Major brands have pulled ads from Rumble, following the video platform’s refusal to censor or demonetize actor and podcast host Russell Brand over decade-old sexual assault allegations published this month in the U.K. media.

 The Republican Party of Texas unanimously passed a resolution calling on Governor Greg Abbott to convene a special legislative session to address Colony Ridge, the massive housing development north of Houston that’s become a hub for illegal immigrants.

 SAG-AFTRA members on Monday voted 98% in favor of authorizing a strike against ten major video game companies. 

 More than 1,000 children have been reported missing in Ohio this year in what officials have described as an “extraordinary surge” in disappearing minors. The majority of the 1,072 children reported missing in the state this year have safely returned home, but officials, parents, and community leaders are concerned about the disturbing rise in reports.

The Gateway Pundit reported that police were called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm after an Energy Department staffer,  desperate to reserve a charging plug for Granholm’s EV on a publicity stunt road-trip,  blocked the charging station with a gas-powered vehicle and prevented regular Americans from accessing it.

Granholm, and some of her staffers, set out on a 4-day electric vehicle road trip through the Southeast over the summer to tout the Biden Regime’s commitment to funding electric vehicles that virtually no one wants (or can afford).

Now, Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are probing Granholm over the trip and call to police. In a letter from Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) the incident is described as a stunt “intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars.”

 Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) hopes for GOP victories in the state legislature in the 2023 election as he eyes a path to end Virginia’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate. 

 The American Federation for Children, which joined its political affiliates and allies to spend $9 million in the 2022 election season to back political candidates supporting school choice, is launching a super PAC called AFC Victory Fund to target state legislators who oppose school choice for students.

Shares in China's Evergrande have slumped as the crisis at the embattled property developer has deepened.

Its mainland unit Hengda Real Estate has defaulted on 4 billion yuan (£449m; $547m) of debt, it revealed on Monday.

Beijing-based news outlet Caixin has also reported that several current and former Evergrande executives have been detained by authorities.

Former chief executive Xia Haijun and an ex-finance boss Pan Darong were among those held, Caixin said.

The BBC has been unable to independently confirm Caixin's reporting. Evergrande did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

Its share price fall on Tuesday followed an even sharper decline the previous day. Evergrande's stock has fallen by more than 25% this week.

It’s been six years since internet service providers were granted a boon allowing them to push and pull the levers of internet speeds for any website that may not want to pay a ransom. The end to limitations of what is called net neutrality has tugged at the heartstrings of many internet advocates

According to unnamed sources who spoke to Bloomberg, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is just about ready to announce plans to bring back net neutrality rules. It comes just a few weeks after Congress finally approved new commissioner Anna Gomez, allowing for a 3-2 Democrat majority on total FCC decision-making.

Sources reportedly briefed on planned remarks said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will speak on Tuesday about the agency’s role in net neutrality. There are no details yet on how the FCC plans to restore those rules on ISPs, but if the chairwoman decides to take a combative stance, it could end up being another protracted fight against the biggest internet providers AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast.

If you need a reminder, net neutrality is the idea that ISPs need to treat all data equally and that they can’t unfairly block certain content or throttle speeds to some sites. The FCC first established these rules in 2015 by classifying them as Title II under the Communications Act of 1934, meaning internet data received protections from providers using their power to discriminate against platforms. Without net neutrality, an internet provider could charge a tax to prioritize traffic to a site or throttle traffic to a destination that doesn’t pay up. In a world where consolidation has become the norm, ISPs could also simply slow traffic to a site that’s in direct competition with one of its own properties.

The Biden regime is poised to allow Israeli citizens to travel to the US without a US visa, despite Israel's escalating human rights abuses against Christians in the Holy Land and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

From AP News, "The Biden administration is poised to allow Israeli citizens to travel to the US without a US visa":

The Biden administration is poised to admit Israel this week into an exclusive club that will allow its citizens to travel to the United States without a U.S. visa despite Washington's ongoing concerns about the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinian Americans.

U.S. officials say an announcement of Israel's entry into the Visa Waiver Program is planned for late in the week, just before the end of the federal budget year on Saturday, which is the deadline for Israel's admission without having to requalify for eligibility next year.

The Department of Homeland Security administers the program, which currently allows citizens of 40 mostly European and Asian countries to travel to the U.S. for three months without visas.

It has been clear for some time that US corporate news media have explicitly taken a side on the Ukraine War. This role includes suppressing relevant history of the lead-up to the war (FAIR.org, 3/4/22), attacking people who bring up that history as “conspiracy theorists” (FAIR.org, 5/18/22), accepting official government pronouncements at face value (FAIR.org, 12/2/22) and promoting an overly rosy picture of the conflict in order to boost morale.

For most of the war, most of the US coverage has been as pro-Ukrainian as Ukraine’s own media, now consolidated under the Zelenskyy government (FAIR.org, 5/9/23). Dire predictions sporadically appeared, but were drowned out by drumbeat coverage portraying a Ukrainian army on the cusp of victory, and the Russian army as incompetent and on the verge of collapse.

Triumphalist rhetoric soared in early 2023, as optimistic talk of a game-changing “spring offensive” dominated Ukraine coverage. Apparently delayed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June. While even US officials did not believe that it would amount to much, US media papered over these doubts in the runup to the campaign.

The U.S. has spent billions of dollars aiding Ukraine as that Eastern European nation battles against a brutal Russian invasion, but the aid has gone beyond simply assisting the embattled country with armaments. "60 Minutes" has reported that the U.S. is purchasing "seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers and covering the salaries of Ukraine's first responders — all 57,000 of them." The report also stated that the U.S. is "subsidizing small businesses."

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to the report by indicating that the U.S. should help its own. "Modest suggestion: Let’s support farmers, small businesses, and first responders in our own country instead," he tweeted.

"You don’t live in a country, you live in a tax farm for a global empire," BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre posted.

Webmaster addition: Meanwhile, here in the US, police are being de-funded (crime is going up) and we have homeless Americans sleeping in alleys and eating out of trash dumpsters!

Some iPhone 15 early adopters are turning to social media to report overheating issues that can drive the temperature of the handset to over 100°F, making it uncomfortable to handle.

So, what's happening?

9to5Mac's Ian Zelbo posted on X that his iPhone 15 Pro Max became "almost too hot to touch" while fast charging.

Jeeez my iPhone 15 Pro Max is almost too hot to touch while fast charging rn…

— Ian Zelbo (@ianzelbo) September 25, 2023

Tech reviewer Mohit Verma posted a video on X showing his iPhone hitting 42°C (107°F) after "just a 2-minute FaceTime call or when scrolling through reels for 8-10 minutes."

This guy is on point 💯 pic.twitter.com/HY0N1JuqCu

— illuminatibot (@iluminatibot) September 26, 2023

 Michelle Obama — whose husband, former President Barack Obama, said in a 2018 speech “There’s only so much you can eat. There’s only so big a house you can have. There’s only so many nice trips you can take. I mean, it’s enough” — got paid over $700,000 for a one-hour speech in Germany.

 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that his state has already won the debate against California ahead of his upcoming debate later this year against California Governor Gavin Newsom.

 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party this week over the renewed explosion of illegal immigration on the U.S. southern border, saying that they “empower the cartels” to make billions of dollars through their illicit activities while ignoring the suffering of the American people.

 The hosts of ABC’s midday talk show “The View” aired their grievances about a recent poll showing former President Donald Trump beating President Joe Biden in a head-to-head match-up.

 Ford announced on Monday that it is pausing construction on a multi-billion dollar battery plant in Marshall, Michigan that had drawn scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers over the company’s partnership with Chinese battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL.

 A small group of House Republicans has said that they’re willing to risk a possible government shutdown, rejecting party leadership’s funding bills unless specific demands are met. But they may face an uphill battle in the court of public opinion, according to an analysis of polling data showing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy remains immensely popular with conservatives.

This is outrageous!

The U.S. Marshals Service last year arrested three men accused of fatally beating 17-year-old high school student Ethan Liming to death outside the school founded by LeBron James in June.

The three men beat Liming to death and later bragged about it to friends.

According to reports, Ethan Liming, whose father is a pastor, tried to calm the situation in the parking lot when he got jumped and hit in the head from behind.  The suspects broke his neck.

We learned from the police report that the suspects took Liming’s car and prevented his friends from driving him to the hospital.

Liming was later pronounced dead in the parking lot.

Webmaster addition: More of that "White Privilege!"

A rare case of white-on-black killings, the triple murder at a Dollar Tree in Jacksonville, FL, attracted the attention of the President of the United States, eager to angry up his black base [‘Silence is complicity’: President Biden denounces racist shooting at Florida dollar store, by Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, August 27, 2023]. It was used by the Leftist New Republic as evidence of the “threat” of mass right-wing violence [Violence Is Coming? Sorry, It’s Already Here—and Getting Worse, by Brynn Tannehill, New Republic, August 31, 2023].

But even including Jacksonville, there were only 4 (four) white-on-black homicides in August. In contrast, there were about 35 black-on-white killings (we fudge because a couple of the victims seem to be white Hispanics). As always, the Regime ignores this continuing carnage—in fact, it is probably exacerbating it: some of these killings appear to be random “Hate Crimes.”

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters he had nothing to say about alleged attempts by unnamed figures in Washington to prevent Tucker Carlson from interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“This will be good,” Miller quipped upon hearing Tucker’s name, interrupting a journalist’s question. After drawing some laughs in the room, the reporter went on to ask whether the spokesman had any comments. 

“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Miller stated with a smile, before moving on to the next question. 

Last week, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson told Swiss publication Die Weltwoche that he had attempted to set up an interview with Putin, but did not say when the interview was to occur or how exactly the US government intervened.

A Polish government minister has launched a bid to extradite Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian man who fought in a German-Nazi division during World War Two and last week received a standing ovation in Canada’s parliament.

“In view of the scandalous events in the Canadian parliament, which involved honouring, in the presence of President Zelensky, a member of the criminal Nazi SS Galizien formation, I have taken steps towards the possible extradition of this man to Poland,” announced education minister Przemysław Czarnek.

He published a copy of a letter he has sent to the head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) – a state historical body that has prosecutorial powers – asking him to “urgently [establish] whether Yaroslav Hunka is wanted for crimes against the Polish nation or Poles of Jewish origin”.

The Nord Stream pipelines, built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, were hit by explosions in September 2022. The pipeline's operator, Nord Stream AG, said that the damage was unprecedented and it was impossible to estimate the time repairs might take.

The administration of US President Joe Biden decided to sabotage the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines due to fears of losing its influence over Germany, and Western Europe as a whole, amid the supply of cheap Russian gas to the European continent, Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said in an article on Substack, noting that the incident had nothing to do with the conflict in Ukraine.

"The Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas—and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe," Hersh wrote.

The German government began a massive €100 billion rearmament campaign last year, pledging additional money for the military as social spending retreats and the country faces the threat of deindustrialization and economic stagnation.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has some explaining to do amid reports that a €1.3 billion batch of new digital radio communications systems for the Bundeswehr’s fleet of tracked and wheeled vehicles will be forced to sit in storage for years due to compatibility and installation difficulties.

“34,000 ground forces vehicles are to be equipped with digital radio devices. In total we’re talking about billions of euros. Deliveries of the radios have been ongoing since January. Now it turns out that the devices will be impossible to install anytime soon,” a German publication wrote, summarizing the problem.

The digital radios, produced by German technology manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz, are supposed to replace the Bundeswehr’s older analogue sets. But the new equipment is reportedly proving difficult to mount on the military’s many different types of vehicles, requiring the purchase additional adapter kits, and showing other problems, like low-capacity batteries. Adjustments are reportedly necessary for the more than one hundred different vehicle types in service with the Bundeswehr.

The white owners of two small businesses based in Houston, Texas, are suing to block government policies privileging minority-owned businesses in city contracts. The policies also privilege women-owned businesses. However, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), which represents the businesses, told Legal Insurrection it “made a strategic decision to focus directly on the race-based set-asides.”

Jerry and Theresa Thompson own Landscape Consultants of Texas and Metropolitan Landscape Management. Their companies compete for city landscaping contracts. However, because of the Thompsons’ race, their companies “cannot compete on equal footing with other businesses.”

Landscape Consultants, for example, has a $1.3 million contract with the city with an 11 percent set aside for minority-owned businesses.

This means that Landscape Consultants must take at least $143,000 of work away from its (largely minority) staff, even though they are capable of doing the work, and pay a competitor to do the work—solely because of the race of Landscape Consultants’ owner and the race of its competitor’s owner.

Legal Insurrection readers may recall that I reported State Farm, one of the largest insurance agencies in the country, was no longer accept applications for home and business insurance in California due to wildfire risks and the cost of rebuilding.

To stop more insurance companies from ditching California, the state’s insurance commissioner has approved plans for firms to use “climate change” as an excuse to gin up rates.

California will let insurance companies consider climate change when setting their prices, the state’s chief regulator announced Thursday, a move aimed at preventing insurers from fleeing the state over fears of massive losses from wildfires and other natural disasters.

Unlike other states, California does not let insurance companies consider current or future risks when deciding how much to charge for an insurance policy. Instead, they can only consider what’s happened on a property in the past to set the price.

…On Thursday, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said the state will write new rules to let insurers look to the future when setting their rates. But companies will only get to do this if they agree to write more policies for homeowners who live in areas with the most risk — including communities threatened by wildfires.