[RedState] Investigative journalist Nick Shirley set the internet on fire the day after Christmas when he posted a stunning video detailing the rampant Somali fraud poisoning Minnesota right under the noses of Gov. Tim Walz, Rep. Ilhan Oman (MN-05), and Gopher State Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D).
The fearless young man with a camera and a microphone went around to numerous supposed Minneapolis daycares that were receiving oodles of federal money, only to discover that there were no kids or signs of life at many of them.
Now he’s back with a second video, which he released Wednesday afternoon:
[National Review] It’s appalling that half of the nation’s states still treat stealing a home as a civil offense.
Jalen Absolum grew up in a house poisoned with lead paint in Philadelphia. He won in a lawsuit against the landlord and used the proceeds to buy a home in Baltimore. He was hoping to bring his family south for a fresh start.
In October last year, Absolum, age 18, finally got to visit the $115,000 home. But as he approached it, he realized something was wrong — someone was already living in the house.
Absolum called the police, who told him there was nothing they could do. The family living in the house had been scammed into believing they were renting it, and Absolum would have to go to court to evict the squatters.
"He was a victim once, and he’s a victim again," his mother, Avril Absolum, told the Baltimore Banner in an article published this week. "He did the right thing. And there were people in his house."
The case is pending in court, and Absolum still has not moved into his home.
Back in 2024, when "squatting" was having a moment, Republican governors such as Georgia’s Brian Kemp and Florida’s Ron DeSantis signed legislation making it much easier to evict people who took up residence either in people’s homes or in vacant buildings. Yet for around half the country, squatting is still only a civil matter; if a vacationing family returns home to find someone has moved into their residence, it could be months or years before they are able to expel the interlopers.
And stricter laws don’t necessarily work; just last year, Maryland passed a revision to its landlord laws, but that didn’t help Absolum when his home was stolen. In December, a $2.3 million Bethesda home was commandeered, leaving neighbors confused and frustrated.
#1
If you have legal title to the property, sign a renters agreement with agencies that offer squatter removal. The agency sends muscle to enforce their rental agreement. Don't recommend squatting in states with Castle laws.
See explanation about the Active Club idiots here.
[IsraelTimes] 19-year-old suspect posted an antisemitic cartoon on Instagram shortly before he torched the home of the US state’s largest and oldest Jewish congregation
The US suspect accused of torching Mississippi’s largest synagogue posted an antisemitic cartoon on Instagram shortly before his attack, and built a website for a strange brand of Christian "scripture-backed fitness" that relied heavily on Jewish sources. But little in his online presence would have indicated beforehand that he was preparing for an arson attack.
On Monday, Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, confessed to setting the Beth Israel Congregation on fire at around 3 a.m. Saturday morning, according to a criminal complaint filed in the federal Southern District court of Mississippi.
He referred to the temple as the "synagogue of Satan" during his confession, and said he laughed as he told his father what he did.
The blaze destroyed portions of the synagogue building and rendered the synagogue unusable for the foreseeable future.
Pittman is expected to face preliminary court hearings on Tuesday, January 20. He is charged with first-degree arson against a place of worship, a crime that comes with a prison sentence of five to 30 years and restitution for damages caused. If the court determines that his actions were motivated by hate, that term may be doubled, according to a statement by the district attorney.
The federal government has not yet filed hate-crime charges against Pittman.
According to the local news site Mississippi Today, Pittman grew up in Madison, one of Mississippi’s wealthiest cities, and seemed like an unlikely person to commit a hate crime. He was an honor roll student at the private Catholic school he attended, and played on the baseball team at Coahoma Community College, where he studied after graduating high school. Until shortly before he attacked Beth Israel on January 10, he mainly used his numerous social media accounts to post about baseball, Christianity and his exercise routines.
But Pittman’s friends said he "changed a lot" in recent years, the report said, as he began bragging about money on social media and promoting questionable health trends as part of a "Christian diet."
Posts included videos of himself cracking raw eggs into his mouth and talk of "testosterone optimization," aligning him with online subcultures where "maxxing" masculinity, finances and fitness overlap with nationalist religious beliefs.
On his Instagram account, Pittman described himself as an Entrepreneur and "Lawyer of God."
On December 5, about a month before he attacked Beth Israel, Pittman bought the domain name for his new site, One Purpose, which uses a mix of religious references to offer "Scripture-backed fitness, brotherhood accountability [and] life-expectancy maxxing." The site is capped with an image of God’s ineffable name in Hebrew, and includes references to Jewish fast days and the seven biblical species of Israel as part of its $99 per month membership offer.
DETAILS OF THE ATTACK
On January 10, just hours before he broke into Beth Israel and set it on fire, Pittman posted a cryptic antisemitic video on his Instagram account.
"A Jew in my backyard," a woman shouts in a cartoon video, pointing at a short yellow figure with a long nose that appears to be stealing bags of money. "I can’t believe my Jew crow didn’t work." She then pushes him into a swimming pool, saying, "You’re getting baptized right now."
The clip is said to use video from the Comedy Central show "Drawn Together," and was posted by an account called jew_inbackyard_daily that posts antisemitic material.
Shortly after posting that video, Pittman drove to Beth Israel Congregation, where Sherlocks said he used an axe to break through one of the windows. Once inside, security camera footage from inside the synagogue showed him allegedly pouring gasoline along the wall and couch of the synagogue lobby before setting it on fire with a torch.
According to the complaint, Pittman texted his father photos from the scene of the crime, saying, "My plate is off," apparently referring to his license plate, and "Hoodie is on."
According to an affidavit filed by FBI agent Nicholas Amiano, the father pleaded with his son to return home, but he "replied back by saying he was due for a homerun and ’I did my research.’"
"Pittman laughed as he told his father what he did and said he finally got them," the affidavit said.
Pittman burned his ankles, hands and face in the process, leading him to seek treatment at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Local media showed a picture he allegedly posted on Snapchat from the hospital showing heavy burns on his left hand.
Pittman’s father contacted the FBI to turn his son in. The confession was corroborated by data from a Life360 tracking app on Pittman’s phone, Pittman’s text messages to his father, and burns on his body.
He was arrested at the hospital on Saturday evening.
Pittman appeared before the US District Court on Monday via video from a hospital bed, where both of his hands were visibly bandaged. When the judge read him his rights, he responded, "Jesus Christ is Lord."
DAMAGE AND RESPONSE
The blaze destroyed Beth Israel’s library and administrative offices, along with two Torah scrolls stored in the library. The main sanctuary was not damaged, and the Torahs there were later removed for safekeeping. A Torah rescued from the Holocaust and stored in a glass case was not damaged. The building will be closed indefinitely for repairs, synagogue president Zach Shemper said.
In a letter to congregation members, Shemper said the response and support from local churches and the wider American Jewish community had been "overwhelming." He noted that a church across the street had opened its Gay Pareeh Hall for Beth Israel members to gather together.
Services at Beth Israel will continue as scheduled in alternative locations that have yet to be finalized, Shemper said. "Several churches have extended kind offers for Beth Israel congregants to use their buildings as a worship space as we rebuild."
#2
@1 Without a doubt worse trouble is coming, I'm somewhat surprised it's taken this long, I really expected things like this during the summer. What is MN going to be like when it gets warmer?
[11Alive] A metro Atlanta elementary school principal was arrested on a DUI charge after a crash last Thursday.
Cobb County officers were called to the collision that happened at the intersection of Ebenezer Road and Sandy Plains Road on Thursday afternoon on Jan. 8, at around 4:44 p.m.
Police said an investigation determined the driver who caused the crash was under the influence of alcohol.
The driver was identified as Jill Spiva. According to a report, Spiva was also charged with failure to maintain lane and an open container violation.
Spiva is the principal at Addison Elementary School in Cobb County. The location of the intersection where she crashed and was arrested is just down the street from the elementary school, and the crash and arrest happened just after school ended for that day.
11Alive reached out to the school district, and they provided this statement:
"The district recently became aware of an incident which we have verified happened off-campus and after school hours. Because the investigation is ongoing, we cannot comment further. We are happy to hear everyone involved is safe."
#Somaliland#Somalia | Tensions in the Horn of Africa are escalating as competing regional influences converge on Somaliland and Somalia, with Saudi Arabia emerging as a central actor increasingly challenging areas long shaped by Emirati influence.
Tensions in the Horn of Africa are escalating as competing regional influences converge on Somaliland and Somalia, with Saudi Arabia emerging as a central actor increasingly challenging areas long shaped by Emirati influence.
The immediate trigger came from remarks by Somalia’s Minister of Defence, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, who publicly called on Saudi Arabia to intervene militarily against Somaliland. Speaking to @ajmubasher, Fiqi said: “We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to intervene militarily, with full authority, against the Somaliland administration, just as it did with @AidrosAlzubidi
in Yemen.” The statement marked a sharp rhetorical escalation and signaled Mogadishu’s willingness to internationalize the dispute.
This led directly to a formal response today from Somaliland. In a press release issued in Hargeisa on 11 January 2026, the Somaliland government strongly condemned the Somali federal government’s calls for foreign military intervention, describing them as a serious and irresponsible escalation and a clear violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.
Somaliland reiterated that it is not under Mogadishu’s authority, stating that it lawfully restored its sovereignty in 1991 within its internationally recognized 1960 borders and has since maintained peace, stability, and democratic governance. The government warned that it holds Somalia fully responsible for the consequences of such rhetoric, while reaffirming its commitment to peace and its inherent right to self-defense.
[Wave News] European nations, concerned about Russian and Chinese interests in Greenland, have deployed troops for a multinational exercise aimed at enhancing the island's security. Britain has sent one officer to join a Danish-led reconnaissance group, which is part of preparations for a larger Joint Expeditionary Force exercise. This deployment, viewed as a response to U.S. President Trump's security concerns, involves additional soldiers from Denmark, Norway, Germany, and France, indicating a collective effort to deter aggression in the Arctic. The mission, lasting until Saturday, may lead to future military operations, including potential naval assets from Denmark. Denmark plans to engage in further discussions with the U.S. to address concerns while maintaining its sovereignty over Greenland.
Taiwan Security Monitor (台灣安全觀測站)
@TaiwanMonitor
·
Jan 11
This week, seven new undersea-cable protections took effect in Taiwan: ships in Taiwan’s territorial waters must keep AIS on and accurately disclose vessel ID and routes, with violators facing fines up to NT$10m and possible confiscation. Intentional damage to undersea cables or other critical infrastructure can draw penalties up to NT$100m and prison.
See our visualization of cable sabotage incidents around Taiwan: There’s a lot of that going on, all of a sudden, or so it feels.
🚨 BREAKING: Massive nationwide outage slamming AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile & other carriers RIGHT NOW! Cross-carrier calls & texts down in most states. Total chaos unfolding! pic.twitter.com/dzfWxPNwnF
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday subpoenaed three telecommunications companies for unredacted records related to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation that swept up data on more than 400 individuals including their phone records.
Johnson previously requested such records from the companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, but their responses were heavily redacted or failed to provide “the names of the individuals or entities associated with the phone numbers in the subpoenas,” said Grassley, of Iowa, and Johnson, of Wisconsin.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Chinese archaeologists discovered two chariots dating back over 2,200 years during excavations at the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. This was reported on January 14 by the China Daily newspaper.
The discovery was made in burial pit No. 2 of the mausoleum museum complex near Xi'an in Shaanxi Province. Excavations conducted in 2025 covered an area of approximately 30 square meters. In addition to the chariots, archaeologists uncovered 15 pieces of chariot and horse harness, as well as nine examples of weaponry.
As the researchers explained, the discovery was unique in that both chariots were buried without wheels—a feature never seen before in this part of the complex. The scientists believe this points to their symbolic purpose: the chariots were likely not intended for actual use, but rather served a ritual role as part of the underground army.
Burial Pit No. 2 is considered one of the largest in the complex and, according to preliminary estimates, contains over 1,300 terracotta warriors and horses, including charioteers, cavalrymen, and archers. Many of the best-preserved painted figures were found here.
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.
