UK Gov’t Urges Young People to Have More Children Amid Plummeting Birthrates

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British Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has urged more young people to consider starting families amid the demographic crisis facing the United Kingdom.

While young people in the West, particularly young women, have long been pushed towards focus on their careers rather than family formation, there is growing recognition that plummeting birthrates cannot merely be addressed by turning to the importation of millions of foreigners, which hitherto has been the knee-jerk reaction of government in most Western countries.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that in 2023, the British fertility rate fell to 1.44 children per woman, a record low since the government began tracking such figures in 1938 and far below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman.

This coincided with increased female participation in the workforce, in conjunction with growing difficulties for young adults to get on the housing ladder, which has been exacerbated by the mass migration policies imposed on the country by both Westminster establishment parties.

While Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously said that he would not “tell people how to live their lives” in terms of having children, top cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson said this week that the government should seek to help young people have more children. (Read more from “UK Gov’t Urges Young People to Have More Children Amid Plummeting Birthrates” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

U.S. Missile Defenses Heavily Depleted in Shielding Israel: Report

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The U.S. drew down a significant portion of its advanced anti-missile system to bolster Israel’s defense against Iranian aerial attacks during a 12-day conflict in which Israel and the U.S. struck nuclear facilities and Iran retaliated with missile launches, according to defense news outlets and independent analysts. . .

Israel has long relied on the Lockheed Martin developed Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, known as the THAAD battery, for shielding against ballistic missiles from Iran or its proxy groups such as the Yemeni Houthis.

The U.S. military operates seven THAAD batteries. An eighth, getting integrated into the Missile Defense Agency, is capable of tracking hypersonic missiles. The THAAD deployment to Israel is part of a broader challenge where supporting allies in conflict zones means using resources that could affect military readiness and future deployment.

During the recent Israel-Iran conflict, the United States used an estimated 15 to 20 percent of its global THAAD missile interceptor stockpile, incurring unprecedented costs exceeding $800 million, according to the Bulgarian Military News and Military Watch Magazine outlets. (Read more from “U.S. Missile Defenses Heavily Depleted in Shielding Israel: Report” HERE)

South Korea Detains Americans Trying to Send Food, Bibles to North Korea

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South Korean police detained six Americans on Friday caught with over 1,000 bottles carrying rice, Bibles, and American money that they reportedly intended to send across the sea to North Korea.

The incident is the largest scale of its kind in years, since leftist former President Moon Jae-in began cracking down on missionary activities targeting the repressive communist state as part of its campaign to ingratiate Seoul with the rogue regime. While Moon’s successor, Yoon Suk-yeol, was a hardline conservative during his term, he did not lift many of the restrictions imposed on individuals seeking to send political leaflets, religious material, or humanitarian aid towards Pyongyang.

Yoon was recently impeached following an attempt to impose martial law in December and replaced this month by the winner of a special election, currently President Lee Jae-myung, another leftist who has promised to increase engagement attempts with the North.

According to the South’s Korea JoongAng Daily, the six Americans were found carrying over 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, Bibles, USB sticks featuring foreign media banned in North Korea, and American money and admitted to engaging in missionary work. Missionaries often use plastic bottles in this manner as they float and easily travel across the sea via currents into rural, impoverished areas of the North.

Authorities did not name the individuals in question, identifying them only as men “in their 20s to 50s” who had entered the country two to three months ago with American passports and did not speak fluent Korean. Authorities stated that they did not have and would not pursue an arrest warrant for the men, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, as the activities the men were engaging in did not rise to the level of public security threats meriting an arrest. South Korean maintains exceptionally positive relations with the United States and, following an especially volatile six months in which five presidents took helm of the country, its government is likely to consider aggressive law enforcement action against American missionaries needlessly aggravating of a delicate situation. (Read more from “South Korea Detains Americans Trying to Send Food, Bibles to North Korea” HERE)

If Iran Blocks Strait of Hormuz, What Will Happen to U.S. Energy Costs?

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Iran is reportedly weighing blocking a key commercial choke point known as the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could drive up energy costs in the U.S. and across the globe, according to energy sector experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Israel began to bombard Iran to eliminate the Islamic Republic’s ability to build a nuclear weapon on June 13, and the U.S. carried out “Operation Midnight Hammer” on Saturday night, bombing three of Iran’s nuclear facilities. While Iran’s parliament has reportedly voted to close the Strait of Hormuz in a retaliatory move to choke the world’s oil supply in response to the American strikes, the U.S. is well-positioned to combat the inevitable energy cost spike that would follow if Iran succeeds, sector experts told the DCNF.

“The escalating conflict between Iran and Israel is already putting upward pressure on oil and natural gas prices—and that pressure will intensify if the Strait of Hormuz is blocked,” Trisha Curtis, an economist at the American Energy Institute, told the DCNF. “This kind of disruption would send global prices higher and tighten supply chains. Fortunately, the U.S. is well-positioned to respond — our domestic production strength and growing export infrastructure make American oil and natural gas increasingly indispensable to global markets.”

Iran does not have the legal authority to halt traffic through the strait, meaning it would need to usurp control through force or the threat of force, according to legal scholars and multiple reports. The Iranian parliament’s reported move to block the Strait on Sunday awaits final approval by Iran’s Supreme Council, according to Iran’s Press TV.

The Strait is only 35 to 60 miles wide and connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, flowing past Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The thoroughfare is vital for global trade, as tankers carried one fifth of the world’s oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (Read more from “If Iran Blocks Strait of Hormuz, What Will Happen to U.S. Energy Costs?” HERE)

Trump ‘Disturbed’ by Israeli P.M. Netanyahu’s Gift of Golden Pager, Tribute to Exploding Ones Used to Kill Hezbollah Fighters

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By U Politics. During the first meeting of President Donald Trump’s second term, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted the president a gold-plated pager and the vice president a silver-plated one.

This came just a few months following Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah, nicknamed “Operation Grim Beeper,” where Israel sold handheld pagers and walkie-talkies containing explosives to Hezbollah operatives. They detonated in two coordinated attacks in Syria and Lebanon in September 2024.

Trump told reporters that the gifts were “disturbing” following the attacks in the Middle East, according to the New York Times.

Following this meeting and “disturbing” gift, the U.S.’s Israel policy took a large shift. Trump is now considering joining Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. The president met with national security advisors to discuss what actions the U.S. should take next. . .

Trump considered for months whether to contain Netanyahu, telling an ally he was trying to drag the U.S. into another war in the Middle East, a thing he promised wouldn’t happen in his campaign. He does believe that Iranians were playing him during diplomatic negotiations. (Read more from “Trump ‘Disturbed’ by Israeli P.M. Netanyahu’s Gift of Golden Pager, Tribute to Exploding Ones Used to Kill Hezbollah Fighters” HERE)

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Mocked Mercilessly After Bizarre Social Media Posts Resurface

By New York Post. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is being mocked mercilessly over a slew of bizarre social media posts that resurfaced as the Israel-Iran war broke out — including his musings about treating a woman right and even being “naughty&playful” as a school kid.

The odd posts date back at least a decade and are in stark contrast to the anti-Israel and war rhetoric that now fills the social media feed of the 86-year-old leader and most senior cleric in the extremist Islamic Republic.

In one from 2013, Khamenei recalled his awkward school days.

“I went 2school w/a cloak since1st days;it was uncomfortable 2wear it in front f other kids, but I tried 2make up 4it by being naughty&playful,” he wrote.

Social media users were quick to fire back, with one X user replying: “U have nothing 2 B ashamed of. You’re just as naughty and playful as ever.”

“Born to be playboi carti, forced to be ayatollah,” another chimed in. (Read more from “Iran’s Supreme Leader Mocked Mercilessly After Bizarre Social Media Posts Resurface” HERE)

Russian Soldier Kills, Eats Comrade in Twisted Attempt to Survive Ukraine War: Report

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. . .A Russian soldier on the frontlines in Ukraine murdered his comrade and ate the corpse to survive the grim wartime conditions — only to end up dying anyway, Kyiv’s military intelligence reported.

A call between two Russian soldiers who shared the jaw-dropping story of the cannibalistic ‘Brelok’, who killed his countryman ‘Foma’, was allegedly intercepted by Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, according to the Kyiv Post.

“F–king hell… Brelok f–king ate him, f–k me… nobody went anywhere. Brelok took him out and then ate him for f–king two weeks,” the first caller said.

“No f–king way… Holy sh-t… F—k my bald skull. Was Brelok really found as a 200?” the other person replied, using Soviet era slang for a soldier found killed in action.

“Yeah, they say he was a 200. He ate his comrade. So yeah… something to think about. I was shocked myself,” the caller concluded.

The ghoulish cannibal was found dead, according to the report. (Read more from “Russian Soldier Kills, Eats Comrade in Twisted Attempt to Survive Ukraine War: Report” HERE)

Iran Has Rejected Trump’s Nuclear Terms, Again

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Less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump gave the Iranian regime up to two weeks to accept a nuclear agreement, the Iranian regime is rejecting a deal.

“Americans want to negotiate and have sent messages several times, but we clearly said that as long as this aggression doesn’t stop, there’s no place for talk of dialogue,” Iranian Foreign Minister Araqchi said Friday.

On Thursday, President Trump said, “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”

(Read more from “Iran Has Rejected Trump’s Nuclear Terms, Again” HERE)

Iran Turns Against Anti-Israel U.N. After It Condemned Illegal Nuclear Enrichment

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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei on Thursday blasted the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its director, Rafael Grossi, for condemning Iran’s nuclear program.

Baghaei accused the IAEA of helping Israel launch an “unjust war of aggression” against Iran.

The Iranian regime is furious at the IAEA for declaring Iran to be in breach of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations last Thursday. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has been frustrated with Iranian evasiveness and obstruction of its inspections for years, but Thursday was the first time since 2005 that it formally condemned Iran for non-compliance.

The governing board of the IAEA found Iran guilty of “many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations.” Iran’s failure to explain traces of uranium found at three undeclared nuclear sites was a particular annoyance.

The censure of Iran was seen as a momentous event by security analysts, and sure enough, Israel swiftly moved in to dismantle Iran’s air defenses, humiliate its military, and attack its nuclear program. The first wave of Israeli strikes was launched on Friday, the day after the IAEA condemned Iran.

(Read more from “Iran Turns Against Anti-Israel U.N. After It Condemned Illegal Nuclear Enrichment” HERE)

Discredited Neocon Talking Points From the Iraq War Are Back, Lazily Re-Purposed for Iran

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Remember all the infamous one-liners from the Global War on Terror? In the years after 9/11, when the neocon establishment in Washington was pushing ahead with its disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they were everywhere.

It’s a slam dunk case! We have to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. We’ll be greeted as liberators. Islam is a religion of peace. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom.

Those last two are direct quotes from President George W. Bush, the man most responsible — whether through extreme naiveté or extreme duplicity — for propagating these ridiculous slogans and using them to justify decades-long wars that ended in ignominy for the United States. You’d think that after Iraq and Afghanistan this kind of rhetoric would be totally discredited. But you’d be wrong.

Over the past few days, almost since the moment Israel began bombing Iran, we’ve seen the reappearance of almost all the old GWOT rhetoric. Then as now, the purpose is to justify a U.S. military adventure abroad and gaslight the American people into supporting regime change in Iran.

For those of us who were in high school and college during and immediately after 9/11, who saw the propaganda play out in real time, it’s an amazing thing to witness what’s happening now. (Read more from “Discredited Neocon Talking Points From the Iraq War Are Back, Lazily Re-Purposed for Iran” HERE)

Bombshell Report Reveals Cause of Dominican Republic Roof Collapse That Killed 236: ‘Complete Disregard for Building and Safety Laws’

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The owners of the doomed Jet Set nightclub in the Dominican Republic, where 236 people were buried alive earlier this year, ignored obvious warning signs and building safety laws, leading to the catastrophic collapse, a bombshell new government report reveals.

Sibling club owners Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, who were arrested last week, overloaded the building’s roof, made structural changes without permits and refused to call off the ill-fated April 8 bash despite obvious signs of danger hours earlier, the report said, according to Dominican Today.

“The defendant Maribel Espaillat, aware of a falling debris incident hours before the collapse and in response to a request to suspend the activity, refused to do so, citing the absence of the defendant Antonio Espaillat López and the impossibility of stopping the party, prioritizing economic gain over the safety and lives of people,” the Public Ministry document said.

“The nightclub, originally a movie theater, underwent a change of use that involved an inadequate structural adaptation,” investigators said.

“A key column in the structure was subsequently removed, significantly affecting the roof’s stability, without any professional assessment or permit to support the modification, demonstrating high-risk behavior.” (Read more from “Bombshell Report Reveals Cause of Dominican Republic Roof Collapse That Killed 236: ‘Complete Disregard for Building and Safety Laws’” HERE)