[JonathanTurley] Winston Churchill, an avid painter, always said that “audacity” is the key to every artist. If so, Caspar San Giorgi, 39, has a good start on an artistic career in Great Britain. The Palestinian activist, who is reportedly Dutch and also goes by the name of Olax Outis, took a ladder and a box of spray paint in February to deface the famous statue of Churchill in Parliament Square. Despite his admitting to the crime and rejoicing in it, a British jury just found him not guilty in a blatant act of jury nullification.
Churchill also observed that “armed with a paint-box, one cannot be bored.” San Giorgi certainly proved that observation. He used red spray paint to write the messages “Free Palestine”, “Stop the Genocide”, and described Britain’s WWII leader as a “Zionist War Criminal.” He then reportedly boasted in court about causing the £7,000 in damage.
San Giorgi insisted that he is a “citizen of The Hague.” The International Criminal Court located at The Hague has declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal over the war in Gaza.
He said in court that this was a message for Sir Keir Starmer and Parliament: “If I had a larger canvas and more time, I would have written: ‘If Keir Starmer doesn’t come to The Hague, The Hague will come for him.'”
He told the jury that he was not guilty because he used paint that could be washed off and that his protest was “preventing a crime,” not committing a crime.
In June 2020, the statue was vandalized so often that the city encased it in a wooden box.
[Regnum] Electoral commissions are summing up the results of the voting at various levels that took place from September 18 to 20. On the morning of the 21st, the Russian Central Election Commission released preliminary results (based on the counting of 90.43% of the ballots) for the State Duma elections.
United Russia has secured 57.86% of the vote in the federal party list vote. Eighty-six members of the SVO who ran for the party will receive parliamentary seats, according to Vladimir Yakushev, Secretary of the United Russia General Council.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) came in second with 13.84% of the vote. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) received 8.9%, and New People received 7.94%.
With 4.95% of the vote, A Just Russia currently fails to overcome the 5% threshold for parties to enter the Duma in the federal electoral district.
The results of other parties participating in the elections were significantly lower than the threshold: the Pensioners' Party received 2.04%, the Greens gained 1.13%, the Communists of Russia party received 0.86%, Rodina received 0.72%, and the Direct Democracy Party received 0.34%.
On the evening of September 20 and the night of the 20th to the 21st, participants of the 12th All-Russian online marathon "Election Night. State Duma 2026" observed the vote counting in real time for the State Duma and regional elections. Leading politicians, observers, sociologists, political scientists, and election administration specialists gathered at the International Multimedia Press Center of the Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency.
The main topic, of course, was the nationwide vote, which will determine the composition of the new 9th State Duma. Starting at 10:00 PM, party representatives joined the discussions: candidates and election staff members shared their assessments of the Central Election Commission's initial data. The discussion was broadcast online on the portal nochvyborov.rf and on social media.
Political consultant Maria Sergeeva moderated the main expert platform.
She also shared her impressions of how society perceived the 2026 Unified Voting Day: "On the one hand, the election campaign was calm and predictable. On the other, society's response to external challenges was to rally around the flag."
Participants in the discussions agreed: society responded with solidarity to President Vladimir Putin's call. On September 16, addressing the nation, the head of state called the elections to the lower house of parliament the most important domestic political event in the country, taking place under unique historical circumstances. The country's leader emphasized that every citizen's voice matters.
"The fact that society demonstrated consolidation in this difficult situation certainly strengthens us all," emphasized Valery Fyodorov, Director General of the VTsIOM Analytical Center. He called the vote a major victory for Russian society. He added that the results are significant for all parties that entered parliament.
"There are many winners in this election, " Fyodorov added. " All five parties that entered parliament can certainly consider themselves winners. It was clear that United Russia would come out on top, but the question remained about the scale of its result."
Viktor Poturemsky, Director of Political Analysis at the Institute of Social Marketing (INSOMAR), focused on the parties' performance in the Duma elections and highlighted the key factors driving electoral activity. The expert also noted that the elections took place under conditions in which the opponents were making every effort to disrupt the vote.
"What we saw today was an unprecedented attack on Moscow and the Moscow region, " Poturemsky noted. " But it didn't stop people from voting. In the face of external pressure, society's willingness to support the Russian president and United Russia is growing." External threats haven't dampened citizens' political activity; on the contrary, they've strengthened social cohesion.
State Duma deputy and political scientist Oleg Matveychev also spoke about the special context of the current campaign. External threats prevented the public mood from destabilizing, and this stability became one of the key outcomes of the elections, the parliamentarian emphasized.
The marathon's moderator, political scientist Maria Sergeeva, cited exit poll data confirming the campaign's stability. United Russia retained its leading position, while the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) remained in second place. However, the expert added, the elections were characterized by a fierce competition for third place between the New People party and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). Sociologist Poturemsky noted the growing electoral potential of New People and the specific nature of its audience.
Another important distinguishing feature of the 2026 Duma campaign was the noticeably strengthened social agenda in the parties' rhetoric, noted Yevgeny Minchenko, president of the Russian Public Relations Association (RASO).
But perhaps the most important result of the current election cycle is the confirmation of the resilience of the Russian electoral system and the overall stability of the country's political institutions, summarized political scientist Alexei Martynov, director of the Institute of Newly Established States. He emphasized: "Every vote is a contribution to our shared victory. And the main result of these elections is their highest level of legitimacy."
[Federalist] Amid growing concerns about artificial intelligence, some in the United States are urging the Trump administration to cooperate with China on AI safety for humanity’s benefit.
In a recent interview, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that Trump and Xi would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if they agreed that "no one should be taking a certain level of risk with the development process of this [AI]."
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a similar suggestion in an MS NOW interview and reiterated it on X. The Trump administration, she said, has "a huge opportunity to enlist China in the effort to rein in AI when President Xi visits." While Altman may not fully understand the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Clinton, given her extensive government and foreign policy experience, should have known better. Each time the United States has sought cooperation from the CCP on major issues, the CCP has used these opportunities to advance its own interests at the expense of the United States. Let’s look at some examples from the past two decades.
[ColonelCassad] The results of the latest state elections in Germany
– Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin (following Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago) – confirm this trend. It's not a matter of the situational successes of some and the failures of others, but of the dismantling of a party system that had become so familiar over the decades that it seemed absolutely indispensable, even natural.
The dichotomy of conservatives (Christian Democrats) and socialists (Social Democrats) served as the supporting political structure of all of Western Europe after World War II. It lent stability to a system shaken by the events of the first half of the 20th century and allowed for the prospect of effective governance through the alternation of narratives within permitted boundaries.
Since the shock was most devastating in the case of Germany, and it represented the center of the entire ideological and political confrontation of the Cold War, the orderliness of the system was especially strictly maintained there.
Leaving aside marginal manifestations, the political field has expanded twice: the emergence of the Greens in the 1980s and The Left after unification. The Greens reflected the need to co-opt the rebellious stratum of 1968 into the establishment, while The Left (formerly the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor to Honecker's SED) sought to ensure at least formal representation for the portion of the former GDR population that had not immediately been reformed.
Today's shifts mark the end of a structured political line. The leadership of the "people's parties" (the aforementioned CDU and SPD) finds it most convenient to reduce the problem to the AfD factor, and accordingly, all the pathos is focused on what to do about it. Meanwhile, the fundamental conflict lies in the fragmentation of the entire electoral field and the loss of that very guaranteed socio-political control.
The AfD's ability to govern in its current state without immediately discrediting itself with failures is questionable. The party lacks personnel and coherent ideas on most issues beyond migration. As for the other parties, the main change is Germany's move toward the standard of smaller European countries, such as Belgium or the Netherlands, or today's Austria. This means unstable cabinets made up of several parties of varying persuasions.
This setup is nothing new, and many countries manage quite well under it. But Germany is a unique country, sociopolitically inflexible and unwilling to fuss. If and when the political landscape begins to crumble, for example, if internal processes within the CDU and SPD begin, general nervousness will increase. And a nervous German is a dangerous German.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, as expected. The SPD came in second.
Merz's CDU narrowly missed out on a seat in the local state parliament for the first time in German history. Such a mess had never happened to the CDU before, but Merz managed it. The Left won in Berlin, and the new coalition will likely also be formed without the CDU.
Merz himself sadly called the outcome a disaster but declared that he would not resign. However, one can expect pressure from within his own party to leave. Unlike in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is unlikely to seize power in Mecklenburg.
Despite having the majority of votes, no one wants to form a bloc with it, and the only party that could potentially have (Sahra Wagenknecht's bloc) also failed here, just like the CDU. Nevertheless, the AfD's rise in popularity is enormous, and this is already a general symptom for all of East Germany.
[News With Views] USA Election of Socialism. Vector Image Concept Stock Vector ...
When you are lucky enough to have been born into freedom, you MUST protect it.
Treasure it enough to realize that you are among the few in the world who have been given such a gift from God. What we have here in the USA is what millions around the world have given up lives and fortunes to find.
Remember the old saying, "freedom isn’t free"?? Keeping it requires eternal vigilance.
An appalling number of Americans don’t seem to understand this.
As the midterms approach, Americans seem to be focused on a critique of Trump and his crew. Prices are up, taxes haven’t been lowered, he got us into a war after promising world peace, and on and on. It’s been two years, gang.
Criticizing, even attempting to assassinate, Donald Trump has become commonplace anymore, sick as that is to say. The "opposition" fears him BECAUSE he tries to make America great again. That is exactly the opposite of their intent for our country.
[PJMedia] Washington has discovered a government program that costs billions of dollars, and naturally, everyone is shocked.
The Government Accountability Office says federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025. Roughly $6.7 billion of that was tied to the Trump administration's Deferred Resignation Program, which allowed workers who agreed to leave government to remain on salary while generally no longer working.
From the GAO:
OPM does not know the actual costs of the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts, including the deferred resignation program. One of the administration’s stated principles for current workforce reduction efforts is to trim the budget topline by reducing full-time equivalent positions. To support these efforts, federal agencies used millions of workdays of paid administrative leave. To calculate long-term savings, OPM needs to know short-term costs of paid administrative leave used for these efforts. However, OPM cannot easily and accurately do this because the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts is reported with other types of general paid administrative leave. Without a mechanism to track paid administrative leave for workforce reduction efforts, federal leaders may not have the data needed to understand whether government-wide cost saving goals are being met.
You can understand why the headlines wrote themselves. Federal workers got paid billions not to work during a program associated with DOGE, which was created to cut waste and shrink government.
One national headline simply announced that the government paid workers $9.5 billion "not to work." Another framed the program as DOGE causing the government to spend billions while supposedly saving money.
There's just one problem.
The $6.7 billion figure is an estimated one-time cost of removing workers from the federal payroll. OPM Director Scott Kupor has said the Deferred Resignation Program is expected to save more than $20 billion every year because those salaries disappear after the employees leave.
Spend $6.7 billion once to reduce annual spending by more than $20 billion, and suddenly the story sounds rather different.
Yes, it does. It sounds like even more winning.
Except that, Washington being Washington, there's another concern.
GAO says OPM can't accurately determine the program's actual net savings because it never established a separate payroll category to track administrative leave used for workforce reductions. Administrative leave for the resignation program was mixed together with other forms of administrative leave in the federal payroll system.
[YouTube] Susan Kokinda - The Truth About Trump’s Press Ban: It’s Not Censorship
This Monday Brief argues that Trump’s removal of certain media outlets from the White House is not censorship but a strike against a propaganda apparatus designed to make the public accept falsehoods as truth. Citing Bertrand Russell’s books The Impact of Science on Society (1953) and The Scientific Outlook (1931), the episode claims modern “scientific dictatorship” methods use mass psychology to generate convictions while hiding how they’re formed, enabling control without force. It applies this framework to current policy disputes, saying high diesel prices reflect decades of green and free-trade “zero growth” policies that reduced surge capacity, not Trump’s actions. It highlights comments from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, J.D. Vance, Chris Wright, and Dr. Oz, and lists claimed improvements under Trump-era policies, including falling overdose deaths, record low poverty, rising real median income, more full-time jobs, and early CDC data suggesting longevity gains.
[PJMedia] Washington has discovered a government program that costs billions of dollars, and naturally, everyone is shocked.
The Government Accountability Office says federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025. Roughly $6.7 billion of that was tied to the Trump administration's Deferred Resignation Program, which allowed workers who agreed to leave government to remain on salary while generally no longer working.
From the GAO:
OPM does not know the actual costs of the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts, including the deferred resignation program. One of the administration’s stated principles for current workforce reduction efforts is to trim the budget topline by reducing full-time equivalent positions. To support these efforts, federal agencies used millions of workdays of paid administrative leave. To calculate long-term savings, OPM needs to know short-term costs of paid administrative leave used for these efforts. However, OPM cannot easily and accurately do this because the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts is reported with other types of general paid administrative leave. Without a mechanism to track paid administrative leave for workforce reduction efforts, federal leaders may not have the data needed to understand whether government-wide cost saving goals are being met.
You can understand why the headlines wrote themselves. Federal workers got paid billions not to work during a program associated with DOGE, which was created to cut waste and shrink government.
One national headline simply announced that the government paid workers $9.5 billion "not to work." Another framed the program as DOGE causing the government to spend billions while supposedly saving money.
There's just one problem.
The $6.7 billion figure is an estimated one-time cost of removing workers from the federal payroll. OPM Director Scott Kupor has said the Deferred Resignation Program is expected to save more than $20 billion every year because those salaries disappear after the employees leave.
Spend $6.7 billion once to reduce annual spending by more than $20 billion, and suddenly the story sounds rather different.
Yes, it does. It sounds like even more winning.
Except that, Washington being Washington, there's another concern.
GAO says OPM can't accurately determine the program's actual net savings because it never established a separate payroll category to track administrative leave used for workforce reductions. Administrative leave for the resignation program was mixed together with other forms of administrative leave in the federal payroll system.
Because serious journalists are all about hiding the evidence.
[Jpost] Gazook photographer and journalist Motaz Azaiza
… clearly a member of the connected Gaza elite, the 27 year old graduated in 2021 with a BA in English from Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, subsequently joining the staff of UNWRA. He He has since actively propagandized around the world for Gaza, including an Instagram page with over 18 million viewers…
said he filmed Israeli hostages being beaten by a Gazook mob on October 7, 2023, but chose not to publish the footage because he feared it could put the Paleostinians involved at risk.
"I saw the vehicle of the al-Qassam Brigades, and there were Israeli captives there," Azaiza recalled. "People got out, watched, beat them, hit them, and I followed them and filmed. But I did not publish those videos. Why? Because I did not want to ruin the lives of the people who were filmed.
Such beautifully thoughtful sensitivity to the needs of the vicious perpetrators, none whatsoever for the actual victims. Got it. Thank goodness the locals were busily videotaping themselves, posting it all on the internet for the Israelis to capture and search without Mr. Azaiza’s input. But no doubt one day they will find his footage, too, and then he’ll get to pay for his personal form of participation in that barbarous ritual, while the Jew-hating portion of the world helplessly screams about Israel. Enjoy your dreams, dear boy, until that day, with our thanks for self-identifying.
"I understood that Israel would use those videos to identify every person who was there and eliminate them," he added. "I did not want to be responsible, even indirectly, for the deaths of those people in exchange for a few likes and views online."
Hiding his bit of the first draft of history.
A Nobel Peace Prize nominee and one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world,
…and here demonstrating what those two eminent awards are worth…
Azaiza has become one of the most recognizable figures associated with the current war. In an extensive and unusual interview with journalist Ahmed Biqui on the podcast Taqarrab, Azaiza revealed aspects of life in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... that his millions of social media followers have not seen.
During the interview, which was published earlier this month, Azaiza also delivered rare public criticism of Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... 's leadership, accusing the group of bringing disaster upon the Gaza Strip.
And so they did, after the Gazans voted them into power, and with their full-throated support of the 10/7 invasion and what they did there.
AZAIZA: HAMAS 'BROUGHT US BACK TO THE MIDDLE AGES'
Although Azaiza described himself as a supporter of armed Paleostinian resistance, he said such resistance must have limits and serve a purpose.
"I support armed resistance, but one that brings results, or at least gives me the feeling that my life is valuable in the eyes of the resistance. Why should a Paleostinian be cheap in the eyes of Paleostinians themselves?
Seriously? They have for generations boasted that they will win because they love death more than the Jews love life. How can Palestinians hold Palestinian life other than cheaply with that outlook?
You are making people hate the resistance with your own hands."
People hate Hamas only because the Palestinian deaths did not buy victory over the Joooos, just another Nakhba to add to the long list that started in 1947.
He also questioned what Hamas’s military campaign has achieved for Paleostinians in Gaza since the start of the war, sending a direct message to the group’s leaders.
"From October 7 until today, show me one Paleostinian who lives in Gaza and was protected by Hamas’s weapons? No one in Gaza received protection from those weapons."
Hamas’s weapons were never intended to protect their human shields, but to kill Israelis. He looks like a silly coward demanding that protection now, instead of nobly giving his blood and his life for the cause as the screaming crowds repeatedly pledged over the years.
Azaiza went on to criticize Hamas’s leadership over its months-long refusal to agree to a deal.
"I am not waiting two years to judge whether Hamas made mistakes. I see the mistake in front of my eyes, when people are dying every day. Now they are talking about an agreement in which they will agree to lay down their weapons. You could have agreed to that already on October 11, 2023.
Why that date? Why not on October 6, 2023, before they did the something Israel will not ever forgive? 10/11/2023 was already much too late to avert the price Gaza will be required to pay in full.
Why was it so important that tens of thousands would be killed? On what table did you put the Paleostinian issue? You brought us back to the Middle Ages. You caused women in Gaza to urinate into a plastic bucket. This does not bother you, but what bothers you is if someone suddenly criticizes you?"
Azaiza made these remarks after leaving Gaza.
How? I thought Gaza was an inescapable open air prison, walled round by Israel.
He fled the Strip about four months after the outbreak of the war and currently lives in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
If he has been gone from the Strip since the beginning of 2024, how is he taking photos in Gaza to post on his Instagram page? I’m so confused.
The photographer said he experienced Hamas’s suppression apparatus firsthand. He described a WhatsApp group called "Smart," which he said is managed by a Hamas media official at the Rafah crossing and used to organize online campaigns against journalists who challenge the group’s narrative.
"Suddenly I found myself being attacked from all directions," he recalled. "They take the details of a specific person, publish his phone number in the group and instruct online activists to attack him, curse him and make his life miserable. This is organized behavior, a real mob. When I uploaded a video in which a civilian could be heard cursing Hamas, I faced enormous backlash. Photographers in Gaza have become accustomed to lowering their cameras the moment someone says something bad about Hamas, because anyone who dares to show reality is persecuted relentlessly."
So everything posted by Gazans is nothing more than propaganda? Quelle surprise!
According to Azaiza, "I lived inside a pressure cooker. The people who controlled us treated our lives as a game. I felt that I had been marked, that at every moment I was walking around with a target on my back."
Try being a Hamas hostage like the ones whose treatment you hid — until then you have nothing serious to complain about.
AZAIZA FEELS EMPTY, DEEPLY FRUSTRATED BY INTERNAL SITUATION FOR PALESTINIANS
Despite his international recognition, meetings with world leaders, his highly publicized meeting with Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> , and the global status he has gained, Azaiza described feeling empty and deeply frustrated by the internal Paleostinian situation and his new life outside Gaza.
"I wish I had the ability to sleep and never wake up. It is a genuine desire to die," he said, describing the psychological toll he has experienced. "I travel around the world, flying from London to New York, speaking in front of thousands of people who buy tickets to hear me, sitting at Nobel ceremonies, and I cannot be happy. I live with constant burning trauma."
Good. People who cover for evil ought to suffer...
described his complicated relationship with Gaza in deeply personal terms.
"Gaza is the most toxic place in the world. You love it, but at the same time you hate it. You love it, but it hurts you and destroys you. The reality there forced things upon me that I never wanted. The price we pay to satisfy leaders who do not count us is simply unimaginable."
*shrug* He is too young to have voted them into power, but he not only did nothing to drive them out, he continues to work hard to support them. The depth of my lack of sympathy is infinite.
The most prominent "photojournalist" in Gaza admits that Gazans wanted a war because it would convince international organizations to give them money.
Azaiza is the man TIME named to the TIME 100 and who was nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. CNN, the Guardian and Sky have all interviewed him.
This is an Arabic interview from January 2025. There has been no English-language reporting on it, until now.
BOMBSHELL: "Photojournalist" Motaz Azaiza stayed up until 4 AM the night before October 7 to celebrate his successful campaign to get US taxpayers to send $75 million to UNRWA.
ANOTHER BOMBSHELL: Motaz Azaiza says young men in Gaza burned their own legs with iron rods to fake sniper wounds, so they could collect the cash Hamas paid out for alleged injuries at the 2018 "Great March of Return."
🚨 Gaza "photojournalist" Motaz Azaiza admits: "When I was young, I was Hamas. I didn't find myself in it, and I withdrew. I went into university, I wanted scholarships, and you have to go along with a particular faction, so, alright, I started being Fatah."
🚨 Gaza "photojournalist" Motaz Azaiza, explains how Palestinian Arab society treats dissent:
"We have a division. 800 Palestinians of ours were killed by Palestinian hands. They threw people off rooftops. They shot people in their legs. They burned people. Palestinians on each other
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
