court.

An Alabama jury on Thursday ruled that the Fake News New York Times defamed Kai Spears, a former University of Alabama Crimson Tide walk-on basketball player, and ordered the paper to pay him $9.25 million in damages, according to CBS News.

Spears was just an 18-year-old freshman walk-on when the Times swept him into a 2023 story about a fatal shooting in Tuscaloosa.

The paper’s report falsely claimed he was a passenger in a car at the scene of the January 15, 2023, killing of 23-year-old mother Jamea Harris.

Three Alabama basketball players were connected to the incident; Spears was not one of them. He was never charged with any crime and had no involvement.

After a nine-day trial in federal court in Tuscaloosa, the eight-person jury found the Times liable for defamation and false light invasion of privacy.

The original March 15, 2023 article by Times sportswriter Billy Witz relied on an anonymous source described as a “person familiar with the investigation.”

It wrongly placed Spears in the car with star player Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred. University of Alabama officials and Spears’ father immediately denied it.

The Times stuck with its story until after Spears filed suit in May 2023. Only then did the paper issue a correction admitting the passenger was actually student manager Cooper Lee, not Spears.

Spears has said the false report was “100% inaccurate” and that the writer showed “complete disregard for the truth.” He described trying to cope with being permanently linked in the public mind to a murder he had nothing to do with. His lawsuit argued the article caused severe emotional distress and mental anguish.

The Times, true to form, is spinning it as an “honest mistake.” Spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said the paper is “disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake” and is reviewing its legal options. Jurors clearly disagreed.

This is the same New York Times that lectures the country about “disinformation” and “threats to democracy” while publishing anonymous-sourced claims that can destroy a young man’s reputation overnight.

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