[Breitbart] Two left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), both with financial ties to Alex and George Soros’s network, are suing to stop President Donald Trump’s reforms of the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program, which are intended to end trafficking of such migrant children within the United States.
In February, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued reforms to the UAC program, which resettles migrant children in American communities with adult sponsors after they arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without parents or guardians.
Part of those reforms is banning UACs from being turned over to illegal aliens in the United States.
HHS whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas has called the UAC program a “white glove delivery service” where migrant children go from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody to HHS custody before being turned over to adult sponsors that are not their parents or relatives, in most cases.
“…we have delivered these unaccompanied children to criminals, traffickers, and members of transnational criminal organizations who are using the UAC program as a white glove delivery service of children,” Rodas said, calling out former President Joe Biden’s administration for loosening the rules around the UAC program.
This week, the National Center for Youth Law and Democracy Forward — both with financial ties to the Soros network — filed a class action lawsuit to stop Trump’s HHS from verifying the legal status of an adult sponsor before a UAC is handed over to their care.
The groups are asking a district court to find the reforms unlawful and issue a preliminary injunction stopping the administration from implementing the reforms.
Democracy Forward, which is behind a separate lawsuit trying to stop Trump from deporting illegal alien gang members, lists left-wing organizations like the Center for American Progress, National Immigration Law Center, Color of Change, UnidosUS, Common Justice, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, among many others, as clients and partners.
The Alex Soros-chaired Open Society Foundations has funded several of Democracy Forward’s clients and partners. For example, in 2023, the Open Society Foundations awarded Color of Change a $3 million grant after giving the group nearly $1.5 million in funding in 2018 and 2019.
Similarly, and perhaps most significantly, the Open Society Foundations remains one of the largest donors to the Center for American Progress — a group that is considered the unofficial policy wing of the Democrat Party.
In 2023 alone, the Open Society Foundations gave the Center for American Progress nearly $4 million in grant funding.
Likewise, the Open Society Foundations has thrown millions to the National Immigration Law Center as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to UnidosUS, Common Justice, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
The other group involved in the lawsuit, the National Center for Youth Law, received $75,000 in funding from the Open Society Foundations in 2017.
The case is Immigrant Defenders Law Center v. HHS, No. 1:25-cv-01405 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Missouri man stands accused of a macabre, years-long deception that saw him hide his uncle's dead body in a trash can in order to keep stealing the disabled veteran's government benefits - to the tune of more than $650,000.
The alleged crime is so cold-hearted it has stunned even seasoned prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors say Brian K. Ditch, 44, of Salem, Missouri, systematically abused, imprisoned, and ultimately discarded his paralyzed uncle, Thomas Clubb, an Army veteran with quadriplegia.
Ditch then lived for years off the man's disability checks while telling relatives he had been moved to a nursing home.
But behind Ditch's home, in a shed near the edge of rural Dent County, police found what was left of the truth: Clubb's partially frozen body stuffed into a trash bag inside a garbage can simply left to decompose for nearly six years.
'This is an abhorrent, reprehensible crime,' said Assistant US Attorney Derek Wiseman, who has been prosecuting federal cases for a decade.
'A crime committed against a family member. A veteran. Somebody without the use of their arms and legs. It's a disturbing and flagrant lack of regard for human life.
'I've never seen anything like it,' Wiseman said. 'This case is something else entirely.'
Ditch was indicted on Wednesday in US District Court in St. Louis on 11 federal counts, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, theft of government property, and illegally possessing firearms as a felon.
He also faces six state charges, including abandonment of a corpse.
Court documents and investigators say Ditch received sole custody and care of Clubb in 2008.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs rated Clubb as 100% disabled, paying him more than $9,500 per month due to injuries and dementia stemming from a car accident in Germany during his military service.
The Social Security Administration also sent him over $235,000 in additional disability and retirement benefits since 2008.
But instead of caring for him, prosecutors say Ditch locked Clubb in a garage for more than a day at a time 24 hours at a time, depriving him of food and water and forcing him to sit in his own urine and feces.
The indictment claims Ditch would physically and emotionally abuse Clubb - and anyone else who got in his way.
'To execute his scheme to defraud the defendant not only assaulted his quadriplegic uncle, but he also physically and emotionally abused his kids and significant others,' the court filing states.
Family members, including Angie Crowder, Clubb's niece and Ditch's cousin, said they last saw him in 2018.
'Things seemed normal. He looked healthy and fine,' Crowder recalled.
But when years went by without a word from Clubb, family members began calling nursing homes and the VA - searching for a man Ditch claimed had moved out with another caregiver.
Their suspicions eventually led them to tip off the Missouri health department and on March 5, the Salem Police Department received the hotline call.
By March 21, the horror was confirmed as police discovered Clubb's remains wrapped in a trash bag inside a garbage can hidden behind the house.
While Clubb's body lay rotting in the shed, Ditch lived large, investigators say.
He allegedly used the stolen money to buy exotic reptiles, take vacations, and enrich himself while lying to everyone who asked about Clubb's whereabouts.
Despite being a convicted felon with prior charges for burglary and domestic battery, he also illegally possessed three shotguns, found in his home by Salem police.
Court records say between January 2019 and March 2025, Ditch collected at least $650,000 in benefits he wasn't entitled to.
Prosecutors argue the only reason the payments continued was because Ditch never reported Clubb's death.
Ditch is expected to plead not guilty in federal court. If convicted, Ditch could face decades in federal prison.
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[Daily Signal] The Chinese Communist Party is "orchestrating a widespread intelligence-gathering campaign at Stanford," according to The Stanford Review.
"In short, ’there are Chinese spies at Stanford,’" the university’s independent student-run newspaper writes in an investigation published this week.
After learning of multiple incidents of unusual behavior from a handful of Chinese students, or those who claimed to be students, members of The Stanford Review launched an investigation to determine whether the CCP was attempting to gather information on the campus.
The paper interviewed "over a dozen individuals, including Stanford professors, current students, and China experts specializing in technology transfer and espionage," the Review explained, adding that most individuals asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the CCP or the academic community at the California university.
In one account, a student named Anna was contacted by someone using the name Charles Chen, who claimed to also be a Stanford student. What began as casual conversation quickly turned into persistent requests for Anna to visit China.
[BBC] Former British Army officer and mercenary Simon Mann, who was part of a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004, has died of a heart attack while exercising, friends confirmed.
The 72-year-old made millions of pounds from protecting businesses in conflict zones before he took part in the failed attempt to overthrow the west African nation's ruler.
Mann was sentenced to 34 years in prison on arms charges and later said he had been the "manager, not the architect" of the scheme.
In 2009, the ex-SAS commando was pardoned, released and given 48 hours to leave the country.
The plot had been an attempt to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema - at the time Mann and co-conspirators said the aim was to install exiled opposition leader Severo Moto.
It was uncovered after police in Zimbabwe's capital Harare impounded a plane which had flown in from South Africa.
Mann and more than 60 others were arrested, amid claims they were mercenaries.
They said they were providing security for a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mann attended private boys' school Eton before studying at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy and then joining the Scots Guards.
He became a member of the SAS - the army's special forces unit - and rose through the ranks to become a commander.
In 2011, he said the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea - which saw him arrested with fellow mercenaries after trying to load weapons onto a plane in Zimbabwe - was foiled by the CIA.
After serving three years of his 34-year sentence in Zimbabwe, he was moved to Black Beach Prison in Equatorial Guinea.
Speaking in 2011 about that move, he said "friends, family, and enemies" had told him "if that happens, you have had it, you're a dead man".
After being pardoned and released, he expressed regret for what he had done, saying that "however good the money is", the moral case "has to stack up".
#1
In 2011, he said the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea - which saw him arrested with fellow mercenaries after trying to load weapons onto a plane in Zimbabwe - was foiled by the CIA.
Dictator and president for life Teodoro Obiang Nguema was one of our men. Nobody messes with our men.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Metro Atlanta residents were startled on Saturday morning as an earthquake from Tennessee shook several nearby states.
The quake’s epicenter was about 12 miles southeast of Greenback, which is near Knoxville. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, it happened at 9:04 a.m. and had an estimated magnitude of 4.1.
People from all over metro Atlanta — including as far south as Lake Oconee — have called Atlanta News First, saying the quake shook their walls and floors.
Atlanta News First is working to learn if any damage was left behind in Georgia.
This is a developing story. Check back with Atlanta News First as we learn more.
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is aiming to bring the first group of white South Africans to the United States via its refugee program as soon as next week, three people familiar with the matter said, a divisive effort given that Trump has been blocking refugee admissions from the rest of the world.
The Trump administration aims to fly the initial cohort of about 50 Afrikaners into Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, two of the people said, requesting anonymity to share internal plans. The group would participate in a press conference at the airport and then board flights to their U.S. destinations, the sources said.
The sources cautioned that their arrival had already been delayed a week and that the plans could change. As of Thursday afternoon, a charter plane intended to ferry them to the U.S. had not secured a landing permit, one source said.
The U.S. State Department, which administers the resettlement of South Africans whom the Trump administration granted refugee status, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NPR first reported the timing of the arrivals.
#1
Stephen Miller, a top White House official and the architect of Trump's immigration agenda, defended the program while speaking to reporters, saying the situation "fits the textbook definition" of race-based persecution.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The US Air Force rolled out dozens of top-line military aircraft in a pointed display of firepower at an airbase in Japan this week as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping presided over Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow.
It also came as Russia and China issued a joint statement condemning US President Donald Trump's plan to create a 'Golden Dome' missile defence system as 'deeply destabilising' and one that would risk 'turning space into a battlefield'.
A so-called 'elephant walk' took place at Kadena Air Force Base (AFB) on the island of Okinawa earlier this week, but images of the event emerged today - hours after Russia sent tanks, nuclear missiles and drones rolling through Red Square.
The procession in Okinawa showcased some of the most capable assets that American aviation has to offer.
Two dozen F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters and eight F-15E Strike Eagle multirole fighters took to the tarmac alongside a pair of Washington's coveted Patriot missile defence batteries.
The stunning selection of jets was accompanied by an RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft, a Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol, reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, two Navy EA-18 Growler electronic warfare attack planes and three E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.
The show of force was described by Chief Master Sgt. Brandon Wolfgang, the commander of 18th Wing stationed at Kadena AFB, as a 'message you can't ignore'.
A statement given by 18th Wing said the elephant walk was a 'testament to the lethality Kadena AB can leverage to deter adversarial aggression in the Indo-Pacific region'.
The impressive parade, which also saw six HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and two MQ-9 Reaper drones on show alongside the aircraft, is said to be one of the largest ever conducted by USAF.
Following the elephant walk, Kadena AFB conducted three-day military drills this week, concluding today as Moscow hosted its own military procession as part of its celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's triumph over Nazi Germany in World War II.
More than 20 world leaders and Kremlin allies including China's Xi, Putin's right-hand man in Europe, Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were in attendance at the Victory Day parade in Red Square.
Putin shared a warm handshake and posed for photos with Xi this morning, dispelling any illusion that efforts by US President Donald Trump to drive a wedge between the Eastern powers had succeeded.
The Russian and Chinese leaders nestled side-by-side to watch the parade in a show of unity after they issued a statement yesterday saying Trump's move to create a 'Golden Dome' missile defence system would be 'deeply destabilising' and would risk turning space into a 'battlefield'.
Putin and his guests, including several high-ranking North Korean military officials, watched on as hordes of soldiers goose-stepped to old marching songs and roared to their commanders before Russia's top brass.
They were followed by a huge procession of Russian military technology that saw dozens of tanks, S400 Triumf air defence missile systems and the gargantuan Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles roll past the Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin.
As the parade concluded, Putin walked along the square to greet a long line of military commanders from Russia and former Soviet states before stopping to speak with a delegation of Chinese and North Korean armed forces officers.
Both Moscow and Pyongyang in recent weeks acknowledged for the first time that North Korean troops had fought alongside their Russian counterparts against Ukraine.
The festivities ended with Putin, Xi and other world leaders solemnly laying a bouquet of red flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Eternal Flame in memory of the Soviets killed in World War II.
Several drones used to batter Ukraine, including the Lancet, Geran-2, Orlan-10 and Orlan-30 variants, were also shown off in the parade. A flight of Su-25, Su-30 and MiG-29 fighter jets and bombers later soared overhead trailing smoke in the white, blue and red of the Russian tricolour.
Russia's defence minister Andrey Belousov, who arrived in Red Square atop a convertible Russian Aurus government car, addressed and inspected the troops. They responded with a chorus of 'hurrah!', before Putin took to the stage to deliver his speech.
Putin declared that Russia will always remember and appreciate the contribution of US and European allies to victory in World War II.
But he went on to say he would never allow the 'true victors over Nazism to be slandered' and that Moscow would 'fight against the atrocities of the followers of Nazism', echoing the Kremlin's rhetoric that Russia is trying to 'de-Nazify' its neighbour.
'(Russia) has truth and justice on its side. The whole country, society and people support the participants of the special military operation,' Putin insisted, adding: 'We are proud of their bravery and determination, of the fortitude that has always brought us only victory.'
The Kremlin's so-called 'special military operation' is in fact the deadliest war in Europe since the conflict today's parade is commemorating, and Ukraine has called today's events in Moscow a 'parade of cynicism'.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The plane caught fire at London's Gatwick Airport because the pilot confused the right and left sides, the Daily Mail reported on May 9.
The incident took place in June 2024, but the British media only learned about it now.
A British Airways flight to Vancouver had already begun takeoff when the co-pilot, confusing his left and right hands, pulled the wrong throttle.
The plane's brakes overheated and caught fire. Takeoff was aborted at 192 mph (about 309 km/h). The plane stopped on the runway. Firefighters extinguished the fire, none of the 334 passengers and 13 crew members were injured. Dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled at Gatwick.
The publication noted that the pilot who made the mistake had more than 6,000 hours of flying time. During the investigation, he was unable to explain why he made the mistake. The publication's experts noted that such mistakes are extremely rare, and the crash was prevented by the correct operation of the aircraft's safety systems.
[JustTheNews] In the "socialist market economy" of China, some cracks are visible that show a country unprepared to stand up to Trump tariffs long-term. China has been increasingly opaque in markets and manufacturing information.
As Beijing and Washington meet this weekend in Switzerand for trade talks, the Chinese economy is in more significant distress than is widely reported. The country is facing heightened pressure from an ongoing property crisis, protests, and a general economic downturn, in part because of recent U.S. tariffs.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is holding meetings with senior Chinese Communist Party Politburo member, Vice Premier He Lifeng, China's top economic official, in the Swiss capital of Geneva this weekend. The two are likely to discuss the ongoing trade war that erupted after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping 145% tariffs on China after a tit-for-tat exchange last month.
The Chinese Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, have publicly expressed confidence in Beijing’s ability to weather the tariff storm and have urged the Chinese people to be unified in the face of the challenge to its economy.
OPACITY IN MARKET INFORMATION
However, in an era when Chinese economic data is being increasingly concealed by Xi’s regime, there are still significant publicly available warning signs that the Chinese model is under severe strain, the tariffs being only the latest amplifier.
“Their economy is actually in distress,” Gordan Chang, a lawyer and China commentator who lived and worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong for decades, told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Tuesday. “They reported 5.4% growth for the first quarter, but when we look at underlying indicators, it looks more like zero. And we know the direction, which is down,” he said.
Though China has become increasingly secretive with its economic data, available price data for February and March “indicate the Chinese economy is in a deflationary spiral that's very hard to get out of,” Chang said. In those two months, China’s consumer price index fell by 0.7% and 0.1%, respectively, contrary to growth projections. This has been described by some researchers as the prelude to a deflationary spiral, which would “lead to lower production, falling wages, and rising unemployment.”
“And we also see some other numbers that look like China was actually contracting during the period. So for instance, tax receipts were down 3.5% that's not consistent with robust growth,” he added. “So we're seeing an economy that is being hit by the tariff dispute at a time when it is in trouble.”
Economists have long harbored doubts about the reliability of China’s economic numbers, but under President Xi, the Chinese government has stopped publishing hundreds of data sets previously used to calculate the health of China’s economy, the second largest in the world. In recent years, government ministries have stopped producing statistics on land sales, foreign investments, unemployment figures, and cremation rates.
In February of last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an order to formally adopt revisions to a law on “Guarding State Secrets,” according to state media, CNBC reported. That national security law was broadened to conceal unclassified information, which economists say could easily sweep economic data and information into the dark corner of "state secrets." The cable network also quoted Jeremy Daum of
Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, who explained that "For foreign businesses, it’s the lack of clarity that will remain an unquantified risk to doing business in China."
The US-China Business Council notes that penalties for disclosing whatever is deemed a state secret range from three years' imprisonment to the death penalty.
WARNING SIGNS IN THE CHINESE ECONOMY
There are warning signs for the Chinese economy beyond the ambit of official statistics that are much harder to conceal from domestic and foreign audiences alike.
For example, late last month, hundreds of Chinese factory workers took to the streets in protest over factory closures and economic uncertainty spurred by the tariffs, primarily demanding back wages after their workplaces came to a standstill. The discontent spread through diverse groups of workers from industries like construction, sporting goods and electronics—showing the breadth of the tariff impacts on the Chinese economy.
Before the protests, The Financial Times reported that factories across China had begun to slow production and furlough workers anticipating the effects of the tariffs. “Our export orders disappeared, so we’ve temporarily stopped,” one factory worker told the FT. The sentiment was echoed by several other workers interviewed by the outlet.
Aside from protests and layoffs, the Chinese government on Wednesday moved to cut key interest rates and implement other policy changes designed to juice a flagging economy and spur growth. These moves were part of a package of “10 coordinated monetary policy tools” released by the central bank that were designed to “promote high-quality economic development” during the “domestic and international economic and financial situation,” according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua.
Among the changes announced by China’s central bank, the People's Bank of China, is a reduction in the reserve requirement ratio—the minimum amount a commercial bank must hold in reserve—by 50 points, which frees up an estimated 1 trillion yuan in liquidity. The bank also cut the lending rate for commercial banks by a quarter of a point and reduced the first-time homebuyer's five-year mortgage rate.
China is also continuing to endure a major crisis in its real estate sector, an industry which makes up close to a third of the country’s gross domestic product. The crisis began in 2021, following the collapse of two real estate giants, Evergrande and Country Garden, after the Chinese government implemented new policies to curb excessive debt among real estate developers.
Many Chinese real estate companies overbuilt in the country’s cities, leaving unfinished projects and empty buildings that, in some cases, the government has ordered to be torn down. Home prices have fallen significantly and major developers are still experiencing losses.
Chinese consumers have as much as 70% of their wealth tied up in real estate. Many local governments have also seen ballooning debts because of their over-reliance on property sales for revenue.
China is also suffering from a persistently high youth unemployment rate, which now stands at nearly 17%, almost double that of the United States. The figure is a signal of how well young Chinese are — or aren't — finding jobs after finishing their education, a proxy for the strength of the labor market.
Youth unemployment has been a concern of Chinese officials for years. After the rate reached a record high of 21.3% in 2023, the government temporarily stopped publishing the data. It resumed reporting later that year, debuting a new formula that it said better measured the statistic by excluding students.
CHINA WANTS TO APPROACH WASHINGTON, BUT WILL BE RELUCTANT TO ADMIT IT
Though China may have the capacity to fix its major, structural economic problems and sign a deal to reduce tariff rates, President Xi Jinping’s centralizing reforms may hinder changes in policy that could bring about those goals, Gordon Chang said.
“I think the Chinese understand that they got [sic] problems. The issue though…is the political system in China,” Chang said. "Xi Jinping has configured it [...] So he can't make an overture to the United States, which would be the rational thing for him to do, because he cannot appear weak.”
Perhaps because of China's long-standing cultural tradition of “miànzi”, which translates to "saving face," President Xi has been defiant in the face of the American tariffs. He said China is “not afraid” of a tariff war and warned the U.S. that “there are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation.” Chinese officials also described the tariffs as “unilateral bullying and coercion.”
Chinese leaders were also reportedly reluctant to reach out to the United States to start negotiations out of fears that they would appear weak. Instead, both sides are portraying their upcoming talks in Switzerland as a coincidence, according to Politico.
“I was going to be in Switzerland to negotiate with the Swiss,” Secretary Bessent said in an interview on Fox News. “Turns out the Chinese team is traveling through Europe, and they will be in Switzerland also. So we will meet on Saturday and Sunday.”
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] San Francisco was brought to a halt early Friday after the BART train system was suspended due to a network failure.
BART service shut down around 5am PT, stranding thousands of commuters on their way to work.
'Due to a computer networking problem BART service is suspended system wide until further notice,' the train service shared on X.
BART was operating again at 9:24am PT.
The rail system's spokesperson Alicia Trost told NBC Bay Area that the control center was unable to power up the system after its daily overnight shutdown.
An image of the Embarcadero BART station showed the entranceway had been taped off and a sign placed in front that reads: 'No train service.'
Gates leading into many of the 50 stations had also been shut.
The system spans 131.4 miles of track throughout California, connecting San Francisco and the East Bay to other parts of the Bay Area.
BART serves more than 165,000 daily riders and more than 50 million annually.
BART carried its first passengers in 1972, the same year as NASA's final Apollo mission to the moon.
The trains still run on Windows 98, which mechanics access through outdated laptops.
No need for hackers when the computers are held together with duct tape and baling wire. Still, how old is the program running the air traffic control system?
Trost told NBC that network outages do occur as the system is over 50 years old. Still using Disk Operating Systems
The good news is we're in the process of replacing it, and we have the funding to do so because of Measure RR, and the federal government has made investments into our infrastructure,' she continued.
'But it's awful news that the Bay Area can't rely on BART as of this moment. We don't have an ETA as to when the trains will go because part of that is identifying the location of the problem.'
Many commuters were unaware of the issue when they arrived at a BART station, only to be told that they needed to find another mode of transportation. At the Pleasant Hill Station, signs on the platform that provide train times went completely dark.
'What's the issue is our train control computer cannot turn on properly, so that the staff in the control center can see everything, and that's obviously not safe,' Trost said.
'So we're not going to run service until all those things happen.'
The San Francisco Bay Ferry said it was operating larger ferries to accommodate stranded commuters.
'Take the ferry from Vallejo, Oakland, Richmond or Alameda or take transbay buses,' it shared on X.
The last system wide shutdown across all 50 stations occurred in 2019, when a similar computer issue disrupted service for several hours.
[Daily Mail, where America get its news] A power outage hit several areas of the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands on Thursday, just a week after national outages.
Local media reported that thousands of locals and holidaymakers across the island were left without power for nearly two hours after a blackout occurred at around 10am local time.
The affected areas included Los Llanos de Aridane, Breña Alta, Santa Cruz de La Palma and Fuencaliente.
More than twenty towns were left without in the dark in these areas, stretching from north to south of the island, before Endesa and Red Eléctrica begun working on restoring power.
Javier Llamas, the mayor of the town of Aridane, told a local radio station at around midday that: 'More than half of the power outage has already been restored.'
Local media reports explained how the power outage could potentially affect up to 30,000 people in La Palma.
'The source is unknown for now, but everything points to a problem at the Los Guinchos power plant,' La Radio Canaria said.
La Palma was not affected by the massive blackout that hit most of Spain and Portugal, including their capitals, Madrid and Lisbon, on April 28.
Airports were disabled, and shops and offices were left in the dark.
Traffic was gridlocked, flights were grounded, and trains were suspended while people waited to be rescued from elevators and were left without water supplies.
Whole cities were cut off with mobile networks, Wi-Fi, ATMs and card machines inoperative during the disruption, which began around 12.30pm last Monday.
Renfe, the national rail operator in Spain, confirmed the outage and its impact in a statement at the time.
'At 12:30 p.m., the entire national electricity grid was cut off. Trains stopped and there were no departures at any station,' the statement said.
By 7am local time on April 29, more than 99 per cent of energy demand in Spain had been restored, the country's electricity operator Red Eléctrica said.
Portuguese grid operator REN said the following morning all the 89 power substations had been back online since late the night before and power had been restored to all 6.4million customers.
'We have never had a complete collapse of the system,' Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address following the chaos.
He described the problem in the European grid as a 'strong oscillation' and added that the cause was still being determined.
Sanchez asked the public to refrain from speculation and said no theory about the cause of the outage had been discarded.
He also thanked the governments of France and Morocco where energy was being pulled from to restore power to north and southern Spain.
[JustTheNews] The state is facing two lawsuits from inmates over transgender treatments. "Taxpayer dollars should not be used for procedures like this," Kemp said before signing the bill.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Thursday that prohibits state funds from being used for inmate transgender care.
"Taxpayer dollars should not be used for procedures like this," Kemp said before signing the bill at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth.
The state is facing two lawsuits from inmates over transgender treatments. Ronnie Fuller, housed in Pulaski State Prison, is asking the state to pay for a mastectomy. Fuller is a female who identified as a male, according to a document filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the case of Jane Doe vs. the Georgia Department of Corrections but withdrew its statement last month. The department filed a statement in the Fuller case, according to a release.
“The prior administration’s arguments in transgender inmate cases were based on junk science,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement. "There has never been an Eighth Amendment right for inmates to demand elective and experimental surgeries. States’ limited resources need not be wasted to provide these dubious surgeries to inmates."
[Washinton Examiner] A federal judge cleared the way for President Donald Trump to fire a top CIA doctor involved in the firing of agents who refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
At a Friday hearing, U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff declined to prevent Dr. Terry Adirim from being fired from her position as head of the CIA Centers for Global Health Services. Adirim claimed that her firing was due to her being targeted by "a political extremist," but the Department of Justice argued the evidence was only circumstantial.
[Breitbart] The Trump administration is hiring a decades-old U.N. migration agency to help illegal migrants self-deport to their home country.
The administration has contracted with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN-sponsored agency founded in 1951 to help people spread around the world return to their homes in the aftermath of WWII. The IOM will provide structure to Trump’s self-deportation policy and give migrants advice and assistance in their journeys back to their country, the Washington Post reported.
“In the United States, many migrants face a challenging reality — navigating complex systems with limited options and resources,” IOM said in a statement reported by the Post. “This initiative provides support to those who choose to return, helping them make a life-changing decision with care and clarity.”
Trump is offering migrants a $1,000 payment to entice them to self-deport, but is also warning of a hefty $998 per day fine if they decide to ignore the offer and remain in the U.S.
Clever.
It is also being reported that Trump officials are allowing self-deporters to take their U.S. earnings with them and will put them on a list that allows them the opportunity to immigrate legally into the U.S. in the future as opposed to those who are forcibly deported and who are placed on a list blocking future legal access.
More than 1,000 migrants have already agreed to enter the self-deportation process for the $1,000 payout, and the Trump administration hopes this number will substantially increase now that they are working with their “implementing partner” in the form of the IOM.
While the IOM has helped more than 1.5 million people migrate back to their home countries, the organization has never before worked with migrants looking to leave the United States, even though the U.S. has been the biggest source of funding for the agency.
IOM also noted that it has no role in deportations. “Our role is to ensure that those who lack the means to return on their own can do so in a safe, dignified, and informed way,” the agency explained. “IOM does not facilitate or implement deportations.”
Nonetheless, advocates for illegal aliens are advising people not to engage with IOM for fear the independent, UN-affiliated organization will somehow give migrants “biased” information.
“I am deeply concerned that this administration is going to present biased information to people,” Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the paper.
Self-deportation is also not favored by many locales outside the U.S. As Bloomberg recently reported, many small towns in other countries thrive off the money illegals send back home earned by working illegally in the U.S. That money, termed “remittances,” can often serve as a sort of “foreign aid,” as if the U.S. was sending American dollars directly to family members living there.
Remittances from migrants living in the U.S. sent to other countries is one of the largest amounts of cash flowing out of our country. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2023 alone, foreign-born people in the U.S. sent $85.8 billion U.S. dollars back to their home countries.
Impressive. How much of that was earnt through legal means — eg. construction, lawncare, and cleaning — versus criminally?
The case of Nicaragua is instructive. A recent report revealed that the amount of U.S. dollars sent back home by migrants is the chief source of income propping Nicaragua up, as $5.243 billion sent from the U.S. flowed into the Central American country.
This is money lost to America. Money that is not spent in our stores, money that is not geared toward growing our economy, and money that does not benefit our country at all.
The town of Governador Valadares, Brazil, is another locale impacted by Trump’s migrant crackdown. The town has built an industry out of being a nexus for locals gathering to prepare to migrate to the U.S. But now it finds one of its chief industries slowing down to a crawl as migrants begin turning away from attempting to get to the United States, leaving the region’s migration industry with far fewer customers, both legal and illegal.
Governador Valadares is also finding itself turned into a new and unwelcome nexus as flights from the U.S. are bringing back Brazilians who have been deported by the Trump administration. Not only are people returning home, the U.S. dollars they were sending back have stopped with their return.
Mayor Sandro Fonseca estimated that his residents were receiving $2 million a day in these remittances, but now that source of income is threatening to disappear. It is a blow to finances that they might struggle to replace.
These stories are being repeated in countries all across the world, as locals return home and the money coming from the U.S. begins to dry up.
Sure, but the former migrants will bring back the American drive and standards they acquired while away, which will benefit wherever they end up.
[FoxNews] SB17 'model legislation' aimed at shutting down land purchases that pose a national security threat, state lawmaker says
Texas lawmakers are charging ahead with what they call the nation’s strongest legislative effort yet to block hostile foreign powers from purchasing land in the Lone Star State.
Championed by Republican state Rep. Cole Hefner and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, Senate Bill 17 (SB17) is designed to stop governments and entities tied to countries like China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from gaining a foothold on Texas soil.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Hefner described SB17 as "model legislation" aimed at shutting down land purchases that pose a national security threat.
"This bill is about actions and affiliations, not race, not nationality," Hefner said. "If you’re acting on behalf of a hostile foreign adversary, we’re going to take that land back."
The bill is in direct response to real-world events.
Hefner cited the 2021 case of a retired Chinese general acquiring over 140,000 acres near Laughlin Air Force Base.
"We've [also] seen the attempt of foreign actors or hostile foreign adversaries to buy land close to food processing plants," Hefner said. "And it's just something that we have found the more we dig into it, the more we find that there's a lot of things we don't know and a lot of vulnerabilities that are out there."
The bill prohibits entities and individuals affiliated with governments designated as national security threats, based on the U.S. Director of National Intelligence’s annual assessments, from purchasing real estate if those purchases pose risks to public health or safety.
The law empowers the state's attorney general to investigate, block and even reverse such land deals through court-ordered receivership.
Under SB17, "real property" includes agricultural, commercial, industrial, and residential land as well as mines, minerals, and timber. The law includes key exemptions for U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and property intended as a personal homestead.
"The strong points of our bill is that it can apply to anyone if we can prove they're acting as an agent," said Hefner. "So even if they're from a friendly country, but they're actually on behalf of a foreign adversary, then they will be subject to the bill."
The bill gives the attorney general investigative powers, and authority to appoint receivers to manage or sell properties acquired in violation of the law.
Hefner pushed back hard on critics who claim the bill is xenophobic. "This has nothing to do with skin color or ethnicity," he said. "It’s about protecting Texans and Americans from foreign espionage and influence."
partisan issue. This is about national security. This is about keeping our citizens safe," said Hefner. "It's not about Republican or Democrat, it's not liberal or conservative. It is just taking care of our people.
"And I believe that's the, you know, the number one responsibility of the government is to make sure that people can live free and safe in their state."
SB17 is set to take effect Sept. 1. Hefner said he hopes the legislation sparks a nationwide effort.
"We need to wake up," he said. "This is about securing the homeland, not playing politics."
[FoxNews] Trump signed an executive order to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order to establish a national center for homeless veterans with redirected funds previously spent on services for illegal aliens, Fox News Digital has learned.
The president’s order directs the secretary of veterans affairs to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles.
Los Angeles has approximately 3,000 homeless veterans — more than any other city in the country, and accounting for about 10% of all homeless veterans in America, according to the White House.
"The new National Center for Warrior Independence will help them and other veterans like them rebuild their lives," the White House said.
The center will allow veterans from around the nation to seek and receive care, benefits and services "to which they are entitled," the White House said.
The order redirects funds previously spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens to constructing, establishing and maintaining the new center.
"The Center will promote self-sufficiency through housing, substance abuse treatment, and support for productive work for the veterans housed there," the White House explained.
It said the goal is to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans at the center by 2028.
The order also directs the secretary of housing and urban development to use vouchers to support homeless veterans and instructs the secretary of veterans affairs to "restore accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)."
The order also instructs the VA to take action against individuals who have committed misconduct and to investigate and rectify the Biden administration’s decision to "rehire and reinstate back pay for employees previously fired for misconduct."
The order also ensures that veterans will have access to increased options for care, benefits and services — including reduced wait times for Veterans Health Administration appointments through options such as expanded hours, weekend appointments and virtual healthcare.
The order also directs a feasibility study at the Manchester VA Medical Center to expand services to support a full-service medical center in New Hampshire.
"President Trump strongly believes that every veteran deserves our gratitude, and that the federal government should treat veterans like the heroes they are," the White House said.
#2
Was the best tank of the time. Better than the German ones. French did not use them well though. Spread them out to support the infantry instead of an armored fist.
#3
"Too soon," cooed a Russian, "I fear,
To discuss the misuse of good gear
Before we went all in
On Great Hitler-Stalin
Far-Left Co-Prosperity Sphere."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Public health officials investigating a mysterious brain disease in Canada have finally released the findings of a long-awaited study — and not everyone is convinced.
Since 2019, a small town in New Brunswick — a Canadian province bordering Maine — has experienced hundreds of cases of people suffering from hallucinations, spasms, rapid memory loss and the sensation of bugs crawling under the skin.
More than 500 people in the area, mostly in the city of Moncton, were reported to have the disease by local neurologist Dr Alier Marrero, who was the first to raise the alarm.
However, as no definitive diagnosis has ever been made, the area was reported to be suffering from a 'mystery' brain disease.
But now, after examining two dozen of those cases, researchers say the odds that a new illness has emerged are less than one in a million — and they believe the patients were instead suffering from known conditions like Alzheimer’s.
Patients and their families are raising concerns over the study, however, after it was revealed scientists on the study had previously received fundingfroma company suspected by some locals to be involved in the outbreak.
Online records reveal scientists on the study worked at a hospital that had received $2million from Irving Oil, which extracts hydrocarbons in the state — with some locals suggesting pollution from these could have been behind the cases.
The scientists who led the study strongly refuted claims that this had any influence over their research, adding that the funding was for a completely separate project.
The 'mystery illness' theory gained traction in 2021 when Canadian health authorities began investigating cases based on Dr Marrero’s reports.
Patients were recorded in Moncton, home to 79,000 people, and in a sparsely populated area in its north called the Acadian Peninsula.
While more than 500 were reported, researchers found 222 patients.
Known as New Brunswick neurological syndrome of unknown cause, people became concerned in the area that it was being caused by something in the water.
Doctors initially suggested patients had Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or Prion disease, an extremely rare group of neurologic conditions caused by misfolded proteins in the brain.
But tests for this came back negative.
After a two-year investigation of 25 of the patients, scientists from the University of Toronto and the Horizon Health Network concluded there was 'no support for an undiagnosed mystery disease in New Brunswick' and their research 'revealed well-defined diagnoses.'
Published in the US-based journal JAMA, researchers involved in the study contacted 105 patients in the cluster for evaluation.
Of these, 52 declined further contact while 42 did not respond. In total, 15 patients were evaluated.
Scientists also obtained permission to perform autopsies on the bodies of 11 additional patients in the cluster who had died.
Their causes of death were not revealed.
Evaluations were carried out between November 2023 and March 2025.
Based on autopsies, among patients who had died, seven had a form of dementia.
One had adenocarcinoma — a malignant tumor — one had progressive supranuclear palsy — a rare disease that affects walking, balance and swallowing — and one had vascular dementia.
Another patient had unremarkable autopsy findings, but had previously been diagnosed with a primary psychiatric disorder.
The doctors said all these diseases could have caused the symptoms that were considered to be part of the mystery cluster.
Researchers noted there was an absence of one specific change in the brain across all groups that may suggest common exposure to one factor.
Among the 14 patients that came forward for neurological tests, 10 agreed to a second evaluation by four movement disorder neurologists and two behavioral neurologists.
Previously, the patients had only been assessed by Dr Marrero.
He had found all 10 patients had myoclonus — a disorder causing sudden and involuntary muscle jerks — while seven had ataxia — a neurological condition caused by a lack of muscle coordination.
But in the new study, only one of the reassessed patients was found to have a cognitive disorder while two were found to have a psychiatric disorder.
Five others were found to have no cognitive deficits, while two were found to be normal.
None were found to have myoclonus or ataxia as Dr Marrero had suggested.
The researchers said they found 'meaningful discrepancies' between the documented initial history of the patients' conditions and their findings on the second assessment.
This included three patients reported to have experienced hallucinations, whose symptoms were not confirmed on second evaluation. And 10 patients initially reported to have a neurological disorder, with this not found on follow-up.
In their conclusion, the researchers said their investigation highlighted the importance of getting a second evaluation for a neurological diagnosis.
They also said their findings highlighted the erosion of public trust in institutions, which has been blamed on Covid vaccine mandates in the pandemic.
Marrero responded to the study, however, telling NBC News: 'I am in profound disagreement with the study conclusions and have many questions regarding the methods and the content.
'I am sure that our patients, families, and communities share the same very serious concerns.'
Additionally, the study lists several potential notes under the 'conflicts of interest' heading, including that some of the authors had previously worked for Canadian health authorities and a number of pharmaceutical companies - with some saying it calls into question the researchers' objectivity.
The New Brunswick government's investigation into the outbreak is ongoing, with the state's chief medical officer saying this week that it would continue.
Dr Yves Léger said the new study 'doesn’t change my office’s intention to complete its own investigation into cases of undiagnosed neurological illness in New Brunswick.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to the scientists and Irving Oil but has not received a response.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Radar screens went dark at New Jersey's Newark Airport early Friday during a close call that nearly became a midair disaster.
The momentary power outage hit at 3:55am ET, when air traffic was luckily very light, and lasted for about for 90 seconds.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement on X Friday, revealing the blackout was caused by a 'telecommunications outage' at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Area C.
This control center, located 90 miles away at the Philadelphia International Airport, manages air traffic for Newark Airport and smaller airports nearby.
According to Flightaware, there were already 125 cancellations and 292 flight delays reported at Newark as of 12pm ET.
It's the second radar blackout to hit Newark in the past two weeks. The previous outage truck the airport's air traffic control tower on April 28, causing computer screens to go dark for 60 to 90 seconds.
Newark is the second-busiest airport in the New York-New Jersey area, catering to nearly 49 million travelers in 2024.
It follows behind New York's John F Kennedy International Airport, which saw 63 million flyers last year.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] San Francisco was brought to a halt early Friday after the BART train system was suspended due to a network failure. 
'But it's awful news that the Bay Area can't rely on BART as of this moment. We don't have an ETA as to when the trains will go because part of that is identifying the location of the problem.' 
