All posts tagged: national security

Court Can’t Stop Trump Ballroom Construction, Government Lawyer Tells Judge

Court Can’t Stop Trump Ballroom Construction, Government Lawyer Tells Judge

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers representing the federal government argued Friday that a court could not stop construction of a White House ballroom because it was already underway and because of the sensitive security concerns they say the structure is meant to address. Attorney Yaakov Roth, speaking during an exchange with U.S. Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millett, said only Congress could halt the $400 million project. The administration has been asking the court to allow it to press on with the ballroom without congressional approval. At issue is an April 16 order from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon for Trump’s Republican administration to halt aboveground work on the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, allowed for construction to continue on belowground work on a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site. The hearing Friday centered on who has standing to challenge government steps once they have already been taken and whether that standing overrides national security. In response to hypothetical scenarios put forward by …

The Manhattan Institute Helped Kill DEI. Now It’s Coming for Protests

The Manhattan Institute Helped Kill DEI. Now It’s Coming for Protests

Published by skeptic

A right-wing think tank responsible for the emergence of zero-tolerance policing in 1990s New York City and the Trump administration’s scorched-earth campaign against “diversity, equality and inclusion” programs is behind state-level legislative efforts to classify minor protest-related crimes as “civil terrorism.” The Manhattan Institute, cofounded in 1978 by former Central Intelligence Agency director William Casey, is in the midst of a yearlong campaign to pass state-level legislation reclassifying minor crimes like vandalism, blocking a roadway, or trespassing during a protest as felonies that would carry 18-month prison sentences as punishment. The Manhattan Institute’s push to criminalize forms of nonviolent disobedience as a form of terrorism comes amid a broader Trump administration effort to crack down on leftist organizations, causes, and social movements, while recasting acts of nonviolent civil disobedience as potential crimes. “Today’s left-wing agitators deploy random acts of lawlessness designed to inconvenience and disrupt as many civilians as possible, hoping to pressure them to get the government to change course. This tactic is reasonably described as a form of terrorism, though the activists aren’t …

The White House’s Aliens.gov Site Brags That ICE Arrested More Than 700 US Citizens

The White House’s Aliens.gov Site Brags That ICE Arrested More Than 700 US Citizens

Published by skeptic

A space-themed White House website that mocks immigrants and compares them to extraterrestrials claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested almost half a million people in nearly 12,000 cities and towns in the United States. In 715 of the locations listed, the site identifies at least one of the people arrested as being born in the United States. In 83 of the locations, every single arrestee is reported to be an American. The White House unveiled the website, Aliens.gov, on Thursday after teasing the launch on X with a 10-second video captioned “They walk among us,” leading many users to suspect an announcement about UFOs—the subject of an ongoing Trump administration disclosure effort that produced two releases of declassified files earlier in May. The site turned out instead to be a piece of political theater aimed at dehumanizing immigrants and casting those the Trump administration has arrested as the secret extraterrestrial visitors of UFO conspiracy lore. The site includes information about arrestees’ alleged criminal offenses for each location. People in 3,159 locations are accused of …

France Bans Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir After ‘Unspeakable’ Flotilla Detainee Taunts

France Bans Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir After ‘Unspeakable’ Flotilla Detainee Taunts

Published by Sam Flores

PARIS (AP) — France on Saturday banned Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing his “unspeakable” behavior targeting activists from a flotilla to Gaza who were detained by his police force. “As of today, Itamar Ben-Gvir is banned from entering French territory. This decision follows his unspeakable actions toward French and European citizens who were passengers on the Global Sumud Flotilla,” the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced in a post on X. “We cannot tolerate that French nationals can be threatened, intimidated or brutalized in this way — all the more so by a public official,” Barrot posted, calling on the European Union to also sanction Ben-Gvir. The Associated Press has sought comment from Ben-Gvir’s spokesperson and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This week, Ben-Gvir sparked global outrage after promoting a video of himself taunting detained flotilla activists. In one clip, Ben-Gvir is seen waving a large Israeli flag over hunched-over detainees whose hands appear to be bound. In another, he taunts a kneeling detainee whose wrists are zip-tied, yelling …

Netanyahu Scolds Israeli Security Minister for Releasing Videos Taunting Detained Flotilla Activists

Netanyahu Scolds Israeli Security Minister for Releasing Videos Taunting Detained Flotilla Activists

Published by Sam Flores

Netanyahu said that although Israel has every right to stop “provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,” the way National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir dealt with the activists was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms.” Ben-Gvir released videos Wednesday showing him walking among some of the approximately 430 detainees. In one, activists with their hands tied behind their backs are kneeling, their heads touching the floor inside what appears to be a makeshift detention area and on the deck of a ship. “Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords,” says Ben-Gvir, waving a large Israeli flag. One handcuffed activist shouts “Free Palestine” as Ben-Gvir walks by and is immediately pushed to the ground by security personnel. In another video, Ben-Gvir says the activists “came here all full of pride like big heroes. Look at them now,” while appealing to Netanyahu to grant him permission to imprison them. Israel’s leader calls for quick deportation of activists “I say to Prime Minister Netanyahu, give them to me for a long, long time, give them to us …

Congress members push Chinese auto parts ban before Trump China trip

Congress members push Chinese auto parts ban before Trump China trip

Published by Sam Flores

Aerial view of an electric vehicle parking lot. Koiguo | Moment | Getty Images Bipartisan lawmakers from Michigan on Tuesday announced legislation that would ban Chinese-made “connected vehicles,” software and hardware from the U.S. market, ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on China, and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., rolled out the “Connected Vehicle Security Act,” closely mirroring bipartisan Senate legislation from Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, that would codify Biden-era connected vehicle restrictions over national security and data collection concerns. Connected vehicles have internet access and wireless connectivity with other cars or trucks, technology that supporters say can enhance roadway safety. “We are not competing on a level playing field when Chinese subsidizes its manufacturers, it manipulates its currency [and] it uses slave labor. That’s not a level playing field,” Dingell said in a press conference Tuesday announcing the bill. “What [China is] trying to do is to get inside our country and fight us …

Thai police probe military-grade weapons cache at foreign man’s home

Thai police probe military-grade weapons cache at foreign man’s home

Published by Sam Flores

PATTAYA: Thai police are investigating a vast arsenal of military-grade weapons – including assault rifles, explosives, grenades and anti-personnel mines – found at the home of a foreign man, authorities said on Saturday (May 9). Two M16 assault rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Russian landmines, projectiles, gasoline and nearly 5kg of explosives were found at the home of Sun Mingchen, 31, a Chinese national, near the beach resort of Pattaya. There were no clear links to a planned attack, Chonburi province’s public relations department said in a statement, but local police chief Pongphan Wongmanithet told reporters at the scene they were “investigating security implications”. Source link

Cole Allen Charged With Attempting to Assassinate Trump

Cole Allen Charged With Attempting to Assassinate Trump

Published by skeptic

Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, appeared Monday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to face federal charges stemming from Saturday night’s armed assault on a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered Allen held pending a detention hearing Thursday. The suspect, who appeared on a criminal complaint rather than an indictment, was not asked to enter a plea. He faces three federal counts: attempting to assassinate the president, transportation of a firearm in interstate commerce, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. Allen, 31, is a Caltech-trained mechanical engineer with a recent master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills who tutored part-time at a Torrance test-prep company and built indie video games on the side, according to a WIRED review of public databases, which revealed a minimal online presence. The Metropolitan Police Department claims that the suspect approached a Secret Service checkpoint at the Hilton on Saturday night armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. …

‘STAGED’: Conspiracy Theories Are Everywhere Following White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting

‘STAGED’: Conspiracy Theories Are Everywhere Following White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting

Published by skeptic

In the immediate aftermath of the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, influencers, pundits, and random posters lit up social media platforms like X, Bluesky, and Instagram with conspiracy theories about the attack and the alleged shooter. Both left and right-wing accounts claimed, without evidence, that the attack was staged. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and dozens of other high-profile administration officials and journalists were attending the dinner at the Hilton hotel in Washington, DC, when a suspect, later identified by media reports as Cole Tomas Allen from California, allegedly ran past security towards the event. He was detained by law enforcement while the president and vice president were evacuated. Police said that they believe Cole acted alone, but did not expand on who his intended target was or what his motive may have been. “We believe the suspect was targeting administration officials,” acting attorney general Todd Blanche told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning. On Bluesky, which has a predominantly left-leaning user base, many people simply wrote …