Month: February 2026

When radical pro-abortion advocate Susan Ostermann was announced as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the decision resulted in immediate backlash. Ostermann joined the university in 2017 as a professor of global affairs.

Following the fallout, Ostermann announced on Thursday that she will no longer pursue the position.

Per Fox News:

In a Thursday message obtained by Fox News Digital, Mary Gallagher, professor of global affairs and the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, wrote, “Dear Keough School community, Today I would like to share that Professor Susan Ostermann, a member of the Keough School faculty who was recently appointed director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, has decided not to move forward as director.”

In the message, Gallagher also said, “Susan is a respected scholar of South Asian politics and regulatory governance whose research and teaching reflect the intellectual rigor and interdisciplinary excellence at the heart of both the Liu Institute and the Keough School of Global Affairs. I am grateful for her willingness to serve and for the thoughtfulness with which she approached this decision.”

Despite Notre Dame’s assertion of being steeped in Catholic identity, the University announced Ostermann’s appointment even with her very public support of abortion access.

In 2022, Ostermann co-authored an opinion piece,  “Lies about abortion have dictated our health policy

The op-ed frames any restrictions on abortion as harmful and based on “utter falsities,” and says abortion “doesn’t cause cancer, it doesn’t affect future fertility, and most people feel relief after an abortion and do not regret their decision. Up to 11 weeks, medication abortions are generally performed using mifepristone and misoprostol, which are safer than taking Tylenol.”

Ostermann further claims that, “Almost 90% of abortions occur during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy when there are no babies or fetuses. There are only blastocysts or embryos so tiny they are too small to be seen on an abdominal ultrasound.”

The radical article drew heavy criticism at the time, even from Notre Dame’s then-president, Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., who publicly disavowed it as not reflecting the university’s values.

In nearly a dozen op-eds that Ostermann also wrote, she claimed the pro-life position has “its roots in white supremacy and racism,” and has misogyny “embedded” in the movement.

Pro-life and Catholic student groups (e.g., Notre Dame Right to Life executive board) publicly called for the university to rescind the appointment, describing her past writings (including the 2022 Chicago Tribune op-ed on abortion) as incompatible with Notre Dame’s Catholic identity.

On February 24, students organized a prayer gathering at the university’s Marian grotto, joined by Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, to pray for life and express concerns.

The local bishop of the University of Notre Dame led an on-campus prayer service Feb. 24, praying for the university’s faithfulness to its Catholic mission amid ongoing controversy over the appointment of a pro-abortion professor to a leadership position.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of… pic.twitter.com/YiNVHUoznV

— EWTN News (@EWTNews) February 25, 2026

A demonstration/protest called “March on the Dome” was planned for February 27,  to advocate for the university’s Catholic identity. Organizers framed it as a corrective action “out of love” for the university, involving speeches and public witness.

After Ostermann declined the role, the group confirmed the event would still proceed, stating, “This is great news, but although we won the battle, the war wages on.”

Bishop Kevin Rhoades has been at the forefront of questioning Ostermann’s appointment, expressing his ‘dismay and strong opposition.’

Bishop Rhoades wrote:

Also disqualifying is Professor Ostermann’s work as a consultant for the Population Council. For those who have never heard of it, this is an organization dedicated to the promotion of abortion around the world. It has been linked to China’s population control policies that have resulted in hundreds of millions of abortions of baby girls. It was also instrumental in securing approval of the abortion pill by the FDA, which is responsible for the majority of abortions in the United States.

Some may claim that this appointment should be protected by academic freedom. Academic freedom concerns the liberty of faculty to conduct research according to their own professional judgment and interests. This appointment, by contrast, concerns the official administrative appointment to lead an academic unit. Such appointments have profound impact on the integrity of Notre Dame’s public witness as a Catholic university.

This appointment understandably creates confusion in the public mind as to Notre Dame’s fidelity to its Catholic mission. Many faculty, students, alumni, and benefactors of Notre Dame have reached out to me to express their shock, sadness, confusion, and disappointment. I share their feelings as well as their love for Notre Dame. I can testify from my personal experience and active presence at Notre Dame that the faith is alive there and continues to be nurtured by committed students, faculty, staff, members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and members of the extended Notre Dame family. Let us ask Our Lady of Lourdes, whose feast the Church celebrates today, to intercede for the Notre Dame community and its leaders during these days. I invite you to say a prayer or light a candle at her grotto, invoking her prayers that Notre Dame will always stand firm in her commitment to the Gospel of her Son, the Gospel of Life.

 

The post Pro-Abortion Advocate Backs Out of Notre Dame Institute Directorship Following Outcry appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

New details have emerged regarding one of the passengers aboard a Florida-registered speedboat who was killed by Cuba’s Coast Guard on Wednesday.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Cuban authorities said their border guards killed four passengers and wounded six others aboard a U.S.-registered speedboat after the passengers allegedly opened fire on Cuban soldiers just one nautical mile off Cuba’s coast.

The New York Post reported that one of the passengers who was killed was identified as American citizen Michel Ortega Casanova, who has lived in the United States for over 20 years after fleeing Cuba.

Misael Casanova, the brother of Michel Casanova, shared with the Associated Press that his brother had become obsessed in recent days with the liberation of Cuba from its communist regime.

Per MS NOW:

Misael Ortega Casanova, brother of Michel Ortega Casanova, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that he was mourning his brother’s death but lamented that he fell into what he called an “obsessive and diabolical” quest for Cuba’s freedom.

“Only us Cubans who have lived over there understand,” Misael Ortega Casanova said, referring to the “great suffering” that he and other Cubans on the island have faced.

He noted that his brother, who was a truck driver and an American citizen who lived for more than 20 years in the U.S., leaves behind his wife, his mother, two sisters — one of whom lives in Cuba — and a daughter who is pregnant.

“No one knew,” Misael said of his brother’s plans. “My mother is devastated.” He added: “They became so obsessed that they didn’t think about the consequences nor their own lives.”

Cuba’s government on Wednesday claimed the 10 passengers on board the U.S.-registered boat were attempting to “infiltrate Cuba” in order to “unleash terrorism.”

In response to the fatal shooting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents fled Cuba in the 1950s during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, stated, “We’re going to find out exactly what happened here, and then we’ll respond accordingly.”

WATCH:

SECRETARY RUBIO on CUBA: What I’m telling you is we’re going to find out exactly what happened and who was involved. We’re not going to just take what somebody else tells us.

I’m very confident we will be able to know the story independently. pic.twitter.com/965ul2lC8b

— Department of State (@StateDept) February 26, 2026

Rubio later clarified that no U.S. personnel were among the boat’s passengers.

The incident comes just weeks after President Trump signed an executive order placing tariffs on any nation that supplies Cuba with oil.

The post UPDATE: One of the Passengers on U.S.-registered Speedboat Killed by Cuba’s Coast Guard Identified as American Citizen appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The talking filibuster strategy is dead thanks to a handful of RINOS who are sabotaging the MAGA movement in its quest to stop Democrats from stealing any more federal elections.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, despite a mandate from the American people to secure our elections, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) admitted on Wednesday that the Republican conference is “not unified” on using the talking filibuster to force a vote on the SAVE Act.

Speaking to reporters amid the ongoing government shutdown, Thune acknowledged that Republicans currently lack the internal cohesion necessary to execute a procedural maneuver as aggressive as a talking filibuster to muscle the SAVE Act through the Senate.

Thune warned that pursuing such a strategy would require near-perfect unity across all 50 Republican senators to repeatedly table Democrat amendments.

Now, a report from Punchbowl News reveals that four RINOS are REFUSING to kill these stupid Democrat Amendments and help secure our elections.

The culprits should surprise absolutely no one.

The first is Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is retiring at the end of this year. He has long been a supporter of amnesty and opposed several of President Trump’s best cabinet nominees.

The second is Senator John Curtis of Utah. He says that he’s concerned should this process stop up a ridiculous Democrat amendment spree, he wouldn’t torpedo them if it means “changing the Senate’s rules.”

I’ve been absolutely clear,” Curtis told Punchbowl News. “Breaking the filibuster is breaking the filibuster. So the reason or method doesn’t matter; it’s breaking the filibuster.”

The other two are perhaps the worst ‘Republicans’ of all: Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. McConnell, of course, is against anything Trump supports, and Murkowski is basically a Democrat.

The SAVE Act is an absolutely critical measure that requires every American to show ID to cast a ballot. It also requires proof of citizenship BEFORE registering to vote.

Democrats are in meltdown mode because, should the measure pass, they will find stealing elections far more challenging.

The talking filibuster strategy was proposed by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) to force the Democrats’ hands on the measure.

Unlike a complete abolition of the filibuster, requiring Democrats to stand and speak would enforce a rule that already exists. Moreover, Republicans would simply have to maintain unity and kill every Democratic amendment.

Rachel Bovard of the Conservative Partnership Institute notes that Republicans do this all the time during the vote-a-rama that is part of the budget reconciliation process.

Lee and others have made it crystal clear: no more hiding in the back rooms. If Democrats want to block legislation that prevents non-citizens from voting, they should have to stand up and do it in front of the American people.

But a few too many Republicans are clearly troubled with the idea of having their Democrat ‘friends’ speak too much or having to put in actual hard work themselves. They are also worried about attack ads close to the election.

From Punchbowl News:

But several GOP senators said this assessment ignores the political realities facing vulnerable Republicans, many of whom wouldn’t want to be seen as opposing politically popular amendments so close to the midterms.

How pathetic.

The post NEW: Thune Quashes ‘Talking Filibuster’ Move to Pass SAVE Act Thanks to These Four GOPers Refusing to Vote on Tabling Democrat Amendments appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday roasted former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for her reaction to Trump calling out insider trading among members of Congress during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. 

Trump roasted Democrats during his State of the Union Address after some, but not all of them, stood up in opposition to insider trading.

While delivering remarks on the economy in Portage County, Wisconsin, ahead of the April 7th Primary Elections, Vance highlighted the many Democrats’ refusal to stand for his rebuke of members who “corruptly profit from using insider information.”

“You know who was not standing up and cheering? Nancy Pelosi,” Vance noted before tearing into her.

“I have never seen a person more angry in my life than Nancy Pelosi when the President of the United States was calling out insider trading,” he said.

“My hope for all of you is that you’ll find somebody who loves you as much as Nancy Pelosi loves insider trading, because then, you will have a very good life indeed.”

WATCH:

Vance: Again, you’re sitting there, and then the President gets to the point, where he says, You know what? We are going to stop Congressmen and Congresswomen from getting rich off of insider trading, from violating the public trust that you have put in them, and get rich off of insider trading. Of course, a lot of the people stand up and cheer; most of the Democrats don’t.

You know who was not standing up and cheering? Nancy Pelosi. I have never seen a person more angry in my life than Nancy Pelosi when the President of the United States was calling out insider trading. Ladies and gentlemen, my hope for all of you, of course, is that we can make you richer and more prosperous and safer in your communities. But my hope for all of you is that you’ll find somebody who loves you as much as Nancy Pelosi loves insider trading. Because then, you will have a very good life indeed.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump on Tuesday called out Pelosi for her stock trading, which has consistently outperformed professionals like Warren Buffett and has caused her net worth to soar.

“Did Nancy Pelosi stand up for this? I doubt it” he said after calling for a ban on insider trading.

Pelosi lost it and was later seen angrily chomping on her dentures.

MORE:

Pelosi Loses It – Starts Chomping Her Dentures After Trump Calls Her Out for Insider Trading (VIDEO)

The post (VIDEO) JD Vance Slams Nancy Pelosi for Seething After Trump Called Her Out for Insider Trading – “I Have Never Seen a Person More Angry… Find Somebody Who Loves You as Much as Nancy Pelosi Loves Insider Trading” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

In yet another incident of transgender violence, 26-year-old “Blu Zeke Daly,” born Cullan Zeke Daly, who identifies as “transgender” or “nonbinary,” was arrested in New Hampshire after allegedly opening fire on U.S. Border Patrol agents during a routine stop near the Canadian border on Sunday.

The Manchester, NH, resident has been charged with attempted murder of a federal officer and assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The incident began late Saturday night in Stewartstown, NH, when a Border Patrol agent encountered Daly driving alone near the border.

The agent asked if Daly used any other names, prompting him to flee the scene.

The agent followed at a distance for nearly 30 minutes until Daly reached the closed Pittsburg Port of Entry.

There, Daly attempted to turn around, pointed a handgun at the agent, and fired a shot.

The agent returned fire, striking Daly, who then crashed into a snowbank and was taken into custody.

Miraculously, the Border Patrol agent was unharmed, which U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan has called “a miracle.”

WATCH:

MORE TRANS VIOLENCE

Blu Zeke Daly, 26, who identifies as trans, was ARRESTED in New Hampshire for allegedly opening fire on Border Patrol agents after being stopped near the Canadian border.

Daly reportedly tried to flee and crashed into a snow bank, where law enforcement… pic.twitter.com/BSjXYPHSjg

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 25, 2026

Local station WMUR reports:

Daly was severely injured in the shooting and remains in the hospital at this point, said U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan. While investigators have not been able to speak with Daly yet, Creegan said they are speaking with “people associated with the defendant” to get a sense of why they might have acted in the way that they did.

“We’re still investigating everything about this individual, including potential motivation and what could have prompted them to be in the border area at that time of night, and what would have caused them to fire at a Border Patrol agent executing routine duties,” Creegan said.

Creegan added that the shooter had a previous Massachusetts driver’s license that was labeled male and now has a New Hampshire driver’s license, which is labeled female. The outlet found that he legally changed his name in 2024.

The report adds:

When asked about potential ideological motivations, Creegan said all aspects of the case remain under investigation but pointed to the killing of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont just over a year ago. That shooting was linked to members of a group known as the Zizians, whose members are mostly transgender or nonbinary and who advocate an ideology that includes anarchism, veganism and fringe rationalist beliefs.

“When you have something happen which targets a Border Patrol agent in that area, it would be a reasonable line of investigative inquiry to determine whether there is any connection to a broader network or group, because that does appear to exist, the allegations that did exist in the murder investigation involving the Border Patrol agent,” Creegan said.

Creegan could not confirm any potential connection between the latest incident and the Zizians group, stating that investigators do not have that level of evidence yet.

In a press release about the case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire said, “The charge of attempted murder of a federal officer carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of assault of a federal officer with a deadly weapon also carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.”

The post Transgender Suspect Charged with Attempted Murder After Shooting at Border Patrol Agent Near Canadian Border (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Registered sex offender pedophile Rene Campos has announced that he is running for Fresno City Council, aiming to represent District 7 in the 2026 primary election.

Campos, a Fresno native and Democrat, was charged and convicted in 2018 with possession of child sex abuse material, which landed him on the state’s sex offender registry.

According to reports, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and completed the court-mandated “rehabilitation” process.

In interviews, Campos has not shied away from his predator past, telling ABC 30, “I’ve been given a chance to rehabilitate through the courts and go back into the system.”

In fact, he is attempting to use his child porn past as a campaign selling point.

“They say let’s choose somebody outside the box, somebody who knows the system from the inside out, because me, I’ve experienced the laws that we are trying to reform right now,” Campos said.

WATCH:

In another nation leading shattering of that glass ceiling, Gavin Newsom’s California hopes to elect the first registered sex offender to a city council. pic.twitter.com/VPE9pCqPqk

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) February 25, 2026

Campos’ campaign website claims, “You are not your past.”

Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters James Kus told the outlet that state law does not prohibit registered sex offenders from holding office.

“Once you leave prison, you’re on probation, you actually are allowed in California to reapply and become a registered voter again, which would then make you eligible to run as long as you’re living in the proper jurisdiction,” Kus said.

The announcement has ignited fury among residents, other candidates, and most normal people in general.

Nav Gurm, who is also running for a city council seat, pointed out that Campos should not be eligible for public office because he will not be allowed to visit schools.

“I think it should be a disqualification to serve in public office. If I’m the next councilmember in District 7 and I can’t show up to a school site, how can I best represent the people in the neighborhoods I want to serve?” Gurm said.

Social media has exploded with outrage over the campaign, with one X user stating, “This f-cking guy should be taking out back behind the wood shed .. wake up CA .. if ya all elect a man charged with possession of kid porn .. CA is doomed.”

This fucking guy should be taking out back behind the wood shed .. wake up CA .. if ya all elect a man charge with possession of kid porn .. CA is doomed

— B (@eatinggood81) February 25, 2026

The post had hundreds of likes within a day.

Another called for a “Millstone Party.”

Sickeningly, the predator’s campaign is right in line with California politics under Newsom, who has championed policies aimed at “rehabilitation” over punishment.

Fresno City Council elections are non-partisan, meaning candidates do not officially run under party labels on the ballot, but Campos’ personal affiliation with the Democrat Party has been widely reported and is in line with his campaign policies.

This isn’t the first predator to announce a run for office in the last few months.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, in November, a Democrat convicted child molester who sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and later violated a no-contact order with the same child announced that he is running for mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.

The Democrat pleaded no contest in 1998 to first-degree child molestation, sexual assault, second-degree child molestation, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Despite prosecutors pushing for serious prison time, he was sentenced to 20 years, with all but 18 months suspended, and he served only 15 months thanks to good-behavior credits.

“Although the Attorney General’s Office recommended a 40-year sentence, with seven years to serve, Superior Court Judge Ronald Gagnon issued English a 20-year sentence, with 18 and ½ years suspended, also ordering English to register as a sex offender,” the Providence Journal reports. “A suspended sentence reduces prison time if the convicted individual fulfills certain requirements. In this case, the judge suspended more than 90% of English’s sentence.”

In 2009, the same victim reported that English drove to her home and tried to contact her again. He was convicted of violating the no-contact order and served another 19 months behind bars. He claimed that he just happened to be living across the street from her.

Shockingly, English is not on Rhode Island’s public sex offender registry because his conviction predated stricter laws, and a court ruled he only had to register locally for 10 years.

The post SICKENING: Pedophile Registered Sex Offender Democrat Launches Bid for Fresno City Council in Gavin Newsom’s California (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The story making the rounds on liberal social media and in the mainstream media is that ICE killed a blind refugee. They left him five miles from his home in Buffalo, he died, and ICE is to blame for being Nazis who leave blind people to freeze to death without notifying their families. By extrapolation, the argument goes, the United States should have open borders and cease all ICE deportations of illegal aliens.

One of the details repeated over and over is that he used a curtain rod as a walking stick, but ICE arrested him because they said it was a weapon. This is particularly odd since ICE conducts immigration enforcement and would have no reason to stop and arrest someone simply for walking with a stick. In upstate New York, it is not uncommon to see people walking with a stick.

Here is what actually happened. The facts vary dramatically from the spin, and ICE did nothing wrong. In fact, ICE was not even involved in the arrest. The agency involved was Customs and Border Protection, which handles enforcement near the border. Because Buffalo is a border city, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office contacted Border Patrol.

A 56-year-old nearly blind Rohingya refugee, Nurul Amin Shah Alam, came to the U.S. on December 24, 2024, but spent the past year in the Erie County Holding Center following his February 15, 2025, arrest on charges of assault, trespassing, and criminal possession of a weapon. He had been in the United States for exactly 53 days when he was arrested.

The trespassing charge stemmed from an incident in Buffalo’s Riverside neighborhood. A female homeowner was letting her dog out when she discovered a stranger, Shah Alam, standing on her porch. He was holding a long metal curtain rod. Feeling threatened by both his presence and the object in his hand, she called the police. Apparently, he was able to see well enough to trespass on someone else’s property and to threaten the homeowner with his walking stick.

The assault and weapon charges involved the responding Buffalo Police officers. According to the police report and statements from the Erie County District Attorney, when officers arrived and ordered Shah Alam to drop the rod, he did not comply. His family later claimed this was due to his poor eyesight and limited English. However, the family’s statement is irrelevant because they were not present during the incident.

Police stated that during the encounter, Shah Alam became “combative.” According to the report, he allegedly bit one of the officers during the struggle. There are roughly 135 countries where English is not an official language, yet their citizens are not walking around biting one another. It is reasonable to conclude that the alleged biting had nothing to do with his lack of English fluency.

Two officers sustained minor injuries. The criminal possession of a weapon charge was based on the curtain rod, which police classified as a dangerous instrument during the altercation. According to his attorney, officers tasered and beat him after he failed to drop the rod. This is understandable given that he not only refused to comply but also became combative.

Following his arrest, Buffalo police located his refugee identification documents and notified federal authorities. ICE issued a detainer, meaning that once his local criminal case was resolved, he would be transferred to federal custody.

In February 2026, after nearly a year in jail, the Erie County District Attorney offered a reduced plea agreement. Shah Alam pleaded guilty to Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree and Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree, both misdemeanors. The original felony assault charges were reduced in what prosecutors described as an interest-of-justice resolution, taking into account his lack of criminal history and medical condition.

On February 19, 2026, after his family posted bond and he entered the plea, he was released from county custody and transferred to U.S. Border Patrol pursuant to the federal detainer. Border Patrol took custody of him.

After approximately four hours, Border Patrol determined he was a lawful refugee and not subject to removal. Many media accounts stress that CBP did not notify his family or attorney when he was released. There is no legal requirement for them to do so, and there is no indication that he was denied the opportunity to call home.

Agents provided what was described as a courtesy ride and dropped him at a Tim Hortons on Niagara Street, roughly five miles from his home. They were not required to provide transportation at all. It is unclear whether he requested that location or whether agents chose it. Under either circumstance, he could have called home from Tim Hortons.

Some claim he died because he could not get home from Tim Hortons. However, the original arrest location on February 15, 2025, was Niagara Street near the intersection with Grace Street in the Riverside neighborhood of Buffalo. His home was in the Broadway–Fillmore neighborhood on Buffalo’s East Side.

By road, the distance between Niagara Street near Grace Street and the Broadway–Fillmore area is approximately 6 to 7 miles, depending on the route. In a straight line, it is closer to about 4.5 to 5 miles, but driving requires crossing much of the city via major east–west corridors. He was able to travel roughly that distance at the time of his original arrest. So, it is not unreasonable to believe he could have walked five miles on the day of his release.

The Erie County Medical Examiner ruled that his death was health-related in nature, ruling out homicide or death by exposure, including hypothermia.

No part of this story implicates ICE in his death. Nor does it appear that CBP or the Buffalo Police Department broke the law or violated Shah Alam’s rights.

The post Media Lies: ICE Not Responsible for Death of Blind Refugee appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

“Not one grain of rice” will be given to prisoners in the Terrorism Confinement Center, vowed El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, if innocent people are killed in the streets.

President Bukele has become a model for the right and a target for liberals and human-rights organizations because of his harsh crackdown on gangs, which is saving lives daily in El Salvador. By locking up 100,000 gang members, he has transformed El Salvador from one of the most dangerous countries in the world into one of the safest in the Americas.

In a press conference, Bukele addressed rumors that gangs were considering retaliating against ordinary citizens at random. He issued a direct warning. “There are rumors that they want to start taking revenge on the honest people, at random. Do that, and there won’t be a single meal in prison.”

He said that if gangs carried out such attacks, imprisoned members would face immediate consequences. “Let’s see how long their homeboys last in there,” he said. “I swear to God they won’t eat a single grain of rice.”

Bukele dismissed potential criticism from international organizations, saying he did not care what they might say in response to stricter prison measures. “Let them come and protect our people,” he said. “Let them come and take their gang members, if they want them so much. We’ll give them all to you, two for one.”

Bukele has shown the world that crime can be stopped. Criminal gangs can be neutralized by locking them up. In a previous interview, he said the purpose of prison was not to punish, but simply to remove criminals from society so they could not hurt people anymore.

His plan not only worked in El Salvador, but could work anywhere. There just needs to be the political will.

In a separate press conference, he came down hard on Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Bukele argued that no government is incapable of eliminating crime if it truly exercises state power. “How is it possible that a criminal organization can control an entire territory and the government can’t take it out?” he asked. In his view, the idea that a state cannot defeat crime is “absurd,” because “Leviathan, the state, is always stronger than any criminal organization.”

He said El Salvador had already demonstrated this principle. Critics often claim that drug trafficking alone explains the power of criminal groups, but Bukele rejected that argument as incomplete.

Pointing to Europe, he said he is “totally against drugs” and emphasized that El Salvador is fighting a drug war. Yet, he argued, drug consumption in Europe is “much higher, legal and illegal,” than in Latin America. Despite that higher consumption, Europe does not have cartels controlling territory. There may be dealers, he acknowledged, but there are no drug cartels, “much less controlling territories.”

In Europe, he said, no cartel controls the south of France while another controls the north. “That doesn’t happen in Europe because the state controls its territory.” By contrast, he argued that in parts of Latin America governments have effectively ceded control, saying they cannot control certain regions and must “leave that area to the cartels, the other area to the criminal organization, the neighborhoods to the gangs.”

“It can’t be. Something has to be wrong,” Bukele said. He cited large sectors of Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil as examples where criminal organizations exercise territorial control. He claimed that cartels in Latin America control territory comparable in size to Europe.

While that comparison may be somewhat exaggerated, it is close. Europe covers roughly 3.86 million square miles, about 10 million square kilometers.

If you combine the total land area of Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, countries where powerful criminal organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, Clan del Golfo, ELN, and Comando Vermelho operate, you reach approximately 5.02 million square miles, or about 13 million square kilometers.

Cartels do not formally own these countries, but in many areas they exercise parallel governance, collecting extortion payments, enforcing their own rules, controlling movement, and determining who can operate economically.

In much of Latin America, the state often maintains nominal control, meaning there is a flag, a police station, and formal institutions. Cartels frequently exercise effective control, deciding who lives, who works, and who pays.

In Mexico, U.S. intelligence assessments have estimated that cartels “control or influence” roughly 30 to 35 percent of national territory. That figure understates the problem. Even where the federal government retains a physical presence, courts, legislators, and the presidency often operate under constraints imposed by cartel power, limiting the government’s ability to enact policies contrary to cartel interests. One could argue that cartel influence extends far beyond the percentage of land they physically dominate.

In Colombia, armed groups and cartels such as the Clan del Golfo and the ELN exert significant control over large portions of rural territory, particularly in coca-growing regions, affecting governance in dozens of municipalities.

In Brazil, criminal organizations such as Comando Vermelho control hundreds of favelas and continue expanding into remote regions of the Amazon, an area geographically comparable in scale to parts of the European Union.

Modern cartels no longer need to control a single massive block of land like a traditional state. Instead, they dominate strategic corridors, including ports, mountain passes, and border towns. By 2026, this has evolved into a form of hybrid control, with cartels using drones to monitor territory and shadow governance structures to influence local elections, effectively ruling specific regions without formally replacing the state.

Repeating his central question, he asked how a criminal organization can control an entire territory while the government cannot remove it. His answer was blunt: “Because they are in the government. That’s why.”

The post El Salvador President Bukele Criticizes Mexico’s Government for Allowing Cartels to Control the Nation appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Foreign Affairs

Giving the Monroe Doctrine a Bad Name

Hemispheric aggression was not the fifth president’s vision, nor has it proved a particularly effective tactic.

A “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is the centerpiece of the administration’s National Security Strategy and its National Defense Strategy.  Promising to defend U.S. interests in the region, it pledges to do so by itself with “speed, power, and precision” if necessary.  This “Donroe Doctrine” justifies intervening in Venezuela, seeking to annex Greenland, and putting pressure on Colombia, Cuba, and even Panama.   Many see a similar strategic logic as animating Russian and Chinese efforts to take steps to assert control over their own “near abroads,” which further tarnishes it and also tars other theories of great-power politics with guilt by association.

To be sure, the president’s advisor Stephen Miller was not totally off-base in arguing that the original Monroe Doctrine embodied some uncomfortable “iron laws” of geopolitics: Great powers consistently endeavor to keep other great powers from ensconcing themselves nearby.  The logic for this is clearly laid out in economist Kenneth Boulding’s “loss of strength gradient”: the further you have to project a given increment of military power, the weaker it becomes.  Conversely, the closer an adversary can come, the greater his ability to use power against you.  But we ought not to blame the Monroe Doctrine for President Donald Trump’s hyper-aggressive approach in our hemisphere.

First, in its original articulation it was largely “passive,” mandating only that extra-hemispheric powers stay out, or if they already were in, they restrict themselves to their current holdings.  President James Monroe simply declared in 1823 that “we should consider any attempt on [European powers’] part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”  Almost every American president opposed the activities of potential adversaries close to home in the Western Hemisphere, and it is clear that Monroe’s eponymous doctrine has shaped American policy in the Western Hemisphere, explicitly or implicitly, since then.     

Admittedly, Manifest Destiny, the domestic corollary of the Monroe Doctrine, justified the taking of plenty of territory that Native Americans and other peoples already occupied, often brutally.  But there is an important difference between the two:  Manifest Destiny was all about what would happen to territory slated to actually become part of the new United States.  While there was some overlap—Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California—with other parts of the Western Hemisphere, its “otherness” was ironically a barrier to our incorporating most of it into the United States. 

Second, for much of the 19th century, the U.S. depended upon another power to enforce this exclusion: Great Britain.  While in the 20th century, the United States and the United Kingdom may have developed a “special relationship” during the early years of the Monroe Doctrine, Britain was not an ally or even much of a friend; we fought two major wars with her (1776 and 1812), and she fished in the troubled waters of our Civil War.  Ironically, Britannia ruling the waves in her own interest made it possible for a pip-squeak Uncle Sam to sail in mighty John Bull’s strategic wake as the Royal Navy kept other powers out of our backyard—just like Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer getting all the other boys to whitewash Aunt Polly’s fence.

Things changed dramatically at the turn of the 20th Century when the United States, feeling its oats as an emerging great power, started playing the great game of power politics more aggressively.  In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt added a “corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine that redrafted it into an activist strategic blueprint lashing U.S. national security to domestic problems in neighboring states—did they pay their bills, were they, in Woodrow Wilson’s later phrase, “elect[ing] good men”—and deputized Uncle Sam as the region’s policeman.  

The application of TR’s “big stick” in the hemisphere transformed U.S. vital interests well beyond simply denying another great power a toehold nearby to making all sorts of domestic features of our neighbors our business.  It is a short step from that to believing that in many cases indirect or even direct control of our near abroad was essential to our national security, and maybe also advancing some other political and economic interests.  The Monroe Doctrine as amended by Theodore Roosevelt has thus also been something of an embarrassment for U.S. leaders, and many members of the American public, leading Franklin Delano Roosevelt rhetorically, at least, to replace it with the “Good Neighbor Policy” in 1933.

This perspective has two important implications:  First, the “Donroe Doctrine” is not really an updating of Monroe’s original strategic vision.  Rather, it overturns FDR’s Good Neighbor policy by taking TR’s big (beautiful?) stick, pumped up on steroids, back out of the closet to micromanage and even annex territory outside of the United States in the Western Hemisphere.  

Second, if we concede that the United States does have a vital interest in the security of the Western Hemisphere, the original Monroe Doctrine, unadulterated by later commanders-in-chief, could undergird a less objectionable framework for hemispheric defense.  Under it, we do not need to directly control the entire hemisphere to be secure, just keep out potential adversaries.  Domestic conflict or economic mismanagement by our neighbors is cause for pity, regret, or helpful neighborly advice, but not outside military action.  

Finally, other powers, even those with whom we do not have warm relations, can still help us advance our hemispheric security interests.  In addition to our “frenemy” Great Britain’s central role in the 19th century, keep in mind that we were on the winning side of the Second World War and the Cold War with Greenland (undeniably an important strategic asset) under the suzerainty of Denmark—until recently an ally and close friend.  Good (and even not-so-good) neighbors are fully compatible with the Monroe Doctrine and U.S. national security.

The post Giving the Monroe Doctrine a Bad Name appeared first on The American Conservative.

 

Internal numbers from the Berlin Police have revealed that the force’s recruitment problems have gone beyond just not having enough applicants—now it’s about applicants who can’t meet even the most basic language standards, amid broader issues with mass immigration and slipping educational levels across Germany.

According to data from 2024 and 2025, nearly four out of ten applicants to the Berlin Police failed the mandatory German language examination. Of 10,874 candidates, 4,271 did not meet the required standard—a staggering 39.3% failure rate, Apollo News reports.

The figures are particularly alarming given the obviously critical role language plays in enforcing the long. Police officers must write precise reports, draft legal documents, and communicate clearly with citizens in high-pressure situations.

Even higher academic credentials offered little assurance of success. Among applicants holding a high school diploma, university entrance qualification, or completed degree, a shocking 30.1% still failed the German test.

In total, more than 1,800 academically credentialed candidates were unable to pass what is considered a basic language assessment. The alarming trend has directly impacted staffing plans across the Berlin Police Department.

Last year alone, some 25% of the 1,224 planned training positions went unfilled. In a city already grappling with rising crime and public safety concerns—both associated with the sustained mass migration into the country and city over the past decades—such shortfalls raise serious questions about long-term readiness.

It’s worth noting that the selection process itself isn’t particularly complex. Applicants complete a 200-word computer-based dictation exercise in which a text is read aloud in segments of five to eight words, with pauses in between.

Under internal guidelines, anyone who makes more than 14 errors fails. Practice materials are widely available online, yet the failure rate remains stubbornly high, revealing just how many individuals with migrant backgrounds are trying to become police officers in the German capital.

Even among those who pass the exam, additional linguistic support is often required. During the first three semesters of training, many recruits receive supplemental German instruction, with small group assistance provided regularly.

It’s been made clear by the Berlin authorities that standards will not be lowered. State Secretary of the Interior Christian Hochgrebe,a member of the left-liberal Socialist party, emphasized that applicants are expected to prepare independently for a profession that demands discipline and personal motivation.

The department, thus far, has refused to introduce preparatory courses before the application stage, with officials arguing that the ability to meet baseline language requirements should be a prerequisite for public service.

Critics of Germany’s suicidal mass immigration policies, of which there is no shortage, view the data as highly symptomatic of a broader national problem. They insist, rightly, that years and years of uncontrolled mass migration and the prioritization of multicultural accommodation over integration have weakened foundational competencies.

Germany’s police forces are tasked with enforcing the law of the land, and that responsibility requires absolute command of the national language and loyalty to national standards.

The right-wing, anti-globalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has warned for years that the dilution of educational expectations and exceedingly lax integration policies would inevitably have tangible consequences. The Berlin figures now being cited are clear evidence that those warnings were not at all unfounded.

Berlin, viewed by many as a showcase of left-liberal globalist governance, has for years struggled with crime, overcrowded public services, and strained public institutions. The inability to recruit sufficient qualified police officers only compounds those challenges.

AfD supporters have long argued that public safety begins with rigorous standards, contending that lowering expectations or masking deficiencies would undermine trust in law enforcement.

In their view, exhibiting mastery of the German language is not optional but foundational to national cohesion. The debate comes at a time when questions of identity, sovereignty, and state authority dominate political discourse across Germany and, for that matter, much of Europe. Many voters increasingly prioritize security and the continuity of Germany’s traditional cultural identity over liberal-globalist experimentation, which so far has proven itself to be utterly disastrous.

The Berlin Police figures, for a growing segment of the German population, symbolize the urgent need to reassert standards, drastically limit immigration, and restore confidence in core institutions.

As Germany continues to navigate civilization-altering demographic shifts and political realignment, the issue of who enforces the law—and whether they can meet its basic linguistic demands—will, without a doubt, remain central to the national conversation

The post Mass Migration Crisis: Nearly 40% of Berlin Police Applicants Fail Basic German Test appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.