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20,000 Set to Protest Isreal’s Participation in Eurovision Final
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The Eurovision Song Contest final gets underway in Sweden’s Malmo on Saturday, with thousands of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters expected to rally against Eden Golan’s participation amid the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel ranks with Croatia and Switzerland as one of the bookmakers’ favorites to succeed Sweden and win the colorful and kitschy competition watched by more than a hundred million people.

Police said up to 20,000 demonstrators are expected to rally against Israel’s participation in Malmo, whose more than 360,000 inhabitants represent 186 nationalities, many from the Middle East.

Sweden’s third-largest city is also expecting up to 100,000 fans from 90 countries, on the 50th anniversary of the iconic pop group ABBA’s Eurovision win with “Waterloo.”

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the event, confirmed in March the participation of Israel’s contestant Eden Golan, despite calls for her exclusion from thousands of musicians around the world. More recently, nine of the acts, seven of whom are finalists, have called for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

In video from Friday night’s rehearsal in Malmo, loud and prolonged booing could be heard when Golan came on stage.

The war started with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Terrorists also seized 252 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, not all of them alive.

In response to the onslaught, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza with the aim of toppling Hamas and securing the release of the hostages. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says over 34,000 have been killed in the coastal enclave since the start of the war. The figures have not been verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Condemnation

Golan’s song is an adaptation of an earlier version named “October Rain,” which she modified after organizers deemed it too political because of its allusions to the Hamas onslaught.

The EBU insists it does not play politics.

This neutrality was challenged on Tuesday by Swedish singer Eric Saade, who took part in the opening number of the competition wearing a keffiyeh around his arm.

Two days later, the unions at Belgian broadcaster VRT briefly interrupted the transmission of the second semifinal to broadcast a message in support of the Palestinians.

“We condemn the violations of human rights by the state of Israel,” the message said in Dutch, accompanied by the hashtags #CeasefireNow and #StopGenocide.

Inside the Malmo Arena, where organizers have banned all flags other than those of the participating countries, it’s all neon lights, bright costumes and upbeat melodies.

Last year’s showpiece in Britain’s Liverpool “was a huge party, a celebration thrown in Putin’s face,” after Ukraine’s win, anthropologist and Eurovision specialist Lisanne Wilken told AFP, referring to Russia’s leader.

“This year it really is more difficult for Sweden to position itself,” she added.

Security tightened

To gain access to the Malmo Arena, the some 9,000 spectators have to pass through a reinforced security system designed in particular to discourage protesters from approaching.

Police have said there are no threats directed at the competition, but their presence has been strengthened with reinforcements from Norway and Denmark.

Golan has been accompanied by a heavy security presence throughout the competition, and has skipped almost all events in Malmo aside from the live shows and dress rehearsals, in light of a wide range of threats made against Israel’s participation.

Sally Sadler, a music fan from the United Kingdom, said the protests had dampened the spirit of Eurovision “a little bit.”

“But it’s all about unity and music. We’re all here together, all nations, for love not hate,” she told AFP.

For the fans, it is now time for rhinestones and lively rhythms and the 2024 edition offers a wide range of musical genres.

Several acts “are about mental health, many young artists express that they are not feeling well and are struggling with their identities,” Andreas Onnerfors, professor of the history of ideas and a Eurovision specialist, told AFP.

“Another clear theme is religious and spiritual allusions. Then there is the classic range of love songs from disappointment to innocent infatuation,” he continued.

While politics is mostly absent on stage, it is closer than organizers were hoping for.

At the press conference after the second semifinal, the Netherlands’ Joost Klein repeatedly covered his face with a Dutch flag, seemingly signifying he didn’t agree with being placed next to Golan.

Klein was absent from Friday’s dress rehearsal, with the EBU investigating “an incident” involving the artist.

The SVT state broadcaster suggested the incident in question had been a confrontation with an employee of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Greek singer Marina Satti appeared to pretend to fall asleep when Golan spoke during a press conference, while former Finnish Eurovision competitor Käärijä filmed a lighthearted video with Golan, before later disavowing the clip after it circulated online.

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Speaker Johnson Unveils Plan to Move Bureaucrats Out of DC to Reshape Government

House Speaker Mike Johnson says Republicans have an ambitious plan to reshape and shrink federal government if they win the election. That vision includes a plan to deport tens of thousands of federal bureaucrats from Washington and relocate them to middle America.

In a wide-ranging interview this week with Just the News, Johnson said he and other GOP leaders wants to move federal agency offices, personnel and assets from the nation’s capital to bring them closer to the people they serve and farther from the monied special interests that often hijack policy and spending.

“There’s a lot of talk about uprooting, you know, these entrenched bureaucracies and putting them out elsewhere around the country,” Johnson told the John Solomon Reports podcast.

He explained such a re-invention of the monstrous federal bureaucracy with more than 2 million federal workers and contractors would integrate with former President Donald Trump’s plan to name billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to lead a government efficiency office and also tie to fiscal conservatives’ vision to eliminate federal bureaucracies and send monies to the states in the form of block grants.

Just how big has federal government become? Read this Congressional Research Service report.

The Louisiana Republican said the deportation of Washington bureaucrats would also create a natural shrinkage in the size and cost of government,

“That accomplishes a lot of important goals but the first would be that you don’t have all these career civil service law protected bureaucrats,” he said. “Some of them have been camped out of these agencies for decades. They’re nameless, faceless. We don’t know who to hold accountable,” he said.

Congressional vision

Johnson continued, saying “The idea is, if you move the agency to, you know, northern Kansas or southwest New Mexico, or wherever it is around the country, then some of the swamp dwellers they will not desire to follow the job to the new, less desirable location,” he added. “They love the swamp. You know they want to stay. They’ll turn them into lobbyist or something to stay in D.C.” The mass transfer and departure of bureaucrats then leads to a “business reorganization proposition” for federal government, he said.

“You’ve got agencies that you can scale down because you have empty cubicles and … almost all the agencies are bloated and inefficient,” he said. “So you can scale that down. And then in the cubicles that you do need to fill, we’ve had America First Policy Institute and some of our other think tanks that have been working to develop a notebook full of highly qualified, previously vetted, limited government conservatives who have expertise in these areas.”

Johnson’s comments were the most sweeping he’s made about a congressional vision for shrinking the budget and reshaping the budget. He said the process would take a “blowtorch” to the regulatory state and align government agencies in the aftermath of a historic Supreme Court ruling this summer that reversed a decades old “Chevron doctrine.” Under the new ruling, federal bureaucrats can’t make up or interpret their own regulations and simply must enforce those authorized by Congress.

“We have a once in a lifetime, yeah, once in a lifetime opportunity to really claw back article one authority to the legislative branch under the Constitution and have an administration that is in tune with that whole agenda. So look, I just think there’s almost unlimited potential in front of us, and we’ve got to seize that moment,” Johnson said.

If Republicans do win a majority in the House and Senate, it is likely to be slim, meaning Johnson’s government reorganization ideas would have to appeal to conservatives and moderates alike in his caucus.

One of the leading voices of the House conservative wing, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show Friday that he likes Johnson idea, but with some important caveats like first getting stay-at-home bureaucrats to come back to the office.

“Well, I would prefer an idea where we actually eliminated the bureaucracies and the agencies that need to go away. But here’s the thing: until you stop the telework epidemic the federal government has, it won’t work. So you’re gonna have to first stop that, then you then you can send them out,” Biggs said.

Right-to-work states

He also cautioned Congress not to send unionized federal workers to right-to-work states that give workers and employers more freedoms.

“They’re unionized,” he said of federal workers. “And that means, let’s say you’ve stuck something in Arizona, which is a right to work state, you’d be sending in all these unionized leftist federal bureaucrats to our state, and it would make it even harder to maintain.”

“So if you’re going to send them out, just send them out to a state that’s already deep blue. Send them to California for mercy sakes or or something like that,” he added.

On other issues, Speaker Johnson made clear a GOP-led Congress would be in lockstep with Trump’s already stated agenda to close the border, deport illegal aliens, reduce inflation, renew the Trump tax cuts that expire next year and rapidly improve national security in a turbulent world.

“I think within the hour of President Trump taking this oath of office, he’ll issue an executive order to secure that border,” Johnson said. “We’ll come behind that with legislative action to secure it, seal it up, and then we’ll work on having to deal with the fallout of everybody who was allowed in, and that’s a whole agenda thing.

“But immediately after the border is secured, we go to the economy, because the cost of living is unsustainable, unaffordable, and we know how to fix it … Then we’re going to do that and then somewhere you’re going to have an extension of the Trump era tax cuts,” he explained.

Of course, all of that must be preceded by Republicans winning the Senate, House and White House and Johnson winning another term as Speaker in a fractious GOP caucus. The answer those questions will be decided this month.

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Republicans Subpoena Democratic Fundraising Platform ActBlue

Top House Republicans are coalescing behind the House Administration Committee’s subpoena of Democratic fundraising giant ActBlue.

Republicans have accused the company of having insufficient donor verification standards. Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., has argued that the site is vulnerable to fraudulent and illegal foreign donations, though ActBlue has said it “rigorously protects donors’ security.”

“ActBlue has a lot of explaining to do, and Chairman Steil is right to demand answers on these very serious allegations of foreign funds being funneled through the platform,” Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm, told Fox News Digital.

“Just as we must protect the right to vote for American citizens, we must ensure our elections are free from foreign financial interference.”

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., also credited Steil and pointed out that his accusations come amid reports that China and Iran are trying to influence the election.

“Malign foreign actors are attempting to hijack American elections through the Far Left Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue by tipping the scales in favor of Kamala Harris and Congressional Democrats,” Stefanik said. “It has never been more critical to ensure American elections are free from foreign manipulation.”

ActBlue did not require a card verification value (CVV) to be input for donations until recently, prompting a flurry of concern from Republican lawmakers and some GOP state attorneys general.

Steil sent multiple letters and requests for information to the platform, which has insisted it holds donor security to a high standard.

A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said he was “supportive” of the subpoena, adding, “Only American citizens should be participants in our elections, and this investigation is critical to ensure that our elections remain secure and shielded from foreign actors.”

Steil issued a subpoena Wednesday to ActBlue for “documents and communications related to ActBlue’s donor verification policies and the potential for foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China to use ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.”

ActBlue responded to Steil in a statement, “ActBlue has received Chairman Steil’s latest inquiry and will respond to address the continued inaccuracies and misrepresentations about our platform, as we have done previously. We rigorously protect donors’ security and maintain strict anti-fraud compliance practices. We have zero tolerance for fraud on our platform.”

But fellow Republicans on his committee are standing firm that the subpoena was necessary.

Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., the chair of the panel’s subcommittee on elections, told Fox News Digital, “In our investigation so far, we have found that loopholes in ActBlue’s insufficient security protocols may be exploited by bad actors, potentially leading to countries like China, Russia and Venezuela donating to campaigns in the names of Americans without their consent.”

“With the general election just five days away, Americans need to have confidence that our elections are secure and that there is no foul play involved,” she said.

Committee member Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said, “The subpoena is critical for the committee to ensure federal campaign finance laws are not being violated, including laundering money into campaign coffers through inadequate security protections.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital, “Like the chairman, I have been concerned by the inadequate security protocols at ActBlue, who haven’t required CVV verification and allow for pre-paid cards for political donations.”

The accusations come at a critical time, with Election Day less than a week out.

The platform denied all GOP allegations of wrongdoing in a statement to Fox News before Steil’s subpoena, “These false claims about ActBlue have been discredited repeatedly by campaign finance experts. ActBlue protects donors’ information by maintaining a robust security program and fraud prevention measures, often beyond what is required by law.”

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DOJ Weaponizing Hundred-Year-Old KKK Law Against Conservatives

A law originally intended to protect black voters in the late 19th century is now a “powerful weapon” for the Biden administration to target its political opponents, one legal expert told the Caller.

The law is often wielded by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) to target pro-lifers protesting abortion clinics, the Daily Caller first reported. Last year, the Conspiracy Against Rights charge was levied against Douglass Mackey for a 2016 social media post and former President Donald Trump over January 6.

“I was not aware of the Biden-Harris DOJ’s abuse of this harsh conspiracy against rights statute in these other contexts, but I am not surprised,” Stephen Crampton, Senior Counsel with the Thomas More Society, told the Caller in a statement.

Douglass Mackey, known online as “Ricky Vaughn,” was charged with election interference by the Biden-Harris DOJ in 2021. The DOJ alleged in a press release that he illegally used social media to “deprive” citizens of their right to vote during the 2016 presidential election.

The charge stemmed from a complaint filed in Brooklyn which alleged Mackey “conspired” with other individuals to encourage supporters of Hillary Clinton to “vote” with text or on social media. One post stated: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” and “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”

Mackey was convicted of the Conspiracy Against Rights charge in 2023 and sentenced last October to seven months in prison.

“Given its expansive interpretation by the courts in years past, it has become a powerful weapon with which this corrupt administration can bludgeon its political opponents and instill fear in all who dare oppose them,” Crampton told the Caller.

Mackey received a bond by an appeals court and has not yet gone to prison, he stated in a Twitter post.

The Conspiracy Against Rights charge was originally a part of the Enforcement Acts passed between 1868 and 1870, according to the DOJ. Most of the legislation was repealed in 1894, but section 241 and 242 of 18 U.S.C. survived. The law was originally intended to protect recently-enfranchised black voters, according to Reuters. The Enforcement Acts are also colloquially known as the “KKK Acts.”

The law prohibits two or more people from “[conspiring] to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” from exercising their Constitutional rights. The charge carries hefty fines and up to ten years in prison.

“The Biden Justice Department is now using this [charge] against other political enemies,” Mackey wrote in his “Meme Defense Fund.”

Mackey’s case specifically has been pointed to as an example of politically motivated lawfare.

Individuals including Mackey noted that Jimmy Kimmel recently told his viewers that Trump voters should “vote very late” and on “Thursday or maybe Friday.”

Mackey was not the only prominent individual charged under the law last year.

Special Council Jack Smith prosecuted former President Donald Trump on four counts of allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election results on January 6, 2021.

One of these counts included the Conspiracy Against Rights charge. The federal government alleged Trump violated the statute by “[conspiring] against the right to vote and to have one’s counted.”

The complaint claims that Trump “targeted a bedrock function” of the federal government. He was also charged with Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, and Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding.

Biden’s DOJ has a history of using the Conspiracy Against Rights law to enhance sentences.

An elderly woman, Paulette “Paula” Harlow, was one of several people sentenced to 24 months in prison this May for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the same Conspiracy Against Rights law.

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News

Secret Service Won’t Fire Anyone Over Trump Assassination

I doubt anyone is surprised to hear that an arm of the government failed in its most fundamental mission, promised accountability, and solved the problem by issuing a ‘report’.

And that’s exactly the approach that the Secret Service took.

The Secret Service said Friday it has carried out multiple reforms since the July 13 assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and signaled that the agency has not dismissed any agents for the security failures that day, according to a copy of a final internal report to be sent to Congress and other agencies.

There’ll be accountability, the Secret Service promises, without actually delivering any accountability.

The report said it had identified “several instances of behaviors and acts by multiple employees that warrant review for corrective counseling and, potentially, disciplinary action,” and that they would be provided due process under the law.

“All individuals found in violation of policies will be held accountable,” the report said.

…Ronald L. Rowe, Jr., is now acting director and he has asked for additional funding and pledged to reform the agency.

Uh-huh.

The House issued a much more devastating report and there have been other reports to which Rowe responded by asking for a safe space.

The acting director of the Secret Service said Thursday he was concerned about the morale of his overworked agents, as he addressed an independent review that called for “fundamental reform” within the agency to prevent assassination attempts like the one in July that injured former President Donald Trump.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Ronald Rowe Jr. said he worried about the health and wellness of “demoralized” Secret Service agents who are being pushed to the brink and working long hours amid operational and policy changes.

“We are redlining our people,” Rowe said.

“We are asking them to do extraordinary things right now.”

We’re asking them to do their jobs which are a whole lot less difficult than the jobs of front-line combat troops, beat cops in dangerous cities or a variety of other security and military personnel.

In a separate written statement, Rowe said the agency was developing a “comprehensive” plan aimed at “driving a fundamental transformation” within the Secret Service.

He said the plan focuses on increasing and retaining the agency’s personnel, modernizing technology and building a training plan.

So the fundamental transformation is going to be more of the same. Watch our PowerPoint presentation, increase our budget and watch as things grow even worse.

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News

Israel Kills One of Hamas’ Last High-Ranking Members

The IDF eliminated Hamas’s National Relations head Izz al-Din Kassab on Friday in Khan Yunis, Gaza, who was also one of the last remaining members of the terrorist organization’s political bureau still inside the Palestinian enclave.

The strike that killed Kassab was completed based on IDF and ISA intelligence. His assistant Ayman Ayesh was also killed in the strike.

He was also responsible for Hamas’s relations and cooperation, whether strategic or military, with other terrorist organizations within the Gaza Strip such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Kassab also held authority within the Gazan terrorist organization to direct attacks against Israel, the IDF noted.

Activity in Gaza earlier this week

Two days earlier, the IDF conducted a strike targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, also in Khan Yunis.

The IAF used IDF and ISA intelligence to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, the military announced.

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News

Marc Benioff in Talks to Sell Time for $150M

Billionaire tech mogul Marc Benioff is reportedly in talks to sell Time magazine to a Greek media conglomerate.

Benioff, who co-founded enterprise software giant Salesforce and who boasts a net worth valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $10.7 billion as of Friday, has engaged Antenna Group about a deal for Time, according to CNBC.

Sources familiar with the discussions told CNBC that Benioff, who bought Time in 2018 for $190 million, was mulling a $150 million offer from Antenna Group.

Benioff acquired the magazine from Meredith Corp, which owned the publication for less than a year.

Last month, Benioff expressed frustration that Vice President Kamala Harris declined to sit for an interview with Time.

Benioff criticized Harris while pointing out that ex-President Donald Trump and President Biden — before he dropped out — both sat down for interviews during their campaigns.

“Despite multiple requests, TIME has not been granted an interview with Kamala Harris — unlike every other Presidential candidate,” tweeted Benioff.

In September, Time raised eyebrows when it excluded Elon Musk from its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence.

Antenna has been eager to break into the American media market. In 2022, it nearly acquired Vice Media before the company filed for bankruptcy.

Time, like other magazines, has struggled with continued declines in print advertising and newsstand sales.

At its peak between the 1970s and 1990s, Time’s circulation exceeded 4 million copies nationwide — beating out competitors such as Newsweek and US News & World Report.

In 2012, Time had a circulation of 3.3 million. Today, its readership numbers around 1.6 million subscribers.

Started by Yale University graduates Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, Time first went on sale in March 1923.

Before Benioff bought the magazine, it was trying to shift to a digital strategy, but it struggled.

Time posted two straight years of annual losses and its revenue declined since it split off from Time Warner in 2014.

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News

Group of Ten Mainly Chilean Nationals Charged After Stealing at Least $2.5 Million in 2024

Federal prosecutors in California have charged 10 individuals, mainly Chilean nationals using fake IDs, with conspiring to steal millions from banks and ATMs, according to the Mercury News.

The group allegedly rented Airbnbs and used a secret stolen car rental service near targeted locations.

Throughout 2024, they reportedly stole at least $2.5 million, with some single heists netting $250,000.

Their method often involved spray-painting security cameras, using power tools and blowtorches on ATMs, and disguising as a construction crew with equipment like cellphone jammers, sledgehammers, and crowbars.

In one incident on September 18, they allegedly accessed a Wells Fargo ATM cash room by breaking through the wall of a neighboring pet spa, resulting in a $247,000 loss.

The Mercury News reports that despite their efforts to avoid detection, the theft group left a digital trail, according to the FBI.

The case saw a breakthrough when agents identified suspect vehicles linked to an underground rental service in West Hollywood. A Chevrolet Suburban, rented from Instagram promoter @xtrackz to a person named “Gordito” for a supposed family vacation, turned out to be connected to the crimes.

“Gordito” was identified as Alex Moyano-Morales, the alleged ringleader with fake IDs from Colombia and the U.S.

Following Moyano-Morales’ identification, FBI agents tracked his cellphone and found his associates had rented Airbnbs near several heist locations. Video footage from a Turlock Airbnb showed the group unloading burglary tools.

Prosecutors have charged Moyano-Morales and nine others, including Maite Celis-Silva, Erik Osorio-Olivarez, and Pablo Valdez-Rodriguez, with thefts targeting banks and ATMs across cities like Modesto, Citrus Heights, Fresno, and Anaheim. They are also under investigation for similar larcenies in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Houston.

The group recently moved to Oregon, allegedly committing additional thefts there. Four members—Valdez-Rodriguez, Alarcon-Alarcon, Parada-Munoz, and Dacosta-Frias—were arrested at a Seattle Airbnb with $20,000 and burglary tools. Parada-Munoz reportedly resisted arrest, while the others attempted escape in a Ford Fiesta used in previous heists.

These aren’t the only complex heists by South Americans this year. We reported in early October about a string of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ style burglaries.

The Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA) and Jewelers Mutual warned last month about some stores suffering major losses as a result of the break-ins, according to a report from JCK.

Scott Guginsky, the JSA’s vice president, said: “We see burglaries everywhere, from New York to Texas. Some of the hits are in the millions. These are the largest dollar losses we’ve seen in some time.”

“It doesn’t appear like they’re stopping,” said Howard Stone, vice president of global risk services and analytics for Jewelers Mutual. He started noticing the crimes in June, the report says.

The JCK report says that the gangs meticulously plan their heists, gathering detailed intelligence beforehand. “They’re all from South America and they are somewhat in communication. But it’s a loose-knit group. It’s not like there’s a [mob boss] John Gotti coordinating everything.”

It’s unclear yet if the two strings of heists related.

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News

Wendy’s to Close 140 Restaurants by the End of the Year

Fast-food giant Wendy’s is shuttering 140 underperforming locations through the end of 2024 as it looks to improve its “restaurant footprint and overall system health.”

To counter the closures, though, the Ohio-based company is working to replace many of these units with “new restaurants at better locations with significantly improved sales and profitability,” Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner told analysts on its third-quarter earnings call.

The company thoroughly reviewed individual restaurants to ensure they meet sales expectations and are profitable enough to support growth, and said that the locations closing are “outdated and in underperforming areas,” with operating margins far below the system average, Tanner said.

“I think when you think about strengthening our system, you look at a brand that’s 55 years old and some of those restaurants are just out of date,” Tanner said.

This restaurant footprint optimization is part of a slate of initiatives Wendy’s is deploying to strengthen the brand and its operations across the company and its franchisees.

The company didn’t disclose where the closures will be, but Tanner noted that “it’s not one particular area.”

Wendy’s anticipates the total closures in 2024 to be “offset by new restaurant openings this year, leaving our net unit growth approximately flat compared to the prior year,” Tanner said, adding that the company is confident that it will achieve significant accelerated unit growth rate of 3% to 4% in 2025.

By the end of 2024, the company said it will have opened more than 500 new restaurants over the last two years.

Tanner said it is also “using data-driven insights to target high-growth trade areas” as it continues to open up new locations.

Globally, the company said it’s on track to reach 250 to 300 openings for the full year.

Wendy’s is among a growing number of chains that have been trying to lure customers back in through a slew of promotions.

In the prior quarter, Wendy’s said it maintained “overall traffic and dollar share in the [quick service restaurant] burger category.”

Its revenue for the quarter came in above analysts’ expectations, notching $566.7 million, a 2.9% increase from a year earlier.

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News

Arizona AG Investigates Trump’s Liz Cheney Comment as Potential Death Threat

Arizona’s top prosecutor is investigating whether Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump violated state law by making a “death threat” against former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney during remarks Thursday night at an event in Glendale, 12News reported.

“I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” Attorney General Mayes, a first-term Democrat, said during Friday’s taping of “Sunday Square Off.”

“I’m not prepared now to say whether it was or it wasn’t, but it is not helpful as we prepare for our election and as we try to make sure that we keep the peace at our polling places and in our state.”

Trump was interviewed Thursday night by former Fox TV host Tucker Carlson at an arena event in Glendale.

Here’s what Trump said:

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

The “nine barrels” comment has been interpreted as suggesting Cheney could face a firing squad.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” Cheney said Friday in a statement on social media. “They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

Under Arizona law, threatening or intimidating a person is illegal. It can be charged as a Class 1 misdemeanor or Class 6 felony.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt responded: “This is just a desperate attempt to help out Kamala Harris’ failing campaign.”

Related: Kamala Campaign, Media Accuse Trump of Calling for Liz Cheney’s ‘Execution’

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News

Supreme Court Rejects Republican Bid to Block Pennsylvania Provisional Ballots

The Supreme Court on Friday said it won’t block Pennsylvanians whose mail votes are voided for technical reasons from voting provisionally at their polling place on Election Day, rejecting a challenge from the Republican National Committee.

The emergency order keeps in place a 4-3 ruling from Pennsylvania’s top court giving voters the additional option to still participate when they return their mail ballot without an inner, secrecy envelope or other issues.

The Supreme Court’s ruling enables an in-person do-over for those impacted voters, even if they live in a Pennsylvania county that doesn’t permit curing of mail ballots when cancelled for technical issues.

Republicans contended the practice violates state law and potentially affects tens of thousands of people, a sizable margin in a key battleground state that could decide the outcome of the presidential election.

The RNC unsuccessfully asked the justices to halt the Pennsylvania court’s ruling or at least separate the challenged ballots until fully resolving the appeal.

“Whether that crucial election will be conducted under the rules set by the General Assembly or under the whims of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is an important constitutional question meriting this Court’s immediate attention,” the RNC wrote in its emergency application.

The Supreme Court’s order had no noted dissents. Three of the court’s leading conservatives — Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — in a brief statement said they agreed with denying the RNC’s request.

“The application of the State Supreme Court’s interpretation in the upcoming election is a matter of considerable importance, but even if we agreed with the applicants’ federal constitutional argument (a question on which I express no view at this time), we could not prevent the consequences they fear,” Alito wrote.

“The lower court’s judgment concerns just two votes in the long-completed Pennsylvania primary,” he continued. “Staying that judgment would not impose any binding obligation on any of the Pennsylvania officials who are responsible for the conduct of this year’s election. And because the only state election officials who are parties in this case are the members of the board of elections in one small county, we cannot order other election boards to sequester affected ballots.”

Nearly 2.2 million Pennsylvanians have requested mail ballots for the upcoming election, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of State. The MIT Election Data and Science Lab estimates roughly 1.1 percent of mail votes in 2020 were rejected as naked ballots.

The dispute is part of a broader barrage of election lawsuits filed in the key swing state ahead of Tuesday’s contest. Other challenges implicate overseas ballots, mail ballots with missing dates and long voting lines.

Republicans have increasingly pulled the Supreme Court into the pre-election litigation, and many court watchers expect challenges to the election results will ultimately reach the justices.

The case at hand in Pennsylvania arose after two Butler County residents returned mail ballots without the required secrecy envelope in the state’s Democratic primary in April. The county’s election board then rejected the voters’ provisional ballots they cast in person on Election Day.

“This is a win for democracy and the rule of law,” Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, which represented the voters, said in a statement.

“The court rightly rejected this eleventh-hour attempt to discount the votes of Pennsylvanians and interfere in the state’s electoral process. The bottom line is that voters deserve to have their voices heard,” Savitzky added.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party, which is backing the voters’ challenge, told the Supreme Court to deny Republicans’ application, as did Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general.

“For this Court to grant certiorari here, it must conclude that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s routine application of statutorily defined interpretive principles was something other than ordinary judicial review. Should this Court go down that uncharted path, federal courts will be asked to do so every time a state court interprets any part of its statutory election law,” the state wrote in court filings.

“In Pennsylvania and across the country, Trump and his allies are trying to make it harder for your vote to count, but our institutions are stronger than his shameful attacks. Today’s decision confirms that, for every eligible voter, the right to vote means the right to have your vote counted,” Harris-Walz Campaign Communications Director Michael Tyler and Democratic National Committee Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement.

“While we are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s ruling, we have secured three major victories for election integrity in Pennsylvania just this week: we won extended early voting in Bucks County; we won signature verification and observer access in Erie County; and we won — for the fifth time — the dated ballot case in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,” RNC spokesperson Claire Zunk said in a statement.

The ruling from the nation’s highest court came moments after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted an RNC request in a separate case implicating ballots in the key swing state. The state court reaffirmed that mail ballots must be voided if they don’t have a proper date on the outer envelope.

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Daniel Penny Trial Begins: Everything You Need to Know

The trial of Daniel Penny began Friday with opening statements. The 26-year-old Marine veteran is charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, 30, on a New York City subway in 2023.

Penny was expressionless as he walked into the courthouse with his legal team and sat across from jurors who will ultimately decide his fate. Outside, demonstrators chanted, “Justice for Jordan Neely.”

The Marine veteran is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Neely, a homeless man who Penny says was threatening passengers on a subway train in May 2023 when he placed him in a chokehold. Penny has pleaded not guilty.

According to court documents, Neely boarded an F train, allegedly shouting, throwing things and acting erratically. Penny told police Neely was threatening to kill everyone on the train. He pinned Neely to the ground and held him in a chokehold for several minutes. Neely died at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Prosecution, defense give opening statements

Prosecutors’ opening statements were just over 40 minutes. They told the jury, “Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an uptown F train.” They noted he was 30 years old, homeless, high on synthetic marijuana and struggling with mental health issues when he entered that train screaming threats. Though they say Penny’s intentions were good, “the defendant went way too far” and used “far too much force for far too long.”

They argued Neely was in a chokehold for nearly six minutes, even after everyone else got off the train, and that deadly physical force is permitted only when absolutely necessary and only for as long as absolutely necessary.

“The defendant had not tried any other means to deescalate the situation. He quite literally went for the jugular,” prosecutors said.

Prosecutors argued Penny was reckless with Neely “because he didn’t recognize his humanity.”

The defense spoke for 18 minutes. Attorneys told jurors this case is “not about heroes and villains, this is a case about what a young man did for others. What we want someone to do for us.” The defense called Neely a “seething psychotic” and said he entered the train demanding food and drinks, and that Penny saw a mother barricading her son behind his baby stroller and heard Neely say, “I will kill.”

Penny’s attorneys argued that Penny had no opportunity to deescalate the situation and Neely was aggressively resisting, that Penny could barely contain him and that police took a long time to arrive.

Responding NYPD officers take the stand in Daniel Penny trial

The first witness to take the stand was one of the first NYPD officers on the scene back in May 2023. Jurors watched video from his body camera.

When asked what happened, Penny is seen on the video telling officers, “He was threatening everybody when he came onto the train.” He’s then asked if Neely has a weapon on him.

“I don’t know. I just, I just put him out,” Penny says.

In the video, the officer searches for weapons and pulls a muffin out of Neely’s jacket pocket. The officer says he feels a pulse on Neely, and another says he’s breathing. Narcan is administered, and eventually CPR begins. Narcan is administered again, and CPR continues before eventually an AED is brought.

A second officer testified he was surprised at how long it took an ambulance to arrive.

A third responding officer and two MTA employees also took the stand. Jurors watched multiple body cam videos from responding officers. CBS News New York’s Alice Gainer reports jurors were paying attention and taking notes.

Six rows in the courtroom were press. About 20 members of the public were inside, with more waiting in line to get inside. Members of Neely’s family were also present.

Donte Mills, an attorney for Neely’s family, said in a press conference, “This is a very straightforward case. I don’t think this is a difficult case to prosecute.”

He also said, “We know who the victim is in this case, and we know who the villain is.”

“The scene that our client had to contend with on that subway will really come to light when we start hearing from some of these passengers,” said Penny’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff.

During the lunch break, Penny’s attorneys were asked how the day was going.

“Very well,” an attorney said.

Court resumes Monday. The trial is expected to last about six weeks.

All 12 jurors are subway riders, most say they’ve seen outbursts on trains

It took eight days to choose 12 jurors and four alternates. It’s an anonymous jury made up of seven women and five men. All ride the subway, some more than others. Most said they had witnessed outbursts on the train, and others said they had been personally harassed or threatened.

Neely struggled with homelessness, mental illness and drug addiction.

While questioning and speaking with potential jurors this week, prosecutors told them while they believed that Penny’s intention was a good one and that he wanted to protect people on the subway from what he perceived to be a threat, Penny “went way too far,” was reckless and unnecessarily took another life.

Defense attorneys, who refer to their client as Danny, told prospective jurors that just because the medical examiner classified Neely’s death a homicide, it doesn’t mean Penny is responsible.

The defense hired a jury consultant for the selection process. Past high-profile cases she worked on included O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson and, more recently, Kyle Rittenhouse.

Defense attorneys wanted to keep the police search of Neely’s body out of evidence because officers found no weapon on Neely, but Thursday, a judge ruled it was allowed in.

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Colorado Secretary of State Fires Employee Responsible for Voting Security Breach

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said that the worker who was responsible for a voting security breach that allowed passwords to be posted online is gone and that the incident shouldn’t shake residents’ confidence in the election.

Speaking to Colorado Public Radio on Wednesday, Griswold said that the employee, a “civil servant,” now “no longer works” for her office after the incident.

“A civil servant accidentally made this error. Out of an abundance of caution, we have people in the field working to reset passwords and review access logs for affected counties,” she said. “The employee responsible for the hidden tabs on the spreadsheet no longer works with the department and we are doing everything that we can to, of course, assure the public and work with the counties.

“And, again, this is out of an abundance of caution. We do not believe there is a security threat to Colorado’s elections.”

It’s unclear if the employee was terminated or if the individual, who was not identified, resigned.

Griswold said her office is now working to address the matter. She also claimed that “lies,” “conspiracies,” and “threats” against election workers have resulted in high turnover rates among county clerks who handle elections.

The passwords were left on a spreadsheet online for months, Griswold announced on Tuesday. She said local, state, and federal agencies were working together to change the passwords and analyze logs to ensure there hadn’t been any tampering.

The Colorado County Clerks Association said in a statement that because Colorado’s voting systems have layers of safeguards, and with the remediation plan already in motion, “county clerks can say with confidence that Colorado elections are secure.”

Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign sent a letter to Griswold to express concern, which followed a similar letter from the chairman of the Colorado GOP. Griswold responded in a letter on Thursday evening, saying that because of the many security levels, “no single error can compromise the integrity of the system” and that the leak presents “no immediate threat.”

The letter from the Trump campaign’s law firm said that Griswold’s office needs to take steps to remedy the problem “because it’s the only way to guarantee” that elections systems in areas where counties’ passwords were posted online are secure.

Those tasked with changing the compromised passwords are working in pairs, under direct observation from local election officials, according to a statement from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’s office.

“We want to be able to provide assurances that all votes are counted fairly and accurately for this election and all elections,” Polis said.

Griswold said that “Colorado has countless layers of security to ensure voter’s voices are heard.”

“I’m thankful to the governor for his support to quickly resolve this unfortunate mistake,” she said.

Despite their assurances, a former Colorado secretary of state warned that the security incident constitutes a “serious breach.”

“It’s bad. Let me emphasize that we have other precautions in place, but the fact that a serious breach occurred is troubling,” former Republican Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams told 9News.

Colorado is not expected to be in play for Trump, according to political forecasters, including the Cook Political Report. The state was called in favor of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden by around 14 percentage points during the 2020 election, while Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won by about 5 points in 2016.

A recent poll of Colorado shows that Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has a 12-point lead over Trump.

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Ron Paul Would Join Elon Musk to Cut Government Waste in Potential 2nd Trump Term

Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) who ran twice for the Republican presidential nomination and once as a Libertarian said Thursday that he applauds Elon Musk’s likely involvement in a potential administration of President Donald Trump as a government efficiency commissioner and would freely offer his advice. Paul said in an interview with podcaster David Gornoski that he would welcome any opportunity to advise Musk on economic policy.

When asked if he would consider advising Musk on wasteful spending, Paul said, “Well I would … Everybody would know what I believe and there’d be no secrets, but I wouldn’t want an official position, you know, because I’ve sort of steered away from getting too involved in the politics of it all right now.” Paul said he views his role now as one of educating the public about the dangers of unhindered government growth.

“I always say young people that were in high school and college, when I was doing all the campaigning, [were] a receptive audience,” Paul said, noting that his audience was never composed of “the Chamber of Commerce people,” that he used to refer to in a negative way because they are “the ones that have been lobbying in Congress for more money for the cities.”

But he cautioned that if Musk becomes an economic advisor to Trump on cutting the size of government, he will have to act with prudence and caution.

“You know, a position is easy to have and to hold. But the truth is, you know, what if I did get in this position and all I had to do is sign a piece of paper and the Federal Reserve was eliminated, or you cut the budget by $2 trillion well, what the consequence would be is total chaos and probably civil war and all that,” Paul said.

Nonetheless, Paul said what is required is for people to understand why current government spending is too high “and people are going to have to know why, after this thing falls apart, I think we have an opportunity. You know, the cultural Marxists do it on purpose: the more chaos, the better.”

Paul said he remains “a reluctant optimist” after decades of political involvement “and there are a lot of people out there, a lot of young people that seem to be very receptive to what we’ve been talking about.”

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Diddy Court Witness Claims He Has Sex Tapes with 8 Celebrity ‘Victims’ — Including 2 Underage Stars

Courtney Burgess, a Sean “Diddy” Combs investigation court witness, told NewsNation’s “Banfield” on Thursday that he was given 11 flash drives containing at least eight sex tapes involving eight celebrities.

Burgess testified before the Combs grand jury in the Southern District of New York on Thursday.

Among the eight celebrities who were Combs’ “victims,” “two to three” were minors, according to Burgess.

Burgess said he was working in Atlanta when his former associate Kim Porter, an ex-girlfriend of Combs, shared the flash drives with him.

Burgess also received a manuscript from Porter’s alleged memoir titled “Kim’s Lost Words: A Journey for Justice, from the other side.” The book details physical abuse, sexual coercion and other acts of violence Combs allegedly committed. The $22 paperback had a quiet release on Amazon but sales skyrocketed after the news of Combs’ arrest and the shocking details of the indictment against him.

Ariel Mitchell, Burgess’ attorney, said the alleged tapes “tell the story of what Diddy has done over the past 30 years. His deviant activities.”

“I would imagine that is what is encompassed if said flash drives exist,” Mitchell said on “Banfield.” Burgess says he’s no longer in possession of the tapes.

Criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, whose daughter Teny represents Combs, said he’s “not buying” Burgess’ allegations.

“I think the prosecutors think he failed the smell test, and I suspect the prosecutors brought him in front of the grand jury because I don’t think anyone is buying what he’s selling,” Geragos said on “CUOMO.”

Combs pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges contained in an indictment unsealed the day after his Sept. 16 arrest. Charges include allegations he coerced and abused women for years, aided by associates and employees, and silenced victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.

He has remained incarcerated pending a May 5 trial after two judges denied bail in rulings being appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

New charges, evidence or additional defendants in his investigation could delay his court date.

Combs has been at the center of a storm of controversy and legal troubles involving multiple individuals who have come forward with allegations of sexual assault against him, leading to a series of lawsuits.

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US Announces $425 Million in New Ukraine Military Aid

The Pentagon announced Friday it was sending an additional $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine as Kyiv prepares to face Russian forces augmented by more than 10,000 North Korean troops.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had said more aid was coming, and soon, during his visit to Kyiv last week.

This aid package includes weapons that will be pulled from existing U.S. stockpiles, including air defense interceptors for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 155 mm artillery, and armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.

Ukraine’s eastern cities continue to face an onslaught of Russian missile strikes, including one on Kharkiv by a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) glide bomb.

The attack Thursday hit an apartment complex, killing three and injuring scores.

In addition, Ukraine is facing new uncertainty as waves of North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia have arrived near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to join the fight against Ukrainian troops in coming days.

Russia has increasingly used powerful glide bombs to pummel Ukrainian positions along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) line of contact and strike cities dozens of kilometers (miles) from the front line.

Kharkiv, a city of 1.1 million, is about 30 kilometers (less than 20 miles) from the border.

The aid package announced Friday by the Pentagon brings the total amount of military assistance the U.S. has provided Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022 to $60.4 billion.

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Social Media Star Peanut the Squirrel Has Been Euthanized After Being Seized from NY Home

Two days after he was seized from his home in New York, Peanut the Squirrel has been euthanized.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Chemung County Department of Health announced through a statement on Friday afternoon that both a squirrel and racoon confiscated from a residence on Wednesday had been euthanized to test for rabies. The statement said a person involved in the confiscation investigation was bitten by the squirrel.

Peanut the Squirrel, who boasted 534,000 followers on Instagram, was taken from his home in Pine City, New York, by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday morning. Peanut, also known as PNUT, was the beloved pet of content creator Mark Longo. In more than 1,400 posts shared to Instagram, Peanut can be seen munching on waffles, jumping through hula-hoops, and greeting Longo home from work.

According to DEC and health department statement, rabies have been found in racoons in New York’s Southern Tier, which includes Pine City, for more than 30 years.

Over the past several days, Longo has shared several statements on Peanut’s Instagram account, keeping fans updated, in hopes that Peanut may return home. At the time of publication, Longo had not posted in regards to the recent news.

“It has been a terrible nightmare for me,” Longo said in his most recent video, posted Friday morning.

In response to Peanut’s seizure, a Change.org petition and GoFundMe campaign were created to “return him (Peanut)” to his family. As of Friday afternoon, the petition had 28,025 signatures, and the GoFundMe has raised $7,875.

Why do animals have to be euthanized to test for rabies?

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, animals showing signs of rabies must be euthanized for the submission of specimen to a qualified rabies laboratory for testing. This is because a rabies test includes a “full cross-section of tissue from both the brain stem and cerebellum.” There are no approved methods for testing rabies in animals ante-mortem.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Chemung County Department of Health advised that anyone who has been in contact with the seized squirrel or racoon consult a physician.

Who was Peanut the Squirrel?

Peanut was a rescue squirrel who had lived under Longo’s care for seven years.

Longo first connected with Peanut when he saw the squirrel’s mom get hit by a car, per previous USA TODAY reporting. Unfortunately, the mother passed, leaving Peanut an orphan. Longo was unsuccessful in finding a shelter that would take him in. Longo ended up feeding baby Peanut for about eight months before attempting to release him back into the wild.

“I released him in the backyard, and a day and a half later, I found him sitting on my porch, missing half his tail. So here I am, bawling my eyes out, like, I failed you as your human,” Longo told USA TODAY in 2022. “And I kind of opened the door, he ran inside and that was the last of Peanut’s wildlife career.”

For the first five years, Longo, Peanut, and Longo’s cat, Chloe, lived together in harmony.

Last year, Longo established P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary in Pine City. The nonprofit serves as a “haven where neglected and homeless animals receive a second chance at life,” according to its website. To date, 18 horses, one mini horse, four cows, three alpacas, one parrot, one pig and two geese call the sanctuary home, according to its website.

Is it legal for squirrels to be kept as pets in NY?

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation states that it is illegal for young wildlife to be kept as pets.

“Inappropriate care given to young wildlife often results in abnormal attachment to humans,” the Department of Environmental Conservation states. “After release, some return to places where people live, only to be attacked by domestic animals or to be hit by cars. Some become nuisances getting into stored food, trash cans or dwellings. And some may be thrust as unwelcome intruders into the home range of another member of their species.”

If an individual finds a young wild animal that is injured or orphaned, the department recommends making a call to a wildlife rehabilitator, who “are the only people legally allowed to receive and treat distressed wildlife.” The goal of rehabilitators is to safely release the animal, when healthy, back into the wild.

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Kamala Campaign, Media Accuse Trump of Calling for Liz Cheney’s ‘Execution’

The Kamala Harris campaign, the Drudge Report and credulous media outlets seized on Donald Trump’s statement Thursday night that GOP ex-Rep. Liz Cheney was “a radical war hawk” to falsely accuse the Republican nominee of calling for the former lawmaker’s “execution” by firing squad.

“In case you weren’t up past midnight eastern time,” began a Harris campaign press release Friday morning, “Donald Trump sat down with Tucker Carlson in a late-night town hall where he suggested that Republican Liz Cheney should face a firing squad.”

The 45th president spoke with the former Fox News host at a Thursday event in Arizona, with proceeds going to those impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” Trump, 78, said of Cheney, 58, at the event.

“Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

“You know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,’” he added.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes shockingly announced Friday afternoon that she was investigating whether the remarks amounted to a death threat against the ex-Wyoming Republican.

“I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” Mayes told 12News in Phoenix in a Friday taping for the show “Sunday Square Off.”

Donald Trump doubled down on Cheney’s “war hawk” moniker during a stop at a Michigan coffee shop Friday afternoon.

“She’s a war hawk. She kills people,” Trump said at The Great Commoner, an Arab-American coffee shop in Dearborn.

“If she had to do it herself, if she had to face the consequences of battle, she wouldn’t be doing it,” Trump told reporters.

“She’s actually a disgrace,” he added. “She’d be the first one to chicken out.”

Left-leaning media suffered a nervous breakdown over the comments.

“TRUMP CALLS FOR CHENEY’S EXECUTION,” the news aggregator Drudge Report’s banner blared, inaccurately.

“WORLD IN SHOCK,” stated subsequent Drudge headlines, which linked to an article that quoted from no world leaders. “EX-PRESIDENT INCREASES VIOLENT THREATS AGAINST OPPONENTS.”

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough loved the Drudge banner so much, he demanded his producers “keep it up” for the duration of an unhinged morning segment on the remarks.

“Guys, if we can screenshot Drudge and put it up, that would be great,” Scarborough said. “People won’t believe it.”

“Put the Drudge Report back up because people won’t believe it,” he demanded later, claiming that the known anti-Trump media mogul was in fact a fan of the former president.

“Here, it’s Trump people,” the “Morning Joe” host said in reference to Drudge.

Harris spokesman Ian Sams was welcomed on during the airing of grievances to denounce “this dangerous, violent rhetoric.”

“I mean, think about the contrast between these two candidates,” Sams said. “You have Donald Trump who is talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad, and you have Vice President Harris talking about sending one to her cabinet. This is the difference in this race.”

Rolling Stone put the Harris campaign’s spin directly into one of its headlines: “Trump Fantasizes About Putting Liz Cheney in Front of a Firing Squad.”

“Trump Fantasizes About Shooting Female Rival in the Face,” an egregiously wrong Daily Beast headline also had it.

“Trump threatens ex-Rep. Liz Cheney with execution by firing squad,” the New York Daily News piled on.

CNN’s Kasie Hunt at the top of her 6 a.m. hour on “CNN This Morning” Friday also fell in line.

“Four days out from Election Day, and former President Donald Trump is escalating his violent rhetoric, suggesting that one of his most prominent critics, Liz Cheney, should be fired upon,” Hunt said.

“Let’s sit with that for a moment. Of course, violent rhetoric, it’s not new for Trump,” she added. “But this stark moment represents an escalation, at a tense moment when the country is on edge heading into Tuesday.”

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” tweeted Cheney, who endorsed Harris in September. “They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant. #Womenwillnotbesilenced #VoteKamala.”

Noted anti-Trumper and former Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh, however, called out the erroneous media campaign.

“Trump did NOT call for Liz Cheney to be executed,” said Walsh, who is also supporting Harris’ candidacy.

“This is what’s so wrong with our politics today. Look, you know how I feel about Trump, and I’ve been out there every day for 2-3 months campaigning my ass off to help get @KamalaHarris elected, but this short clip is so deceptive,” he went on.

“Trump is NOT calling for Liz Cheney to be executed in front of a firing line. He’s not. Listen to the entirety of what he said.

“In Trump’s typically stupid, ugly fashion, he’s trying to make a point about Cheney’s stance on war. But [X clip aggregator] Aaron [Rupar] (who I like & respect), by posting ONLY this 11 second clip, makes it look like he’s calling for her to be executed,” Walsh added.

“He’s not. He’s an utterly horrible human being who’s utterly unfit for office, but the truth should always matter. And the truth is that Trump is not calling for Liz Cheney to be executed. But … this 11 second clip will have a gazillion views, and the truth will have just a handful of views.”

Vox scribe Zack Beauchamp concurred.

“Folks, Trump didn’t threaten to execute Liz Cheney. He actually was calling her a chickenhawk, something liberals said about her for ages,” Beauchamp posted to rain on the Harris allies’ parade.

“Look at the context — Trump is talking about giving her a weapon. Typically, people put in front of firing squads aren’t armed.”

Dispatch editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg also took back his “inaccurate” comments on Hunt’s CNN panel Friday morning that Trump wanted to “execute a political opponent.”

“This morning on CNN I referred to Trump’s ‘rifles’ quote as him advocating a ‘firing squad’ for Liz Cheney. I was reacting in haste to what were objectively appalling and irresponsible comments that had been framed in the set-up piece in the context of previous statements Trump made about shooting protestors [sic] and having generals ‘executed,’” Goldberg said on X.

“Still, I was wrong to say he was calling for a firing squad execution,” the right-leaning commentator admitted. “After I said that, my co-panelist, Brad Todd made the case that I was wrong. Brad was right and, again, I was wrong.”

“Trump was making – albeit in his customary fashion – a different argument about Cheney’s alleged foreign policy views and the use of force,” he acknowledged. “I let my disgust at Trump’s comments get the better of me as this was the first time I’d heard them.”

“I regret the initial comment because it was inaccurate and contributed to the kind of overheated environment Trump thrives on,” he added.

As recently as the 2020 presidential campaign cycle, current Harris campaign backers were calling out Cheney over her hawkish stance.

“Taking national security advice from a Cheney has already caused irreparable damage to our country,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted in August 2019 as he ran for the nation’s highest office. “We don’t need any more, thanks.”

“[My Feeling When] Liz Cheney of all people tries to offer foreign policy takes, as if an entire generation hasn’t lived through the Cheneys sending us into war since we were kids,” groused “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) the same month, posting a GIF of her giving the camera the stinkeye.

The Democratic socialists have both endorsed Harris for president in 2024.

The Trump campaign issued its own press release on Friday debunking the hoax.

“President Donald Trump explained Thursday night that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them with no regard for the lives lost,” it read.

“The press has been disgracefully covering these remarks by saying that President Trump suggested that Liz Cheney should be put in front of a ‘firing squad,’” the campaign said.

“Are these reporters malicious or dumb? President Trump was clearly describing a combat zone. Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris, if elected, would continue to plunge the U.S. deeper into war leading to World War 3 and allow innocent men and women to die in that conflict.”

The former president is currently edging out Harris by a little less than a percentage point in both national and swing-state surveys aggregated by the RealClearPolitics polling tracker.

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Two Dead, 6 Injured in Shooting at Downtown Orlando Amid Halloween Celebration

This is the horrifying moment a 17-year-old opened fire on a Halloween crowd in Orlando and killed two, before being taken down by a hero cop.

Jaylen Dwayne Edgar was arrested after he killed two people and injured six others in downtown Orlando early on Friday, officials said.

Shocking footage released by police shows the suspect in a yellow shirt calmly walking through the crowd of Halloween revelers before he turns around and fires his gun. Crowds flee in terror as the muzzle flash lights up the dark street.

The suspect is seen running with the crowd towards two police cars, getting meshed with the innocent bystanders that were fleeing in panic.

As he pulls out the gun again, a hero cop spots him and quickly tackles him to the ground, disarming him before other officers assist in the arrest.

The suspect could be seen protesting his innocence and appeared to be trying to blend in with other bystanders fleeing for their lives.

Officers responded to a report of shots fired in the city’s downtown shortly after 1am.

A second shooting minutes later happened within a short distance of officers and they quickly made an arrest, the city’s police Chief Eric Smith said during a briefing Friday morning.

The six wounded, who range in age from 19 to 39, were transported to a hospital for treatment and were in stable condition, Smith said.

Smith showed video from street security cameras and a police body camera showing the two shootings and the suspect’s arrest at the second shooting location.

Police used security video to put out a description of the suspect, but the second shooting happened near police and officers saw the attack, Smith said.

Young people – many wearing Halloween costumes – had been out partying Thursday night in the area before the horror unfolded.

‘He pretty much walked into downtown, walked into the street and did what he did,’ Chief Smith said, adding that the teen suspect did not walk into any clubs.

‘Whatever his mindset was, he was going to shoot no matter what,’ Smith added, noting that the suspect’s motivation is part of the ongoing investigation.

There were more than 100 officers patrolling the crowds estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 people who were out celebrating Halloween on Thursday night and early Friday morning.

Florida State Attorney Andrew Baine said charging the teen suspect as an adult is a possibility but his agency would await further information from the police investigation.

Edgar was previously arrested for grand theft in 2023.

Police have not revealed the victims’ names as their families are informed.

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RNC Garners Last-Minute Election Legal Wins

After months of an aggressive legal strategy aimed at addressing what they saw as flaws in election rules, Republicans notched a pair of last-minute wins in court this week while fighting down to the wire in other voting cases just days ahead of Election Day.

In the past year, the RNC has filed 135 lawsuits in 26 states, according to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, in addition to dozens of other Republican-backed challenges in battleground states. Some of those challenges in the months ahead of Election Day failed, leaving in place permissive absentee voting and ballot counting laws in key swing states.

But two — purging noncitizens from Virginia voter rolls and extending an early voting deadline in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, after a judge reviewed evidence that some voters had been improperly turned away from polling places — have yielded victories for the GOP this week as lawyers from both parties prepare for the prospect of contesting razor-thin results on Election Day.

Whatley told reporters during a press call on Wednesday that the GOP powerhouse working to get former President Donald Trump reelected has focused on “four primary drivers for litigation.”

“One, only American citizens can vote. It is the law of the land, and we need the states to enforce that. Two, we want voter ID in place everywhere we can. Three, states must clean up their voter rolls. And four, in states that have mail in balloting or absentee balloting, we want basic protections in place on the mail in ballots,” Whatley said.

“This is not election denialism. This is not a conspiracy theory. These are basic protections that are widely supported,” the GOP chairman added.

The decisions the RNC is celebrating

Whatley’s remarks came on the heels of two legal victories for Republican-backed election integrity efforts.

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Virginia to continue its efforts to remove suspected ineligible or noncitizens from its voter rolls, and a judge in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania granted the Trump campaign’s lawsuit demanding to extend early voting after several voters said they were turned away at Bucks County election offices.

Early voting has now been extended until Friday at 5 p.m. for Bucks County, which swung about four points in favor of President Joe Biden in 2020.

After filing a series of unsuccessful legal challenges in the wake of Trump’s 2020 loss, Republicans had vowed to take a more proactive approach to election-related litigation this cycle.

“I think it’s really important that we get the word spread loud and clear that we are taking this seriously, that you can trust American elections, and that in 2024 we want to reestablish any trust that may have been lost previously,” Lara Trump said.

In addition to this week’s legal wins, Republicans also saw a court victory on Oct. 25 that could change the landscape for voting methods in future elections, but not next week’s.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, consisting of mostly Trump-appointed and other Republican-appointed judges, said it was illegal for states to count mail-in ballots received after Election Day, siding with Republicans in a case that challenged Mississippi’s five-day grace period.

Only Mississippi, a state that trends conservative, is affected by the decision, but the law called into question mail-in voting practices used in about 20 states across the country, and the ruling could potentially see an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The legal setbacks dealt to Republicans before Tuesday

Several RNC-backed challenges have faltered under judicial scrutiny, leaving in place permissive absentee voting and ballot counting laws in places like North Carolina and Michigan, states which matter greatly for the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The RNC sued North Carolina, targeting a law permitting U.S. citizens overseas who never lived in the state to cast their ballots there, as long as they haven’t registered elsewhere and their parent or legal guardian was previously an eligible state voter. But without checking Social Security numbers or other citizenship documents, the RNC raised concerns about the risk of ineligible voters participating this year. They also argue the overseas voting law violates the state’s constitution, which limits voting in the state’s elections “to North Carolina residents and only North Carolina residents.”

A three-judge panel on the North Carolina Court of Appeals rejected the case after a trial judge refused the party’s request for an intervention.

In Michigan, a 2022 amendment to the state constitution paved the way for mail-in ballots that arrive an entire week after the election to be counted. Republicans challenged the change and said the amendment created an overly broad definition of eligible overseas voters. But without even weighing the merits of the case, a state judge dismissed the suit last week in what she described as an “11th-hour attempt” to disenfranchise voters.

Whatley previously said that “North Carolinians and Michiganders should not have their votes canceled by those who’ve never lived in the state in the first place.”

Republicans were dealt another legal blow last month in Georgia.

The Georgia State Board of Elections, which holds a 3-2 Republican majority, faced challenges to their efforts to tighten election oversight and processes earlier this month.

A significant ruling came from Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox, who invalidated several last-minute rule changes proposed by Trump’s allies on the state election board, including a push for hand-counting ballots in addition to regular machine ballot counts on election night. Cox deemed these changes “illegal, unconstitutional, and void,” citing their proximity to the election as problematic.

The other six rules Cox struck down included setting requirements for a “reasonable inquiry” by local officials before certifying results, giving county election board members access to election-related documents generated as the election was being conducted, making absentee ballot deliverers provide a signature and photo ID upon delivery, requiring surveillance and recording of authorized drop boxes after the close of polls, expanding poll-watching areas, and adding new constraints for the county board of registrars in reporting absentee ballot information.

But Georgia’s highest court refused a Republican request to expedite an appeal against Cox’s decision, and the case won’t be resolved before Tuesday.

Whatley panned Cox’s decision as one that is exemplary of the “very worst of judicial activism.”

Although the rule changes aimed at securing Georgia’s election faltered, election integrity advocates such as former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican who lost her seat representing Georgia in 2020, said she has been leading “thousands of poll watchers” in the Peach State and has promoted an “election integrity hotline” backed by the state GOP that residents can call in the event that they see any suspicious behavior at polling sites.

But perhaps the most consistent threat to GOP-backed litigation is Democratic election lawyer Elias, who has been litigating at least 55 voting and election cases across 21 states. He also recently joined Harris’s legal team, a sign that Democrats feel they need to up their legal defenses.

On Wednesday, Ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon shredded Elias’s tactics on the first day back hosting his War Room podcast since his four-month prison sentence, alleging the ex-Hillary Clinton campaign attorney could try to block a Trump victory through a litigation tactic he called a “Nullification Project.”

One of Bannon’s guests, Article III Project founder Mike Davis, admitted that Elias’s courtroom track record is marked with success, saying that Trump needs to win “decisively by 3 or 4 points” and calling Elias a “savage attorney, the best attorney out there on election integrity.”

Elias fired back to Bannon on X, saying even “his guests admit, my team of lawyers is better than the GOP’s.”

GOP lean on Elon Musk’s poll-watching community on X as another Supreme Court ruling awaits

Republicans eagerly anticipate another Supreme Court intervention, while also expressing hope that Elon Musk’s social media site X will serve as a spotlight on potential acts of election fraud or malfeasance ahead of Nov. 5.

In the remaining Supreme Court dispute, the RNC asks the justices to block election officials from allowing voters to cast provisional ballots if they already submitted a mail-in ballot that contained mistakes, such as failing to insert mandatory inner sleeves called “secrecy envelopes,” or submitting ballots with missing or mismatched signatures.

Attorneys for the Republicans argued a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling “usurps” the state legislature’s authority. The ruling “effectively creates a cure process for mail-ballot errors — a process everyone agrees the General Assembly has deliberately chosen not to create,” the GOP attorneys wrote in court filings.

The high court is expected to respond to the request as soon as Friday.

Meanwhile, Musk’s recently formed community group on X, dubbed the “Election Integrity Community,” has been lauded by Trump surrogates as being “100% effective,” pointing to posts made in the group that led to the Trump campaign’s successful lawsuit in Bucks County.

“I think it definitely galvanizes the community,” said David Gelman, a Trump campaign legal surrogate and former prosecutor.

The X CEO’s community group is intended for flagging “potential instances of voter fraud and irregularities that Americans are experiencing in the 2024 Election,” according to a pinned post from Musk’s America PAC. So far, more than 55,000 X users have joined the group.

Gelman, who worked on the legal team for the RNC in 2020, said the efforts to promote election integrity in the current election are “night and day” compared to the last presidential election.

“We’re not reacting, we’re proactive,” Gelman said. “We’re not waiting until Election Day. We’re not waiting till the day before that day, or even after Election Day.”

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Nate Silver Accuses Pollsters of ‘Lying,’ ‘Cheating’

Polling guru Nate Silver lashed out at other survey junkies in his field for “cheating” in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election — accusing them of recycling some results to keep the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris close.

The FiveThirtyEight founder said irresponsible pollsters were “herding” their numbers, or using past results to affect current ones, to keep Vice President Harris and former President Trump within a point or two of each other each time.

“I kind of trust pollsters less,” Silver said on his podcast, name-checking Emerson College. “They all, every time a pollster [says] ‘Oh, every state is just plus-one, every single state’s a tie,’ no! You’re f–king herding! You’re cheating! You’re cheating!” he fumed.

“Your numbers aren’t all going to come out at exactly one-point leads when you’re sampling 800 people over dozens of surveys,” Silver vented.

“You are lying! You’re putting your f–king finger on the scale!’”

Silver’s own vaunted model puts Trump ahead of Harris, 55% to 45%, as voters prepare to head to the polls in just three days.

His scorn also extended to “all these GOP-leaning firms” showing the former president narrowly ahead each time to project that they’re “not going out too far on a limb.”

“If a pollster never publishes any numbers that surprises you, then it has no value,” he said.

Silver blasted most other pollsters except for the New York Times, saying the rest were “just f–king punting on this election for the most part.”

“But look, all seven swing states are still polling within it looks like a point and a half here,” he hedged.

“It doesn’t take a genius to know that if every swing state is a tie, that the overall forecast is a tie.”

Trump, 78, is currently leading Harris, 60, in both the national (+0.3%) and swing-state (+0.9%) averages of recent polls aggregated by RealClearPolitics.

The two were deadlocked in the final New York Times/Siena College poll earlier this month at 48%.

Silver was slightly less data-driven in a recent Times op-ed on the contest, in which he admitted his “gut says” Trump will win.

“In an election where the seven battleground states are all polling within a percentage point or two, 50-50 is the only responsible forecast,” Silver wrote.

“Yet when I deliver this unsatisfying news, I inevitably get a question: ‘C’mon, Nate, what’s your gut say?’” he went on. “So OK, I’ll tell you. My gut says Donald Trump. And my guess is that it is true for many anxious Democrats.”

Over the past eight years, pollsters have discussed how Trump supporters are notoriously difficult to include in surveys, creating a “nonresponse bias” that nukes the results.

“It’s not that Trump voters are lying to pollsters; it’s that in 2016 and 2020, pollsters weren’t reaching enough of them,” Silver explained in his op-ed.

Data firms can accumulate mistaken information from voters about who they cast ballots for in the last election, Silver also said.

He further noted that party registration is roughly at parity in many places now, saying “about as many people now identify as Republicans.”

Silver has publicly analyzed election results since Barack Obama’s win over John McCain in 2008 and writes currently on his own Substack titled the “Silver Bulletin.”

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