US News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion and Video Post.
US News:
Six million Americans carried guns daily in 2019, twice as many as in 2015
The new estimates highlight a decades-long shift in American gun ownership, with increasing percentages of gun owners saying they own firearms for self-defense, not hunting or recreation, and choosing to carry a gun with them when they go out in public, said Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, and the study’s lead author.
While recent surveys show that nearly a third of American adults say they personally own a gun, the percentage who choose to regularly carry a firearm in public is smaller, with about a third of handgun owners, or an estimated 16 million adults, saying they carried a loaded handgun in public at least once a month, and an estimated 6 million saying they did so daily, the study found.
Today, the number of adults carrying a gun daily is probably even higher than the 2019 estimate, thanks to a record-breaking increase in gun sales during the pandemic, Rowhani-Rahbar said. “We have every reason to believe this is a trend that is probably going to continue,” he added.
The 2019 gun-carrying study was based on the self-reported behavior of a nationally representative sample of US adults living in firearm-owning households.
San Francisco police seek approval to use robots to deploy lethal force
If passed, the law enforcement equipment use policy will allow the SFPD to utilize heavy-duty robots for “training and simulations, criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessments.”
According to the proposal, “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers are imminent and outweigh any other force option available to SFPD.”
The policy also noted that only trained authorities who have completed the FBI’s 6-week hazardous device school would be allowed to operate the remote-controlled robots.
U.S. bans Huawei, 4 other Chinese companies
The U.S. has banned electronics from Huawei and several other Chinese companies from being sold or imported, a decisive step to contain the influence of companies already deemed national security threats that may be spying for China.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday closed a “loophole” that allowed U.S. companies to purchase electronic equipment from companies, including Huawei, that the U.S. government has deemed too risky to buy from itself, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr announced.
The FCC voted unanimously to no longer authorize U.S. companies to buy equipment from entities on its Covered List, which includes nine Chinese companies and one Russian company.
It’s the government’s strongest move yet against Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant whose equipment has spread around the globe in the race to provide 5G cellular service. U.S. officials have for years warned that its equipment could effectively be a spying tool of the Chinese Communist Party.
Incredible Photos Document Survival of Baby Born 13 Weeks Prematurely
After years of trying to conceive and suffering the loss of three babies to miscarriages, Roxanne Cooper and her fiance, Mike Naama, were thrilled to learn that their fourth pregnancy was going well.
But things took a turn for the worse 14 weeks before their son Jaxon was due. Roxanne began to bleed heavily and was rushed to the emergency room, The Sun reports. Five days later, on June 23, Roxanne gave birth to Jaxon in an emergency C-section.
The tiny boy from Hall, England weighed just 2 pounds at birth; and for weeks, his parents watched him struggle to survive, according to the report.
Jaxon and his parents fought for his life, and after 123 days in the hospital, his parents took him home, according to the report.
The couple said they decided to share their son’s story and photo diary to offer a glimmer of hope to other families of premature babies.
Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking operation benefited banks, accusers allege in lawsuit
Two separate lawsuits, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, are headed by women who remain anonymous in the filings and are suing Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The allegations include a claim the banks are at fault for “assisting, supporting, facilitating, and otherwise providing the most critical service for the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking organization to successfully rape, sexually assault, and coercively sex traffic.”
The accusers claim the banks had knowledge of the pattern of sex trafficking from Epstein — an allegation denied by Deutsche Bank.
“We believe this claim lacks merit and will present our arguments in court,” a spokesperson for Deutsche Bank said.
The women allege that complicity from the banks in Epstein’s sex trafficking operation was essential and gave the billionaire an “appearance of legitimacy.”
Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Nicole Kidman Slammed for Silence on Balenciaga’s BDSM-Themed Child Ads
Fans are calling on Kardashian, Hadid, and Kidman to condemn the luxury fashion brand’s disturbing ads featuring children holding teddy bears clad in bondage outfits. The Balenciaga ads also bizarrely included a document referencing a U.S. Supreme Court case involving child pornography.
Meanwhile, the brand insists it scrubbed its social media because it “Balenciaga’s Instagram is periodically wiped after each campaign, collection release, etc.” the company told New York Post.
Amid the backlash, Hadid appeared to post and then delete an Instagram carousel that featured several photos from her recent Balenciaga campaign.
“Thank you for deleting that other post,” one social media user wrote in the comment section of Hadid’s most recent Instagram post.
But while some fans have been thanking Hadid for deleting the Balenciaga pictures, others are calling on the model to condemn the fashion house.
“Speak on Balenci,” one wrote.
“For money, people will do anything,” one Instagram user wrote in the comment section of Kidman’s photo.
“Do you really turn a blind eye to what they have done?” another inquired.
“Why would you want to be associated with this company ?” a third asked.
Amazon Workers Plan Global Black Friday Strike to Demand Company ‘Ceases Awful, Unsafe Practices’
Fortune reports that Amazon is facing further trouble from labor unions this week as its staff across the world get set to demonstrate against the e-commerce giant on one of its busiest days of the year.
The latest coordinated action is part of a movement dubbed “Make Amazon Pay” and has been organized by 80 trade unions, environmental activism groups, tax watchdogs, and other organizations.
It is expected that Amazon will face strikes at its facilities in around 40 countries. The groups are demanding that Amazon “pays its workers fairly and respects their right to join unions, pays its fair share of taxes and commits to real environmental sustainability.” The Hill reports that thousands have already walked off the job today.
The group has accused Amazon of “squeezing every last drop it can from workers, communities and the planet.” Employees in France, Germany, the U.S., India, and Japan will take part in strikes, walkouts, and protests, while activists in Ireland and South Africa will hold demonstrations at Amazon headquarters in their countries.
San Francisco Hotels Demand City Compensate for Damage by Homeless
Under the program, known as “Shelter-in-Place” (SIP), hotels were used to move homeless people off the streets for fear of spreading the coronavirus in tent cities.
Ironically, as COVID became better understood, officials began recommending against clearing homeless encampments, because the virus spread less easily outdoors.
However, the practice of housing the homeless in hotels was embraced by Democratic officials in state and local government, though it was expensive, as a temporary way of tackling an ongoing homeless crisis.
Now, with tourism picking up again, hotels in San Francisco, which were commandeered by the SIP program, are demanding that the city compensate them for the damage that some temporary homeless residents caused.
The city considers the program a success, even though it is ending and homelessness persists, because it says it slowed the spread of COVID-19 and allowed homeless residents to quarantine in hotel rooms rather than in local hospitals, where they could have burdened public health.
Report: Blackrock, State Retirement Funds Invested in Chinese Firms Tied to Uyghur Genocide
The report, entitled Passively Funding Crimes Against Humanity: How Your Savings May Be Financing Internment Camps and Forced Labor in China, identified 13 Chinese companies listed on three vital Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) indexes that use forced Uyghur labor provided by Chinese state-sponsored programs, or have been involved in the construction of concentration camps for the Uyghurs.
China is currently engaging in genocide against the Uyghur people and other non-Han communities in East Turkistan, a western region under Chinese communist occupation the regime refers to as Xinjiang.
One of the companies spotlighted by the report is Foxconn Technology, the Taiwan-based company whose enormous plant in Zhengzhou, China, is the world’s largest facility for assembling Apple iPhones.
The authors cited documentation that shows “hundreds of Uyghur workers have been transferred to Foxconn factories,” including the one in Zhengzhou, where they have “reportedly been required to work at least 100 hours of overtime every month.”
Texas teacher, staffers accused of denying food to special needs student who ate his own feces
A Texas teacher and two assistants allegedly isolated a five-year-old special-needs boy for so long that he started eating his own feces after being deprived of food.
Melody LaPointe, 47, and teaching assistants Tarah Tinney, 33, and Augusta Costlow, 27, were charged earlier this week with abandoning or endangering a child over the April 2021 incident.
The trio is accused of putting the boy into an isolation room within a Liberty Independent School District facility, ABC 13 reported.
They allegedly deprived him of food, forcing him to ingest his own feces and urine, authorities said.
Tinney and Costlow have resigned and LaPointe, the main teacher in the classroom, works for another school district, which has placed her on leave as well, the report said.
Court rejects San Diego school district’s COVID vaccine mandate
The court rejected the district’s several defenses of its mandate, including that it is in line with the responsibility to keep students safe, that programs can be created to meet “local needs” and that the mandate is not actually a mandate because it allows for students to do at-home independent study should they choose not to comply.
“We doubt that students and their parents perceive a real choice. For some, independent study would likely be a step backwards,” it wrote.
It is one of several large school districts in California to announce such a mandate. Those with similar mandates include the Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento and West Contra Costa Unified school districts.
School district ‘opposes and rejects any legislation’ against critical race theory in classrooms — argues that bills would prevent educators from accurately teaching students about history
The Pittsburgh School District passed a resolution stating that it would defy any legislation the board deems “harmful,” including House Bill 1532, that, if passed, would prohibit teachers from discussing “racist and sexist concepts.”
HB 1532, the Teaching Racial and Universal Equality Act, would prevent educators from teaching students that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex” or that “an individual, by virtue of race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
According to the legislation’s description, HB 1532 is meant to put an end to “the divisive nature of concepts more commonly known as ‘critical race theory'” being taught to children in schools.
The bill argues that CRT “further divides us by making the immutable traits of race and gender a prime factor in how we view others — exactly the opposite of Dr. [Martin Luther] King’s dream.”
Texas teacher bragging about ‘indoctrinating the youth’ interviews middle school kids on non-binary identity
Fox News Digital identified the Texas educator as Kelsey McCracken, who teaches math in W.A. Meacham Middle School, located in the Fort Worth Independent School District.
“Indoctrinating the youth,” she said in the classroom, adding that kids were “lining up at my door.”
Later, McCracken responded to a TikTok comment which said the teacher shouldn’t be including the teacher’s “gender confusion” in the classroom.
She used a soundbite which said, “I cannot stand this sh*t. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang – click click – reload, can’t stand it,” while using a hand pointing at the teacher’s head as a gun.
McCracken also responded to the “gender confusion” comment by interviewing each of the teacher’s classes throughout the day on whether a non-binary identity makes them “uncomfortable.”
Virginia Walmart gunman’s manifesto claims he was ‘betrayed’ by coworkers he killed, felt ‘led by’ Satan
“Sorry God, I’ve failed you, this was not your fault but my own. I failed to listen to the groans of the holy spirit which made me a poor representation of You,” Bing wrote in a note released Friday by Chesapeake police.
Bing legally purchased the 9mm handgun from a local store on the morning of the shooting, police revealed Friday. He had no criminal history. Police found a box of ammunition and “various items in reference to the 9mm handgun (box, receipt, other paperwork)” at Bing’s home.
Bing wrote that he “was harassed by idiots with low intelligence and a lack of wisdom,” specifically mentioning an incident in which his “dignity was completely taken away beyond repair by my phone getting hacked.”
The “Death note” includes multiple anecdotes of what Bing believed was targeted harassment from his coworkers. He goes on to say he believed that those around him were intentionally harassing him and sabotaging his life.
Thanksgiving day massacre: Ex-husband goes on shooting rampage in Houston home leaving 2 dead, 2 injured
Houston police are continuing to investigate the scene at 1500 block of Baggett Lane, in Spring Branch, where four people, including three adults and one teenager, were shot. The two surviving victims were transported to the hospital, Fox Houston reported.
HPD Assistant Chief Patricia Cantu said during a briefing Thursday that the family had just finished eating a Thanksgiving meal together when the ex-husband of the deceased came in through the backdoor and opened fire on the family.
“The families were celebrating, they just finished eating. The suspect, who is known to be the ex-husband of the deceased female, came into the back door and just started firing at the people inside the house,” Cantu said.
“There were four other people inside the house. As soon as they heard the shooting, they ran to the rooms for safety,” Cantu said. The suspect unloaded multiple rounds and reloaded the firearm at least once during the rampage, the chief said.
Biden turning to Venezuela for oil, after blockading America’s petroleum industry
As part of the deal, Chevron would retain partial control of both production and maintenance for a select set of run-down oil fields it previously had stakes in with Petróleos de Venezuela SA, a state-run oil company in Venezuela, according to the WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal, which is contingent on certain debts being repaid, would also mean President Joe Biden is continuing to move away from sanctioning the socialist regime.
“We join the international community in welcoming the resumption of negotiations between the Unitary Platform and the Maduro regime,” a National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Biden administration has offered to ease sanctions on the Socialist regime after the administration of former President Donald Trump used a “maximum pressure” approach to stop the Venezuelan government from enriching its leaders with resources, rather than its own citizens.
Politics:
Maricopa County, Arizona Moves Up Election Certification To One Hour Before Deadline To Hand Over Subpoenaed Election Records
Election day in Maricopa County, Arizona, was an unbelievable day. More than 25-30 percent of the county’s ballot tabulators were broken. Lines were so long that two Republican organizations requested a 3-hour extension for voting centers, but a judge ruled against it.
Then, somehow, Democrat Katie Hobbs mysteriously came in with enough votes to allegedly defeat popular Republican candidate Kari Lake.
Hobbs reportedly won the election despite not having a large following, campaigning or holding rallies, and refusing to debate Lake.
To further confuse matters, Hobbs supposedly defeated Lake after getting more than 50 percent of the post-election ballots despite Democrats only carrying 17% of the turnout on election day.
Sen. Kennedy: Do this and then ask yourself who you should vote for
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., comments on the importance of the Georgia Senate runoff between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock on ‘Hannity.’
Border Patrol suicides spike as frustration with Biden immigration policy mounts
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz reported on Twitter the apparent suicides of two agents — Roque “Rocky” Sarinana and Javier Fabela — who worked in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas, and Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) tweeted about a third, unnamed agent from the El Paso sector in Texas who also took their own life.
National Border Patrol Council Vice President At-Large Sergio Moreno, who is part of the agency’s National Suicide Prevention Workforce, confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that an agent died by suicide in El Paso and said a fourth agent also committed suicide on Sunday.
The surge in suicides has alarmed experts and lawmakers alike, with many Republicans in Congress lambasting Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for not doing enough to address the problem.
“The bottom line is [the Border Patrol] need our prayers and support,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday. “That support cannot just be empty rhetoric from a secretary of homeland security who has no interest and no desire to actually secure the homeland. That’s the truth. These guys are being left out hanging out to dry.”
Since President Biden entered office, there’s been a sharp rise in the number of people who’ve crossed the southern border illegally. The figure reached a record 2.38 million illegal crossings in fiscal year 2022 and over 230,000 just last month to start fiscal year 2023, according to CBP data.
World News:
British nurses announce unprecedented strike
Nurses across the United Kingdom will walk out of work for two days next month, in unprecedented strike action for better pay, staff and patient welfare.
The industrial action comes amid a staffing crunch in the NHS and the UK’s cost-of-living crisis. Ryan Chang reports
Serb police find 600 migrants after border shootout
Serbian police found 600 illegal migrants near the border with Hungary on Friday (November 25) following a shootout in a town in which one person was shot, the Interior Ministry said.
“The individuals who participated in last night’s shooting were identified and firearms were found with them,” border police commander Mile Jandric said.
WEF’s Klaus Schwab Says China Will Be a ‘Role Model’ in the ‘Systemic Transformation’ of the World
In an interview with the Chinese state-run television network CGTN, World Economic Forum (WEF) chairman and founder Klaus Schwab heaped praise on the communist government in Beijing for being a leading figure in his vision of a Great Reset of capitalism to usher in the “world of tomorrow”.
“I respect China’s achievements, which are tremendous over the last over 40 years, I think it’s a role model for many countries,” the Davos chief said, adding that while he believes countries should be able to choose the system they prefer to live under, the “Chinese model is certainly a very attractive model for quite a number of countries.”
“I look very much forward to having a strong Chinese voice in Davos to explain even better to the world what it means to see the party Congress which laid down the principles of the policy [and] what it really means for global collaboration and for global development,” Schwab added.
He concluded by saying that he has taken “great satisfaction” in seeing the European Union become more “unified” in its thinking following the Chinese virus and the war in Ukraine and that this could lead to deeper ties between Brussels and Beijing.
China has been at the forefront of implementing a bio-security state since the outbreak of the coronavirus, implementing one of the first vaccine passport apps in the world in March of 2021, after previously imposing a mandatory health mobile phone application, which in addition to sharing health status of individuals with the government also allegedly shared other data collected with police.
China also seems to be in broad agreement with the World Economic Forum on using the issue of climate change to usher in radical changes.
After decades waiting, Anwar becomes Malaysian PM
Anwar Ibrahim has been sworn in as Malaysia’s prime minister after a three-decade wait that included years in opposition and in prison.
But his appointment could usher in more instability. Lucy Fielder reports.
Hong Kong Court Convicts Cardinal Zen for Pro-Democracy Support
Last May, Hong Kong’s national security police arrested the 90-year-old cardinal, the former bishop of Hong Kong, on suspicion of “collusion with foreign forces” under the city’s sweeping national security law, but these charges have not been brought.
On Friday, Zen appeared before Principal Magistrate Ada Yip at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts together with four other trustees of the now-defunct relief fund, namely prominent lawyer Margaret Ng, ex-legislator Cyd Ho, scholar Hui Po-keung, and singer-activist Denise Ho. The secretary of the fund, Sze Ching-wee, was also tried and found guilty.
Yim ruled that all six defendants could be regarded as “office-bearers” of the fund, which carried “political aims,” and therefore were liable for not registering the trust as a society.
The six defendants were fined between HK$2,500 and HK$4,000 each.
Empty Beijing streets as COVID cases hit record
Frustration simmered in China among residents and business groups navigating stricter COVID-19 control curbs as the country reported on Friday (November 25) another historic high of daily infections just weeks after hopes were raised of easing measures. Flora Bradley-Watson reports.
French vote for right to abortion in constitution
Lawmakers voted by a large majority to include a clause guaranteeing “the effectiveness and equal access to the right to end pregnancy voluntarily”.
Left-wing MP Mathilde Panot, who is behind the change, said it was to protect against the “backsliding” seen in the US and Poland.
But the bill will face a tough passage.
Last month the upper house, the Senate, rejected a similar proposal and is thought unlikely to back the new amendment. Right-wing parties – which dominate the Senate – argue that abortion rights are not under threat in France.
A change of constitution would also have to go to a referendum, although opinion polls suggest more than 80% of French voters are behind it.
Surgery returns ‘womanhood’ to Kenya FGM survivors
Sixty Kenyan women came forward for “life-changing” reconstructive surgery of the clitoris during a recent humanitarian operation in Nairobi, seeking to reclaim their womanhood after enduring female genital mutilation (FGM) during childhood. Lucy Fielder has more.
NSW government and rail union strike deal
The New South Wales government and the rail union have finally reached a deal to end months of dispute and disruptions in the state’s network.
Both parties have agreed to enter mediation and accept the Fair Work Commission’s ruling.
Colombian judge suspended after appearing on Zoom call half-naked, smoking in bed
In a 33-second clip circulating on social media, the 34-year-old judge, Vivian Polanía, can be seen lounging in bed, appearing half-awake while taking a drag from a cigarette. At one point in the hearing, a prosecutor tells Polanía that her camera is on, and she immediately turns it off as the hearing continues, local media reported.
The virtual court hearing centered around debates over whether a man charged in a 2021 car bombing should be granted bail.
One of the solicitors on the call reported Polanía’s alleged impropriety to Colombia’s National Commission of Judicial Ethics.
Commentary/Opinion:
This Balenciaga ad is DISGUSTING
Everyone that played a part in this ad campaign needs to be fired and investigated immediately.
Classic Stossel: What’s Great About America–Entrepreneurial Spirit
More than almost any other nation, America both encourages and rewards creativity, risk-taking, and the entrepreneurial spirit.
In this video, I start my own “Stossel Store.”
The business is something of a failure, which is also part of what’s great about America: you can try here and fail and still try again.
A Classic Stossel from 2010.
In The News Feed. 