One of the clearest and most recent tests of the Overton Window’s positioning, what society currently deems acceptable, came last week with two major ad campaigns from Nike and American Eagle. Unlike the backlash faced by Bud Light or Jaguar for pushing controversial leftist propaganda, these two brands steered away from woke landmines and promoted either a pro-family theme or actress Sydney Sweeney. 

To begin the week, Nike posted a pro-family ad featuring pro-golfer Scottie Scheffler’s win at the 2025 British Open at Royal Portrush on Sunday. Nike’s marketing department released a highly unusual ad … not the usual left-wing politics or ‘body positivity’ nonsense, but a pro-family sports ad celebrating fatherhood and family.

Based Americans, not infected with the Marxist woke mind virus, cheered online, with many demanding more pro-family ads and less “woke BS” ads

By Thursday, American Eagle Outfitters’ marketing department clearly understood what Americans wanted, and it debuted actress Sydney Sweeney, or rather her two most important assets, which were highlighted… repeatedly in a new ad.

Investors cheered as AEO shares rose 16.5% on the week, while the internet was thrilled “to see a beautiful woman in an advertisement instead of freaks.” 

Yea… American Eagle is about to go vertical.$AEOpic.twitter.com/MtKqVadMND

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) July 23, 2025

Why these two ads matter: The Overton Window helps explain how figures like President Trump, Elon Musk’s X, and alternative media have shattered the leftist censorship matrix that unleashed a decade of cultural Marxism—an era marked by division and a relentless push of woke and beta males drinking soy milk. It’s as if the entire woke movement was designed to sabotage society from within. That era is likely over. And we marked this inflection point in recent quarters: 

• Oct. 2024: Overton Window Shifts Towards Liberty

• Jan. 2025: Hedge Fund CIO: Trump Has Blown The Overton Window So Wide Open, Anything Seems Possible

What happened in the ad world last week: 

The broader takeaway is this: the Overton Window, once artificially held to the left, snapped back last year toward the center-right. This realignment coincides with the tail end of the Fourth Turning—likely concluding in the early 2030s—and the Trump administration’s efforts to purge the ‘woke mind virus’ from federal agencies and the military. Corporate America is also abandoning wokeism in favor of just normal advertising. In short, the cultural Marxists’ plan to collapse the nation from within has hit a significant roadblock. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is unraveling, its green movement in shambles, its base flirting with socialism and Marxism, and its polling numbers sinking to historic lows…

Nature is healing. The era of walking on eggshells over what you’re allowed to say in public has come to a crashing end. Liberated from the woke mind matrix. 

And by the way, Volvo was way ahead of everyone… watch here. 

Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times,

Under the agreement reached between President Donald Trump and Columbia University regarding campus anti-Semitism, the Ivy League school will pay a $200 million fine to regain its eligibility for future federal money.

The July 23 settlement follows months of discussions between the two sides after Trump froze $400 million in federal grants to the school and accused its leaders of failing to address the harassment of Jewish students and campus disruptions.

Now, the Trump administration is hoping this deal establishes a model for other colleges and universities to follow.

Opponents in academia, meanwhile, championed Harvard University—the nation’s oldest—for its fight against the federal government.

Here are five takeaways from the settlement:

How It Came to This

Regular campus disruptions ensued after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, including pro-Palestinian protests and encampments that lasted for months, clashes with police, and the illegal occupation and vandalism of the campus building Hamilton Hall. The university canceled its main commencement ceremony last year due to safety concerns brought on by protesters.

Dozens of students were suspended, and nine were expelled. Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik resigned in August 2024 amid criticism of how she responded to campus protests. The alleged student ringleader, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and given deportation orders.

The Trump administration initially issued Columbia a ultimatum threatening to hold $5 billion in federal funding, but only froze $400 million as Education Secretary Linda McMahon and university administrators discussed corrective measures.

Shafik’s replacement, interim President Katrina Armstrong, stepped down on March 28, after McMahon announced that Columbia would comply with her demands.

In June, McMahon informed Columbia officials that because of Civil Rights violations, the school failed to meet federal accreditation standards, threatening the university’s reputation as an Ivy League institution and eligibility for student loans.

Discussions between interim Columbia President Claire Shipman and federal officials ensued. The agreement was reached weeks later.

Other Terms of the Agreement

Columbia will pay $20 million to Jewish employees harassed by co-workers or students at the university. Additionally, the settlement requires that hiring practices be based on merit and not race or gender, in accordance with Civil Rights laws.

The university will allow the federal government to review its Middle Eastern studies major and other programs and must hire faculty members who are committed to “intellectual diversity,” according to the White House’s July 24 fact sheet on the settlement.

University admissions officers will more carefully scrutinize applications from international students, share data on foreign students with the federal government, and reduce financial dependence “on overwhelming international student enrollment,” the fact sheet said.

Masked protests on campus will be prohibited, and Columbia will work closely with the New York Police Department if additional enforcement measures are needed. Student disciplinary measures will be handled by the university’s provost’s office instead of a faculty senate panel, according to the fact sheet.

“Columbia’s reforms are a roadmap for elite universities that wish to regain the confidence of the American public by renewing their commitment to truth-seeking, merit, and civil debate,” McMahon said in a July 23 statement.

How Other Ivy League Schools Fared

A White House official confirmed in April that the administration had frozen $1 billion in federal funding to Cornell University following an investigation into Civil Rights violations on that campus.

In March, the administration froze an undisclosed amount of federal funds at Princeton University following an investigation of anti-Semitism there, according to a campus-wide email from President Christopher Eisgruber published by the student newspaper.

A week later, the federal Commerce Department cut $4 million of funding for Princeton University’s climate program, stating that it “fosters fears rather than rational, balanced discussion” and “promotes exaggerated and implausible climate threats,” which doesn’t align with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s objectives, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced.

The University of Pennsylvania announced earlier this month that it has complied with the administration’s demands following a Title IX investigation dating back to 2022, when a male identifying as transgender won an NCAA women’s swimming championship.

The athlete, Lia Thomas, was stripped of medals and records gained in women’s events, and the university was required to send a written apology to every swimmer who competed against Thomas. The school is to prohibit males from competing in female athletic programs or occupying women’s bathrooms or locker rooms.

Harvard was cited for anti-Semitism and continuing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) practices, which the administration said are discriminatory and illegal.

The administration froze billions in federal funding, prompting a lawsuit from Harvard, which called the move unconstitutional and a violation of free speech. Proceedings in that federal court case are underway.

Trump also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and moved to end the university’s visa program for foreign students, resulting in an additional lawsuit. A federal judge blocked that executive action.

On June 20 and again on July 25, Trump indicated that Harvard is interested in a resolution but provided no details on a settlement.

What Critics Are Saying

The American Association of University Professors union, which represents about 45,000 higher education professionals across the country, said Columbia’s decision sets “an extremely dangerous precedent that will have tremendous consequences for the sector.”

“For higher education to function, students and faculty must be free to think and speak their minds,” Todd Wolfson, association president, said in an email response to The Epoch Times. “Students, faculty, and all who care about higher education must stand up and fight back against this unprecedented continuing assault. We have no choice.”

In her July 23 statement, Columbia’s Shipman maintained that the agreement was carefully crafted to safeguard its independence while also protecting “the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track.”

The Fight Presses On

Columbia’s settlement acknowledges that campus reforms will protect Jewish students and faculty, but it “does not admit to wrongdoing,” according to the university’s July 23 statement.

After these sanctions, the resignation of college presidents, and nine congressional hearings in less than two years, Republican leaders remain skeptical that U.S. higher education is serious about implementing permanent measures to combat anti-Semitism.

During the July 15 House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing, University of California–Berkeley Chancellor Richard Lyons said his school’s Palestinian Arab studies program chair, who was cited for apparantly praising the Hamas terrorist attack on social media, is “a fine scholar.”

City University of New York Chancellor Felix Rodriguez acknowledged that a current CUNY employee who had previously served as the organization’s chief diversity officer had worked for an organization with ties to Hamas.

Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-N.Y.) response: “This individual is not going to be fired because it’s all words, no action. You have failed the people of New York. You have failed Jewish students in New York State, and it is a disgrace.”

Harvard, meanwhile, has not expressed any interest in a settlement like Columbia’s.

John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, said while Trump’s critics in this matter cling to the argument that the administration violated Harvard’s right to free speech, the president is following civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination by race, gender, or religion.

Regardless of how this case ends, the federal government can deny future grants, Shu told The Epoch Times. In addition, it can restrict admission to foreign students, on whom Harvard relies to pay full tuition and fees.

“Even if Harvard wins the instant case,” Shu said, “that doesn’t end its problems.”

Fueled by the rise of artificial intelligence and automation, the global job market is undergoing a major transformation.

To learn more about this trend, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualized the 15 fastest growing jobs projected from 2025 to 2030, drawing on a global survey of employers.

Data & Discussion

The data for this visualization comes from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025. It forecasts net job growth between 2025 and 2030, based on a survey containing 1,043 unique responses by global companies, collectively representing more than 14.1 million employees worldwide.

Big Data and AI Roles Are the Fastest Growing Jobs

At the top of the list are Big Data Specialists, expected to grow by 110% by 2030. They’re followed by FinTech Engineers (95%) and AI and Machine Learning Specialists (85%).

This signals an urgent demand for professionals who can build and manage AI systems and extract insights from massive data sets.

Software and Cybersecurity Jobs Still Essential

Software and Applications Developers remain crucial, with 60% projected growth. Cybersecurity-related roles also make the list, including Security Management Specialists (55%) and Information Security Analysts (40%).

As more data and infrastructure moves online, organizations must also invest more in cybersecurity to defend against evolving risks. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, the global average cost of a data breach is $4.9 million, up 10% from 2023.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The Best Universities for High-Paying Tech Jobs on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Wesley Brown via The Epoch Times,

The nation’s health-care marketplace insurers are seeking the largest premium increases in more than five years, ahead of the upcoming Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollment period in November, according to an analysis by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and health policy nonprofit KFF.

The July 18 report highlights several factors driving up insurance rates for 2026, as major health insurers submit rate filings to state regulators to justify premium changes for the upcoming calendar year.

“As in most years, rising healthcare costs—both the price of care and increased use—are a significant driver for increasing rates going into plan year 2026. The costs of healthcare services like hospitalizations and physician care, as well as prescription drug costs, tend to go up every year, and insurers often raise premiums to cover their increased costs,” the report states.

The Peterson–KFF analysis examined insurers in the District of Columbia and 19 states: Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Washington.

Finalized 2026 rate changes are expected to be published in late summer, and individuals will be able to see how their plans’ premiums are changing just before open enrollment begins in November.

The report states that heading into 2026, insurers expect that some policy changes will drive up their costs, increasing premiums beyond what they would otherwise be. Among these changes are enhanced ACA premium tax credits, which make coverage more affordable and will expire at the end of 2025, resulting in an average increase of more than 75 percent in out-of-pocket premium payments. The impact will vary depending on income and family composition.

“This is expected to cause healthier enrollees to drop their coverage and create a sicker risk pool,” the report states.

An earlier Peterson–KFF analysis found that the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits increased proposed rates by an average of 4 percent. It also stated that there would be gross premium increases, as healthier people are expected to drop their coverage in larger numbers due to increases in their net premium payments.

“Unless the premium tax credits are extended, consumers can expect increases in both the net premium payments and gross premiums,” the June 3 report states.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that, on average, gross benchmark silver premiums will ultimately be 7.9 percent higher than they would otherwise be as the risk pool becomes sicker, on average, and that many enrollees will become uninsured.

Tariffs could also drive up the cost of certain drugs, medical equipment, and supplies, the July 18 report stated. It further notes that some insurers report that tariffs—and the uncertainty surrounding them—are causing rate increases.

A June 18 KFF report stated that Optimum Choice of Maryland, Independent Health Benefits Corporation of New York, and UnitedHealthcare of New York are increasing premiums by 2.4 percent, 2.9 percent, and 3.6 percent, respectively, due to the impact of tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

Many insurers submitted proposed rates before Congress passed the budget reconciliation legislation and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized its rule on marketplace integrity and affordability. The legislation and new Medicaid rule, which explain how the ACA marketplace operates and how individuals enroll, were only finalized recently, and it is still unclear how insurers might respond, the report states.

“Early indications are that individual market insurers will be increasing premiums in 2026 by more than they have since 2018, the last time policy uncertainty contributed to sharp premium increases,” the July 18 Peterson–KFF report states. It noted that premiums are increasing by a median of 15 percent across the 20 markets it analyzed.

Another factor creating uncertainty in the rate filing process is the implementation of the Trump administration’s ACA integrity rule. Based on what insurers have filed so far, this does not generally appear to be driving rate changes in either direction, according to the report.

“Insurers and state regulators are still finalizing rates for the upcoming plan year, so these filed premium increases may change,” it states.

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during a Friday interview with The Associated Press, accused President Donald Trump of not being sane—while defending former President Joe Biden and appearing diminished herself. 

Her remarks came after an AP reporter asked if she had any regrets about pushing Biden off the 2024 ticket over concerns about his mental acuity. 

“I don’t have any second thoughts, but I do have a second thought about the Republicans,” She began:

“If they want to measure mental acuity or sanity, they’re to look to their own president because the president of the United States, who was asked one question and answers by saying President Obama is guilty of treason. He is not of sane mind.” 

Pelosi’s remarks were striking, given that she appeared visibly tired and aged during the interview.

At 85, Pelosi is much older than Trump. She has previously been seen struggling to walk outside Congress after undergoing hip replacement surgery. 

Despite this, she was one of the leading forces behind pressuring Biden off the 2024 ticket over fears American voters would reject his candidacy, given his age and cognitive decline. 

Asked if she has spoken with Biden since the 2024 election, she replied:

“No, we spoke both on Ethel Kennedy’s funeral. So that was one time when … we were together. But no, I have no second thoughts. I think that he was a great president.” 

Worse still, Pelosi compared Biden to Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt. 

“He had accomplishments that were seen in the same light as LBJ and Franklin Roosevelt. He didn’t have as long a tenure as they did, but he had the quality of legislation make a difference in people’s lives. It’s unfortunate that it went down this path, but I think that history will treat him well because he did great things for our country, a super patriot, loved America, honored our Constitution. A big contrast to what we have now.”

Via VigilantFox.com

Infamous vaccine pusher Dr. Peter Hotez recently had an uncomfortable moment during what started as a softball radio interview on Hello Houston.

Everything was going his way. The hosts praised Hotez for battling “disinformation” and hung on to his every word as if it were gospel.

But then, things went off the rails when a possibly vaccine-injured woman called into the show.

Carol, who says she keeps up with her boosters, asked Hotez over the phone why she suffered the “worst experience [she] ever had” just two days after her last COVID shot.

The moment felt like watching a train wreck in real time.

She described how she was so exhausted she was sleeping 16 hours a day, and had a “really bad cough with deep phlegm.”

At first, Hotez assumed she’d had a severe case of COVID. But to his shock, Carol told him she had NEVER had COVID.

Hotez scrambled for an explanation:

“So, what possibly could have happened is in between the time you got the booster and the immune response kicks in, you could have gotten some intercurrent viral infection, such as Covid or flu or a gazillion other things. So sometimes it’s hard to know what’s ascribed to a SIDE EFFECT of the vaccine versus some other intercurrent illness.”

Notice that in the last line, Hotez says the quiet part out loud: “side effect.”

He realizes: “Oh, sh*t, this could be a vaccine-injured person.”

But instead of acknowledging that possibility, he spins an explanation to confuse her into thinking the symptoms could have come from something else—just two days after the shot.

Just watch the clip. It’s never the jab with these people.

OMG: A heavily-vaxxed woman calls Peter Hotez asking why she suffered the “worst experience [she] ever had” two days after her last COVID booster.

This is like watching a train wreck in real time.

The woman was so tired she was sleeping 16 hours a day, and she had a “really bad… pic.twitter.com/6558g8ESh5

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 25, 2025

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just released a trove of apparently once-classified documents – with promises of much more to follow.

The new material describes the role of the Obama administration’s intelligence and investigatory directors — purportedly along with former President Barack Obama himself — in undermining the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. In addition, their efforts extended to sabotaging the 2016-2017 presidential transition and, by extension, the first three years of the Trump presidency.

The released documents add some new details to what over the last decade has become accepted knowledge.

Congressional committees, special prosecutors, and the inspectors general had all previously issued reports that largely confirmed the general outlines of the skullduggery that began in 2015-16.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign, later aided by the top echelon of the FBI, CIA, and the Director of National Intelligence, sought — falsely — to seed a narrative that Trump had colluded directly with Russia to win unfairly the 2016 election.

When that campaign gambit failed to alter the 2016 results, the Obama administration doubled down during the transition to undermine the incoming Trump presidency.

Next, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “all-star” legal team found no evidence of direct Trump-Putin collusion to hijack the election. But his investigation did sabotage 22 months of Trump’s first term, marked by constant leaks and hysterical rumors that Trump was soon to be convicted and jailed as a “Russian asset.”

By 2020, the frustrated intelligence agencies and former “authorities” now absurdly further lied that Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop had “all the earmarks” — once again — of Russian interference.

So, what could be new about Gabbard’s latest release?

One, after the 2016 election of Donald Trump but before his inauguration, Obama convened a strange meeting with his outgoing intelligence and investigatory heads — CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and a few others.

Contrary to a four-year Democratic Party narrative that “18 intelligence agencies” had long claimed Russian collusion, the top directors apprised Obama that their expert colleagues had found no such evidence of Trump-Putin collusion.

Yet outgoing President Obama allegedly directed them to ignore such an assessment. Instead, they began spreading narratives that President-elect Trump had been colluding with the Russians.

Leaks followed. Media hysteria crested. And soon Mueller and his left-wing “dream team” of lawyers targeted President Trump.

Further new information may confirm that Brennan’s CIA — and those he briefed in the Oval Office — had known for some time that the Russians themselves were confused about why they were falsely being accused of colluding with Trump to rig the election.

Of course, Russian operatives, like their Chinese counterparts, often seek to cause havoc in American institutions, such as hacking emails or spreading online disinformation. But they may have been nevertheless curious why Hillary Clinton was making such false accusations that they were working directly with Trump, and why the Obama administration was acting upon them.

Obama has now claimed these new charges are outrageous and beneath the dignity of the presidency.

He did not, however, flatly contradict the new information. He should have issued an unambiguous denial that he had never ordered his intelligence chiefs in December 2016 to ignore their associates’ assessments and instead to assume Trump’s collusion with Putin.

These sustained efforts of the Clinton campaign, Obama appointees, and ex-intelligence chiefs and their media counterparts between 2015 and 2020 severely undermined the 2016 Trump campaign.

They bushwhacked the 2017 presidential transition.

They hamstrung the Trump presidency.

And they may well have hurt Trump’s 2020 election bid.

Summed up, here is the damage caused by the Trump-Putin collusion lies:

1. They emboldened “experts” in 2020 to again lie blatantly and shamelessly to the American people that the incriminating Hunter Biden laptop was yet another fake product of Russian interference to help reelect Trump.

2. The media were equally guilty. Journalists partnered with current and ex-Obama appointees by disseminating fake documents like the Steele dossier and working with giants like Twitter and Facebook. During the 2020 campaign, the FBI and social media sought to censor accurate news stories that the laptop was indeed authentic and already verified as such by the FBI.

3. These operations may have had serious consequences for U.S. foreign policy. Dictatorial Russia is an adversary of the U.S.

But by needlessly and falsely claiming that Russia had intervened in two elections directly to partner with Trump, Obama-era officials and Clinton-campaign activists destroyed President Trump’s own credibility to sustain a workable relationship with a nuclear Russia.

In addition, the lying and extra-legal operations of the FBI and CIA only further convinced the paranoid Russians that they could not trust the U.S. government — given it had been engaging in the very conspiracy lies that were more akin to its own than America’s.

Obama, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and others will likely never face legal consequences for the damage they’ve done to our institutions and foreign policy.

But that does not mean they should be exempt from an ongoing and disinterested effort to find and finally expose the whole truth.

How did Salesforce founder Marc Benioff’s TIME Magazine manage to so epically fumble something as basic as populating a relevant “Top Podcasts” list? 

Perhaps it’s because the list was actually curated by an MSM journalist wearing progressive blinders, ignoring reality, and selectively choosing cringe-worthy podcasts while dismissing both Spotify’s “The Podcast Charts” and Edison’s list of the top 50 podcasts in the U.S., which placed The Joe Rogan Experience at number one.

Meet TIME’s Eliana Dockterman, the author of the magazine’s “100 Best Podcasts of All Time” list, a compilation filled with cringe-worthy picks that cater to the increasingly out-of-touch Democratic Party base.

Media analyst Sasha Stone of Awards Daily (formerly known as Oscarwatch) commented on the list. She noted, “Okay, so this list isn’t anything official or well-thought-out. It’s a list for people who listen to Kara Swisher and The Daily. It’s the target demo for NPR’s Serial and Dax Shepard, but what it isn’t is a list that, in any way, reflects the greatest podcasts of all time. Nowhere near.”

Stone continued, “She also left off the podcasts that were truly influential, like the Free Press series the Witch Trials of JK Rowling.” 

“If it’s a personal list, fine. But some authority comes with TIME Magazine naming the best 100 shows and getting it so very very wrong,” Stone emphasized. 

Dockterman’s top picks for news and politics podcasts include The New York Times and NPR News. There’s really nothing more to say … readers can already profile this journalist who lost the narrative years ago. She needs some serious soul-searching. 

Dockterman didn’t just leave out Joe Rogan. She completely ignored Theo Von, whose podcast ranks number three on Spotify.

Again, she left out Rogan’s podcast. This is Edison’s list. 

TIME’s post on X was heavily ratioed, with many users calling the list “crap,” “trash,” and even saying “this can’t be real” …

Many others said they had never even heard of some of the podcasts on Dockterman’s list. This is a telling sign of the massive shift in where people now get their news. Increasingly, they’re turning away from the corporate propaganda machine that serves the deep state and globalist corporations and instead turning to alternative voices like Rogan and independent media outlets. 

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based rights group that tracks violence in Syria, has released a statement criticizing US Ambassador Tom Barrack for claiming Syrian government forces were not involved in the mass executions of civilians in Suwayda, southern Syria.

Seven days of clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin who were backed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government forces left 1,399 people dead, including 196 civilians executed by gunmen affiliated with the Syrian defense and interior ministries, according to the SOHR.

Barrack, who serves as the ambassador to Turkey and as a special envoy to Syria, claimed Syrian government troops didn’t enter Suwayda during the violence. “The Syrian troops haven’t gone into the city. These atrocities that are happening are not happening by the Syrian regime troops. They’re not even in the city because they agreed with Israel that they would not go in,” he told Reuters.

Barrack also claimed that the fighters who entered the city may have been ISIS members disguised as government troops, though HTS and ISIS share a similar ideology. In response, the SOHR said that it “strongly rejects and condemns” Barrack’s comments.

“SOHR considers these statements to lack even the minimum standards of objectivity and neutrality. They not only represent a serious deviation from the envoy’s expected role as a mediator working toward peace and stability among Syrians, but also open the door for further massacres to be committed against other Syrian communities, similar to what has happened to the Druze and Alawites in Suwayda and other regions,” the SOHR said.

“SOHR affirms that it possesses documented evidence, including video footage and credible field testimonies, confirming that the horrific violations, including the execution of civilians, the throwing of young men from upper floors and the killing of a Syrian-American citizen on sectarian grounds, took place on the day Syrian Ministry of Defense personnel entered Suwayda city,” the group added.

The SOHR said that Barrack should not act as a “defense attorney” for “an interim authority that has failed to protect Syrians and whose media and key figures have contributed to fueling sectarian and regional conflict.”

The SOHR has detailed many of the executions in Suwayda, including one where Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian American, was shot to death along with seven of his relatives, a massacre that was filmed and posted online.

The SOHR also detailed the killing of Pastor Khaled Maher Mazhar, a Christian convert from the Druze religion who was massacred along with 11 members of his family, including six women. The group said the family was killed by members of the Syrian Defense Ministry. “The perpetrators opened fire directly on everyone inside the house, even extending the killing to include the family’s dog, an act that reflects the extreme brutality of the massacre,” the SOHR said.

First they killed the Alawites, now they kill the Druze. The entire population of Syria will be killed by ISIS. A HTS (ISIS) fighter telling he will kill all the Druze, he has the patch of ISIS on his shoulder. In the background you can hear the shooting going on…West is quilty pic.twitter.com/DWlubyblC3

— sonja van den ende (@SonjaEnde) April 30, 2025

Barrack and other US officials have embraced the new Syrian government and its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, despite his al-Qaeda past. HTS formed in 2017 as an offshoot of the al-Nusra Front, which was al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria until Sharaa rebranded to gain international support.

HTS took power in Damascus following a lightning offensive that ended with the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad. The US had foreknowledge of the offensive and helped a US-backed militia take part in the assault from its base at al-Tanf in southern Syria.

As part of the latest in the war, overnight Ukrainian drones targeted a facility producing radio and electronic warfare equipment in Russia’s Stavropol region, according to a Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) official speaking to Reuters.

The official said the strike damaged two sections of the Signal plant in Stavropol, which lies roughly 335 miles from the Ukrainian border. Short video clips showing an explosion and thick, dark smoke rising into the air were subsequently released in order to confirm there was serious damage.

The Signal plant is considered one of Russia’s prime producers of electronic warfare systems, manufacturing items such as radar, radio navigation devices, and remote-control communication systems.

“Last night, long-range drones operated by the SBU struck the production facilities of the Signal Radio Plant in Stavropol,” the official said.

“Each such strike disrupts production and weakens the enemy’s military capabilities. These operations will continue,” he added.

For Russia’s part, it announced on Saturday that its forces had taken control of two villages in Ukraine, including one in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. This marks a key advance given the longtime static nature of the front lines in Dnipropetrovsk.

The Russian military stated that its troops had “liberated the settlement of Maliyevka” in Dnipropetrovsk, which is a  second such capture in the region recently, despite this area not being among the Ukrainian territories formally annexed by Russia.

Ukraine increasingly uses faster jet-engine drones in addition to turboprop drones for attacks on Russian defense industries. This morning’s target was the Signal plant in Stavropol, which makes jammers and other radio electronic warfare equipment. pic.twitter.com/KWkmo8OcY8

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) July 26, 2025

In a separate statement, the Kremling also claimed the capture of Zeleny Gai in the Donetsk region, near the Dnipropetrovsk border. The Russian military described it as a key Ukrainian defensive position used to protect the area.

Meanwhile, officials from both countries confirmed that overnight attacks killed six people, including four in central Ukraine and two in western Russia.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations just met days ago in Istanbul for their third round of talks, but nothing came of it except for firming up the next major prisoner swap, as well as to agree to keep talking.