Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his stance that the United States has withheld sending weapons to the Jewish State. 

After the Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, at least five terrorists attacked two Russian towns. They are dead. In a statement on its official Telegram channel on Monday, the Investigative Committee said the attackers are believed to have belonged to an organized group. Criminal investigations have been launched under the articles for terrorism and the […] The post Russia Warns of Retaliation for Civilian Deaths in Crimea appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

A Surprise Pregnancy “I stare down at the gadget in my hand in complete and utter shock. Two pink lines stare right back at me. Ever the optimist, this is unexpected. Not just unplanned, but actively planned against. Although I totally believe that I will win the lottery, I didn’t expect this. In fact, when my doctor told me that IUDs were 99.6% effective, I really believed that I would fall into that majority category. Lady Luck, you wicked beast! I head to find my phone as I think about all the reasons I cannot be having a baby right now. There will be a huge age gap in between my two older children and this baby…we want to move overseas…I want to write a book…aren’t my husband and I too old?! I find my phone and schedule an appointment. Courtesy of Jaci Ohayon The next day, I find myself in an unfamiliar OBGYN clinic waiting for them to call my name. There are soft faces and big bellies all around me. I sit as far away from the stacks of pregnancy magazines as I possibly can, visibly uncomfortable. ‘Jaci!’ s voice says. Before I even look up, I know that I know this voice. It’s a friend. Oh no, I think. Not a friend. As soon as our eyes lock and I see the look on her face, tears threaten to spill down my cheeks. ‘I have an IUD,’ I stammer. ‘I haven’t told my husband yet. I don’t want him to worry!’ She hugs me and we both hold our breath as she looks to see what secrets lie beneath my belly. Except that she sees nothing. I am either only a ‘blip’ pregnant as she puts it, or I’m at the end of a pregnancy that is not viable. Blood must be drawn to help determine what I am facing. ‘The IUD needs to come out,’ doctor I have never ever met before says to me after the ultrasound. And then I recall all those stories I heard long ago. ‘But won’t that abort the baby?’ I question and it catches me off guard because I can hear the motherly worry in my own voice. Where did that come from? I wasn’t even happy about this baby…or was I? ‘If your pregnancy is viable, the IUD may compromise that. If it is not, then the IUD has already proven that it is defective. It needs to come out.’ I nod, speechless, as I lay back and watch her put on her rubber gloves. In one quick cramp, she holds the offending hardware up for my view. ‘You need to tell your husband,’ she says to me, concerned. ‘We aren’t sure what you are facing yet, and not only do you need the support, but he needs to be watching for signs that you need to go to the ER.’ I go home that night with the twinge and twang of sharp pains in my belly and a little bit of spotting, not knowing if I am growing a baby or losing one. Breaking The News When my husband gets home and asks me how my day was, I say I’m not feeling good. When he unexpectedly shows up with a hot cup of tea for me, I start to cry. ‘Baby! What is going on?’ he says worried. And I tell him. Before I can even reason through whether or not it’s a good idea, the past two days rush out of me in one long, run-on sentence. He turns white at the news and his eyes bulge out of his head. And then he composes himself. And then we laugh. We laugh so hard that tears stream down our cheeks. He reminds me that no matter what we are facing, we are in this together. The next day I go in for more blood tests and that night, as I am making dinner, my elbow catches my wine glass full of water and shatters it on the floor. As I pick up the shards, it hits me…I want this baby. At this moment, it feels like I want this baby more than I have ever wanted anything in my entire life. I start to cry on the kitchen floor just as my husband walks in from work. ‘I’m so scared that we are going to lose this little life. How ridiculous is that? I didn’t even want this baby and now I am petrified that we will lose it,’ I bawl in his arms. ‘It’s not ridiculous at all,’ my husband says softly taking the broken shards from my hand. ‘You are a mother, Jaci. Of course you love this baby. Of course you want this baby.’ And there it is. Such simplicity. Such truth. Courtesy of Jaci Ohayon Nothing else matters any more. Gone is the focus on why I can’t have this baby, replaced by all the reasons why I simply must. We don’t need to move away to France right now nor do I need to write a book right this second. Anyway, there are a heck of a lot of benefits to already having older kids who can help out. The next day I sit in front of my computer, hands trembling. The results of my blood test should be posted by now and I silently curse my slow computer as I wait for them to load. And then it appears, in black and white: ‘HCG Quantitative Pregnancy.’ All I have to do is push it and find out. Are my levels rising or dropping? Is this pregnancy, this miracle of a pregnancy, viable or not? Will my little foursome of a family become a fivesome? Do we need to get a bigger car? I click on the link and discover my pregnancy hormone has doubled. We are having a baby. Laughter erupts out of me, and I am elated. The doctor calls an hour later to confirm. ‘Looks like you better prepare for a baby,’ she says to me and I can feel the smile through the telephone. She asks me to come back to her office in a week for another ultrasound and I enthusiastically agree. Ectopic Pregnancy Journey Over the week, I grow more and more excited over this pregnancy. My husband and I busy ourselves by coming up with names, brainstorming ideas on how to tell our children, and laughing over this unexpected gift. I make a point of being gentler with myself and resting when I need to. I stop drinking my routine morning coffee and replace it with herbal tea. I work harder at being actively patient with my children, hoping they mimic my actions when it comes time for them to be the big brother and big sister. I spend my shower time talking softly to my baby, just as I did with my older children. I purchase a new fancy phone that takes top of the line pictures. When Monday rolls around, I put on a nice dress and curl my hair. This will be the first time I see my baby and I want to look pretty. But when my friend, the ultrasound tech, starts probing around for the gestational sac, I can tell from her face that there is something wrong. She goes and gets the doctor. My husband squeezes my hand. I look away and try not to cry. They don’t see the baby on the ultrasound and according to my HCG levels, they should. Courtesy of Jaci Ohayon ‘Jaci, I am pretty sure you have an ectopic pregnancy,’ the doctor says to me after the empty ultrasound. I get off the paper-lined bed to pace the room, stupid curls bouncing as I walk. ‘Your left ovary has enlarged quite a bit since last week and there is no visible pregnancy in your uterus. You need to get a shot of methotrexate, a type of chemo, to dissolve the pregnancy before your ovary ruptures. This is serious.’ I am stunned. After all of this? After a .4% chance of getting pregnant with this miracle? After waiting 48 hours in between blood draws to make sure the pregnancy hormone has doubled? After spending the week dreaming and planning with my husband? And now the baby is not going to make it? I can’t wrap my head around it. ‘Are you sure?’ I ask. When she ignores my question, I ask again. ‘Are you sure?’ ‘I am 95% sure,’ she says. ‘We will draw some more blood to confirm, but if you were my daughter I would be extremely worried about you and I would want you to get the shot. If you do not and it ruptures, it very well could kill you. If the blood results are good, you need to get the shot; otherwise, you may have to have emergency surgery.’ I avoid making eye contact with my husband as the nurse draws my blood because it is easier for me to avoid sobbing if I trap everything inside of me. We head home, shaken, to wait for the phone call which will tell me whether I need to go to the hospital for surgery or report back for a shot. When my phone rings, it is the doctor, telling me that she believes my blood results confirm her suspicion and I need to get back to the office immediately for the shot. Except that I cannot. I just cannot. Last week a doctor’s 95% certainty would have been enough for me. But this week? After having a .4% chance of getting pregnant and succeeding all of a sudden a 5% margin of error seems gigantic. Besides, I am at my children’s school. They are about to find out what teachers they have and whether their best friends are in their class. I can’t just run out. I wave hello to people I know and quickly move through the crowd of eager students. As long as no one hugs me, I know I can get through this next hour without crying. ‘Don’t think of it as a baby. Think about it as saving your life!’ my friend, the ultrasound tech, tells me later that night over the phone after finding out that I didn’t go get the shot. But, of course, I cannot. My husband was right. I am a mother and this is my baby. Mine and my husband’s baby. Perhaps unplanned and planned against, but created in love just the same. Courtesy of Jaci Ohayon Taking that shot goes against every fiber of my being. It is contrary to my soul. I just can’t do it. I spend the night hiding in my room and Googling various medical terms. I find out that 1 in 50 pregnancies is ectopic and that out of those ectopic pregnancies, only 1% are in the ovary. So basically, I need to go to Vegas because wicked Lady Luck just won’t leave me alone. I read story after story of women who were diagnosed, incorrectly, as having an ectopic pregnancy. There is a report from Canada that says 40% of all ectopic pregnancies are actually misdiagnosed. There are even stories of women who were misdiagnosed, took the chemo shot, and then went on to find they had viable pregnancies, which resulted in babies with deformities. These stories take turns petrifying me and giving me hope. Maybe the doctor is wrong. Maybe this pregnancy is viable–it just needs a little more time. I need a second opinion from another health care provider. Getting A Second Opinion That night I cry myself to sleep. I dream that my ovary ruptures and that I am dying. I wake up thinking I am in pain just to realize that it is all in my head. I think my heart is pounding in my lower left pelvic area. When my kids each take a turn waking me up with bad dreams, I hold them closely. By morning, I am exhausted as I get them ready for their first day of school. I beam false smiles at them, make a million promises that they will have a great year and rush them out the door. At 9:01 a.m., I am on the phone making an appointment for a second opinion. When I tell the receptionist I have been diagnosed as ectopic, she puts me on hold and then comes back on the line and moves my appointment up by several hours. Please God, I plead in the shower. Please spare this baby. Knowing that I am in a race against time if it is ectopic, I ask God that if we are meant to have this baby, that we please see it on the ultrasound. I meticulously curl every hair on my head before my appointment, a testament of my faith that we will see our baby today. But we do not. The second doctor believes there is an 80-90 percent chance that the baby is growing in my left ovary, but also acknowledges he could be wrong and the pregnancy could be fine. He outlines my options: (1) Take the shot of chemo to dissolve the pregnancy. (2) Have surgery to remove the pregnancy. (3) Wait it out for a few days, have more blood tests, and then another ultrasound (and take the risk my ovary will rupture and kill me). Each option sucks. ‘How am I supposed to choose?’ I ask him, voice trembling. ‘I do not know,’ he replies, ‘but you must.’ Ready to live life more meaningfully? Subscribe to our newsletter. I tell him that I need to talk to my husband. That I need some time. Another hour to debate with myself. What if I take the shot and it turns out the pregnancy is viable? What if I don’t take it and it kills me? I consider each scenario in turn. The analytical lawyer in me takes over: I need to make an informed decision. Gather all facts and make the best decision I can based upon those facts knowing, of course, that hindsight is always 20/20. Over an uneaten lunch my husband and I take turns asking each other the same question, ‘What do we do?’ My phone rings. It is my doctor friend. The one whose opinion I trust more than all other doctors put together. He knows me. He knows my husband. He knows my kids. This is probably our 15th phone call since this whole situation began a couple weeks ago. He is emotionally invested. He loves us. ‘What do I do?’ I ask. I plead with him to make the decision for me. ‘I cannot advise you on that, Jaci. You must make this decision.’ ‘Then tell me, what would you want your wife to do?’ He loves his wife very much. I have seen the way they look at each other. I know true love. He sighs. ‘Please don’t ask me that.’ ‘Too late, I did, and I need you to answer,’ I respond desperately. ‘I would want her to take the shot,’ he says quietly. And I know what I have to do even though tears are pouring down my cheeks and my guts are on fire. I think of my children coming home from their first day of school in a few hours. I cannot chance them having to grow up motherless. I think of my husband, nervously waiting for me in the restaurant. We have been through a lifetime in our years together. We are a team, and I cannot leave him wifeless. I know that if the situation were reversed, there wouldn’t even be a question in my mind; I would be giving my husband that shot myself. I love this baby with my whole heart, but I love my little foursome family enough to put an end to this life-threatening scenario. Pregnancy Loss I walk into the clinic and will myself to get a grip. ‘I am here for the shot, please.’ The receptionist, noting my tear-streaked face and bloodshot eyes smiles at me sympathetically. ‘I will let the nurse know.’ ‘Jaci, I am ready for you,’ the nurse says and instructs me to pull down my pants—the third time this week I have had to bare myself for a stranger–and tells me to count to ten. I feel a pinch, then a burning sensation as the poison rushes into my body. I try to make myself cry more silently, more motionlessly, so as not to dislodge the needle and chance having to re-do it. And then it is done. On the way home, my husband and I hold hands. It is so strange how two weeks ago the presence of a baby was a hole in our guts and this week the absence of one is, ironically, the same thing. The 15-minute drive home takes a solid year. No music. No small talk. Not even any big talk. Just silence. The air heavy with our crushed tandem breath. ‘I’m so sorry baby,’ my husband whispers and grabs me tightly as soon as he parks in our driveway. ‘If you want another baby, you only have to say it, Jaci. We can have another baby.’ And I am sorry, too. I am so sorry. I internally apologize to God, to the baby, to my husband and then to myself for making one of the most excruciating decisions I have ever, ever been faced with. I go inside my house and throw away the positive pregnancy test and my first ultrasound pictures–the ones I was saving for the baby book. Now I have nothing left to remind me of the life that would never be, besides cramps in my belly and matching Band-Aids on my left arm and bottom from today’s blood draw and shot. I go inside my house and sit by myself in the living room. I feel like I have been stabbed in the heart, but my son and daughter will be home soon, bubbling over with excitement to tell me all about their first day of school and I both need and want to be present in that moment. I know that I am not finished grieving this lost baby, but now is not the time. I must cap this. Gratitude And Grief One by one, I start going through my list of the abundance of blessings I have to be grateful for. This is the way I calm myself down when I feel like life is spinning out of control. When I feel upset at God for allowing what feels like another unjust boulder, no mountain, to be thrown my way, I start with things like fresh air and clean water and continue until I reach weighty things that make up my gravity. Things like this week’s heroes: my doctor friend, my ultrasound tech friend, my husband and my two beautiful children. By the time I draw to the end, my tears have stopped and my breath is less painful. I may not know why this had to happen, but I remind myself, for the millionth time, that I trust in God and that God does have a plan even if I am not privy to it. I hear my husband return from school with our big kids in tow. I can hear them get out of the car, shuffle up the stairs, and open the front door. They are full of chitter-chatter and excitement. So much joy. So much enthusiasm. So much life. With one last deep breath, I pick myself up off the couch, go wash my face, and head to the door to meet my two children, the only ones I will ever have, and genuinely listen as they tell story after story about their day. The evening passes slowly, ever so slowly. But finally, I find myself alone in my bedroom with a raging headache and a metallic taste in my mouth–side effects of the shot. I collapse on my bed and curl into the fetal position. So grateful that in this moment, I do not have to put on a brave face or beat back any emotions. Courtesy of Jaci Ohayon It is just me, God, and my baby. I touch my hand to my lower belly and the grief rushes out of me in flood of scalding tears, snot, and verbal heartache. I sob into my pillow. I have spent a lot of time crying in my life, but the sorrow that pours out of me now is unlike any I have ever experienced. It is the sound of a mother who has lost her child. It is a rare occasion, indeed, that I surrender to my emotions without trying to control them with my superior practicality and reasoning skills. In this moment, it does not matter that there are more horrific pains in life than this, and that so many others have gone through far more terrible things. In this moment, there is only the aching in my heart, the burning sensation in my belly and the devastating feeling of complete and utter hollowness. ‘Goodbye, Sweet Baby,’ I say out loud to the empty room and I feel the echo of those words vibrate in my empty womb. I hear the door creak and feel the weight of my husband on the bed. Soon, I feel his arms wrap around me, protective and safe. His warm breath on my neck. And we lay there, in silence, each grieving this loss. Each saying goodbye to the baby, unplanned and planned against, but so very very wanted. So very very loved. ‘Goodbye, Sweet Baby,’ I say, again. And when I have cried until I have no more tears left and my eyes are swollen to slits, I remove my hand from my belly and begin my prayers of gratitude. I am grateful for fresh air. I am grateful for clean water. As I continue with my list, I remind myself over and over that I trust in God. Right now I don’t know why our hearts had to be stretched to prepare for another child, just to experience pregnancy loss, but God does. I’ve been through enough grief in my life to know that time doesn’t actually heal anything, but it does make it easier to bear. Tomorrow I may feel just a tiny bit better than I do right now and that’s enough hope to get me through this excruciating night mourning the baby that I never got to hold.” Courtesy of Jaci Ohayon Have a story of love, kindness, or healing to share? Visit our submissions portal to submit today. Read more about ectopic pregnancies: Infertility Warrior Surprised With Miracle Twins After Miscarriage, Ectopic Pregnancy Woman births rainbow baby after ectopic pregnancy Do you know someone who could benefit from reading this? SHARE this story on social media with family and friends.

Two young women camping in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park were murdered in 1996. Now, the FBI knows who killed them. DNA has linked serial rapist Walter Leo Jackson Sr. to the murders of 26-year-old Laura “Lollie” Winans and 24-year-old Julianne “Julie” Williams, who went missing while camping in May 1996, the FBI announced. The two left on May 19 and were supposed to return on May 28, People Magazine reported. Family members called the National Park Service when the two didn’t return home on the expected date. Their bodies were found bound and gagged, with their throats slit, on June 1, but it was determined they had been murdered at their campsite near the Skyland Resort on May 24. The case went cold, and no one knew who killed the women for more than two decades. In 2021, investigators at FBI Richmond were assigned to investigate the case. They reassessed hundreds of leads and interviews conducted over the previous two and a half decades. They also submitted evidence from the crime scene to be retested by a private lab. That lab was able to pull DNA from the evidence and develop a suspect profile, which was put into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The DNA matched that of convicted serial rapist Walter Leo Jackson, who was originally from the Cleveland, Ohio, area. “Even though we had this DNA match, we took additional steps and compared evidence from Lollie and Julie’s murders directly to a buccal swab containing Jackson’s DNA,” Stanley M. Meador, the FBI Richmond special agent in charge, said in the press release. “Those results confirmed we had the right man and finally could tell the victim’s families we know who is responsible for this heinous crime.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP Jackson died in prison in March 2018 and had a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for kidnapping, multiple rapes, and multiple assaults. Jackson was a residential painter and avid hiker known to visit Shenandoah National Park. The FBI said he would use temporary tags, frequently change vehicles, and alter his license plates. “After 28 years, we are now able to say who committed the brutal murders of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams in Shenandoah National Park,” U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said. “I want to again extend my condolences to the Winans and Williams families and hope today’s announcement provides some small measure of solace.” Authorities are seeking any information that could connect Jackson to other crimes.

We are just a few days away from a massive, important political debate between former President Trump and President Biden. This race is extraordinarily tight, and it could go either way. The outcome revolves around Trump’s performance more than Biden’s; Trump has much more to lose in this debate than Biden. Everyone perceives Biden for what he is: a bad president. He may be extremely old, he may not be mentally all there, but he can surpass expectations because of that. All he has to do is show up, speak even somewhat coherently, and not fall over. The expectations bar has been set so low by the Trump campaign and the media that if Biden does so it will be deemed a big Biden win. Trump, on the other hand, has to buck many factors. He has to buck the fact that the moderators hate his guts and do not want him to be reelected. They think he’s an actual Hitlerian figure. He has to buck the fact that there’s no audience in the room. Donald Trump thrives on having an audience; he responds to the audience. Some people think that the mics being muted might help Trump because it’ll prevent him from talking over Biden, but the problem with this is that Trump will not be able to jump in and get in a quick quip. There are a lot of factors that are stacked against Trump here. But the biggest factor that is stacked against Trump is Trump himself because Trump’s tendency is to go extremely hard and aggressive to defend everything he has ever done. In reality, what Trump needs to be is cool, calm, collected, and meticulous in his attack on Biden’s presidency. That’s because if the debate is a referendum on Biden’s presidency, Joe Biden loses. If this is a referendum on Trump’s character and his foibles, then Donald Trump loses. Here’s how I think Trump should handle the debate: He needs to shift every attack directed at him back into a jujitsu attack on Joe Biden. Before Trump even starts, he needs to lead off by setting the predicate for the debate. He needs to say: Joe Biden is a dishonest man. He lied to you in the last round of debates I did with him. You’ll recall that in the last round of debates, he openly stated that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation and that Hunter had never taken any money from any Chinese source, for example. Those were lies. Joe Biden lies to you all the time. Joe Biden lies to you about the economy. Joe Biden lies to you about illegal immigration. Joe Biden lies to you about foreign policy. Joe Biden lied to you about the solidity of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Joe Biden is a liar. So what he says up here on the stage cannot be trusted because he is not a trustworthy figure. That would set the groundwork for when Biden says things that are not true, Trump can say, “He’s lying. That’s not true.” WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show The second piece of groundwork Trump needs to set about Biden is that he is tyrannical, that he’s used the power of the executive branch in unprecedented ways. He should say: Joe Biden has had more executive orders than any president in modern history. He has used the power of the presidency in order to, in his own words, “avoid the rulings of the Supreme Court.” He has threatened 80 million Americans with vaccine mandates he said he would not initiate. He has shut down state attempts to close the southern border. He is tyrannical. Joe Biden does not care about the boundaries of government. He can pretend he’s standing up here for democracy, but he thwarts democracy with every step he takes. Thirdly, he should declare Biden is an incompetent rube of a president and say: Inflation reached a 40-year high under Biden and is now embedded in the economy. He has brought you a disastrous foreign policy; there are now two massive ongoing conflagrations across the world. Plus, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping are all hanging out together and plotting their next moves. The enemies of the United States lick their lips when they see Joe Biden in the White House. Those are the three points Trump should set up as the predicate for the debate: Joe Biden is a liar, tyrannical, and incompetent. Additionally, if Biden comes to the end of an answer but has time left on the clock, which will undoubtedly happen, and says, “Well, anyway, I don’t want to get into that,” and the moderators turn to Trump, Trump should say, “You know, Joe, you have a minute left on the clock. I really think the American people deserve to hear your thoughts.” That will completely throw Biden. He won’t know what to do with it. It’ll be a great moment for Trump. We know the lines of attack that are going to be used by Biden because he has used them already. The number one line of attack will be January 6. He believes that this is his trump card. He believes it to be his get-out-of-jail free card, to say January 6 over and over. What Donald Trump needs to say is: Joe, you and I disagree on what happened in the 2020 election. I think that your party rigged many of the voting rules in advance of the election in order to ensure an extraordinary number of mail in ballots ballot harvesting. I think that you worked with the media in order to prevent the dissemination of a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in the last month of the election and you and your son, knowing that the laptop was real, lied about it to the American people. We can disagree about what happened in 2020, but none of that matters to the American people because right now the calendar reads June 27, 2024. No one in America is thinking about January 6, and the only reason you are is because you are a cynical actor attempting to avoid the consequences of your own failed presidency. Most Americans are concerned about how they put food on the table today. And that’s your fault because you’re the president. It doesn’t matter who I think won the presidency. You are the president. You’ve been the president since January 2021, and you’ve been terrible at it. The second issue that Biden presumably is going to bring up is a corollary of the first, which is that Trump is a threat to democracy. He’s going to suggest that Trump wants to overturn the election and he’s threatened to be a dictator on day one.  Trump’s proper response on the “threat to democracy” is twofold. He should say: Joe, you keep saying I’m a threat to democracy because I don’t believe I lost the 2020 election. I notice that Hillary Clinton doesn’t believe she lost the 2016 election, and that’s apparently just fine. And she keeps saying that it was Russian disinformation or that I stole the 2016 election. You seem just fine with that. Half your party is fine with that. But put that aside. In reality, you are the threat to democracy. Democracy means, in the United States, a democratic republic with two elected branches of the legislature who are supposed to initiate bills and then you are supposed to effectuate those bills once you have signed them. But that is not how you run the government. You set your political allies on me in the courts. You’ve had your party’s members from New York to D.C. to Florida to Atlanta target me for political reasons. I had zero criminal investigations into me into my eighth decade of life until I decided to run for reelection, at which point I got inundated with them. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. So I want you to explain, Joe, why it is that your DOJ let you off the hook and tried to get a sweetheart deal with Hunter before they were caught, but has been sicced on me in every jurisdiction you can find? Does that sound democratic to you? Trying to use the courts to go after your political opponent?  You used OSHA to mandate vaccines for 80 million Americans. You violated the Constitution to try to allow people to skate on their student loan debt so you can let a blue collar plumber pay for the tuition in the future of some gender theory major over at Wellesley. You violated your constitutional oath by keeping the border open and letting through at least seven million illegal immigrants. That sounds like a threat to democracy to me and you’re baking all of these regulations into the administrative state so that even if I’m elected, it makes it difficult for me to change your policy. You have effectuated the establishment of a fourth unelected branch of government, independent of even the executive, unless the executive happens to be a Democrat. That is response number one to the democracy issue. The second response would be to say, “You have been a dictator the entirety of your presidency,” and then list the litany again.  The third issue will be the criminal conviction of Trump. I think if Trump brings up Hunter Biden in response that would be a mistake, and he’ll walk right into a trap because Biden will throw his son under the bus and say, “I respected the justice system for my own son, so I certainly respect it for you.” What Trump should say is: Joe, you’re right. I was convicted by a Democrat judge and a Democrat prosecutor who coordinated to set up a series of specious charges in a district that you won overwhelmingly in an extraordinarily blue district in Manhattan, which is why the case was filed there. You’re right. I was convicted in that case. But at least I was found competent to stand trial. Your own Department of Justice refused to prosecute you for mishandling classified information, for keeping classified documents in your drawers, telling your ghostwriter about them, and keeping them in your car and garage. Your own DOJ refused to prosecute you because they effectively found that you are too old and too wavering mentally for a jury to convict you. And now your own DOJ is stonewalling. They won’t even release the tape of you talking to them for a prolonged period of time. Why? Answer it, Joe. Why? Why won’t you authorize your DOJ to release the tape? You’re the president. You can release the tape today. Release the tape. If you say that you are so coherent and that Robert Hur’s a liar about your mental status, why not just release the tape of the interview? Finally, the issue of style. This is going to be the most important element for Trump because he’s going to have to contain himself. And when Trump contains himself, he can be quite good at this. The truth is that in debates, Trump has historically done well in situations in which he has been more contained. If you remember the debates with Hillary, he was more contained. The first debate with Biden in 2020 was disastrous because he wasn’t contained, but he likely won the second one because he was more contained. Let Biden talk. That’s all. If he lets Biden talk for prolonged periods of time, people are going to see that he can’t even realistically defend his own policies. The whole purpose of a debate is to be pointed and bring people’s attention where you want it. Trump needs to spend the entire debate redirecting attention from him to Biden — but that runs against Trump’s grain because he believes that when people are talking about him it means he’s winning. But that was not true in 2020 and is not true in 2024. Focusing on Biden and his record is the road to victory.

Several climate protesters briefly disrupted the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, on Sunday. Video posted to social media showed the demonstrators run onto the 18th green and release a red or white powdery substance as players watched. The Associated Press reported the event was delayed for about five minutes as police intervened and the crowd heckled the activists. Images from the venue showed that some of the demonstrators wore a white shirt that read “NO GOLF ON A DEAD PLANET.” A climate group called Extinction Rebellion took responsibility for the incident, according to CNN. Cromwell police said each protester was charged with first-degree criminal mischief, first-degree criminal trespass, and breach of peace. ESPN noted that the protesters were released on a bond of $5,000 and are scheduled to appear in court on July 1. The PGA Tour said the powder was removed with no damage to the green and thanked Cromwell police for their “quick and decisive action.” First-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler, who ended up winning the event, said players were “grateful” that law enforcement responded so fast. “When something like that happens, you don’t really know what’s happening, so it can kind of rattle you a little bit,” he said. Scheffler added that he and a fellow golfer, Tom Kim, “both tried to calm each other down so we could give it our best shot there on 18.” Akshay Bhatia, another participant in the championship, said he was “scared” for his life as he, too, did not know what was happening. “But thankfully, the cops were there and kept us safe, because that’s, you know, that’s just weird stuff,” he said. Climate activists have made headlines for vandalizing monuments, works of art, and more in places around the world. Last week, protesters demonstrating against fossil fuels spray-painted Stonehenge in the United Kingdom with an orange substance. Extinction Rebellion said in a statement that the PGA protest was meant to highlight “the worldwide danger of climate breakdown.” Noting golf is “heavily reliant on good weather,” the group said fans should “understand better than most the need for strong, immediate climate action.”

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on transgender medical services for children. The justices will weigh an appeals court ruling that upheld the state’s ban on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender surgery for minors. The court will take up the case during its next term, which starts in October and ends in June of next year. Depending on the ruling, the decision could affect not only Tennessee’s ban but other state bans on the same transgender medical interventions for minors. More than 20 states with Republican-led legislatures have similar bans. This is not the first time the high court has waded into the raging controversies around trans-identifying minors. In April, the court allowed Idaho to enforce its ban on transgender medical interventions for minors except on the two teenagers who sued over the law. However, the court has avoided many other previous opportunities to get involved in the culture war issue. The plaintiffs in the Tennessee case, which include trans-identifying teens and their families, claim the state’s ban violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which requires that everyone is equally treated under the law, by preventing them from accessing medical treatments that are available to others. They also claim the ban violates parental rights to make health care decisions for their children. So far, federal appeals courts have been divided on whether state bans on these transgender medical interventions for children are unconstitutional. In the Tennessee case, a federal district judge initially blocked the ban. Then the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals combined the Tennessee case with a similar case out of Kentucky and ruled in favor of the bans. “This is a relatively new diagnosis with ever-shifting approaches to care over the last decade or two. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for anyone to be sure about predicting the long-term consequences of abandoning age limits of any sort for these treatments,” wrote Jeffrey Sutton for the 6th Circuit. The Biden administration then joined the lawsuit against Tennessee and urged the Supreme Court to take up the case, saying the court’s opinion was “urgently needed” since the confusion among federal courts has resulted in “profound uncertainty.” “Absent this Court’s review, families in Tennessee and other States where laws like SB1 have taken effect will face the loss of essential medical care,” the Justice Department wrote in a petition to the Supreme Court. Both puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones come with serious health risks. Puberty blockers can affect bone growth and density and cause sexual dysfunction, voice damage, and infertility, among other issues. Cross-sex hormones can cause infertility, deadly blood clots, heart attacks, increased cancer risks of the breasts and ovaries, liver dysfunction, worsening psychological illness, and other serious conditions. Gender surgeries like phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, and double mastectomy are irreversible and often come with serious complications.

Looks aren’t everything — and the World’s Ugliest Dog contest is the best proof. Each year, dogs from all over join together in California to find out which of them will be crowned the ugliest. That being said, just because they aren’t considered conventionally pretty pups doesn’t mean they aren’t adorable in their own way! This can certainly be seen in this year’s winner, Wild Thang! This 8-year-old Pekingese is from North Bend, Oregon, and he worked hard to earn this honor. This year was not the first time Wild Thang has competed for the title of World’s Ugliest Dog. In fact, it’s not even his second or third time, either. Rather, this was the determined dog’s fifth time entering! Still, all of the time and effort has proven to be worth it. This is partly true because of the $10,000 given to the first-place winner! Meanwhile, the dog in second place gets $3,000 and third place gets $2,000. Needless to say, Wild Thang’s human mom couldn’t be happier about their win! Her pup has been through a lot in his life. When he was just a puppy, he contracted distemper, a particularly fatal disease for our animal friends. After Years of Competing, Wild Thang is Finally Crowned the World’s Ugliest Dog Still, Wild Thang survived — but not without some issues. His teeth didn’t grow properly and his right leg paddles 24/7. But with the help of kind folks like his human mom, he’s been able to live a happy and relatively healthy life! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wild Thang (@wildthangofficial) Plus, Wild Thang’s popularity has been used to help better the lives of other pups. One way he does this is by being an advocate for pets getting vaccinated. In the past, he has also used GoFundMe to help seven dogs get safely transported from Ukraine to safe, happy homes in Canada and the United States. In other words, Wild Thang is truly the definition of a good boy! You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post The Highly-Coveted Crown For “World’s Ugliest Dog” Goes To Wild Thang The Pekingese appeared first on InspireMore.

Sometimes, it can feel as though our lives are crumbling down around us. When these moments of hopelessness take over, it’s difficult to see the potential for a better, brighter future. I imagine that this is how Tori Hughes felt right after she and her fiancé called off their wedding. At that time, she was unable to know what her future had in store. But now, years later, she’s learning about a twist of fate that has left her speechless. After her last relationship ended, Tori eventually started to date someone new. The two of them had been dating for eight months when he initiated an unusual but fun game. As her boyfriend listed some of the most significant days in his life, he had Tori tell him if anything special happened to her that day. For the most part, the answer was “no.” Then they got to November 13, 2022 — this was the day that she and her ex were going to get married. @torihughes2871 Literal chills. #fyp #foryou #coincidence #chills #wow #dates #tiktok #timing #timingiseverything #everything #karma #happy #fulfilled #lovestory #ily #relationship #dating #xybca #tt #fypシ #fy ♬ original sound – Tori  For Tori, this was the intended day of her marriage. But for her boyfriend, it was the very day that he moved to the same city as his now girlfriend. Wow! How incredible is that timing!? It’s no wonder Tori feels as though this relationship truly was meant to be — and so many of the people who have seen this viral video couldn’t agree more! Twist of Fate Reminds Woman That Everything Works Out in the End As you can imagine, Tori got “literal chills” over this information. But she’s not sharing this story just to showcase how well things have turned out for her. She’s also hoping it’ll encourage others who feel as though there is no hope — and it’s working. “Reminds me of the saying you don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes that’s working in your favor,” someone in the comments shares. “When we look backwards in life it is easy to see the miracles that led us here. It’s looking forward that freaks us out,” someone else adds. “Keep trusting in the miracles.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Woman Shares Incredible Twist Of Fate On Day She Was Supposed To Get Married appeared first on InspireMore.