A U.S. service member has been detained in Venezuela, the U.S. State Department said.

On Saturday, Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech had been detained as they were accused of trying to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and overthrow the Venezuelan government, Reuters reported.

In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, the State Department denied the allegations with spokesman Matt Miller saying “any claims of U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”

Miller confirmed the detention of the service member and said the State Department was aware of “unconfirmed reports” that Venezuelan authorities detained two additional Americans.

The Associated Press identified the American service member as Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez, a member of the Navy.

The detentions come amid an international dispute over Venezuela’s recent presidential election, which was marred by allegations of fraud.

While Maduro was declared the winner in July by Venezuelan officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month there was “overwhelming evidence” Maduro’s opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez secured the most votes.

During a press conference on Saturday, Cabello said the detainees were allegedly linked to plans to assassinate Maduro and other officials.

“These groups seek to seize the country’s wealth, and we as a government will respond firmly to any destabilization attempt,” Cabello said, adding that officials seized about 400 rifles originating in the U.S.

The U.S. State Department denied the allegations.

The U.S. “continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela,” Miller said.

Cabello said the Spanish nationals were detained as they were taking photographs in the town of Puerto Ayacucho.

“These citizens have links — we know they will say no, that it is a lie — they have links with the center,” Cabello said, referring to Spain’s intelligence agency.

Spain’s government similarly denied any involvement, Spanish media reported.

A Spanish foreign ministry source told Reuters it requested additional information from Venezuelan officials.

“The Spanish embassy has sent a verbal note to the Venezuelan government asking for access to the detained citizens in order to verify their identities and their nationality and in order to know what they are accused of exactly,” the source said.

Diplomatic tensions between Venezuela and Spain remain strained following Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election.

A Spanish minister has accused Maduro of running a “dictatorship.”

Venezuela was also upset by the decision by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to meet with Gonzalez, who went into exile in Spain last week after being threatened with arrest by Maduro’s regime following the election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.

After initially saying the missile had fallen in an open area, Israel’s military later said it had probably fragmented in the air, and that pieces of interceptors had landed in fields and near a railway station. Nobody was reported hurt.

Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard.

Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.

At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.

“Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.

The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October.

The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.

Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.

Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Sarea said.

The deputy head of the Houthi’s media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”.

The Israeli military also said that 40 projectiles were fired towards Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and were either intercepted or landed in open areas.

“No injuries were reported,” the military said.

Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, may turn more voters away than it attracts.

A new post-debate poll from YouGov released Saturday found that 8% of voters said the pop superstar’s nod is either “somewhat” or “much more likely” to convince them to cast their ballot for the Democrat.

But a whopping 20% said they are “somewhat” or “much less likely” to vote for former President Donald Trump’s opponent now that Swift has spoken.

Most of the respondents, 66%, said Swift’s endorsement made no difference on how they will vote in November.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice,” the Grammy-winning artist shared in an Instagram post with her 283 million followers shortly after Tuesday night’s debate.

“Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”

She called Harris “a steady-handed, gifted leader” who could lead with “calm and not chaos.”

The majority — 32% of the online poll’s respondents — think the move will have a positive effect on Harris’ campaign, while 27% said they don’t think it’ll have an effect either way.

Forty-one percent — nearly 460 people — said the “Shake it Off” singer shouldn’t speak publicly about politics.

Thirty-eight percent said she should make public endorsements.

Sixty-six percent of the poll’s participants said they are not Swifties, while 28% reported being a fan and 6% identified as a big fan.

The majority of “big fans” were women, and registered Democrats.

Swift’s endorsement led to flood of traffic to the voter registration website vote.gov into Wednesday afternoon, according to reports.

A spokesperson said 337,826 visitors visited vote.gov after clicking a custom link Swift shared on Instagram.

Overall, while 46% of people thought Harris won the debate to 19% for Trump, just 6% said it caused them to reconsider their vote, while 76% said it has not, according to YouGov.

Laura Loomer floated suing Bill Maher after the comedian suggested on Real Time that she and former President Donald Trump are are having an affair.

On Friday’s Real Time, Maher noted that Loomer had previously suggested Taylor Swift is in an “arranged relationship” with Travis Kelce to influence the 2024 presidential election before he accused Loomer of the same thing. Swift recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I think maybe Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to influence the election because she’s very close to Trump. She’s 31, looks like his type,” Maher said.

He then referenced an “editorial” he previously did on the show that boils down to “who’s Trump fucking?”

“Because I said, it’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long. And it’s not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week,” Maher said. “I think it might be Laura Loomer, I’m just saying.”

So to be a, to be a 911 truther. This is what I mean about Captain Queeg. We’re at that end stage, I really think. Here’s my question because she said, Laura Loomer said Taylor Swift, she believes, is in an arranged relationship with Travis Kelce to influence the 2024 election. I think maybe, Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to affect the election. Because she’s very close to Trump. She’s 31, looks like his type. We did an editorial here a few years ago who – oh you’re remembering it already. It was basically, Who’s Trump Fucking? Because I said, you know, it’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long. And and it’s not Melania. I think we may have our, our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer. I’m just saying.

Loomer fired back in an X post, calling Maher’s statements “beyond the pale” and accusing the “mainstream media” of pushing a “coordinated attack” against her by suggesting there is more to her relationship to Trump than professional.

“I should sue Bill Maher for Defamation,” she wrote. “This is beyond the pale and it’s a complete and blatant lie. I have never in my life seen such a coordinated attack by the mainstream Media, the White House and leftist personalities to target a private citizen and investigative journalist simply because I flew on a plane and I support Donald Trump.”

I should sue Bill Maher @billmaher for Defamation.

This is beyond the pale and it’s a complete and blatant lie.

I have never in my life seen such a coordinated attack by the mainstream
Media, the White House and leftist personalities to target a private citizen and… https://t.co/Nis17vPdPu

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) September 14, 2024

She accused Maher of “maliciously and deliberately defaming” her and disrespecting Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump in her threat to sue.

There is no proof of any kind of intimate relationship between Trump and Loomer, but that has not stopped critics from making light jabs and suggestions. Michael Steele suggested the pair were “too close” after seeing a picture of them together.

“You showed that picture of Loomer sitting, standing up under Donald Trump. First question crossed my mind was, where the hell is Melania?! That’s a little too close for a pic,” he said.

Active U.S. Military members responded to Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris‘ false claim during last week’s debate about the Biden-Harris administration supposedly removing all military personnel from combat zones.

“As of today, there is not one member of the United States Military who is in active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world, for the first time this century,” Harris falsely boasted during the debate.

During the debate, Harris was not fact-checked by ABC moderators, who have been widely ridiculed for their anti-Trump bias. Active military members, however, did chime in.

Video shows military members watching Harris during the debate, with the caption, “full of lies.”

After Harris makes her false claim, one of the military members turns the camera around on himself and other members and says, “So where the f*** are we, right now?”

Watch:

Kamala Harris just got hit with the biggest fact check in human history pic.twitter.com/LDeniMIO88

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) September 13, 2024

As highlighted by those in active duty, tens of thousands of U.S. Military members are indeed serving in hostile areas and recognized combat zones.

For example, there are about 2,500 military personnel in Iraq, and around 900 in Syria, fighting Islamic State militants, according to the Department of Defense.

Moreover, a Reuters report from February points out that there are roughly 30,000 U.S. troops scattered in the Middle East, with thousands of additional troops sent to the region since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, which was sparked during Harris and President Joe Biden’s tenure.

Harris’ response also seems to dismiss the sacrifices of military members who have been killed or injured on her watch, following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In January, for example, three Army Reserve soldiers were killed at a U.S. base in Jordan, during a drone attack from an Iran-backed militia, The New York Times reported. More than 30 other service members were injured.

Since then, eight service members were injured in a drone attack in Syria, and two U.S. Navy SEALS drowned during a mission tied to Iran.

Moreover, families of U.S. troops who have been injured following the withdrawal are harshly criticizing Harris for her lie.

Brad Illerbrunner, whose son was seriously injured in Iraq in December, said Harris’ remarks at the debate “really [hit] below the belt,” the New York Post reported. “She doesn’t even recognize that our own troops are getting hurt.”

“We’re still in war zones,” he said, adding that the VP is “trying to snow the public.”

Authorities in Georgia released on Friday 911 call audio from the day of the Apalachee High School shooting.

Most of the calls released from the deadly Sept. 4 incident are from parents of students at the high school or nearby schools inquiring about the whereabouts and safety of their children.

The Barrow County 911 call center was inundated with calls around 10:20 am. Many callers received the automated message that the center had a “high call volume” instead of hearing from an operator.

One caller couldn’t find the words to describe the school shooting as given by her daughter, saying, “My daughter calling me crying. Somebody go, ‘boom, boom, boom, boom.”

The agreed-upon response given to callers that morning explained that officers were on the scene, but details could not be provided. Apalachee High School was immediately placed on lockdown.

Listen:

Several 911 calls released Friday afternoon, revealed a chaotic Apalachee High School scene as parents, friends and partners called dispatchers for help in the early moments of a deadly shooting on the campus.
Read More: https://t.co/PAyAVBaYrJ pic.twitter.com/HtnxXXhxBk

— Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@ajc) September 14, 2024

All schools in the area, including nearby Yargo Elementary School and Haymon-Morris Middle School, were also locked down.

Most of the emergency calls made that day cannot be released due to Georgia law, as they contain “the speech or cries of a minor,” according to Barrow County Emergency Communications from a letter to FOX 5 Atlanta.

Fourteen-year-old students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, and teachers Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall, were killed in the attack.

Colt Gray and his 54-year-old father, Colin Gray, are both in custody facing charges for the killings, with 14-year-old Colt being tried as an adult.

Another bomb threat in Springfield, Ohio, forced two hospitals into lockdown Saturday morning as the small city of about 60,000 continues to endure heightened national attention and threats over the influx of an estimated 20,000 Haitian residents.

The bomb threats made to Kettering Health Springfield and Mercy Health-Springfield Regional Medical Center came after two elementary schools and government buildings were targeted on Friday, forcing evacuation and closure.

Mercy Health went into lockdown shortly after 6 a.m. while local authorities conducted a thorough search of the facility, in conjunction with the hospital’s onsite security team, a hospital spokesperson told News Center 7, adding that the threat was determined to be not credible.

“The safety protocols we have in place for these instances allow us to work quickly with local law enforcement to investigate threats thoroughly and ensure the safety of our patients and staff,” Kettering Health said in a statement.

The lockdowns have since been lifted.

Bomb threats on Friday forced two Springfield elementary schools to evacuate for a second consecutive day and a middle school to shutter prior to the start of the school day.

Several city commissioners and a municipal employee also received bomb threats via email, with a second email threatening additional locations, including Springfield City Hall, Cliff Park High School, Perrin Woods Elementary School, Roosevelt Middle School and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Ohio License Bureau Southside.

The origin of these emails is under investigation by local police and FBI agents based in Dayton.

“We recognize that the past few days have been particularly challenging for everyone in our community,” Springfield police said in a statement to The Guardian.

Police added “we remain fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of each and every person.”

The spotlight on Springfield was amplified this week after former President Donald Trump declared during Tuesday’s presidential debate that Haitian migrants in Springfield had been abducting and eating pets.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” the Republican presidential nominee claimed.

When pressed by ABC News’ debate moderator David Muir about denials from local officials, Trump claimed, “the people on television say their dog was eaten by the people that went there.”

Springfield city manager Bryan Heck said there were “no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

The Daily Wire’s “Am I Racist?” starring Matt Walsh was the third-highest-grossing film on Friday, out-earning a major studio release showing in more than 2,500 theaters.

“Am I Racist?” which premiered Friday, outgrossed Lionsgate’s “The Killer’s Game,” and was the second-biggest new release of the day. “Am I Racist?,” one of only 15 documentaries ever to open in over 1,500 theaters, also had the third-highest opening day gross for a documentary in the last decade.

Audiences are raving about the film, in which Walsh goes deep undercover to expose the inner workings of the diversity, equity, and inclusion industry. The film has a 99% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and earned an “A” rating from CinemaScore, which grades movies based on audience response. No other new release received an A. By the end of its second day in theaters, “Am I Racist?” will already be the biggest documentary of the year.

Off to a very strong start. Top three in the box office on opening day, coming in third and easily beating “The Killer’s Game.” That’s a mainstream Hollywood film that opened in a thousand more theaters. Thank you to everyone who supported the film. Let’s keep the momentum going.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 14, 2024

Ninety-five percent of audience members said “Am I Racist?” met or exceeded their expectations, according to PostTrak exit polling. Nearly 70% of viewers said the film was “excellent,” and 57% said they would tell their friends to see it in a theater.

Just over 40% of opening day viewers were under 35. And nearly 40% of the opening day audience was non-white, a fact that may come as a shock to anti-racist activist Saira Rao, who has privately slammed “Am I Racist?” as a “Nazi White Supremacy Film.”

Rao is one of several anti-racist activists featured in the film. Another, “White Fragility” author Robin DiAngelo, told followers that she got played by the “Borat-style mockumentary.” In the film, Walsh convinces DiAngelo to pay his black producer $30 out of her purse as reparations for slavery.

DiAngelo says that “Am I Racist?” is “designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists.” Walsh responded to her critique on X, saying, “She couldn’t be more correct in that assessment.”

Robin DiAngelo has issued a statement denouncing our film. She claims that the movie is “designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists.” She couldn’t be more correct in that assessment. Thank you, Robin!https://t.co/xOvMUFnuTk

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 12, 2024

The Daily Wire entered the entertainment space in 2021 with a mission to disrupt Hollywood. The company has since released six films, including the acclaimed “What Is A Woman?” starring Walsh, one of the most-viewed documentaries of all time. “Am I Racist?” is The Daily Wire’s first theatrical release and is already defying industry expectations with its box office performance.

“Am I Racist?” is now playing in over 1,500 theaters.

A wealth of research suggests that the billions of dollars corporate America, academia and government agencies have spent on diversity training have done little to impact people’s behavior.

What impact diversity trainings do have is often short-lived or purely influences beliefs without impacting actions, according to a review of multiple meta-analyses, a type of research that summarizes the results of hundreds of studies. American businesses alone spend roughly $8 billion a year on the same diversity trainings research suggests are ineffective, according to the Harvard Business Review.

On top of the billions corporations spend on diversity trainings, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public funds flow to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives through state universities and the federal government.

A 2020 meta-analysis synthesized findings from 492 different studies and found that trainings designed to reduce implicit bias, a term used by academics to refer to discriminatory attitudes people hold but are not consciously aware of, “generally produced trivial changes in behavior.” Per the study, the trainings had “relatively weak” effects on measures of implicit bias, however, it also found that changes in implicit biases didn’t necessarily translate to behavioral changes.

Many nonprofits, like the National Equity Project, provide diversity training services to public and private clients like businesses.

“Nonprofit spending on the left, roughly defined, swamps the center-right by a factor of three or four to one depending on the year … and yet the country hasn’t really moved much,” Capital Research Center Senior Investigative Researcher Ken Braun told the Daily Caller News Foundation, speaking on diversity training spending. “The very fact that DEI was ever created demonstrates the abject failure of decades of spending and messaging on what we used to call ‘affirmative action.’”

Diversity trainings may influence the stated beliefs of participants, but cause little change in day-to-day behavior. A study conducted by a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers in 2019 surveyed 3,000 employees at a multi-national company and found that the impact of anti-sexism training led to employees acknowledging that women face discrimination, but not changing the way they behaved.

The apparent inefficacy of diversity training hasn’t stopped bureaucrats from spending public funds on it, with a number of school districts and public colleges paying Ibram X. Kendi, the academic famous for popularizing the idea of “anti-racism,” tens of thousands of dollars for presentations. Roughly two-thirds of American colleges in 2016 had diversity training for faculty, and 43% of those trainings were mandatory, according to a survey conducted by researchers Frank Dobbin of Harvard University and Alexandra Kalev of Tel-Aviv University.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order in June 2021 ordering federal agencies to increase their diversity programming, asserting that “such training programs should enable federal employees, managers and leaders to have knowledge of systemic and institutional racism and bias.”

Questions surrounding the effectiveness of diversity trainings have existed for some time, with a 2009 analysis of hundreds of studies published in the Annual Review of Psychology failing to find evidence that diversity trainings are effective at reducing prejudice or influencing behavior in the ways intended.

Despite academics struggling to find evidence to support the efficacy of diversity trainings, many corporations leaned into such initiatives after the consulting firm McKinsey and Company published a report in 2015 claiming that companies with more diverse executives saw higher profits, according to the Wall Street Journal. Multiple academics, however, failed to replicate the results of the consulting firm’s study.

Repeating the studies of others is a common practice used in academia to determine if a result is reflective of reality or if it was the product of poor methodology or dumb luck. Econ Journal Watch (EJW), a publication run by economics professors, was among those that attempted to recreate McKinsey’s findings only to discover no statistically significant link between executive diversity and profitability.

“Caution is warranted in relying on McKinsey’s findings to support the view that US publicly traded firms can deliver improved financial performance if they increase the racial/ethnic diversity of their executives,” EJW’s report reads. “We are unable to replicate the same statistically reliable association between firm financial performance and executive race/ethnic diversity as they report.”

A number of corporations are beginning to retreat from their diversity initiatives, with American Airlines, BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase and Lowe’s all editing their DEI policies to be less racially focused following lawsuit threats from conservatives.

Braun called the apparent movement of corporate America away from DEI initiatives “encouraging” but laughed when asked if academia and the federal government might follow suit.

Other studies have found that diversity trainings don’t only fail to alter people’s behavior but sometimes produce backlash effects that make people more prejudiced. Dobbin and Kalev, in a book they co-authored, found that after implementing diversity trainings, firms saw a decrease in women and minorities in leadership positions.

“If diversity training has no impact whatsoever, that would mean that perhaps billions of dollars are being wasted annually in the United States on these efforts,” journalist Jesse Singal wrote in 2023. “But there’s a darker possibility: Some diversity initiatives might actually worsen the DEI climates of the organizations that pay for them.”

Former President Trump said in a Truth Social post Friday that he did not agree with statements made by Laura Loomer, who has come under scrutiny after traveling with the former president and battling with various other Republicans friendly with Trump.

In the post, Trump wrote that he disagreed with the statements Loomer made, though he didn’t specify any particular comments. He otherwise described her as a “private citizen and longtime supporter.”

“I disagree with the statements she made but, like the many millions of people who support me, she is tired of watching the Radical Left Marxists and Fascists violently attack and smear me, even to the point of doing anything to stop their Political Opponent, ME!” Trump wrote.

At an campaign event earlier Friday, Trump shrugged off a question about Loomer as some of his Republican allies sound the alarm about her influence, saying she brings “a spirit” to his campaign.

“Laura’s been a supporter of mine. She speaks positively of the campaign,” Trump said. “Laura is a supporter. I don’t control Laura; she’s a free spirit.”

Trump went on to call Loomer “a strong person” with “strong opinions,” and he said he would go look at some of her comments that have caused controversy.

Loomer is an outspoken Trump supporter who is known for spreading conspiracy theories. She flew on Trump’s plane to Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia and was part of his entourage as he attended memorial events Wednesday to mark the anniversary of 9/11.

She does not have any official role with Trump’s campaign, multiple sources said. But her association with the former president has attracted attention during a critical stretch of his White House bid.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), another staunch Trump ally, told reporters Wednesday that Loomer did not have the “experience or the right mentality” to advise Trump.

“I do know this, that her rhetoric and her tone does not match the base, it does not match MAGA, it does not match most Republicans I know,” Greene said. “And I’m really denouncing it. I’m over it.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Loomer’s recent racist comments about Vice President Harris, in which she used crude stereotypes to attack Harris’s Indian heritage, “abhorrent,” and he noted Loomer made “disturbing” comments about Republicans.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Friday called Loomer “a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans.

“A DNC plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning re-election,” Tillis added in his social media post. “Enough.”

Christopher Rufo reported:

Donald Trump shocked audiences at this week’s presidential debate with the claim that foreign migrants were eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio, a small town currently reeling under the strain of an unprecedented number of new arrivals, mostly from Haiti. “They’re eating the dogs,” Trump said. “They’re eating the cats.”

Reactions on both sides were spirited. Conservative social media accounts created memes that portrayed Trump, dressed in camouflage, and toting heavy weapons, as the savior of innocent pets. There was even a viral TikTok trend, which chopped up Trump’s speech and set it to dance music. “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating cats,” the music thumped. “Eat the cat! Eat, eat the cat!”

The establishment media was not amused. During the debate, ABC’s David Muir dismissed Trump’s rhetoric with his version of a fact check, citing the Springfield city manager’s statement that “there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” Other publications went further, blasting the former president for spreading a “racist smear,” a “century-old stereotype,” and a “cat-eating conspiracy theory.”

So, is there any truth to the charge? We have conducted an exclusive investigation that reveals that, yes, in fact, some migrants in Ohio appear to have been “eating the cats,” though not exactly in the manner that Trump described.

Our investigation begins in a run-down neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, the closest major city to Springfield, about a half-hour’s drive away. We identified a social media post, dated August 25, 2023, with a short video depicting what appear to be two skinned cats on top of a blue barbeque.

“Yoooo the Africans wildn on Parkwood,” reads the text, referring to Parkwood Drive. The video then pans down to two live cats walking across the grass in front of a run-down fence, with a voice on the video warning: “There go a cat right there. His ass better get missin’, man. Look like his homies on the grill!”

EXCLUSIVE: We have discovered that migrants are, in fact, eating cats in Ohio. We have verified, with multiple witnesses and visual cross-references, that African migrants in Dayton, the next city over from Springfield, barbecued these cats last summer.https://t.co/8QveTJy4Vp pic.twitter.com/PxuJQ7fJc9

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) September 14, 2024

We spoke with the author of the video, who asked to remain anonymous but confirmed its time, location, and authenticity. He told us that he was picking up his son last summer, when he noticed the unusual situation. “It was some Africans that stay right next door to my kid’s mother,” he said. “This African dude next door had the damn cat on the grill.”

We then identified the home by matching it to the visuals in the video and cross-referencing them with the eyewitness. When we knocked on the door of the first unit, a family answered, telling us they were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that all of the surrounding units were occupied by other African migrants.

One of the residents told us that her former neighbors, also from Africa, had lived in the adjacent unit until last month. They had a blue grill and the father would find meat in the neighborhood. “Her dad was going to find meat,” she said. “Her dad was going, holding a knife.” The current residents also showed us a blue grill of the same make and model as in the video, which the former neighbors had abandoned after they moved out. There were at least ten cats wandering around the complex and another resident complained that they were breeding on the property.

According to the original witness, whose son was friendly with the neighbors, there was no doubt about what happened last summer. “They was barbecuing the damn cat!” he said. His son’s mother had previously witnessed the family butchering a mammal on the street, but the cats on the barbeque put him in such a state of shock, he felt the need to film it.

To be clear: this single incident does not confirm every particularity of Trump’s statement. The town is Dayton, not Springfield; cats alone were on the grill, not cats and dogs. But it does break the general narrative peddled by the establishment media and its “fact checkers,” who insisted that this has never happened, and that any suggestion otherwise is somehow an expression of racism.

Read the full article.

A Springfield, Ohio, woman who sparked rumors about Haitian migrants eating pets says she is filled with regret and insists she never intended to target the Haitian community.

Erika Lee, 35, spoke out after she warned locals in a Facebook group that her ‘neighbor informed me that her daughter’s friend lost her cat’, only to find the pet strung up ‘from a branch’ outside the home of a Haitian family.

But Lee now admits that she had no firsthand knowledge of the claims, and the neighbor referenced in the post, Kimberly Newton, revealed that she also heard the story from an acquaintance and not her daughter.

But before the confusing back-and-forth was resolved – with police also insisting no reports have been filed over pets being eaten – the rumor went viral.

‘It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,’ Erika Lee told NBC News – after the wild conspiracy even found its way into Donald Trump’s presidential debate material.

Lee’s Facebook post sparked panic across social media after screenshots were circulated around X, in which she warned Haitian migrants were hanging cats ‘from a branch like you’d do a deer for butchering, and they were carving it up to eat.’

‘I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks and geese,’ she continued, claiming to be ‘told that last bit by rangers and police.’

‘Please keep a close eye on these animals,’ she signed off the post.

Lee now says she never expected her post to ‘get past Springfield’, and has since deleted the post as she did not anticipate it sparking a national rumor.

Lee first admitted to Newsguard that she heard the rumor of Haitian migrants eating cats in her town through her neighbor Kimberly Newton, who heard it through a friend, who heard it from the alleged cat owner.

Newton, when asked, said she was ‘not sure I’m the most credible source.’

‘I don’t actually know the person who lost the cat,’ she told NewsGuard, a company that counters misinformation. ‘I don’t have any proof.’

She said the cat’s owner was ‘an acquaintance of a friend’. Newton originally heard it from her friend, who had heard it from a ‘source that she had’ before she told Lee, who then posted about it.

Newton also clarified that her source was not through her daughter, like Lee claimed.

While city officials said they had no evidence that Springfield pets were in danger, locals say it’s a problem online.

‘In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,’ Springfield officials said.

The viral picture of a man holding two geese on an Ohio street being used to fuel claims that migrants have been gobbling up pets was nothing more than a wild goose chase, according to a report.

The anonymous man who was snapped carrying the bodies of two birds earlier this week was removing them from the street after they were hit by a car, the Ohio Division of Wildlife confirmed to TMZ.

There is no evidence he was taking them home to eat or that he is a migrant, the agency said.

The incident happened in Columbus — more than 45 miles away from the city of Springfield.

The viral snapshot was originally shared on the Columbus subreddit in July and shows a man walking down a suburban street holding a goose.

Weeks later, a Springfield resident called 911 to report spotting four Haitian migrants snatching geese near a city park.

Trump referenced the incident at a rally in Arizona earlier this week to bolster claims that illegal immigrants are chowing down on pets.

“A recording of 911 calls show that residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town’s geese,” Trump told the crowd.

“They’re taking the geese. You know where the geese are? In the park, in the lake. And even walking off with their pets.”

Trump discussed the controversial allegations during his Tuesday debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump told the crowd.

A military court in Congo sentenced 37 people to death, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in an attempted coup on Friday.

Among those sentenced were a Belgian, Briton, and Canadian. Court president Freddy Ehume delivered the verdict, stating, “The court pronounces the harshest sentence: the death penalty for criminal association, the death penalty for attack, the death penalty for terrorism.”

Three US citizens were sentenced to death by a military court for their role in a failed coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo https://t.co/dVUDAprw2z pic.twitter.com/3GuXFY7KfM

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 14, 2024

The trial, which began in early June, focused on an alleged coup attempt on May 19, when armed men stormed government buildings, including the home of the Minister of the Economy. The group attempted to storm Congo President Felix Tshisekedi’s offices, but the army responded and thwarted the plot. Six people were killed in the botched coup attempt. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial.

Little-known opposition leader, Christian Malanga, whose website touted his success setting up a car dealership in Utah, is believed to have recruited his son, his son’s friend, and a business associate to help him overthrow the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government. Malanga was killed while resisting arrest.

He allegedly convinced one of his sons, Marcel, a high school football player, to join him. The other Americans accused of participating in the coup are Tyler Thompson, a Utah resident who told his parents he would be vacationing in South Africa, and convicted marijuana trafficker Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun.

The Congolese government recently lifted a moratorium on the death penalty, which had been in place since 2003. Human rights groups have criticized the use of the death penalty, expressing concerns over the fairness of the court proceedings.

The defendants have five days to appeal the verdict. Richard Bondo, the lawyer who defended the six foreigners charged, said he planned to appeal the decision, claiming his clients had inadequate interpreters during the investigation of the case, according to reporting from the Associated Press.

The two IRS agents who blew the whistle on the Hunter Biden tax investigation and significantly altered the course of the case, on Friday night sued the first son’s lawyer Abbe Lowell for defamation.

The two whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, are suing for libel because of the alleged damage done to their careers, and are requesting a jury trial in Washington, D.C.

The whistleblowers originally brought concerns to the House Ways and Means Committee that the Justice Department had provided preferential treatment to Biden during a probe into his alleged tax violations.

Shapley and Ziegler alleged in Friday’s legal complaint that Lowell acted with malice by sending letters to several different Congressional committees, where the lawyer “falsely accused the Plaintiffs of violating grand jury secrecy rules … and the taxpayer confidentiality statute.”

“It is particularly ironic and damaging that a well-known attorney like Lowell—in his words, ‘one of the country’s foremost white collar defense and trial lawyers’ that is ‘widely viewed as counsel of choice for individuals facing government investigations and potential indictments’—has chosen to falsely accuse these special agents of criminal behavior,” the lawsuit, obtained by Just The News, reads. “Lowell’s stature and credibility in the legal community have amplified the harm caused by his defamatory statements.”

They also accused Lowell of intentionally leaking “malicious and false allegations, including accusations that Shapley and Ziegler ‘committed felonies’ and ‘violated the law,'” to third parties, including the press, that have harmed the pair’s reputations.

The whistleblowers are represented by one of the country’s most premier defamation lawyers, Mitchell Landsberg, from the law firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Schreck, who has represented clients such as billionaire Steve Wynn.

“Shapley and Ziegler, both experienced and dedicated special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, bring this action to vindicate their reputations for the incredible and malicious harm they have suffered at the hands of Abbe Lowell,” the lawsuit claimed. “As whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler acted with honor and integrity in exposing conflicts of interest, preferential treatment, and political motivations that they reasonably believed were interfering with the criminal tax investigation of Hunter Biden.”

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, because Lowell is a resident of D.C. and the two plaintiffs are from different states. The duo also noted that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.

Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell punched guitarist Dave Navarro during an on-stage outburst as several crew members dragged him off stage and abruptly ended the reunited band’s Boston concert on Friday night.

Farrell was in the middle of performing “Ocean Size” when he started angrily grunting and telling the crowd at the Leader Bank Pavillion “f–k you” before screaming into the microphone.

Farrell, seemingly agitated, then turned to Navarro on his right where he again screamed and threw his shoulder into the unsuspecting guitarist, according to a video of the awkward clash posted to social media.

The two rockers confronted each other while Farrell inched closer into the face of Navarro, who calmly held him back with his right arm.

Farrell in turn throws to elbow jabs at the guitarist when multiple crew and bandmates, including bassist Eric Avery, run up and restrain the “Been Caught Stealing” singer telling him to “stop.”

The lights lowered on stage, but several punches were thrown as the hot-headed singer was escorted away from the crowd’s view.

Watch:

Buddy sent me this from the Jane’s Addiction show. Crazy end to the show. #JanesAddiction pic.twitter.com/UkMD22aQw3

— Mental mis en place ☢️ 🍽 🧠 (@JwSedlak) September 14, 2024

The remaining three band members — Navarro, Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins — went to the front of the stage where they gave a warm farewell to the crowd.

The band raised their hands above their heads, tapped their chests and gave peace signs as the crowd gave them a standing ovation.

Photographer Brian MacKenzie, who was tasked with snapping the show for the venue, posted on X that the crowd believed the confrontation was a bit between the bandmates.

“Perry had a huge bottle of wine with him all evening, Navarro and Avery kept chatting with each other the whole show and seemed angrier than normal,” he claimed.

“I was there,” X user @deanasc1 said. “The crowd was bemused. Half pissed the show ended early and half excited we may have seen the last Janes A show ever.”

The band, which is in the midst of its North American Tour, has had problems involving their singer during recent shows.

While performing at the Rooftop at Pier 17 in NYC on Sept. 10, Farrell told the crowd his vocals were not in great shape,” Variety reported.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have to be honest with you. Something’s wrong with my voice. I just can’t get the notes out all of a sudden,” the singer allegedly said.

The next day Avery took to Instagram to reach out to fans and hype them up for their second performance in Manhattan.

“Looking forward to getting another crack at this spectacular rooftop venue tonight. I’m optimistic we will be better,” he said.

Jane’s Addiction is scheduled to perform at Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, Connecticut on Sept. 15.

The Grammy-nominated band’s 2024 tour marked the reunion of the four original members following Avery’s return in 2022 and Navarro, who had missed tours in 2022 and 2023 because of a battle with long COVID.

Farrell admitted he missed his guitarist during Navarro’s absence.

“I wish I would have my dear guitar player around,” Farrell told The Post in Sept. 2022. “[But] I live to bring entertainment and art to the world. And whatever I can do to entertain you, to blow your mind, that’s what I live for.”

To fill Navarro’s spot, the band brought on Queen of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

“How do you go about finding a guitar player to fill the shoes of Dave Navarro? We had to put the word out to people that we knew, that we loved, and Troy fit the bill the best of all the people that we considered,” Farrell said.

ABC News debate moderator Linsey Davis made a stunning admission about their attempts to ‘fact check’ Donald Trump during his debate with Kamala Harris.

Republicans were furious at ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis for refusing to fact check Harris on her lies about Trump’s views on IVF.

In a new interview, Davis says that it was a conscious decision to do the fact checks after seeing how Trump and Joe Biden performed in the CNN debate in June.

‘People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,’ Davis said.

Davis even anticipated Trump’s comments on abortion and IVF and said it ‘was an obvious thing to get on the record’.

She then admitted that they tried but failed to get the candidates on the record every time they claim they told a lie.

Muir and Davis repeatedly attempted to fact check Trump during the debate on issues such as the Capitol riot and a claim about migrant crime.

However, Harris incorrectly stated that Trump was against in vitro fertilization during the debate.

The former president stated that he has spoken out in favor of IVF when it has faced bans at the state level.

Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer wrote on social media: ‘ABC is making a huge mistake trying to fact check this live. They’re only proving how biased they are. Harris fabricated an attack on Trump over IVF. ABC sat there and said nothing’.

A Trump campaign account pointed out what the debate moderators wouldn’t: that Harris wasn’t telling the truth.

‘Kamala is LYING again. President Trump has said he wants to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, including supporting IVF in every state’, they wrote.

Linsey Davis claimed that Trump was lying when he said that states are allowing for post-birth executions.

Muir said Trump claimed falsely that immigrants were eating pets in the town of Springfield, Ohio.

Harris was not fact checked by either during the debate.

Trump frustrated social conservatives by adopting a more progressive line on IVF, or in vitro fertilization.

He declared that he would make the expensive procedure free for Americans.

The former president has further distanced himself from the issue by reportedly ordering the party to tone down abortion language at the Republican National Convention.

Earlier this spring, Trump told his advisors that he was leaning toward endorsing a 16-week national abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

However, he reportedly reversed course after looking over some polling and started saying that abortion was something that should be decided at the state level.

Also, the former president has repeatedly voiced his objection when state’s have ruled too harshly on the abortion question.

He has denounced Florida’s 6-week ban, calling it a ‘terrible mistake,’ and during an interview with NBC on Thursday. He added that women in Florida needed more time in order to determine whether or not they wanted an abortion.

Trump signaled that he could vote to end Florida’s six-week abortion ban when it comes up in a referendum later this year, as he continues his delicate dance around a key election issue.

Pennsylvanians who vote by mail must write a proper date on their ballot envelopes for their votes to be counted, under a decision Friday from the state Supreme Court that could affect thousands of voters this November.

The decision voids an Aug. 30 Commonwealth Court ruling that enforcing the requirement on ballot dating violated voters’ rights under the state constitution. The Supreme Court’s 4–3 decision was based on whether the lower court had jurisdiction in the case, not on the merits of the underlying claim, meaning that the constitutional argument could be made again in court.

Republicans who appealed the lower court’s decision argued to the state Supreme Court last week that the petitioners failed to include all counties as parties to the case, among other claims. The original suit, brought by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center on behalf of a coalition of voting rights groups, targeted the Department of State, Allegheny County, and Philadelphia.

“The Commonwealth Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review the matter given the failure to name the county boards of elections of all 67 counties,” the Supreme Court wrote in its order Friday. The inclusion of Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt as a named party was not enough to give the Commonwealth Court jurisdiction in the case, the order said.

Adam Bonin, a Philadelphia-based election lawyer who was not part of this case but has represented Democrats in other lawsuits challenging the dating requirement, said that, barring another ruling, voters will need to write a date on their ballot return envelope in order for their ballots to be counted.

In a statement to Votebeat and Spotlight PA, Gov. Josh Shapiro said it was “unfortunate” the court did not side with voters.

“It should be clear that voters who make an inconsequential dating error deserve to still have their valid vote counted,” he said.

Republicans called the decision a “victory for election integrity” in a critical swing state.

“This is a huge win to protect the vote in Pennsylvania that will protect commonsense mail ballot safeguards and help voters cast their ballots with confidence,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement.

Justice David Wecht dissented with the majority, and called for the Supreme Court to address the constitutional claims directly and quickly, given the fast-approaching election. The court should exercise its “King’s bench” authority to bypass the normal judicial process and have the parties submit briefs on the issue directly to the Supreme Court, Wecht said.

He was joined in his dissent by Chief Justice Debra Todd and Justice Christine Donohue.

Steve Loney, senior supervising attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said his group would continue its fight on behalf of the voting rights groups that brought the case.

“These eligible voters who got their ballots in on time should have their votes counted and voices heard,” he said in a statement. “The fundamental right to vote is among the most precious rights we enjoy as Pennsylvanians, and it should take more than a trivial paperwork error to take it away.”

A spokesperson for the ACLU said the groups involved had not decided what their next move would be or whether to seek a direct ruling on constitutional claim from the state Supreme Court.

Federal judges have gone back and forth over whether enforcing the requirement violated federal voting law. The current case is the first to directly challenge this requirement under the state constitution.

It’s the latest of several challenges to the dating requirement since the state implemented its mail voting law, Act 77, in 2020. Act 77 required voters to sign and date the outer return envelope of their mail ballots, and return the ballot in a secrecy envelope, in order for them to be counted.

Thousands of ballots are rejected each election for dating issues. During the April primary, counties rejected roughly 8,500 ballots, or 1.22% of those returned, for lacking a signature or date, or for being returned without a secrecy envelope, according to an analysis of Pennsylvania Department of State data. More than 4,400 of those were rejected for dating issues.

The ACLU and the Public Interest Law Center initiated the challenge earlier this summer on behalf of a coalition of civil rights groups, arguing that enforcing the date requirement violated the “free and equal elections” clause of the state constitution. That clause says that “no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.”

In August, a majority of a five-member panel of Commonwealth Court judges agreed with them.

“The refusal to count undated or incorrectly dated but timely mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors violates the fundamental right to vote recognized in the free and equal elections clause,” Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote for the 4-1 majority.

The Supreme Court’s ruling means the requirement is back in place, Bonin said.

Bonin noted that the challenges to the date requirement are still active on multiple tracks. An NAACP challenge to the requirement under federal law could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, he said, and he is also representing clients challenging the requirement in a separate case.

The Pennsylvania Department of State was named as a defendant in the latest case, but did not defend the date requirement. In a statement, the agency said the decision was “disappointing” and left an important question unanswered.

“The Department hopes that this question is answered as soon as possible, for the sake of the voters and our county election administrators preparing for the upcoming presidential election,” the statement said.

While aboard the papal plane on his way back to Rome, Pope Francis held a news conference to share with Catholic Americans that both major presidential candidates are deeply flawed and that he cannot determine which one would be less harmful.

“One must choose the lesser of two evils,” Francis said. “Who is the lesser of two evils? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know. Everyone with a conscience should think on this and do it.”

Pope Francis never mentioned the names of either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, but he was clear in saying that Harris’s stance on abortion and Trump’s immigration policies were both wrong in the eyes of the church.

“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,″ Francis said.

In the Catholic faith, church teaching is very clear that human life begins at the moment of conception, thus making abortion a sin.

“Performing an abortion is killing a human being,” Francis said.

“Whether you like the word or not, this is killing. You can’t say the church is closed because it does not allow abortion. The church does not allow abortion because it’s killing. It is murder.”

Harris, a longtime supporter of abortion rights, said if elected, she would work with Congress to codify protections for abortion from Roe v. Wade into federal law.

While Trump may have appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, which ultimately led to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, he does not uphold the Catholic beliefs about abortion. He has said that he would be voting in favor of Florida’s abortion ballot measure that would expand abortion access past six weeks.

While Trump has still been tougher on abortion than Harris, he’s been consistent about establishing a stronger border and deporting illegal immigrants — a stance that Pope Francis sees as evil.

“To send migrants away, to leave them wherever you want, to leave them … it’s something terrible, there is evil there,” Francis said.

He explained that migration is a right outlined in Scripture, and anyone who denies this is committing a great sin.

Both immigration and abortion are set to play important roles in this election cycle. Fifty-two percent of registered Catholic voters describe themselves as being or leaning Republican, while 44% say they are or lean Democrat, according to Pew Research.

The four-party cabinet in the Netherlands has vowed to establish “the strictest asylum regime ever” to curb irregular migration.

The Dutch government of Prime Minister Dick Schoof has confirmed its intention to ask “as soon as possible” for an opt-out clause from the European Union’s migration and asylum rules, an unprecedented move from a founding member state.

“The government will announce in Brussels as soon as possible that the Netherlands wants an opt-out of European asylum and migration regulations,” reads the government programme unveiled on Friday afternoon.

“As long as” this opt-out clause is not granted, the programme adds, the country will focus on implementing the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, the all-encompassing reform the EU completed in May after almost four years of hard-fought negotiations.

The Pact’s main novelty is a system of “mandatory solidarity” that will give countries three options to manage asylum seekers: relocate a certain number of them, pay €20,000 for each one they reject, or finance operational support. The Netherlands will choose financial support rather than reception, the programme confirms.

In anticipation of the Dutch announcement, the European Commission made it clear that all member states are bound by existing rules and that any exemption to their compliance should be negotiated before – not after – they are approved.

“We have adopted legislation. It’s adopted. You don’t opt out of adopted legislation in the EU,” a spokesperson said earlier in the day on Friday. “That’s a general principle.”

In May, the Netherlands voted in favour of all the laws that make up the New Pact.

The overhaul will take two years to enter into force. Member states have to submit implementation plans before the end of the year, detailing the administrative, operational and legal steps they intend to take to make the laws a reality.

‘Strictest regime ever’

The programme presented on Friday was agreed upon by the four parties that make up the ruling coalition in the Netherlands: the right-wing, nationalist PVV; the conservative-liberal VVD; the populist, pro-farmers BBB; and the upstart, centre-right NSC.

Schoof, a technocrat, does not belong to any of them and was surprisingly picked as a consensus figure to captain the new political era.

The opt-out proposal is included in a wider chapter devoted to migration that features an extensive raft of measures meant to build up the “strictest asylum regime ever,” one of the key promises underpinning the cabinet.

The government argues the Netherlands can no longer cope with the “large influx” of asylum seekers asking for international protection, many of whom enter the EU through another member state and then travel across borders until arriving in Dutch territory.

About 48,500 asylum seekers and family members entered the country in 2023. Syrian, Turkish, Yemeni, Somali and Eritrean were among the most common nationalities.

According to the programme, the government will introduce emergency legislation with broad powers to freeze asylum applications and deport people without residence permits, “including by force.” Asylum seekers will be asked to return to their country of origin as soon as it is considered “safe,” a concept contested by NGOs.

The Netherlands also plans to work with “like-minded and surrounding countries” to manage a sudden influx of irregular migrants and build a “mini Schengen” area to intensify security surveillance.