Incoming US envoy Huckabee says Trump to bring Mideast change of ‘biblical proportions’

(Worthy Insights) – Incoming US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Sunday that the Trump administration is likely to bring changes of “biblical proportions” to the Middle East, as Arab nations continued to react with alarm to the new US president’s proposal to clear out the population of Gaza and take ownership of the Strip.

“As long as Hamas exists, that is a threat to the Israelis,” Huckabee said in an interview on Fox News. “They want the destruction of the Jewish state.”

“One thing we know is that Hamas is not going to be able to exist,” Huckabee continued. “That’s just a done deal.” [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

Trump Reverses Sanctions on Israelis in Day 1 Executive Order

(Worthy Insights) – President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Monday with a flurry of executive orders and statements in support of Israel.

Trump reversed the Biden administration’s sanctions on Israelis, suspended new aid for the Palestinians, and withdrew the United States from the U.N. World Health Organization, which Israel has accused of colluding with Hamas. The president also spoke of confronting Iran and normalizing Israeli-Saudi relations—and vowed to bring home the remaining hostages abducted in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Overall, day one of Trump’s second term signaled a return to form for the president, whose first administration waged a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran, oversaw normalization between Israel and four Arab states, and recognized Israel’s claims to Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Trump’s Executive Orders On Immigration Prove Biden Could Have Secured The Border At Any Time

(Worthy Insights) – One of the first things President Donald Trump did after being sworn in at the inauguration Monday was sign a series of executive orders on immigration and the border. A few of them stand out because they demonstrate how the border could have been secured at any point over the past four years by the Biden administration, without any action or new legislation from Congress.

That it wasn’t is a testament to the fact that Biden and the Democrats wanted mass illegal immigration, they wanted chaos on the southern border, and they wanted the Mexican drug cartels to be empowered and enriched. These were outcomes they intentionally chose, over and against border security and the historic low levels of illegal immigration they inherited from the first Trump administration.

Here’s what Trump did. First, he declared an emergency at the border and ordered the U.S. military to immediately resume construction of the border wall, which Biden had abruptly halted upon taking office (so abruptly, in fact, that construction materials were simply left on site or abandoned when Biden ordered work on the wall to cease). [ Source: The Federalist (Read More…) ]

Trump Yanks Security Clearances Of Intel Officials Who Spread Disinformation About Hunter Biden’s Laptop

(Worthy Insights) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday night revoking the security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who falsely claimed emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop were Russian “disinformation” to help Joe Biden’s 2020 election prospects. The directive also pulls the security clearance of John Bolton, who served as national security advisor in Trump’s first term.

“To remedy these abuses of the public trust, this Order directs the revocation of any active or current security clearances held by: (i) the former intelligence officials who engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign; and (ii) John R. Bolton,” the order reads.

The infamous Oct. 19, 2020, letter included signatures from dozens of former intel officials who baselessly contended the emails from Hunter’s laptop that were reported by the New York Post weeks before the 2020 contest bore “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Biden then weaponized the phony statement during his Oct. 22, 2020, debate against Trump to dispel the latter’s criticisms of the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Weird News Alert: Cattle Gallstones, Worth Twice as Much as Gold, Drive a Global Smuggling Frenzy

(Worthy Insights) – One of the most prized ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, cattle gallstones have become so valuable that traders are willing to pay as much as $5,800 an ounce—twice the price of gold—for the nuggets of hardened bile.

Herbalists use them to treat strokes as they grapple with a surge in hypertension, obesity and other conditions familiar in the affluent West. Such maladies are now widespread in China after a half-century of rapid development and the changing diets that have come with it. Surging demand for gallstones has sparked a global treasure hunt across the world’s top beef-producing regions, places as far apart as Texas and Australia, and especially here on the savannah of Brazil, the world’s largest cattle exporter.

“I thought it was a joke at first,” said Rafael Faria, a police investigator in Barretos, a farming town in São Paulo state that is the birthplace of Brazilian rodeo. He was recently called upon to probe a spate of gallstone heists and rampant smuggling as traders try to get them to buyers in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. [ Source (Read More…) ]

LA Already Shipped Firefighting Equipment To Ukraine, And Now Biden Is Planning Another Handout As California Burns

(Worthy Insights) – The Los Angeles County Fire Department shipped equipment to Ukraine in 2022, and now the Biden administration is working overtime to send the country millions more in handouts as wildfires devastate California.

Perhaps ABC 7 put it best in 2022 when it declared that “all over southern California people are finding ways to keep Ukraine front and center and it’s no different for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.”

The fire department donated its own “surplus” supplies to help a foreign regime and is now caught flat-footed without the capacity to respond to the Pacific Palisades wildfire, which continues to cause deaths and untold damage to thousands of acres of land, including countless homes. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Israel must lessen dependence on foreign weaponry – editorial

(Worthy Insights) – The long-term danger of this type of dependence on the US for arms became even more acutely evident in November, when Sen. Bernie Sanders sponsored three different bills that would have embargoed future arms sales to Israel, including the sale of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb guidance kits that turn “dumb” bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as tank and mortar shells.

Though the bills were roundly defeated, about one-third of Democratic senators voted for the measures, something that justifiably causes concern when considering whether the US will continue to be as forthcoming in its sale of arms to Israel a decade from now.

It is for that reason that the signing on Tuesday of two deals worth NIS 1 billion with Elbit Systems is so welcome. One deal will provide the military with thousands of heavy bombs, and the other will build a facility to produce raw energetic materials – all previously imported – that are essential for manufacturing propellants and explosives for rockets and missiles. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program in 2025 could transform Middle East – analysis

(Worthy Insights) – How Israel could attack and destroy Iran’s nuclear program has transformed in the last nine months, even more so in the last few.

Before April 19, an attack on Iran’s nuclear program was theoretically possible via an aerial attack using Israel’s stealth capabilities to eliminate Iran’s advanced S-300 anti-aircraft radar systems, followed by waves of strikes on key nuclear program sites.

Another goal would have been to disable Iran’s underground facility at Fordow by dropping a series of 5,000-pound or smaller weapons, one after another, on the same spot. [ Source (Read More…) ]

An ‘estimated 40% of Hamas tunnels’ still remaining, Israeli expert tells TML

(Worthy Insights) – Israeli forces are continuing to find weapons depots to encounter Hamas terrorists and tunnels, in a testament to the continuance of Hamas’ presence in the territory.

“There is an estimated 40% of the tunnels still remaining, hundreds of kilometers of tunnels the Israeli intelligence was not aware of,” said Yoni Ben Menachem, an expert of Middle Eastern affairs from Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told The Media Line. “There are still very long tunnels that Israel has yet to have located, some of them with hostages inside. This requires a very big operation and a massive amount of explosives that Israel currently does not possess.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

Major winter storm covers 13 states, breaking snowfall records as it moves east

(Worthy Insights) – A major winter storm that broke snowfall records in the Midwest is now hitting the mid-Atlantic, bringing with it a heavy mix of snow and ice and canceling more than 1,400 flights across the U.S.

The heaviest snow and ice is moving into the Appalachians and the East Coast’s Interstate 95 corridor on Monday, with states of emergency in effect in West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland.

A winter storm warning was issued for Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, where 8 to 12 inches of snow is possible. If D.C. gets more than 8.3 inches, it would be the biggest snowstorm for the city since 2016. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Israel Unveils 20-Qubit Quantum Computer in Major Technology Milestone

(Worthy Insights) – Israel announced the launch of its first domestically developed quantum computer on Monday, describing it as a crucial step toward advancing defense and civilian technology. The 20-qubit system was created through collaboration between Israel Aerospace Industries, the Israel Innovation Authority, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The institutions said in a joint statement that the project established a superconductor-based quantum computing infrastructure, along with tools for further development and integration. The system’s applications will be developed at Quantum QHIPU’s laboratory at the Hebrew University, which will focus on practical uses such as simulations, design, and collaborations with global research institutes and private companies.

Israel’s latest achievement follows earlier strides in quantum technology. In 2022, the Weizmann Institute of Science unveiled the country’s first quantum computer, a smaller 5-qubit model primarily used for academic research. The new system marks significant progress for Israel, which is positioning itself as a leader in emerging quantum technologies. [ Source: The Media Line (Read More…) ]

New Report Shreds the Hamas-Provided Casualty Numbers That Mainstream Media Won’t Question

(Worthy Insights) – A new report by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) reveals what has been obvious all along: The death toll provided by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza does not add up. Despite the Palestinian casualty figures being disputed by Israel, this hasn’t stopped most mainstream media from treating them with barely deserved credibility. The HJS report analyzed a collection of 1,378 articles published by leading English-language newspapers and media outlets, specifically The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN, BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, and the Australian ABC.

The findings are staggering:

  • 84% of the publications analyzed failed to make the critical distinction in total numbers between combatant deaths and civilian deaths.   
  • In 19% of the publications analyzed, the numbers of fatalities provided by Hamas-run institutions were used without citing any source, thereby suggesting those figures were undisputed.  
  • A mere 5% of outlets cited the casualty statistics provided by Israel; 98% cited figures by the Hamas-run MoH. The Israeli figures were questioned in half of the articles that cited them, whereas the Hamas figures were often taken at face value. 
  • Men were recorded in fatality lists as female when the same individual was reported as a male in the Palestinian Population Registry. Similarly, the ages of several fatalities have been found to be inaccurate – men in their twenties or thirties are reported as children and babies, skewing the reported number of women and children killed. 
  • There is a disproportionate number of young men of fighting age listed among the casualties. There is no differentiation between civilians and Hamas combatants. 
  • The figures reported by the Hamas-run MoH include those who died of natural causes.[ Source (Read More…) ]

Ancient temple dedicated to Zeus unearthed in Egypt

(Worthy Insights) – Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the remains of an ancient temple built to honor Zeus-Kasios, a deity sporting the features of both Zeus and the weather-god Kasios, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Monday (April 25).

The ruins were unearthed at the Tell el-Farama archaeological site on the northwestern Sinai Peninsula. In Greco-Roman times (332 B.C. to A.D. 395), this area was known as the city and harbor of Pelusium, which sat on the far eastern mouth of the Nile River. Due to its strategic location, people used Pelusium for various functions, including as a fortress during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs; and artifacts dating to the Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, Christian and Islamic periods suggest it was in use in various ways then as well, according to a 2010 paper presented at a the Sinai International Conference for Geology and Development.

The archaeological team zeroed in on the temple after excavating around the remains of two pink granite columns lying on the ground’s surface, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement. These columns once formed the temple’s front gate, but collapsed in ancient times when a mighty earthquake rocked the city. [ Source (Read More…) ]

ABC agrees to give $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle defamation lawsuit

(Worthy Insights) – ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.

According to settlement documents made public Saturday, ABC will also post a note on its website expressing regret over the claim in a March 10 segment on Stephanopoulos’ “This Week” program and pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.

In a statement, ABC News said: “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

Biden Commutes 1,500 Sentences in One Day, Shattering Record

(Worthy Insights) – President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals and pardoned another 39, breaking the record for the largest grant of clemency in a single day, the White House announced on Thursday.

The White House said those granted clemency “have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer.” Most of the individuals who were issued commutations—which leaves a guilty verdict intact but lessens some or all punishments—had been placed in home confinement during COVID-19 under the CARES Act. The 39 pardoned individuals were convicted of nonviolent crimes, including drug offenses.

“As the President has said, the United States is a nation of second chances,” the White House said in a statement. “The President recognizes how the clemency power can advance equal justice under law and remedy harms caused by practices of the past.” [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

Days After Trump’s Victory, Biden-Harris Admin Granted Iran $10 Billion in Sanctions Relief, Congressional Notice Shows

(Worthy Insights) – The Biden-Harris administration waived sanctions on Iran three days after the November election, providing Tehran access upward of $10 billion in once-frozen funds, according to a copy of the non-public order transmitted to Congress and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined on November 8 that “it is in the national security interest of the United States” to waive mandatory economic sanctions that bar Iraq from transferring upward of $10 billion to Iran in electricity import payments.

The Biden-Harris administration has renewed the waiver repeatedly over the objections of congressional Republicans, who warned that the cash helped fuel terrorism and Iran’s war against Israel. In one case, the administration signed off on the sanctions relief one month after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. [ Source (Read More…) ]

In a War Against China, the US Runs Out of Missiles in a Matter of Weeks, House Committee Finds

(Worthy Insights) – In a war with China, the United States would expend its stock of advanced missiles and bombs in less than a month—and run out of some critical weapons in a matter of days, according to a wargames simulation conducted by the House Select Committee on China.

America’s cache of long-range antiship missiles, critical to defending Taiwan in a sea battle in the case of a Chinese invasion, will run dry within three to seven days, according to the committee’s findings. Within a month, meanwhile, the United States would run out of long-range cruise missiles. Taiwan’s own supply of mid-range antiship missiles would also be expended within a week of battle.

The findings are raising alarm bells among lawmakers, who worry America’s defense industrial base is woefully unprepared to deliver the arms needed once China makes good on its repeated threats to invade Taiwan. With China’s military rapidly growing, U.S. supply lines remain strained amid conflicts in the Middle East and other geopolitical hotspots. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Feds Use Bank Loophole To Surveil Americans’ Financial Data Without Warrants, House Judiciary Says

(Worthy Insights) – Federal law enforcement exploited the Suspicious Activity Report system to access and surveil Americans’ private financial data without warrants or probable cause, according to a report from the House Judiciary Committee.

The FBI “manipulated” the SAR filing process by pressuring banks to file reports on individuals the FBI deems “suspicious,” making financial institutions “de facto arms of law enforcement,” the interim report released Friday said. SARs do not require any legal process, granting officials “virtually unchecked access” to “confidential and highly sensitive information.”

The Republican-led oversight committee accused the FBI of circumventing the Bank Secrecy Act, which specifies that it is a bank’s responsibility to file a SAR when it identifies a “suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

Bible Sales Explode, Beat Average Book Sales Growth by Whopping 2,100 Percent

(Worthy Insights) – New sales of the “Good Book,” the Bible, grew 21 times more than new book sales overall this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “Bible sales are up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October, compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. By contrast, total U.S. print book sales were up less than 1% in that period.”

If we compare those numbers to each other, the Bible outpaced the average of those sales by 21 times, or a staggering 2,100 percent. [ Source: Western Journal (Read More…) ]

Satanic Temple Offering Religious Class to Ohio Elementary Children

(Worthy Insights) – Not to be outdone by Christians, a group of self-described “non-theistic satanists” are offering elementary-age students at a public school in Ohio the chance to participate in a class hosted by The Satanic Temple.

The program, named “Hellion Academy of Independent Learning,” or “HAIL” for short, will be offered to children at Edgewood Elementary School in the Marysville School District, WSYX-TV reported.

Edgewood is not the first school to offer the class as part of its release time religious instruction program. An elementary school in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, is offering the HAIL program, too. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]