Iran’s Boosted Weapons Capabilities have Caused up to $15B in US Base Damage: Report

Iran upgraded missile and drone capabilities enough to cause as much as $15 billion in damages on US bases in the Middle East since the war began, according to a new report.

An analysis into the July 17 strike that killed three American service members at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan revealed how well Iran has improved its tactics — to exceptionally devastating and costly degrees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Unlike previous attacks, July’s nighttime assault directly targeted and hit 19 buildings specifically housing American troops as they slept, according to Journal sources and satellite analysis.

The data indicated that Iran’s aim was growing more precise, with Tehran hitting buildings that were smaller thany those it was able to strike at the start of the war.

The complexity of the attack signaled Iran’s capabilities had been improving, not diminishing, as the Trump administration claimed.

Iran’s heaviest assaults came at the start of the war, when it damaged at least 119 buildings across 13 installations within the first two weeks of the conflict. (Read more from “Iran’s Boosted Weapons Capabilities have Caused up to $15B in US Base Damage: Report” HERE)

Democrats Melt Down After Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Mike Rogers: ‘Despicable Betrayal’

Several Democrats melted down after Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) endorsed Republican Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, describing her endorsement as a “despicable betrayal.”

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) noted that Senate Democrats are “united” in their support for Democrat Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. Schumer also described Rogers as being “a tool” of President Donald Trump’s and of “billionaire donors.”

“This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens,” Schumer wrote in a post on X. “Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors.”

In a post on X, the Democratic Party shared a video message from former President Barack Obama, in which Obama called for voters to “support Abdul El-Sayed.”

“Two hundred and fifty years ago, America was founded on a simple idea,” Obama said in the video. “This country belongs to all of us. Not just the wealthy, not just the well-connected, everyone. Today, that idea is under attack. And Michigan is where we fight back. That’s why I’m asking you to support Abdul El-Sayed for the United States Senate.”

(Read more from “Democrats Melt Down After Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Mike Rogers: ‘Despicable Betrayal’” HERE)

Teacher Who Had Baby with Student, 13, Pleads Guilty as Her Victim Defends the Relationship

A former elementary school teacher who gave birth to a child fathered by her underage ex-student has pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct charges — while her victim claimed he started the relationship and wanted her charges dropped.

Laura Caron, 36, of Cape May Court House, New Jersey, has pleaded guilty to second-degree endangering the welfare of a child with sexual conduct, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland announced in a statement Friday.

Even under her plea agreement, she could still face five years in prison when sentenced.

Caron first met the boy, born in 2005, when she taught him and his brother fifth grade at Middle Township Elementary School in Cape May Court House, according to the New York Post. (Read more from “Teacher Who Had Baby with Student, 13, Pleads Guilty as Her Victim Defends the Relationship” HERE)

‘Panic Kills’: Dan Bongino Warns Americans to Take Stock Up Warnings Seriously

The former deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, warned Americans on his podcast Monday to take heed of recent alerts from various governments, including the UK and Japan, to stockpile essentials amid threats of cyberattacks and rising geopolitical instability.

Bongino, a former Fox News personality who quit the FBI at the beginning of the year, urged people to have 30 days of food and water at the ready.

“There have been some warnings put out by the UK government and elsewhere about 30 days of preparedness and having food ready and power,” Bongino began, adding:

You know, I am a firm, committed believer in the “don’t hit the bed” theory, “hit” with an S in front of it. In other words, we were young agents. If you panicked on a security detail with the Secret Service, you were out. That was it. They would never take you onto protection assignment again. Panic kills.

I have never, I was not in the military, haven’t been in combat, but ask your heroes who have been. They will tell you, you can’t panic. I can’t even imagine what that scenario’s like. However, the way to reduce anxiety and panic in tumultuous times is to be prepared. Have yourself an emergency radio, have yourself some batteries, get yourself some emergency food, get yourself rain collection and water filtration, some filtration tablets.

The best day of your life, you don’t need them. And in 10 years, you’re like, “Ah, I wasted a thousand bucks or whatever,” and you throw it out. The worst day of your life, God forbid, is if something were to happen. The worst day of your life is your kids are looking you in the face like, “Hey, Dad, Mom, where’s the water?” “Well, we don’t have any.” There’s nothing wrong with being prepared. It’s not panicking or anything like that.

(Read more from “‘Panic Kills’: Dan Bongino Warns Americans to Take Stock Up Warnings Seriously” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Obama Calls Ilhan Omar’s ‘Sham Marriage’ Probe ‘Appalling’ — but it Actually Started Under His Admin

Former President Barack Obama has publicly lambasted the Trump administration’s probe of “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar, despite his administration being the first to investigate whether she married her brother.

In 2016, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security uncovered evidence that Omar’s (D-Minn.) marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, long speculated to be her brother, was fraudulent, The Post confirmed.

But ultimately, the feds found that any potential crime took place outside the five-year statute of limitations, resulting in the probe stalling out. It’s not immediately clear what evidence had been uncovered.

Last week, Obama delivered a stern rebuke of the Trump administration over the Oct. 12 raid on Omar’s DC home, which is believed to revolve around accusations that she fudged information about her age on her immigration paperwork.

Obama called the raid “appalling.”

“Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone — all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case,” the 44th president posted on X. (Read more from “Obama Calls Ilhan Omar’s ‘Sham Marriage’ Probe ‘Appalling’ — but it Actually Started Under His Admin” HERE)

Senator Briefed On Trump’s New Iran War Plan Calls It ‘Insane’

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy warned that President Donald Trump’s administration has developed an “insane” plan for renewed military strikes against Iran that could trigger a “devastating escalation” across the Middle East.

Murphy said lawmakers received a detailed briefing on potential military operations, including a possible short-duration offensive, during a panel on Wednesday at the Middle East Institute. The war, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, has continued at a reduced intensity following the collapse of a temporary ceasefire, with both sides exchanging limited attacks as Iran restricts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and Washington maintains a naval blockade, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Murphy warned that strikes against Iranian civilian infrastructure could prolong the eight-month conflict and further endanger American personnel, according to the senator’s official remarks.

“I will just say this, their plan is insane,” Murphy said. “It will lead to devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law.”

As the war continues to drag on, renewed escalations cast fresh light on what Marco Rubio initially suggested to the press in March when this year’s U.S.-Israeli campaign began.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,” Rubio told reporters on March 2. “If we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. This had to happen, no matter what.” (Read more from “Senator Briefed On Trump’s New Iran War Plan Calls It ‘Insane’” HERE)

Turns Out AI Is Taking Sledgehammer To Job Gains After All

Industries adopting artificial intelligence at higher rates are experiencing weaker employment growth and higher unemployment, according to Goldman Sachs research released Monday.

Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius identified statistically significant relationships between AI adoption and worsening labor-market conditions across U.S. nonmanufacturing industries in a report titled “Global Views: Downside Growth Risks.” The findings suggest the economic benefits of the AI boom may increasingly be accompanied by disruptions to American employment, although the correlations do not establish that AI directly caused the job losses .

“We are starting to see clearer signs that the AI impact is spreading beyond the technology sector,” Hatzius wrote in the report.

The analysis found that industries with a greater share of businesses using AI in regular operations tended to experience slower employment growth and higher unemployment compared with industries where adoption remained lower.

Goldman’s statistical model showed that a ten-percentage-point increase in industry-level AI adoption was associated with approximately 0.9 percentage points weaker employment growth. A corresponding analysis found a 0.9-percentage-point higher unemployment measure, calculated relative to the industry’s average unemployment rate from 2015 through 2019. (Read more from “Turns Out AI Is Taking Sledgehammer To Job Gains After All” HERE)

Ancient Account of Jesus Challenges Centuries of Scholarly Doubt: ‘Totally Authentic’

A scholar believes a nearly 2,000-year-old account of Jesus may be more historically reliable than previously thought, challenging longstanding doubts about one of the earliest non-Christian accounts of his life.

T.C. Schmidt, an associate professor of religious studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, is the author of a 2025 book titled “Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ,” examining a long-disputed passage about Jesus written by the ancient Jewish historian Josephus.

Josephus lived from roughly 37 to 100 A.D. and wrote about Jesus in his work “Antiquities of the Jews,” providing one of the few surviving non-Christian accounts of his life.

In the passage, Josephus described Jesus as a wise man who attracted followers and was sentenced to crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. The text also referred to reports that Jesus appeared alive again after his death.

For centuries, scholars have debated whether Christian scribes altered the passage, which contains statements about Jesus that some historians believe would have been unusual for a non-Christian Jewish writer. (Read more from “Ancient Account of Jesus Challenges Centuries of Scholarly Doubt: ‘Totally Authentic’” HERE)

Liberal Court Delivers Immigration Win for Trump as Judge Warns of ‘Floodgates’ if Law Firm Succeeded

A liberal-majority appeals court in California handed the Trump administration a victory by blocking a lower court’s ruling that ordered the State Department to open its application pool for the 2027 Diversity Visa lottery, which admits roughly 55,000 immigrants from low-immigration countries each year.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta requiring the lottery pool to be opened after Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a notice in November delaying the program’s acceptance of new applications in order to “implement certain changes,” but the application period never opened.

A month later, the State Department ordered an indefinite pause on issuing diversity visas after a Portuguese national who was issued a lottery visa in 2017 committed a mass shooting at Brown University, killing two people and injuring nine others. The shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was also tied to the murder of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor two days after the Brown University shooting.

The Ninth Circuit has been a perennial thorn in the side of President Donald Trump, having ruled against key portions of Trump’s 2017 executive order restricting travel from predominantly Muslim countries and blocked a policy barring immigrants from being eligible for asylum if they crossed the southern border between ports of entry.

However, the appeals court ruled that the lower court’s preliminary injunction could not be enforced, finding that the immigration law firm Red Eagle, which represents individuals going through the visa lottery process, did not have standing to sue the federal government. The appeals court ruled that the program was intended to “encourage immigration, not generate revenue for law firms.” (Read more from “Liberal Court Delivers Immigration Win for Trump as Judge Warns of ‘Floodgates’ if Law Firm Succeeded” HERE)

Reporter Allowed To Cover Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Lecture Just So Happened To Work For Outlet He Funded

Out of everyone who attended billionaire-entrepreneur Peter Thiel’s lecture series on the Antichrist, only a reporter from the Thiel-funded Pirate Wires was allowed to disclose what was said at the event.

Attendees came to the Grand Lodge of Tennessee Free and Accepted Masons in Nashville for four consecutive Mondays starting Sept. 28 to hear Thiel’s lecture series on the Antichrist. Only Thiel-funded Pirate Wires’ G. B. Rango was permitted to share his experience at the off-the-record lecture series. . .

Funded by Thiel, Pirate Wires was created in 2020 by Michael Solana, former vice president at Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founder’s Fund. Neither Pirate Wires, Thiel nor Rango responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“The Antichrist, says Thiel, will mark the totalitarian termination of philosophy,” Rango wrote.

In traditional Christian eschatology, the Antichrist is the false prophet who will deny Christ and reign before the Second Coming, according to theologian Christopher Rowland. (Read more from “Reporter Allowed To Cover Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Lecture Just So Happened To Work For Outlet He Funded” HERE)