[BB] A former youth gymnastics coach who secretly recorded his young female charges undressing and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym was sentenced to 90 years in prison Wednesday in a case that reaches to the very pinnacle of the sport.
AP reports U.S. District Judge Kristi Johnson gave the maximum sentence possible to offender Sean Gardner, ordering the miscreant serve 30 years in prison for each of the three federal child pornography production charges to which he pleaded guilty.
Investigators seized approximately 50 videos and 400 photos from Gardner’s residence as evidence ahead of the trial, according to an FBI affidavit as reported by CBS News.
One of Gardner’s former students told CBS News in May 2026 Gardner was charismatic and she was so young, she didn’t realize her coach’s behavior was abnormal, especially at the end of practice as he watched them disrobing.
“Each of us would line up to get a hug, and he would kiss us on our forehead, and pat us each on the butt,” Liberty Raines, who was 11-years-old when she joined Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis, said.
She added that ritual ended nearly every practice. “It was so normalized,” Raines said. “I don’t think any of us thought anything of it.”
Gardner coached several youth prospects and served as director of an annual winter meet that drew hundreds of gymnasts to Iowa.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] A bear attacked a cow in a pasture near a highway in Khakassia. An eyewitness captured the attack on video.
A man was driving toward Lake Balankul. While passing a pasture in the Askiz district, he saw a bear attack a cow.
"Bear! The bear is eating the cow," he shouted.
The cow tried to escape. The driver honked the horn, but the predator didn't retreat.
The driver's little daughter was riding in the car with him. She also saw the animal.
"A bear. Holy shit. A bear, honey," the driver exclaimed, driving away from the scene.
The field where the cow was grazing was still considered safe by local residents, as it was located far from the taiga.
On October 12, eyewitnesses posted a video of a bear on a highway in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. The animal walked onto the road, played with road signs, and blocked a truck from passing by placing its front paws on the cab.
[Breitbart] A federal appeals court ruled that California cannot force federal immigration agents and other federal officers to display identification during enforcement operations.
In a decision handed down Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Section 10 of California’s "No Vigilantes Act" violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling reverses a lower court and orders a preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing the identification requirement against federal agencies and officers.
The law required non-uniformed law enforcement officers operating in California, including federal agents, to visibly display their agency and either a name or badge number while carrying out enforcement duties. Officers who refused could face misdemeanor prosecution by the state.
The Trump administration scored a victory at a liberal-leaning appeals court Wednesday, which temporarily blocked a section of a California law requiring plainclothes federal law enforcement agents to show their badges and identification when carrying out operations.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Trump administration was "certain to succeed" in its lawsuit against California, finding that the No Vigilantes Act’s identification requirement violates the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which says federal law takes priority when it conflicts with state law.
"Section 10 explicitly overrides the federal government’s power to determine whether, how, and when to publicly identify its officers," the panel wrote.
The preliminary injunction comes from a federal appeals court that has repeatedly clashed with the Trump administration over some of its signature immigration policies, including blocking efforts to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities in 2018, restricting attempts to tighten asylum eligibility that same year and refusing to reinstate Trump's travel ban targeting several predominantly Muslim countries in 2017.
The ruling comes as a major blow to California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely viewed as a 2028 presidential hopeful. Newsom has positioned himself as a leading opponent of Trump's immigration agenda, signing a series of laws aimed at protecting immigrant communities, restricting federal immigration enforcement operations and increasing oversight of federal agents in the state.
"California is proud to fight for the safety of our communities against the federal government’s campaign of terror and weaponized incompetence," a spokesperson for Newsom's office said in a statement. "Their tactics continue to harm our families every day."
The Trump administration sued California over provisions in the No Vigilantes Act and No Secret Police Act, which restricts law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings, in November 2025. Judge Christina Snyder, a Clinton-appointed judge, initially blocked the No Secret Police Act's mask restriction for federal officers but declined to block the No Vigilantes Act's identification requirement.
The Trump administration appealed Snyder's decision on the identification requirement, and the 9th Circuit temporarily blocked its enforcement in February before granting an injunction pending appeal in April.
[FOX] The entire Horn of Africa region is said to be on a knife’s edge. As explosions reportedly claimed to be caused by drones hit Ethiopia's capital city in early October, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa warned U.S. citizens of the danger of "long-range attacks."
Analysts say there’s a high probability that Ethiopia and Eritrea are about to erupt in a new war, with worrying regional backing for both sides.
Former CIA analyst and National Security Council Africa Director Cameron Hudson says the Trump administration needs to become more involved. He told Fox News Digital, "Regional leaders will say privately that they don’t want a regional war. But with so many armed actors and so much meddling going on in each other’s countries, a regional conflagration becomes increasingly likely. It is this kind of miscalculation that the Trump administration needs to be working now to guard against." Or not.
[Reuters] Costa Rica inaugurated a maximum-security prison on Wednesday as it stepped up its fight against organized crime after a surge in killings in what was long one of Latin America's safest countries.
President Laura Fernandez opened the High-Containment Center Against Organized Crime, or CACCO, a prison modeled on El Salvador's mega-prison and a key element of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's anti-gang crackdown. The facility near the capital of San Jose has a capacity for 5,100 inmates, roughly 20% of the nation's current prison population.
Costa Rica recorded an all-time high of 905 homicides in 2023, according to judicial data. Killings eased only slightly to 876 in 2024 and 873 in 2025, remaining well above earlier levels. Authorities have said most murders are linked to disputes among criminal groups over drug trafficking routes and local markets.
"The CACCO will force criminals to face a new model—a tough-on-crime model. Costa Rica will become a global benchmark for prison security," Fernandez said during the inauguration ceremony.
The president also announced a visit to El Salvador on Friday.
Bukele's crackdown is widely credited with sharply reducing gang violence, opens new tab in El Salvador, but rights groups say it has also brought mass arbitrary detentions, due process violations and an erosion of democratic safeguards.
Fernandez said the new prison's impact would depend in part on the judiciary securing more convictions. Her government has clashed with judicial authorities over crime policy and budget cuts, while judges and prosecutors have warned against pressure on democratic checks and balances.
Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar has presented CACCO as part of a broader effort to reassert state control over the prison system, which he says has been infiltrated by organized crime. The first transfers to the prison will take place at the end of October.
Fernandez recently told Reuters that greater US security presence would help Costa Rica confront drug trafficking and organized crime, although current coordination remains focused on patrols, investigations and extradition efforts.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited[Regnum] Hackers obtained the personal data of 8.8 million Danish residents from a government registry using the password "123456." The leak was accidentally discovered by an official almost two weeks after the hack.
The case in question concerns Denmark's Central Register of Persons (CPR). Access to the platform was gained through an IT company account, which was hacked using one of the most common password combinations.
According to the Register, at least three company accounts, including an administrator account, used the same password.
The registry accessed by hackers contains approximately 11 million records, including those of deceased people and people who have moved abroad.
Earlier in France, hackers managed to remotely initiate forced defrosting of supermarket refrigerators and set the temperature to 50 degrees Celsius. As a result, tons of food spoiled. In total, approximately 150 Intermarché stores, several Metro stores, a number of independent businesses, including butchers, and some Coopérative U and Leclerc stores were affected.
[American Thinker] In recent days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not only stepped up his attacks on Russian oil refineries to reduce Russia’s ability to wage war; he has also launched attacks on President Donald Trump for his deal for Russia to, "immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace," to increase supply and lower prices of diesel for American consumers. Proverbially, Zelensky is cutting off his nose to spite Donald Trump’s face.
For Trump, Zelensky’s attacks are viewed as betrayal, and they are particularly offensive because of the billions of dollars in aid and military equipment the U.S. under Trump has already committed to Ukraine’s defense. For Zelensky, "the deal signaled to Russia that ’it could simply keep attacking’ Ukraine." For Democrats, the deal has only increased their burning hatred for Trump. And as for Republican politicians, they are feebly fumbling the deal like a candle burning at both ends, to appear supportive of Trump without also getting their fingers burned.
But for a more objective and pragmatic evaluation of Trump’s deal to purchase diesel from Russia, seemingly in direct contradiction to his policy that has developed and enforced worldwide sanctions levied against Russia, the totality of the current state of geo-political realities must be considered.
First, a simple yet reasonable equation that outlines the logic of how Trump’s deal to purchase Russian diesel fuel may be considered a win-win for the United States and Ukraine might be helpful:
[BB] More than half of the foreigners who have flooded into Spain arrived after 2020, putting further pressure on the country’s already overwhelmed housing market, a report states.
Over the past week a series of protests demanding “affordable housing” have taken place across Spain, bring the nation’s years-long housing crisis back into the spotlight.
Responding to the protests, socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to sign two housing-related decrees that failed to pass in Congress — which promoted Sánchez to call for an upcoming November 29 snap election.
The newspaper ABC observed that while there has been a lot of talk over the past month on the root causes of Spain’s ongoing housing crisis, such as “vulture funds, speculation,” and “tourist apartments,” the pressure inflicted by mass migration into the housing market must also be factored in the conversation.
[Reuters] Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) has increased fueling before flights to Frankfurt as a precautionary step because fuel supplies tighten at Germany's largest air hub due to reduced capacity at a pipeline, the airline said on Thursday.
Fraport, the airport operator, said routine maintenance was being carried out on a pipeline that supplies the airport with jet fuel but that this had been taken into account in its operations.
Fraport said it did not expect a supply bottleneck from the pipeline maintenance, partly due to alternative supply routes and ample fuel storage capacity.
"The airport's operational capability is therefore not affected," it said.
Lufthansa said flight cancellations were not currently expected.
Bild first reported the news, citing internal instructions it said were sent to Lufthansa pilots on selected routes to practise "tankering", taking more fuel than needed so jets require less or no refuelling in Frankfurt.
Extra fuel is capped at 8 tons on Airbus A320-family aircraft so they can still be towed on the ground, and the rules mainly affect short-haul flights but increasingly some long-haul services, according to Bild.
#1
I kinda have a bad feeling starting to tickle ...
[AI] how combustible is airline fuel
**Airline fuel is combustible but significantly less flammable and volatile than automotive gasoline.** Jet fuel, which is a highly refined **kerosene** derivative, has a high **flash point** (typically **38°C** or **100°F** for Jet A/A-1), meaning it requires a specific heat source or flame to vaporize and ignite, unlike gasoline which vaporizes easily at normal temperatures.
While classified as a **flammable and combustible liquid**, its low volatility makes it safer to handle during flight operations. However, **Jet B**, a wide-cut mixture of gasoline and kerosene used in extreme cold, has a very low flash point and is considered **extremely flammable and dangerous** to handle. Aviation gasoline (**Avgas**) used in small piston-engine aircraft is also highly volatile and flammable.
[Reuters] At least 32 schoolchildren and one teacher were killed on Thursday when the roof of a school collapsed during morning classes in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, police and rescue officials said.
Rescue workers spent hours pulling children from the rubble of the privately run Al-Khair Education Center, while panicked parents and relatives gathered outside the building seeking news of their loved ones.
Most of the students killed were under 13. At least 45 people suffered major and minor injuries, said Arif Khattak, regional director of the Rescue Department.
Television footage showed rescuers clawing through debris with their bare hands and carrying bloodied children to waiting ambulances as relatives and residents crowded the narrow alley where the school stood.
A higher-floor roof collapsed onto students in classrooms below, crumpling two storeys of the building, a rescue official said.
"The fatalities include 12 girl students and a female teacher," Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson Mohammad Asim said.
Three children were in critical condition, with head injuries, Asim said, adding that most of the 20 injured brought to that hospital had been treated and sent home.
The incident took place at 8:48 a.m. local time (0348 GMT) and the rescue operation lasted for four to five hours, Khattak said.
[Rudaw] Iraq’s Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court scheduled the trial of detained politician Muthanna al-Samarrai for Monday on corruption charges, according to a judicial document obtained by Rudaw on Wednesday.
"This court has decided to set October 19, 2026, as the date for conducting the trial of the detained defendant (Muthanna Abdul Samad Mohammed Hussein al-Samarrai) pursuant to the provisions of Article (319 of Penal Code No. 111 of 1969, as amended, in conjunction with participation articles 47, 48, and 49 thereof)," the document read.
Samarrai, the head of the Sunni-led Azm alliance - the second-largest Sunni political party within Iraq - and current member of parliament, was arrested in late June.
The trial proceedings come months after Operation Dawn, a large-scale nationwide anti-corruption campaign launched in late June by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in coordination with the Federal Commission of Integrity (FCoI).
Samarrai was one of a couple hundred government officials and employees arrested as authorities carried out dozens of targeted raids across the country under the initiative.
Salwan Akreyi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, confirmed to Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir on Wednesday that "a verdict regarding the defendants' case is expected to be issued on that very same day."
The judicial document also listed five people as defendants summoned as witnesses, including Adnan al-Jumaili, former Deputy Oil Minister for Refining Affairs.
Jumaili was arrested in late May on charges of embezzling around 200 billion Iraqi dinars ($152 million), an investigation that uncovered a broader network of officials across state institutions and led to the seizure of millions of dollars, gold, vehicles, and real estate titles.
"The value of the funds, assets, or real estate recovered within the framework of the anti-corruption campaign is estimated at over 1.359 trillion dinars (over one billion dollars)," government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi told state media in late August.
Iraq ranked 136th out of 182 countries and territories in Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, scoring 28 out of 100.
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.
[BB] A former youth gymnastics coach who secretly recorded his young female charges undressing and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym was sentenced to 90 years in prison Wednesday in a case that reaches to the very pinnacle of the sport.
