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Please… we truly need your help. The rain hasn’t stopped since yesterday, and the cold is unbearable. Our suffering is very hard, honestly… the situation is more difficult than words can explain 😭 Any donation can help us and ease what we’re going through. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mohameds-family-to-reach-safety-outside-gaza

Sky News has learnt that a consortium led by RedBird and including the UAE-based investor IMI has formally withdrawn its offer to buy the right-leaning newspaper titles.

I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of “Congresswoman” Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia. Over the past few weeks, despite my creating Record Achievements for our Country including, a Total and Complete Victory on the Shutdown, Closed Borders, Low Taxes, No Men in Women’s Sports or Transgender for Everyone, ending DEI, stopping Biden’s Record Setting Inflation, Biggest Regulation Cuts in History, stopping EIGHT WARS, rebuilding our Military, being RESPECTED by every Country in the World (as opposed to being the laughingstock that we were just 12 months ago!), having Trillions of Dollars (Record Setting!) INVESTED in the U.S.A., and having created the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World from being a DEAD Country just 12 months ago (and so much more!), all I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN! It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement — which she wasn’t about to get!). She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day. I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support. She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

The rain has arrived in Gaza, but instead of bringing comfort, it has brought fear to a mother struggling to protect her four children.

From the very first rainfall, our tent was flooded. Water filled the ground beneath us, cold winds cut through the thin fabric, and my children cried from the freezing night. I am a mother trying to keep them safe, but our shelter is collapsing around us.

We have nowhere dry to sleep, nowhere to escape the mud, the rain, and the hunger. I am desperately seeking your support to rent even the smallest place — just a single room — to keep my children warm and alive.

Your donation, no matter how small, can give my four children a chance to survive this winter.

Please help us find safety. https://gofund.me/f6e9cc9d #GazaUnderRain #HelpGazaFamilies #SupportMothers #SaveOurChildren #HumanityFirst

Snip:

London-based think tank Chatham House has hosted notorious Ukrainian neo-Nazi Yevhen Karas as a speaker at an event called ‘War in Ukraine: The battleground for the future of Europe’.

The think tank presented Karas as the commander of the 413th Separate Battalion of Unmanned Systems ‘Raid’ of Ukraine’s armed forces, failing to mention his colorful neo-Nazi background.

Karas is known as the founder of the notorious S14 far-right paramilitary group, created in 2010 as a youth offshoot of the far-right Svoboda party. The name of the group is a stylized form of the Ukrainian word ‘Sich’, referring to an administrative and military center for Cossack proto-states, and contains the number ‘14’, widely used by assorted white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations worldwide.

[...]

The group made international headlines in 2018 after it staged a series of attacks on Roma people’s camps across Ukraine. The publicity turned out to be so bad for S14 that even Kiev’s Western backers condemned the group. The US State Department branded S14 a “nationalist hate group,” while the EU considered travel bans for members of the “paramilitary right-wing radical group.”

https://archive.is/VJG5Y

Epstein’s human trafficking organization depended entirely on the wealth management industry (WMI). It was how he obtained the capital to build it, and it was how he hid his activities from the authorities. And none of this was an abuse of the industry; it is precisely how the WMI is designed to work. Nor is it an abuse of the law, because both American and international law has been carefully designed to accomodate the WMI.

....

But capitalism didn’t just provide seed funds for Epstein’s operation. It also provided a whole legal and financial apparatus that helped him find victims and disguise his transactions. An article in Deviant Behavior by sociologist Thomas Volscho observes that at first, “the predominant means for gaining access to potential victims involved Epstein using philanthropy to gain access to youth-serving institutions.”

In particular, Epstein seems to have leveraged immense wealth to buy influence in youth organizations that focused on financially at-risk children and then used the wealth disparity to control them. This was a natural step for Epstein, since wealth managers often work with charitable organizations for tax-avoidance purposes. As his conspiracy matured, Volscho writes, Epstein’s “sex trafficking enterprise was funded by Epstein’s tax shelter advisory business, where he primarily helped wealthy people avoid taxation on the sale and/or bequeathing of their assets and incomes.”

...

So while Epstein likely used blackmail and other illegal schemes to avoid prosecution for his crimes, his primary strategy — offshore wealth management — was not just legal but a central feature of modern financial capitalism. If the Left wants to use the Epstein case to talk about elite impunity, that conversation has to begin with the strategies the rich use to hide their finances that are completely legal.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/7716

Democratic lawmakers and advocates are voicing grave warnings after the Trump administration on Thursday unveiled its plan to slash funding for long-term housing programs, cuts that could leave nearly 200,000 people at risk of becoming homeless.

The New York Times reported that the administration's new proposal for Continuum of Care (CoC) funding "shifts billions to short-term programs that impose work rules, help the police dismantle encampments, and require the homeless to accept treatment for mental illness or addiction."

"By cutting aid for permanent housing by two-thirds next year, the plan risks a sudden end of support for most of the people the Continuum places in such housing nationwide, beginning as soon as January," the Times added. "All are disabled—a condition of the aid—and many are 50 or older. The document does not explain how they would find housing."

Shortly before the administration released its plan, which was first detailed by Politico in late September, a group of more than 40 Senate Democrats wrote in a letter to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner that the administration "must immediately reconsider these harmful and potentially illegal changes that could result in nearly 200,000 older adults, chronically homeless Americans with disabilities, veterans, and families being forced back onto the streets."

"HUD's current path risks causing a dangerous spike in street homelessness," the lawmakers wrote. "We implore you to make the better choice and expeditiously renew current CoC grants for fiscal year 2025 as authorized by Congress to protect communities and avoid displacing thousands of our nation’s most vulnerable individuals."

A HUD spokesperson responded dismissively to the letter, telling Politico in a statement that "Senate Democrats are doing the bidding of the homeless industrial complex."

The Trump administration's cuts come after more than 771,000 people across the US experienced homelessness on a given night in 2024, an 18% increase compared to 2023 and the highest level ever recorded.

Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in response to the Trump administration's plan that "people all over this nation have overcome homelessness and stabilized in HUD’s permanent housing programs."

"Many are just beginning that process and getting a shot at a new life,” said Oliva. "HUD's new funding priorities slam the door on them, their providers, and their communities. Make no mistake: Homelessness will only increase because of this reckless and irresponsible decision."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Photos provided by the military indicate it received three Russian Mi-38T helicopters and two Chinese Y-8 aircraft, which experts said will likely be used for operations to bring troops to fight in mountainous areas.

Myanmar is Russia’s first known export customer of the Mi-38T, according to the defense-intelligence company Janes.

“Such preparations by the military commission indicate that it will rely more on air power and increase operations across the country,” said the Military Expertise for Democratic Reform analyst group in a research note. The organization is made up of former Tatmadaw officers who now support the resistance.

Snip:

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has denounced the US strikes on alleged cartel vessels in the Caribbean Sea as the Pentagon announced a new operation to fight drug traffickers.

In an interview with NBC News, Petro did not mince words when criticizing US President Donald Trump. “He’s a barbarian,” Petro said in excerpts aired Thursday. “He wants to frighten us,” he added.

The Colombian president did not rule out that some of the vessels hit by the strikes were linked to cartels. “Maybe or maybe not. We do not know,” he said, adding that, “According to due process, the civilized treatment of people, they should be seized and detained.”

Petro described the victims as “poor boatmen” hired by cartels. “Then when one of those missiles arrives [it] kills that boatman. It doesn’t kill the drug trafficker,” he said. He previously said that at least some of the victims were ordinary fishermen not involved with organized crime.

The original article was stub. Here's the beginning of the article right now.

Sen. John Fetterman was hospitalized in Pittsburgh after a fall during an early morning walk near his home in Braddock, his office said Thursday. A spokesperson said he suffered a ventricular fibrillation flare-up that left him light-headed before he fell and sustained minor facial injuries, and he is staying for observation while doctors adjust his medication.

The full statement from Sen. Fetterman’s spokesperson posted to X:

During an early morning walk, Senator Fetterman sustained a fall near his home in Braddock. Out of an abundance of caution, he was transported to a hospital in Pittsburgh. Upon evaluation, it was established he had a ventricular fibrillation flare-up that led to Senator Fetterman feeling light-headed, falling to the ground and hitting his face with minor injuries. Senator Fetterman had this to say: ‘If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!’ He is doing well and receiving routine observation at the hospital. He has opted to stay so doctors can fine-tune his medication regimen. Senator Fetterman is grateful for the EMTs, doctors, and nurses who are providing his care.”

There's filler and then they quoted him whining.

Along with his health concerns, Speaking to CNN's Dana Bash on Wednesday, Fetterman said the left have wished for his death on the social media platform Bluesky while the right have called him names. Fetterman said his digital team had found that Bluesky was the "harshest" social media platform. "The difference is, the right would say rough things and some names I won't repeat on TV," he said, "but on the left, it was like they want me to die or that 'we're cheering for your next stroke.'"

He added that left-wing figures also share messages wishing he would die. "That's much different from just calling me a name," he said. "That's really been consistent in that community online."

Snip:

A load of newly disclosed emails has shed light on the relationship between sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and US Ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria Tom Barrack.

On Wednesday, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a trove of roughly 20,000 pages of material after receiving it from the Epstein estate.

In one of the messages exchanged in March 2016, Epstein wrote to Barrack, "Send photos of you and child. Make me smile."

The message reportedly came not long after Epstein told Barrack he was receiving "many calls" about his friendship with Donald Trump but was choosing not to respond. Barrack had earlier suggested the two men should "catch up."