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In this episode - John discusses the recent blizzard affecting the Northeast, the implications of the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's tariffs, and the ongoing political drama surrounding the State of the Union address. Then, he is joined by Professor Corey Brettschneider. The conversation touches on critical issues such as executive overreach, judicial accountability, and the state of democracy. Next, John speaks with Miles Taylor who is a national security expert that works in Washington, DC. Taylor previously served as chief of staff at the US Department of Homeland Security, where he published an “Anonymous” essay in The New York Times, blowing the whistle on presidential misconduct. He later published the #1 national bestseller A Warning, revealed himself to be the author, and launched a campaign of ex-officials to oppose Donald Trump's reelection. He's worked as an advisor in the George W. Bush administration, on Capitol Hill, as a CNN contributor, and is the cofounder of a DC-based charter school and multiple democracy-reform groups. His latest book is "BLOWBACK". And winding it up, comedian Rhonda Hansome returns to joke with John and listeners about the State of the Union boycotts and Toddler Trump's Tirades and Tantrums.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

President Trump has aggressively used tariffs as an economic tool, but a US Supreme Court decision on Friday struck down his sweeping tariffs, bringing new uncertainty. The court, in a 6-to-3 decision, ruled that the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed tariffs on nearly every US trading partner last year. President Trump moved swiftly to work around the court by imposing levies using other trade powers. On Saturday, Trump said that he would raise the new global tariff rate to 15%, using a provision in a law that allows him to impose an across-the-board tariff. This measure can only be enacted for 150 days unless Congress agrees to extend it. Trump also said he would use the act to investigate other countries' unfair trade practices, which could result in additional tariffs.  What does the Supreme Court ruling mean for the president's ability to wield tariffs for geopolitical pressure? How will this impact US trading partners and existing trade deals? And what about the impact on the energy sector, from oil and gas to clean energy products?  Today on the show, Jason Bordoff speaks with two researchers from the Center on Global Energy Policy, Richard Nephew and Trevor Sutton, to unpack the ruling. Richard formerly served as the US deputy special envoy for Iran under the Biden administration, where he played a key role in negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal. From 2013-2015, Richard also served as the Principal Deputy Sanctions Coordinator at the US Department of State. Trevor focuses on the intersection of trade, climate, and industrial policy. He leads the center's program on trade and the clean energy transition. Trevor previously served as research director of the Remaking Trade for a Sustainable Future project. Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.  

"If we stop mining, we stop our way of life."The Lobito Corridor is more than just a railway; it is a strategic lifeline connecting the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola to the mineral rich Copperbelt in the DRC and Zambia. In this episode, host Claude Grunitzky sits down with explorer and presenter Dwayne Fields and Sam Williams, Head of Communications at Africell, to discuss the revival of this historic infrastructure. We explore why the U.S. government is mobilizing private capital to secure access to critical minerals like copper and rare earths, which are essential for the global economy. From Dwayne's personal genetic journey back to his ancestral roots in the Copperbelt to Africell's mission to digitize the corridor, this episode examines the intersection of high stakes geopolitics and the human stories of the communities on the ground. Can large scale mining truly benefit ordinary Africans? We look at the risks of exploitation and environmental damage versus the potential for jobs, connectivity, and local prosperity.Plus: why a telecommunications company is making a documentary

In this episode, we unpack the political shockwaves hitting New Delhi following the US Department of Justice's massive release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Among the millions of recently unsealed pages are surprising references to Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, and billionaire Anil Ambani.We break down the core of these revelations—from an email where the disgraced financier boasted that PM Modi took his diplomatic advice during a 2017 visit to Israel, to correspondence suggesting Epstein was viewed as a potential backchannel to the Trump administration.While the Ministry of External Affairs has fiercely rejected the claims as the "trashy ruminations of a convicted criminal," the opposition is refusing to let the issue die, demanding transparency and a personal clarification from the Prime Minister. We explore the central debate: Is this simply the case of a global grifter exaggerating his political influence, or does the government's refusal to offer a detailed public explanation point to a deeper lapse in diplomatic vetting?Join us as we separate fact from online speculation, analyze the mounting political fallout, and ask the tough questions about what being named in one of the world's most notorious criminal networks means for India's global standing.

We start out by looking at the critical topic of empathy within the current socio-political landscape, highlighting the troubling viewpoint expressed by some Christian nationalists who deem empathy as a weakness or even a sin. This discussion is especially topical as we witness the harsh realities of our out-of-control government, where political gain often leads to the suffering and even death in vulnerable communities. The American Humanist Association is combating this trend by launching The American Empathy Project aimed at promoting empathy, which happens to be an essential humanist value.Offering $100,000 in grants, The American Empathy Project encourages groups across the nation to create activities centered around themes like care for the marginalized, environmental conservation, and affirming the rights of vulnerable populations. We outline various project ideas that participants can engage in while emphasizing that empathy, far from being a liability, is a crucial asset for societal progress.We transition to the various serious topic of the connection of public figures including those in the atheist and freethought movement with the convicted child sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein. These connections are proven with the release of many photos and emails in the Epstein criminal files held by the US Department of Justice.Epstein had a personal or donor relationship with people like Lawrence Kraus, Steven Pinker, and Richard Dawkins and these men tended to mimic views about women that Epstein was known to express.Content creator Rebecca Watson also details her appearance in the Epstein files and how that is related to the cancer of Misogyny that still infects the freethought community. She relates the dumpster fire that was the introductory speech by former Center for Inquiry CEO Ronald Lindsay at the Women in Secularism Conference in 2013. Lindsay is also in the Epstein files - naturally.01:00 The American Empathy Project20:54 Does Humanism Have A Jeffery Epstein Problem?Full show notes & links usedSubscribe to our free newsletterCheck out our swag

The former prince has not publicly responded to the latest allegations to emerge after the US Department of Justice released millions of documents related to Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing and said he never witnessed or suspected any of the behavior that Epstein was accused of. He has not commented on the recent allegations of misconduct in public office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peace Through Strength, America's Navy with LCDR Steve Rogers USN (Ret) – The Secretary of War and his department have helped lead America out of serious danger, addressing the consequences of policies that critics promoted in previous years and still advocate for today. And I mean out of grave danger. I salute, along with millions of Americans, the work the team at America's War Department is...

Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.On today's podcast:1) The US military is stationing a vast array of forces in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, fighter jets and refueling tankers, with President Trump saying that Iran had 10 to 15 days at most to strike a deal over its nuclear program. “We’re either going to get a deal, or it’s going to be unfortunate for them,” Trump told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One. On a deadline, Trump said he thought 10 to 15 days was “pretty much” the “maximum” he would allow for negotiations to continue. The deployment is unlike anything the US has done since 2003, when it amassed forces before the invasion of Iraq. It dwarfs the military buildup that Trump ordered off the coast of Venezuela in the weeks before he ousted President Nicolas Maduro. While the US isn’t likely to deploy ground troops, the buildup suggests Trump is giving himself discretion to launch a sustained campaign lasting many days, in cooperation with Israel.2) President Trump declared victory in the fight over cost-of-living concerns, signaling a new approach that seeks to deny problems with his economic agenda while touting stock market gains to insist that his tariff plans have been a success. Pocketbook issues have emerged as the central focus of the upcoming November congressional elections with households hit hard by costs for groceries, utilities and housing. Polls show voters have soured on Trump’s economic policies, endangering Republicans’ hold on both chambers of Congress and the future of the president’s legislative agenda. Trump and allies have highlighted slowing inflation and job growth that has come in above expectations, but that has failed to assuage voters, and opened the door for Democrats who have seized on that discontent to boost their midterm prospects.3) Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of the UK’s King Charles, was released under investigation on Thursday after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The Thames Valley Police confirmed it had released a Norfolk man in his sixties, without mentioning the former royal by name. Last week, the police force said it was leading the assessment of allegations tied to the US Department of Justice’s publication of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. King Charles III issued a statement outlining his “deepest concern” about the matter and promising Buckingham Palace’s “full and wholehearted support and co-operation” with the investigating authorities. The arrest of Andrew, who turned 66 on Thursday, heaps further embarrassment on Britain’s royal family following years of lurid allegations about ties with Epstein that the former prince has consistently denied. His arrest appears to be the first of a UK royal since King Charles I in the 17th century following his defeat in the English Civil War.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Historic scenes in Sandringham, as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Our royal experts talk through what we know, and what this means for the royal family.Plain-clothed police officers were seen arriving at the royal property, before Thames Valley Police confirmed the news of an arrest.Shortly afterwards, King Charles III released an unprecedented statement expressing his 'deepest concern' over the news of his brother's arrest. The monarch added that “nobody is above the law”. It comes just weeks after more than 3 million files relating to Jeffrey Epstein were released by the US Department of Justice.So what next for the royal family? What exactly is going on behind palace doors? And should the royal family have acted earlier?

"Ambition is often loud and fast"Limitless Africa host Claude Grunitzky is in the hot seat this episode. Claude has founded, built and sold businesses you will have heard of - he founded Trace, a global hip hop magazine. Trace eventually became the TV channel and he then raised $15million in funding from the investment bank Goldman Sachs in 2003. Now he spends his time as an investor and teaching entrepreneurship in his home country of Togo and across the continent. In this episode Claude will be talking about what Africans can learn from the American mindset - and what he learnt from the American mindset, he built Trace in the US after all.Plus: What permissionless ambition means

The Department of Justice has faced backlash from members of Congress and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein following the release of millions of documents with inconsistent redactions of key names and details. Vicky Ward, investigative journalist and author of books including Kushner, Inc. (St. Martin's Press, 2019) and, with James Patterson, The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy (Little, Brown and Company, 2025), and David Enrich, deputy investigations editor for The New York Times, talk about some of the recent developments in the Epstein case and its growing international fallout.Photo: This photograph taken in Le-Perreux-sur-Marne, outside Paris on February 9, 2026 shows undated pictures provided by the US Department of Justice on January 30, 2026 as part of the Jeffrey Epstein files (Photo by Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images) 

Secretary of State Kris Warner said his office has received a second request from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking unredacted information on hundreds of thousands of registered voters in this state. We recently spoke with him to learn why he's not turning that information over. Also, high school students from all over the state came to the capitol Tuesday, asking legislators to put money in the budget for smoking cessation programs. The post Warner Says ‘No' To US Department Of Justice A Second Time, This West Virginia Morning appeared first on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

This week we talk about mass surveillance, smart doorbells, and the Patriot Stack.We also discuss Amazon, Alexa, and the Super Bowl.Recommended Book: Red Moon by Benjamin PercyTranscriptIn 2002, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the US government created a new agency—the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, operating under the auspices of the US Department of Homeland Security, which was also formed that year for the same general reason, to defend against 9/11-style attacks in the future.As with a whole lot of what was done in the years following the 9/11 attacks, a lot of what this agency, and its larger department did could be construed as a sort of overcompensation by a government and a people who were reeling from the first real, large-scale attack within their borders from a foreign entity in a very long time. It was a horrific event, everyone felt very vulnerable and scared, and consequently the US government could do a lot of things that typically would not have had the public's support, like rewiring how airports and flying works in the country, creating all sorts of new hurdles and imposing layers of what's often called security theater, to make people feel safe.While the TSA was meant to handle things on the front-lines of air transportation, though, X-raying and patting-down and creating a significant new friction for everyone wanting to get on a plane, ICE was meant to address another purported issue: that of people coming into the US from elsewhere, illegally, and then sticking around long enough to cause trouble. More specifically, ICE was meant to help improve public safety by strictly enforcing at times lax immigration laws, by tracking down and expelling illegal immigrants from the country; the theory being that some would-be terrorists may have snuck into the US and might be getting ready to kill US citizens from within our own borders.There's not a lot of evidence to support that assertion—the vast majority of terrorism that happens in the US is conducted by citizens, mostly those adhering to a far-right or other extremist ideologies. But that hasn't moved the needle on public perception of the issue, which still predominantly leans toward stricter border controls and more assiduous moderation of non-citizens within US borders—for all sorts of reasons, not just security ones.What I'd like to talk about today is an offshoot of the war on terror and this vigilance about immigrants in the US, and how during the second Trump administration, tech companies have been entangling themselves with immigration-enforcement agencies like ICE to create sophisticated surveillance networks.—In mid-July of 2025, the US Department of Defense signed one of its largest contracts in its history with a tech company called Palantir Technologies. Palantir was founded and is run by billionaire Peter Thiel, who among other things is generally considered to be the reason JD Vance was chosen to be Trump's second-term Vice President. He's also generally considered to be one of, if not the main figure behind the so-called Patriot Tech movement, which consists of companies like SpaceX, Anduril, and OpenAI, all of which are connected by a web of funding arms and people who have cross-pollinated between major US tech companies and US agencies, in many cases stepping into government positions that put them in charge of the regulatory bodies that set the rules for the industries in which they worked.As a consequence of this setup and this cross-pollination, the US government now has a bunch of contracts with these entities, which has been good for the companies' bottom lines and led to reduced government regulations, and in exchange the companies are increasingly cozy with the government and its many agencies, toeing the line more than they would have previously, and offering a lot more cooperation and collaboration with the government, as well.This is especially true when it comes to data collection and surveillance, and a great deal of that sort of information and media is funneled into entities like Palantir, which aggregate and crunch it for meaning, and then send predictions and assumptions, and make services like facial-recognition technologies predicated on their vast database, available to police and ICE agents, among others such entities.There has been increasingly stiff pushback against this melding of the tech world with the government—which has always been there to some degree, but which has become even more entwined than usual, of late—and that pushback is international, even long-time allies like Canada and the EU making moves to develop their own replacements for Amazon and Google and OpenAI due to these issues, and the heightened unpredictability and chaos of the US in recent years, but it's also evident within the US, due in part to Trump's moves while in office, but also the on-the-ground realities in places like Minneapolis, where ICE agents have been brutalizing and blackbagging people, sometimes illegal immigrants, sometimes US citizens, usually non-white US citizens, and the ICE agents are being rewarded, getting bonuses, for beating up and kidnapping and in some cases murdering people, whether or not any of these people are actually criminals—and it's illegal to do that kind of thing even if they are criminals, by the way.All of which sets the scene for what happened following the Super Bowl, this year.Ring is a home security and smart home device company that is best known for its line of smart doorbells, but which also makes all sorts of security cameras and other alarm system devices.Even though smart doorbells, complete with cameras and other sorts of functionality, existed before Ring, this company basically created the smart doorbell industry as it exists today back in 2014, when it received a round of equity investment and changed its named from Doorbot to Ring. It was bought by Amazon four years later, in 2018, for a billion dollars.One of Ring's premier features is related to its camera: you can use your phone or other smart home device to see who's at your door when they ring the bell, but it can also be set to record when it detects movement, which makes it easy to check and see who stole your Amazon package from your porch when you weren't at home, for instance, and resultingly Ring door camera footage has become fundamental to reporting, and on occasion pursuing, some types of crime.As a direct result of that utility, Ring introduced its Neighbors service in mid-2018, this service serving as a sort of social network that allows Ring device users to discuss local issues, especially those related to safety and security, anonymously, while also allowing them to share photos and videos taken by their devices. This service also created relationships with local law enforcement, and allowed police to jump onto the network and request footage from Ring customers, if they thought these doorbell cams might have photos or video of someone escaping with a stolen car, for instance, which might then help the police catch that crook.It's generally assumed that Amazon probably bought Ring, at least in part, to entrench itself as the lord of the internet of things world, as it launched its Amazon Sidewalk platform in 2020, which allowed all Amazon devices, including Ring devices, to share a wireless mesh network, all of them communicating with each other and all using Amazon's Alexa as an interface.In 2023, Ring was sued by the FTC for $5.8 million because it allowed its employees and contractors to access private videos by failing to have basic security and privacy features in place—so not only could any Ring employee view their customer's private video feeds, hackers could easily access all this media and data, as well. Just one example surfaced in that lawsuit shows that a Ring employee viewed thousands of video recordings of at least 81 different female users over the course of a few months in 2017.So Amazon was building a surveillance network that worked really well, in the sense that it was predicated on popular, at times quite useful devices that people seemed to love, but which was also quite leaky, giving all sorts of people access to these supposedly private feeds, and it was shared with law enforcement via that social network. It's also been alleged that Ring (and Amazon) have used users' footage without further permission for things like facial recognition and AI training. Their partnership with police agencies also allegedly created incentives for the police to encourage citizens to buy Ring cams and other security devices for their homes, creating perverse incentives. And again, these devices connect wirelessly to other internet of things devices, expanding their reach and the potential for abuse of collected user data.In late 2025, Ring announced a new partnership with Flock Safety, a company that's best known for its security offerings, including automated license plate readers and gunshot detector systems.These are mass surveillance tools used by some governments and law enforcement entities, and they use cameras and microphones to capture license plates, people's faces, and sounds that might be gunfire and aggregate that data to be used by police, neighborhood associations, and in some cases private property owners.This sort of technology is incredibly useful to companies like Palantir, which again, aggregates and crunches it, on scale, and then shares that information with police, ICE, and other such agencies.These tools can sometimes help flag areas where guns are being fired or where crimes are being committed, but they're also imperfect and at times biased against some groups of people and areas, and some data show that not only is crime not reduced by the presence of these systems, but there's a fair bit of evidence that this data often falls into the hands of hackers or is used by employees for nefarious, stalkery purposes, as was the case with Ring's cameras. So most civil liberties groups, like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are vehemently against them, but governments like the second Trump administration like them, because they create a surveillance mesh they can tap into and use for, for instance, figuring out where to deploy ICE agents, or, in theory at least, spying on your political enemies or ex-spouses for abuse or blackmail purposes.Ring's late-2025 announcement wasn't widely reported, but in early 2026 the company bought a Super Bowl ad to announce a new feature called Search Party, enabled by their partnership with Flock.The ad showed a neighborhood coming together to find a lost dog, using the web of doorbell cameras on all the homes in the area to track the dog and figure out where it went—all the cameras activated at once to create a surveillance mesh of live footage.This ad landed with a resounding thud,, as to many people it felt more menacing than heartwarming, the new feature overtly raising the potential that government agencies, including ICE, could tap into it to surveil and track their neighbors. The response was so negative that Ring quickly issued a statement saying that it was no longer moving forward with its Flock partnership, attempting to reassure its customers that “integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever send to Flock Safety.”This result is notable in part because it's a rare instance of a major tech company backtracking on a major feature decision due to public backlash, but also because it suggests backlash against ICE is reverberating through other aspects of life and interconnected industries.Ring device users mostly buy these things for their surveillance capabilities, but the increasing, and increasingly hostile and violent acts committed by members of ICE seem to have nudged the conversation so that folks are more worried about these agents than about the porch pirates and other criminals that these devices and this partnership could ostensibly help them identify.It's too early to say what this might mean for the burgeoning patriot stack of tech companies and government agencies, but it does suggest there are limits to what people will put up with, even when those in charge are adhering to a playbook that has typically worked well for them, in the past, and the devices and services they're using to build their surveillance network are otherwise beloved by those who use them.Show Noteshttps://restofworld.org/2026/big-tech-backlash-alternatives-upscrolled/https://europeancorrespondent.com/en/r/trumps-power-switchhttps://www.authoritarian-stack.info/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/realestate/smart-home-cameras-nest-ring-privacy.htmlhttps://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/platforms-bend-over-backward-to-help-dhs-censor-ice-critics-advocates-say/https://www.theverge.com/report/879320/ring-flock-partnership-breakup-does-not-fix-problemshttps://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceledhttps://www.404media.co/with-ring-american-consumers-built-a-surveillance-dragnet/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcementhttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/children-of-color-projected-to-be-majority-of-u-s-youth-this-yearhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(company)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Safetyhttps://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/https://www.wired.com/story/social-security-administration-appointment-details-ice/https://www.wired.com/story/security-news-this-week-ring-kills-flock-safety-deal-after-super-bowl-ad-uproar/https://www.wired.com/story/ice-crashing-us-court-system-minnesota/https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-ceo-alex-karp-employee-questions-on-ice/https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-ice-forum-where-agents-complain-about-their-jobs/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Under the second Trump administration, the US Department of Energy significantly shifted its priorities to align with its "energy dominance" agenda. But one significant point of continuity with the Biden years is a continued emphasis on energy security. Energy security means different things today than it did even a decade ago. It's about competing in the global race for artificial intelligence, reshoring manufacturing supply chains, and keeping the lights on as extreme weather events become more frequent and more destructive. But the administration's efforts to bolster energy availability at a time of surging load growth has included emergency orders to keep coal-fired power plants operating. And it has pulled back funding for new energy transmission projects that it says will not quickly lower energy costs for US consumers.  So when it comes to the administration's energy dominance agenda, what are the trade-offs between security and speed? What does the administration's waning support for renewables and low-carbon industries mean for American clean energy innovation in the coming decades? And how will the US build out new power capacity, including advanced nuclear, quickly and safely? Today on the show, Jason Bordoff speaks to the acting under secretary of energy at the US Department of Energy, Alex Fitzsimmons, about the second Trump administration's energy policy priorities. Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.  

Negah Angha, Former Senior Advisor at the US Department of State and National Security Council, discusses the latest negotiations between US and Iraniain officials.

For review:1. The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday awarded Boeing a sole-source contract for newvGBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs , to replace the munitions used in last June's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.2. Iran launched live-fire naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.The drill, called "Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz," was led by the naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) under the supervision of IRGC Commander in Chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour.3.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had told U.S. President Donald Trump to make four key demands of Iran in any deal to avert military strikes against the Islamic regime in Tehran.- All enriched uranium must leave Iran.- Iran to have no enrichment capability.- Limits on the range of Iranian ballistic missiles (Range of 300km and under).- Dismantle support/infrastructure for Iranian militia proxies in the Region.4. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation left for the Swiss city after the first round of indirect talks took place in Oman last week. Oman will mediate the talks in Geneva, the IRNA state-run news agency reported on its Telegram channel.Mr. Araghchi is also expected to meet with his Swiss and Omani counterparts, as well as the director general of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.5. A Republican senator seen as close to US President Donald Trump suggested Monday that an American decision on potential military action against Iran was “weeks, not months” away and opined that it would be a “strategic victory” for the Islamic Republic if its supreme leader isn't toppled amid the current standoff.6. Lebanon's government says its army will have a four-month extendable period to implement phase two of the military's plan to disarm Hezbollah in south Lebanon.Phase two covers an area north of the Litani river.7. The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday evening said that it carried out an airstrike targeting members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in eastern Lebanon, close to the Syrian border.8. A Ukrainian delegation was heading to Geneva on Monday for another round of U.S.-brokered talks with Russian officials, There was no anticipation of any significant progress on ending the war at the Tuesday-Wednesday meeting in Switzerland as both sides appear to be sticking to their negotiating positions on key issues.9. US Secretary of State Rubio sharply criticized the UN for having “virtually no role” in resolving conflicts, and called for global institutions to be reformed.“The United Nations still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world,” he told the Munich conference.“But we cannot ignore that, today, on the most pressing matters before us, it has no answers and has played virtually no role,” he said.10. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has announced his country is in talks with the United States to buy an additional four F-16 fighter jets on top of the 14 copies already ordered.11. Estonia's arms procurement agency has signed a contract with France and KNDS for the acquisition of 12 additional Caesar self-propelled howitzers.The newly ordered systems are scheduled for delivery later this year.12. The Pentagon, along with the Department of Energy, on Sunday airlifted a small nuclear reactor, the first such transportation as the Trump administration looks to quickly deploy nuclear power across the U.S.The Ward 250 is a 5 megawatt nuclear reactor that could potentially power roughly 5,000 homes, according to the Pentagon. 

Just a week ago, the architect of Starmer's rise to power, Morgan McSweeney, resigned over his connections to Peter Mandelson, after further proof of Mandelson's involvement with Jeffrey Epstein emerged in the newest batch of files released by the US Department of Justice. According to this week's guest, this scandal isn't an anomaly, but an […]

"Every Clark Kent can become Superman, every Diana Price can become Wonder Woman."The American mindset has produced some of the greatest entrepreneurs the world has ever seen… from Henry Ford to Oprah Winfrey. What can Africans learn from their success? Our host Claude Grunitzky talks to entrepreneurs from all over the continent.Plus: Why Ubuntu is global

The latest tranche of the Epstein files contains more than three million documents - the largest release of its kind. In what appears to be a clumsy attempt at a cover-up by the US Department of Justice, the sloppily redacted names of high-profile perpetrators have failed to conceal the intricate web of global elites spanning politics, royalty, Hollywood and tech. The fallout in Europe has resulted in a string of resignations, but in the US, there has been limited accountability for the politicians named in the files, including Donald Trump. Contributors: Mehdi Hasan - Editor-in-chief and CEO, Zeteo News Chris Hedges - Host, The Chris Hedges Report Nikki McCann Ramirez - Politics reporter at Rolling Stone Danielle Moodie - Host, The Danielle Moodie Show On our radar: It's been a month since Iranian authorities imposed a total internet blackout during a violent crackdown on antigovernment protesters. Since then, the state has ramped up the targeted repression of journalists and progressive politicians in Iran. The limited information that has managed to make it out of the country, via Elon Musk's Starlink, is now struggling against what experts say are internet filtering technologies from Chinese companies. Tariq Nafi reports on Iran's nationwide internet shutdown. How the US military took over American football From choreographed flyovers to flags stretching the length of the field, no other sports league has marketed patriotism as aggressively or successfully as the United States' National Football League, the NFL. Militarism is embedded in sports and entertainment in the US, but, under the Trump administration, more state institutions are trying to get in on the act. Ryan Kohls reports on the power and the spectacle of the Super Bowl. Featuring: Howard Bryant - Sports journalist and author Kavitha Davidson - Podcast host, Sportly Gregory Daddis - Professor of history, Texas A&M University; retired colonel, US Army

Ethereal Encounters Unveiled welcomes back fellow UPRN Hosts of The Light Gate, Preston Dennett and Dolly Safran February 13th, , 2026 TOPIC: The Secrets of Precognition- Knowing Before It Happens About Our Guests: Preston Dennett began investigating UFOs and the paranormal in 1986 when he discovered that his family, friends and co-workers were having dramatic unexplained encounters. Since then, he has interviewed hundreds of witnesses and investigated a wide variety of paranormal phenomena. He is a field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a ghost hunter, a paranormal researcher, and the author of 26 books and more than 100 articles on UFOs and the paranormal. Several of his books have been Amazon UFO bestsellers. His articles haveappeared in numerous magazines including Fate, Atlantis Rising, MUFON UFO Journal, Nexus, Paranormal Magazine, UFO Magazine, Phenomena Magazine, Mysteries Magazine, Ufologist and others. His writing has been translated into several different languages including German, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Icelandic. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including Midnight in the Desert with Art Bell, Coast-to-Coast and also the History Channel's Deep Sea UFOs and UFO Hunters. His research has been presented in the LA Times, the LA Daily News, the Dallas Morning News and other newspapers. He has taught classes on various paranormal subjects and lectures across the United States.He currently resides in southern California. Dolly Safran began her life journey already a generational contactee. Her father, an Airborne Ranger in the US Army, was also a contactee from an early age. Growing up was challenging for Dolly as occurrences of disappearing from her home, psychic phenomena and unseen friends caused anxiety for her mother. Until the age of 14, Dolly's memories were not fluid. She knew strange things were happening, but could not connect reality to them. It took a huge push to fight for her conscious recall to remain intact. After gaining awareness, her life took on purpose. Nursing began her journey. Then she began serving as a civilian worker in the US Department of the Treasury, and also in the Army as a Department of Defense employee. Life changed those trajectories suddenly, and she was happy to become a zoo keeper and an Animal Baby Momma for a private zoo and sanctuary in Florida. All while being taught by and working with ET. Dolly's decision to break her silence is now an imperative for her Links: www.prestondennett.weebly.com You-Tube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOntTQrEbD94Gjfc0UXC46A Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/preston.dennett/ Twitter: @PrestonEDennett Preston E Dennett (@PrestonEDennett) / Twitter Preston E Dennett (@PrestonEDennett) / Twitter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prestonedennett/

So friends, can I ask you a quick question? When you think of Washington, DC, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Politics? The nation's capital? Maybe, a city where somehow we still have taxation without representation?DC has the Congress. It has the executive branch. It has the judiciary. All populated by federal government employees. All public servants. In a very real sense, DC is like the national hub for public service.The person who said that she views DC as a city of service is Kinney Zalesne. And Kinney is now running to be represent the people of DC in Congress. Kinney is running to be DC's delegate to Congress, and I sat down with Kinney to ask her why she wants to represent people of DC in Congress, and why she views DC as a city of service.Kinney Zalesne came to DC in 1995 for what was supposed to be a short stint in the Clinton White House. But she fell in love with the city, and for 30 years has never wanted to live anywhere else. She and her husband Scott have raised four kids here and been active in the community, serving in leadership positions in DC's schools, pools, parks, and nonprofits.DC gave Kinney opportunities to work across government, business, and the nonprofit sector. After serving as a White House Fellow with Vice President Gore, Kinney was Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno at the US Department of Justice. She later helped lead the Strategy team at Microsoft. She has rolled up her sleeves in our neighborhoods, where she served as President of College Summit, a global-award-winning nonprofit, founded in a basement in Adams Morgan. College Summit helps students from low-income backgrounds go to college. Kinney was also Board Chair of a school in Ward 4 that doubled in enrollment during her tenure. And most recently, Kinney served as Deputy National Finance Chair of the DNC and National Co-Chair of Women for Harris.Of all those roles, Kinney's favorite was being President of College Summit (now called Peer Forward). The organization's mission was to make sure that every student who could make it IN college made it TO college. Kinney built large-scale, diverse, powerful coalitions across the District and then the nation to make sure tens of thousands of local students got the opportunities they deserved. Kinney's skills and experiences are what DC needs now. She will build a broad-based, lasting, nationwide coalition of people to defend DC and ensure we remain a safe, affordable, and healthy place to live. Find Kinney at: https://www.kinneyfordc.comFind Glenn on Substack: glennkirschner.substack.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Independent journalist Don Lemon has entered a plea in a federal case against him - calling the charges politically motivated. The US Department of Health and Human Services is facing another leadership shakeup. World leaders have gathered to address the growing divide between the United States and Europe. President Donald Trump has dispatched a second US aircraft to the middle east, as negotiations with Iran continue. Plus, we break down the latest Olympic performance from an American figure skating favorite. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So friends, can I ask you a quick question? When you think of Washington, DC, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Politics? The nation's capital? Maybe, a city where somehow we still have taxation without representation?DC has the Congress. It has the executive branch. It has the judiciary. All populated by federal government employees. All public servants. In a very real sense, DC is like the national hub for public service.The person who said that she views DC as a city of service is Kinney Zalesne. And Kinney is now running to be represent the people of DC in Congress. Kinney is running to be DC's delegate to Congress, and I sat down with Kinney to ask her why she wants to represent people of DC in Congress, and why she views DC as a city of service.Kinney Zalesne came to DC in 1995 for what was supposed to be a short stint in the Clinton White House. But she fell in love with the city, and for 30 years has never wanted to live anywhere else. She and her husband Scott have raised four kids here and been active in the community, serving in leadership positions in DC's schools, pools, parks, and nonprofits.DC gave Kinney opportunities to work across government, business, and the nonprofit sector. After serving as a White House Fellow with Vice President Gore, Kinney was Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno at the US Department of Justice. She later helped lead the Strategy team at Microsoft. She has rolled up her sleeves in our neighborhoods, where she served as President of College Summit, a global-award-winning nonprofit, founded in a basement in Adams Morgan. College Summit helps students from low-income backgrounds go to college. Kinney was also Board Chair of a school in Ward 4 that doubled in enrollment during her tenure. And most recently, Kinney served as Deputy National Finance Chair of the DNC and National Co-Chair of Women for Harris.Of all those roles, Kinney's favorite was being President of College Summit (now called Peer Forward). The organization's mission was to make sure that every student who could make it IN college made it TO college. Kinney built large-scale, diverse, powerful coalitions across the District and then the nation to make sure tens of thousands of local students got the opportunities they deserved. Kinney's skills and experiences are what DC needs now. She will build a broad-based, lasting, nationwide coalition of people to defend DC and ensure we remain a safe, affordable, and healthy place to live. Find Kinney at: https://www.kinneyfordc.comFind Glenn on Substack: glennkirschner.substack.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

US Department of Agriculture Climate Hubs across the country aim to better understand how climate change affects agriculture and forestry, and help people adapt. But the future of these hubs is uncertain, including the one that serves Missouri and Illinois.

REPLAYSteve Surfaro is a Public Safety, Tech Consultant and Futurist. He leads the Public Safety Interest Group for the Security Industry Association.He is most known for:Being the first to appear on National Television, where he challenged end users in the aftermath of the US's worst mass casualty event - the Shooting at Mandalay Bay, Las VegasStanding up the largest outdoor event public safety system at Houston's Super Bowl LIVEPublished by US Department of Homeland Security for a video technology standard for First responders.He's from New York City and currently lives in Phoenix Arizona.X: https://x.com/stevesurfLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/surfaro/

“Africa has an opportunity over the next half a generation to really rise as an industrial superpower.”Ben Kincaid spent the first half of his career as a US diplomat. Much of his time was spent in Africa, specializing in national security issues. Today, and that's why we're so keen to speak with him, he's the CEO of ReElement Technologies Africa, One of their missions is to help African nations process their rare minerals on the continent so they don't simply export them. Their project should create more jobs and keep value in Africa. They've just secured a South African investment firm as an anchor investor in their private capital raise worth $150 million dollars. Plus: How the low-chemical, energy-efficient refining technology works

The US jobs market shows signs of steady but subdued growth. Andrew Peach examines what's driving the numbers, including the impact of tariffs and a tougher immigration crackdown. Also, Dutch brewer Heineken cuts thousands of jobs worldwide as beer consumption falls. And we look at the rise of “biohacking” and whether changing your daily routine could really help you live longer.(Photo: A view of the US Department of Labor in Washington DC, USA, 05 September 2025. Credit: WILL OLIVER/EPA/Shutterstock).

Send a textIra Chaleff is an author, speaker, and executive coach in the greater Washington, DC, area. His extensive experience with the US federal government includes directing and chairing the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, where he is now Chair Emeritus. Ira co-authored the original handbook for newly elected Members of Congress, now in its fifteenth edition, and has facilitated over a hundred retreats for congressional offices. He has led and participated in Democracy strengthening programs in Asia and West Africa and consulted for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Eastern Europe.He has been an adjunct faculty member at the Federal Executive Institute and a visiting leadership scholar at Churchill College, Cambridge University in England. Ira served two terms on the Board of Directors of the International Leadership Association and is the founder of its Followership Community.Ira speaks on courageous followership and intelligent disobedience at a wide variety of institutions, including the US Department of State, the US Naval Academy, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the European Commission of the EU, and many others.Quotes From This Episode“Sometimes it's courageous to conform. Discernment matters as much as courage.”“Followers are as responsible for bringing out the best in leaders as leaders are for bringing out the best in followers.”“If followership education only teaches compliance, should we be surprised when adults conform to poor leadership?”Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeBook: The Courageous Follower by ChaleffBook: Intelligent Disobedience by ChaleffBook: To Stop a Tyrant: The Power of Political Followers by ChaleffAbout The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. About  Scott J. AllenWebsiteWeekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for LeadersMy Approach to HostingThe views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. ♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.

The Nancy Guthrie case has highlighted how rare adult kidnappings are and how technology has made this easier. John Cohen, Former Undersecretary of Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Coordinator for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security joins to talk about it.

This week, we're shining a spotlight on meaningful innovation in the access to justice space by revisiting our conversation with Kristen Sonday, co-founder and CEO of Paladin. Kristen and her team are transforming the way pro bono work happens—making it easier for law firms, legal departments, and nonprofits to connect lawyers with opportunities while cutting down on the administrative friction that so often gets in the way. For anyone interested in justice tech, Paladin remains a standout example of innovation driven by real impact. We hope you enjoy this replay. We're diving into the world of access to justice with Kristen Sonday, a true trailblazer in making pro bono legal work more efficient and effective. Kristen is the co-founder and CEO of Paladin, an organization dedicated to increasing pro bono engagement while reducing administrative burdens. Through partnerships with law firms, corporate legal teams, bar associations, the US government, and over 300 legal service organizations, Paladin is helping to bridge the justice gap by streamlining how legal professionals connect with those in need. Before launching Paladin, Kristen worked on international criminal matters for the US Department of Justice in Mexico and Central America, and was part of the founding team of a New York City-based tech startup. She also shares her insights in her Thomson Reuters Institute column NextGen Justice Tech, where she explores the role of technology in expanding access to justice. Beyond her work in legal tech, Kristen is a founding partner of LongJump, a Chicago-based venture capital fund focused on supporting the next generation of founders. In our conversation, Kristen takes us through how Paladin is creating a blueprint for justice technology, her journey into access to justice work, the mission of LongJump, and the key lessons she has learned from her entrepreneurial journey. Read the full transcript of today's episode here: https://www.seyfarth.com/dir_docs/podcast_transcripts/Best-of-Pioneers-Kristen-Sonday.pdf

The Paranormal Heart Podcast welcomes Steve Surfaro Date: February 10th, 2026 Segment: 072 Topic: UFO/UAP About the Guest: Steve Surfaro is a Public Safety, Tech Consultant and Futurist. He leads the Public Safety Interest Group for the Security Industry Association. He is most known for: Being the first to appear on National Television, where he challenged end users in the aftermath of the US's worst mass casualty event - the Shooting at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas Standing up the largest outdoor event public safety system at Houston's Super Bowl LIVE Published by US Department of Homeland Security for a video technology standard for First responders. He's from New York City and currently lives in Phoenix Arizona. https://x.com/stevesurf/status/1867287826934772139?s=49&t=coikKZtBVQsvg9RlZDzBYg&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1pkK16U7Z1oceOHIyWfKYpxera_ZuPLy9VI-rEBecNDPl5-20BHx3CZcE_aem_CUoCP_Org4xnmjIBxcNioQ https://x.com/stevesurf/status/1873483553541108055?s=49&t=coikKZtBVQsvg9RlZDzBYg&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2skD-HuM9CFgWOopojZvGMPvcIsVxAmv1ucTf_W9scb2yNbTSUvpZK_S4_aem_A8yU4MJf2wGZBzq8Ef5-pA

On today's episode of the podcast, we discuss the NEW food pyramid. The US Department of Food Services and the USDA just released a new food pyramid as a dietary guideline. We give a brief history of the food pyramid as a visual dietary guide, what we appreciate about the updated version, and which recommendations may be unsound, or even potentially harmful, for the general population. In this Episode, we Discuss: What Is the 2026 Food Pyramid?Why the Food Pyramid Was Updated AgainOld Food Pyramid vs New OneKey Changes That Raised ConcernsWho Benefits Most From the New Pyramid?Scientific Evidence: What Supports It—and What Doesn'tHow the 2026 Pyramid Affects Everyday Eating HabitsWhat a Healthier Food Guide Could Look Like from a NutritionistShould We Trust the 2026 Food Pyramid Want More?Join our Newsletter Online Nutrition Coaching Join our Facebook Group1:1 Fitness Coaching Get 3 Weeks of Nutrition Support for FreeFree Knee Pain Training GuideGet Hundreds of Movement Demos on Our Youtube Channel

-House Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, has asked the US Department of Justice to turn over all its communications with both Apple and Google regarding the companies' decisions to remove apps that shared information about sightings of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers. -Elon Musk says SpaceX has shifted its near-term priorities from Mars settlement plans to building what he called a “self-growing city on the Moon,” arguing the lunar target is faster and more achievable. -Ring is advertised as a way to reunite missing dogs with their owners, a noble cause indeed, but Search Party does this by turning individual Ring devices into a surveillance network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

REPLAY Steve Surfaro is a Public Safety, Tech Consultant and Futurist. He leads the Public Safety Interest Group for the Security Industry Association. He is most known for: Being the first to appear on National Television, where he challenged end users in the aftermath of the US's worst mass casualty event - the Shooting at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas Standing up the largest outdoor event public safety system at Houston's Super Bowl LIVE Published by US Department of Homeland Security for a video technology standard for First responders. He's from New York City and currently lives in Phoenix Arizona. X: https://x.com/stevesurf Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/surfaro/

Hour 2 of the Chris Hand Show | Tuesday 02-10-26 We dive into the world of immigration enforcement and the latest developments on the Save Act. Chris Hand discusses the recent federal judge's decision to block California's law banning ICE agents from wearing masks in the state, citing the supremacy clause of the US Constitution. We also explore the controversy surrounding Google employees demanding the company cut ties with ICE and the US Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, we touch on the Save Act, a bill aimed at requiring voter ID for federal and state elections, and a recent case of an illegal alien voting in the 2024 election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Processing on the continent: you can do that in Africa.”Africa holds some of the world's most important mineral resources, from cobalt and lithium to platinum and rare earths. Yet for decades, these materials have largely been extracted on the continent, processed elsewhere, and sold back to the global market at far greater value. In this episode of Limitless Africa, hosts Dimpho Lekgeu and Claude Grunitzky examine whether a new model of mining could change that equation. They speak with Ben Kincaid, former US diplomat and CEO of ReElement Africa, and Derrick Roper, co founder of Novare Holdings, one of the company's main financial backers.Plus: Why African investors are backing American technology

Send us a textAs CEO of ISTE+ASCD, Richard Culatta focuses on shaping innovative learning leaders. He previously served as Rhode Island's Chief Innovation Officer and was appointed by President Obama to lead the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. His book, Digital for Good, helps create conditions for healthy tech use.

A newly released batch of more than three million documents from the US Department of Justice is casting fresh light on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's connections to some of the biggest names in tech.

Gordon Brown says Sir Keir Starmer is in a "serious" situation as he battles to keep his job - but insisted the Prime Minister was the right man to "clean up the system". Sir Keir is facing scrutiny about his appointment of Lord Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to the US - after files released by the US Department of Justice suggested the peer had close links with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Also: President Zelensky says Russia has used more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles in its latest attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. And: At the Winter Olympics in Italy, the first gold medal has been won by the Swiss skier, Franjo von Allmen, who was crowned champion of the men's downhill in Bormio.

Joe's Premium Subscription: www.standardgrain.comGrain Markets and Other Stuff Links —Apple PodcastsSpotifyTikTokYouTubeFutures and options trading involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.

Ethan talks to author, scholar and teacher Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad about her insightful new book The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. Mixing scholarship, memoir, and a deep reverence for the spiritual insights of two of the greatest writers and thinkers of the 20th century, Dr. Vesely-Flad's newest work approaches Buddhist teachings from an angle that is deeply human, literary, and personal. How did these two great authors touch on such dharmic topics as the truth of suffering, relative and ultimate reality, and much more? Fans of literature and Buddhism will enjoy this conversation and new book deeply. This conversation belongs to one of Ethan's favorite categories: "Things you didn't know were Buddhist." In 2025, with your subscriptions to The Road Home, we were able to release more episodes than any previous year. This was only possible with your subscriptions. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber here. Rima Vesely-Flad, PhD, is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press, 2022) and Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017). She is the founder of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies and the recipient of grants from the Fetzer Institute, the Henry J. Luce Foundation, the Fredrick P. Lenz Foundation, the Crossroads Program, and the US Department of State Fulbright program. You can follow her work at www.blackbuddhiststudies.org.       Paid subscribers to The Road Home will receive occasional extras like guided meditations, extra podcast episodes and more! The Thursday Meditation Group happens each week at 8am ET on Thursdays, and a guided audio meditations are released monthly. Another bonus podcast for paid subscribers discussed a mindful take on intuition, and Ethan also offered instruction in the RAIN method for working with emotions with self-compassion. These are all available to paid subscribers. You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc). You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc). Free RAIN Meditation Workshop on February 12th via A Mindful World! A new free video course on a classic Buddhist contemplation called The Five Remembrances is available at this link. Check out all the cool offerings at our podcast sponsor A Mindful World!

Our democracy has been hijacked by an elite pedophile ring–one that has always been operating in plain sight. This week, Andrea and Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman dig into the horror show of the recently released Epstein files. As students of Soviet history, we know the truth: what we know is horrific, but what has yet to be revealed is much worse. Did Epstein, Trump, and their friends kill for pleasure–how many of their victims were murdered or died by suicide? Who wrote Epstein an email about a torture video? Is that person in power, wielding influence over our lives? We also examine Epstein's freelance intelligence work, showing how he collected kompromat to consolidate power through elite capture, pollinating corruption through the transnational crime syndicate, especially the autocratic regimes of Russia and Israel.  We lift up the voices of the survivors and their advocates who demand the full release of the Epstein Files. Despite a bipartisan Congressional act, only an estimated half of the six million files have been released. Convicted felon Donald Trump's former personal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, is the Deputy Attorney General, helping lead the cover-up. The only silver lining in this extreme darkness is that the truth is finally coming to light, and American society, especially the media who glamorized Epstein, are no longer able to ignore it.  For our bonus episode this week, we answer your questions about the Epstein files, rising autocracy, and more. To listen to the bonus, subscribe to our Patreon at the Truth-Teller level ($5/month) or higher. We are extremely grateful to our listeners who are keeping us afloat during this difficult time. Every bit of support helps give us the freedom to tell the truth, so thank you again for making Gaslit Nation possible. Join our community of listeners and get bonus shows, ad free listening, group chats with other listeners, ways to shape the show, invites to exclusive events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Discounted annual memberships are available. Become a Democracy Defender at Patreon.com/Gaslit Show Notes:   House of Trump, House of Putin The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576474/house-of-trump-house-of-putin-by-craig-unger/   "Why I don't believe Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself (Part 2). NEW: Epstein claimed he was being extorted in prison. A look at the incident and the mysterious note that Epstein slipped into a book inside his cell." https://bsky.app/profile/jkbjournalist.bsky.social/post/3mdln2ndegs2r   DOJ Deletes Epstein Files Again — And They Directly Implicate Trump https://open.substack.com/pub/krassenstein/p/urgent-doj-deletes-epstein-files?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web   6 Women, Including Olivia Munn, Accuse Brett Ratner of Harassment or Misconduct https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/6-women-including-olivia-munn-accuse-brett-ratner-harassment-misconduct-1053679/   Documents declassified by the US Department of Justice name pedophile Epstein as the manager of Putin's fortune. https://ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/01/vrassekrechennih-minyustom-ssha-dokumentah-pedofil-epshtein-nazivaetsya-upravlyayuschim-sostoyaniem-putina-a185967   We Tracked Every Visitor to Epstein Island | WIRED https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjPHq-Ez0nc   Epstein frequently connected NY Giants co-owner Steve Tisch with women, emails show https://abcnews.go.com/US/epstein-frequently-connected-ny-giants-owner-steve-tisch/story?id=129735927   What 3 million new documents tell us about Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/31/politics/new-documents-trump-epstein   New Epstein files fail to quell outrage as advocates claim documents are being withheld https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/new-epstein-files-advocates-claim-documents-withheld   US Commerce Secretary Lutnick planned Epstein island visit, emails show https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/new-epstein-files-advocates-claim-documents-withheld   University Trustee Thomas Pritzker Named in New Epstein Documents: The notorious financier and sex offender wrote in a text message that UChicago Trustee Thomas Pritzker (M.B.A. '76, J.D. '76) was "like family," according to documents released by the House Oversight Committee on November 12. https://chicagomaroon.com/49435/news/university-trustee-thomas-pritzker-named-in-new-epstein-documents/   Here's How Many Times Trump Is Mentioned in New Epstein Files https://newrepublic.com/post/206023/how-often-donald-trump-mentioned-epstein-files   The Government Published Dozens of Nude Photos in the Epstein Files https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/us/nude-photos-epstein-files.html   Trump-Epstein Super Special [TEASER] https://gaslitnation.libsyn.com/trump-epstein-super-specialteaser  

Incogni advertisementUse code “https://nordvpn.com/earthancients at the link below to get an exclusive 60% off an anual Incogni plan.Your URL is: https://incogni.com/earthancientsMichael J. Menard: Greater Than Gravity, How Childhood Trauma is Pulling Down HumanityWhat if America's #3 leading cause of death has been hiding in plain sight?In Greater Than Gravity, Michael Menard exposes a devastating truth that will shock the world: Childhood trauma is killing 889 Americans every day—more than accidents, strokes, and diabetes combined. Yet it doesn't appear on any official cause-of-death list because we've been counting the bodies wrong.When someone with severe childhood trauma dies of a "heart attack" at 55 instead of 75, we call it heart disease. When they overdose, it's addiction. When they take their own life, it's suicide. But strip away the medical terminology and you see the truth: these are trauma deaths, pure and simple."This is the largest threat to the well-being of humanity known today." —Dr. Glenn Schiraldi, world-renowned trauma expertAfter building a corporate empire and creating fourteen revolutionary patents, Menard made a discovery that stopped him cold. While writing his memoir about growing up with thirteen siblings, he realized their "tough childhood" was actually complex trauma. Its deadly fingerprints were everywhere—two brothers lost to addiction, his family stalked by depression, and invisible wounds that bled across generations.His engineer's mind couldn't let it go.What he uncovered will change everything: Childhood Trauma is the #1 cause of addiction, suicide and incarceration. 89% of teen suicide attempts trace to childhood trauma. 85-100% of addiction patients have trauma histories. 90% of prisoners carry childhood scars. The $14 trillion annual cost exceeds our entire defense budget. We've been treating symptoms while the real epidemic claims nearly 900 lives daily.But here's what no one saw coming: The very force pulling humanity down could become the force that lifts us up.Greater Than Gravity isn't just a book—it's the battle cry that breaks the silence on America's hidden killer. Through his foundation UACT, Menard presents the first comprehensive plan to end childhood trauma entirely. Not reduce it. Not manage it. END IT. The 889 daily deaths we could prevent. The lives we could heal. The future we could change.It all starts with opening this book.Labeled as "non college bound" he was placed in a trade school program. At the age of twenty-one Michael Menard joined Johnson & Johnson to operate the blueprint machine. Twenty-five years later he was named the company's first VP of engineering and an officer of the company with responsibilities in forty-four countries. Now labeled as "exemplary creator", he has received fourteen US and multiple international patents, including the inventions of infant disposable diapers with elastic legs and sanitary napkins with wings for women.As co-founder and president of The GenSight Group, a company helping corporations find a systematic approach to strategic choice and resource optimization, Michael has advised senior leadership at institutions such as Fedex, Westinghouse, Cisco, Glaxo, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, and the US Department of Energy. Michael has contributed to numerous professional publications including Harvard Management Update, Gartner Research, and The Journal of the American Management Association.https://www.michaeljmenard.com/aboutBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/earth-ancients--2790919/support.

Transcript: rmad.ac/AIAe083This week's podcast guest is Kat Macfarlane. Professor Macfarlane serves as professor of law and director of the Disability Law and Policy Program at Syracuse University College of Law. She teaches and writes about disability law, civil rights litigation, and constitutional law. Her scholarship has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, Fordham Law Review, Washington Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Alabama Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum, among others.Professor Macfarlane recently served as special counsel to the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. Prior to joining academia, Kat practiced law in Los Angeles and New York-based law firms and clerked for the District of Arizona and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She received her BA, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University and her JD cum laude from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.Connect with Kat: Kat Macfarlane (@katmacfarlane.bsky.social) — BlueskySSRN Home PageConnect with the Rocky Mountain ADA Center at RockyMountainADA.org or find us on social media. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts!

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger PictureThe green new scam is dead, and in Texas people are now seeing that wind and solar cannot support the electrical load during the cold. China said the quiet part out loud, they were suppose to be the reserve currency. Trump’s new Fed chair help with the transition. Trump is now exposing the criminal underworld the people of this country. The people are seeing all the pieces of the crimes they have committed. When the people see that all the characters are criminals and have done horrible things and that these people are the same ones that have been trying to stop trump, it is game over. Trump is now pushing the Save Act to shutdown the [DS]. Trump is setting the country up for the win.   Economy Report: Texas Wind and Solar Failed During This Week's Winter Storm, Grid Carried by ‘Natural Gas and Coal' The recent snow storm that overtook Texas reportedly crashed the state's wind and solar energy generators, leading to natural gas, coal, and nuclear providing most of the state's electricity. https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/2015854614206206101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015854614206206101%7Ctwgr%5Eccb14922c034250da614ea4ff40e89ae08ce9117%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F02%2Freport-texas-wind-solar-failed-weeks-winter-storm%2F According to David Blackmon, an energy-related public policy analyst and consultant, by the early morning hours of Jan. 26, natural gas, goal, and nuclear were providing 89 percent of all the state's power. “Natural gas alone is chugging along at an impressive 68%,” Blackmon reported online on Substack later that same day. Politico similarly reported that the U.S. energy grid “leaned heavily on coal and natural gas generation to satisfy the energy appetite from Winter Storm Fern.” https://twitter.com/mayes_middleton/status/2015822288663228536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015822288663228536%7Ctwgr%5Eccb14922c034250da614ea4ff40e89ae08ce9117%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F02%2Freport-texas-wind-solar-failed-weeks-winter-storm%2F Source: thegatewaypundit.com China is on a ‘strong currency' mission to make the yuan a global reserve: Xi Xi Jinping says the goal of becoming an international powerhouse is a long-term one and will rest on core foundations China needs to build a “strong currency” that can become widely used in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, and reach the status of a global reserve. Source:.scmp.com Trump Launches $12 Billion Strategic Mineral Stockpile To Counter China; Rare Earth Stocks Jump The Trump administration is preparing to launch a major initiative aimed at protecting US manufacturers from disruptions in the supply of critical minerals, committing about $12 billion in initial funding to build a strategic stockpile of essential materials, according to Bloomberg. The project, known as Project Vault, is designed to reduce America's dependence on China for rare earths and other strategically important metals. By creating a centralized reserve for civilian industries, officials hope to cushion companies against sudden shortages and sharp price swings that can disrupt production and strain finances. Shares of MP Materials, USA Rare Earth, Critical Metals and other rare earth associated names are higher between 5% and 10% heading into the cash open on Monday on the news. At this point it’s safe to say last week’s Reuters rare earth hit piece (authored most likely at the behest of a disgruntled short), which sent the sector tumbling on disputed claims the Trump administration was seeking to distance itself from the rare earth space by moving away from a price floor on critical metals and suggesting MP’s deal with the government may be in question, has been thoroughly debunked. Even the MP Materials X account was mocking the grotesque misreporting: https://twitter.com/MPMaterials/status/2016734732835573833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Project Vault will be financed through a mix of private and public funding: $1.67 billion is expected to come from private investors, while the US Export-Import Bank is set to provide a $10 billion loan with a 15-year term. The bank's board is scheduled to vote on the deal, which would be the largest in its history. More than a dozen major companies have joined Project Vault, including General Motors, Stellantis, Boeing, Corning, GE Vernova, and Google. Three large trading firms – Hartree Partners, Traxys North America, and Mercuria Energy – will handle sourcing and purchasing materials for the stockpile.    Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/Geiger_Capital/status/2018319873609290010?s=20 https://twitter.com/StephenMoore/status/2017295983940354307?s=20 https://twitter.com/profstonge/status/2018300872447418573?s=20 (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); Political/Rights https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/2018249171900227730?s=20 https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/2018147684276748388?s=20 https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/2018146323581513971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2018146323581513971%7Ctwgr%5Ebf8eb4e3fdfcee731660a65a8ed9f8dad15fa004%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F02%2Fnicki-minaj-fires-back-grammys-host-trevor-noah%2F know — yet they continue to attempt bullying. Also, I won't be releasing an album until my contract is renegotiated & until I tell you about all the sabotage this RICO is finding out about Billboard. https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/2018156644689920362?s=20   https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/2018142074906845333?s=20    accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media. Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast. It looks like I'll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$. Ask Little George Slopadopolus, and others, how that all worked out. Also ask CBS! Get ready Noah, I'm going to have some fun with you! President DJT https://twitter.com/Patri0tContr0l/status/2018162192676229182?s=20   the TV tells them to. https://twitter.com/DrunkRepub/status/2017198485510963485?s=20   https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2018184786209087562?s=20   Lord Mandelson resigns from Labour Party over Epstein links Lord Mandelson says he has resigned his membership of the Labour Party as he does not want to “cause further embarrassment” by his links to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The former cabinet minister, who was sacked as US ambassador last year because of his past connections to Epstein, appeared in the latest release of files by the US Department of Justice on Friday. Documents suggest Epstein made $75,000 (£55,000) in payments to Lord Mandelson in three separate $25,000 transactions in 2003 and 2004. In his letter to Labour’s general secretary on Sunday, Lord Mandelson said: “I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this.” He added: “Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me. Source: bbc.com https://twitter.com/Patri0tContr0l/status/2018011104094380207?s=20  TRUMP'S DOJ that arrested Epstein. Facts are hard for professional liars like Eric Swalwell.   Newly-Released Emails Reveal Jeffrey Epstein May Have a Secret Son  Newly-released emails reveal Jeffrey Epstein may have a secret son. Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, congratulated Epstein on the birth of his baby boy. Ferguson said she ‘heard from the Duke' that Epstein had a baby boy. The email is date September 21, 2011 so if Epstein has a secret son, he would be 14 years old today. The Daily Mail reported:   Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/JayTC53/status/2018073517368184847?s=20  Jew night” “media elite” and “once the money is paid” https://twitter.com/JayTC53/status/2018128138715443273?s=20 the biggest Trump haters were best friends with Jeffery Epstein https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2018358307052793892?s=20   since been neutralized by King Salman and new crown Prince MBS. This Epstein email reveals (confirms) two sides of the Deep State triangle. House of Saud, and the Rothschilds. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2018185343263019234?s=20  https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2017859237502767117?s=20 https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2018351298685419772?s=20   the documents with required redactions. With Trump exonerated & damaging details now pointing toward Democrat power brokers, the pressure has abruptly flipped back to secrecy. https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2018138887655133692?s=20   https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2018017331499213275?s=20      DOGE Geopolitical https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2018020919252230227?s=20   since 1996 but was stormed by the police for the eviction 5 weeks ago. Nearly 2000 of the protesters later broke off from the main demonstration and fought the police for hours in the streets. They threw stones, fireworks and homemade bombs while also setting barricades and police vehicles on fire. Many Italians are now calling on Meloni to launch a crackdown against violent far-left extremist. https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2018311833405293048?s=20    friendship and respect for Prime Minister Modi and, as per his request, effective immediately, we agreed to a Trade Deal between the United States and India, whereby the United States will charge a reduced Reciprocal Tariff, lowering it from 25% to 18%. They will likewise move forward to reduce their Tariffs and Non Tariff Barriers against the United States, to ZERO. The Prime Minister also committed to “BUY AMERICAN,” at a much higher level, in addition to over $500 BILLION DOLLARS of U.S. Energy, Technology, Agricultural, Coal, and many other products. Our amazing relationship with India will be even stronger going forward. Prime Minister Modi and I are two people that GET THINGS DONE, something that cannot be said for most. Thank you for your attention to this matter!   War/Peace  https://twitter.com/AP/status/2017881629440483383?s=20     https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2018022342731976897?s=20 We have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there… hopefully, we’ll make a deal. If we don’t make a deal, then we’ll find out whether or not he was right.” https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2018030967823192563?s=20 Medical/False Flags   [DS] Agenda https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2018176829723398321?s=20  https://twitter.com/Tyler2ONeil/status/2017430244496412840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2017430244496412840%7Ctwgr%5E1d06078b39cc73de0216e98cb34ee981fb7d135c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailysignal.com%2F2026%2F02%2F02%2Fbreaking-2-more-arrested-minnesota-church-invasion%2F  Armstrong tells Lemon—who knows the location but is hiding it from his audience—that they’re going to “disrupt business as usual” at what we later learned was Cities Church. Lemon said he would see her there. https://twitter.com/AGPamBondi/status/2018326184468058566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2018326184468058566%7Ctwgr%5E1d06078b39cc73de0216e98cb34ee981fb7d135c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailysignal.com%2F2026%2F02%2F02%2Fbreaking-2-more-arrested-minnesota-church-invasion%2F   https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2018337163188846994?s=20   https://twitter.com/Rightanglenews/status/2018101057902059727?s=20 Anti-ICE Resistance Manuals and Training at Schools Receiving Federal Funding Anti-ICE resistance training manuals, including de-arresting and blocking, are being distributed, and in some cases, the training is being held in schools receiving government funding. Image of de-arresting by Minnesota ICE Watch. Minnesota ICE Watch, the organization that Renee Good and her wife were members of, distributed a document known as the “De-Arrest Primer,” which instructs activists on how to physically interfere with law enforcement officers during arrests. The manual provides detailed guidance on pulling detainees from officers' grips, pushing and pulling officers, breaking holds, and opening law enforcement vehicles to free suspects. The manual also teaches the use of coordinated chanting to create confusion and overwhelm officers during active arrests, as well as surrounding officers until they release detainees. The guide openly acknowledges that these actions may constitute criminal offenses but argues that the risk is justified. Each successful interference is described as a “micro-intifada,” framed as a tactic meant to spread, replicate, and inspire wider disruption. The manual claims these methods originated in pro-Palestinian campus protests and presents them as a model for broader resistance activity. While no single formal publisher is identified, the manual appears to originate from broader activist and radical networks that promote direct physical interference with law enforcement. It has circulated widely through Instagram and other activist communication channels and has been used in training individuals described as “constitutional observers” or “ICE watchers.”   Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2018111147237425556?s=20   https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2018114619320017259?s=20   JUST IN: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Signs “ICE On Notice” Executive Order to Prosecute ICE Agents  Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson at a press conference hosted by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker / Screenshot: MSNBC Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order on Saturday, launching investigations into ICE agents and laying the groundwork for criminal referrals for alleged law violations.  The order “creates a framework for public accountability in the event federal agents violate local or state law while operating in Chicago,” a press release from Johnson's office reads.  “Nobody is above the law. There is no such thing as ‘absolute immunity' in America,” Johnson said in a statement. Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/9mmsmg/status/2017633783638368516?s=20 https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/2018435428932538861?s=20   President Trump's Plan  Federal Appeals Court Tosses Justice Department's Misconduct Complaint Against Judge Boasberg  A federal appeals court tossed out a Justice Department misconduct complaint against Judge James Boasberg. AS previously reported, DC Chief Judge James Boasberg and other DC Judges admitted bias against the Trump Administration during a March 2025 judicial conference with Chief Justice Roberts, according to a memo obtained by The Federalist. For the last year, DC Circuit Court Judges have engaged in a judicial coup against President Trump. Far-left DC judges James Boasberg, Beryl Howell, Chutkan, Berman Jackson and others have ruled against President Trump in every case related to deportations and firings in the Executive Branch. Source: thegatewaypundit.com   https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/2018099758943084657?s=20   agencies, Los Angeles County has more than 36 states combined and 30X MORE than the whole state of Florida and New York “How is that possible? And take a look at this map, a cluster of 287 hospice providers, in a two-mile radius, some in strip malls, unmarked buildings, even a wrecking yard and vacant lot. All of it is just paperwork. I could fill that out in Kazakhstan if I want and get a hospice license waiting for me.” https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2018172495535247571?s=20      Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World. In other words, if we don't close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer. The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!   Based on these findings, and totally subject to Board approval, I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur, is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time, with a scheduled Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before.   Therefore, The Trump Kennedy Center will close on July 4th, 2026, in honor of the 250th Anniversary of our Country, whereupon we will simultaneously begin Construction of the new and spectacular Entertainment Complex. Financing is completed, and fully in place! This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before. America will be very proud of its new and beautiful Landmark for many generations to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!   PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP President Trump to SETTLE $10 BILLION IRS LAWSUIT — Plans to DONATE THE PROCEEDS TO CHARITY President Donald J. Trump is preparing to settle his massive $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department, and he says he will donate the entire payout to reputable charities instead of keeping a penny for himself. President Trump, Eric Trump, Don Jr., and the Trump Org filed a lawsuit against the IRS for leaking their tax returns. They are seeking $10 billion in damages. In September 2023, federal prosecutors charged a former IRS contractor who worked for the agency from 2018 to 2020 with unlawfully obtaining and disseminating the tax details of a high-ranking public official and numerous affluent Americans to media outlets. According to court documents and an official press release from the Department of Justice, Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., stole tax return information associated with a high-ranking government official, referred to as Public Official A  – now known as Donald Trump. He then disclosed this information to a news organization identified as News Organization 1 – now known as The New York Times. Littlejohn reportedly stole IRS information on thousands of wealthy people. The stolen information was then disseminated to two news outlets (New York Times and ProPublica). “In July and August 2020, Littlejohn separately stole tax return information for thousands of the nation's wealthiest individuals. Littlejohn was again able to evade IRS detection. In November 2020, Littlejohn disclosed this tax return information to News Organization 2, which published over 50 articles using the stolen data. Littlejohn then obstructed the forthcoming investigation into his conduct by deleting and destroying evidence of his disclosures,” the DOJ previously said. L Source: thegatewaypundit.com   https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2018117811625730171?s=20   some facts: 1. Yesterday’s voter turnout was 94,938. 2. In the same district in 2024, the voter turnout was 400,339. 3. In the same district in 2022, the voter turnout was 277,883. 4. This was a special election to fill a vacant seat resulting from a state senator's promotion into state comptroller. 5. Based on the timing of this election and the next election, and the peculiar nature of Texas state government, it is a 99.99% certainty that this new Democrat will never cast a single vote in the term he is filling. 6. The vote was on a Saturday. I am as passionate a MAGA voter as is alive, but if I lived in TX-SD9, I would have stayed home and enjoyed my Saturday based on fact #5 alone. Is this good for the GOP? No. Is it bad for the GOP? No. Then what is it, CP, you big smartypants? IT'S NOTHING. IT'S MEANINGLESS. So everybody please calm down. For the 2026 midterms, every Trump voter knows that if he does not win, the House will impeach him twice weekly. That fact will be as widely understood as any fact during the 2024 election. There are still many issues Trump needs to work on, and I'm not guaranteeing a 2026 victory. What I AM guaranteeing is that yesterday's TX-SD9 election has as much meaning as peanut butter on a dog's nose. (The dog freaks, everybody laughs, but ultimately the dog gets the peanut butter and we all move on.) https://twitter.com/JohnBasham/status/2018199554764447926?s=20   The Georgia Elections Board. https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/2018277500464275804?s=20 Complaint against Tulsi Gabbard could do ‘grave damage to national security': Report The whistleblower's allegations are so highly classified that documents are being kept locked in a safe and the complaint still hasn't been shared with Congress From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford i   Source: the-independent.com There’s an “8 month old complaint” from a “US official” alleging “wrongdoing”   https://twitter.com/awaitekw14/status/2018081688803516456?s=20   ballots from Fulton. Coincidence? No way. COVID wasn’t just a ‘pandemic’—it was the engineered pretext that flipped every state rule on mail-ins, drop boxes, and signature verification. Harvest those ballots, truck them in after 3 a.m. stops, rinse & repeat in swing-state blue zones. Regime change 2.0 after Russiagate flopped.If they can prove those Fulton ballots trace back to illegal harvesting (or even foreign interference via the biolab network), the whole house of cards collapses. Treason on a scale we haven’t seen since the founding. Trump saying ‘interesting things happening’ soon? Understatement of the century. Stay frosty, patriots. The storm is here. https://twitter.com/liz_churchill10/status/2018006616369496424?s=20   https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/2018375101847097793?s=20 Andrew Desiderio Schumer issues new statement reiterating that the SAVE Act is “dead on arrival” in the Senate — amid push from GOP Rep. Luna & others “If House Republicans add the SAVE Act to the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged Trump government shutdown” https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2018378753873969400?s=20 elections from fraud.  REP. AUGUST PFLUGER, Chair of Republican Study Committee nails it: “The House did our job nearly 300 days ago. It's high time that the Senate do theirs!”   President Donald Trump has proposed building a massive triumphal arch in Washington, D.C., often referred to as the “Independence Arch” or “Memorial Circle arch,” to be located on Columbia Island near the Potomac River, close to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.  The structure is envisioned as a 250-foot-tall monument, which would make it more than twice the height of the 100-foot Lincoln Memorial, taller than the 70-foot White House, and larger than Paris’s 164-foot Arc de Triomphe—though still shorter than the 630-foot Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Trump’s motivations stem from a desire to create a grand symbol of American pride and exceptionalism, emphasizing that Washington, D.C., is “the only city in the world that’s of great importance that doesn’t have a triumphal arch  The arch signifies Trump’s emphasis on monumental nationalism and grandeur, evoking historical triumphal arches built by emperors and leaders to commemorate triumphs and project power—earning it nicknames like “Arc de Trump.”  (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

Sarah Ferguson's charity, Sarah's Trust, has announced it will close "for the foreseeable future" after new details emerged from documents released by the US Department of Justice about the former Duchess of York's friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A spokesman for the foundation said the decision comes after "some months" of discussion. BBC News Correspondent Ellie Price and Dr Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, join Nuala McGovern.We hear from BAFTA Breakthrough British actress & comedian Susan Wokoma. Best known for playing Edith in the Enola Holmes films and her tv roles in Chewing Gum, and Cheaters, she's just written a brand new 'baroque and roll' musical for the National Youth Theatre as part of their 70th anniversary celebrations. There are renewed calls for better public education on the UK's complex legal system to help ensure potential victims, particularly women, have a clearer understanding of how it works. Family law barrister Samantha Singer joins Nuala to discuss her online platform designed to empower those facing legal challenges, alongside Jo Silver from the charity Safe Lives.We hear a lot about ‘mum guilt', but what about the guilt that can come along with not becoming a mother? Writer Ellen C Scott is child-free by choice but has recently experienced guilt towards her parents because she won't be providing them with grandchildren. She recently explored the topic for Stylist magazine and was surprised by how much it resonated with other women. Ellen and psychotherapist Professor Hannah Sherbersky discuss how to navigate these feelings.Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey

When federal agents kill civilians and public outrage sweeps the nation, who gets to define justified force and who gets to hold power accountable? The killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti have sparked protests, national shutdowns, and fresh debate about what security should look like in America. Elizabeth Neumann, former assistant secretary for counterterrorism at the US Department of Homeland Security, joins Mark Labberton for a wide-ranging conversation about fear-based governance, moral responsibility, constitutional guardrails, and what faithful leadership looks like in a moment of political crisis. "Cruelty is a deterrent." In this episode with Mark Labberton, Neumann reflects on how Christian faith and public service shaped her national security career and why recent forceful immigration enforcement and lethal encounters challenge constitutional limits and moral clarity. Together they discuss the moral and political meaning of the Minneapolis killings, trauma and vocation, immigration enforcement and democratic consent, fear-driven leadership, and how citizens and faith communities respond when institutions break down. Episode Highlights "Cruelty is a deterrent." "I realized how much my hope and trust had been in man." "We wrapped the flag around the cross." "We see sufficiently, but not transparently." "This is not normal, and this is not okay." About Elizabeth Neumann Elizabeth Neumann is a national security expert and former assistant secretary for counterterrorism at the US Department of Homeland Security. She served across three presidential administrations, including senior roles during the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, and worked extensively on counterterrorism, prevention of political violence, and domestic extremism. A frequent public commentator and congressional witness, Neumann has become a leading voice on the moral and constitutional dangers of fear-driven governance. Her work bridges public policy, trauma studies, and Christian ethics, particularly where political power collides with faith commitments. She is the author of Kingdom of Rage, a deeply personal and analytical account of extremism, nationalism, and the cost of unexamined allegiance. Helpful Links and Resources Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Rage-Christian-Extremism-Peace/dp/1546002057 Show Notes Elizabeth Neumann's experience growing up in North Texas Faith and party loyalty culturally fused "To be a Christian meant you were a Republican." Early fascination with politics and government service University of Texas, late 1990s political climate George W. Bush campaigns as formative training ground Entry into White House work through campaign victory Faith-based initiatives before September 11 reshaped national priorities September 11 as lived experience, not abstraction Crossing the 14th Street Bridge as the attacks unfolded "We were under attack," and nothing felt safe Fog, confusion, smoke, radios, and unanswered phone calls Trauma before resilience, fear before context Learning endurance from older colleagues who said, "We will get through this." Trauma as vocational fuel Hypervigilance, workaholism, and mission-driven identity National security as moral calling rather than career ambition Warning from a CIA colleague: rebuild a cadence of normal life Vigilance versus fear-driven overwork Marriage, family, and a season of spiritual deepening Scripture as disruption: Jeremiah 17 and misplaced trust "I realized how much my hope and trust had been in man." Public policy confidence challenged as spiritual idolatry Russell Moore sermon and the shock of naming Christian nationalism "We wrapped the flag around the cross." Cultural Christianity exposed as formation, not gospel Deconstructing politics without deconstructing faith Becoming comfortable with ambiguity and moral gray Labberton on seeing "through a glass darkly" Interpretive humility versus certainty culture Returning to government during the Trump administration Saying yes out of mission, not agreement Guardrails inside government: translating impulse into lawful action Illegal orders, pressure, and survival mode governance Lafayette Square as turning point Peaceful protesters met with militarized force Optics over constitution Immigration enforcement reframed as cruelty-based deterrence "Cruelty is a deterrent." ICE, CBP, and DHS operating outside traditional norms First, Second, and Fourth Amendment violations described Warrantless searches and administrative authority Law enforcement trained for war zones policing civilian streets Rapid ICE expansion without vetting or adequate training Fear rhetoric inside agencies creating enemy mentality Officers taught to expect violence from the public Predictable escalation and preventable deaths Moral injury to agents and terror inflicted on communities "This is not normal, and this is not okay." Democracy requires consent of the governed Public trust collapsing when law breaks the law Call for stand-down, retraining, and accountability Faithful resistance as moral clarity, not partisan alignment #ElizabethNeumann #FaithAndPolitics #NationalSecurity #ImmigrationCrisis #MoralCourage #PublicFaith Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.  

Liam Ramos and his father were freed from detention in Texas and are now back in Minneapolis. The detention of the boy, photographed wearing a blue bunny-shaped hat, and a Spider-Man backpack sparked a national outcry. Also: The former British Ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, has resigned from the governing Labour Party because he said he does not want to cause further embarrassment by his links to Jeffrey Epstein. He appeared in the latest release of files by the US Department of Justice. Israel has said the Rafah border crossing -- between Gaza and Egypt -- will re-open for Palestinians on Monday. Oil prices fall by three percent in early trading amid signs of a de-escalation in tensions between Iran and the US. Artificial intelligence now has its own social network. And we'll bring you a round up of who won, who lost and who performed on stage at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

The US Justice Department releases millions more pages of files in its Epstein investigation. Victims of the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, have promised to fight on, after they accused the US Department of Justice of protecting abusers. Also: Mexico's president warns that US tariffs on countries helping Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis. Claudia Sheinbaum's comments come after President Trump signed an executive order threatening additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba. Iran's foreign minister insists his country is ready to discuss its nuclear programme with the US. Anti-ICE protests take place across the US following fatal shootings in Minneapolis. We look back at the life of the Emmy-winning actress, comedian and screenwriter Catherine O'Hara who has died at the age of 71. And, Bridgerton season four is on our screens. The Regency era drama is number 1 on the streaming platform, Netflix.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Air Date: 1/25/2026 Today we examine education as the battleground for democracy itself. We'll hear how authoritarians erase history to maintain power, why liberal arts colleges don't exist in authoritarian societies, how the administration is punishing universities for their political views, and what the detention of student protesters reveals about the cost of dissent in Trump's America. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Full Show Notes Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube! In honor of our 20th birthday, we're giving new Members 20% OFF FOR THE LIFETIME OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP...this includes Gift Memberships! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! Join our Discord community! KEY POINTS KP 1: Rewriting Reality How the Battle for History Shapes the Future - WhoWhatWhy's Podcasts - Air Date 9-26-24 KP 2: Fighting Fascism with Education - The Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 9-26-25 KP 3: 'Abandoning' Kids' Futures AFT Pres. Slams Trump Dept. of Education Changes - MS NOW - Air Date 11-19-25 KP 4: 50 Years After the Birth of Special Education, Some Fear for Its Future Under Trump - All Things Considered - Air Date 12-3-25 KP 5: How Trumps Agenda Hurts College Students - Right Now With Perry Bacon - Air Date 11-19-25 KP 6: Trump Set to Garnish Wages for Student Loan Defaults - Democracy Now! - Air Date 12-30-25 (00:46:40) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On the American and Chinese Cassandras of authoritarianism DEEPER DIVES (00:54:44) SECTION A: EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY A1: Rewriting Reality How the Battle for History Shapes the Future Part 2 - WhoWhatWhy's Podcasts - Air Date 9-26-24 A2: Fighting Fascism with Education Part 2 - The Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 9-26-25 A3: Because Democracy Depends On It - Ralph Nader Radio Hour - Air Date 11-29-25 A4: The Great US Brain Drain - Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - Air Date 1-9-25 (01:31:21) SECTION B: EDUCATION AND MONEY B1: Republicans Plan to Overhaul the Federal Student Loan System. Here's What to Know - Trump's Terms - Air Date 4-30-25 B2: How Trumps Agenda Hurts College Students Part 2 - Right Now With Perry Bacon - Air Date 11-19-25 B3: Federal Student Loans Are Changing. Here's What to Expect in 2026 - Morning Edition - Air Date 12-23-25 B4: Community Colleges Face New Challenges as Trump Battles with Higher Education - PBS NewsHour - Air Date 11-18-25 B5: Trump Officials Loosen Strings on Federal Education Money for Iowa. More States Could Follow - Latest Stories From The Associated Press - Air Date 1-7-26 (01:56:44) SECTION C: EDUCATION AND FREE SPEECH C1: 'If You Can Keep It' Trump Takes Aim At Academic Freedom Part 1 - 1A - Air Date 10-20-25 C2: Student Detained for Foreign Policy Views Speaks - Brian Lehrer A Daily Podcast - Air Date 12-22-25 C3: 'If You Can Keep It' Trump Takes Aim At Academic Freedom Part 2 - 1A - Air Date 10-20-25 C4: Student Detained for Foreign Policy Views Speaks Part 2 - Brian Lehrer A Daily Podcast - Air Date 12-22-25 (02:27:06) SECTION D: EDUCATION AND THE DOE D1: Inside the Trump Administrations Plan to Change Public Education - ProPublica - Air Date 1-6-25 D2: Trump Hurts His Base Again Education Cuts Hit Red States More, Ending Help for Most Vulnerable - The Briefing - Air Date 7-16-25 D3: Inside the Trump Administrations Plan to Change Public Education Part 2 - ProPublica - Air Date 1-6-25 SHOW IMAGE CREDITS Description: Close up photo of the seal of the US Department of Education with a sign over it that says "CLOSED" Credit: Internal composite design. Elements from Pixabay | Pixabay License   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | X Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com