Jordon Trishton Walker, Pfizer Director of Research and Development, physically assaulted James O’Keefe and Veritas staffers on Thursday.

James O’Keefe confronted Walker at a restaurant and showed him the undercover recordings about Pfizer’s plans to potentially mutate the Covid virus.

“You f*cked up!” Walker shouted before destroying the iPad showing the PV undercover recordings about the “mutating” Covid virus.

Project Veritas on Wednesday night released explosive video of Jordon Trishton Walker, Pfizer Director of Research and Development, Strategic Operations, admitting the pharma giant is exploring ‘mutating’ Covid-19 via ‘directed evolution’ so the company can continue to profit off of vaccines.

“One of the things we’re exploring is like, why don’t we just mutate it [COVID] ourselves so we could create — preemptively develop new vaccines, right? So, we have to do that. If we’re gonna do that though, there’s a risk of like, as you could imagine — no one wants to be having a pharma company mutating f**king viruses,” Walker told the undercover Project Veritas journalist.

“Don’t tell anyone. Promise you won’t tell anyone. The way it [the experiment] would work is that we put the virus in monkeys, and we successively cause them to keep infecting each other, and we collect serial samples from them,” he said in the undercover recordings.

“I’m just someone who’s working in a company that’s trying to literally help the public,” Walker said during the confrontation.

Walker insisted he was just ‘trying to impress his date.’

The NYPD responded to the assault.

WATCH:

SHOCKING: @Pfizer Director Physically Assaults @JamesOKeefeIII & Veritas Staff; Destroys iPad Showing Undercover Recordings About “Mutating” Covid Virus; NYPD RESPONDS!

“I’m just someone who’s working in a company that’s trying to literally help the public.”

“You fu*ked up!” pic.twitter.com/83OWqlKd4t

— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) January 26, 2023

President Biden called Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) by the name “Doug” four times Thursday during a gaffe-filled visit to the congressman’s district.

“Where’s Doug? Congressman?” the 80-year-old president asked while giving a speech on the economy.

“He’s around here somewhere,” Biden said as he searched the crowd. “Oh, there you are. Doug, thanks for the passport into town. Doug and I have something in common, we both married way above our station.”

Biden is the oldest-ever president, and his mental acuity is frequently a matter of debate as he prepares to launch a 2024 re-election campaign.

The uncomfortable moment recalled the infamous September exchange when Biden asked “Where’s Jackie?” as he searched for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) in a crowd, despite publicly mourning her death and even calling her family to offer his condolences in August.

About five minutes into his remarks Thursday, Biden appeared to recognize his error when he called Beyer “Doug” for a fourth time and seemed to grasp for his actual name.

“Doug knows, Do —,” Biden said haltingly, before launching into an attack on House Republicans, claiming: “Look, here’s the deal … They want to cut your Social Security and Medicare. Now, this is the God’s truth. It’s almost unbelievable.”

Contrary to Biden’s remark, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said repeatedly this week he doesn’t want to cut the social safety nets.

Beyer, a House member since 2015, is a wealthy car dealership owner who became a popular Democratic designate for proxy votes during the COVID-19 pandemic because his urban northern Virginia district abuts DC.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Biden would receive his annual physical before Feb. 1. It’s unclear if the exam will feature a cognitive test.

Biden stumbled at other points in his remarks Thursday, including when he said that a train tunnel in Baltimore goes under the Potomac River although the body of water is about a one-hour drive from Maryland’s largest city.

“Next week, I’m visiting Baltimore and New York. We’re going to replace a 150-year-old tunnel, the Baltimore Potomac Tunnel, under the Potomac River, which will allow rail traffic to move up and down the East Coast,” Biden said.

The president appeared to be confused about the physical location of the tunnel because of its name, a legacy of its construction in the 1870s by the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad.

“I’m probably the only non-rail guy who’s walked that tunnel,” Biden added. “No, I’m not joking … last time I walked it, they still had lights that were on a string hanging down, leaks in the roof — folks, 150 years old, nothing has been done to it. Everything has to slow down. And there’s a great worry that part of it could collapse.”

Biden also claimed in his remarks that COVID-19 vaccinations were mass-deployed by his administration and not by former President Donald Trump “because the other guy and the other team didn’t think it mattered a whole lot” — despite the Trump administration overseeing the rapid development and initial month of deployment of vaccines.

The point of Biden’s speech was to promote his economic agenda amid a standoff with House Republicans on increasing the national debt ceiling.

Biden said that “a distinct minority of 30 to 40%” of Republicans were “determined to be the party of chaos and catastrophe.”

Although the White House has thus far refused to negotiate in the debt ceiling standoff, Biden appeared to hint he was open to talks.

“Look,” he said. “I’m ready to work with Republicans, and I’ve demonstrated — to the chagrin sometimes of my Democratic friends who want to make progress for the American people — I’m ready to compromise if there’s something good we want to deal with.”

Two men accused of witnessing the alleged rape of Louisiana State University student Madison Brooks shortly before her death were bonded out of jail Tuesday, as officials revealed she died from “multiple traumatic injuries.”

Everett Lee, 28, and Casen Carver, 18, have been released from jail. Both men are charged with principle to third-degree rape, meaning they were present but did not participate in the alleged rape of Brooks on Jan. 15.

The men appeared before 19th Judicial District Judge Brad Myers to determine their pre-trial bond amounts, WAFB reported.

Carver was released on a $50,000 bond and Lee on a $75,000 bond. Lee’s nephew, Kaivon Washington, 18, had his bond set to $150,000 and remains in jail on third-degree rape charges.

An unidentified 17-year-old who was also charged with allegedly raping Brooks is being held in a juvenile detention center with his pre-trial bond hearing expected to be held in February.

Brooks, a 19-year-old sophomore, was allegedly raped in the backseat of a car by Washington and the 17-year-old after the group left Reggie’s bar in East Baton Rouge sometime between 1 and 2 a.m.

After the alleged assault, the group of men dropped Brooks off at a nearby subdivision when she indicated she was going to call an Uber. She was soon after struck by a rideshare vehicle on Burbank Drive near Pelican Lakes Parkway around 3 a.m.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office confirmed to The Post that Brooks’ cause of death was “multiple traumatic injuries 2nd motor vehicle versus pedestrian collision,” meaning she later died at the hospital.

The manner of death is still pending further investigation, and no other information is being shared at this time, the coroner’s office said.

Investigators said Brooks had a blood-alcohol content of 0.319%, nearly four times the legal limit.

The rideshare driver is not being charged, according to a spokesperson for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, who said the driver was not impaired and reported the accident immediately.

Friends have erected a memorial for Brooks along the highway where she was killed, and her Alpha Phi sorority sisters remembered her as a “bubbly, loving and selfless friend.”

“She left an incredible mark on our chapter, we cherish our memories together and we will never forget her. Our forever friend was also a hero. Madi donated her heart and kidneys to save others,” the sorority said on Instagram Monday.

In a statement, LSU president William Tate said: “Madison was a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a niece, a classmate, and a friend to many of you. By all accounts, she was an amazing young woman with limitless potential. She should not have been taken from us in this way. What happened to her was evil, and our legal system will parcel out justice.”

“Our collective grief and outrage cannot be put into mere words. So what can we do? It is time for action. One place to target our attention is the very place where this encounter began,” Tate wrote.

The U.S. military killed a high-level ISIS leader during an operation in Africa this week along with nearly a dozen ISIS operatives.

A senior administration official told CNN that the operation took place in a “mountainous cave complex in northern Somalia” where ISIS was planning its expansion into Africa and beyond.

“Given the remote location of the operation, the assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed,” U.S. Africa Command said in a statement. “Protecting civilians remains a vital part of the command’s operations to promote greater security for all Africans.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that U.S. forces killed ISIS leader Bilal-al-Sudani.

“On January 25, on orders from the President, the U.S. military conducted an assault operation in northern Somalia that resulted in the death of a number of ISIS members, including Bilal-al-Sudani, an ISIS leader in Somalia and a key facilitator for ISIS’s global network,” Austin said. “Al-Sudani was responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and for funding the group’s operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan.”

The official who CNN spoke to said that U.S. forces wanted to capture al-Sudani alive, but the response from the terrorists ultimately made that impossible, and al-Sudani, along with 1o other terrorists, were killed.

Only one service member was injured during the operation when he was bitten by an American military canine.

The U.S. military conducted a successful counterterrorism operation in Somalia. https://t.co/F6MCDYLqwP pic.twitter.com/HHIW8VC3nZ

— US AFRICOM (@USAfricaCommand) January 26, 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared during an interview on Thursday to back attorney Harmeet Dhillon in her bid to become the new chair of the Republican National Committee.

DeSantis’ remarks come one day before RNC committee members will vote on a secret ballot for positions in the party, including the chairmanship.

“I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC,” DeSantis said during an interview. “I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said about getting the RNC out of D.C. Why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democrat city in America? It’s more Democrat than San Francisco is.”

DeSantis slammed the performance of RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel during the interview, saying that the GOP has experienced several bad election cycles under her watch.

“We’ve had three substandard election cycles in a row, ’18, ’20, and ’22, and I would say of all three of those, ’22 was probably the worst, given the political environment of a very unpopular President Biden, huge majorities of the people think the country is going in the wrong direction,” DeSantis said. “That is an environment that’s tailor-made to make big gains in the House and Senate and state houses all across the country, and yet that didn’t happen.”

DeSantis said that the party needs “fresh thinking — here’s the thing, just practically speaking, you need grassroots Republicans to power this organization with volunteering and donations.”

“I think it’s going to be very difficult to energize people to want to give money, to want to volunteer their time with the RNC if they don’t see a change in direction,” DeSantis continued.

When asked about his experience with the RNC, DeSantis said that his campaign “ran our election, assuming we weren’t going to be involved with the RNC at all.”

🚨BREAKING: Gov. DeSantis calls for Change at the RNC🚨

"We've had 3 substandard election cycles in a row, '18, '20, and '22, and I'd say '22 was the worst…I think we need a change. I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC. I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said…" pic.twitter.com/dayeCSVtJ0

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 26, 2023

DeSantis said that his dominant win in the state was driven by his own get out the vote operation and ground game.

“So it was very successful, you know, but that was really being driven by our agenda, our accomplishments, and us putting a lot of dollars behind this important ground game,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also said that the Republican Party needs to become less “consultant driven” and focus more on the needs of the voters.

“This money that’s going in needs to go to ultimately winning elections and not to be lining the pocket of so many consultants. So we need huge transparency on that,” said DeSantis.”You can’t have incentives to where the campaigns and the operations are run with an eye to putting more money in the pocket of the consultant class. And obviously, they’re very powerful in D.C.”

“There’s not a lot of trust between the grassroots and the RNC up in D.C. In fact, when I would do fundraising, I’d raise money for the Republican Party of Florida, we would do good, but if I did fundraising for me instead of for the party, we’d raise much more money, because they trust the people that they see doing the job,” he added.

Fox News foreign correspondent Benjamin Hall revealed what saved his life in his first on-air interview since a bomb blast outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, killed two of his colleagues and nearly claimed his life as well.

Hall joined hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade on Thursday’s broadcast of “Fox & Friends” to talk about his experience, his continuing recovery, and the nine words he’s credited with saving his life.

WATCH:

On March 14, 2022, Hall was seriously injured in the Russian attack that killed Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova. He ultimately lost both feet, part of one leg, the use of one hand, and the vision in one eye — but during Thursday’s interview, he revealed what had pushed him to survive, to make it home, and to get back to broadcasting.

Thanking all those who had flooded him with their kind words and prayers, Hall said that the key to recovery was simple: “I think that when you’ve gone through something like I’ve gone through, the highs, the lows, you have to have a target, you have to get something to fight for.”

He went on to detail the first moments following the blast, immediately after everything around him had “gone dark,” by reading an excerpt from his upcoming memoir: “Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission To Make It Home.”

If I had the slightest iota of consciousness, it was a distant sense of shock waves and the feeling that every part of my body — bones, organs, sinew, my soul — had been knocked out of me. I was all but dead but improbably, out of this crippling nothingness, a figure came through, and I heard a familiar voice, as real as anything I’d ever known. “Daddy, you’ve got to get out of the car.”

Hall said that in that moment, he saw his daughters — and he crawled out of the car. Just as he got himself out, another shell landed a direct hit on the car.

“They brought me back, and I found the strength. I opened my eyes and managed to crawl out of the car. And then the third bomb hit the car itself. If it weren’t for them bringing me back, there is no way I would be here today,” he said.

Hall then revealed that the cameraman, Zakrzewski, had also gotten out of the car — and the two of them talked as they waited and hoped that help would arrive. “The two of us laid there for about 40 minutes, and talked, he passed away,” Hall said.

In the days, weeks, and even months that followed, Hall explained the risky civilian operation that got him out of Ukraine — and credited the military hospitals at Landstuhl Air Force Base in Germany and Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, for rebuilding him in both body and mind.

Over the past few years, a cottage industry of “fact checkers” and “misinformation” experts has emerged to advance the left’s mission of silencing dissent to its agenda around the world. Analysis of the funding of these organizations leads back to a familiar figure: left-wing billionaire George Soros.

The New York Post broke down the trail of Soros dollars linking a global network of organizations intent on suppressing and discrediting conservative voices online.

Via the New York Post:

Later in the year, heading into the midterms, in an open letter signed by 11 other leftist groups, the Soros-funded Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights called on Big Tech CEOs to take “immediate” action to spread so-called “voting disinformation” to “help prevent the undermining” of democracy. The signatories had received a combined $30.3 million from Soros in just a four-year period.

As the Hungarian publication Remix revealed, of the 11 Facebook-approved fact checking organizations for Central and Eastern Europe, eight were funded by Soros. As is the case for the US, these fact checking groups are largely critical of the political right.

One project of the Poynter Institute specifically, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), was launched in 2015 with its initial funding coming from the National Endowment for Democracy (backed by the US State Department), the Omidyar Network, Google, Facebook, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

“Fact checking” is an important element in the left’s online censorship machine, giving social media companies a politically neutral pretext so censor conservative viewpoints.

Facebook notoriously uses fact checkers to dodge responsibility for censorship, even though its infamous decision to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story took place before any third party fact checkers had weighed in. In court, Facebook has admitted that fact checks, despite their pretense of impartiality and objectivity, are just opinions.

Five former Memphis Police Department officers are in custody and face several charges after their involvement in the death of a 29-year-old male, who died earlier this month in a hospital days after a confrontation with authorities.

Tyre Nichols died on January 10, three days after Memphis police pulled him over in a traffic stop, local media reported. Nichols, and the five former police officers involved, are black.

Authorities stopped Nichols on January 7 for “reckless driving” near Raines Road and Ross Road in Memphis, Fox News reported.

Police told local media that during the stop, a “confrontation occurred,” at which point Nichols ran away from police on foot as they attempted to apprehend him.

“While attempting to take the suspect into custody, another confrontation occurred; however, the suspect was ultimately apprehended,” MPD said. “Afterward the suspect complained of having shortness of breath, at which point an ambulance was called to the scene.”

Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmit Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith have all been charged with two counts of official misconduct, local media reported, with one count of official oppression, second-degree murder, aggravated assault-act in concert, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.

Local media reported authorities were charged with “official misconduct [through] unauthorized exercise of official power, official misconduct [through] failure to perform a duty imposed by law, official oppression, second-degree murder, aggravated assault – act in concert, aggravated kidnapping causing bodily injury, and aggravated kidnapping while possessing a weapon.”

Local media reported that Haley and Martin are in jail on a $350,000 bond, while Smith, Mills, and Bean were booked on a $250,000 bond.

Attorney Bill Massey, representing Martin, told local media he was indicted and turned himself in to authorities.

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis issued a statement Wednesday night about the investigation.

“In light of the horrific circumstances surrounding the death of Tyre Nichols, it is absolutely incumbent upon me, your chief, to address the status of what the Memphis Police Department is doing, has done, and will continue to do in furtherance of finding truth in this tragic loss, ensuring we communicate with honesty and transparency, and that there is absolute accountability for those responsible for Tyre’s death,” Davis said.

“This is not just a professional failing,” Davis said, according to Fox News. “This is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual,” adding the five officers involved in Nichols’ death, “failed our community, and they failed the Nichols family.”

Davis further noted Nichols’ death as “heinous, reckless, and inhumane,” saying the video footage of Nichols’ confrontation with authorities would be released in the coming days “in the vein of transparency.”

“I expect you to feel what the Nichols family feels,” Davis said. “I expect you to feel outraged by the disregard for basic human rights as our police officers have taken an oath to do the opposite of what transpired on the video.”

Davis asked the public to refrain from violently reacting upon the release of the footage.

Family members of Nichols viewed the police body cam footage on Monday.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Nichols’ family members, called the video “appalling, heinous, violent, and troublesome” in a press conference, adding that Nichols’ mother could not sit through more than a minute of the video.

Memphis residents told The Daily Wire about concerns surrounding protests and riots from groups like Black Lives Matter and antifa activists in the aftermath of the video of Nichols’ confrontation with authorities.

Since the Shelby County District Attorney confirmed its new George Soros-backed district attorney, Steven Mulory, residents have claimed crime in Memphis has increased while punishment for criminals has decreased.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation told The Daily Wire authorities have “no insight” on reports of protests or riots forming.

Former President Donald Trump has called for the war in Ukraine to end, following President Joe Biden’s announcement that the US would be sending Abrams tanks to the wartorn eastern European country.

“FIRST COME THE TANKS, THEN COME THE NUKES. Get this crazy war ended, NOW,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “So easy to do!”

BREAKING: President Trump slams escalation in Ukraine – calls for war to end

No other world leader is calling for this pic.twitter.com/8grdhPTT7j

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 26, 2023

Biden announced on Wednesday that his administration would be sending off tanks to aid in the fight against Russian aggression. The announcement came shortly after German councilor Olag Scholz announced that his nation would be sending Leopard 2 tanks.

“Germany didn’t force me to change my mind,” Biden replied with a smirk. “We wanted to make sure we are all together.”

“I’m announcing that the United States will be sending thirty-one Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the equivalent of one Ukrainian battalion,” Biden said, adding that the move was recommended by his defense secretary Lloyd Austin.

The US has thus far provided Ukraine with several emergency funding packages, with the largest being worth $40 billion. This also includes $3.75 billion that was sent to kick off 2023, including billions in heavy weaponry.

Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff on Thursday announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

“Our democracy is at great risk. Because GOP leaders care more about power than anything else,” Schiff tweeted, sharing a video announcing his campaign. “We’re in the fight of our lives—a fight I’m ready to lead as California’s next U.S. Senator.”

Schiff was re-elected to a seventh term in November, now representing California’s 30th Congressional District. A high-profile lawmaker, he was the chairman of the House Intelligence committee between 2019 and 2022 and a foil for Republicans during the first impeachment investigation against former President Donald Trump.

His campaign announcement video highlights his record going after Trump, whom he refers to as a “dangerous demagogue.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Schiff as a lead impeachment manager for Trump’s impeachment trial in 2020, and he led a team of seven House lawmakers who presented evidence to the Senate arguing in favor of convicting Trump on charges of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress and removing him from office.

Republicans heavily criticized Schiff for his actions as the lead investigator in Trump’s impeachment inquiry. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said that Schiff “openly lied to the American people” and abused his authority as chairman of the House Intelligence panel. In September 2019, Schiff infuriated Republicans by grossly exaggerating the contents of a telephone call in which Trump allegedly coerced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate his 2020 rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. He later described his summary of Trump’s phone call as a “parody.”

In retaliation for Schiff’s conduct, McCarthy removed him from the Intelligence Committee in the 118th Congress.

Schiff joins Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who announced she is running for the seat earlier this month.

Feinstein, 89, has not yet announced plans to run for re-election. She is currently the oldest serving senator and is widely expected to announce in the coming months that she will not seek another term in office.

It was an even more chaotic show Wednesday on ‘The View’ after viewers heard a large fart noise during the live broadcast.

The interruption in the middle of the show was accompanied by an unexplained puddle of water as the ladies were just beginning to discuss the classified documents found inside the home of former Vice President Mike Pence.

In a segment during the show, host Whoopi Goldberg can be seen pointing out the puddle of water to co-host Sara Haines, prompting Haines to move her chair which is when the noise is heard.

The incident is just the latest in a series of hilarious and chaotic mishaps on the show, which includes a previous time when Goldberg was caught passing gas.

The latest fart noise came just after former Donald Trump associate Alyssa Farah Griffin began to say her piece on the documents found at Pence’s home.

Griffith, who also worked as the former press secretary for Pence, was sharing her astonishment on the news when Goldberg began pointing out the water to Haines.

Goldberg can be seen pointing to a rather large puddle on the desk and quietly saying ‘umm’ as Haines jumps back, saying ‘oop.’

Haines quickly begins to move, shifting her chair, which is when the sound rips.

Co-host Joy Behar then looks over as Griffith, still attempting to speak coherently about Pence, begins to laugh at the situation.

‘We had a little spillage on the other side of the table,’ Griffith says, laughing.

‘Now it’s on my pants,’ Haines replies.

Haines and Goldberg, seated on the opposite side of the table from Griffith, then spent the next several minutes cleaning up the mess.

The two ladies use their topic cards to push the water off the table.

The situation may have hit a nerve with the ladies who do continue on as normal and not mention the water or the flatulent sound again.

It could also have been that the ladies of ‘The View’ were unfazed by the scene as chaos and hilarious accidents have become commonplace on the show.

Watch at 4:26:

CLASSIFIED DOCS FOUND AT MIKE PENCE’S HOME: After former Vice Pres. Pence denied having classified documents in a November interview with @ABCWorldNews' @DavidMuir, the co-hosts react to documents being discovered at his home last week. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/mtPNY0oARo

— The View (@TheView) January 25, 2023

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) disclosed a sale of 30,000 shares in Google’s parent company, Alphabet, roughly one month before the Justice Department opened an antitrust lawsuit into the technology firm.

Federal regulators claimed in the Tuesday complaint that Google monopolizes the tools website publishers use to sell advertisements and that companies utilize to purchase advertisements. Pelosi, who resigned from her leadership position but remains a member of Congress, sold 10,000 shares of Alphabet Class A stock on December 20, December 21, and December 28, according to federal disclosures, marking a combined transaction value between $1.5 million and $3 million. The disclosures were digitally signed by the lawmaker on January 12.

Although shares for Google have increased roughly 8% over the past month, the company’s stock price declined some 6% this week as news of the antitrust lawsuit became public.

Officials claimed that Google has engaged in a “pattern of acquisitions to obtain control over key digital advertising tools” and has manipulated auctions to “deprive rivals of scale.” Such moves may violate the Sherman Act, which outlaws “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize” deemed unreasonable by the court system. Google said in a statement that the Justice Department lawsuit attempts to “pick winners and losers” in the “highly competitive” advertising technology space.

Pelosi and her husband, Paul, have been repeatedly accused of leveraging insider knowledge that the veteran lawmaker holds in order to increase earnings in the stock market. The filing also revealed that the top Democrat sold shares of Netflix, PayPal, Salesforce, Tesla, and Disney.

Paul Pelosi appeared to have cut losses in software company Nvidia last year before the United States placed new restrictions on computer chip sales to China and Russia. He sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia on July 26 at an average price of $165.05, causing a loss of $341,365, according to a set of disclosures. One month later, Nvidia revealed that the government imposed export restrictions on the company’s A100 and forthcoming H100 circuits. The new regulations will “address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia,” Nvidia said in a regulatory filing.

The couple has also placed stock market bets in the middle of heated policy debates in Congress. In 2021, Paul Pelosi bought over $6 million in options contracts related to technology stocks while lawmakers worked on antitrust legislation.

Asset purchases from members of Congress and their immediate families amounted to $267 million in 2021, according to a report from the New York Times’ DealBook, while sales amounted to $364 million. Officials working at the Federal Reserve have also faced criticism for purchasing individual stocks amid their work to chart the nation’s monetary policy.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently introduced the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act, also known as the PELOSI Act, in order to address the phenomenon of lawmakers using inside information to benefit financially. The legislation would ban politicians from holding individual stocks, diversified mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. “For too long, politicians in Washington have taken advantage of the economic system they write the rules for, turning profits for themselves at the expense of the American people,” Hawley said in a news release.

A state court building in New York City unveiled a new art project that is not going over well online.

The sculpture, entitled “NOW,” was installed on the roof of the Appellate Division Courthouse of New York State, First Department on Madison Avenue last week as part of an art exhibit from artist Shahzia Sikander. The statue is meant to represent the legacy of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but New Yorkers and other viewers on Twitter noticed that the statue is both unsightly and unsettling.

Corporate consultant Andrew Beck shared pictures of the art installation in a Twitter thread. “A new statue atop a New York City courthouse,” he wrote. “The artist says it’s part of an ‘urgent and necessary cultural reckoning underway as New York reconsiders traditional representations of power in public spaces and recasts civic structures to better reflect 21st-century social mores.’”

A new statue atop a New York City courthouse. The artist says it’s part of an “urgent and necessary cultural reckoning underway as New York reconsiders traditional representations of power in public spaces and recasts civic structures to better reflect 21st-century social mores.” pic.twitter.com/4IFRj7hCsf

— Andrew Beck (@AndrewBeckUSA) January 25, 2023

The roof of the court building is lined with statues of famous lawgivers from history and legend. The statue is situated on the corner of the building, with brazen metal standing out against the weathered stone statues next to it. It depicts a woman with hair braided into long spirals like ram’s horns, and a web of tentacle-like protrusions at each arm, wearing a lace apron like the one Ginsburg wore over her robe, and standing on a pink lotus flower.

A profile for the statue written by The New York Times said that the statue is the first female figure placed on the court building. “She [the statue] is a fierce woman and a form of resistance in a space that has historically been dominated by patriarchal representation,” Sikander told The New York Times. Sikander said she entitled the piece “NOW” because it is needed in the current year when abortion rights are being challenged in the wake of the Supreme Court returning abortion law to the states in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Sikander has another piece with similar designs placed in the area. That statue, an 18-foot tall recreation of the same figure, but with a metal cage symbolizing a hoop skirt, is entitled “Witness” and is placed in Madison Square Park across from the court building. The two statues together are entitled, “Havah…to breathe, air, life.”

“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.” Never fading words by Coretta Scott King. Inspired and humbled that Havah..to breathe, air, life’ ‘NOW’ & ‘Witness’ are open on MLK day Jan16, 2023 ✊🏽❤️⚖️ @MadSqParkNYC pic.twitter.com/TSpDl5C4TH

— Shahzia Sikander (@shahziasikander) January 16, 2023

But Twitter users immediately pointed out that besides being visually unpleasant, the sculpture idolizes abortion and has pagan or even demonic motifs.

“They turned abortion into a pagan idol to worship and put it on a courthouse,” Billy Gribbin, communications director for Republican Georgia Congressman Rich McCormick, wrote on Twitter.

“The New York Courthouse has added this aesthetic atrocity to its sculptures of great lawmakers,” Daily Wire podcast host Andrew Klavan wrote. “It is meant to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s pro-abortion stance by depicting a woman with demonic goat-horns who has clearly lost the power to reproduce. Or something.”

“The next Republican mayor of New York should not only remove but publicly destroy this monstrosity,” Daily Wire host Michael Knowles added.

“New York has put an androgynous baphomet with tentacles digging into its own torso on top of the courthouse in order to ‘better reflect 21st century social mores.’” writer Brandon Meeks said. “Sounds about right.”

“[T]he ugliness is the point,” New Founding and American Firebrand digital director Logan Hall added.

“What a visual desecration of the landscape,” America First Legal Foundation founder Stephen Miller tweeted.

“WOW the baphomet/Aries symbolism is… a lot,” one Twitter user chimed in. “Especially given the opposite or sister sign Libra represents the scales of balance or ‘arms’ of Justice.”

Some 35,000 PayPal user accounts have been hacked by a method known as “credential stuffing,” resulting in exposed names and Social Security numbers, according to a notification posted on a government website.

Through its lawyers, the California-based payment processor sent a notice to Maine’s attorney general. The company also sent a letter, dated Jan. 19, about the data breach to affected users.

The accounts were breached sometime between Dec. 6 and Dec. 8, 2022, the letter said. The company said that it was able to deal with the attack soon after it occurred, according to the letter.

The notification to users said (pdf) that 34,942 users were affected by the incident and that unauthorized third parties gained access to their accounts. Those third parties, which weren’t identified, could view full names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, and tax identification numbers.

“We have no information suggesting that any of your personal information was misused as a result of this incident, or that there are any unauthorized transactions on your account,” PayPal’s letter read.

A “credential stuffing” attack involves automatically injecting login credentials that were found during previous data breaches.

“If you detect any suspicious activity on an account, change the password and security questions immediately, and promptly notify the company where the account is maintained,” PayPal stated. “You may also add additional security for your PayPal account by enabling ‘2-step verification’ in your Account Settings. When links are present in an email, individuals should hover [their] mouse over the links to view the actual destination URL and should not click on the link if [they] are unsure of the destination URL or website.”

The company also said it has reset passwords on those PayPal accounts. Affected users will also get free identity monitoring services from Equifax, the consumer credit reporting company.

In a statement to PCMag, the company maintained that it was only a “small number of PayPal customer accounts” that were impacted by the breach. The Epoch Times has contacted PayPal for comment. It noted that neither its website nor its systems were hacked.

“PayPal’s payment systems were not impacted, and no financial information was accessed,” the firm said. “We have contacted affected customers directly to provide guidance on this matter to help them further protect their information. The security and privacy of our customers’ account information [remain] a top priority for PayPal, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Goldman Sachs recently informed its clients that it expects home values to tank in four major markets across the U.S. amid worsening economic conditions.

The investment bank predicts that San Jose, California; San Diego, California; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona; could see a crash on the level of the 2008 housing crash.

Fox News reported that the market crashes in those cities could be worse than 25%.

“Our 2023 revised forecast primarily reflects our view that interest rates will remain at elevated levels longer than currently priced in, with 10-year Treasury yields peaking in 2023 Q3,” Goldman Sachs said in a report. “As a result, we are raising our forecast for the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 6.5% for year-end 2023 (representing a 30 bp increase from our prior expectation).”

“This [national] decline should be small enough as to avoid broad mortgage credit stress, with a sharp increase in foreclosures nationwide seeming unlikely,” the report added. “That said, overheated housing markets in the Southwest and Pacific coast, such as San Jose MSA, Austin MSA, Phoenix MSA, and San Diego MSA will likely grapple with peak-to-trough declines of over 25%, presenting localized risk of higher delinquencies for mortgages originated in 2022 or late 2021.”

Goldman Sachs said that home prices are also expected to take a small hit in New York City and Chicago. Baltimore and Miami were expected to see small gains.

The report added, “Assuming the economy remains on the path to a soft landing, avoiding a recession, and the 30-year fixed mortgage rate falls back to 6.15% by year-end 2024, home price growth will likely shift from depreciation to below-trend appreciation in 2024.”

Actor Jeremy Renner’s life-threatening injuries suffered on New Year’s Day from his 14,000-pound snowplow came as a result of a heroic effort to save his nephew.

According to a Nevada sheriff’s office incident report, the tragic incident began when Renner, 52, used his PistenBully snowcat to pull his nephew’s truck out of his driveway. Once the truck was on the street, the snowplow began “sliding sideways,” and then “began to roll down the hill,” prompting Renner to jump out without setting the emergency brake. But then Renner realized the snowplow was headed toward his nephew.

“He feared the Pistenbully was going to hit (his nephew), so he decided to attempt to stop or divert the Pistenbully,” the report states. Renner tried to enter the snowplow’s cab but in order to do so he had to climb onto its moving track. He was “immediately pulled under the left side track,” the report adds.

“Although the Pistenbully had some mechanical issues, it is believed based on our mechanical inspection that the parking brake would keep the Pistenbully from moving forward. When Renner attempted to stop or divert the Pistenbully to avoid injury to (his nephew), he was pulled under the vehicle by the track and run over,” the report concludes.

A 911 call obtained by CNN shows a neighbor frantically calling 911, saying Renner had been “completely crushed under a large snowcat,” adding that “the right side of his chest … collapsed – upper torso is crushed.”

During the 911 call, the female operator stated, “I need the address of the emergency please,” The Daily Mail reported.

“I told you,” the frustrated neighbor responded.

“I know, I just need to verify it, what is the phone number that you’re calling from,” the female operator insisted, adding, “What is the phone you’re calling from, just in case we get disconnected.”

“Listen to me, you might want to get life line out here immediately,” the neighbor said urgently, later saying, “He’s got a headwound as well. Can you give me an ETA?”

“It’s hard to give an ETA just because the snow on the mountain I don’t know how quick they’re able to go,” the female operator responded.

“How’s he doing?” the operator asked. “Shallow breath, a lot of pain; he’s conscious we have him covered in blankets, his heads covered; he’ll be drifting off,” the neighbor responded.

“Is he starting to kind of drift off into sleep?” the operator asked.

“Yeah,” the neighbor responded.

It took over 20 minutes for Renner’s rescuers to reach him as roads were closed from heavy snow. He was airlifted by helicopter from his home in Reno, Nevada, to Renown Regional Medical Center, the region’s only trauma center.

Over the weekend Renner said he hoped the “30 plus broken bones will mend, grow stronger, just like the love and bond with family and friends deepens.”

A San Francisco judge has ordered that police body cam footage related to an October attack on Paul Pelosi be released.

The order comes after a coalition of news outlets filed a motion to release the footage on January 11. The coalition included such outlets as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fox News.

NEW: San Francisco Judge GRANTS motion to release SFPD body cam footage of Paul Pelosi attack, other evidence sought by press coalition

— Jeremy B. White (@JeremyBWhite) January 25, 2023

“[T]he public and press have standing to assert their rights of access to court records and proceedings,” the coalition argued in its court filing.

The body camera footage was reportedly played in court in December and showed an assailant striking Pelosi with a hammer.

Pelosi, husband to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), was attacked on October 28 by a nudist activist who broke into the Pelosi residence seeking to kidnap the then-House speaker, prosecutors said in a pretrial hearing. The activist, who prosecutors identified as 42-year-old David DePape, attacked Paul Pelosi after not being able to locate his wife.

DePape has pleaded not guilty on all charges, which include both state and federal charges. He is expected to appear in state court on February 23 to set a date for his trial. He is being held in jail without bail.

Authorities said that San Francisco police entered the Pelosi residence around 2:30 a.m. local time on the night of the attack. Police saw an assailant and Pelosi struggling over a hammer, then saw the assailant “violently assault” Pelosi, the police said.

After the attack, Pelosi was taken to a hospital where he underwent “successful surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands,” a spokesman for Nancy Pelosi said at the time.

DePape broke into the house shouting “Where’s Nancy?” a court affidavit said.

DePape told first responders at the scene that he was sick of the “level of lies” from politicians in Washington, D.C., and “came here to have a little chat with [Paul Pelosi’s] wife,” according to a court filing.

“I didn’t really want to hurt him, but you know this was a suicide mission. I’m not going to stand here and do nothing even if it cost me my life,” DePape said, according to the filing.

DePape allegedly intended to attack other high profile figures as well. Police said DePape intended to target President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and actor Tom Hanks.

Meta announced Wednesday it will end former President Trump’s suspension from Facebook and Instagram, saying the penalty imposed after January 6 was “an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,” and pledging to enforce “certain guardrails” on Trump in the future.

The company did not say when Trump would be allowed to post on its platforms but said it was confident the “risk” he posed to public safety had passed. Twitter, which also suspended Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot also recently reinstated Trump, although the former president has so far chosen to communicate through his own platform, Truth Social.

“We are bringing Mr. Trump back in the coming weeks with certain guardrails, applicable to any public figures suspended for certain violations during times of civil unrest,” a statement from Meta read.

The company defended about its controversial 2021 decision, insisting it never wanted to interfere in debate surrounding elections and that its decision had been approved by an oversight board. In lifting the suspension, Meta said that based on Trump’s past behavior on the platform, he now faces “heightened penalties for repeat offenses – penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol.”

“The penalties and potential restrictions we’ve put in place are a deterrent,” the statement read, warning that Trump could face another suspension ranging from one month to two years if he violates the company’s rules.

The company claimed that Trump had praised violent rioters at the Capitol, meriting his indefinite suspension, and that after January 6, “the risks of allowing President Trump to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.” Trump has denied praising or encouraging rioters, and did in fact take to Twitter as the riot unfolded to tell his supporters to disperse.

Both Facebook and Twitter have been criticized for suspending Trump even as they allowed a host of world leaders with histories of human rights violations to maintain a presence.

Trump responded to the suspension being lifted on Truth Social.

“Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting president or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution,” Trump wrote.

Meta said its updated protocol specifically addresses content that does not technically violate the platform’s policies, but that “contributes to the sort of risk that materialized on January 6th, such as content that delegitimizes an upcoming election or is related to QAnon.”

“We may limit the distribution of such posts, and for repeated instances, may temporarily restrict access to our advertising tools,” the company said. “This step would mean that content would remain visible on Mr. Trump’s account but would not be distributed in people’s Feeds, even if they follow Mr. Trump. We may also remove the reshare button from such posts, and may stop them being recommended or run as ads. In the event that Mr. Trump posts content that violates the letter of the Community Standards but, under our newsworthy content policy, we assess there is a public interest in knowing that Mr. Trump made the statement that outweighs any potential harm, we may similarly opt to restrict the distribution of such posts but leave them visible on Mr. Trump’s account.”

The company added that it was important for the public to see content from people like Trump, even if it was “distasteful or factually wrong.”

Far-right gadfly Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is positioning herself to be former President Donald Trump’s 2024 pick for vice president, according to a report on Wednesday.

​”This is no shrinking violet, she’s ambitious — she’s not shy about that, nor should she be,” Steve Bannon, the former top Trump strategist who hosts the War Room podcast​, told NBC News. ​

Bannon added the Georgia Republican, 48, sees herself on the “short list for Trump’s VP.”​

“​When MTG looks in the mirror, she sees a potential president smiling back,” ​he said.​

A second person who advised the congresswoman told the outlet that Greene’s “whole vision is to be vice president,” and noted that she believes she could end up on Trump’s short list of potential running mates. ​

Greene has seen her influence grow since becoming a dogged supporter of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as he sought the gavel earlier this month. ​
NBC reported that those close to Greene said she wants to rebrand herself as a lawmaker who can bridge the gap between the various factions of the Republican Party.

Greene’s gambit to get behind McCarthy’s campaign for speaker paid off. ​

McCarthy has vowed to always have her back and appointed her to two House panels — Homeland Security and Oversight ​– where she will play a role in GOP investigations of the Biden administration.

Even though her unflinching support for McCarthy alienated some members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Bannon said it was a calculated risk.

“She’s both strategic and disciplined — she made a power move, knowing it would run up hard against her most ardent crew,” he told NBC. “She was prepared to take the intense heat/hatred short-term for the long-term goal of being a player.”​

Greene’s office did not respond to calls from NBC inquiring about her future plans. ​​

Trump, 76, who announced a third consecutive bid for the White House in November, has not given any indication that he has begun vetting potential running mates. ​

Greene, who ​easily won reelection in her rural Georgia district Nov. 8, told the New York Times in October that she and Trump had already discussed the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket.

“I would be honored​,” she said at the time. “I think the last person that the RNC or the national party wants is me as his running mate.”

​Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president during his four years in office, is weighing his own presidential run in 2024.

Pence and Trump had a falling-out over the former’s refusal to reject electors when Congress certified the 2020 election for President Biden on Jan. 6, 2021. ​

Amid the brouhaha over President Joe Biden’s improper retention of classified documents and concerns that his son, Hunter Biden, had access to them, a 2018 form on which Hunter Biden claims to have spent nearly $50,000 a month on rent surfaced from the presidential son’s abandoned laptop.

On it, Hunter Biden lists his father’s Wilmington house as his address, raising questions about whether he was using rent payments to pass money to his father. The money, $49,910, was actually a reference to rental payment for a Washington, D.C., office space used by Hunter Biden. But the story of the document is more absurd, involving Biden family favor trading, scorned relatives, and an ultimately failed effort to get Hunter Biden’s troubled cousin a new probation officer.

The Washington Free Beacon traced the origin of the document to an attachment in a July 27, 2018, email from Hunter Biden to a luxury apartment complex in Los Angeles. The background check document was part of a rental application, and—though his communications with the building’s property manager indicated the apartment would be for him—text messages and emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop reveal it was in fact for his down-on-her-luck cousin, Caroline Biden, the daughter of Joe Biden’s brother Jim and his wife, Sara.

The president’s niece pleaded guilty in 2017 to buying more than $100,000 worth of makeup with a stolen credit card. While she managed to skirt a grand larceny charge and the prison sentence it carried, she was sentenced to two years of probation—time she wanted to serve in Los Angeles.

She texted Hunter Biden on July 26, 2018, from a New York City probation office, telling him she urgently needed a California address so her lawyer could transfer her probation there.

Keeping Caroline Biden out of prison was a Biden family affair and Hunter Biden was at the center of the effort. He moved to the West Coast at least in part to escape family drama, he explained in a July 17 message, saying his sister-in-law and former lover Hallie Biden had asked him to leave the state of Delaware. His day to day in California, text messages and passages from his 2021 autobiography reveal, was largely spent cooking up batches of crack cocaine and negotiating rates with prostitutes. But Joe Biden, according to a text from Caroline Biden to Hunter Biden, thought Hunter Biden was a “good influence” on her.

“Your dad thinks you’re a good influence which you are,” she wrote in a text message to Hunter Biden on July 20, 2018.

In text messages, Caroline Biden repeatedly referred to Hunter Biden as her “partner in crime,” and the pair commiserated over their “sick” family. She was trying to move to California to be closer to him.

Hunter Biden, Caroline Biden said, was the only family member she felt she could talk to, because “the majority of my family thinks I’m nuts and untalktoable.” She complained that “our family’s sick,” that she had “no relationship with my nuclear family,” and that she had to “do everything on my fucking own,” including finding a place to live in California.

That said, Caroline Biden does not appear to have been doing much on her own. Before Caroline Biden reached out to Hunter Biden for help, her father, Jim Biden, had asked Hunter Biden for help with the situation. “I need help with Caroline, she is off the rails,” Jim Biden told Hunter Biden in a July 13 message.

The idea to have Caroline Biden move to California appears to have been hatched in a follow-up conversation between Jim and Hunter Biden, but it was on Hunter Biden to deliver. Hunter Biden told Jim Biden as early as July 16 that he was looking for rentals in Laguna for his daughter. But by the time of Caroline Biden’s probation meeting when she messaged Hunter Biden about the address, he had still failed to secure a place.

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