“I was in my mother’s womb when the Islamic Revolution of 1979 shattered my family’s homeland, forcing us into exile. Like so many Iranians, my country was stolen from me before I could even take my first breath. But my connection to Iran is not just a matter of heritage; it is written in blood. My father, Gen. Gholam Ali Oveissi, the former commander in chief of the Imperial Army, was a patriot who loved his people and died defending them against the tyranny of Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1984, he was assassinated in Paris for his loyalty to the Shah and his refusal to bow to the new regime. … today, the tide is turning. After 47 years of oppression, corruption and fiscal incompetence, the people of Iran — driven by a courageous younger generation — have had enough.” (01/15/25)
“Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she presented President Donald Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal during their Jan. 15 meeting at the White House, an extraordinary gesture to try to earn Trump’s backing. Machado, speaking to reporters after the meeting ended, said she gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal, which Trump has long coveted, ‘as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.’ She did not say whether Trump accepted the medal. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. … The meeting was held as Machado is seeking Trump’s approval to have a role in the Venezuelan government following the United States'[s] Jan. 3 attack on Venezuela and capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.” (01/15/26)
“The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) said it will not be extending its controversial drug decriminalisation project, allowing it to expire at the end of January. The programme began in 2023 as a three-year pilot agenda. It was a landmark policy meant to help tackle the province’s deadly opioid addiction crisis, which has claimed thousands of lives in the last decade. But the scheme has faced pushback over concerns around public disorder and drug use. BC’s health minister Josie Osborne said the province is now backing off from the pilot because it ‘hasn’t delivered the results that we hoped for’. At a news conference on Wednesday, Osborne said it is ‘difficult, if not even possible’ to determine whether the programme led more people struggling with opioid addiction to receive treatment. BC was the only province in Canada to implement a drug decriminalisation pilot programme.” (01/15/25)
“Just a week after Donald Trump first took office as president, he signed Executive Order 13769—his first travel ban. It halted refugee admissions and suspended entry into the US for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. All of these countries have a Muslim majority. Because of that, and also because Trump had previously said that he intends to ban Muslims from the US, critics referred to the order as a ‘Muslim ban’. The backlash was immediate and broad, coming from Republicans and Democrats alike, as well as US diplomats, business leaders, universities, faith groups, and international organizations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. Protests erupted in airports and cities across the US. A friend and I (both of us immigrants to the US ourselves) spontaneously drove to the international airport in Houston to express our outrage, along with hundreds of other protesters. I remember I felt hopeful.” (01/15/25)
“A federal judge Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would likely kill the project in a matter of days. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the merits of the government’s order to suspend the project. He faulted the government for not responding to key points in Empire Wind’s court filings, including the contention that the administration violated proper procedure. Norwegian company Equinor owns Empire Wind. Spokesperson David Schoetz said they welcome the court’s decision and will continue to work in collaboration with authorities. It’s the second developer to prevail in court against the administration this week.” (01/15/25)
Source: New York Post
by Andrew Cherkasky & Katie Cherkasky
“The chaos erupting in Minneapolis isn’t an organic protest movement, and it certainly isn’t spontaneous. It’s coordinated. It’s calculated. And it’s deadly. Ordinary Americans are being played — manipulated into dangerous confrontations by politicians and rabble-rousing activists. The indoctrination has convinced them that federal immigration law is illegitimate, that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have no authority to operate, and that physically confronting federal officers is not only justified, but moral. It’s a weaponized form of Trump Derangement Syndrome — and federal prosecutors should call it what it is: criminal conspiracy.” [editor’s note: I’m shocked — shocked! — when two former employees of a murderous regime continue to support and curry favor with that murderous regime – TLK] (01/14/25)
“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday charged a Minneapolis man with more than $3 million in Medicaid fraud tied to a state-licensed home health agency. Mohamed Abdirashid Omarxeyd was charged with eight counts of felony theft by false representation after prosecutors said he used his company, Guardian Home Health Services, to bill Minnesota’s Medicaid program for services that were never provided or were ineligible for reimbursement from 2020 through 2024. According to the criminal complaint, Guardian submitted fraudulent claims for personal care aide services, companion care, homemaking, respite care, individualized home support and other community support services. State officials have designated many of these services as ‘high-risk’ for fraud. Prosecutors allege Omarxeyd and his wife siphoned more than $2 million from the company’s accounts during the scheme.” (01/15/25)
“Scientists have uncovered the mummified remains of cheetahs from caves in northern Saudi Arabia. The remains range from 130 years old to over 1,800 years old. Researchers excavated seven mummies along with the bones of 54 other cheetahs from a site near the city of Arar. Mummification prevents decay by preserving dead bodies. Egypt’s mummies are the most well-known, but the process can also happen naturally in places like glacier ice, desert sands and bog sludge. The new large cat mummies have cloudy eyes and shriveled limbs, resembling dried-out husks. ‘It’s something that I’ve never seen before,’ said Joan Madurell-Malapeira with the University of Florence in Italy, who was not involved with the discovery. Researchers aren’t sure how exactly these new cats got mummified, but the caves’ dry conditions and stable temperature could have played a role, according to the new study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.” (01/15/25)
“My theory is this: Sometime over the holidays, someone got to Donald Trump and told him he would lose the midterm elections badly if he did not offer something to the public to deal with affordability concerns. The traditional policy playbook for such things on the conservative side would either do nothing or make things actively worse. So this search for an affordability agenda has led Trump into the waiting arms of progressive populism, sort of. The result has been … strange. Over the past couple of weeks, Trump has called for banning corporate investors from purchasing homes. He has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to lower mortgage interest rates. He has insisted on a one-year cap on credit card interest rates to 10 percent, and endorsed a bipartisan bill to inject competition into credit card markets to reduce excessive swipe fees merchants pay.” (01/15/25)
“Iran temporarily closed its airspace to most flights amid United States President Donald Trump’s threats against the country, according to the US aviation authority. Most flights were prohibited from Iranian airspace between 1:45am and 4:00am local time (22:15 to 00:30 GMT) and again from 4:44 am to 7am (01:14 to 03:30 GMT) on Thursday, according to the notices posted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). … Iran’s airspace reopened at about 7am local time. … Trump appeared to lower his rhetoric towards Tehran later on Wednesday, saying he had received assurances from ‘important sources’ that the killings of protesters in Iran had stopped.” (01/15/26)
