ICE ramping up arrests, deportations of criminal aliens in Trump's first two weeks - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

As of January 31, ICE-led operations have resulted in the arrest of more than 8,000 illegal immigrants, based on a collection of data the agency’s social media posts have disclosed since January 2023.

 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is ramping up arrests and deportations of criminal aliens in the first few weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term.

As of Jan. 31, ICE-led operations have resulted in the arrest of more than 8,000 illegal immigrants, based on a collection of the agency’s social media posts since January 23.

ICE officers in Denver arrested an illegal Mexican national on Jan. 30 in Adams County, Colorado who was previously charged with assault and kidnapping. ICE also arrested four criminal aliens each with “convictions or charges related to sexual assault” in Washington state this month.

"Sanctuary Cities" fairly powerless

ICE has been making arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal records in sanctuary cities and counties, which do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this week that it will be up to Trump whether to take direct action against mayors of sanctuary cities. In the meantime, she said ICE will continue its efforts to remove illegal immigrants with criminal records from U.S. communities.

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), a division of ICE, apprehended Luis Adolfo Guerra-Perez, a 19-year-old Guatemalan MS-13 gang member who was previously charged with drug and weapons crimes. He was arrested in Boston, a sanctuary city, on Jan. 22.

On the same day, they arrested Juan Alberto Rodezno-Marin in Boston. Rodezno-Marin, 39, was “charged in Massachusetts with indecent assault and battery on person over 14, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, masked armed robbery and assault to rape,” according to the agency.

ICE officers in Boston also arrested Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, a “member of a violent Haitian street gang,” who is illegally present in the U.S. and has 17 criminal convictions in Massachusetts.

ICE “conducted a worksite enforcement operation" on Jan. 28 at Complete Autowash in Philadelphia "based on allegations employees were being subjected to labor exploitation.” Philadelphia is a self-described sanctuary city.

“ICE encountered, interviewed and arrested seven illegal aliens for immigration violations, who were subsequently detained pending removal,” a news release said.

ERO deported Nestor Flores Encarnacion, who is wanted in Mexico for raping a child, to his home country of Mexico on Jan. 23. Flores, a 58-year-old illegal immigrant, had illegally entered the U.S. four times.

Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, said ICE arrested convicted illegal immigrants with murders, sex offenses and gang affiliations on their records during enforcement efforts in Chicago on January 26.

Trump pledged during the 2024 campaign to conduct mass deportations of illegal immigrants with criminal records.

The illegal immigrants with criminal records that have been arrested by ICE since Jan. 20 are “pending removal” from the U.S. Official removal statistics for the month of January are not yet available.

"Agents are just thrilled."

Art Del Cueto, vice president of the Border Patrol agents union, said many illegal immigrants are voluntarily self-deporting due to Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration nationwide, even in sanctuary cities. He also said Trump’s decision to end the “catch-and-release” policy at the border is sending a strong message to those seeking to enter the U.S. illegally over the border.

“The agents are just thrilled. You know, I think President Trump is doing it a lot with rhetoric and now with the executive orders trying to get things done, and people are now self deporting,” he told Just the News on Jan. 21. “It started a couple weeks ago. They didn't wait till now. It started a couple weeks ago where they were saying, ‘hey, look, we know the new sheriff is in town. Let's pack up and leave dodge,’ I guess you would say.”

The Associated Press has interviewed some illegal immigrants who said they decided to leave the U.S. during the onset of the second Trump administration.

Homan has encouraged illegal immigrants inside the U.S. to self-deport. 

“While we're out prioritizing the public safety threats and national security threats, If you want to self-deport, you should self-deport because, again, we know who you are, and we're going to come and find you," Homan said recently.

Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/ice-ramping-arrests-deportations-criminal-aliens-under-trump

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Hundreds of mayors and dozens of Democratic governors vow to defy Trump’s energy policies - Kevin Killough

 

by Kevin Killough

The U.S. Climate Alliance and Climate Mayors issued statements saying that the Trump administration's policies won't deter them from pursuing net zero emissions on the state and local level.

 

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signaled a near-complete retreat from the Biden-Harris administration’s climate agenda, to be replaced with a plan for “American energy dominance.” 

The actions the president took upon taking office sought to fulfill a campaign promise to improve the economy by lowering the cost of energy. While people around the world are generally supportive of efforts to lower emissions and build out wind and solar power, polls that also ask respondents how much they’re willing to spend find rapidly declining support even at $1 per month. 

Achieving net zero comes with enormous costs — according to one estimate, world governments will need to spend $9.2 trillion every year to 2050 — and the wind and solar power required to decarbonize the grid greatly increase electricity costs. 

While Trump’s campaign promise to bring down energy costs appealed to those who voted for him, supporters of net-zero emissions policies are predictably critical of Trump’s energy policies.  Democratic and climate-focused mayors across the U.S. are vowing to defy Trump’s and the GOP energy agenda. 

Climate action

Democratic Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and Michelle Grisham of New Mexico, co-chairs of the Climate Alliance, issued a joint statement on Inauguration Day to United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell assuring the official that the United States would continue “climate action,” despite Trump’s executive orders. 

“Our states and territories continue to have broad authority under the U.S. Constitution to protect our progress and advance the climate solutions we need. This does not change with a shift in federal administration,” the letter stated. 

Defiance: "not backing down."

The Climate Alliance is composed of 22 Democratic state governors who support advancing net-zero policies. Its policy priorities include setting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, mandating energy efficiency resource standards, financing renewable energy, and taxes on emissions. 

Larry Behrens, communication director for Power the Future, points out in an editorial on Real Clear Energy, that states governed by members of the Climate Alliance pay 5% more for gasoline and 13% more for electricity over the national average. Five of the states with the highest electric bills have governors who are members of the alliance. 

The defiance of Trump’s energy agenda is also happening on the local level. Climate Mayors, an organization composed of 350 mayors in 46 states, issued a statement on Jan. 20 critical of Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. 

“Climate Mayors are not backing down on our commitment to the Paris Agreement. The cost of inaction is simply too high. As we have recently seen from the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, extreme summer temperatures in Phoenix, and hard-hitting hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the effects of our changing climate are at our doorstep. Now, more than ever, we must accelerate our work to protect our communities, lower energy bills, create good-paying local jobs, and maintain our nation’s economic competitiveness by modernizing our infrastructure and investing in emerging markets,” the group said in a statement. 

The 2015 Paris Agreement is an international treaty signed by 196 nations promising to limit emissions to maintain global warming levels to no higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from the agreement during his first term, and former President Joe Biden signed the U.S. back on. Trump then revoked Biden’s order upon taking office this month. 

Shortly after Trump’s election victory, the Energy News Network, which advocates for the wind and solar industry,  published an editorial arguing that under the Trump administration, climate activists should pursue state-level action. 

“State lawmakers and regulators have the ability to order local utilities to shut down or reduce emissions from fossil-fueled power plants and expand the share of electricity they generate from zero-carbon resources like wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear power,” the editorial explained. 

Checks and balances

Gabriella Hoffman, director of the Center for Energy and Conservation at Independent Women’s Forum, told Just the News that the center was very encouraged by Trump’s initial actions to set American energy policy on a new course. 

“President Trump followed through on his promises to move away from ‘all of the above’ rhetoric of net zero to posturing that focuses on reliability and abundance. That's very encouraging,” Hoffman said. 

However, as much of what Trump has done so far is through executive orders, Hoffman explained, these could be easily overturned by the next administration. She said Trump and Congress should work together to codify these policies so they can’t be undone in four years. 

Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy at the Michigan-based Mackinac Center, told Just the News that, while he disagrees with proponents of net-zero, he said action on the state and local level in opposition to the federal government is part of American democracy. 

“We saw the same sort of thing when Biden won as we're seeing now. You can have groups that oppose the policies of an incoming administration, which do things too slow or mitigate what they see as potential damage. It's the checks and balances that are inherent in the American system that I see these groups using today,” Hayes said. 

Gusts of wind

Hayes said that climate policies going forward are going to be operating in a different environment than they have in the past. European nations, especially Germany and the United Kingdom, are much further along on a path to net zero than the U.S., and they’re having serious problems. 

In the U.K. residents pay four times more for electricity than households in the U.S. Across Europe, heavy industries are shutting down. Germany has been experiencing months of low wind speeds, leaving its wind farm output dismally low. As a result, it’s had to import electricity from other countries, which drives up wholesale costs across Europe.  

Hayes said that the limits of intermittent wind and solar power to sustain the energy needs of an industrialized nation as determined by the laws of physics are becoming more well known. The outcomes of the real-world net-zero experiments are not demonstrating that the goal is possible under current technologies. 

A path to net zero in the U.S. is unlikely to yield different results from that in Europe. The Mackinac Center produced a report last summer, “Shorting the Great Lakes Grid” analyzing the future impacts of net zero policies in seven Great Lakes states. Of the 38 major investor-owned utilities within the Great Lakes region, 32 are aiming to reach net zero by 2050 or sooner. The report concludes that these policies are going to undermine affordable, reliable energy. 

“We're shutting down the stuff that works — coal, gas and nuclear — and trying to power a contemporary industrial economy on errant gusts of wind and sun beams. It’s just not physically possible,” Hayes said. 

More robust debate

Besides more information on the impacts of net zero, Hayes said it’s a lot easier to get information out to people. While the legacy media continues to spread the “climate crisis” narrative largely without challenge — sometimes receiving funding from anti-fossil fuel groups to spread the message — the world of social media changed when Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter and ended the platform’s censorship practices. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also said he’s ending censorship on the company’s Facebook platform, though it remains to be seen if its new content moderation systems will be implemented and allow for freer speech. 

“All of these voices are now able to be heard. So I think what you're seeing is groups like these Climate Mayors and the U.S. Climate Alliance, they're actually facing effective pushback for the first time in a lot of years,” Hayes said. 

While hundreds of mayors and a couple dozen Democratic governors are vowing to continue along the same energy policies that the Biden-Harris administration embraced, they’re going to be up against a much more robust debate on the efficacy and affordability of their preferred policies, in addition to a federal administration going in an entirely different direction. 

Kevin Killough

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/hundreds-mayors-and-dozens-democratic-governors-vow-defy-trumps-energy

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Trump Must Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Scale Down US Ties to Qatar - Con Coughlin

 

by Con Coughlin

The need for the world's major Western democracies to take firm action against the Muslim Brotherhood has become even more urgent following the October 7 attacks, with militant groups inspired by the Brotherhood's ideology said to be responsible for provoking anti-Jewish riots on American university campuses and staging weekly hate marches in many European capitals, such as London.

 

• For Trump to make genuine progress in bringing peace and stability to the region in his second term, though, his administration must first focus on the root cause of much of the unrest blighting the region.

• In response to the Muslim Brotherhood's violent ideology, a number of pro-Western Arab regimes, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have designated the organisation as a terrorist entity.

• The need for the world's major Western democracies to take firm action against the Muslim Brotherhood has become even more urgent following the October 7 attacks, with militant groups inspired by the Brotherhood's ideology said to be responsible for provoking anti-Jewish riots on American university campuses and staging weekly hate marches in many European capitals, such as London.

• [Ed] Husain, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is among a number of Middle East experts arguing in favour of the incoming Trump administration designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. He argues that such a move would "force Europe to reconsider the financial, media and mosque networks used by Iran and the Brotherhood in their own countries to project power back into the Middle East."

• At the same time Trump should confront the Gulf state of Qatar over its blatant double standards in supporting terror groups such as Hamas, whose leaders have drawn heavily on the Muslim Brotherhood's dogma, while at the same time pretending to be an ally of the West.

• [Qatar's state-owned media] described the worst terrorist attack in Israel's history as a "heroic operation," a "miracle" and a "historic turning point" that restored the honour of the Muslim nation, while placing the Palestinian cause back on the world's agenda.

• Qatar played a similar role during the Afghan conflict, when its willingness to provide Taliban negotiators with a base in Doha ultimately resulted in the Taliban regaining power in Kabul, re-establishing its uncompromising Islamist rule over the Afghan people.

• While the Qataris maintain that their mediation efforts on the Gaza conflict are aimed at ending the bloodshed, their real motive is to ensure that Hamas, the group whose terrorist infrastructure they have helped to finance, survives the conflict, enabling it to maintain its threatening presence on Israel's southern border. This mission of Qatar's is a goal about which President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and even President Trump himself, might not be aware.

• Given Qatar's overt sympathy for the Hamas cause, at the very least the Trump administration should undertake a serious review of its dealings with Doha, and consider relocating the US military's Al Udeid Air Base from Qatar to a more friendly location in the region, such as the United Arab Emirates.

If US President Donald Trump is really serious about making a positive impact on the Middle East, a good place for him to start would be to designate the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement as a terrorist organisation and scale down Washington's ties with the Gulf state of Qatar. Pictured: President Donald Trump and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani meet in the White House July 9, 2019. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

If US President Donald Trump is really serious about making a positive impact on the Middle East, a good place for him to start would be to designate the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement as a terrorist organisation and scale down Washington's ties with the Gulf state of Qatar.

Since he won re-election, there has been much speculation that Trump, architect of the ground-breaking Abraham Accords, intends to use his second term in office to negotiate a wide-ranging peace deal aimed at bringing lasting stability to the Middle East.

Before he had even taken office, Trump was credited with helping to finalise the Gaza ceasefire deal, after he threatened that "all hell will break out" if Hamas did not release the remaining Israeli hostages held in captivity.

More recently, he has called on Egypt and Jordan to accommodate displaced Palestinians in Gaza in order to "clean out" the enclave after significant areas of the territory have been reduced to rubble following 15 months of intense fighting between Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists and Israel.

For Trump to make genuine progress in bringing peace and stability to the region in his second term, though, his administration must first focus on the root cause of much of the unrest blighting the region.

In this context, the US should target the Muslim Brotherhood, widely regarded as inspiring a range of Islamist terrorist groups from Hamas to al-Qaeda, and the Gulf state of Qatar, which has a long history of sponsoring Islamist causes.

Founded in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has been accused of supporting acts of violence to achieve its political objectives.

According to Sir John Jenkins, a retired British diplomat and respected expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Banna supported the political utility of violence, and the Brotherhood conducted attacks, including assassinations and attacks against Egyptian state targets and both Western and Jewish interests during his lifetime.

More recently, the Muslim Brotherhood's disastrous spell in power in Egypt during the Arab Spring is remembered for the mass attacks that were carried out against the country's Coptic Christian community, as well as the close ties that Egypt, ruled by President Mohamed Morsi (a Muslim Brotherhood member) established with Iran.

The organisation's violent Islamist ideology has also played a role in the formation of numerous terrorist groups in the Middle East, such as the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group responsible for carrying out the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel, in which around 1,200 Israelis were murdered and another 250 taken hostage.

In response to the Muslim Brotherhood's violent ideology, a number of pro-Western Arab regimes, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have designated the organisation as a terrorist entity.

Now, as Trump commences his second term in the White House, he should follow suit and designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a move that many believe could help to improve the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

The need for the major Western democracies to take firm action against the Muslim Brotherhood has become even more urgent following the October 7 attacks, with militant groups inspired by the Brotherhood's ideology said to be responsible for provoking anti-Jewish riots on American university campuses and staging weekly hate marches in many European capitals, such as London.

Ed Husain, a respected expert on the Muslim Brotherhood's violent ideology, recently described the organisation as "a destabilising, anti-American, anti-Israeli poison" that was "polluting the air of the Middle East and the wider Muslim world".

Husain, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is among a number of Middle East experts arguing in favour of the incoming Trump administration designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. He argues that such a move would "force Europe to reconsider the financial, media and mosque networks used by Iran and the Brotherhood in their own countries to project power back into the Middle East."

Trump previously considered designating the organisation as a terrorist entity during his first term of office following talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a fierce critic of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Following his triumphant return to the White House, Trump should revisit the whole problematic issue of the Muslim Brotherhood, and subject it to the same classification and sanctions regime that has been imposed against other such organisations.

At the same time, Trump should confront the Gulf state of Qatar over its blatant double standards in supporting terror groups such as Hamas, whose leaders have drawn heavily on the Muslim Brotherhood's dogma, while at the same time pretending to be an ally of the West.

Qatar, whose funding of Hamas enabled the group to construct the terrorist infrastructure behind the October 7 attacks, has recently hosted negotiations aimed at ending hostilities in Gaza.

Qatar played a similar role during the Afghanistan conflict, when its willingness to provide Taliban negotiators with a base in Doha ultimately resulted in the Taliban regaining power in Kabul, re-establishing its uncompromising Islamist rule over the Afghan people.

Apart from actively supporting terror groups such as Hamas and the Taliban, Qatar is also responsible for creating and funding the Al-Jazeera television network, which has been accused of acting as the propaganda mouthpiece for terrorist organisations such as Hamas.

While the Qataris maintain that their mediation efforts on the Gaza conflict are aimed at ending the bloodshed, their real motive is to ensure that Hamas, the group whose terrorist infrastructure they have helped to finance, survives the conflict, enabling it to maintain its threatening presence on Israel's border. This goal of Qatar's is something about which Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and even Trump himself, might not be aware.

A telling insight into the Qataris' thinking was provided on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks last year, when its state-owned media published a series of articles glorifying the Hamas atrocity.

The articles described the worst terrorist attack in Israel's history as a "heroic operation," a "miracle" and a "historic turning point" that restored the honour of the Muslim nation, while placing the Palestinian cause back on the world's agenda.

Given Qatar's overt sympathy for the Hamas cause, at the very least the Trump administration should undertake a serious review of its dealings with Doha, and consider relocating the US military from Al Udeid Air Base from Qatar to a more friendly location in the region, such as the United Arab Emirates.

If Trump is really serious about bringing lasting peace to the Middle East during his second term, he must first neutralise the malign influence of Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and their financial backers in Qatar.

Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21369/trump-muslim-brotherhood-terrorists

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Trump orders tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

Trump has called on Mexico and Canada to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigration into the U.S.

 

President Trump signed a formal order on Saturday imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

Mexican and Canadian imports will be subject to a 25% tariffs until further notice. The initial start date for the tariffs is still not clear. 

Trump has called on Mexico and Canada to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigration and illegal drugs coming into the U.S.

Energy from Canada will be subject to 10% tariffs.

Trump has advocated for China to crackdown on the fentanyl that is coming into the U.S. The tariff on Chinese goods will be 10%.

"Today’s tariff announcement is necessary to hold China, Mexico, and Canada accountable for their promises to halt the flood of poisonous drugs into the United States," the White House wrote on X.

Critics of the tariffs argue that they could drive up the costs of goods for U.S. consumers.

Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/trump-signs-order-implementing-tariffs-canada-mexico-and-china

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Canada imposing retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump, Mexico considering the same - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

“I instruct the Secretary of Economy to implement Plan B that we have been working on, which includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests,” Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's president says

 

Canada announced on Sunday it is imposing retaliatory 25% tariffs against the United States after President Trump's tariffs were announced on Saturday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the "far-reaching" tariffs would apply to U.S. imports including beer, wine, home appliances and sporting goods.

The White House announced on Saturday Trump would impose 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and 10% on Chinese imports.  Trump cited illegal immigration, drug trafficking and the fentanyl crisis as reasons for the tariffs.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Saturday in an X post that "problems are not resolved by imposing tariffs" and emphasized more diplomacy. 

“I instruct the Secretary of Economy to implement Plan B that we have been working on, which includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests,” she wrote, translated from Spanish. “Nothing by force; everything by reason and right.”

She called on Trump to work with her to "establish a working group with our best public health and security teams."

Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/canada-imposing-retaliatory-tariffs-response-trump-mexico-considering-same

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Disillusioned Gazans return South after finding northern homes in ruins - Ohad Merlin

 

by Ohad Merlin

Civilians furious at Hamas and Israel after finding the north of the Gaza Strip in ruins: "Where’s our home? Where’s our future?"

 

Displaced Palestinians make their way back to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip on January 27, 2025.

(photo credit: Ali Hassan/Flash90)

Following Hamas’s organized celebrations and encouragement to Gazans to go back to the northern Gaza Strip, many of those who made it there were forced to return southward after discovering their former houses in ruins.

Various viral videos, tweets, and posts have been circulating on social media, many brought by Israeli channels such as Khalifa Shrugged, Abu Ali Express, and Daniel Wachtel, which showed Gazan citizens who were eager to go north to where their homes were returning southward, disillusioned after seeing the immense destruction left by the war.

A Gazan citizen interviewed on the Qatari Al-Araby channel after coming back from Beit Hanun told the interviewer: “I couldn’t find anything… The house was located more toward the Jews, but I was scared to look more closely due to there being unexploded bombs or rockets. There’s no life, no nothing. Even if I bring my tent there – there’s no life there.

“I’m going back to Al-Mawasi in Khan Yunis, in the desert. It’s easier to find level ground there, you can sit there, there’s water… People are shouting and crying in their houses. This is indescribable… I’m not going back. I lost 20 years of my life. My house, my home, my farm… nothing left. There’s a pit instead of my house.”

After the Hamas-organized 'victory' celebrations & urging Gazans to go back north - some of those who made it there appear less enthusiastic about the said 'triumph'.

Here's a Gazan citizen cursing at Hamas leaders Hiyyah, Mardawi and Hamdan, shouting: 'where's our home, you… pic.twitter.com/MrJMfgTZ2m

— Ohad ✡️ اوهاد ✡️ אהד (@MOhadIsrael) February 1, 2025

'This war was uncalled for'

Another Gazan woman who presented herself as a worker in the education sector was filmed saying: “May Allah have vengeance on the occupation. This war was uncalled for. They did not prepare us for it. Our homes are gone and our children are gone. Where are we going back? To the rubble? We didn’t benefit in anything… I hope someone takes us out of here. Two entire generations were destroyed… We were humiliated. I had a new villa worth $250,000; it was destroyed.

“I call on our President Mahmoud Abbas to save us, and I thank Turkiye for standing with us. I wish they would see this video and embrace us and take me and my girls. This is the suffering of after the war – if this war is even over.”

Likewise, during a live broadcast from Falasteen TV channel, an anchor noticed large groups of Gazans going back south after visiting the north, inquiring as to the reason for their return. The citizens answered: “It’s a complete destruction. Buildings have collapsed and the streets are filled with debris.”

“We want a solution,” said another one. “Everything is just mounds of sand. We want someone to find us a solution for this. We want to live and sleep and find refuge… no water and no food.”

The anchor kept pressing, asking if they were sure they made the right decision by going back south, when a donkey-drawn carriage carrying a family passed by, with one of them shouting: “Miss, there is no life. Only death in Gaza. We’re going back to the [Rafah] crossing. Open the crossings and let us pass!”

One video published on Al-Arabiya showed an old Gazan man standing on top of rubble in the northern Gaza Strip and cursing at leaders of Hamas and the IRGC: “Where is our house, Qassem Soleimani? Where is our house, [Khalil] al-Hayya, [Mahmoud] Mardawi, and Osama Hamdan? A curse be upon you, you spies, you mercenaries!”

Another blogger filmed a video in the southern part of the Gaza Strip showing debris and rubble, adding: “Did you see the change and reform of the ‘Godly’ movement? … This is what the ‘Godly movement’ did to us. They changed and reformed all of the contours of the country. May Allah curse your honor, Hamas!”

Others wrote similar messages on their social media accounts. One named Ahmed wrote: “I went back to Gaza, and I’ve been sleeping for three nights in the streets. Thanks for the victory!” Another X/Twitter user from Gaza wrote: “The north is literally destroyed. I want someone to convince me what we gained from October 7th!”

Some tied the devastation in the Gaza Strip to the widespread reports of President Donald Trump’s immigration plan for Gazans.

One blogger, apparently a Gazan residing in Egypt, wrote: “The northern Gaza Strip alone needs 150,000 tents, so what about all of Gaza? Nothing arrived in northern Gaza – no fuel, no tents, no bulldozers, no excavators to clear the roads and open them to people. If you want to prevent immigration, then add these things in. If you are truly against immigration, you must not make life difficult for the residents of Gaza. Have you seen how simple it is? Do we need demonstrations in front of the Rafah crossing?”

Finally, one Gazan exploited the live broadcasting on Qatari Al Jazeera, where criticism of Hamas is usually not heard. When asked about his situation following what the interviewer claimed was “the end of the war,” the Gazan man answered: “Our situation is like ****.”

Ohad Merlin

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-840234

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Schumer Under Investigation While Trump Reshapes Washington - Roger Kimball

 

by Roger Kimball

Schumer faces scrutiny over past threats to justices, while Trump dismantles DEI, deports migrants, and strikes ISIS, signaling a shift in Washington’s priorities.

 

 

Senator Chuck Schumer is a lawyer, so presumably he is familiar with the provisions of 18 U.S. Code § 115. In case he has forgotten—after all, there are a lot of statutes to keep track of—Edward R. Martin, Jr., the Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney, is in the process of reminding him.

Among other things, that statute holds that anyone who threatens a federal government official or their family with the “intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with such official, judge, or law enforcement officer while engaged in the performance of official duties, or with intent to retaliate against such official, judge, or law enforcement officer on account of the performance of official duties,” shall be punished with a term in the slammer, the length of the sentence being dependent on the actual harm caused.

When the Supreme Court was hearing an abortion case in March 2020, Schumer showed up at a protest rally in front of the Court and shouted, “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”

Perhaps Nicholas John Roske had that speech in mind in June 2022. It was then that he traveled from California to Maryland to pay the Kavanaughs a visit. It was not intended to be a friendly visit. In the dead of night, he took a taxi to their home. According to the court filing, he carried a suitcase in which was a “black tactical chest rig and tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crowbar, pistol light, duct tape, hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles, and other items.”

When apprehended, Roske admitted that he had come to kill Brett Kavanaugh. I wonder what Chuck Schumer thought of that. It looks like Edward Martin is going to find out. On Friday, Martin announced not only that he was firing more than two dozen federal prosecutors; he also announced that he was opening an investigation into Schumer for his threats against two U.S. Supreme Court justices. For most mortals, issuing such threats would earn one a visit from the authorities. As a paid-up member of the Washington elite, Senator Schumer doubtless thought he was exempt from all such rules. Until January 20, he probably was.

A lot of things began to change that day. If you visit the personal data hoovering site known as Google, you will be informed that, beginning yesterday, February 1, we are in the midst of a month-long feria denominated “Black History Month.” The Pentagon used to celebrate such racially informed pseudo-celebrations as well. But our new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, put a stop to that right speedily. On Friday, he issued a “Guidance” memorandum titled Identity Months Dead at DoD. Since singling out certain groups for celebration is bad for unity and morale, Hegseth reasoned, the cornucopia of “diversity” months that has covered public calendars like fungi is at an end. “Going forward,” we read,

DoD Components and Military Departments will not use official resources, to include man-hours, to host celebrations or events related to cultural awareness months, including National African American/Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month [! who knew?], Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month.

Is the page on all that woke insanity really turning? I think it might be. Within hours of taking office,  Donald Trump pounded a stake into the heart of federal DEI initiatives with an executive order prohibiting them. Among other things, that means no more putting your preferred pronouns in your official correspondence. Thank God for that. As Senator John Kennedy put it, “They/them are now was/were.” The mask having been ripped off all these absurdities, they will shrivel and waste away in the cold light of day of what Trump hailed as the “revolution of common sense.” The nonsense will not be easy to revive.

Elsewhere, Trump is repatriating illegal migrants, freeing hostages, and bringing water back to Southern California, “putting people above fish” (in this case, the tiny Delta Smelt). It also looks like the market in caves in Somalia has taken a serious hit. Yesterday, Trump ordered air strikes against “the Senior Isis attack planner and other terrorists” who were hiding in caves in that ravaged country. The troglodytes, Trump said, threatened the United States. Ergo, he

destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians. Our Military has targeted this ISIS Attack Planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done. I did! The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that “WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!”

The ancien régime just hates it when Trump talks like that. The aspersions cast upon his political opponents, the braggadocio, the typographic bravado—it’s just not the way official Washington is supposed to sound.

Not, that was, until January 20. Expect a lot more where that came from. I for one, am deeply grateful for it.

Roger Kimball

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/02/schumer-under-investigation-while-trump-reshapes-washington/

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The Art of the Smackdown! How Trump Turned the Tables on Colombia - Corinne Clark Barron

 

by Corinne Clark Barron

Who’s in charge? We are!

 

 

Thanks to President Trump, America just reminded the world what happens when you try to play games with the greatest country on Earth. Colombia’s socialist president, Gustavo Petro, thought he could snub us by blocking deportation flights—and it took less than a day for him to realize he messed with the wrong guy.

Trump didn’t wait for endless “diplomatic talks” or weak apologies. Nope. He responded to the insult immediately and hit back hard—shutting down visa services at the U.S. Embassy, slapping tariffs, imposing sanctions, and letting Petro know exactly who’s boss.

And guess what? Petro folded faster than we could have imagined.

Now, he’s offering his own presidential plane to help send deportees back.

The message? Don’t mess with America—especially when Trump’s in the White House!

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate the sheer genius here. Trump’s moves weren’t just tough; they were strategic. He didn’t just inconvenience Petro—he sent a message to every leader around the world: Play stupid games, win tariffs, sanctions, and visa bans. Trump’s actions didn’t just hit Colombia’s government; they struck the corrupt elites where it hurts most. Their diplomatic visas? Gone. Their shady money flows? Shut down.

Petro’s cronies were immediately sweating bullets—especially the ones with daughters brunching in Georgetown who really didn’t want to head home after Trump’s announcement. You just know they begged for the private jet gesture. Game, set, match.

It’s incredible! And this is exactly what we’ve been missing. For four long years, America was stuck in weak-kneed, apology-tour mode. Under Biden, foreign leaders walked all over us, laughed at us, and made a mockery of our laws. But Trump? He doesn’t apologize. He dominates. He’s putting America first and making sure everyone else falls in line.

Colombia’s capitulation is just the latest proof that America is back on top. Under Trump’s leadership, we’re no longer letting other countries dictate terms. We’re setting the rules, and they’re scrambling to keep up. Whether it’s deportation, trade, or global security, Trump isn’t just defending our interests—he’s winning.

This is a reminder of why we needed Trump back in the White House. America doesn’t need politicians who whisper, “Please.” We need a leader who roars, “Try me.” With Trump calling the shots, America is stronger, bolder, and safer than ever.

Petro learned it the hard way. Who’s next?

***

Corinne Clark Barron is a Republican strategist and the founder of freepressfail.com. She is a proud Trump supporter, celebrating America’s new golden era every day. Follow her on X @corinnec and Instagram @freepressfail.

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/02/the-art-of-the-smackdown-how-trump-turned-the-tables-on-colombia/

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IDF destroys terror infrastructure in Jenin in Operation Iron Wall - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

​ by Jerusalem Post Staff

Defense Minister Israel Katz reportedly gave instructions to the IDF to destroy any building "incriminated" in terrorist activity.

 

Smoke rises during an Israeli army operation in Jenin, February 2, 2025.

(photo credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman)

The IDF destroyed several buildings in Jenin as part of Operation Iron Wall, launched to eliminate terrorists and their infrastructure in the West Bank, the military announced Sunday. 

The IDF said it had demolished 23 structures. 

There have been no reports of individuals wounded in the destruction of the buildings. 

These buildings contained terrorist infrastructure, according to the Israeli military.

As part of Operation Iron Wall, Defense Minister Israel Katz reportedly gave instructions to the IDF to destroy any building "incriminated" in terrorist activity, according to N12.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronen Bar carry out a situational assessment in Jenin. January 22, 2025. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Other operations ongoing

Concurrently, the IDF have been conducting ground operations, including in Tammun, where the IDF on Sunday announced the killing of at least 50 terrorists and the arrest of at least 100.

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/2025-02-02/live-updates-840243

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Hamas’s ‘kinocide’: A new crime against humanity revealed - Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

 

by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

A new report uncovers Hamas’s weaponization of family bonds on October 7, defining it as a unique crime against humanity.

 

A house burns down in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.

(photo credit: COURTESY MIKI KRATSMAN)

The bestial crimes carried out by thousands of Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, were unspeakable – but the authors of a newly released 79-page report want the world to speak about them and spread the word.

Writing for the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, they have even given it a name because at no time in history had this exact type of crime been committed. They called it “kinocide” – the targeting of families, calling it a new crime against humanity.

In preparation since February 2024, the report is authored by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, Dr. Michal Gilad, and Dr. Ilya Rudyak from the civil commission. The Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights (RWCHR), under the leadership of former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler, with whom Elyakim-Levy decided on the term “kinocide.”

The horrific assault in southern Israel resulted in over 1,200 deaths and the kidnapping of more than 250 people, including men, women, children, infants, the elderly, and disabled people, all in one day. The heinous acts of murder, torture, gender-based violence, and abduction spurred the immediate formation of the commission.

The commission’s goal is to advocate for the victims of sexual and gender-based violence and atrocities on October 7, as well as for their loved ones and communities.

Coochav Elkayam-Levy: The murders weren’t random but carried out systematically to create the most vicious effects. (credit: Martine Hami )

What is Kinocide?

By coining the term kinocide, the report exposes the deliberate, widespread exploitation and destruction of familial bonds to intensify victims’ suffering, highlighting the profound and lasting harm inflicted on individuals, communities, and societies. She noted that the Dvora Institute calls for urgent international recognition of the term as it describes a new, distinct international crime against humanity and presents legal and policy recommendations to close gaps in international criminal law, ensure accountability, and prevent such atrocities in the future.

GENOCIDE, AS practiced by the Nazis, is directed against a group of people – “national, ethnical, racial or religious,” according to the UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention – but kinocide is a specific type of assault against a group, using the relationship between family members and their emotional, identity, cultural, symbolic, material and other bonds, as a way to maximize the intended harm of the attack.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Elkayam-Levy – a leading international law expert who teaches at Reichman University in Herzliya and who founded and chairs the commission – said that the world must know. This includes government and religious leaders, the UN, parliamentarians, legislators, and members of the Hague International Criminal Court, which has castigated and “tried” in absentia Israeli leaders and threatened them and IDF officers with imprisonment.

She has already presented the report to 300 very influential leaders at the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual summit for international government and military officials, academic experts, authors, and entrepreneurs, held in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The acts of terrorist inhumanity included cutting women in their homes, murdering them, forcing their children to watch or coercing parents to watch what was done to their children, and then sending photos and videos to all the contacts on the victims’ mobile phones. There were 17 minutes of video in which families were murdered at a balloon-and-blood-filled party for a daughter’s 18th birthday.

Elkayam-Levy said that the commission is assembling an archive of videos, texts, photos, and more – many produced by Hamas – to document these crimes, giving a voice to the victims and raising awareness of war crimes committed against women, children, and families. For this work, she was awarded the prestigious 2024 Israel Prize, Israel’s highest civilian honor in the field of Solidarity, topping many other prestigious awards she has received.

The archive, she declared, will serve as a vital resource for research, education, and advocacy, ensuring that the stories of those impacted are preserved, recognized, and remembered for generations to come. “We will bear witness! The murders weren’t random but carried out systematically to create the most vicious effects,” she said.

The report has received widespread support from leading international figures such as Sheryl Sandberg, a member of the Civilian Commission’s Advisory Board; Prof. Yuval Shany of Hebrew University; and Prof. David Crane, the founding prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

“In an Age of Mass Atrocity, the systematic brutalization of families by Hamas – horrors too terrible to be believed but not too terrible to have happened – constitute the Crime Against Humanity of Kinocide,” said Cotler from Canada. “There have been, tragically enough, too many mass atrocities in our time, but this one harbors an unprecedented evil: the glorification and celebration of these genocidal atrocities in real time on digital media, amidst the call to commit these mass atrocities ‘again and again and again.’ This must serve as a wake-up call for the community of democracies to combat such mass atrocities whatever their source.”

SHERYL SANDBERG, a leading technology executive and the founder of Lean In (which empowers women and girls to take the lead and pursue their dreams), stated that “On October 7, Hamas struck at the heart of the Jewish community: the family unit. Hamas’s atrocities against families were designed to break one of life’s strongest bonds. They tried, but they must never be allowed to succeed. The commission’s report serves as a clarion call to the international community to stand up and take action to protect families across the globe from future acts of violence.”

Mukesh Kapila, a former special adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and emeritus professor of Global Health & Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester, said: “Our world is not short of atrocity crimes but lacks adequate remedies despite established legal frameworks. [Is this] perhaps because we tend to lump together all the myriad cruelties that humans inflict on each other, and we stop trying to understand the all-important gruesome detail of what perpetrators do in particular circumstances and why? That way, the broad-brush labels of international criminal law short-change accountability and ill-serve justice.

“This original study challenges that laziness through a forensic focus on Hamas’s atrocities against Israelis,” Kapila said. “A compelling case is made that the weaponization of families and the uniquely horrible mental, emotional, and physical destruction this wreaks deserves recognition and penalization as a specific war crime, and a crime against humanity that sometimes could also be a constituent act of genocide.”

“What the Civil Commission on Oct 7 Crimes has done is what Jews have done throughout the centuries in the aftermath of tragedy – bring insight to anguish [in order] to light a path through it,” commented Roya Hakakian, an author and co-founder of Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “But most importantly, the commission has taken a major step toward eradicating evil by giving it a name.

Lawyer Merav Israeli Amarant, CEO of the civil commission, concluded that “the report reflects months of meticulous and dedicated work by the civilian commission team. From the moment we recognized a new war crime unfolding, we committed ourselves to entering the most sacred and intimate spaces of the families affected – places of safety that became scenes of unimaginable violence.

“We gathered and examined every piece of documentation from these sites, listened to heart-wrenching testimonies from family members, and walked among the broken glass, children’s toys, and bloodstains that marked the devastation,” she said. “We employed every tool at our disposal to amplify the voices of those silenced, to demand international recognition of this nameless cruelty, and to pursue justice for the victims.”

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-840279

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