/newsplus/ - News +

By: Cindy Harper

Video-sharing platform Vimeo has removed a documentary titled “Dead Name” about parents and guardians trying to prevent their kids from getting gender-related surgeries.

Vimeo claimed that the video violated its policy on “hateful conduct.”

“We can confirm that Vimeo removed the video in question for violating our Terms of Service prohibiting discriminatory or hateful content,” the video platform said. “We strive to enforce these policies objectively and consistently across our platform.”

According to the maker of the film Taylor Reece, Dead Name is “subtly explosive but does not contain hate speech or anything hateful.

“All these people talk about is how much they want to protect their children,” Reece told The Daily Signal.

Reece said that transgender activists pressured Vimeo to remove the video and that it was only online for 34 days before it was removed.

“Parents are living in the Twilight Zone, they are beside themselves and don’t know what to do about it,” Reece said. “This film is an attempt to force a conversation, not just in Republican legislatures, but around the country.”

https://reclaimthenet.org/vimeo-bans-documentary-deadname/

By: Tom Acres

It's hard to imagine the internet without Google.

The tech giant has become so synonymous with searching the web that it has become a verb - we don't look it up, we "Google it".

Google ended 2022 as it ends every year, as the most visited website in the world. Its estimated share of the search engine market stands at 92% (Microsoft's Bing is its closest rival, on 3%).

On the surface, it might not like a landscape that's ripe for change but don't be so sure.

The launch of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, last year threatened to upend how people prepare for job interviews, journalists write stories, and children do homework.

Trained on a huge amount of text from across the internet, with the ability to provide human-like responses to almost any prompt, it sparked speculation it could pose a threat to Google.

https://news.sky.com/story/google-it-no-more-how-ai-could-change-the-way-we-search-the-web-12794175

By: Sophie OHara

If you’re on Twitter, you know that there’s a lot of “shadow banning” and throttling right now of conservative accounts, and people couldn’t figure out what’s going on and everyone is frustrated beyond belief. It’s like when Elon first took over, everything was great, and right-wing accounts were flourishing, but after tat wore off, everything went back to normal – meaning all conservative voices were silenced.

Elon said he was looking into it, and he did, and what we’ve found out is remarkable and diabolical.

Conservative pundit Dave Rubin visited Elon at Twitter HQ in San Fransisco, and was given the blessing by Elon to share what’s actually going on.

He wrote a Twitter thread about it, and it’s absolutely fascinating.

https://thelibertyloft.com/2023/01/28/revealed-what-was-really-going-on-behind-the-scenes-at-twitter-worse-than-you-thought/

By: Nick Arama

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has been having a bad week.

First, he finally got the long-awaited boot off the House Intelligence Committee. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy just eviscerated him for his lying on the Committee. Schiff melted down in a presser over it , and he hasn’t gotten over it yet. He’s still throwing fits.

Schiff tried to recover by declaring his run for the Senate, for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)’s seat. It’s not clear yet whether Feinstein intends to run again. Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) has already declared a run for that seat, and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) is also expected to throw her hat into the ring. So, Schiff might have a very tough fight on his hands–as the field is likely to be crowded.

But Schiff being Schiff, he immediately did something that has gotten him into trouble and earned him an ethics complaint.

The ethics watchdog group the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) has filed a complaint against Schiff with the Office of Congressional Ethics, asking that they investigate whether he violated House rules and “abused official resources for political purposes” by using footage from the Senate floor for his video announcing his Senate run. His video shows him using video from the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/01/27/schiff-declares-for-senate-immediately-gets-hit-with-ethics-complaint-n694814

By: Caroline Vakil

Former President Trump congratulated Ronna McDaniel for winning a fourth term as chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) on Friday.

“Congratulations to Ronna McDaniel on her big WIN as RNC CHAIR,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social, before later baselessly alleging Democrats were rigging elections. The former president had not offered a public endorsement of any candidate ahead of the vote.

McDaniel won reelection for the RNC after committee members held a secret ballot vote in Dana Point, Calif. The incumbent faced two other challengers: California-based attorney Harmeet Dhillon and MyPillow CEO and prominent election denier Mike Lindell. McDaniel ultimately received 111 votes, while Dhillion received 51 and Lindell received four.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3833616-trump-congratulates-mcdaniel-on-rnc-chair-reelection/

By: Ben Wilson

Three criminals directed by Iran to assassinate a U.S. journalist critical of the regime were charged Friday in the murder-for-hire scheme, the Justice Department announced.

The three were part of an Eastern European criminal organization paid by the Iranian government to kill exiled journalist Masih Alinejad, who now lives in New York. The regime has made multiple attempts to kidnap or kill her within America. Alinejad was the target of a 2021 kidnapping plot that led to the indictment of four Iranian-connected people.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guards have been conducting these terrorist operations for four decades. Islamic Republic is ISIS with oil,” Alinejad tweeted Friday.

The incident marks the latest example of violence from the Islamic regime, which has brutally cracked down on protesters who took to the streets in late 2022 to criticize the country’s leaders. The Biden administration has been slow to respond, even as an Iranian military leader recently called for the destruction of the United States and Israel.

One of the three listed in Friday’s indictment, Khalid Mediyev, was captured in July in Alinejad’s neighborhood in Brooklyn while allegedly attempting to carry out the assassination. Police found an AK-47-style weapon in his car with ammunition. The other two suspects are Rafat Amirov, who was arrested Thursday in New York, and Polad Omarov, who was arrested earlier this month in the Czech Republic.

Alinejad also posted a video Friday saying, “Let me make it clear; I’m not scared for my life.”

In the DOJ press release FBI assistant director Michael J. Driscoll said the three were “tasked” with carrying out the “coldblooded murder of an American citizen.”

https://thelibertyloft.com/2023/01/27/feds-charge-three-men-for-attempted-assassination-of-journalist-critical-of-iran/Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

By: Isabella Volmert and Sarah Bahari

As the city braced for protests following the release of video showing the fatal beating of a Black man by Memphis police, several dozen people gathered in Dallas for an impassioned but peaceful demonstration.

Footage released Friday evening depicts in harrowing detail the Jan. 7 traffic stop and beating that left Tyre Nichols hospitalized in critical condition. It shows officers viciously attacking the 29-year-old, who can be heard screaming repeatedly for his mom.

Nichols died three days later.

The officers, who are all Black, were arrested on charges including second-degree murder. They were fired last week.

About an hour after the release of the video Friday evening, roughly two dozen people had gathered outside the Dallas Police Department headquarters south of downtown Dallas for a scheduled protest, but organizers of the demonstration said people needed more time to watch the footage.

Some attendees held signs with sayings including “Stop the war on Black America” and “Justice for Tyre Nichols.” Crowding together against the cold, they shouted “No justice, no peace” and “No good cops in a racist system.”

“We’re still seeing this stuff happen again,” said Irfan Sattar, who lives in Dallas and has family in Memphis. “It’s uncalled for. America is supposed to be a great country. We’re a great country, let’s showcase it.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2023/01/27/protest-planned-at-dallas-police-headquarters-tonight-following-tyre-nichols-video-release/

By: Daniel Chaitin

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) appears to be at the top of the shortlist for a key spot on the powerful House Oversight Committee.

The leftist firebrand told POLITICO on Friday there have been “conversations” about her being picked as vice ranking member, but she stressed “nothing’s been finalized.”

If she were chosen for the No. 2 position, Ocasio-Cortez would become the lieutenant to ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and play a leading role in setting the course for Democrats to counter GOP plans to investigate various aspects of the Biden administration.

Because Raskin is undergoing cancer treatment, his deputy could take on more responsibility, including sitting in for the ranking member for hearings during any absences. However, a Democratic aide insisted to POLITICO that any member can sit in for the ranking member.

“I have the greatest admiration for her skill, and I’m sure we’re going to be able to deploy her to maximum effect on the committee, along with all these other amazing new members,” Raskin said of Ocasio-Cortez, who is in her third term.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-may-get-key-spot-on-oversight-committee-report

By: Michael Katz

First lady Jill Biden ushered President Joe Biden away from reporters on Thursday night while the couple was walking through the White House after a reception celebrating the Lunar New Year.

Near the end of a video posted by CSPAN, the president was walking alone past a group of people after the reception in the East Room when a reporter shouted, "Will you allow the FBI to search your Rehoboth Beach [Delaware] home?"

After hearing the question, the president turned around with a blank stare, and the first lady rushed in to wave off the reporter and escort the president away. Another reporter shouted a question about whether the president would meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., next week, but the president did not acknowledge the question.

Last week, the FBI searched the president's Wilmington, Delaware, home and reportedly found additional documents with classification markings. Classified documents from Biden's time as vice president and senator have been found in two locations, but nothing has been disclosed so far to be found at his Rehoboth Beach residence.

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/jill-biden-joe/2023/01/27/id/1106252/

By: Courtney Kube

A U.S. military operation in northern Somalia killed a senior leader of the Islamic State terrorist group and 10 other ISIS fighters on Wednesday night, according to two senior administration officials.

Bilal al Sudani, who the officials described as a key operative and facilitator of the terror group’s global network, was the target of the raid. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement that al-Sudani was “responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and funding the group’s operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan.”

President Joe Biden ordered the operation after Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended it.

The officials said no civilians were wounded or killed in the operation, but they did not identify any of the 10 others killed beyond characterizing them as ISIS operatives. The only injury the officials reported was a U.S. service member who was bitten by one of the American military service dogs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-military-raid-somalia-kills-isis-leader-10-isis-fighters-rcna67742

By: Javier Manjarres

After a recent closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee briefing with National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, where the entire committee of U.S. Senators in attendance was denied access to the classified documents recently found at President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and his old Vice Presidential office building, and at former President Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, Senator Marco Rubio threw out a not-so-veiled threat at the Biden administration.

Sen. Rubio, who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, recently stated that the refusal of the Biden administration to furnish the documents was “an unacceptable position.”

In a written response to The Floridian’s request for further comment on the briefing, Sen. Rubio stated that the administration put itself in an “untenable position” by refusing to share the documents “until the special counsels are finished.”

“It is an untenable position for the Biden Administration to say they will not share anything with us until the special counsels are finished. The information we’re asking for has no bearing whatsoever on any criminal investigation,” stated Sen. Rubio. “The Senate Intelligence Committee simply wants to know what information and materials were mishandled, what is being done to mitigate any potential risk.?

https://floridianpress.com/2023/01/rubio-threatens-biden-administration-for-denying-intelligence-committee-access-to-secret-documents/

By: Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

Cartel-connected human smugglers are using a faster and cheaper way to move primarily Haitian migrants from Mexico City to the border city of Reynosa. Using a bureaucratic loophole and sometimes corrupt immigration officials, smugglers are able to use low-cost airlines instead of ground transportation.

For several weeks, Breitbart Texas traveled through Mexico speaking with migrants and officials from the National Migration Institute (INM) to uncover the inner workings of the new pathway. The journey begins in Tapachula, Chiapas, where Haitians can legally enter and claim asylum.

Individuals can pay corrupt INM officials $3,000 for a humanitarian ID granting migrants asylum in Mexico. They can also obtain one after spending three months in Chiapas under the care of the federal refugee agency COMAR.

Along with the ID, migrants also get or purchase a Mexican version of a Social Security number known as CURP. A top INM official in Tamaulipas revealed to Breitbart Texas that in the case of Haitian and Cuban migrants, the CURP even includes a photograph.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/01/26/exclusive-mexican-cartel-smugglers-use-budget-airline-to-move-haitians-near-texas-border/

By: John Binder

Ji Chaoqun, a 31-year-old Chinese national who arrived in the U.S. on a student visa, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison this week for spying for China, the Department of Justice announced.

As Breitbart News reported, Chaoqun was convicted last year on one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China, and one count of making false statements to the U.S. Army.

Chaoqun was arrested and charged in 2018 after having arrived in the U.S. on an F-1 student visa to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois.

Evidence at trial showed that Chaoqun, while in the U.S., was working at the direction of high-ranking intelligence officers at the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security (JSSD) — a regional department of the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of State Security.

Chaoqun was ordered by Ministry of State Security executive Xu Yanjun to provide intelligence officers with background information on Chinese citizens living in the U.S. who could be recruited to work for the JSSD while they worked for U.S. defense contractors.

The goal of the espionage operation was to provide high-ranking Chinese officials with critical aerospace and satellite technologies being developed in the U.S.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/26/chinese-spy-on-student-visa-who-enlisted-in-u-s-army-sentenced-to-eight-years-in-prison/

By: Bronson Winslow

Over two dozen states filed a lawsuit against the Department of Labor (DOL) Thursday, claiming its recent ruling on plan fiduciaries prioritizes woke Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing over protecting the retirement savings of millions of Americans.

The lawsuit, co-led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton along with three energy companies, challenges a DOL rule that authorizes fiduciaries, such as pension plan managers, to consider non-financial factors when administering client assets, according to the lawsuit. The suit alleges that, as the rule allows fiduciaries to focus on ESG factors over long-term financial stability, the assets of 152 million workers could be jeopardized.

“This rule is an affront to every American concerned about their retirement account,” said Attorney General Paxton in press release. “The fact that the Biden Administration is now opting to risk the financial security of working-class Americans to advance a woke political agenda is insulting and illegal. For generations, federal law has required that fiduciaries place their clients’ financial interests at the forefront, and I intend to fight the Biden Administration in court to ensure that they cannot put hard-working Americans’ retirement savings at risk.”

https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2023/01/25-states-sue-biden-admin-over-woke-investing-rules/

By: Lorri Wickenhauser

Britain’s Prince Andrew is no longer a resident of London’s most exclusive address.

Andrew’s older brother, King Charles III, has apparently finalized the disgraced royal’s eviction from Buckingham Palace, The (U.K.) Sun reported Wednesday.

“All his treasured possessions have been shifted out while renovation takes place — and they will never return now his older brother Charles is king,” the news outlet said.

The king had informed Andrew in December that he could no longer use his office space at the palace, but he continued to live in his royal suite there until recently.

“Andrew loved having a suite at Buckingham Palace where he was not only set up for marital life with Sarah Ferguson but used it as a bachelor’s pad after his divorce,” the Sun reported.

“He brought back a string of new girlfriends to his home in the Palace — even model Caprice. A bachelor’s flat in St James’s Palace doesn’t have the same allure for a single man.”

It’s the latest setback for Andrew, who has made headlines and been the subject of multiple lawsuits over his involvement with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In January 2022, ahead of a civil suit in which Andrew was accused of sexually abusing a minor while she was being controlled by Epstein, Queen Elizabeth stripped him of his royal and military titles.

https://thelibertyloft.com/2023/01/26/prince-andrew-has-been-evicted-from-buckingham-palace-apartment-by-king-charles-report/