Authored by Ken Silva via HeadlineUSA,

Newly unsealed court records reveal that a confidential informant made $665,638.63 over roughly the last eight years working for the FBI—with one of his recent assignments being to pose as an Iraqi terrorist.

“[Confidential Human Source 1] has been working with the FBI since approximately 2014. CHS1 has no prior arrests/convictions or negative reporting. CHS1 is working with the FBI based on patriotism as well as monetary benefits,” the FBI disclosed in an Oct. 2022 criminal complaint that was just unsealed last Thursday.

“CHS1 has done extensive work for the FBI beyond this case, and the CHS1’s total compensation for work performed and the reimbursement of expenses over the past approximately 8 years is in excess of $665,638.63.”

🚨Newly unsealed court records show that a confidential informant made $665,638.63 over roughly the last eight years working for the FBI—with one of his recent assignments being to pose as an Iraqi terrorist.
STORY BELOW!
🧵 pic.twitter.com/yJYeDuSbV8

— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) March 3, 2025

Last Thursday’s bombshell disclosure came in the case of former Navy sailor Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, a naturalized citizen from China who was residing in North Chicago. Pang pled guilty last November to conspiring to and attempting to willfully harm the national defense of the United States—and his guilty plea was just ordered unsealed last Thursday.

The details of Pang’s case are wild.

According to the Justice Department, Pang, who enlisted in the Navy in February 2022, was an associate of an unnamed individual in Colombia. Pang and the Colombian were allegedly conspiring to attack the U.S. to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, a general of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed by the Trump administration in 2020

Court records don’t explain Pang or the Colombian’s interest in avenging Soleimani, but they do say that the Colombian has links to the National Liberation Army, a Marxist-Leninist guerilla organization formed in 1964.

While their motivations are unclear, Pang and the Colombian’s conspiracy allegedly included a plot to smuggle radioactive polonium into the country, according to the FBI. The Colombian allegedly told Pang in 2022 that the polonium would “detonate” in a major U.S. city within a year—something that obviously never happened.

The FBI purportedly discovered the above-mentioned conspiracy when agent executed a search warrant on Pang’s online activity in April 2022, two months after he enlisted in the Navy. Court records don’t indicate why the FBI sought the warrant in the first place.

After executing the search on Pang, an FBI undercover employee posing as an Iraqi Shia militant group commander contacted the Colombian in July 2022. The unnamed Colombia allegedly agreed to help the covert FBI employee and his purported associates with their operation to conduct the attack in the U.S. Pang was looped in on the plot, and he agreed to help, too, according to the FBI.

That’s when the FBI informant came into the picture. According to court records, the FBI informant met in person with Pang at least three times, posing as an operative of the Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary group, Kata’ib Hizballah. Their first meeting was in September 2022.

Pang and continued to talk to the phony Iraqi operative over the next few weeks. The criminal complaint against Pang shows that the FBI informant was pushing him into a plot to attack military bases—but that Pang was reluctant.

One purported conversation went as follows:

CHS1: So, you mentioned some military places. Is it closer from here?

PANG: Not that close.

CHS1: No?

PANG: Two hours.

CHS1: [Unintelligible]

PANG: Those places, impossible.

CHS1: Really?

PANG: Because the military places have this heavily…heavily guarded…

CHS1: Yeah.

PANG: …heavily guarded. And you have only two people coming? You can’t …won’t be able to get through a gate.

CHS1: Yeah. You’re right.

PANG: So…

CHS1: Do you think you can do some search of these places just in case?

PANG: I’ll look it up.

Eventually, Pang did send surveillance footage of a Navy base, according to the FBI. Pang also allegedly showed the FBI informant footage of inside the base during an in-person meeting in October 2022.

“PANG initiated the meeting with CHS1 to discuss more details about the plot to attack the Naval Station Great Lakes and was also aware of the risks of sending photos of the inside of the military base,” the DOJ’s October 2022 criminal complaint stated. “Although aware of these risks, according to CHS1 and the recording, PANG showed photos of what appeared to be areas inside of the U.S. Navy base to CHS1 during their in-person meeting.”

After that Oct. 15, 2022, meeting, the FBI informant paid Pang $3,000 in cash. The informant then asked about acquiring military uniforms to get operatives onto the Navy base to facilitate an attack. Later that month, Pang provided the informant with the uniforms, according to the FBI. Pang also allegedly provided the informant with a cell phone that could be used as a test for a detonator.

The FBI obtained an arrest warrant for Pang the next day on Oct. 16, 2022. For the next two-plus years, the case remained under seal.

At one point, Pang filed an unsuccessful motion to dismiss the charges. The contents of that motion are still unavailable to the public, as are the vast majority of documents from the case.

Pang is set to be sentenced on May 27. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The DOJ’s case is the latest allegation that Iran conspired to attack the U.S. Last year, the DOJ announced two cases involving a purported plot to assassinate Donald Trump.

To date, the U.S. government has produced no hard evidence of an Iranian plot against Trump. A Pakistani man with ties to Iran was arrested last July for trying to hire an FBI informant as a “hitman,” and another Iranian told the FBI last year that his government was trying to kill Trump—but those cases appear highly dubious, and certainly didn’t pose any real threat to the President.

Additionally, in 2022 the FBI announced an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate former national security advisor John Bolton—another case involving someone trying to hire an FBI informant as a hitman.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

US Central Command released the first-ever public footage of a bladed AGM-114R9X Hellfire Missile eliminating a senior leader of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group Hurras al-Din in Syria last month.

The caption of the CENTCOM video reads:

CENTCOM Forces Kill the Senior Military Leader of Al-Qaeda Affiliate Hurras al-Din (HaD) in Syria

On Feb. 23, US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria, targeting and killing Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate.

The airstrike is part of CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the US, our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond.

“As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander, US Central Command.

CENTCOM Forces Kill the Senior Military Leader of Al-Qaeda Affiliate Hurras al-Din (HaD) in Syria

On Feb. 23, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria, targeting and killing Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of… pic.twitter.com/trhDvgdgne

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 1, 2025

CENTCOM’s footage further confirmed videos published on X on Feb. 23, showing the aftermath of the strike, with damage on the vehicle consistent with the secretive bladed missile. The missile was presumably fired from a MQ-9 Reaper drone.

#Syria: fragments of the missiles used today by US to kill a former Horas Al-Din member near Killi (N. #Idlib).
Those Hellfire missiles (R9X) use blades instead of explosives.
Impact point in the vehicle also pictured. pic.twitter.com/i1N0BExedE

— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) February 23, 2025

The Aviationist noted, “The Hellfire R-9X is said to have been introduced to US military service in 2017, but first started to be reported on two years later in 2019. A 2022 airstrike targeting the then leader of al-Qaeda gave the missile further attention in the mainstream media.” 

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

President Trump has eased restrictions on US airstrikes and special operations raids in areas outside of countries officially considered combat zones by the US, giving US military commanders the freedom to launch attacks without permission from the White House.

The order reverts back to the policy of the first Trump administration, doing away with restrictions President Biden added to US drone strikes and raids outside of Iraq and Syria, the only two countries the US officially considers combat zones.

Biden’s rules required permission from the White House to target militants outside Iraq and Syria unless they were high-ranking commanders. But the rule had a major loophole: Strikes could be ordered if they could be framed as “self-defense.”

In Somalia, the US almost always claims its airstrikes are launched in defense of the US-backed Mogadishu-based government.

Trump’s rules give commanders the ability to target any militants belonging to organizations the US considers terrorist organizations without White House approval. The easing of the restrictions was confirmed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who shared a CBS News report about the step on X and wrote, “Correct.”

The news comes amid an uptick in US airstrikes in Somalia and Syria. US officials told CBS that al-Shabaab in Somalia, which the US targeted three times in recent weeks, and the Houthis in Yemen were discussed as potential targets by the Trump administration.

So far, there have been no known US airstrikes against the Houthis under the new Trump administration. From January 2024 to January 2025, President Biden waged a bombing campaign against the Houthis in defense of Israeli and international shipping. The attacks failed to deter the Houthis and only escalated the situation in the Red Sea.

Correct. https://t.co/A9ep6cbEw9

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) February 28, 2025

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, have stopped attacks on Israel and on shipping in the region in response to the Gaza ceasefire deal. But those attacks could restart as Israel appears poised to restart its genocidal war.

Just over six weeks after SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy Flight Test 7 lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, ending in a dramatic spectacle—the massive booster successfully caught by ‘Chopsticks’ while Starship itself was lost in a fireball over the Atlantic Ocean—Elon Musk’s space company is set to conduct Flight Test 8 of the world’s largest rocket this evening. 

Starship’s launch window opens at 1730 local time at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in south Texas. The primary goal of this launch is to test Starship’s ability to deploy Starlink “simulator” satellites into low Earth orbit. 

Summary of Flight Test 8:

Launch Details:

• Scheduled for Monday, March 3

• 60-minute launch window opens at 5:30 p.m. CT

• Live webcast starts 40 minutes before liftoff on SpaceX’s X account and X TV app

Post-Flight 7 Investigation & Upgrades [upgrades made after Flight Test 7’s firey demise of Starship]: 

• Hardware and operational changes made to increase upper stage reliability

• Forward flap upgrades reduce reentry heating exposure

• Propulsion system enhancements include a 25% increase in propellant volume

• Avionics system redesigned for added capability and redundancy

Flight Objectives:

• Follows same suborbital trajectory as previous missions

• First payload deployment test (four Starlink simulators)

• Multiple reentry experiments to improve upper stage return and catch capabilities

• Super Heavy booster launch, return, and catch attempt

Key Experiments & Tests:

• Starlink simulators to be deployed, but expected to burn up on reentry

• Single Raptor engine relight in space test planned

• Reentry stress tests: Tiles removed to test vulnerable areas, Metallic tile alternatives tested, including active cooling, and Structural stress tests on rear flaps at max reentry pressure.

• Catch fitting thermal performance test

• Radar sensor accuracy tests on chopsticks for improved vehicle retrieval

Super Heavy Booster Enhancements:

• Upgraded avionics, including a more powerful flight computer

• Improved power/network distribution and smart batteries

Booster Return & Catch Criteria:

• Safety measures in place: Healthy systems required on booster tower and Final manual command needed from Flight Director before boostback burn. 

• If conditions are not met, booster will soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico

The crypto-based online betting marketplace Polymarket has nine bets on today’s test flight, including the following: Will “Chopsticks catch Super Heavy?” Those odds stand at 78%. 

Watch Test Flight 8 Here:  

. . . 

Authored by Stanley Ridgley via American Greatness,

This article is adapted from the author’s new book, “DEI Exposed: How the Biggest Con of the Century Almost Toppled Higher Education” (Armin Lear Press.)

The DEI Con has enriched thousands of hustlers nationwide. It has embedded many hundreds of apparatchiks and supernumeraries in college bureaucracies, and it will require herculean efforts to root them all out. And it continues to attack the average person for the most dubious of ideologically motivated reasons in “training” sessions, both on the campuses and in corporate America.

I first heard the actual acronym DEI expressed while I was in a 7-11 on the campus during the early days of the COVID pandemic, and it was two masked graduate students discussing the wonderful employment possibilities of this new initiative, which sounded like someone trying to monetize kumbaya. Already steeped in leftist ideology and its tactic of renaming and relabeling its hooey for new generations of suckers, I was only vaguely aware that this was just the latest brand for the newest social justice foray in higher education.

“Diversity” had already been around for many years, its hustler scratching at the university door. Not actual diversity, mind you, but the skin-deep diversity of noxious racialism tarted-up with fake Enlightenment discourse. This concept of “diversity, equity, inclusion” quickly metastasized until it was everywhere, and this was no accident. It was a bureaucratic initiative designed to anchor a new raft of social justice programs as an inescapable presence on the campus.

It was no accident that it was violence and the threat of violence that opened the door for this effervescence of DEI. It sounded absurd. I knew it was absurd; I knew it was a con. Most people likely knew it was a con but then most people on the campuses also knew to keep their mouths shut in a time of hair-trigger tempers and performative chaos unleashed by well-funded activist groups. No college administration wanted the summer violence of 2020 overflowing onto the campuses. And so they opened the university to barbarian ideas rather than the barbarians themselves.

This was the madness of crowds brought en masse onto the campuses, and it was wildly successful. It achieved this success with a superb combination of psychological factors—relentless hustling, a primitive ideology suffused with mysticism and “indigenous knowledges,” and the barely concealed violent urges of quasi-communist and terroristic revolutionaries. All of this shielded from criticism and even the mildest of questioning.

You knew something was terribly wrong with it.

Anyone on a college campus subjected to the mediocrity of a DEI hustler knew there was something wrong with it.

It was not noble. It was not idealistic. It was not the many wonderful things its proponents said. It was one thing to the public, and it was another altogether when enacted on the campuses. It was weird and alien and hateful at its core, but the public is rarely exposed to any of this. It was the classic Potemkin village offering, with a façade masking a brute, racialist substance.

In other words, it was a con. In fact, it was the biggest Con Story of the 21st century, with America’s universities the biggest suckers imaginable. And the crowning achievement of Western civilization—the modern university—tottered under the assault of mediocrity, racialism, and pseudoscience.

I suppose that folks duped by the big cons will eventually retreat in their embarrassment at having been fooled by one of the shadiest Con Stories ever deployed. Even now, DEI is in retreat. As it plays out in its final act, I assure you that it will dissipate in a flurry of new acronyms and new labels designed to hide its failure.

Its proponents will roll out new slogans to replace the vapid “Diversity is our strength.” Already, “inclusive excellence” is supplanting DEI as this trusty acronym becomes freighted with failure. The Con Story will morph and adapt. Reluctantly. Buzzwords will change, new slogans will be coined, but the underlying ideology will remain the same as it always has. It must serve yeoman’s duty for the Big Con.

Elaborate and elegant Con Stories have played major political roles for centuries, baiting and hooking marks with promises of utopia. The most convincing Con Story of them all is that of Karl Marx, whose fabulous pseudoscience has duped millions of the credulous to support murderous regimes in the name of “social justice.” It still does.

Con Stories are essential to convincing gullible people to act in ways that simply make no sense to a normal person who is tethered to reality. We saw an example of the Con Story’s power in December of 2024.

In the early morning hours, a Con Story duped a privileged 26-year-old by the name of Luigi Mangione to stalk and back-shoot a man he’d never met—a man with wife and two children who guaranteed the health care of hundreds of thousands of Americans through his company. Mangione murdered on the streets of New York for the same reason that extremist ideologues and world-changers always kill. His ideology told him the target was a villain, and he acted.

Let’s be clear. People who think this way are dangerous. They are not temperate, they do not compromise (except for the moment’s expediency), and they are certainly not swayed by the better “argument.” These are the kinds of people who hide inside a crowd, usually masked. Many of them are disturbed mentally.

It’s easy to identify the people who are moving in the Mangione direction, inspired by corrupt ideas and urged to do something rather than sit idle. This is a social pathology, and examples of it are too numerous for any polity to be comfortable.

This is the core of successful social movements and social hustles—to contrive a winning narrative out of confusing facts and isolated incidents to portray a fictional pattern, a nationwide epidemic of, well, something that can be used to make a buck. When the social movement is also a social hustle, the combination is too powerful to resist for con-artists and their suckers.

If you believe that there is no link between the kind of social fantasy that motivates a Luigi Mangione to backshoot a man he doesn’t know on a New York street and the kind of DEI fantasy that dictates a racialist split on the college campus that slots persons into good and evil, then try this test yourself. I give you a guarantee that persons who cheer the killer Luigi Mangione for his assassination of Brian Thompson also fully support DEI’s personnel, programs, policies, and enforcement mechanisms on the college campuses. Go ahead, ask a person who cheers the assassin if he also supports DEI.

You already know the answer, don’t you?

It’s because this type of person is animated by a vision of the world crafted by some dead scribbler and is a prisoner of ideology, forfeiting the reliable information provided by his own senses and experience.

It’s what happens when a sucker falls hard for a Con Story.

*  *  *

Dr. Stanley K. Ridgley, author of DEI Exposed: How the Biggest Con of the Century Almost Toppled Higher Education, is Clinical Full Professor of Strategic Management at Drexel University. He holds a Doctorate and Master’s in International Relations and Security from Duke University and an International MBA from Temple University. He is a Russian language linguist and former Military Intelligence Officer.

During a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Elon Musk suggested that he’ll be assassinated if he 

“It’s more than just insider trading. The stock portfolio stuff is quite trackable, but it’s a lot more than insider trading,” said Musk.

“The way they’re acquiring wealth?” Rogan asked.

…pause…

“Correct,” replied Musk.

“And what other methods,” asked Rogan.

“I mean this is really gonna get me assassinated,” Musk replied. “It’s like, I’m not lengthening my lifespan by explaining this stuff, to say the least. I mean, I was supposed to go back to DC. How am I going to survive? This is fucking going to kill me for sure,” Musk continued.

“In fact, I do think like this… it’s like, I actually have to be careful that I don’t push too hard on the corruption stuff because it’s going to get me killed.”

Watch:

pic.twitter.com/rUr4JVLYa9

— Joe Rogan Podcast (@joeroganhq) March 2, 2025

More highlights from the interview:

Musk and Rogan discuss how NGOs are nothing more than a money printing hack for the elite. (h/t @Leksents)

Elon Musk & Joe Rogan expose how NGOs are just a money-printing hack for the elite. Set up a nonprofit, give it a nice name, lobby politicians—then rake in billions in taxpayer cash.

George Soros mastered the game. The system is rigged. pic.twitter.com/1AwEgg3ypM

— Aleks (@Leksents) March 1, 2025

Musk then zeroed in on why the left is out to get him: Entitlements fraud…

“At the heart of the sort of like, why is the Democrat propaganda machine so fired up to destroy me? That’s the main reason. The main reason is that, is that, entitlements fraud, that includes, like, Social Security, disability, Medicaid, entitlements fraud for illegal aliens is what is serving as a gigantic magnetic force to pull people in from all around the world and keep them here.

*  *  *

Back In Stock: Anza MINI-Swat! Like it’s big brother, only more concealable…

“Basically, if you pay people, at a standard of living that is above 90% of Earth, then you have a very powerful incentive for 90% of Earth to come here and to stay here. But if you if you end the illegal alien fraud, then you that you turn off that magnet, and they leave. And they they stop coming, and the and the ones that are here, many of them will simply leave.” (h/t @newstart_2024)

pic.twitter.com/6kreKPOn0N

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2025

The two also discussed why the Butler rally was the only one that CNN livestreamed, out of all the Trump rallies (implying someone tipped them off to the assassination attempt, which CNN has refuted).

What are the chances @CNN was tipped off to stream the Butler rally? Why isn’t this worthy of an investigation? It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who orders the coverage and why. https://t.co/zUiNeNzWiV

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) March 2, 2025

Watch the entire interview below:

Authored by Nick Bryant

We’ve been bombarded by rumors of the Epstein List, which is thought to be the Holy Grail of the Epstein case. On Wednesday, March 26, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on national television that the “Epstein files” were on her desk, and she was releasing them to the public the following day. She also declared that the “files” contained “a lot of flight logs” and “a lot of names.”

‘The Dog Ate My Epstein Files…’ https://t.co/TLEcKf4Dnl

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 28, 2025

Unfortunately, Bondi’s declaration was much ado about nothing.

So, either she lied on national television, or she didn’t look at the documents on her desk before releasing them. In either case, her behavior was egregious.

I uploaded Epstein’s Black Book to the internet in 2015, and I believe that’s the closest we’ve come to an Epstein List, because the Black Book contains the names of numerous perps. I also uploaded passenger manifests from Epstein’s various sojourns, which, I believe, contain the names of various perpetrators, too. The documentation I released in 2015 had exponentially more information on the particulars of Epstein case than the redacted dreck Bondi released on Thursday.

In the “Epstein List” or “Epstein Files” narrative, each acts like Epstein kept a list of his child molesting clients as if were a travel agent at the Jeffrey Epstein Travel Agency. The Epstein list narrative is problematic because the idea he just kept their names and numbers in his black book at best the Epstein list is wishful thinking, at worst it’s a contrived meme.

I’ve been investigating Epstein et al for many years & here’s a video I made about the Epstein coverup. The video has information that no one else has published or broadcasted. It probably contains more meaningful information than Pam Bondi will release. https://t.co/HNBxyRA3iL

— Nick Bryant (@Nick__Bryant) February 27, 2025

According to a New York Times Article from July 8th, 2018, federal authorities seized hundreds, possibly thousands, of sexually suggestive photographs of girls who appear underage as well as hand-labeled compact discs with titles like “girls pics nude” and with the namess redacted like “young [redacted] plus [redacted]”. Judging by the titles on the discs Epstein was a purveyor of child rap material. The latter disc named by the New York Times is perhaps an indication of blackmail.

A New York Times article from August 29th, 2019 names Ghislaine Maxwell, Sarah Kellen Leslie Groff, Adriana Ross Nadia Marcinkova, and Haley Robson as procurers or otherwise pimps for the Epstein criminal enterprise. The case that put Maxwell in prison was truly a travesty of Justice. Two of her indictments consisted of conspiracy to entice miners to travel and engage in illegal sex acts and also conspiracy to transport minors with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Though Maxwell was indicted on two conspiracies none of her criminal cohorts were indicted, which makes absolutely no sense.

Moreover, Business Insider reported that an FBI agent later confessed that hard drives were taken from Epstein’s safe. I believe that the impounded discs and hard drives would be an unparalleled source for identifying both perpetrators and victims in the Epstein trafficking network. If federal authorities are truly committed to justice then Americans should be given access toe the names of the perpetrators on the discs and the hard drives.

The following 18-minute video explains why Bondi’s actions were so atrocious for a public who implores that the government provide it with the truth about the most prolific child sex trafficker who’s ever been acknowledged by federal law enforcement.

A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction extending a temporary block on President Donald Trump’s executive order which halts funding for transgender procedures for youth under the age of 19.

The order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” yanks federal funding for so-called gender-affirming care. The EO prohibits federal funding, support, or promotion of pediatric ‘gender-affirming’ medical interventions.

On Friday, US District Judge Lauren King – a Biden appointee, extended her Feb. 14 order in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, Minnesota, Oregon and Colorado – as well as three doctors, ruling that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that Trump’s order violates the Constitution’s separation of powers by attempting to usurp Congress’s power to appropriate federal funds.

“The Court’s holding here is not about the policy goals that President Trump seeks to advance; rather, it is about reaffirming the structural integrity of the Constitution by ensuring that executive action respects congressional authority,” wrote King, adding that the plaintiffs are also likely to prevail in their claim that the order violates the Fifth Amendment’s right to equal protection, which prohibits the federal government from “treating people differently based on sex or transgender status.”

Of note – King, 42, was in private practice from 2012-2021, then served as a pro tem appellate (backup) judge for the Northwest Intertribal Court System in Washington state, and then former President Biden nominated her to serve as a US District judge for the Western District of Washington. She is the first Native American federal judge to serve the state. Amazing.

King did say that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the executive order’s provision on “protections against female genital mutilation,” as all four states are already subject to laws criminalizing the procedure.

Let that sink in – they wanted to allow female genital mutilation in addition to the rest of it…

In a statement praising King, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said on X that the injunction would allow young transgender Washingtonians to access “needed life-saving care,” and enable medical institutions in the state to operate “without federal government discrimination or overreach.”

A judge just granted an injunction against Trump’s unconstitutional ban on gender-affirming care for youth. It means young trans Washingtonians can continue to access needed life-saving care and medical institutions can work without federal government discrimination or overreach. pic.twitter.com/hbbHYHZzT2

— Attorney General Nick Brown (@AGOWA) March 1, 2025

As the Epoch Times notes further, 

Trump signed the “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” executive order after taking office on Jan. 20. It instructed the head of each agency that provides research and education grants to medical institutions to take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving these grants “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

The order states that the U.S. government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” and vows to “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

*  *  *

Top 5 sellers last week at ZH Store:

• ZeroHedge Multitool
• Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies (on sale!)
• Ultra Testosterone Booster
• ZeroHedge Hat
• IQ Biologix Colostrum

*  *  *

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order stated. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”

Under the order, “chemical and surgical mutilation” was defined as the use of puberty blockers, the use of sex hormones, and surgical procedures “that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex.”

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on Feb. 7, arguing that the president’s order is unconstitutional and accusing the Trump administration of discrimination.

“The Order facially discriminates against transgender and gender-diverse people by stigmatizing, defunding, and purporting to criminalize health care that is lawful, state-regulated, medically appropriate and necessary, and specific to their health needs, while the same care is provided to cisgender people for other purposes,” they stated.

Another federal judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order on Feb. 13, blocking portions of Trump’s executive orders, including the one titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,”—which recognizes only two sexes, male and female—following a legal challenge filed by advocacy groups.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an opinion article published on March 2 that vaccination is a personal decision. He also advocated for immunizations amid a measles outbreak in several communities in West Texas in recent weeks that included one confirmed death.

“All parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy wrote in his article published on Fox News on Sunday evening, reacting to the measles outbreak.

“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,” the secretary continued. 

“Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”

He added that health care providers and local community leaders have a responsibility to “protect public health” and that includes making sure that there is “accurate information about vaccine safety and efficacy.”

“We must engage with communities to understand their concerns, provide culturally competent education, and make vaccines readily accessible for all those who want them,” Kennedy said.

State health officials in Texas confirmed 146 measles cases this past week, including the death of a child who was not vaccinated for measles. The vaccination status of the confirmed cases includes 79 who were not vaccinated, 62 who are unknown, and five who were immunized with at least a single dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

The child who died on Feb. 25 is the first U.S. death with the virus since 2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. The child was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the facility said the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.

The virus has largely spread among rural, oil rig-dotted towns in West Texas, with cases concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, state health department spokesperson Lara Anton said last week.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said this past week that the governor regularly confers with the state health department and epidemiologists and that vaccination teams are in the “affected area.”

“The state will deploy all necessary resources to ensure the safety and health of Texans,” said spokesman Andrew Mahaleris, calling the child’s death a tragedy.

This past week, Kennedy wrote on social media platform X that the outbreak in Texas is one of the top priorities for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and that the agency is sending Texas 2,000 doses of MMR vaccine through its immunization program.

He added that HHS will provide “lab support to better track the virus causing the outbreak,” will communicate “with public health officials every day in all affected areas to support their response and ensure they have the resources they need,” and provide communications to local communities in Low German—the language used by Mennonites.

“We will continue to fund Texas’ immunization program. Ending the measles outbreak is a top priority for me and my extraordinary team at HHS,” Kennedy continued.

The official start of the next trade war is just hours away.

On Tuesday, absent any last minute surprise, President Trump will slap new tariffs on Canada and Mexico while doubling a levy on China, moves that would dramatically expand his push to revive domestic manufacturing, tap new revenues and rebalance ties with the biggest US trading partners.

The long-promised tariffs scheduled to take effect at midnight on Tuesday would be among the most sweeping of the Trump era, applying to roughly $1.5 trillion in annual imports. They would put a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, except Canadian energy, which would face a 10% rate. He has also said he’ll double a tariff on China to 20%.

While the tariff launch may yet be delayed again (the Canada and Mexico measures were already stalled once) any reprieve would likely prove temporary, as a host of other Trump tariffs are due in April. 

Trump has says the tariffs are a tool to bring the neighboring nations to heel on securing the borders from migrants and drugs, particularly fentanyl.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that both Canada and Mexico have been working hard on controlling the border but fentanyl was still an issue and the tariffs were contingent on both being resolved.

“They have done a lot, so he’s sort of thinking about right now how exactly he wants to play with Mexico and Canada and that is a fluid situation,” Lutnick said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, speaking of Trump. 

Lutnick added that Trump will impose tariffs, but was still deciding on the levels adding that Mexico and Canada have done “a lot” to address Trump’s concerns about border crossings but not enough to address his worries about “fentanyl deaths in America.”

“There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada, exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate.”

🚨NEW

Howard Lutnick walks back Tuesday’s blanket 25% Canada and Mexico tariffs

“They have done a reasonable job on the border”

“there are going to be tariffs on tuesday, exactly what they are is a fluid situation” pic.twitter.com/r3Wcw4cvXD

— Tablesalt 🇨🇦 (@Tablesalt13) March 2, 2025

In follow up comments this morning on CNN, Lutnick confirmed that tariffs are coming, saying to “let outside people who live and breathe off our economy— let them start paying and reduce the tax burden on Americans. NO tax on tips, NO tax on Social Security, NO tax on overtime.”

Commerce Secretary @howardlutnick on tariffs: “Let’s let outside people who live and breathe off our economy— let them start paying and reduce the tax burden on Americans. NO tax on tips, NO tax on Social Security, NO tax on overtime.”

AMERICA FIRST! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/lvOvC8Kq84

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 3, 2025

Canada and Mexico have both worked to head off tariffs, though what more they can do isn’t clear. Canada appointed a fentanyl czar and dedicated new measures to border security, as Trump had asked. Trump says it’s not enough, and a White House official has said the metric Trump is watching is domestic deaths from fentanyl.

It has all sown confusion on what, if anything, Canada can offer to stave off a trade war, given that only 70 pounds (31.8 kg) of fentanyl have been seized on or near the US’s northern border since October 2021 and it has imposed existing and pledged curbs on China. Any tariffs are poised to include at least some retaliation that would hit U.S. exporters. Canada — where outrage over Trump’s threats is leading consumers to already avoid US goods — plans to immediately impose retaliatory tariffs on C$30 billion ($20.75 billion) in US goods, with levies on another C$125 billion ($86.4 billion) to follow three weeks later. Mexico has not spelled out any retaliation plan.

In another signal the White House is pushing forward with implementation, Trump late Sunday night amended the executive orders issued earlier in his administration. The change pauses a provision of the tariff move aimed at curtailing duty-free shipping, and allows the US time to develop and deploy a method of imposing tariffs on low-value items sent from Mexico or Canada that would have previously been exempted from tariffs.

Overnight, Chinese stocks fell, wiping out earlier gains as investors remain concerned about the impact of US tariffs. Gold rose after last week’s sharp correction, and the currencies of some Asian countries that are more trade reliant on China declined on Monday. US stocks tumbled as investor hopes for a last-minute delay in the proposed import taxes faded. According to Poplymarket, the chances Trump will remove tariffs on Canada and Mexico in the next few hours have been cut in half.

LUTNICK: TRUMP WILL HAVE TO DECIDE ON TARIFFS MONDAY AFTERNOON.

Slim chances he removes the tariffs on Canada or Mexico. pic.twitter.com/SzNMWuqfW3

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) March 3, 2025

Meanwhile, as we reported earlier, Beijing is considering retaliatory measures on American agriculture and food products in response to tariffs from the Trump administration, according to Chinese populist tabloid Global Times.

A slate of new tariffs is intended to help raise revenue for some of the tax cuts Trump wants and lay to rest, at least for now, the theory that Trump’s brazen threats were bluffs to use as negotiating leverage. According to some, they also threaten to reignite inflation that the Federal Reserve is finding stubborn, throw North American supply chains into disarray — especially the auto industry — and invite legal challenges based on a continental free-trade pact Trump himself renegotiated during his first term. Others, like Stephen Miran disagree, and claim that currency rebalancing will offset price increases. Or, as Peter Navarro put it, exporting countries will absorb a large share of tariffs.

*NAVARRO: EXPORTING COUNTRIES ABSORB LARGE SHARE OF TARIFFS

fact check: true. That’s what FX is for. pic.twitter.com/pcfbgZy26V

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 3, 2025

Trump’s plans also risk weakening a US economy that is already showing signs of strain. Stocks and cryptocurrencies have fallen from recent record highs, consumer confidence dropped sharply and inflation continues to simmer. A fresh tariff war threatens to trigger a wider selloff.

The tariffs on Canada are nearly across the board, save for Canadian crude oil, natural gas and other energy products, which are 10%. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has mused about applying its own export tax to crude to make sure US drivers feel the pain of Trump’s trade war. It’s not yet clear if they will, and Trudeau is about to leave office. For context, last October, the Canadian government imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and 25% tariffs on a list of Chinese steel and aluminum products.

The proposed Trump tariffs on Mexico apply to all imports. President Claudia Sheinbaum has weighed her own steps to stave them off, including potential new tariffs on China. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it “very interesting” and encouraged both neighbors to do so. Canada has announced similar measures previously.

US-Mexico talks on security and counter-narcotics are further advanced than on trade and tariffs, two people familiar with the discussions have said. In a bid to show its willingness to cooperate with the US on security, Mexico on Thursday handed over 29 people accused of drug trafficking and other crimes to face charges in the US. Mexican officials thought that could be enough to buy them more time before tariffs were imposed and allow for talks on trade relations to continue, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“We will continue to work to ensure to do everything we can to make sure that there are no tariffs on Tuesday, but if ever there were tariffs on Tuesday, as we have all seen — as we were ready to do last time — we will have a strong unequivocal and proportional response as Canadians expect,” Trudeau said Sunday.

Separately, Trump is also planning other streams of tariffs based on reports due to him by April 1. One is for so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” under which Trump will charge country-by-country rates, based on calculations such as another country’s tariffs, trade barriers and tax regimes. It’s not clear whether the “reciprocal” calculation would include any tariffs already in place, such as the Mexico and Canada measures that Trump has tied to border security.

“We are going to evaluate that and give them an opportunity to remedy that, so we could either see a ratcheting up in tariffs, or if our trading partners want to remedy what has been unfair trade, then we can see the tariffs come off,” Bessent said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Another stream is a series of tariffs on specific sectors. That includes a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum due to take effect March 12, and which would heavily affect Canada and Mexico.

As Bloomberg reminds us, Trump is also planning sectoral tariffs on autos, semiconductor chips and pharmaceutical drugs, all of which could be imposed as soon as April 2. He launched an investigation that could lead to new copper tariffs later this year. And on Saturday, he ordered the Commerce Department to investigate the national security harm posed by lumber imports, laying the legal groundwork for new tariffs — ones that again appear aimed at Canada.

China said the US should focus on “reducing domestic drug demand” and increase law enforcement to curb domestic fentanyl use. “The unilateral tariff increase by the U.S. seriously violates WTO rules and is a typical act of unilateralism and trade protectionism,” The Chinese Embassy said in a written statement.

According to DB economists 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico would likely create a 0.4-0.7% drag on 2025’s US GDP and boost core PCE by 0.3-0.7%. It is possible that the revenues from the tariffs allow for larger US tax cuts which may help reduce the growth impact but we’re also starting to see some of the trade uncertainty hit confidence so there are a lot of moving parts. 

Overall, it’s hard to see China tariffs being negotiated lower but there’s still a chance that those on Mexico and Canada are lower than 25% as hinted by Lutnick yesterday. We will see today.

A snapshot of all proposed and implemented Trump tariffs so far is below.