Military intervention against drug cartels in Mexico should be among the options under consideration by the US government, Congressman Dan Crenshaw has argued. The Republican from Texas insisted, however, that any such operation would have to be conducted in close cooperation with the Mexican authorities.   

In an interview with TV channel FOX 26 Houston on Sunday, Crenshaw claimed that the Mexican government “does not have operational control of their side of the border.” 

The politician argued that criminal groups were actually in control of the frontier, and estimated the total annual profits of cartels to be around $13 billion. Crenshaw also said that synthetic opioid fentanyl distributed by Mexican syndicates kills “tens of thousands of Americans a year.”   

Webmaster addition: Now, just a quick thought experiment. Let's say that the US starts a military operation in Mexico. What are the millions of Mexicans, many of them cartel members, likely to do?

It’s “obvious” that Kiev can’t win the war against Moscow, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said, urging for a diplomatic solution to the crisis instead of the West continuing to pour military aid into Ukraine. The PM made the remarks in a Bloomberg interview during the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday.

“Emotionally, it’s tragic, all of our hearts are with the Ukrainians. But I’m speaking as a politician who should save lives,” Orban stated, noting that Hungary views the ongoing hostilities from a “special angle” that differs from the “mainstream” European position.

Hungary itself is “losing lives” daily as well due to the conflict, Orban explained, referring to members of Ukraine’s Hungarian ethnic minority that have been “conscripted” to fight Russia. He abstained from condemning Moscow for the “invasion” of Ukraine, stating only that the hostilities were due to a major failure in diplomacy. 

Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of former US president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, is suing the Washington Post for defamation, alleging the paper’s recent “egregious hit piece” about the platform threatens its very existence. The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in Florida’s Twelfth Circuit, seeks $3.78 billion in compensatory and punitive damages.

The Post’s May 13 article, ‘Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social,’ is at the center of the lawsuit, which claims the news outlet “falsely accused TMTG of securities fraud and other wrongdoing.” 

Laos – a landlocked communist state in Southeast Asia, wedged between China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar – has the potential to be a nexus of sorts for the entire region. However, its cooperation with Beijing has come under fire from the West.

The impoverished nation holds the unenviable distinction of "the most bombed country in history" after the US dropped over 2 million tons of bombs on it during the Vietnam War. Laos is still weathering the consequences, including deaths from unexploded munitions. Faced with numerous challenges, it has leaned on its giant northern neighbor for assistance.

In recent years, Laos has benefited considerably from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In late 2021, the China-Laos railway was built, a high-speed system connecting the country’s capital to Beijing. This has been a gamechanger for its foreign trade and exports. Сurrently, a new superhighway is also being built across the country. Last week, however, an article from Reuters attracted widespread disdain on social media as it sought to frame China’s development in the country as risking a “new pandemic.” It was titled ‘China, birthplace of the covid pandemic, is laying tracks for another global health crisis.’

The US State Department chided Israel for issuing an order seemingly giving the go-ahead to establishing a permanent Jewish-only settlement in the West Bank outpost of Homesh on Sunday, reminding its Middle Eastern ally that such settlements are illegal. 

Claiming to be “deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost in the northern West Bank,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller pointed out in a statement released on Sunday that the settlement was “illegally built on private Palestinian land” even under Israeli law.  

Thompson dismissed the significance of the word “compare” in the signature verification statute, A.R.S. 16-550(A). That statute states in part that election workers “shall compare the signatures thereon with the signature of the elector on the elector’s registration record.” Thompson said, “No reviewer is required by statute or the EPM to spend any specific length of time on any particular signature.”

He then said that the statute merely requires the county recorder to be satisfied with the signature review. Since Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, an election fraud denier who started a PAC for other GOP election fraud deniers, was fine with the signature review process, Thompson said that was all that mattered.

A showdown of sorts may be brewing in the battleground state of Arizona ahead of next year’s elections involving a battle between a Republican state senator and the Democratic governor.

On Monday, Sen. Sonny Borrelli made a claim that a non-binding resolution prohibiting Arizona counties from using ballot-counting machines overrides state law, an assertion was promptly refuted by elections officials, the state’s attorney general, and county leaders, who dismissed the claim as unfounded, the Arizona Mirror reported.

“Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli penned a letter to all 15 Arizona counties on Monday, telling them that they were barred from using any machines to administer future elections,” the report continued. “He claimed that the legislature’s recent approval of Senate Concurrent Resolution 1037 was binding under a radical interpretation of a constitutional provision that would effectively allow state legislatures to do whatever they want with elections.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed red flag legislation into law Monday despite ongoing questions about whether it will enforced or, if enforced, how such enforcement would occur.

The Associated Press reported, “Over half of the state’s counties have passed resolutions declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries,” and through those resolutions have made clear there will be no enforcement of laws that infringe on Second Amendment rights.

Additionally, a number of local sheriffs told the AP “that they won’t enforce the law if they don’t believe it’s constitutional.”

Investigative journalist James O’Keefe III broke his first major investigation in March since the launch of O’Keefe Media Group.

The legendary journalist released video from his investigation of the Democrat’s VAST NETWORK of donation harvesters.
The investigation involved:

** MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN DONATION HARVESTING
** HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL DROPS
** CROSSING NUMEROUS STATES!

This was another explosive revelation by James O’Keefe.

While the news from Harvard CAPS/Harris’ recent poll that received the most coverage was former President Donald Trump’s lead over President Joe Biden, the poll also demonstrates that a majority of American voters disagree with corporate media narratives. Journalist Glenn Greenwald drew attention to the report and key themes on Twitter over the weekend.

The Harris Poll and HarrisX conducted an online survey on May 17-18, 2023, of 2,004 registered U.S. voters, weighing the results by demographics according to their proportion in the population and likelihood of online presence. 

According to key results released on May 19, a majority of Americans believe the allegations included in the Steele dossier and Russia collusion stories are “false,” but approximately 70 percent of Democrats still believe those corporate media lies.

Last week, State Department employees’ email name displays were assigned involuntary, and in some instances incorrect, pronouns. A long-serving State Department official, who has been granted anonymity due to the legitimate fear of government retribution, provided The Federalist a look into the internal reaction to the department’s pronoun fiasco.

Around three million people have been ordered to evacuate as huge swathes of Mexico were blanketed in dust by the Popocatépetl volcano, which has also delayed flights and caused schools to close. 

The country's National Civil Protection Coordination increased its threat level to 'yellow phase 3' which ordered the evacuations and warned people nearby to prepare for the possibility of leaving the area.

The next step, a red alert, triggers mandatory evacuations, and dozens of shelters have already been opened in areas surrounding the crater as a precaution. 

Approximately 25 million people live within 60 miles of the Popocatépetl volcano, just 45 miles southeast of Mexico City. 

Hillary Clinton weighed in on concerns surrounding President Biden's age, saying it's a legitimate issue and "people have every right to consider it."

Clinton made the under-the-radar comments on Saturday at the Financial Times Weekend Festival in Washington, D.C., when questioned about Biden stumbling at the G7 Summit in Japan.

"There was that heart-stopping moment when he almost fell over coming down the stairs a day or two ago," Financial Times editor Edward Luce said. "He didn't use a railing, and Jill wasn't there with him. 

Webmaster addition: Hillary is only 5 years younger than Joe.

The Treasury Department has asked federal agencies whether they can make upcoming payments at a later date, two people familiar with the matter said, as Biden’s senior officials seek to conserve cash and avoid the US government facing an unprecedented default. Find new ways to stop it.

With the deadline set to expire in less than two weeks, the White House is looking for ways to buy more time for President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) The deal can be cut, which sets a legal limit. Government borrowing limits Without additional borrowing, a new burst of tax revenue or new ways to slow spending, the federal government is expected to miss a payment in early June for the first time in modern history.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on May 22 that he had “productive discussions” with President Biden on reaching an agreement to raise the debt ceiling.