Month: May 2026

The May 2026 vehicle-ramming attack in Modena, Italy, carried out by Salim El Koudri, a 31-year-old Italian citizen of Moroccan origin, and the March 2026 attack in which Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon, drove a pickup truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, followed a blueprint for carrying out jihad on Western soil that has been systematically taught, refined, and disseminated by ISIS, al-Qaeda, and affiliated jihadist organizations.

In the Michigan attack, Ghazali targeted Michigan’s largest Jewish temple while more than 100 children were attending school inside. The tactics used in both attacks closely resemble methods promoted through jihadist operational publications, encrypted platforms, and online propaganda networks.

Terrorism is a specific methodology, not simply an act of violence, and to meet its definition certain conditions must be present. The targets are usually civilians with no direct connection to the government or military the attackers oppose. Italian pedestrians on a Saturday afternoon had no role in Middle East policy, and the Jewish families attending synagogue in Michigan had no connection to Israeli military operations in Lebanon.

Striking people who are manifestly uninvolved maximizes fear across the broadest possible population. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) Global Terrorism Database defines terrorism as the use of violence against civilian targets to achieve political or ideological goals “through fear, coercion, or intimidation.”

The objective is to destroy the public’s sense of security in the places most familiar to them. Attacks on ordinary spaces, where no one expects to be a target, generate the perception that no protective measure or counterterrorism effort can prevent future attacks.

Footage of the carnage is then disseminated across jihadist channels, social media platforms, and encrypted messaging applications. It serves a dual purpose. First, it signals to potential victims that they are vulnerable. Second, it functions as a recruitment tool by demonstrating to potential fighters that lone individuals can strike at the heart of Western societies.

This is why terrorist organizations claim responsibility for attacks even when the operational connection is indirect. They want both audiences, the terrorized and the recruitable, to know who is responsible.

El Koudri drove his car into pedestrians before crashing into a shop window. He then exited the vehicle and stabbed whoever stood in his way. The vehicle-then-knife sequence follows a methodology disseminated through ISIS’s Rumiyah magazine and documented in multiple attacks across Europe and the United States.

In Michigan, Ghazali waited in the parking lot for more than two hours before driving the truck far into the building, hitting a security officer, then exchanging gunfire before shooting himself. The FBI confirmed he had consumed pro-Hezbollah and Iranian militant propaganda for months and planned what he called a “special operation” aimed at causing mass casualties.

His internet searches in the days before the attack included specific terms such as “what is the largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan?” The FBI’s Detroit field office designated the attack a “Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposefully targeting the Jewish community.” His brother Ibrahim had been identified by the IDF as a Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike one week before the attack.

On New Year’s Day 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas, drove a Ford F-150 Lightning into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans after posting five videos on Facebook proclaiming his support for ISIS. In the first video, Jabbar explained he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on “the war between the believers and the disbelievers.”

An ISIS flag was recovered from the back of the truck. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police after barreling through the crowd over a three-block stretch. His own words confirm that the goal was never the body count. It was the audience.

That doctrine was first formalized by Brian Michael Jenkins of the RAND Corporation in his 1974 paper International Terrorism: A New Kind of Warfare. Jenkins argued that “terrorists want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead.” He framed terrorism as theater, with attacks choreographed for maximum audience rather than maximum casualties.

Attacks were staged in public places where civilians felt at ease. Schools, shopping centers, bus and train stations, and restaurants were selected precisely because they attracted large crowds. That framework governed Palestinian hijackings, IRA bombings, and much of the political terrorism of the 1970s and 1980s. These groups used carefully calibrated violence to avoid the backlash that excessive brutality would invite.

The emergence of religiously motivated jihadist terrorism replaced that calculus. Walter Laqueur identified what he termed the “new terrorism,” characterized by decentralized organization, religious justification, and the deliberate pursuit of mass casualties. This stood in contrast to the calibrated, publicity-focused violence of earlier terrorist groups.

Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, both former National Security Council counterterrorism directors, reformulated Jenkins’s famous observation. Bin Laden and his adherents, they warned, “want a lot of people watching and a lot of people dead.” The strategy had shifted.

The operational pipeline runs through professionally produced, globally distributed publications. AQAP’s Inspire magazine, published since 2010, is best known for its “Open Source Jihad” section. The publication has included instructions for using a variety of weapons and ideological justifications for killing civilians.

AQAP also produced Inspire Guide, which analyzed lessons learned from recent attacks in the West, including attacks unconnected to al-Qaeda. The publication encouraged readers to study and apply the operational guidance it provided.

ISIS’s Rumiyah focused on encouraging Muslims already living in the West to carry out lone-wolf attacks against non-believers. Its “Just Terror” section provided guidance on vehicle-ramming and knife attacks that closely resemble methods used in attacks in London, Stockholm, Nice, and Modena.

The shift to Telegram as a distribution platform broadened the scope further. Photos, videos, audio recordings, and operational-security guidance became readily accessible to would-be perpetrators.

Attack footage is central to this infrastructure. Unlike earlier terrorist organizations, ISIS constructed a narrative that touched on all facets of life, including career opportunities, family life, and a sense of community. It blended traditional media platforms, glossy publications, and social media campaigns capable of going viral within seconds.

ISIS videos were designed to reach young men already conditioned by first-person-shooter video games. The videos replicated video-game editing styles, weapon progressions, drone footage, and on-screen graphics. In doing so, they normalized the visual language of violence and made it more familiar to potential recruits.

The recruitment pool targeted by this infrastructure is well documented. More than 60 percent of ISIS foreign fighters from Western countries are second-generation immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.

Research by Benmelech and Klor, which examined approximately 30,000 ISIS foreign fighters from 85 countries, found that foreign recruits largely come from prosperous, ethnically homogeneous, and linguistically homogeneous societies. Their findings suggest that social isolation within such societies, rather than poverty, is a primary driver of radicalization.

Countries with comparatively small Muslim populations but disproportionate numbers of ISIS fighters, including Finland, Ireland, and Belgium, ranked among the highest when adjusted for Muslim population size. These findings are consistent with theories that the difficulty of assimilation, rather than economic deprivation, contributes to the supply of radicalized recruits.

The attacks in Nice, Berlin, London, and Westminster followed remarkably similar profiles. On Bastille Day 2016, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian resident of France, rammed a 19-ton truck at high speed into a crowd of families and tourists on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. He killed 86 people and injured more than 450.

On December 19, 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian whose asylum application had been rejected, hijacked a lorry and drove it into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people. He then fled to Italy, where he was shot dead by police.

The June 3, 2017 London Bridge attack was carried out by Khuram Butt, a Pakistan-born British national known to police; Rachid Redouane, a Moroccan who had lived in Ireland; and Youssef Zaghba, a 22-year-old Italian national of Moroccan descent. The attackers drove a rented van into pedestrians before stabbing bystanders. They killed seven people and wounded 48. All three were shot dead by police.

On March 22, 2017, Khalid Masood drove at speed across Westminster Bridge, killing four pedestrians. He then entered the grounds of Parliament and fatally stabbed PC Keith Palmer before being shot dead by armed officers. The entire incident lasted 82 seconds.

ISIS deliberately designed this cycle of attacks to be self-sustaining. Foreign fighters who returned from combat to their Western countries of origin were often effective at building networks and sleeper cells. The strategy was also calibrated to provoke anti-Muslim backlash in Western countries, which in turn increased the supply of radicalized volunteers.

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point noted in March 2025 that high-casualty vehicle-ramming attacks produce a “demonstration effect.” Past high-casualty incidents have generated surges in copycat attacks, and the center warned that security agencies must be particularly vigilant following each high-profile event.

Of the 18 terrorist vehicle-ramming attacks recorded between 2014 and March 2025, 83 percent were carried out by jihadists. The attacks in Modena, West Bloomfield, and on Bourbon Street are the product of a system that is methodologically consistent, ideologically coherent, and deliberately designed for an audience far larger than those present at the scene.

The post Exporting Jihad: Instructions and Propaganda Driving Attacks in the West appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters on Thursday that the long-awaited results of the Treasury Department and the FBI’s investigation into the backers of far-left militia groups like Antifa will be released soon.

“We’ve made substantial progress, and I think in the weeks and months ahead we’re going to have a lot to report,” he said.

Soros and his Open Society Foundations have, for years, funneled money to and bankrolled many dark money projects and radical left movements to destabilize conservative governments and place radical left globalists in power. He is also the puppet master behind the lawfare against Trump, election interference, and chaos across the country.

President Trump has repeatedly called for George Soros and his son, Alex, who has also been a prominent figure in the Democratic Party, to “be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America.”

The President signed a memorandum in September 2025, directing the Treasury and the Department of Justice to investigate the funding of leftwing terrorist groups and to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” During a White House roundtable discussion on combating Antifa in October, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that the DOJ is “we’re all working with Treasury” to “find the criminal conspiracy.”

The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese asked Bessent on Thursday for an update on the investigation, and he signaled results will be made public “in the weeks and months ahead.”

Bessent further highlighted newly placed requirements for nonprofit organizations to publicly disclose what organizations they’re funneling money into on their Form 990. “We are going to encourage or demand that nonprofits know their grant recipients,” Bessent said.

“So, if a grant recipient is violent, if they are suppressing people’s rights, then you are responsible for that, and I think that’s a very good first step.”

WATCH:

Reese: I want to ask you about Antifa. In October, the Treasury Department started working with the FBI to investigate who’s funding Antifa. Can you give us an update on that investigation? How close are you guys to finding out who’s funding Antifa?

Bessent: It is ongoing. We’ve made substantial progress, and I think in the weeks and months ahead we’re going to have a lot to report. One thing that did go the underreported that I would point out to all of you is the IRS is now giving guidance on the form 990, which nonprofits they have to file, and we are going to encourage or demand that nonprofits know their grant recipients. So, if a grant recipient is violent, if they are suppressing people’s rights, then you are responsible for that, and I think that’s a very good first step.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to The Gateway Pundit in early October that the Trump Administration is “aggressively” looking into the money behind leftwing terrorist networks.

“We will continue to get to the bottom of who is funding these organizations and this organized anarchy against our country and our government,” she asserted.

‘WE F-CKING DID IT’: X User Connected to Tyler Robinson’s Alleged Boyfriend Celebrated Charlie Kirk’s Death in the Moments After Shooting

The post WATCH: Treasury Sec Scott Bessent Says Antifa Funding Investigation Results Coming Soon – “We’re Going to Have a Lot to Report” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Romania was thrust into an escalating security crisis this week after a Russian drone breached its airspace and struck a residential apartment building in the eastern city of Galați.

The incident has intensified scrutiny over NATO’s regional readiness and underscored Europe’s increasingly volatile defensive landscape.

The incident, according to reports from the Romanian press, occurred during another wave of Russian drone strikes targeting infrastructure and civilian sites in neighboring Ukraine. While the attack was not directed at Romania, the consequences spilled across the border in dramatic fashion.

According to Romanian authorities, the drone crashed onto the roof of an apartment block shortly after 1 a.m., triggering a fire and injuring two civilians. Emergency services rushed to the scene as flames spread through part of the building.

Residents were awakened by the impact and subsequent explosion. Several people were evacuated while firefighters worked to contain the blaze and secure the surrounding area.

The Romanian Defence Ministry says the drone that hit the apartment building in Galați came from Russia.

This is the official government attribution, moving the incident past the wreckage based inference to a formal state finding.

A NATO member now officially blames… https://t.co/4O7YR4IGwU pic.twitter.com/OPJOm9kVwH

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 29, 2026

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense confirmed that military radar systems tracked the drone as it entered Romanian airspace. Officials described the situation as rapidly evolving and requiring immediate military monitoring.

In response, two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from the 86th Air Base in Fetești. A military helicopter was also deployed to support the operation.

Authorities stated that pilots were authorized to engage aerial targets if necessary throughout the alert period. The military response underscores how seriously Bucharest viewed the violation of its airspace.

The crash occurred in Galați, a city located near both the Ukrainian and Moldovan borders. The region has increasingly found itself exposed to the spillover effects of the war next door.

Romanian officials emphasized that Russia had been conducting attacks against targets in Ukraine near the Danube River corridor when the incident occurred. Those strikes have repeatedly created risks for communities located just across the border.

The Foreign Ministry described the drone’s flight over Romanian territory as a serious violation of international law. Officials subsequently called for a faster transfer of anti-drone capabilities to strengthen national defenses.

The incident immediately drew international attention. As both a NATO and European Union member state, Romania occupies a strategically sensitive position on the alliance’s eastern flank.

Ukrainian media extensively covered the story, portraying it as one of the most serious incidents to occur on Romanian territory since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Publications including Kyiv Post, Ukrinform, The Kyiv Independent, and others highlighted the fact that the drone struck inside a NATO member country. Images of the damaged building quickly spread across international media.

For many observers, the incident represented another reminder that the war’s consequences increasingly extend beyond Ukraine’s borders. The line separating direct participants from neighboring states appears increasingly thin.

NATO also reacted quickly. Alliance officials condemned what they described as Russia’s recklessness and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening collective defenses.

A statement from NATO’s spokesperson indicated that Secretary General officials were in contact with Romanian authorities following the incident. The alliance is closely monitoring developments.

Early this morning, an apartment building in Romania was struck by a drone as Russia attacked Ukrainian infrastructure near the border. @SecGenNATO is in touch with Romanian authorities. We condemn Russia’s recklessness, and NATO will continue to strengthen our defences against…

— NATO Spokesperson (@NATOpress) May 29, 2026

This is not the first time Romania has faced drone-related security concerns. Authorities have repeatedly reported Russian drone fragments landing on Romanian territory over the past several years.

Only last month, British aircraft participating in NATO air policing missions were scrambled after drones approached Romanian airspace. Those drones ultimately failed to cross the border, but debris later fell on Romanian farmland.

The latest incident marks a significant escalation because a residential building was directly struck. The fact that civilians were injured has heightened public concern.

Critics argue that repeated violations demonstrate the growing risks facing Eastern European countries situated near the conflict zone. They warn that what begins as a border incident could eventually produce more serious consequences.

Many conservatives across the region have increasingly questioned whether European leaders fully appreciate the security implications of a prolonged war. They argue that the conflict continues generating risks for neighboring populations while offering few signs of resolution.

The Galați incident has also revived broader debates about Europe’s defense posture. Despite years of warnings, many countries remain heavily dependent on NATO and American military capabilities.

Romania’s swift deployment of fighter aircraft showcased the seriousness of the threat. Yet the fact that the drone still reached an apartment block highlights the challenges posed by modern drone warfare.

Meanwhile, the fighting inside Ukraine shows no sign of slowing. Russia continues launching large-scale drone and missile attacks against energy infrastructure and urban areas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned this week that air-defense resources remain under strain. He has urged Western partners, particularly the United States, to accelerate deliveries of Patriot missile systems.

Zelenskyy argued that supplies are becoming increasingly scarce as global crises compete for military resources. He specifically warned that conflicts elsewhere are affecting available inventories.

The growing intensity of the conflict has also alarmed international organizations. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently warned that the escalation risks spiraling beyond anyone’s control.

Guterres told the UN Security Council that civilian casualties during the first months of this year have exceeded levels seen during the same period in previous years. He called for immediate de-escalation and renewed diplomatic efforts.

For Romania, however, the issue has become more than a distant geopolitical concern. A drone crashing into a residential building has transformed an international conflict into a local security reality.

As investigators continue examining the wreckage and authorities assess the damage, the Galați incident serves as another stark reminder that wars rarely remain confined to the borders where they begin. For countries along NATO’s eastern frontier, the risks are no longer theoretical—they are landing on rooftops.

The post War Spills Into NATO Territory: Russian Drone Hits Romanian Apartment Building appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

On May 29, 2026, Italian prosecutors formally requested a life sentence for Cinzia Dal Pino, a 65-year-old businesswoman from Viareggio who ran over and killed Said Malkoun with her SUV after he stole her bag.

Malkoun, 47, whose nationality authorities could not confirm because he had given false information during previous arrests, had no fixed address and no valid residence permit, and supported himself through theft.

Prosecutor Sara Polino charged Dal Pino with aggravated voluntary homicide, citing cruelty, futile motives, use of a dangerous instrument, and diminished defense of the victim, who was struck from behind on foot.

Dal Pino told the court she acted “only to stop him because he had stolen my bag,” adding that she believed he was armed with a knife — a weapon investigators say was never found.

The incident comes just two weeks after the reverse occurred: a vehicular attack on Italians by a North African, in which no life sentence was sought, underscoring how the legal system protects illegal aliens and Islamists at the expense of ordinary Italian citizens.

On May 16, Salim El Koudri, a 31-year-old Italian citizen of Moroccan origin, drove his car at high speed into pedestrians in Modena, injuring eight, four critically, including two women who lost their legs. He then exited the vehicle and stabbed a bystander before being subdued by civilians.

These two cases unfolded against a wider pattern of violent crime committed by migrants and illegal aliens in Italy.

On May 19, a 32-year-old woman was held captive for three days in an abandoned building in Rome’s Tor Cervara district, gang-raped under threats of death while being drugged, and escaped on the third day. Five men, Gambian, Nigerian, and Malian nationals aged 29 to 43, were arrested on charges of aggravated gang rape.

In April, seven suspects of African and Asian origin were charged with gang-raping a 23-year-old woman in Cesena after filming the assault on their phones. Italian media initially described the suspects as Italian and disclosed their origins only in follow-up reporting.

Also in May, a North African man forced his way into a home in Livorno and sexually assaulted a 56-year-old woman before a neighbor intervened.

The statistical backdrop to these cases is documented in Italian Interior Ministry data. Foreigners, who comprise approximately 9 percent of Italy’s population, account for 44 percent of sexual crimes.

Since 2018, 11,141 women have been raped by foreign nationals. As of January 2026, more than 30,000 foreign nationals who had received custodial sentences were serving their time outside prison.

In addition to crime committed by migrants in Italy, the country is now seeing a rise in terrorism-linked activity.

On May 20, a 15-year-old Tunisian immigrant was placed in juvenile detention in Florence on terrorism charges after resuming contact with ISIS-affiliated accounts just days after a court had released him from a prior order for the same offense. Police reported that he had declared himself “ready to act” and was seeking weapons.

On May 22, an Italian court sentenced a Tunisian man to six years in prison for membership in an ISIS-linked cell in Cosenza. Investigators found that the cell also managed illegal immigration flows from Tunisia to Italy using false documents.

The attack carried out by Salim El Koudri in Modena, in which he drove his car into pedestrians before exiting the vehicle and stabbing a bystander, follows a blueprint disseminated through Islamic-extremist publications for exporting jihad to the West.

The sequence, vehicle ramming followed by a knife attack, matches the methodology prescribed in Rumiyah, the Islamic State’s operational magazine, which, in its November 2016 “Just Terror Tactics” installment, instructed followers to drive vehicles into crowds before switching to bladed weapons.

The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) documented this same two-phase method in the 2017 London Bridge and Stockholm attacks.

Counterterrorism analyst Giovanni Giacalone of the David Institute for Security Policy stated that El Koudri’s method “is the classic Islamic State ‘lone wolf’ approach, already used in numerous attacks in Europe and the United States by ISIS supporters.”

Italian authorities classified the attack as a mental-health incident within 36 hours, despite investigators subsequently finding terrorist videos on El Koudri’s phone, internet searches related to vehicular attacks, and anti-Christian emails he had sent to the University of Modena in 2021 containing the words, “You Christian bastards, you and your Jesus Christ on the cross, I’ll burn him.”

A witness testified that she overheard El Koudri the night before the attack telling an accomplice he would be paid “more than 40,000 euros” to execute “a beautiful show, which many will see.”

Videos of the attack subsequently circulated on jihadist channels with Arabic commentary praising El Koudri as a “monotheist” acting in the “heartland of the Crusaders.”

The Modena attack follows the foundational model of modern jihadist terrorism, defined by RAND Corporation analyst Brian Jenkins in 1974 as “terrorists want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead.” That doctrine has since been superseded by ISIS and al-Qaeda’s deliberate pursuit of mass casualties in public spaces, ensuring the violence is witnessed, filmed, and disseminated.

The circulation of attack footage on jihadist channels serves two purposes simultaneously: it creates fear among civilian populations by demonstrating that no public space is safe, and it functions as a recruitment tool, proving to potential fighters that lone individuals can strike Western societies without organizational support.

That both objectives depend on maximum visibility explains why jihadist organizations claim responsibility for attacks even when their operational role is indirect; the audience, not the body count, is the weapon.

One would believe that, in a rational world, the combination of crime and terrorism now plaguing the Italian population would be evidence of the dangers of EU open-border policies and would incentivize Italian lawmakers to secure the border and deport illegal aliens, as well as aliens convicted of crimes or linked to terrorist networks.

The problem is compounded by an asylum system that functions as a parallel entry mechanism, anyone reaching Italian soil can claim asylum and remain in the country indefinitely while their case is processed and appealed, often for years, even when the claim is ultimately rejected.

Unfortunately, Meloni faces constraints on two fronts. At the supranational level, the European Court of Justice has repeatedly struck down or curtailed her deportation and detention policies, with Italian courts referring cases upward to Luxembourg and binding Rome to rulings it cannot legislate around.

At the domestic level, the structure of the Italian parliamentary system, in which left-leaning parties can form coalitions to obstruct such measures, creates an additional layer of political resistance. The result is that even a prime minister with a popular mandate and a parliamentary majority finds her ability to remedy the problem severely limited by forces operating both above and beneath her government.

The post Italian Woman Faces Life in Prison for Hitting North African Illegal Alien With Car After He Robbed Her appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.



Woke Alabama probate judge Yashiba Glenn Blanchard has been suspended after a state complaint accused her of making racist remarks about a white court clerk and failing to promptly handle critical cases involving hospitalized patients.

According to the Judicial Inquiry Commission filing, Blanchard allegedly responded to a staffer who said she liked Chief Clerk Amanda Reid, who is white, by saying, “Oh, I forgot you all like kissing white ass,” a remark cited as part of the misconduct charges.

The complaint further alleges that Blanchard repeatedly delayed or canceled hearings for patients involuntarily committed to hospitals, with one attorney emailing that he was “so worried that my client is going to die” if another continuance were granted.

Hospital officials warned that one canceled docket left a patient hospitalized an extra two weeks and disrupted unit flow, delaying care for other patients needing admission and posing potential risks to public safety.

Investigators say Blanchard told staff she was late to an involuntary commitment docket because she “had three dogs to walk,” and that she did not hear a single involuntary commitment case for the first nine months of her term, creating what they describe as a chaotic backlog.

In all, the Judicial Inquiry Commission has brought seven charges accusing Blanchard of violating multiple provisions of the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics, leading to her indefinite suspension while the case proceeds.

In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz is under fire after local outlet Alpha News and other media reported that he was a no-show at a Memorial Day ceremony at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, where he was listed in the program as a speaker, while instead appearing at George Floyd Square.

Video from the “Rise & Remember” festival at George Floyd Square shows Walz laying flowers, joining the crowd for music and dancing during events marking the sixth anniversary of Floyd’s death, held on Memorial Day.

In one widely shared clip, Walz can be heard joking that his moves were “not bad for an old white guy,” a line that drew cheers on-site by black activists but sparked online outrage from critics who called his absence from the Fort Snelling program a “slap in the face” to veterans.

Walz’s office has so far not publicly explained why he missed the Fort Snelling ceremony, even as Republican officials and veterans’ advocates on social media accuse him of prioritizing the Floyd commemoration over honoring fallen service members.

Sponsor | https://www.purgestore.com | Use promo code DREW for 20% off and support The Gateway Pundit today!

Follow Drew on X: https://x.com/DrewHLive
Follow Drew on Rumble: https://rumble.com/DrewHernandez

The post Woke Judge Suspended For Attacking White People & Tim Walz Panders For George Floyd On Memorial Day? | Drew Hernandez appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Minutes 8 and 9: Football, Freedom, and the Fight for Iran’s True Identity

The following is from a Substack piece by Banafsheh Zand, republished with permission.

The Minutes 8 and 9 project is more than a clothing campaign; it is a direct challenge to the Islamic Republic’s control over Iranian football, identity, and the international narrative surrounding both. Built around the website minutes8-9.com, the initiative uses T-shirts and caps marked “Minutes 8 & 9 Iran” as symbols of protest during upcoming World Cup matches and football events, particularly in Los Angeles and Seattle, where Iranian fans are expected to gather in large numbers.

The name Minutes 8 and 9 refers to January 8 and 9 of this year, when the Khomeinist regime’s violence against Iranian protesters became visible to the world in real time. On those days, thousands of Iranians demanding freedom, dignity, and basic rights faced gunfire, beatings, arrests, and organized state brutality. The campaign’s name is therefore not abstract branding; it is a reference to the regime’s crackdown, marking the moment the world watched the Islamic Republic answer public protest with bloodshed.

At its core, the campaign reclaims Iranian identity from a regime that has spent decades attempting to monopolize it. Organizers argue that football—perhaps more than any other public arena—has become a political instrument of the Islamic Republic. What should be a source of national pride and unity has instead become tightly managed by a dictatorship demanding ideological conformity from players, fans, journalists, and even spectators.

The campaign emerges amid growing anger over FIFA’s repeated willingness to accommodate the Islamic Republic’s demands and sensitivities while restricting anti-regime Iranian expression inside stadiums. Iranian fans attending international matches increasingly face disputes over flags, banners, and symbols—especially the historic Lion and Sun emblem associated with Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many Iranians, particularly in the diaspora, view the Lion and Sun not as a partisan political symbol but as part of Iran’s historical identity. Yet FIFA and local stadium authorities have repeatedly restricted or scrutinized its display during Iran matches, often under pressure from Khomeinist regime agents.

Critics argue that FIFA has effectively enabled the regime’s attempts to control how Iran is represented internationally. To many Iranian fans, the contradiction is obvious: a regime accused of repression, censorship, and violence receives full representation on the world stage, while ordinary Iranians displaying alternative symbols of national identity are treated as a security or political problem.

The Minutes 8 and 9 campaign argues that this dynamic reflects a larger reality about football under the Islamic Republic. Since 1979, the regime has viewed sports not merely as entertainment but as an extension of state ideology. Football players are expected to remain politically compliant. Public dissent is punished. National representation is carefully controlled. Stadiums have often functioned as spaces of surveillance and political intimidation rather than open public gathering places.

No example better illustrates this reality than the story of Sahar Khodayari, known internationally as the “Blue Girl.”

Khodayari, a young supporter of Esteghlal Football Club, attempted to enter a stadium in 2019 disguised as a man. Women had been effectively banned or severely restricted from attending men’s football matches in Iran for decades following the Islamic Revolution. After arrest and prosecution, she set herself on fire outside a Tehran courthouse and later died from her injuries.

Her death sparked international outrage and exposed the regime’s treatment of Iranian women in sports and public life. For years, Iranian women had fought to attend football matches despite harassment, arrests, intimidation, and humiliation. Some disguised themselves as men to enter stadiums. Others publicly campaigned for equal access, often at significant personal risk.

The regime justified the restrictions with religious and moral arguments, claiming football stadiums were inappropriate for women because of chanting, crowds, and male spectators. But critics—including many Iranians familiar with Islamic jurisprudence—have long argued these claims were entirely fallacious. There is no explicit prohibition in the Quran, Sharia, or mainstream Islamic legal tradition banning women from attending public sporting events or large public gatherings such as football matches. The restrictions were never rooted in any clear religious mandate. Rather, opponents argue, the regime manufactured pseudo-religious justifications to assert ideological control over public space and provoke a culture war designed to reinforce its authority.

To many Iranians, the stadium bans became emblematic of the Islamic Republic’s broader pattern of political fakery: presenting authoritarian social control as religious necessity. The issue was never genuinely about faith but about domination—controlling visibility, public life, and who could participate in one of the country’s most emotionally unifying cultural spaces. The regime’s repeated invocation of religion in this context was widely viewed by critics as an abuse of religion itself, using selective moral panic to justify restrictions that had no serious theological basis.

Despite periodic criticism from international organizations, FIFA consistently stopped short of serious action against the Khomeinist regime. While issuing occasional statements calling for women’s access to stadiums, FIFA largely accepted symbolic gestures and limited arrangements that left the underlying system intact.

That frustration now extends to FIFA’s handling of anti-regime Iranian fans abroad. The Minutes 8 and 9 project argues that international football institutions have repeatedly shown more sensitivity toward the Islamic regime’s political concerns than toward the rights of ordinary Iranians seeking to express their identity or opposition peacefully.

The campaign also points to the treatment of prominent Iranian football figures who have criticized the government or shown solidarity with protesters. Former national team stars such as Ali Karimi and Ali Daei have faced mounting pressure after publicly supporting anti-regime demonstrations.

Karimi became one of the most outspoken athlete voices supporting nationwide protests following Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022. Iranian authorities reportedly responded with legal threats, financial pressure, and public targeting. Daei, one of Iran’s most respected athletes, reportedly faced travel restrictions and pressure on his businesses after expressing solidarity with demonstrators. Their cases demonstrate that even globally celebrated national icons are not exempt from retaliation when they cross the regime’s political boundaries…

(Read more here)

Please, buy the shirts, wear them proudly, and make sure every person you meet knows what they stand for—because when millions of voices echo the truth, the Iranian people’s message becomes unstoppable.

The post Minutes 8 and 9: Football, Freedom, and the Fight for Iran’s True Identity appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

President Trump slammed former First Lady Jill Biden in a Truth Social post on Friday morning, responding to her opening up about Biden’s debate performance against President Trump in 2024. 

Biden performed so poorly that they tried to kill President Trump two weeks later at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. When that failed, they replaced Biden as the nominee with Kamala Harris.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Jill Biden, in a recent interview, claimed that Biden’s debate performance against Trump “frightened” her and that she thought he was having a stroke when he crashed out on the stage.

“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never since,” Jill Biden told CBS News Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

“Oh My God He’s Having a Stroke!” – Jill Biden Says She Was “Frightened” by Joe Biden’s Debate Performance and Thought He Was Stroking Out in New Shock Claim (VIDEO)

However, some may recall Jill’s raving review of the debate at the Democrats’ watch party immediately afterward.

Talking to him like a two-year-old, Jill exclaimed to her husband, “Joe, you did such a great job, you answered every question, you knew all the facts!” She continued, “And let me ask the crowd, what did Trump do? Lie!”

WATCH:

If, in fact, she did think Joe Biden was having a stroke, Trump said, “any good wife” would have “rushed onto the stage to help her troubled husband.”

Trump cheered on Friday that Jill Biden is “finally admitting that she did NOT know what went wrong with Sleepy Joe during our spectacular, and highly rated, 2024 Presidential Debate, where Joe was not exactly performing to the highest level of debate standards.”

“The only thing she failed to mention was how well I was doing prior to his near total collapse,” he continued. “In other words, as many have asked, did my strong performance in that debate cause him to plain and simple “choke,” leading to his ignominious defeat, or were other reasons the cause? Nobody else knows the answer to that, BUT I DO!!!”

Jill Biden is now out there finally admitting that she did NOT know what went wrong with Sleepy Joe during our spectacular, and highly rated, 2024 Presidential Debate, where Joe was not exactly performing to the highest level of debate standards. She said that she thought he was having a “stroke,” and various other really bad things, and yet never rushed onto the stage to help her troubled husband, as any good wife would do.

The only thing she failed to mention was how well I was doing prior to his near total collapse. In other words, as many have asked, did my strong performance in that debate cause him to plain and simple “choke,” leading to his ignominious defeat, or were other reasons the cause? Nobody else knows the answer to that, BUT I DO!!!

The post NEW: Trump ZINGS Jill Biden After Claiming She Thought Joe Biden Was Stroking Out During Debate appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A long-delayed double-murder conviction tied to drugs, secrecy, and a Special Operations community has renewed questions about whether America’s institutions can deliver truth and justice without fear or favor.

Story Snapshot

• A federal jury convicted Kenneth Maurice Quick, Jr. in the 2020 killings of William “Billy” Lavigne and Timothy Dumas near Fort Bragg ^[7].
• Prosecutors linked the shootings to a cocaine-distribution conspiracy and related firearms offenses ^[3][7].
• The case unfolded amid earlier conflicting official narratives around a related death involving Lavigne, deepening public skepticism ^[1].
• The public record provided here lacks the final judgment document, limiting outside verification of every trial detail ^{[1][3][4][5][6]}.

What The Jury Decided And Why It Matters

Reporting indicates a jury found Kenneth Maurice Quick, Jr. guilty in the killings of former Delta Force soldier William “Billy” Lavigne and retired Army veteran Timothy Dumas, whose bodies were discovered in a wooded training area near Fort Bragg in late 2020 ^[7]. Prosecutors tied the murders to a cocaine-distribution conspiracy and firearm crimes, arguing Quick shot both men around December 1, 2020 ^[3][7]. The verdict resolves years of speculation, yet it also arrives after intense public debate fueled by Special Operations intrigue and drug-trade allegations.

Coverage describes prosecutors integrating homicide evidence with alleged narcotics activity to establish motive and means, a common approach when direct eyewitnesses are scarce ^[3][7]. Prior reporting cataloged significant discovery, including records and electronic material, signaling a complex evidentiary record ^[3]. While journalists summarized the prosecution theory, the specific exhibits and testimony that persuaded jurors remain behind court paywalls or pending release, leaving the public dependent on summaries rather than primary trial documents ^[3][7].

What’s going on at Fort Bragg?

One of the many connections the New Orleans and Las Vegas attackers share is their connection to Fort Bragg. Both served at this base during their time in the military.

What many don’t know, is that Fort Bragg is connected to a number of… pic.twitter.com/GB7rqIoF9B

— Z’s Turning (@Z4BTC_) January 3, 2025

The Fort Bragg Backdrop And Trust Gaps

The Fort Bragg setting magnified scrutiny. Early on, investigators treated the case as a homicide, describing gunshot deaths and shell casings in secondary coverage ^[1][5]. Separate reporting detailed that Army Criminal Investigation Division and local authorities had previously issued divergent conclusions about a different death involving Lavigne years earlier, with a sheriff calling it justifiable homicide and Army entities framing it differently ^[1]. That history seeded doubts across the political spectrum about whether military and local institutions consistently converge on transparent, credible answers.

Journalists also reported that Lavigne had multiple positive drug tests in 2019, a detail prosecutors later folded into the broader drug-conspiracy narrative surrounding his 2020 killing ^[3]. For many Americans, those threads—elite military units, narcotics, and conflicting official stories—reinforce a familiar concern: when cases intersect with powerful institutions, the public too often receives piecemeal facts and belated clarity. The years-long gap between the killings and conviction mirrored that frustration even as the legal process moved forward ^[1][3][7].

What We Know, What We Do Not, And Why Vigilance Still Counts

The available reporting shows Quick pleaded not guilty during the run-up to trial, with journalists noting tentative start dates before the case ultimately yielded a conviction ^[3][4][7]. The sources provided here do not include the final judgment, verdict form, or full transcript, limiting independent verification of every element jurors weighed ^{[1][3][4][5][6]}. That documentation gap does not negate the conviction; it highlights a transparency shortfall that routinely frustrates citizens who want to see the evidence that decided a life-altering verdict.

Man convicted in 2020 killings of Delta Force soldier, Army veteran at Fort Bragg

Kenneth Maurice Quick, Jr., 26, was convicted May 16 on eight counts including first-degree murder, drug conspiracy, and obstruction of justice in the December 2020 deaths of Master Sgt. William… pic.twitter.com/CWitPKz3Rf

— NewsTongue (@NewsTongueX) May 28, 2026

Across ideological lines, readers share concerns about fairness, institutional accountability, and the influence of status or secrecy. This case checks all those boxes: Special Operations culture, on-base crime scenes, drug allegations, and years of opaque proceedings. Moving forward, public confidence would benefit from prompt release of key court records, including trial transcripts and exhibits. That diligence would underwrite the verdict’s legitimacy and help ensure that neither hero worship nor cynicism—not even the shadow of a “deep state”—stands in for the hard facts jurors used to convict ^[1][3][7].

Sources:

[1] Web – Man convicted in backwoods killing of Delta Force soldier and Army …

[3] Web – Man accused of murder in North Carolina arrested at Ft. Leonard …

[4] Web – Army records: Murdered Delta Force soldier used coke, meth, heroin …

[5] YouTube – The Delta Force Operator that Killed his Bestfriend

[6] YouTube – Still no arrests after bodies of soldier, veteran found on Fort Bragg

[7] Web – Delta’s Fallen Operator – by Seth Hettena – The After-Action Report

New dramatic footage captured by nearby witnesses and live cameras shows the terrifying moment Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn rocket erupted in a spectacular explosion during a static fire test Thursday night at Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The blast occurred around 9 p.m. ET as the company was conducting a hotfire test of the massive first stage with its seven BE-4 engines.

A huge fireball lit up the night sky, with the explosion reportedly heard up to 15 miles away and the fiery spectacle allegedly visible from as far away as the Orlando area.

Videos of the incident quickly spread across social media as stunned observers watched the fiery plume rise above Florida’s Space Coast.

WATCH:

Blue Origin’s New Glenn just blew up at LC-36 while attempting to Static Fire ahead of NG-4.https://t.co/tANS0dWyIH pic.twitter.com/PztxFoBqIw

— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) May 29, 2026

This angle is even crazier https://t.co/bDUuiafnTg pic.twitter.com/LuLG3frNw2

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 29, 2026

Blue Origin acknowledged the incident in a brief statement posted on X.

“We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.”

We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 29, 2026

Jeff Bezos confirmed that no personnel were injured and that everyone at the facility was safely accounted for following the explosion.

The cause of the incident remains under investigation.

Jeff Bezos wrote on X:

“All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”

All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 29, 2026

This latest disaster comes just weeks after The Gateway Pundit reported on the FAA grounding Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket following its third flight.

In that mission, the booster performed well and even landed successfully, but the upper stage botched the critical orbit insertion, stranding a commercial satellite in the wrong orbit where it was ultimately lost. The FAA immediately labeled it a mishap and grounded the vehicle.

Now, just as Blue Origin was trying to get back on track with pre-flight testing for its next mission, the rocket literally blew up on the pad.

The post Another Humiliating Blow for Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Explodes in MASSIVE Fireball During Static Fire Test at Cape Canaveral – Blast Heard 15 Miles Away, Visible from Orlando appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A 2021 memo highlights the selective enforcement and weaponization of the DOJ/FBI.

View Fullscreen

Skip to PDF content

Starting on page 25, there is a DOJ memo dated January 27, 2021.

It was sent to :

• • ALL UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS
  • ALL FIRST ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS
  • ALL EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS
  • ALL CRIMINAL CHIEFS
  • ALL CIVIL CHIEFS
  • ALL ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS.

In other words, it was sent nationwide to every federal prosecutor’s office.

It was from the acting director (name redacted).

The subject: Recruitment Notice: Six-to-Nine-Month AUSA Details to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia to Handle Cases Involving the Breach of the United States Capitol Building

The Action Required: Please volunteer AUSAs to assist with the significant influx of cases resulting from the recent breach of the United States Capitol Building.

The due date: Immediate, but no later than February 5, 2021.

This was the body of the memo.

On behalf of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (USAODC), EOUSA seeks AUSAs for six-to-nine-month detail assignments to work full-time on criminal cases arising from the breach of the United States Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. The USAO-DC is facing a significant influx of cases relating to the events that occurred that day and is working diligently with investigators to gather evidence and enforce our nation’s laws. The USAO-DC has an urgent need for assistance with prosecuting hundreds of criminal cases involving a variety of offenses including obstruction, entering a restricted building, assault on a federal officer, destruction of government property, rioting, and seditious conspiracy. Detailees may serve from their home districts or in the District of Columbia. Detailees who work from their home districts may be required to travel occasionally to the District of Columbia. Extensions of detail assignments will potentially be needed.

This is not a reimbursable detail. During the period of the detail, each detailee’s home district will continue to cover the salary cost of the detailee. EOUSA will centrally fund other related costs, such as extended temporary duty travel allowances (EX-TOY).

Based on the importance and immediacy of the need, we ask each United States Attorney to consider whether he or she can offer critical assistance to the USAO-DC. We need to receive responses from each district on or before February 5, 2021.

Applicants who have the support of their United States Attorneys should submit via email to (redacted). Attorney Advisor, an informal resume and cover letter indicating whether the applicant can work from their home district or in the District of Columbia. The cover letter must also indicate that the applicant’s United States Attorney has approved the application. Please copy (redacted) at (redacted) on all email application submissions.

Has Todd Blanche ordered that a similar memo be sent out to deal with the crisis in New York and other states developing in real time under his watch? Why not?

Who gave the order, making J6 a priority that superseded all other law enforcement across the country?

Has the DOJ ever ordered all-hands-on-deck for any other incident in its history?

This memo alone shows the selective enforcement and weaponization of the DOJ/FBI.

Some say Todd Blanche has been in charge of the DOJ since the beginning of President Trump’s second term as Deputy AG under Pam Bondi.  This is the third major coordinated attack on federal agents during his tenure. There is no effort to put a stop to this. There is no comprehensive DOJ initiative to find out who is behind this.

Todd Blanche, his entire team at DOJ, and the entire leadership of the United States Attorneys’ Offices in New Jersey, California, New York, Minneapolis, and all other cities that allowed these riots should all resign or be terminated effective immediately.

Having no federal prosecutors cannot be worse than having these useless, mediocre, elitist, bureaucratic, offiicials in charge.

If anything, at the very least, no prosecutors will give us a reprieve from the ongoing weaponization against law-abiding non-violent citizens for non-crimes like “campaign finance violations,” “wire fraud,” “conspiracy,” and “aiding and abetting a conspiracy to fraudulently wire a campaign finance violation.”

This is why the J6ers should be compensated. There is no greater insult to injury than a J6er having to watch these street animals – some of whom may not even be American citizens – walk away free and clear from conduct that is far worse than anything that they did, after they had their lives ruined, their families broken, their reputations destroyed, their wealth depleted, and their freedom taken.

Anyone who answered the call to the memo above who still remains at DOJ should be terminated immediately.

President Trump. Only you can stop this madness. If we have a law enforcement apparatus that is a KGB-style police state when they are in power and they do nothing to protect us when we are in power, then we don’t have a country.

Your core promise was to drain the swamp. Every other issue is contingent on keeping that promise.

We have already lost our First Amendment right to assemble. We know that if tomorrow a group of law-abiding right-wing/republican/conservative people gathered in protest, they would get the J6 treatment.

The Second Amendment is meaningless.

The Fourth Amendment (freedom from unlawful searches) is gone. The Police State has all of our information through private mega-companies. They know everything about you, you cannot hide anything from them, and there is nothing you can do about.

The Fifth Amendment (freedom from government seizure of private property) is gone. You can own land as long as you don’t get in the way of a data center. If you do – out you go.

The Sixth Amendment (right to a fair trial) is gone. The DOJ has a million tricks that makes them unbeatable. If you try to beat them at trial it will cost your entire fortune and you’ll be punished with a longer sentence for having the temerity to make them go to trial.

The Seventh Amendment (right to a jury trial) is gone. If you are a conservative and are dragged to face trial in a blue/democrat jurisdiction, the jury will convict you after a Stalinist trial in less time than it takes to vote for a foreman – based on your politics.

The Eighth Amendment (freedom from cruel and unusual punishment) is gone. If you are sentenced to the custody of the Bureau of Prison you lose all of your rights. The Prisons can abuse you “six ways from Sunday,” and you have no recourse in the courts. Just like prosecutors, judges, and other parts of the system, the prisons are shielded by unbeatable immunity.

We no longer have the country we thought we had. The Constitution is, in the words of Justice Scalia, nothing but a “parchment guarantee.”

Watching these riots going on today in New Jersey brings back the trauma of COVID and BLM during President Trump’s first administration. We finally elected our guy, and yet it was clear that we weren’t in control.

We are running out of time. This is getting worse by the day. If we want to have a country, things need to change immediately.

If not, we need to accept our fate. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.  Specifically for sitting by idly when we saw the suffering of our fellow countrymen.

I am optimistic that we will turn our eyes to Heavenly Father. But we need to do it soon.

The post A J6 Response to the Riots in New Jersey – Why the J6ers Should Be Compensated appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.