North Korea Just Allowed Tourists to Visit for the First Time in 5 Years — And What They Saw Was Shocking

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A group of Western tourists were treated to a surreal performance of North Korean schoolchildren dancing and singing against a backdrop of animated ballistic missiles during the first officially sanctioned trip to the Hermit Kingdom in five years.

The unsettling choreographed display was just the tip of the weirdness iceberg for the handful of thrill-seeking travelers from the UK, France, Germany and Australia who made the four-day trek to the Asian country’s remote Rason region last week.

One tourist revealed the trip was so closely monitored by Kim Jong Un’s repressive regime that he even had to ask permission to use the bathroom.

“They’ve had five years to fix things. North Koreans are so sensitive about what they show tourists. If this is the best they can show, I dread to think what else is out there,” another visitor remarked.

It was the first time since 2020 tourists were allowed to enter — the notoriously secretive nation locked itself down at the start of the pandemic, leaving many to wonder whether Westerners would ever again be able to cross its border. (Read more from “North Korea Just Allowed Tourists to Visit for the First Time in 5 Years — And What They Saw Was Shocking” HERE)

Americans’ Trust In The Propaganda Press Has Literally Never Been Lower: Poll

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The public doesn’t trust Big Media. Who could have foreseen this riveting data from the folks at Gallup? Anyone with a brain.

Americans’ trust in the “mass media” is at its lowest point in more than 50 years according to Gallup data released this week. And based on polling reactions by age, the future of news is bleak, because people under 50 trust news media even less than those over 65.

About 36 percent of Americans say they have “no trust at all” in the media to report news “fully, accurately and fairly,” which is up from 6 percent in 1972, Gallup’s data shows. Thirty-three percent of respondents say they do not trust it “very much.” As Gallup notes, trust has been trending down since 2003.

Fewer Republicans trust the news compared to Democrats, with 59 percent of Republicans saying they have zero trust in the mass media. This number surpassed 50 percent for Republicans for the first time in 2020 and has never recovered.

According to the poll, 42 percent of independents say they have no trust “at all” in the media. But just 6 percent of Democrats hold that view; most Democrats are apparently still buying whatever the media is selling. (Read more from “Americans’ Trust In The Propaganda Press Has Literally Never Been Lower: Poll” HERE)

Mike Johnson Weighs In on Trump-Zelensky Clash

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Sunday that while the U.S. is committed to supporting Ukraine, he believes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s focus is misaligned. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Johnson emphasized that although the U.S. will continue assisting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, its leadership needs to prioritize domestic reforms and stability. He also argued that someone other than Zelenskyy must step forward to lead the foreign country toward peace and long-term success, suggesting a shift in strategy for Ukraine.

Following Friday’s disastrous meeting in the Oval Office with Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Zelenskyy, during which the Ukrainian leader seemed more inclined to extract every penny from the U.S. than seek peace for his country, Johnson urged Zelenskyy to come to his senses. The House Speaker echoed similar remarks from Republicans who have called on Zelenskyy to be more grateful to the United States after it has shelled out billions of dollars in aid and military weapons in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

“Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that,” Johnson said. “President Trump has brought back strength to the White House. We need these parties to go along with this, and we need President Zelenskyy to do what is necessary. This war has drug on far too long. He’s lost hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children. We’ve got to bring an end to it. And I think our European allies are hoping that that is the case, and we are as well.”

Johnson stressed that the U.S. was not abandoning Ukraine but that Zelenskyy must want peace for his nation. He called it a “grave disappointment” that the foreign leader refused to cooperate with Trump during a meeting at the White House, pointing out that it’s apparent Zelenskyy is not ready to talk about any sort of peace agreement. (Read more from “Mike Johnson Weighs In on Trump-Zelensky Clash” HERE)

Commerce Secretary Says Zelensky Wanted ‘Make-Believe Bargain’ With Reparations, Security Guarantees

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to strike a “make-believe bargain” with the United States before an explosive confrontation at the White House that resulted in a rare earth minerals deal being cast aside, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

During an interview on Fox News, “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo asked Lutnick about the clash in which President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance got into a fiery exchange with Zelensky over ending the Ukraine-Russia war in which the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in aid to Kiev.

“Well, Secretary, you were sitting across from the president on Friday,” Bartiromo said, adding later, “I want to get your reaction to what went down. How was it in the room? And do you believe Democrats were egging on Zelensky to not say thank you, to stay tough and not sign that rare earth minerals deal?”

Lutnick replied: “No, so we were 40 minutes before the cameras came in, and 45 minutes before the meltdown, and the fact was, Zelensky never stopped asking for, you know — ‘I will give no concessions. They have got to leave my land. I want reparations of $300 billion. And I want the United States to give me security guarantees while they’re at war with Russia.’”

The secretary then referred to the moment when Trump told Zelensky that he was “gambling with World War III” by not doing more to seek peace with Russia. (Read more from “Commerce Secretary Says Zelensky Wanted ‘Make-Believe Bargain’ With Reparations, Security Guarantees” HERE)

CIA Employees Mocked Pat Robertson’s Death, Trashed Christians in Leaked Chats: Report

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Employees at the Central Intelligence Agency mocked the death of the late televangelist Pat Robertson, according to internal chat logs leaked to journalist Christopher Rufo.

“It was so smoky yesterday because the gates of hell opened up to let him in,” wrote one employee, whose name was redacted on the undated chat log from a National Security Agency messaging server, though Robertson died June 8, 2023.

Another employee replied to the message with “Pat Robertson Is Dead Everyone,” an acrostic that spells “pride.”

Photo credit: Screenshot/X/@realchrisrufo

“Only the good die young,” the employee said, to which another replied, “Explains why my grandmother is still alive.”

“I was always taught never to say anything about the dead unless it’s good,” the other employee wrote. “He’s dead. Good.” (Read more from “CIA Employees Mocked Pat Robertson’s Death, Trashed Christians in Leaked Chats: Report” HERE)

‘Either Joe or Hunter’: Trump Says He Wants to Find Real Story Behind White House Cocaine

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President Donald Trump said in an interview published Friday that he suspects a member of the Biden family was responsible for leaving a bag of cocaine in the White House in July 2023.

The discovery of cocaine in the West Wing of the White House quickly became a national scandal, with speculation running rampant as to who left the drugs inside one of the most secure buildings in the world. Though an official determination was never disclosed to the public, Trump told The Spectator World that he believes “either [former President] Joe [Biden] or Hunter” Biden is responsible.

“So … who actually left the cocaine in the White House?” Ben Domenech, the interviewer for The Spectator World, asked Trump.

“Well, either Joe or Hunter. Could be Joe, too. OK, so that was such a terrible thing because, you know, those bins are very loaded up with … they’re not clean, and they have hundreds and even thousands of fingerprints,” Trump answered. “And when they went to look at it, it was absolutely stone cold, wiped dry. You know that, right?”

The “bins” Trump refers to are small cubbies near a West Wing entrance frequently used by visitors, who are encouraged to store personal items in the small lockers as they tour, according to ABC News. One of these “bins” is where the cocaine was discovered. (Read more from “‘Either Joe or Hunter’: Trump Says He Wants to Find Real Story Behind White House Cocaine” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Oval Office Zee-Struction! Trump Torches ’Disrespectful’ Zelensky

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance put down President Volodymyr Zelensky after he dismissed the effectiveness of American diplomacy, forcefully telling the Ukrainian he was acting without respect.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White House on Friday for talks with President Donald Trump and, it is thought, to sign the much-discussed minerals deal. As is customary, Trump and his senior colleagues sat down with Zelensky in the oval office with press cameras present for a brief discussion before the real talks would begin in private, but a beligerent attitude from Zelensky derailed proceedings before they even began.

Responding to talk about the importance of diplomacy, President Zelensky appeared to dismiss the utility of American influence altogether, saying under President Obama, the Trump first term, and Biden the U.S. had achieved nothing through talk. This caustic statement, finishing with a rhetoric “what kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about? What do you mean?” led to Vice President Vance to retort, with evident distaste: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going end the destruction of your country. (Read more from “Oval Office Zee-Struction! Trump Torches ’Disrespectful’ Zelensky” HERE)

Transgender Troops Will Be Separated From Military, Pentagon Says

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By Military Times. The Pentagon revealed the specifics of its transgender troop policy in a court filing Wednesday that says any service member or recruit who has been diagnosed with or treated for gender dysphoria is disqualified from serving — unless they can prove they meet a specific warfighting need and adhere to severe restrictions on their day-to-day behavior.

The memo effectively bans transgender members from openly serving, directing the military to identify service members who have a “current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with,” gender dysphoria within 30 days. It directs officials to then begin separation proceedings within another 30 days.

The policy memo was included in the latest court filing in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order against transgender military service, one of many hot-button issues the president made a priority to address on his first days in office.

Like the executive order, the policy filed Wednesday suggests that the lethality and integrity of the military “is inconsistent” with what transgender personnel go through as they transition to the gender they identify with, and issues an edict that gender is “immutable, unchanging during a person’s life.” (Read more from “Transgender Troops Will Be Separated From Military, Pentagon Says” HERE)

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Male and Female Made Sole Choices in Personal Spaces as Navy Ends Diverse Gender Designations

By Stars and Stripes. Navy personnel will no longer see questions about gender identity when they fill out forms, and single-sex spaces on ships and bases can now be designated only as male or female.

Those changes are part of new guidance the service issued this week in response to an executive order requiring federal agencies to adopt a binary definition of sex.

A Navy memo dated Tuesday states that the U.S. recognizes two sexes, which “are not changeable.” It notes the Defense Department’s intention to halt references to what is dubbed gender ideology.

Intimate spaces include bathrooms and single sailors’ living quarters on base and in ship berthing. (Read more from “Male and Female Made Sole Choices in Personal Spaces as Navy Ends Diverse Gender Designations” HERE)

Dem Governors Rush to Zelensky’s Defense After Trump Kicks Him Out of White House

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Democrat governors came to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s defense after he was kicked out of the White House for making “disrespectful” remarks during a meeting with President Donald Trump.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) accused Trump and Vice President JD Vance of having “advanced Russia’s propaganda directly from the White House,” and of “embarrassing the United States on the world stage.”

In a post on X, Shapiro issued a statement criticizing Trump and Vance for having “attacked President Zelenskyy,” adding that they had undermined “the safety and security of America and our national security interests.”

Shapiro noted how “Pennsylvania is the proud home to over 150,000 Ukrainian and Ukrainian American people.”

“I know they, along with countless other Pennsylvanians, watched in shock at the President and Vice President berated President Zelenskyy and advanced Russia’s propaganda directly from the White House,” Shapiro said in his statement. “The Oval Office should be a place where we advance American values — not where we retreat from them. When the President and Vice President attacked President Zelenskyy today, they served to undermine the safety and security of America and our national security interests.”

Shapiro continued to accuse the Trump-Vance administration of having “alienated many of” the United States’ allies.

(Read more from “Dem Governors Rush to Zelensky’s Defense After Trump Kicks Him Out of White House” HERE)

Report: Trump Expected to Make English America’s Official Language

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An executive order President Donald Trump is reportedly expected to sign would establish English as the official language of the United States of America.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the order Friday:

The executive order would rescind a federal mandate issued by President Bill Clinton that agencies and other recipients of federal funding are required to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, the officials said.

Agencies will still be able to provide documents and services in languages other than English, according to a White House summary of the order viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The summary of the order said the goal of making English the national language is to promote unity, establish efficiency in the government and provide a pathway to civic engagement.

It is unclear when Trump is expected to sign the order. The Journal notes that English is already the official language in more than 30 states in the union. (Read more from “Report: Trump Expected to Make English America’s Official Language” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr