Open License to Kill?
Two U.S. military contractors told Associated Press reporters that they were disturbed by the “dangerous and irresponsible” practices carried out by groups managing aid delivery to starving Palestinians in Gaza. One contractor told an AP reporter that bullets were being fired “in all directions—in the air, into the ground and at times toward the Palestinians.” He recalled at least one incident where he thought a Palestinian civilian was hit by gunfire. “There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,” he said. In videos shared with the AP, English-speaking contractors can be heard discussing crowd control and encouraging each other after bursts of gunfire, with one saying, “Hell, yeah, boy!” and “I think you got one!” The contractors described their colleagues as often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed, and acting with what seemed like an “open license to do whatever they wished.”
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Sent Them Home for Vacation
Rather than address legislation in Congress demanding the Department of Justice release all files on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) shut down the House early on July 25 and sent everyone home for vacation until September. Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) say they have the votes lined up to force the Department of Justice to release all the files the U.S. government has on Epstein.
Where’s the Evidence?
In an interview with Alex Jones, comedian Tim Dillon said he recently had dinner with Vice President JD Vance. Dillon claimed that Vance told him the 10,000 hours of videos the FBI collected from convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were just “commercial pornography” and were not personal videos filmed by Epstein of himself or any high-profile figures in compromising situations. “If that’s the case,” asked Dillon, “why would Pam Bondi call it ‘evidence’? She’s not an idiot. She’s the attorney general. Why would she say she has files on her desk if none of these implicated anybody?” Epstein reportedly had multiple video cameras hidden around his home in New York City and on his private island in the Caribbean. Are Americans to believe that Epstein, who was convicted of trafficking female minors and regularly threw parties for powerful people, had no videos of these elites in compromising situations?
Behind the Times
Showing just how behind the curve they are, the U.S. Army recently touted one of its new automated drones that can fly over a target and drop a grenade on it. “Have you ever seen a drone drop a grenade?” a now-deleted post from the official U.S. Army account on social media site “X” read. “Watch Soldiers from [the 7th Army Training Command], the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, and [the 173rd Airborne Brigade] execute the Army’s first live-grenade drop from an unmanned aircraft system in Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany.” The July 21 social media post had thousands of people mocking the Army for being so far behind the times. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been using drones to drop all sorts of explosives on one another.
Senior Citizen Soldiers
The war in Ukraine has been dragging on for three and half years now since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, 2022. In that time, reports indicate as many as a million Ukrainian and Russian men died in the fighting. Ukraine has been hit especially hard, and has been suffering from troop shortages for some time now. To show just how desperate the country is, on July 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law that would allow Ukrainians over the age of 60 to voluntarily enlist in the military and serve on the front lines. The Kyiv Independent reported that the law does not list a maximum age limit for service, but discretion has been left up to officers to deny service to older men who physically cannot do the job.
Transparency Is Vital
A federal judge recently handed the Trump administration a defeat, ruling that officials broke federal law by removing a public website that showed how federal funding is divided amongst different agencies. “There is nothing unconstitutional about Congress requiring the Executive Branch to inform the public of how it is apportioning the public’s money,” said U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in his ruling. Sullivan added that the online database, which was overseen by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), could not just be unilaterally terminated. He said that congressional legislation demands that the OMB make all apportionment decisions publicly available within two business days. On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump promised to have the most transparent presidency in the nation’s history. It is up to all of us to make sure he sticks to his pledge.
Reckless Cop Gets 33 Months
Five years after the tragic death of emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot during a no-knock police raid at her home in Louisville, Ky., the family is finally getting some justice. On July 21, Brett Hankison, a former Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officer, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release for unlawfully using deadly force when he blindly shot into Taylor’s apartment. On the night of the fatal police raid in March 2020, LMPD officers arrived at Taylor’s home to conduct a no-knock raid based on a misleading and legally deficient search warrant. Standing outside a window that was covered by blinds and curtains, Hankison blindly fired 10 rounds into Taylor’s bedroom, killing her instantly.
Sanity to Sports
On July 22, the main group that organizes fencing bouts across the United States announced its new policy for sports categories, ruling that, effective immediately, anyone who wishes to compete in the women’s category will have to be female. This means that transsexual men who insist they are women will be excluded. USA Fencing’s new policy aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to protect women’s sports. The news comes after the organization ran into trouble in June when a female fencer dropped to a knee to forfeit her match to protest the fact that she would have to fence a man who said he was a woman. In physical sports, men have significant advantages, including more upper body strength, longer reach, larger lung capacity, more muscle mass, and even a bigger heart. There is currently a debate within Fencing USA about whether the records of transgender athletes who have competed under existing rules will be invalidated.
Too Close for Comfort
The asteroid known as 2024 YR4 recently went behind the Sun as it travels across our galaxy, but its trajectory has scientists worried. Initially, the building-sized object had a slight chance of hitting Earth, which would have been catastrophic. As scientists wait for it to reappear, however, there are growing concerns that its revised trajectory points it squarely at our Moon. While Earth wouldn’t face any significant physical danger should the asteroid strike the Moon, there are concerns that debris fields launched into space could damage satellites and even the International Space Station.
U.S. Tops Global Physics Olympiad
On July 27, it was announced that five U.S. high school students won gold medals in the International Physics Olympiad in Paris, France, in late July. The five U.S. students were Agastya Goel, Allen Li, Joshua Wang, Feodor Yevtushenko, and Brian Zhang, and they competed against kids from 85 other nations, according to the American Association of Physics Teachers. The U.S. Team was the only country to achieve five gold medals.
