News of the World
The End of the Government Shutdown Special Edition
THE SHUTDOWN
Quote:WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday passed a funding bill to end the longest government shutdown in US history, sending the legislation to President Trump’s desk for the final step to end the 43-day standoff.
In a 222-209 vote, the House voted to pass the funding bill it received from the Senate which will restart paychecks for federal workers and air traffic controllers, and fund food assistance programs.
The legislation finally “reopens the government, restores critical services, and puts an end to the needless hardship Democrats have inflicted on the country,” said GOP House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma.
Trump will sign the measure into law Wednesday night in the Oval Office, officially ending the shutdown.
“We feel very relieved tonight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters after the vote. “The Democrat shutdown is finally over thanks to House and Senate Republicans, who stood together to get the job done.”
Johnson slammed Democrats for using “the American people as leverage in this political game,” arguing that the outcome was “totally foreseeable.”
“It’s something that is very difficult to forgive,” he continued, describing the shutdown “stunt” as “utterly pointless and foolish.”
House Democrats lamented that their Senate Democratic colleagues caved with nothing to show for it on healthcare, their stated political reason for holding the government hostage.
“I rise in opposition to this bill that does nothing, not one thing to address the Republican health care crisis, amid a cost-of-living crisis,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said in a floor speech ahead of the vote.
In his speech, House Minority Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) proclaimed, “This fight is not over.”
“There are only two ways that this fight will end, Mr. Speaker: either Republicans finally decide to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits this year, or the American people will throw Republicans out of their jobs next year and end the speakership of Donald J. Trump once and for all,” the Democratic leader said.
The legislation, as soon as it’s signed by Trump, will return federal workers to their jobs with backpay, reopen executive branch agencies that provide critical veterans services and other benefits like food stamps and fully fund the government until at least Jan. 30.
After that, some spending for SNAP benefits, veterans programs, legislative branch activities and military construction, among other items, will continue until Sept. 30 — at which point the 2026 fiscal year ends.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers and congressional staffers had gone without pay for more than 40 days — leading the top union backing government employees to pressure Democrats into ending the shutdown.
There had also been increasing flight delays and cancellations due to the lack of staffing at air traffic control towers, as unpaid workers were not showing up to their jobs.
Last Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had warned that if the government remained closed with the Thanksgiving holiday nearing, there could be an up to 20% reduction in US airspace.
“As of Sunday, nearly half of all domestic flights and US flights were either canceled or delayed. And it’s a very serious situation,” noted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday, giving his chamber 36 hours to reconvene.
“Shutting down the government never produces anything,” Johnson added. “It never has.”
Six House Democrats voted for the funding measure in the House’s first legislative move since going into recess after Sept. 19.
Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Don Davis (D-NC), Adam Gray (D-Calif.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) crossed party lines to vote with the majority.
Two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.), voted against the Senate-passed bill.
“I could not in good conscience support a resolution that creates a self-indulgent legal provision for certain senators to enrich themselves by suing the Justice Department using taxpayer dollars,” Steube said of his no vote on X, referring to a provision in the bill that allows Republican senators snooped on by former special counsel Jack Smith to seek compensation.
“There is no reason the House should have been forced to eat this garbage to end the Schumer Shutdown,” he added.
On Monday, eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus crossed the aisle to vote with the GOP for the end of the shutdown, though Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was not among them.
“I think he made a mistake in going too far,” Trump told Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Monday. “He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him.”
Before that, all but three from the Senate Democratic caucus had voted 14 times against reopening the government as they held out through last week’s Election Day to activate the progressive base and turnout Democratic voters in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York.
Quote:President Donald Trump signed legislation to fund the government again — putting an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Trump signaled Monday the government would open soon, as consequences of a lapse in funding continued to snowball, including missed paychecks for federal workers and airline delays stemming from air traffic controller staffing shortages.
The bill keeps funding the government at the same levels during fiscal year 2025 through Jan. 30 to provide additional time to hash out a longer appropriations measure for fiscal year 2026.
The measure also funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that more than 42 million Americans rely on through September. The program supports non- or low-income individuals or families to purchase groceries on a debit card.
Additionally, the measure reverses layoffs the Trump administration set into motion earlier in October and pays employees for their absence.
The reopening of the government comes after more than 40 days of a lapse in funding amid a stalemate between Senate Republicans and Democrats over a stopgap spending bill that would have funded the government through Nov. 21.
After a lapse in funding starting Oct. 1, the Senate passed legislation Monday night that would reopen the government by a 60–40 vote margin. A total of eight Democrats voted alongside their Republican counterparts for the measure. The House subsequently passed its version of the measure Wednesday.
The deal came as fallout from the shutdown came to a head, including travel disruptions at U.S. airports where air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers were required to work and were gearing up to miss a second paycheck.
As a result, these staffers were calling in sick, or taking on second jobs, creating staffing shortages and flight delays.
The standoff between Republicans and Democrats originated over disagreements about various healthcare provisions to include in a potential funding measure. Trump and Republicans claimed Democrats wanted to provide illegal immigrants healthcare, and pointed to a provision that would repeal part of Trump’s tax and domestic policy bill known as the "big, beautiful bill" that reduced Medicaid eligibility for non-U.S. citizens.
Democrats pushed back on this characterization, and said they want to permanently extend certain Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025.
The stopgap spending bill that Trump signed does not extend these subsidies by the end of the year, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., agreed to a vote in December on legislation that would continue these credits.
Even so, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has not agreed to get on board with that arrangement in the House.
USA
Quote:WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that the Trump administration has discussed restricting the president’s proposed $2,000 tariff dividend to families making less than six figures.
“Well, there are a lot of options here that the president’s talking about a $2,000 rebate and those — that would be for families making less than, say, $100,000,” Bessent told “Fox & Friends” Wednesday.
“We haven’t,” Bessent clarified when asked if the Trump administration decided on that limit. “It’s in discussion.”
Last week, following a brutal hearing over his “trafficking” and “reciprocal” tariffs before the Supreme Court, President Trump floated a $2,000 dividend but did not elaborate on specifics on how that would work.
Bessent later told ABC’s “This Week” that the dividend “could come in lots of forms” and that it “could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing.” That’s a reference to tax cuts including in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law earlier this year.
The Treasury secretary reiterated Wednesday that “what we did with the tax bill is actually financing the president’s no tax and tips, overtime, Social Security, and the big refunds you’re going to see are a result of that.”
He also pointed to the so-called “Trump accounts” nestled in the marquee megalaw in which the US government will automatically open up an account for children under the age of 18 between 2025 and 2028 and contribute a one-time $1,000 deposit to those accounts.
Questions have long swirled over how Trump’s $2,000 tariff dividend proposal would work. On Sunday, Trump had teased that “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”
But Congress would have to sign off on any major cash payments to American families at that scale and some Republicans previously pumped the brakes on that idea.
“It’ll never pass,” Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), whom Vice President JD Vance backed in a primary contest last year, bluntly told reporters in July, according to Business Insider. “We have a $37 trillion debt.”
Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs — the specific type of duties that are under threat of getting scrapped by the Supreme Court — have only raked in about $90 billion between their implementation and Sept. 23, according to data from US Customs and Border Patrol.
For comparison, a COVID-19-era proposal to fire off $2,000 checks to families was estimated to cost some $464 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Even if the $2,000 payments were narrowed to individuals earning under $100,000, it would still have a roughly $300 billion pricetag, per an estimate from Erica York, the Tax Foundation’s vice president of federal tax policy.
Quote:Will he use the red courtesy phone?
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani confirmed Tuesday that he will reach out to President Trump before taking office New Year’s Day, telling NBC New York in an interview that the relationship between City Hall and the White House “will be critical to the success of the city.”
“I will be reaching out to the White House as we prepare to actually take office, said Mamdani, 34, who didn’t specify when he would contact the administration, but said he would be “proactive” as he tries to thwart Trump’s hard-line immigration and crime policies.
“[If] President Trump wants to speak about lowering the cost of living or delivering cheaper groceries, like he ran on [in 2024], I’m there to have that conversation,” the mayor-elect said, later adding that he would tell the commander-in-chief: “I’m here to work for the benefit of everyone that calls the city home, and that wherever there is a possibility for working together toward that end, I’m ready, and if [the administration’s policies] are to the expense of those New Yorkers, I will fight.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Post at her regular briefing Wednesday that “I’ll let the president respond himself to that comment by Mr. Mamdani.”
Ahead of the Nov. 4 mayoral election, Trump threatened to withhold federal money from NYC and execute a federal takeover if the “Communist” Mamdani was voted in.
In his first comments since the Democratic socialist’s victory, the president slightly softened his tone, saying last week, “I hope it works out for New York” and “we’ll help him a little bit, maybe.”
“He has to be a little bit respectful of Washington because if he’s not, he doesn’t have a chance of succeeding,” Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in a post-election interview. “I want to make the city succeed.”
Trump said that he didn’t plan to reach out and that “it would be more appropriate for him to reach out to us” and that “I’m here.”
Mamdani also revealed in Tuesday’s interview that he has consulted with Gov. Kathy Hochul about how to respond to Trump’s occasional threats and frequent public attacks.
Quote:The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said a member of Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s office, D-Ill., misrepresented himself as the attorney of a detained illegal immigrant to facilitate their release.
According to a letter sent Wednesday to Duckworth, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons said the staffer told federal agents he was the attorney of Jose Ismeal Ayuzo Sandoval — a 40-year-old illegal immigrant previously deported four times to Mexico and who had a DUI conviction.
The letter says the staffer entered an ICE facility in St. Louis, Ill., on Oct. 29.
“At approximately 1:29 p.m., an individual identified as Edward York, who according to publicly available information, is employed as a Constituent Outreach Coordinator for your Senate office, entered the field office lobby, and in a discussion with a federal officer, claimed to be Mr. Ayuzo’s attorney. Mr. York demanded to speak with his ‘client,’” the letter states.
“This staff member allegedly did so to gain access to the detainee and seek his release from custody, and he accomplished it by falsifying an official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) form.”
While at the facility, York successfully met with Ayuzo and got him to sign a G-28 form, the letter said. It allows an attorney to represent a client on immigration matters, empowering them to receive official correspondence, communicate with government agencies on their behalf and more.
After attaining a release order, the staffer then tried to submit the form without Sandoval’s signature, even after having completed the G-28 form in person, the letter said.
“Four days later, a Suarez Law Office in Collinsville, Illinois filed a G-28 electronically that did not have Mr. Ayuzo’s signature, even though Mr. York, who claimed to work for the law firm, had already obtained a signed form,” the letter describes.
“It appears as if Mr. York may have collaborated with the firm to cover his misrepresentation.”
ICE said it could not verify that York was an attorney.
The agency further became suspicious of the picture when they discovered a post to Facebook describing the incident. The post, put up by the Montgomery County Illinois Democrats’ page, described that a staffer had gone to a field office with a packet of documents and a release order with the intention of misrepresenting himself to law enforcement, the letter said.
Lyons’ letter requests a response from Duckworth’s office no later than Nov. 17, demanding answers surrounding York’s employment, whether he knowingly lied on government documents, and whether he acted with the knowledge of other members of Duckworth’s staff.
“I implore all members of the US House of Representatives and Senate, as well as their staff, to stop the political games that put law enforcement and detainees at risk,” Lyons wrote.
“It is my sincere hope that you will advocate on behalf of your constituents who have been victimized by illegal alien crime and work with DHS to remove these criminals from the United States.”
Sen. Duckworth’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Quote:Linda Sun “was for sale,” federal prosecutors charged Wednesday as the former top aide to Govs. Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo went on trial for allegedly betraying New Yorkers in favor of the Chinese government.
Sun, 42, sat calmly as Assistant US Attorney Amanda Shami launched into withering opening statements outlining the feds’ case that the ex-official acted as a secret agent for China in exchange for a shower of payoffs and lavish high-end goodies.
“Her loyalty was for sale, and the Chinese government, which wanted to influence the New York government, was willing to pay her to do their bidding,” Shami said in Brooklyn federal court, dramatically pointing in Sun’s direction at one point.
“Linda Sun was for sale.”
The arguments launched what’s expected to be a bombshell one-month trial for Sun and her businessman husband, Chris Hu, 42, who are charged with fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.
Sun, who’s also charged with acting as a foreign agent for China, had worked under Hochul and her predecessor, ex-gov-turned-mayoral-loser Cuomo.
She allegedly used her position of power to sway the gubernatorial duo toward benefitting Chinese interests — including by once stopping Cuomo from publicly thanking the communist nation’s rival Taiwan.
She even bragged about her duplicitous dealings to Chinese officials in texts, Shami told jurors.
Sun also doctored emails to falsely claim a third party had endorsed a PPE company run by her cousin as the Empire State doled out lucrative contracts during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shami charged.
Chinese governmental officials in turn paid off Sun by steering millions of dollars in contracts to an outpost of Hu’s lobster exporting business, as well as the PPE-related “kickbacks,” Shami claimed.
Sun was also showered with gifts, including paid trips to China, free hotel stays, and free tickets to concerts, Shami said.
Shami notably didn’t mention the fancy salted ducks Sun allegedly also received from her Beijing backers.
But Sun’s defense attorney Jarrod Schaeffer countered that she wasn’t a secret agent for China, but actually a dedicated public servant.
“Linda Sun did what she was hired to do. She didn’t commit a crime by doing her job,” he argued.
“The evidence will show that Linda was working on behalf of New Yorkers,” he told the jury, adding later that, “This New Yorker was working for New York.”
Schaeffer acknowledged Sun received gifts, as well as steered New York leaders away from touchy topics for China.
But that didn’t make her an agent for China, he argued.
“Isn’t that just politics?” he asked.
Quote:CHICAGO — What kind of US president demolishes a cherished piece of American history in order to build a shrine to himself?
That’s what many Chicagoans are asking — and they aren’t talking about President Trump’s East Wing demolition to make way for a White House ballroom.
Locals are still trying to make sense of the $850 million Obama Presidential Center, dubbed “The Obamalisk,” which broke ground in Chicago’s historic Jackson Park in 2021 and will be finished next Spring.
“Obama, of all people, should not be building a palace for himself, a fortress in the middle of a public park. It’s just contrary to what I thought he believed in,” renowned Chicago architect Grahm Balkany, a self-described progressive liberal, told The Post.
“So many people in Chicago, unfortunately, didn’t want to speak truth to power — especially when that power was Obama.”
While many neighborhood residents who recently spoke to The Post gave the Presidential Center (not a library) a hesitant thumbs up, plenty of Chicago historians, preservationists and architects remain outraged.
“I always see it as a cenotaph, a tombstone, a crusader fortress in brutalist style,” W.J.T. Mitchell, an art historian at the University of Chicago, told The Post of the hulking, 240-foot-tall beige concrete and stone-clad tower.
“It’s not a beautiful building. Its monumentality violates the spirit of the democratic urban park” in which it stands, designed by visionary architect Fredrick Law Olmsted.
The Obama Foundation gobbled up 20 acres of the protected and landmarked Jackson Park, which sits on the national registry of historic places, for the project.
The park, huddled next Lake Michigan, was designed by Olmsted — the man who, alongside Calvert Vaux, designed New York’s Central Park — for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, a nation-defining event credited with putting modern Chicago on the map.
The Obama Foundation’s actions are at odds with Olmsted’s work, democratizing the idea of the public park, according to Mitchell.
“[Olmsted] was transforming park design from the English manor house [which] was always punctuated by the castle, or some magnificent building, to signify the feudal lord who owned that land,” Mitchell told The Post.
The architect believed “this is public land, this is owned by everybody. There should not be any great monuments or monumental buildings. It’s about the people,” Mitchell continued.
“The most atrocious thing was when they started clearcutting a thousand, healthy, century-old trees. I was there to document it. It struck many people as an environmental disaster,” Mitchell added.
The project raised eyebrows from the start. While Chicago seems a natural home for Obama’s monument, the former president made the city bid against two other locations —New York and Hawaii — to host his center.
Quote:A sharp rise in students entering the University of California system without middle school-level math skills is raising alarms among educators.
A new internal report from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) reveals that the percentage of incoming students scoring below Algebra 1 on placement exams—a math course typically completed by the end of eighth grade—has tripled over the past five years.
Why It Matters
In 2020, just 6 percent of first-year students at UCSD placed below Algebra 1. By 2025, that number had surged to 18 percent, according to the UCSD Senate Admissions Working Group (SAWG) report.
The findings reflect a growing disconnect between high school transcripts and actual college readiness. The SAWG report links the increase to pandemic-era learning disruptions, long-standing inequities in California’s K–12 system, and the elimination of standardized testing requirements in UC admissions.
What To Know
The number of UCSD students requiring Math 2, a course originally designed for less than 1 percent of the incoming class, surged from under 100 students annually to over 900 by fall 2024.
“In Fall 2024, the numbers of students placing into Math 2 and 3B surged further, with over 900 students in the combined Math 2 and 3B population,” the report notes. “This represents an alarming 12.5 percent of the incoming first-year class.”
Math 2, once intended to cover high school topics like Algebra I and II, has been redesigned to focus “entirely on elementary and middle school Common Core math subjects (grades 1-8).” A new course, Math 3B, was created to handle high school-level content.
UCSD is now the only UC campus that offers a credit-bearing course designed to remediate elementary and middle school math.
Placement test data shows a worsening gap between what students appear qualified for on paper and their actual ability.
“In Fall of 2024, of those who demonstrated math skills not meeting middle school levels, only 6 percent met only the minimum high school course requirement,” the report states. “The other 94 percent went beyond, with 42 percent completing Calculus or Precalculus.”
The report concludes that GPA and course titles have become unreliable predictors of readiness.
“Over 25 percent of the students in Math 2 had a math grade average of 4.0,” the authors write.
Other Findings
Remedial math placements correlate closely with prior school conditions. “In 2023–2024, the combined enrollment in Math 2/3B grew by another 100 students, 63 of whom came from LCFF+ schools,” referring to California schools with high concentrations of low-income, English learner, or foster youth students. By 2025–2026, 1 in 3 LCFF+ enrollees required Math 2 or 3B.
The report acknowledges the tension between access and readiness.
“We cannot simply admit only from better-resourced schools,” the report says. “This would replicate privilege and fail to support our mission as an institution that promotes social mobility.”
Faculty concern over academic alignment is central to the report’s recommendations.
“We face an enormous uncertainty when judging the math skills of our applicants,” the committee wrote.
Quote:All 14 victims who were killed when a UPS cargo plane crashed into a petroleum recycling center and exploded in a massive fireball in Kentucky have been identified, officials announced Wednesday.
The casualties include three UPS crew members aboard the Honolulu-bound flight and 11 customers and employees at a nearby business when the aircraft went down shortly after takeoff, just south of Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport, around 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 4.
The victims have been identified as Angela Anderson, 45; Carlos Fernandez, 52; Trinadette “Trina” Chavez, 37; Tony Crain, 65; John Loucks, 52; John Spray, 45; Matthew Sweets, 37; Ella Petty Whorton, 31; Megan Washburn, 35: Louisnes Fedon, 47; and his 3-year-old granddaughter Kimberly Asa.
Capt. Richard Wartenberg, 57; First Officer Lee Truitt, 45; and International Relief Officer Capt. Dana Diamond, 62, were previously identified by UPS as the three crew members aboard doomed Flight 2976.
“Our city feels the full weight of this unimaginable tragedy,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Wednesday at a news conference, where the coroner named each victim, WLWT5 reported.
“Each of these victims represents a life full of purpose, interrupted far too soon. And also, a life that will never fade because we’ll always remember them.”
Sean Garber, the owner of Grade A Auto Parts and Scrap Metal Recycling — one of the businesses hit by the terrifying explosion — said the remaining victims were either employees or customers of his company, NBC News reported.
One of those customers was Anderson, a local mother of two, who headed out to the facility to get rid of some scrap metal, her boyfriend, Donald Henderson, previously told local station WDRB last week
Henderson said he was too tired after a long day’s work, so he let Anderson go by herself — only to come to regret the decision following the fatal crash.
“She’s all I got,” the heartbroken 55-year-old told the outlet.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear previously said the 3-year-old victim who died had been at the car parts business with their guardian.
Greenberg said that all the victims were identified through DNA analysis, medical and dental records, and that all of their family members have been notified.
“I hope that with this certainty, their grieving can continue to turn to healing, and that they can begin to find ways to move forward, to recover from this trauma and find joy and happiness in life once again, knowing it will never be the same without their loved one,” the mayor said, according to NBC.
The UPS jet was carrying about 50,000 gallons of fuel when it took off from the airport, with footage showing the plane’s left engine completely engulfed in flames as it sped down the runway for takeoff before it descended and crashed moments after its nose lifted from the ground.
The crash sparked a massive inferno that consumed the enormous aircraft and hit Grade A Auto Parts and Kentucky Petroleum Recycling.
Quote:Students at a Rhode Island high school where a teacher mocked Charlie Kirk after his assassination are launching a Turning Point USA chapter to promote conservative values and free expression on campus.
“What inspired me personally to start this Turning Point chapter was the teacher at our school said after Charlie Kirk’s death, he made a TikTok about how he has no remorse over him and how he was a hateful person,” Brayden Ryan, vice president of the Turning Point USA chapter at Barrington High School in Rhode Island, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday.
Shortly after Kirk’s public assassination Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University during his “American Comeback Tour,” social studies teacher Benjamin Fillo posted a video online saying that Kirk “hated the LGBTQ community” and “hated women’s rights.”
Fillo, who was placed on administrative leave after his video post, also said in a video that Kirk “thought he proved how tough he was with his words… What a piece of garbage. Look what happens… Bye, Charlie!”
When conservative activist and mother Nicole Solas issued a public records request to review Fillo’s curriculum, including handouts, assignments, videos, links, resources, guides, worksheets, workbooks, prompts and his emails, Barrington Public Schools said it would charge her $117,132 in order to gather all the materials.
Solas is a mom living in a different school district whose kids are in a private school because the National Education Association Rhode Island (NEARI) sued her for sending public records requests four years ago.
Ryan, a freshman, said that starting the chapter has been “difficult” due to the political demographics of the area, but that he and fellow students are pushing ahead.
“I feel like we should give space to other students, a free and safe space to other students, other conservative students, to speak their own personal values, such as their religious beliefs and their political beliefs,” Ryan said.
Caleb Kaplan, president of the Turning Point USA chapter, told Fox News Digital that some have been supportive of their efforts, while others have campaigned to reinstate Fillo.
“I’m not going to name any names out of respect, but they have been campaigning or making petitions to get the teacher that we spoke about back in a position,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan, who is also a freshman, said the group tries to handle the pushback in a respectful way.
Quote:A third attempt by students at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego to establish a school-supported Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter was denied by the university’s Associated Student Body (ASB) Board of Directors.
The decision was announced in an email sent to students by university President Kerry Fulcher Nov. 5.
“I felt silenced when I got that email,” said Luke Cole, the elected secretary of the chapter and a third-year student at the university. “I felt like I couldn’t speak anymore.”
The email, obtained by Fox News Digital, said the motion was brought to a vote by the ASB Board of Directors and failed to pass after a review process. The email expressed concerns over the organization’s Professor Watchlist. According to TPUSA’s website, the Professor Watchlist aims to “expose and document” professors who discriminate against conservative students.
“While the applicants indicated they would not participate in the watchlist, their application included phrasing that mirrors language used on TPUSA’s website in connection with it,” Fulcher wrote in the email. “That practice is not aligned with ASB’s purpose of fostering constructive communication and interaction between students, faculty, and administration.”
The email also cited the club’s intent to affiliate with TPUSA Faith, an initiative that aims to “unite the Church” and “eliminate wokeism,” according to its website. Fulcher said that was a violation of the university’s church and parachurch policies.
“This policy is in place to ensure that outside churches or ministry organizations, however well-intentioned, do not duplicate efforts already being led by our campus ministry team and use university resources to advance their own programming,” Fulcher wrote in the email.
Fulcher said the authority to approve or deny student-initiated clubs rests solely with the ASB Board of Directors.
According to PLNU’s website, the school hosts a “B.R.E.A.K.” club which “emphasizes the importance of gender equality on a school campus.” Hosts discuss issues such as “privilege” and “gender justice.”
The school also hosts a “Center for Justice and Reconciliation” group that focuses on “immigration and racial justice” and allows students to “process injustices in their communities,” according to the website.
The decision has left students crestfallen. Ginger Friess, a first-year student at the university, told Fox News Digital that, after Charlie Kirk’s death, she felt called to serve her campus through founding a TPUSA chapter.
“For me, it was about finding truth and making space for that on this campus,” said Friess. “I watched students and faculty, who identified as Christian, celebrate human death on campus … and I was deeply troubled by that.
“[Kirk] invited all people, all students on campus to an open mic. We want to open up the conversation.”
Brooklyn Stratton, a third-year student at PLNU and elected vice president of TPUSA Point Loma, said she and other young conservatives felt targeted on college campuses after Kirk’s death.
“I just wanted to make a community for other students who [were] also feeling this way to get together,” said Stratton. “College is our formative years. … I feel like not giving people the opportunity to explore which side of politics they’re on doesn’t align with free speech at all.”
The formation of a TPUSA chapter was also rejected twice in 2021, according to the campus’ student newspaper.
Associate Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs Lora Flemming shared in a statement with Fox News Digital that the university is a place where “students from a variety of backgrounds are welcomed into a community shaped by faith.”
Quote:A tearful Sharon Osbourne recalled the touching moment President Trump called her to offer his condolences after the death of her Black Sabbath frontman husband over the summer.
Osbourne played Trump’s heartfelt voicemail and expressed her admiration for the president and First Lady Melania during Wednesday’s emotional episode of “The Osbournes” podcast, where she reunited with her children, Kelly and Jack, for the first time since Ozzy’s death at age 76 in July.
“Love him or hate him, he didn’t have to call and leave a voicemail,” Jack, 40, said to his grieving mom.
The 72-year-old former TV host, while fighting back tears, said Trump has done nothing but show her family “respect” throughout the years.
“For him to take his time to do that for us … he doesn’t live in a bubble,” Osbourne said.
“He knows what is going on in the streets. He knows what is going on. Again, for President Trump and Melania, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
The Prince of Darkness died on July 22 from cardiac arrest, acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s Disease.
The heavy metal icon confirmed his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2020. He had also undergone multiple surgeries in recent years, including going under the knife for a debilitating spinal injury in 2019.
In the voicemail, Trump said: “Hi Sharon, it’s Donald Trump and I just wanted to wish you the best and the family … Ozzy was amazing, he was an amazing guy.”
“I met him a few times and I want to tell you he was unique in every way and talented. So, I just wanted to wish you the best and it’s a tough thing. I know how close you were and whatever I can do. Take care of yourself. Say hello to the family. Thanks, bye.”
Osbourne emphasized to her children that her praise for the president was personal, not political, adding that she isn’t an American citizen and cannot vote in the United States.
“All I know is a man that I know, I worked with for a month – I spent one month with him and his wife, who was always gracious, elegant, just a delight to talk to,” the Brit gushed.
“Listen, I’m not American. I can’t vote, I don’t want to vote. I don’t vote for anyone. I vote for no one. Never have, never will. But the thing is, all I know is he’s treated me with respect, your father with respect. He wanted nothing from us – nothing. Melania, the same. Nothing. And they have been great.”
EUROPE
Quote:It was a sky-high scam.
A co-pilot allegedly forged certificates to qualify himself for a captain position with a Lithuanian airline — and helmed flights carrying hundreds of passengers throughout Europe.
The faux flyer, whose identity was not disclosed, served as a captain for Lithuanian airline Avion Express for an unspecified period of time. He apparently lacked the necessary qualifications and had only ever worked as a co-pilot with Garuda Indonesia, German outlet Aero Telegraph reported.
Avion Express, a “wet-lease” company that specializes in providing aircraft and full crews to other airlines, confirmed that it employed the pilot, who has since been removed.
“The company recently became aware of unverified information regarding his professional experience. An internal investigation was immediately launched and is currently ongoing,” a company spokesperson told the outlet.
The carrier added that its hiring procedures line up with aviation regulations and assured that “safety and compliance” are the company’s “highest priorities.”
The man also piloted flights for other Western European airlines through Avion Express, including Eurowings, which is based in Germany.
Eurowings confirmed that it was “[taking] up the matter with our safety experts for a more detailed examination,” the outlet reported.
Avion Express was founded in 2005 and charters flights to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. It is part of the larger Avia Solutions Group, a Lithuanian-owned holding group headquartered in Ireland.
Its fleet consists of 55 Airbus A320 family aircraft, which can seat up to 180 passengers, according to the Airbus Aircraft website.
Eurowings is a low-cost airline that frequently partners with other airlines, including Avion Express. It is primarily owned by the Lufthansa Group, which holds stakes in multiple other airlines, including Australian Airlines, Swiss International Airlines and Brussels Airlines.
Quote:Wealthy “sniper tourists” allegedly paid upward of $90,000 to shoot people during “human safari” trips to Sarajevo in the 1990s — with an extra fee to kill children, according to wild claims being probed by Italian prosecutors.
The investigation was sparked after an Italian writer alleged he had uncovered evidence that wealthy gun enthusiasts — dubbed “sniper tourists” — would pay Bosnian Serb forces for the chance to gun down residents at random during the four-year siege of the city, the Guardian reported.
More than 10,000 were killed in Sarajevo by snipers and shelling between 1992 and 1996 during the Balkan Wars.
“There were Germans, French, English … people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians,” said Ezio Gavazzeni, the investigative writer.
“There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people who went there for fun and personal satisfaction. We are talking about people who love guns who perhaps go to shooting ranges or on safari in Africa.”
Gavazzeni said he first read reports of the alleged tourist-led shootings in Italian media outlets in the ’90s, but started digging deeper after watching a 2022 documentary about a former Serb soldier who claimed foreigners would shoot at residents from the hills in Sarajevo.
He claims a key source was a former Bosnian intelligence officer.
The newly launched probe, being led by prosecutors in Milan, is seeking to identify any Italians involved in the so-called sniper tourism.
Gavazzeni said he had already uncovered the identities of some of the Italians allegedly involved in the massacre and they are expected to be questioned by prosecutors in the coming weeks.
The Bosnian Consulate in Milan said the Bosnian government would offer “total collaboration” amid the probe.
“We are impatient to discover the truth about such a cruel matter in order to close a chapter of history. I am in possession of certain information I will be sharing with the investigators,” a spokesperson said.
ASIA
Quote:ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — All 20 personnel on board a Turkish military cargo plane that crashed in Georgia were killed, Turkey’s defense minister announced on Wednesday.
The C-130 plane was flying from Ganja, Azerbaijan, to Turkey when it crashed in Georgia’s Sighnaghi municipality, close to the Azerbaijani border, on Tuesday. The cause of the crash is being investigated.
The military personnel were part of a unit that had traveled to Azerbaijan to take part in that country’s Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. The event marked Azerbaijan’s 2020 military success over Armenia for control of the Karabakh region, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict that had lasted nearly four decades.
A 46-member Turkish accident investigation team reached the crash site and was inspecting the wreckage of the plane, in coordination with the Georgian authorities.
Erdogan said the plane’s flight data recorder has been recovered and inspections were underway to determine the cause of the crash.
Authorities have so far recovered the remains of 19 of the victims, and efforts were continuing to locate one other body, Erdogan added.
The wreckage was spread across a plain that includes farmland and is surrounded by hills, Turkish private broadcaster NTV reported from the site. Debris from the aircraft was scattered across multiple locations, the report said.
“Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred on November 11, 2025, when our C-130 military cargo plane, which had taken off from Azerbaijan en route to our country, crashed near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border,” Defense Minister Yasar Guler said in a message posted on X, together with photographs of the military personnel that were killed.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the Georgian aviation authority as saying that contact with the plane was lost a few minutes after it entered Georgia’s airspace. The plane had not issued a distress signal, it said.
C-130 military cargo planes are widely used by Turkey’s armed forces for transporting personnel and handling logistical operations.
Turkey and Azerbaijan maintain close military cooperation.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili extended their condolences to their Turkish counterparts over Tuesday’s crash.
Quote:JERUSALEM — Israel’s minister in charge of combating antisemitism said extremist anti-Jew rhetoric on the American right is now more alarming than traditional hate from the far left — and he’s calling on Washington to wake up before it’s too late.
“When I started this role three years ago, I thought antisemitism on the right was marginal — small groups of neo-Nazis, not a real force,” Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli told The Post. “Today, it’s a completely different story. I’m far more concerned about antisemitism on the right than on the left — and I say this as a conservative myself.”
Chikli, who oversees Israel’s global fight against Jew-hate, said the shift has been fueled by a toxic blend of online influencers, conspiracy peddlers and foreign-backed disinformation campaigns — all amplified by America’s culture wars.
He pointed to high-profile conservative voices — including podcast hosts and figures connected to Tucker Carlson, who recently platformed Holocaust deniers and fringe conspiracy theorists.
“One of the worst moments was when a popular conservative broadcaster called one of the most vile Holocaust deniers in America ‘one of the most honest historians.’ That legitimizes hate — it normalizes it,” Chikli said, referring to Carlson.
The minister said such rhetoric is spreading fast among young Americans online, both on the left and right.
“Antisemitism has become fashionable for Gen Z,” Chikli warned. “They listen to podcasts, not professors. When people like Nick Fuentes or Darryl Cooper are treated as thought leaders, that’s dangerous. These are neo-Nazis.”
He added that the phenomenon is so new that it can’t be organic — suggesting there may be coordinated funding behind the rise of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment on social media.
“It’s visible,” Chikli said. “The same messages, the same phrases, showing up on hundreds of accounts at the same time. It’s unnatural. Someone’s paying for this.”
Pressed on who might be bankrolling the hate, he pointed to possible foreign involvement.
“We think there’s foreign money involved — maybe from hostile regimes,” Chikli said. “That’s for the FBI to investigate.”
The minister also warned of an ideological pipeline linking some corners of the right-wing isolationist movement to extremist circles.
“Isolationism has been hijacked — it’s being weaponized by antisemites and white supremacists,” he said. That’s what’s new and so troubling.”
The minister drew a sharp line between legitimate foreign policy skepticism and hate-driven politics.
“We can work with isolationists. We cannot work with neo-Nazis,” Chikli said. “When you see someone obsessed with Israel — posting about it 24/7 — that’s not policy. That’s hate.”
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
![[Image: SP1-Scripter.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Scripter.png)
![[Image: SP1-Writer.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Writer.png)
![[Image: SP1-Poet.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Poet.png)
![[Image: SP1-PixelArtist.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-PixelArtist.png)
![[Image: SP1-Reporter.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/GmxWbHyL/SP1-Reporter.png)
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
