Luigi Mangione, who faces federal murder charges after the December shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday. Mangione appeared in Manhattan federal court in a prison jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists and ankles, entering not guilty pleas to charges of murder, two counts of stalking, and a firearms offense. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the DOJ intends to pursue the death penalty in the case, causing Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, to request that the court prioritize starting his federal trial before his state cases in New York and Pennsylvania, CNN reported. According to authorities, Mangione “murdered” Thompson, a father of two young children, in a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination” as an act of “political violence.” Thompson was gunned down in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, leading to a five-day manhunt that ended with Mangione’s arrest in Pennsylvania, more than 270 miles from the shooting scene. At the time of his arrest, Mangione possessed “fake ID used by the suspect, the gun they believe was used in the shooting and a handwritten ‘claim of responsibility,’ authorities have said,” according to CNN. Mangione’s targeting of Thompson appears meticulously planned, according to the DOJ, and three 9mm shell casings recovered from the crime scene had the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” written on them, an apparent reference to a 2010 book criticizing insurance industry tactics, according to the NYPD. The case has sparked considerable public attention, with supporters of Mangione gathering outside the courthouse Friday, some wearing green, referencing Nintendo’s “Luigi” character, and holding banners with messages like “Luigi Before Fascists” and “Stop the Violence: End the Death Penalty Now.” Chelsea Manning, the former Army soldier convicted of violating the Espionage Act after leaking documents to WikiLeaks, has appeared at multiple hearings in support of Mangione. Many people, according to CNN, seem to be channeling their frustration with the health care system through Mangione, with some going as far as calling him a vigilante. A legal defense fund in Mangione’s name has raised more than $950,000 from supporters. Mainstream politicians have condemned Mangione’s alleged actions. “In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the day Mangione was arrested, adding, “He is no hero.” Judge Margaret Garnett scheduled Mangione’s next federal hearing for December 5, when a trial date will be set. She indicated she expects the trial to begin in 2026.

Moments after protesters near Yale University hurled invective and bottles at him, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sat down with The Daily Wire to discuss why he refuses to be silenced by his critics. “If I wasn’t so influential they wouldn’t have cared,” Ben-Gvir said. “They think they can use violence to defeat us. They will not defeat us. They will not win. Their violence will not win.” Ben-Gvir is a boogeyman to the Israeli Left and Western media due to his extremely hawkish, right-wing views. While much criticism targets his controversial past, his hardline stances also receive scrutiny, including his proposal this week to bomb food storage facilities in Gaza to pressure the terror group to release the 59 remaining hostages. Before his arrival at an event close to Yale on Wednesday night, about 300 students and local activists gathered to demonstrate against his presence. Chants such as “Ben-Gvir will fall” and “intifada, intifada” were shouted throughout the night. https://x.com/KassyAkiva/status/1915885745954558377 As students arrived, they were shouted at and booed by the angry mob, and when they left, some had water bottles thrown at them. Despite the uproar, Ben-Gvir said he enjoyed spending time with the students. “I really really enjoyed it here at the end, even though someone threw bottles at me,” the Israeli government official said. “It doesn’t scare me. I am saying my truth and I will walk with my truth. I will keep saying it and I will fight for it.” The day before, Ben-Gvir was at Mar-a-Lago, where he was welcomed by applause from a crowd filled with Trump allies and members of Congress. He said that the reception likely wouldn’t have happened if President Donald Trump had lost because he was detested by the Biden administration. “It would have been likely that they would not admit me and here I am today, from a situation where I was a persona-non-grata, to a situation where I am being loved,” he said. “I enter their room and there is an applause for what I say, on our ideas, on our world view, on the fact that I want a big and strong state of Israel.” Ben-Gvir said he believes the protesters are angry at him for several changes he made in Israel regarding firearm carrying, prison reform, and non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount, in addition to the Gaza conflict. “I made reform in gun carrying laws in Israel. Before I came into office there were 8,000 gun licenses and after I came there were 200,000. And it works, it works, Jewish lives are being saved,” he said. “In the jails of Israel there was a complete summer camp, marmalades and chocolates and pitas and endless outdoor walks around the yard and there was no governance. I changed that, I stopped the summer camps, I took everything from them: the radio, the TVs, the education.” Ben-Gvir, who is frequently criticized for advocating for Jews to be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, said he helped change the status quo that forbade Jewish prayer. “I made many, many changes,” he said. “That is why they are so angry at me and that’s why Hamas tried to assassinate me five times. And what does it say? I stand with my truths with my world view, and I really know we are right, and this is why we will win.” While Ben-Gvir labels himself as a free speech advocate, he said the protesters outside his event were not engaged in free speech. “Throwing bottles at me, trying to physically hurt me,” he said. “That is no freedom of speech. They want to intimidate, they want to shut people down.” He added that he supports Trump’s plan to deport foreign students who are supporters of terrorists. “I fully support Trump’s policy on U.S. universities,” he said. “I hope it will bring change because, in many places, the universities have turned into grounds for terrorism and support for terrorism. Who do they support? Child murderers? Women murderers?” ​Ben-Gvir was invited to speak at Shabtai, founded in 1996 as a Jewish alternative to other Ivy League intellectual discussion societies, though it is not officially affiliated with the university. Non-Jews are also invited, with prominent figures such as Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy among the ranks of affiliates. Ben-Gvir, who hasn’t traveled to the United States since he was a child, said he came at his son’s urging. “My son was here in Miami, he was a bit in New York several months ago, he told me ‘dad, you must come, you must come,’” Ben-Gvir recalled. “First of all the people: they are such good people. Good people. They love the country … and the things I encountered, I felt great love, great embrace.” When asked why Americans should support Israel, Ben-Gvir said that the Jewish state is helping fight America’s enemies. “I think Israel also fights America’s war — our war is not just for Israel,” he said. “Understand, those Hamas folk, my neighbors in Hebron, they don’t want only Hebron. They want Jerusalem, Acre, Haifa and Jaffa. If you question them a bit further, they tell you that their end goal is the entire world. Everywhere there would be caliphates. Everything will be Hamas.” Ben-Gvir added that he is enjoying the close relationship with the Trump administration and hopes that the president follows through with his plans to take over Gaza and relocate Gazans. “Trump has an excellent plan,” he said. “It is correct, it is right and it is ethical.”

As taxpayers raise concerns about corruption in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ben Shapiro he would be open to an audit into the use of American funds. In a face-to-face exclusive interview with Shapiro in war-town Kyiv, Zelensky said he is prepared to allow inspectors to review how the more than $174 billion in American aid has been used to support Ukraine’s war against Russia. “We’re always ready for any audit,” Zelensky said. “There’s nothing to hide. We are absolutely open, transparent, and that is what’s happening.” Zelensky said that U.S. inspectors have had oversight following Russia attempting to “undermine the support and assistance coming from the United States” through “fake news and other tools” at the start of the war. Zelensky added that he is “grateful to all the U.S. taxpayers.” “We are grateful to the bipartisan support in Congress,” he said. “We are grateful to the unity around the fight of Ukraine for independence…and the great contribution of the United States in the defense of our people.” He added that he has his own “internal audit” where his government is “documenting how much assistance was provided.” According to Zelensky, Ukraine has received $104-$105 billion in assistance, most of which comes in the form of military support. “The money was paid to the transportation of those weapons,” Zelensky said. “Ukrainian companies were not allowed to transport this money. That’s why we haven’t received it — not in the public, not in the private sector — the money for the transportation.” According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress appropriated more than $174 billion for Ukraine. The funds have been used for security assistance and weaponry, or for economic and humanitarian assistance, including direct budget support for the Ukrainian government, aid for refugees, improving the health sector, and repairing infrastructure such as the energy grid. Zelensky said he is not attempting to argue with the United States by claiming he is getting nearly $70 billion less than the United States government is reporting. “It’s important that both countries and — the taxpayers know — where their money is,” he said. “In terms of the use of that money primarily, it was for the weapons that were used on the battlefield.” In total, the Ukrainian government was directly given $22.9 billion by USAID for direct budget support, mostly for reimbursing salaries for teachers, civil servants, and healthcare workers, according to the GAO. “We are very grateful for all that,” Zelensky said. “The United States has to know that they were not feeding our pensioners and our soldiers with regards to the salary or the compensation. Surely you’ve provided the most important aspects — that is the weapons.” The GAO recommended several ways to improve oversight of funding in Ukraine, including tracking the unprecedented amount of military equipment given to the country, making training initiatives more efficient, properly assessing the value of assets given, and more. The report also points out that the State Department does not have a “systematic, comprehensive approach to specifically track funding that federal agencies have provided for economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.” Zelensky argued that the United States benefited from providing financial support to Ukraine because it has received intel about weaponry, including drones being used in the current conflict. Zelensky added that Ukraine is keeping Russia from invading NATO countries that would pull the United States into a much larger war. “I’ve mentioned it many times before, the U.S will have to protect the other NATO countries, because such an agreement exists, or the U.S. will have to leave NATO,” Zelensky said. “ So as long as Russians are not in any single NATO member nation, your families are not facing this question. So that will be a major question for your families: Are they going to send your child to war?”

When Kaylee Bohanon took her family to Disney World, she expected magical moments for her princess-loving girl. While her daughter, Everley, did find her magic, it was Kaylee’s son, Maverick, who stole the spotlight. It started with a hug. Disney World princess Jasmine hugged Maverick, and he wouldn’t let go. The moment was so beautiful that it had Jasmine (and everyone else) in tears. @kaylee.bohannan Maverick had a big moment with Jasmine at Disney World & We were all crying with her. Thank you @erpearson for helping us get this reservation and planning the most magical Disney vacation! @Disney Parks #disney #disneyworld #jasmine #cinderellasroyaltable #magic #magickingdom #magicmoment #princess #disneyprincess #Love #memories ♬ A Whole New World (From “Aladdin”) – Piano Version – Enrique Lázaro In case you aren’t aware, all Disney character actors have guidelines and rules to follow during interactions with patrons. One of those rules is the Disney hug rule. The basic premise of the rule is that character actors cannot disengage from a hug until the child is “ready.” Maverick felt a kinship with Jasmine and hugged her tightly for a long time. The day was not spoiled for Maverick’s sister Everley. She had a special moment with Cinderella. When they spun in their elegant gowns, Everley even lost a slipper, just like Cinderella! @kaylee.bohannan Everley really had her Cinderella moment #DisneyWorld #DisneyParks #DisneyMagic #DisneyMoments #DisneyDreams #CinderellaMoment #OnceUponADream #GlassSlipperMoment #disneyprincess #disneyaddict #cinderellastory #disneytiktok ♬ original sound – Kaylee When the trip was over, Kaylee has one suggestion for any parents wavering on the fence. Book the trip. She edited together a series of Magical Moments from their trip. You may need tissues when watching that one. Everley got a visit from the Fairy Godmother, who gave her a very special gown to wear during their adventure. Although meeting Jasmine at Disney World was a special moment for Maverick, he got plenty of time to “be a guy.” Some of the commenters were rather rude on the video of Maverick meeting Jasmine, so Kaylee set them straight like a true Mama Bear. We can safely say that both Everley and Maverick had a wonderful adventure at Disney World with Jasmine, Cinderella, and Lightning McQueen. Please share these magical moments. You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Little Boy Brings Jasmine To Tears In “A Disney Moment We Won’t Forget” appeared first on InspireMore.

'Culture of corruption'

Border security continues to plague empires, even in galaxies far, far, away

'We were the richest'

'Not enough to retake control of the Senate'

'I don’t need to be lectured'

A Judeo-Christian law firm will finally get its day in court after Michigan’s Democrat attorney general targeted it when launching a “Hate Crimes Unit” in 2019. Attorney General Dana Nessel and then-Michigan Department of Civil Rights Executive Director Agustin Arbulu announced the Hate Crimes Unit in 2019, which would “fight against hate crimes and the many hate groups … in our state.” The announcement referenced the work of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which brands mainstream conservative and Christian groups “hate groups,” putting them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. The law firm American Freedom Law Center, which the SPLC brands an “anti-Muslim hate group” for its claims that traditional Islam supports jihad, filed a lawsuit challenging what the law firm called the state’s “Orwellian” violation of its First Amendment rights, and after initial proceedings, the case has been delayed since 2021. “The U.S. Constitution does not permit the Michigan attorney general and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights to weaponize their government offices to target political opponents,” American Freedom Law Center Co-Founder and Senior Counsel Robert Muise told The Daily Signal on Friday. He stood by earlier comments calling the Hate Crimes Unit Orwellian. In 2019, when he filed the lawsuit, Muise summarized Nessel’s policy this way: “‘We’re going to keep files on you.’ It’s Orwellian. It’s Big Brother. It’s the thought police.” American Freedom Law Center’s Lawsuit Delayed The American Freedom Law Center brought three claims against Nessel and Arbulu: violation of free speech rights under the First Amendment, violation of expressive association rights under the First Amendment, and violation of equal protection as guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment. (James White, the current director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, has replaced Arbulu as the defendant representing the department.) The case proceeded in 2019, leading to depositions and discovery until both the center and the defendants filed dueling motions for “summary judgment”—asking the court to resolve the case in their favor—in January 2021. The case remained in limbo for four years, delayed in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, until March. “On March 3, 2025, I filed a notice with the court, as I have done several other times, informing the court that our motion for summary judgment has been pending for four years and is ripe for a decision,” Muise told The Daily Signal. “In response, the court finally granted a hearing, which is scheduled for June 2.” “As we demonstrated in our court filings, the defendants’ official endorsement of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups constitutes a concrete and particular reputational injury to my organization, the American Freedom Law Center, which is one of the many conservative groups wrongly targeted by the largely discredited SPLC,” the attorney said. “It is our hope that the court will grant our motion and stop this government attack of individuals and organizations based on their political and religious views.” “This type of lawfare, which is engaged in by the Left, has to stop,” Muise added. The SPLC ‘Hate’ Accusation As I wrote in my book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy in the 1980s and publishes a “hate map” that plots mainstream conservative and Christian groups alongside Klan chapters. The SPLC claims this map reveals the “infrastructure of white supremacy.” The map includes parental rights groups like Moms for Liberty, groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform that want immigration laws enforced, religious freedom law firms like Alliance Defending Freedom, and conservative Christian think tanks like the Family Research Council. Last year, the SPLC added an LGBTQ group, Gays Against Groomers, to its list of “anti-LGBTQ hate groups,” the same classification it uses to describe the Family Research Council. The SPLC has faced a torrent of criticism for these classifications. It has publicly apologized to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and celebrated neurosurgeon Ben Carson after branding him an extremist for his views on marriage. It has paid $3 million to a Muslim reformer it branded an “anti-Islamic extremist.” In 2019, amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal, a former employee called the “hate” accusations a “highly profitable scam” that allowed the SPLC to scare donors into ponying up cash by exaggerating hate. In 2007, SPLC spokesman Mark Potok said his organization aims to “destroy” the groups on the “hate map.” “Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate groups. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them,” Potok declared in Michigan that year. In 2012, a terrorist targeted the Family Research Council’s office in Washington, D.C., planning to shoot everyone in the building. A brave staffer foiled his attempt, and he later confessed to using the SPLC’s map to find his target. The Dustin Inman Society, a Georgia-based immigration group that sued the SPLC for branding it an “anti-immigrant hate group,” sued the SPLC for defamation, and that case has moved forward into the discovery process. Telling Admissions The Hate Crimes Unit launched an investigation into at least one organization the SPLC branded a “hate group,” namely Church Militant, a conservative Catholic website. Church Militant ultimately shut down amid an unrelated defamation lawsuit. The American Freedom Law Center’s 2021 motion for summary judgment lists many key statements from Nessel that highlight why the legal group claims the Hate Crimes Unit announcement harmed its reputation and singled it out for government surveillance. Testifying to the Michigan House Judiciary Committee in February 2019, Nessel said, “We also have now a Hate Crimes Unit to combat the exponential rise in hate crimes against members of our minority communities, as well as tackling the 28 identifiable hate groups that are currently operating in Michigan.” In response to a question about the source of the information about “hate groups,” Nessel admitted that it came from the SPLC. “That information was received from the Southern Poverty Law Center, and they do a detailed analysis on that,” Nessel said. “I think a lot of it has to do with when you have some sort of organized group—and part of the reason for that group’s existence has to do with some sort of animosity against minority community members.” “So, if you have a group that speaks out, whether it’s through their postings on the internet or whether it’s in public appearances, and the seeming purpose of the group or large part of the purpose of the group has to do with disparaging members of minority communities, I think the SPLC frequently connotes that to be a hate group and then they do a further assessment, I believe, to see if they think that group is a threat of any manner,” she added. “And I think a lot of that has to do with whether there’s stockpiling of weapons or threats of violence or things of that nature.” AFLC v Nessel Summary JudgmentDownload The SPLC does define a hate group in terms of attacking or maligning “an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics,” but its “hate group” accusations do not imply engagement in criminal conduct or any “actual unlawful action,” according to the SPLC’s website. Contrary to Nessel’s suggestion, organizations do not have to have stockpiled weapons or have made any threats of violence to end up on the “hate map.” Her suggestion does reveal, however, that the SPLC accusation carries connotations that arguably harm the reputations of its targets. The American Freedom Law Center asked the attorney general whether she would make a public announcement disavowing the SPLC’s claim that the organization is a hate group. “No, because the Hate Crimes Unit does not investigate hate groups, and the Hate Crimes Unit hasn’t researched or investigated the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of plaintiff as a hate group,” Nessel replied. “Consequently, I cannot say whether plaintiff is a hate group or whether the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation is correct.” The American Freedom Law Center claims that Nessel’s endorsement of the SPLC accusation harms its reputation and unlawfully discriminates against the organization. “When I get phone calls and people reaching out to me trying to understand what this is all about and donors who are fearful about being exposed as a result of this, you can bet your bottom dollar that AFLC has been damaged and that damage continues because at no time has the attorney general or the [civil rights department] apologized and retracted any statement by anyone on their behalf,” American Freedom Law Center’s other co-founder, David Yerushalmi, testified in the case. Neither the attorney general’s office nor the SPLC responded to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment. The post ORWELLIAN: Conservative Group Targeted by Michigan AG’s ‘Hate Crimes Unit’ Gets Day in Court After 4-Year Delay appeared first on The Daily Signal.