A recent suggestion by Harvard that it should do more to get conservative professors hired was met with stiff resistance from progressive professors. Over 95% of Harvard’s professors are self-identifying progressives.
Progressive alumni joined in the resistance, with one alumnus claiming, “Even supposing that [silencing] takes place, how would the hiring of conservative faculty act as a countervailing force? Surely such hiring may inhibit viewpoint diversity rather than nurture it.”
Harvard leftists oppose plan to hire conservative professors for viewpoint diversity– www.lifesitenews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
(LifeSiteNews) – Leftists at Harvard University are pushing back against the institution’s efforts to hire conservative professors to increase viewpoint diversity among the faculty of the infamously left-wing school.
Back in April, the Harvard Crimsonreported that the university has been soliciting donors for a $10 million endowment for dozens of new professorships to be filled by conservatives across various departments. The effort was said to be spearheaded by Harvard Provost John F. Manning, a conservative legal scholar.
Now, the Washington Timesreports that the plan has been facing resistance from liberal professors and teachers, who comprise 69 percent of the faculty. Forty-seven percent faculty members said they were opposed to the plan and 31 percent supported it, according to a survey.
“The answer is not partisan quotas, but a credible commitment to intellectual openness and hiring excellent scholars across a genuinely broad range of perspectives,” claimed political scientist Daniel Schatz.
“Even supposing that [silencing] takes place, how would the hiring of conservative faculty act as a countervailing force? Surely such hiring may inhibit viewpoint diversity rather than nurture it,” argued Harvard graduate Dominique Padurano, founder and president of college counseling company Crimson Coaching.
Anthropic has announced plans to implement a new governance policy for users of its AI agent, Claude. The change of policy would eventually block users from using Claude who are consistently “mean” to Claude.
They claim the rule will be enforced selectively, “only in extreme cases, where users repeatedly act cruelly toward our models, with no discernible purpose.”
Anthropic Wants You to Be Kind to Claude– www.thenation.com News Source
EXCERPT:
…even as AI courts serial real-world disasters, defaces the environment with data centers, and is not about to return your empathy in kind.
A phone displaying the logo for Anthropic’s Javascript property, Bun, brandished before a display of logos for the company’s chatbot, Claude.(Harun Ozalp / Anadolu via Getty Images)
So now it’s against the rules to be mean to Claude. Last week, chatbot-maker Anthropic quietly announced that it was prohibiting what the company called “sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models.” This ban wouldn’t apply, the company stressed, toward normal outbursts of frustration directed at a tool known for feeding its users hallucinated bullshit, as all chatbots do from time to time. The rule would be enforced “only in extreme cases, where users repeatedly act cruelly toward our models, with no discernible purpose”; what’s more, company flacks said, the disciplinary action in most cases would only result in Claude shutting down the conversation, which is something Claude was already doing anyway. Why on earth someone might get their jollies from endlessly abusing their fake computer friend was not addressed.
In response to the Anthropic announcement, the Internet did what the Internet does. On X, investment guru Joseph Carlson declared that “Claude, like every AI, has zero moral agency. It doesn’t make decisions, it has no feelings, it’s not sentient. Being rude to Claude is like being rude to a chair, or a desk.… you do infinitely more damage to a sentient being stepping on an ant than you do being rude to AI.” On Bluesky, sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom suggested that yelling at Claude was like “cussing out [a] tractor…. you don’t have to hand it to Anthropic because it’s weird to talk mean to its talking word toaster. It’s not real.”
When child transgender therapists and operations are shut down from organizations relying on Federal tax dollars, they turn to independent trans zealots to both fund and protect them. The Trump administration is working on identifying shut down operations and following them when they go “independent.”
Sex-Rejecting Facilities For Kids Are Re-Opening Under New Names– thefederalist.com News Source
EXCERPT:
As the Trump administration forces pediatric transgender facilities to close, a new reality is becoming clear: It’s a game of whack-a-mole.
In Pasadena, California, an infamous pediatrician named Johanna Olson-Kennedy who provides transgender intervention procedures for children was forced to close her medical office at the end of September (as The Federalist reported), after a pro-trans parent corporation read the political climate and switched to an adults-only operation. It was the second time in two years Olson-Kennedy was driven out of business, as Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles closed her first practice in 2025.
The Pasadena office reopened a few days later, at the same address, with a new sign on the very same front door. (If you need to use the bathroom, that patients-only sign about using the key has yet to reappear.)
This development comes at an unusually important moment, as California just changed the way it funds sex-rejecting procedures for minors, as of October 13. You can read a detailed discussion of those changes here, on the website of the California Department of Health Care Access and Information. Following recent federal guidance, California will no longer pay for pediatric gender mutilation through Medi-Cal, the state’s version of the federally funded but state-administered Medicaid and CHIP.
Ending federally funded sex-rejecting procedures, California is switching to a more limited grant program funded only with state dollars. The state legislature has budgeted three pools of money, totaling $66 million, that can be used to pay for sex-rejecting procedures, with $10 million specifically designated for doctors who butcher children.
The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to relatives of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as part of its immigration-related investigation into the Somalia-born congresswoman, the New York Times reports.
This week, agents with the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations unit raided Omar’s Washington, DC, residence after a federal judge approved a search warrant.
As part of an immigration investigation into Omar, federal investigators have issued subpoenas to some of her family members, the Timesreports:
Federal agents investigating Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, have issued subpoenas to some relatives as officials scour her family’s history for evidence of fraud and false statements in immigration paperwork, according to people familiar with the matter. [Emphasis added]
A sister of Ms. Omar’s, Sahra Noor, received a subpoena, as did at least one other member of her family circle, according to people familiar with the investigation. On Monday, D.H.S. agents executed a search warrant at her home in Washington, carrying out boxes of documents, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss investigative steps. [Emphasis added]
During CNN Town Hall James Talarico Says the Bible is Silent on Abortion, Gets Schooled by Catholic Woman From the Audience (VIDEO)– www.thegatewaypundit.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Screencap of Twitter/X video.
CNN wants to help loony lefty Democrat James Talarico so badly that they gave him a town hall event on Wednesday night. As part of the event, people from the audience were allowed to come to the stage to ask him questions directly.
At one point, a Texas voter named Jody asked Talarico about his pro-choice views on abortion. Talarico bent over backwatds to make himself sound reasonable on the issue, suggesting that he could come together with pro-life people.
Then he suggested that the Bible is silent on abortion.
Jody schooled him on this, reminding him that the Ten Commandments includes ‘Thou shalt not kill.’
Peaceful pro-lifer ticketed a second time by Quebec police– www.lifesitenews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
(LifeSiteNews) — A man witnessing for life, holding a sign calling for people to “pray” to end abortion was ticketed again by police in the province of Quebec for his pro-life witness after his first ticket was dropped, leaving his lawyer baffled but determined to help clear his client’s name.
Brian Jenkins of Sherbrooke, Quebec, was given a ticket in 2025 for displaying signs calling out abortion during the annual “40 Days for Life” campaign that takes place nationwide.
After legal pressure, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) said in a press release sent to LifeSiteNews that Jenkins’ first ticket was dropped on September 30, 2026. However, his constitutional lawyer, Mr. Olivier Séguin, was not notified.
Jenkins was again ticketed on October 3 for the same pro-life witnessing shortly after the first ticket was taken away. The JCCF noted that both tickets are based on a city bylaw banning “sandwich boards,” but that applies to commercial advertising.
Earlier this year, LifeSiteNews reported onJenkins’ case and the JCCF’s legal assistance.
Trans-Identifying Muslim Migrant Who Murdered His Children Accused of Sexually Harassing Female Inmates in Swedish Women’s Prison– gellerreport.com News Source
EXCERPT:
This horror story checks every box for the left’s identity politics. Try to keep up. Murdered children. Women sexually harassed in prison. But who will get the sympathy? The killer. The left’s elites and their lapdog media turn him into a cause while burying the people he victimized.
Surely,historians will refer to this era of Western civilization as the age of insanity.
Court documents and subsequent reporting state that prosecutors determined Abdelshahed had placed bags over each child’s head and pumped helium into the bags through a hose, depriving them of oxygen. The prosecution described the killings as intentional, carefully planned, and particularly ruthless. Investigators recovered items from the home consistent with this method, including bags, tape, and gas-related equipment.
Related: Egyptian Migrant Who Murdered His Two Young Children Has Been Transferred To A Women’s Prison After Changing Legal Sex Marker To “Female”
SWEDEN: Trans-Identifying Egyptian Migrant Who Murdered His Children Accused of Sexually Harassing Female Inmates in Women’s Prison
A father who murdered his two young children and was transferred to a women’s prison after beginning to identify as transgender has been accused of sexually harassing female inmates while authorities look the other way. Paulus Said Foukaih Abdelshahed, an Egyptian national, was transferred to a women’s prison after changing his name to “Lily,” where he is serving a life sentence for the killings.
On April 23, 2024, police and ambulances services were dispatched to Abdelshahed’s residence in response to a call that he had made. Abdelshahed told emergency services that his two children – a boy and a girl, both under the age of 10 – were not breathing, according to a criminal indictment lodged in November that year.
BREAKING: Washington trans male indicted for helping trans Tumbler Ridge shooter plan, broadcast massacre | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Bryant allegedly told Van Rootselaar: “Hallways also mean a lot of ways people can escape. Corners to turn. Wide open spaces means numbers.”
A Washington state trans-identified male charged with providing tactical advice, money, and livestream assistance to trans-identified Tumbler Ridge school shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury. Van Rootselaar killed his mother and brother at their home in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, before going to the high school and opening fire on students there.
James Cody Bryant, 30, of Bellingham, faces one count of conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country in connection with the February 10 massacre in British Columbia, which left eight victims dead across two locations.
Bryant was initially charged through a criminal complaint supported by an FBI affidavit filed October 2 and was arrested October 6. The October 14 indictment brings the same charge, formally advancing the prosecution after a grand jury found probable cause. Bryant is scheduled for arraignment October 22 and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
U. Arkansas student fees fund clubs hosting ‘pride’ prom with drag performers, furries– www.thecollegefix.com News Source
EXCERPT:
ANALYSIS: Furries club hosts workshops on how to create ‘fursona,’ or animal persona
Student activity fees at the University of Arkansas went to a furries club and a group that hosted a “pride prom” with drag performers, according to university records recently obtained by The College Fix.
The records, which The Fix received through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, show how the university’s student government allocated mandatory student activity fees to clubs and how much of that money the clubs spent during the 2025-2026 academic year.
Rebecca Morrison, the university’s public information officer, told The Fix via email that more than 400 student organizations operate on campus.
Every Registered Student Organization “is entitled and encouraged to apply for funding supported by student fees, with applications reviewed and approved by a student committee, and allocated by the student-directed ASG Office of Financial Affairs,” she stated in an email with the requested documents.
Mexico Bans Violent Content on Social Media for Children– www.nytimes.com News Source
EXCERPT: Joining a global movement, President Claudia Sheinbaum signed a decree requiring the removal of a range of material for people under 18 and held out the prospect of tougher measures.
Germany: AfD reaches record high 40% in Brandenburg as party continues to dominate in the east– rmx.news News Source
EXCERPT:
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has reached 40 percent support in Brandenburg for the first time in a new poll, twice the level of the governing Social Democrats (SPD) and enough to make any coalition without the party or its potential partners extremely difficult.
The Insa survey, conducted for the Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, Märkische Oderzeitung and Lausitzer Rundschau and published this week, put the AfD at 40 percent, up 6 points from the institute’s previous Brandenburg poll in March.
BRANDENBURG | Sonntagsfrage Landtagswahl INSA/MAZ, MOZ, LR
Socialism, Islam Are Both Religions Based On Pillaging The West– thefederalist.com News Source
EXCERPT:
France is on fire — again. Hundreds of French schoolshave closed for periods or remain shut down, and the rioting continues, even spreading to neighboring Belgium. Beginning with a faculty protest at Saint-Exupéry High School over budget cuts, students soon joined in and similar protests broke out across the country. To no one’s surprise, activists almost immediately co-opted these demonstrations, taking advantage of the situation and organizing “fiery but not so peaceful” protests in the streets.
As writer John Daniel Davidson recently argued, the current riots in France illustrate yet again the alliance of Islamists and communists, or the Red-Green Alliance: “This is the Red-Green alliance of the socialist/Antifa left and Muslim immigrants, operationalized to bring the country to its knees through widespread rioting ahead of national elections next year.” Despite their many differences, the two groups have united “to tear down western institutions and the Christian faith on which they were built.”
If history and theology are any guide, there is even more uniting these two factions. Davidson correctly points that “on issues like women’s rights, transgenderism, gay marriage and the sexual revolution in general, [Islamists and radical leftists] are not aligned.” But these differences are mere window dressing to their core similarities: spreading their ideology through aggression and confiscating the wealth of others.
These two principles are fairly well known as features of communism, but most Westerners have been conditioned not to associate them with Islam. Nearly all Western schools, underfunded or otherwise, have done their utmost to obscure the fact that Islam was spread by the sword as well as by theft. As historian Raymond Ibrahim details in his classic history Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West, starting with the Prophet Muhammad and continuing with his many successors, Muslim armies would invade, pillage, terrorize, and enslave neighboring kingdoms, forcing their populations to submit to Allah, face martyrdom, or live as second-class citizens (dhimmis).
WATCH: Catholics praying Rosary at LGBT parade mocked, harassed by attendees– www.lifesitenews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Fewer than ten lay Catholics courageously showed up to pray the Holy Rosary in reparation for an annual LGBT “pride” festival and parade in downtown Altoona for the second year in a row last week, persevering despite being mocked, screamed at, and even provocatively danced at by a “drag queen.”
On Friday, October 9, the small group of just seven brave faithful from across the great state of Pennsylvania, and one from the lesser state of Maryland, recited the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary in reparation for sins committed during the blasphemous pro-LGBT event and indeed by the entire alphabet movement.
As they implored the intercession of the Blessed Mother (and even before they began), several angry (and likely demonically afflicted) LGBTers came up to harass, scream, wave rainbow flags at, and mockingly join them in prayer. A “drag queen” also stopped by to “twerk” at them while they were praying.
Attacks from parade/festival attendees
The third annual Altoona Pride Parade & Festival was organized by the Blair County Inclusion Alliance in partnership with Penn State Altoona (And this alumnus is embarrassed for them), to coincide with the leftist “National Coming Out Day.”
The demonic event drew a noticeably smaller but more vicious crowd than last year, with there appearing to be only about 200 in attendance – and that’s rounding up – including dozens of young children, a few more “drag queens,” but only one “furry” that I spotted compared to about a handful last year.
A drag queen mocked Catholics during a Rosary rally held in protest of a pride parade in Pennsylvania. https://t.co/uQYnuaj5Md
UK Gov’t Funnelled Taxpayer Money to Activists Seeking to Block Farage– www.breitbart.com News Source
EXCERPT:
The Labour Party-run British government reportedly provided funding used to train leftist activists to prevent Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party or the Conservatives from coming to power and to stifle the public’s concerns over mass migration.
In the wake of the 2024 Southport Riots, which broke out after a second-generation Rwandan teen went on a mass stabbing at a children’s dance party, leaving three dead and ten others injured, then-Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced a £15 million ($20m) “community cohesion” fund supposedly intended to prevent more disorder.
“In the immediate aftermath of the unrest, I was heartened to see the extent to which communities so quickly came together to support one another and their local areas, she said at the time. “This new Community Recovery Fund will support the work that is already under way and ensure that communities have the resources they need to rebuild.”
However, according to a report from London’s Daily Telegraph, some of the money from the fund was channeled through Labour-run city councils into left-wing political projects, including the training of activists by groups such as the School of Organising, which was reportedly founded by former members of the far-left cancel culture Hope Not Hate group.
The broadsheet reported that materials produced for the training sessions included instructions on how to convince voters to reject Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the “Tory-Right”, while coaching activists up on strategies to shift working-class communities away from voting for right-wing parties.
New AI Tool Helps Readers Detect Media Bias and Strengthen Civic Literacy– thefulcrum.us News Source
EXCERPT:
Before a recruiter reads a résumé, software may sort applications, identify keywords, rank candidates, answer screening questions or determine which applicants advance. Some systems are relatively simple filtering tools. Others use machine learning or artificial intelligence to evaluate applicants across multiple data points.
There is nothing inherently wrong with using technology to manage a hiring process. Employers have legitimate reasons to use it. A company receiving hundreds or thousands of applications cannot expect recruiters to manually examine every document with unlimited time and resources.
The harder question is what happens when efficiency becomes a substitute for judgment.
When an automated system influences who receives a chance to compete for a job, it is no longer merely an administrative convenience. It becomes part of the infrastructure through which people gain access to economic opportunity.
On October 7, 2026, New York mayor and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani made a statement that began with lip-service condemnation of Hamas. “This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.”
There is, however, an adage that says that the word “but,” or its equivalent, negates everything that comes before it. As George W. Bush put it after Sep. 11, 2001, you are either with us or with the terrorists. After Dec. 7, 1941, you were either with the civilized world or you were with the Nazis and Imperial Japanese. You didn’t get to say, “I condemn Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, but…” and then make implied excuses for Japan’s conduct. It is similarly clear to me where somebody who says, “I condemn Hamas’s actions, but Israel commits genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing” really stands. Mamdani went on to justify Hamas’s actions by falsely accusing Israel of apartheid and saying the suffering did not begin on Oct. 7, 2023 (an implication that Israel had it coming).
The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians — including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them — all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has telegraphed his next major move, setting up an election with Brexit on the chopping block. He is leading an international effort to paint Britain’s choice to leave the EU as a Russian-manipulated outcome, justifying a revisiting of the question. He accused Russia of meddling not only with the 2026 vote, but with other European elections as well.
UK and EU confirm date of summit after Burnham says Russian meddling shows the need for closer ties– abcnews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
LONDON — Russia’s attempts to meddle in European politics show why Britain must forge a closer relationship with the European Union, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday, arguing that “the status quo is not good enough.”
Burnham said that attempts by Russia to interfere in democratic votes across Europe, including Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum, highlight the importance of strengthening the U.K.’s links with its neighbors, years after they were weakened by Brexit.
He told lawmakers in the House of Commons that it would be “a dereliction of duty” not to seek stronger ties with the 27-nation bloc that the U.K. left in 2020.
The statement comes after Burnham told the Labour Party’s annual conference last month that “Brexit has done more harm than good” and that the bare-bones trade deal Britain has with the EU is holding the country back. He said he will seek political consensus on a new relationship, with future options including rejoining the bloc.
The People’s Security University of China have developed an AI agent they claim can both identify hate speech (including dog whistling and coding) and the source for the hate. If “successful,” the model is sure to “inspire” similar efforts with like-minded ideologues (mainly progressives).
From bioengineer.og, “Few-shot detection of coded hate speech sits at the intersection of machine learning, computational linguistics, and social science, and this study offers a concrete template for how modern agentic AI techniques can be marshaled against one of its hardest instances.”
AI Agents Learn to Decode the Hidden Language of Online Hate– bioengineer.org News Source
EXCERPT:
Dog whistles are among the most slippery weapons in the online hate arsenal. A coded phrase that sounds innocuous to the average reader can carry a hostile, exclusionary, or extremist meaning for a specific in-group, giving the speaker plausible deniability while slipping past automated moderation systems. Because these expressions are implicit, tied to particular communities, and constantly evolving, they have long frustrated content moderation researchers. Now a team at the People’s Public Security University of China has unveiled a machine learning framework designed to catch them, combining agentic retrieval-augmented generation with a multi-agent data augmentation strategy in a few-shot learning setting. The work, published in the International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics, reports consistent gains over widely used detectors such as BERTweet and RoBERTa as well as over augmentation-based baselines.
The challenge the researchers set out to address is fundamentally one of knowledge and context. Unlike overt slurs, dog whistles derive their meaning from historical and sociocultural cues that are rarely spelled out in the text itself. A model trained on standard hate speech corpora sees a benign-looking sentence and classifies it as harmless, while a human reader embedded in the relevant community immediately recognizes the coded hostility. Prior studies have made progress in discovering and understanding dog whistles, but downstream detection of dog-whistle hate speech has remained underexplored. Compounding the problem, large-scale human annotation is expensive and becomes obsolete quickly as new coded expressions emerge, which makes few-shot learning, where models must learn from only a handful of labeled examples, the realistic operational setting.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a Christian-only auto repair franchise is not a constitutional violation. The company, Christian Brothers Automotive, only allows self-professing Christians to be franchise owners. There are 300 franchises nationwide.
Appeals court rules Christian auto repair chain can limit franchises to Christians News Source
EXCERPT:
A federal appeals court ruled that Christian Brothers Automotive can make Christianity a requirement for its franchise owners, rejecting a Jewish man’s racial discrimination lawsuit.
Three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Houston-based company in a Sept. 30 ruling. They found no evidence that the chain rejected the applicant based on race.
Mark Carr and a partner opened the first auto repair shop in Mission Bend, Texas, in 1982. Christian Brothers started selling franchises in 1996 and now has more than 310 locations nationwide.
The company says it follows the biblical command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Its shops close on weekends, giving owners and employees time with their families.
Christian Brothers requires franchise owners to share its faith and give a personal Christian testimony. The company has followed the rule for decades.
Its franchise owners come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and at least two are Christians who are ethnic Jews.
Second wave of early prison releases under way in England and Wales | Prisons and probation– www.theguardian.com News Source
EXCERPT:
The second wave of early prison releases takes place throughout Tuesday, with hundreds of offenders walking out across England and Wales under the government’s controversial plan to ease overcrowding.
About 2,000 criminals, including domestic abusers and violent offenders, are being freed this month, with another 3,000 to follow in stages over the next year. The total was reduced from 6,000 after an intervention by Andy Burnham.
Prisoners who were convicted of manslaughter are excluded, meaning the killers of PC Andrew Harper, who died in the line of duty in 2019, will not be eligible.
The second tranche of early releases comes as members of the probation union, Napo, hold a pre-ballot meeting on taking strike action over pay and workloads.
Pay negotiations with probation officers ended with a “best and final” conditional pay offer worth 5%, which the union’s negotiating committee rejected. Members will be asked to vote for industrial action on pay, along with a question on workloads, in a formal ballot on industrial action to launch on 19 October.
The union says probation has been asked to take on huge amounts of additional work due to tens of thousands of prisoners released early from prisons since 2022.
The number of people behind bars has jumped by more than 1,700 in the past three months. The prison population in England and Wales was at 87,499 on Monday, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data, up from 85,761 on 29 June, a rise of 2%.
The MoJ said released offenders would be monitored under the “toughest supervision in British history”. New restriction zones designed to control the movements of the highest-risk sexual and violent offenders should confine released prisoners to areas a few miles wide, in an effort to reassure victims of their crimes.
The MoJ also announced an expansion of electronic monitoring, with a new presumption that offenders will be electronically tagged and monitored when they leave prison. Technology rolling out this year is said to give probation near-live access to tagging data, helping staff spot breaches when offenders step out of line.
However, this month the victims’ commissioner, Claire Waxman, said the government’s confidence in the plan “is not yet matched by the reality on the ground”.
France braces for fresh nationwide student demonstrations– www.channelnewsasia.com News Source
EXCERPT:
“AREN’T BEING HEARD”
While most of the protests have been peaceful, students say they are determined to press the government to address the problems of too many absent teachers, dilapidated buildings, overcrowded class schedules and other grievances.
“Students aren’t being heard enough… not their proposals to authorities and elected officials,” a 19-year-old graphic design student in Paris, Leo, said.
He added that the protesters – many of whom were minors – were “disturbed by the level of repression never before seen for a student movement”.
One young protester lost a hand from a police stun grenade earlier in the protests, another lost many of his teeth from a tear-gas canister fired in his face at close range, and another lost an eye.
Rights groups and students have accused the police of a disproportionate use of force.
Several police officers and teachers have also been hurt, and on Monday authorities said fireworks fired through a tube injured two school workers in Reims, one school worker in a Paris suburb and a police officer outside a school in Marseille.
Tuesday’s demonstrations supporting the students were to be followed on Saturday by wider public rallies against the rising cost of living.
Naila, a 17-year-old student in the city of Rennes who said she would participate in Tuesday’s demonstration, hoped it would “converge” with the wider one on Saturday.
President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters on Monday, said the pupils’ grievances would take time to address and urged restraint from protesters.
“These are issues that deserve time, consultations, discussion and respect,” Macron said.
As AI mass-produces historical dramas in China, where are the boundaries? · TechNode– technode.com News Source
EXCERPT:
In 2026, AI is changing how historical dramas are produced in China. In the past, dramas featuring ancient battles, palace architecture and elaborate costumes often required large budgets and professional production teams.
Today, AI generation and virtual compositing tools are making it possible for smaller teams and even individual creators to produce historical scenes that were once difficult to realize. As production barriers fall, the volume of content is growing rapidly.
But as AI makes it possible to generate historical figures, battle scenes and depictions of ancient societies at scale, an important question emerges: when seemingly realistic historical narratives can be produced at low cost and in large quantities, how do we distinguish artistic interpretation from historical distortion?
The AIshort drama boom raises questions about content quality
According to the 2026 H1 AI Drama and Animation Data Report released by industry research firm DataEye, China’s AI drama and animation market exceeded RMB 22 billion ($3.29 billion) in the first five months of 2026.
The market is projected to reach RMB 40 billion ($5.98 billion) for the full year, representing year-on-year growth of 138%. The audience base has also expanded rapidly, with the number of AI short-drama users in China surpassing 600 million in the first half of the year.
From January to June, 221,900 new AI short dramas were released, of which 1,055 surpassed 100 million views. These titles generated a combined 515.738 billion views. Monthly incremental views rose to 155.78 billion in June, the highest monthly figure in the first half of the year.
AI-generated historical content is also beginning to reach longer formats. The AI series Wielding Weapons in the Song Dynasty has reportedly maintained popularity scores above 46 million across multiple seasons.
Meanwhile, The Later Journey to the West, an AI-generated series, aired during Hunan Satellite TV’s prime-time slot, ranking first among provincial satellite channels in the same time slot during its broadcast.
For historical dramas, AI is lowering not only production costs but also the technical barriers to creating complex scenes. Ancient cities, palaces and large-scale battlefields can now be designed and composited with generative tools, giving smaller production teams more opportunities to explore historical storytelling.
However, an increase in output does not necessarily translate into better content. AI can generate convincing characters, costumes and architecture, but that does not mean these details are historically accurate. As images become increasingly realistic, audiences may find it easier to mistake visual authenticity for historical accuracy.
Historicaldramas can take creative liberties, but fact and fiction should not be confused
Historical dramas are not the same as documentaries. Time travel, alternate histories and fictionalized retellings have long been part of screen storytelling. Artistic interpretation should not automatically be treated as a problem. The real question is how productions handle the boundary between historical fact and fiction.
AI introduces a new challenge because it can generate large amounts of detail in a short time. When information is incomplete, models may produce claims that sound plausible but lack historical evidence. Errors can involve people’s lives, clothing styles, the uses of artifacts and even the timelines of historical events.
A meticulously rendered ancient palace is not necessarily an accurate representation of architecture from that period. Likewise, a convincing dialogue attributed to a historical figure does not mean that the exchange is supported by historical records. If unverified details are presented as fact and repeated across large volumes of content, they may distort audiences’ understanding of history.
AI can therefore assist with historical research, scene design and image generation, but it cannot replace historical verification. For productions based on real historical events and figures, checking primary sources and consulting qualified experts remain essential.
Rules governing short-form dramas are also evolving. The National Radio and Television Administration’s Measures for the Administration of Micro-Dramas, which took effect on September 1, 2026, introduced a classification-based management framework and set out requirements covering filing, review, distribution and disclosure labels for AI-generated content.
However, stronger content oversight does not mean that all AI historical dramas should face the same restrictions. Clearly identified alternate-history stories differ in their potential risks from productions based on real historical events that audiences may mistake for fact. The focus should not simply be on whether a work matches historical records in every detail, but also on whether it misleads audiences, violates applicable content rules or fails to meet reasonable standards of verification.
Platforms also need to look beyond views and engagement. As AI-generated content expands, stronger review processes, timely action against violations and appropriate disclosures about how content was produced will become increasingly important.
AI labels can tell audiences how a work was made, but they cannot replace fact-checking or exempt a production from other content requirements.
AI historical dramas are giving more creators the opportunity to tell historical stories and bringing previously difficult creative ideas within reach. That is a meaningful change.
Yet as generating images becomes easier, the scarce skill may no longer be the ability to create an ancient palace, but knowing what that palace should have looked like in its historical context. It may no longer be the ability to generate a historical figure, but understanding that person’s era, background and documented experiences.
The challenge for AI historical dramas is therefore not simply how to increase production efficiency. It is how to balance artistic expression, historical accuracy and responsible distribution.
AI can certainly offer new ways to tell stories about the past, but the ability to generate a historical narrative does not justify disregarding historical facts. Technology can lower the barriers to creation, but creators’ understanding of history, their judgment about the boundaries of fiction, and platforms’ responsibility for the content they distribute will ultimately shape the results of this transformation.
DOJ Investigating Fox News, CNN, Broadcast Networks for Possible Violations of Federal Law– www.westernjournal.com News Source
EXCERPT:
TV networks pictured a refusal to broadcast what President Donald Trump was doing last month as a moment of media solidarity.
The Department of Justice is wondering whether it violated anti-trust laws.
Last month, Fox News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton, who chaired the TV pool covering the White House at the time, ruled that pool coverage would not take place after Trump put CNN, Politico, and MSNOW in time out and banned them from the White House.
CNN is a member of a five-network pool covering Trump that includes ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, and Fox News. The pool network shares White House news with other networks.
The ban on CNN, MSNOW, and Politico has been temporarily put on hold by a court, but now the Justice Department is looking into whether the brief suspension of pool coverage was illegal, according to The New York Times.
On Friday, federal officials demanded information from the networks in the pool, the Times reported, citing sources it did not name.
Justice Department representative Emily Covington said the networks “proudly boycotted covering White House events.”
Do you believe the DOJ’s investigation into media boycotts is warranted?
Yes, accountability is necessary
94% (29 votes)
No, it’s an overreach
6% (2 votes)
“Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” Covington wrote.
“The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws,” she said.
Although a judge ruled CNN cannot be blocked from covering Trump at the White House, it is blocked from serving as the pool reporter when Trump is on Air Force One.
Trump administration officials continued to block the network from acting as the TV pool when the president travels on Air Force One.
At the time, the pool chair said, due to Trump “preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” there would be “no replacement pool put in place,” according to CNN.
After the networks waged war on Trump, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro said Fox should pay for being part of the pack.
“Fox is not real news. It is CNN with better lighting, a fake slogan and a flag graphic. Stop watching its dangerous drivel,” Navarro wrote in an Op-Ed for The Washington Times.
“A network that sells itself to conservatives has blacked out a Republican president and put out a press release about it, arm in arm with CNN. Fox is the more dangerous of the two, because it pretends to wear our colors,” Navarro wrote.
“Fox’s own Trump derangement syndrome is new. Its CEO Suzanne Scott keeps removing the people most willing to honestly cover the MAGA agenda. Lou Dobbs was canceled in February 2021. Tucker Carlson was out in April 2023,” he wrote.
“Maria Bartiromo was gone this month, after she passed her producers’ July 15 text from Fox Business programming up the chain,” he noted. Fox did not want its reporters to cover Trump’s indictment of the 2020 election.
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Archbishop tells Catholic soldiers not to take part in military execution– www.foxnews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin examines the history and use of firing squads in the United States and discusses the debate over plans to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. She also looks at Vice President JD Vance’s concerns about live-streaming the execution on ‘Special Report.’
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Catholics serving in the Army should request to be excused from participating in the planned firing squad execution of a convicted Fort Hood mass shooter, which the Pentagon has proposed livestreaming, a prominent U.S. archbishop who oversees Catholic pastoral services for the military said on Monday.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio raised several objections to the Pentagon’s unprecedented plan to broadcast the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base. Hasan, now 56, uses a wheelchair, after being shot by responding officers during the attack.
Hasan is set to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, at 1 p.m. CST, according to the U.S. Army, which would make him the first person to be executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since 1945. It would also mark the first U.S. military execution by any method since 1961. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said he wanted soldiers to execute Hasan at the time, day of the week and location of the shooting and has argued that making the execution public would help serve as a deterrent.
Broglio recalled presiding over the funeral of one of Hasan’s victims, Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in that attack, and expressed sorrow over the deadly shooting. But the archbishop questioned whether the U.S. government wanted to “imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries.”
Archbishop Timothy Broglio raised several objections to the Pentagon’s unprecedented plan to broadcast the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Hasan’s crime “was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?” Broglio asked in a statement.
“I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church,” he continued.
Army regulations permit soldiers to seek religious exemptions or accommodations.
It is unclear how the military intends to select members for the firing squad.
“The U.S. military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” Broglio said. “Is there really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheelchair to the whole world?”
A U.S. government execution has never been broadcast to the public, making it an unprecedented plan that has drawn backlash from political and religious leaders.
Broglio joins other Catholic leaders in criticizing the Pentagon’s plans to livestream the execution.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan is set to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, which would make him the first person to be executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since 1945. (REUTERS/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/Handout)
The head of the U.S. bishops conference, Archbishop Paul Coakley, expressed “shock” and “great sorrow” about the public execution plan and urged the U.S. to reconsider.
“In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” he said in a statement on Friday. “The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, called the proposed broadcast “truly incomprehensible” and warned that it was “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.”
“The Church’s position is one of total opposition to the death penalty; it is incompatible with human dignity and serves as no deterrent,” Parolin told reporters on Friday.
According to the English translation published by Vatican News, Parolin said, “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this method in this day and age. I do not know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle. However guilty the person may be, there are other ways.”
Parolin added that the death penalty “is incompatible with human dignity and does not serve as a deterrent.”
Pope Leo XIV reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty as “inadmissible” in a social media post on Saturday marking World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Citing Catholic doctrine revised under his predecessor, Pope Francis, Leo emphasized that the death penalty violates human dignity.
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption,” Leo, the first American pope, wrote on X without specifically mentioning the Pentagon’s execution plan for Hasan.
A U.S. government execution has never been broadcast to the general public, making it an unprecedented plan that has drawn backlash from political and religious leaders. (Aaron Schwartz / AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump said Saturday he had not yet decided whether to allow the livestream plan to move forward, although he has reportedly expressed doubts in private about broadcasting the execution.
Vice President JD Vance, who is a Catholic, expressed skepticism about whether the Pentagon would proceed with a public execution. He said he would not watch the livestream if it were carried out.
Several lawmakers, including Republicans, have spoken out against plans to broadcast the execution.
“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on Thursday. “It should not be happening in America.”
Paramount’s New Avatar Series Forces LGBT Ideology On Kids– thefederalist.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Forcing LGBT ideology onto children is not a new phenomenon for Hollywood. So, it wasn’t exactly surprising when Paramount’s latest show for kids attempted to do just that.
On Friday, the company’s Paramount Plus streaming service debuted its new Avatar: Seven Havens series. Set within the Avatar universe, the animated show takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the avatar — who can bend the elements of water, earth, fire, and air — is branded the enemy. The program follows the journey of Pavi and Nisha, twin sisters who discover that they’re twin avatars and must hide their abilities.
Seven Havens is a sequel to The Legend of Korra (2012-2014), which followed the original (and beloved) Avatar: The Last Airbender series (2005-2008). Seven Havens and Korra are rated PG, while The Last Airbender is rated TV-Y7, according to IMDb.
Seven Havens introduces viewers to a variety of new characters in its three-episode premiere. Among these is Jae, a male airbender who serves as a guardsman on the bending force tasked with protecting the city of Ellora, where the series takes place.
The show’s LGBT indoctrination rears its head in the third episode, when viewers learn that Jae is dating his fellow guardsman Datu. In one scene, Jae is escorting Pavi and Nisha back to the city’s compound before he gets abruptly stopped and embraced by Datu. Seeking to protect the girls from potential harm, Jae quickly lies about their true identities before kissing Datu on the cheek as he leaves.
The scene is hardly the first instance in which the Avatar creators have sought to force-feed LGBT ideology to kids.
At the end of Legend ofKorra, the avatar of the same name is heavily implied to be in a romantic relationship with her female friend Asami. This relationship was subsequently confirmed in a series of spinoff comics that followed the show’s characters after it ended. Both female characters had previously dated the same male character at different points throughout the series.
The Avatar universe’s continued embrace of “woke” has also crossed into racial territory.
As Douglas Blair reported in these pages, the studio’s most recent Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender movie, a sequel film to the original 2005 series, sidelined the original voice cast in favor of new actors who fit the industry’s “deliberate shift toward race-based casting standards.”
“Studios adopting these standards are responding to narrow ideological pressure elevating identity over performance to the detriment of their products,” Blair wrote. “Established talent is sidelined, creative flexibility is reduced, and audiences are left with weaker performances in the name of a principle they never wanted.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
The Media Had a Total Meltdown Over the Ilhan Omar Raid– townhall.com News Source
EXCERPT:
On Monday, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) home was raided by federal agents. It has to do with her immigration status. Some documents are reportedly out of whack, and the timeline matters because it played a role in her naturalization process. It must be significant since a judge picked by D.C. Democrats signed off on the warrants. And raiding the home of a sitting member of Congress is a high bar, with most judges not wanting such legal tangles coming across their desks.
The media were so mad Monday about this raid, but it’s you people who keep saying no one is above the law. Deal with it:
🚨 WOW! CNN is having a FULL-BLOWN ON-AIR MELTDOWN after Somali Rep. Ilhan Omar got her house raided by DHS Dana Bash: “She’s right! She has been a target of President Trump!” CNN is AGREEING with Omar calling this raid weaponization 🤡 Yet were FULLY ON BOARD with the persecution of Donald J. Trump before the 2024 election AND have practically NOTHING to say about Biden’s FBI tracking Barron as a minor! A judge signed off on this, and it’s in the D.C. AREA. Trump, Mullin, and Blanche can’t unilaterally do this. CNN just worried Omar will finally be deported!
IRONY ALERT: MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian complains the DHS-led raid of Ilhan Omar’s home is “a very, very intrusive search” of her “personal property” “Omar is a long-standing opponent of President Trump, has been targeted on the right for a long period of time. She’s a sitting member of Congress with certain privileges around the Speech and Debate Clause.”
🚨 NOW: CNN is STUNNED after federal agents raided Somali Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home PRE-DAWN They can’t believe their eyes! 😂 “This is a sitting member of Congress running for reelection!” “It’s so close to an election!” “It is unusual.” ARE THEY SERIOUS? They act like 2024 didn’t happen. CNN is now angry that the DOJ is enforcing the law just because an election is coming…UNBELIEVABLE And they justified the persecution of Donald J. Trump KEEP INVESTIGATING! She’s not above the law!
CNN’s Jake Tapper had Skye Perryman on to discuss the case, where the latter said it was driven by partisanship, racism, and xenophobia. Nope, nope, and nope. Perryman is a Marc Elias acolyte.
Jake Tapper “analysis” on the Omar story with his guest Skye Perryman. Who is Perryman? The CEO of Marc Elias’ lawfare outfit Democracy Forward. That’s right. So guess how this went: Tapper: “Seems rather vindictive.” Perryman: “Partisan. Racism. Xenophobia.” Tapper: “It doesn’t look like a legitimate law enforcement action.” Legacy Media’s coverage of this story fully explained in less than 40 seconds.
Forget that the FBI was spying on the Trump campaign, tracking Susie Wiles’ phone calls and those of other Trump officials. The Jack Smith probes were all politically motivated, so we don’t care that you’re mad. Deal with it. You also can’t do anything about it. Again, a liberal judge okayed the raid.
“Not only did immigration agents raid Ilhan Omar’s home, they did it on Columbus Day.” https://t.co/pSHYALDLiN
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Pope Leo declares death penalty ‘inadmissible’ as his native US plans to livestream execution– fortune.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday declared capital punishment ”inadmissible” as he marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty and his native United States announced plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.
In a post on X, the American pope quoted the revised Catholic teaching on capital punishment ushered in by Pope Francis that the death penalty attacks the inherent dignity of a human being.
“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” read the post under Leo’s official handle, @Pontifex. “Effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption.”
The U.S. Defense Department announced Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base, will be livestreamed. Hasan, scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he would be making a decision ultimately on whether the execution would be livestreamed.
Leo didn’t refer specifically to the planned execution, or the botched lethal injection in Tennessee earlier that has revived debate over the death penalty in the United States. Saturday is World Day Against the Death Penalty, and it is common for the pope’s official social media accounts to post messages marking such commemorations.
But Leo’s post came just hours after his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said explicitly that the planned U.S. public execution was “unacceptable.”
Minnesota Police Sound Alarm Over Somali Gang Violence as Shootings Surge– slaynews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Minnesota authorities are warning about a growing threat from Somali street gangs as young members turn social media disputes into shootings across suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, endangering residents and forcing police to redirect resources.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said the gang members under investigation come from families with money and resources, defying traditional explanations centered on poverty, drug trafficking, or financial gain.
“They’re coming from families,” Hodges told Fox News Digital.
“They got money, and they have resources.”
The violence has raised urgent questions about recruitment, assimilation, parental involvement, and whether local prosecution policies are hampering efforts to intervene.
Police Redirect Resources Toward Gangs
Hodges said police are shifting task force resources toward the gangs following a string of suburban shootings.
The chief also questioned whether some Hennepin County prosecution policies could limit intervention.
Investigators have identified social media disputes as a factor but have struggled to explain what else is driving young people from financially comfortable households into gang violence.
“I don’t know,” Hodges said when asked about the underlying motivation.
