Turkey Says It Foiled Iranian Intelligence Plot At US Incirlik Base
Various Turkish and Middle East sources are reporting that Iranian intelligence attempted to spy on the major US airbase at Incirlik, and that a cell of Iranian agents has been busted.
The report, originally in Turkey’s Sabah newspaper on Wednesday, said that Turkish intelligence and Istanbul police detained six people across five provinces. The report claims the cell was led by Iranian intelligence codenamed “Haji” and another codenamed “Doctor”.
A Turkish asset is alleged to have hired people to take photos and videos of the Incirlik Air Base in Adana, which has been jointly controlled by Ankara and Washington for decades, and which plays host to American tactical nuclear weapons as part of a broader NATO nuclear-sharing program.
Incirlik Air Base played a vital role in US and allied covert operations to oust Assad in Syria, and has over the past decade been featured in global headlines, especially connected with the CIA’s ‘Timber Sycamore’ regime change operation aimed at Damascus.
The Iranians were of course closely allied with Assad during the lengthy proxy war, and have since retreated from Syria, also as Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been removed from the country.
The region is on edge amid a US naval and air force build-up in the Gulf, and as President Trump threatens action against Tehran. If a major conflict were to break out, US officials fear that Iran could hit regional US bases in retaliation.
They have closely watched threats out of Tehran officials, including the latest from Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who warned earlier this month:
“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territories and all American military centres, bases, and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said during a parliamentary session.
“We do not consider ourselves limited to responding after the act and will take action based on any objective signs of a threat,” he added.
Sabah reported that one among the some half-dozen people belonging to the alleged Iranian intelligence cell is an Iranian citizen. They’ve been detained by Istanbul Criminal Courts of Peace on charges of“obtaining confidential state information for political or military espionage purposes.”
Curious timing indeed…
Turkish intelligence reported the uncovering of an Iranian spy network that targeted the Incirlik air base, the largest US Air Force base in Turkey.
Is it today that the Turks decided to publish this?🤨 pic.twitter.com/GJrQQZrP3F
As for what specific intel or photographs they were able to capture, such details are undisclosed at this point. The story has since been picked up by The Washington Post and other US media.
The government of Turkey is actually against any potential new Washington regime change war in Iran. For one, it could unleash a wave of refugees, as far eastern Turkey actually borders the Islamic Republic. The two countries share a nearly 350-mile border, and have lately tried to keep relations stable, even amid Washington’s threatened action.
The British Home Secretary unveiled plans in Parliament on Jan. 26 for a new National Police Service (NPS), which is modeled on the FBI and will take over the fight against terrorism and organized crime in the United Kingdom.
At the weekend, Shabana Mahmood described the NPS as a “British FBI” and said it would alleviate the burden on local police forces, allowing them to concentrate on issues such as shoplifting and street robbery.
The NPS will replace the National Crime Agency, which covers England and Wales, but it will also have a UK-wide role.
On Monday, the Home Office published a 106-page White Paper that sets out in detail the new police structure and how it would be supported by state-of-the-art technology.
The document says the government would invest 115 million pounds ($157 million) over the next three years “to enable the rapid and responsible adoption of AI and automation technologies by the police.”
A new National Centre for AI in Policing, known as Police.AI, would be created.
There are also plans to roll out facial recognition cameras nationwide to help police catch wanted criminals on watchlists.
The number of facial recognition camera vehicles would be increased from 10 to 50.
“A hundred years ago, fingerprinting was decried as curtailing our civil liberties, but today we could not imagine policing without it,” Mahmood said.
“I have no doubt that the same will prove true of facial recognition technology in the years to come.”
There is currently no dedicated statute governing police use of facial recognition in England and Wales.
Earlier this month, Eleanor “Nell” Watson, a leading researcher and adviser on artificial intelligence ethics and transparency, criticized the increased deployment of surveillance technology.
“The UK is constructing infrastructure for a surveillance society while telling itself it is merely catching criminals,” she told The Epoch Times via email.
Mahmood also announced plans to scrap the existing 43 police constabularies in England and Wales, which would be reorganized into a dozen regional forces.
“Policing is not broken, as some might have us believe,” she told the House of Commons on Monday, “Last year, the police made over three-quarters of a million arrests, five percent more than the year before.”
She said knife crime was down and murder rates in London were at their lowest recorded level.
‘Epidemic of Everyday Crime’
“However, across the country, things feel very different. Communities are facing an epidemic of everyday crime that all too often seems to go unpunished, and criminals know it,” Mahmood said. “Theft has risen by 72 percent since 2010, phone theft is up 58 percent.”
The current 43 police forces in England and Wales were set up in 1974, but Mahmood said the world has changed dramatically.
“Criminals are operating online and across borders with greater sophistication than ever before, be they drug smugglers, people traffickers or child sexual abusers,” Mahmood said.
“The world has changed dramatically since policing was last fundamentally reformed over 50 years ago. Policing remains the last great unreformed public service.”
There were plans to merge police forces 20 years ago, but the idea was dropped by the Labour government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Labour won a general election in Britain last year, and Mahmood was installed as home secretary, tasked with sorting out Britain’s police and prisons.
“Consolidating the current model will make the police more cost-efficient, giving the taxpayer more value for money, while also ensuring a less fragmented system that will better serve the public and make them safer,” the Home Office said in the paper.
Criticism of ‘Mega-Forces’
The opposition Conservatives’ shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, criticized the plan to reduce the number of police forces from 43 to 12 and said it would create forces that would be too big.
“Such huge forces will be remote from the communities they serve. Resources will be drawn away from villages and towns towards large cities,” Philp said.
He added that the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s largest police force, had the worst crime-solving rates.
“That goes to show that large scale does not automatically deliver better results, and therefore we will oppose the mandated merger of county forces into remote regional mega-forces,” Philp said.
“Over the weekend, the Home Secretary was trailing this proposal as a British FBI,” Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Pete Wishart said.
“While it might indeed be their FBI, British, it most definitely is not, as it applies only to England and Wales.”
“In Scotland, we are immensely proud of our culture and ethos of policing by consent and the fact that we have the lowest crime rates in the whole of the UK. The last thing we want is this creeping Americanization,” Wishart added and demanded to know what powers the NPS would have in Scotland.
Mahmood said NPS would cover the whole of the UK.
“In England and Wales, it will have full operational powers and will be able to carry out its law enforcement activities,” she said.
“But in Scotland and Northern Ireland, it will carry out operations only with the agreement of the legally designated authority.”
The United States has pulled its membership in the World Health Organization (WHO), and many other nations are rethinking their participation. Of course, this could change with some future administration. The institution itself is not going anywhere. This is why it is crucial to understand the case for why the United States needed to pull out and cut all funding.
It’s also critically important that other nations join us and leave this organization. To top it all off, the WHO has become a pillar of duplicity even now.
Over the weekend, WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “While WHO recommended the use of masks, physical distancing and vaccines, WHO did not recommend governments to mandate the use of masks or vaccines and never recommended lockdowns.”
This claim is easily refuted.
The evidence that WHO backed lockdowns begins on Jan. 29, 2020, when Tedros praised the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping in particular to the skies for its “amazing” response to COVID-19, which included welding people inside their homes and arresting and likely killing people for disobeying the authorities.
Nothing like this had happened in the modern era in any country. The WHO was completely on board.
A few weeks following this celebratory news conference, the WHO organized a trip to Wuhan and several other cities in China. This junket involved the UK, EU, and the United States. This trip included Clifford Lane, a top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci, and several other Americans. On the way back from this multi-city trip, they drafted the report that praised China’s response to the virus in terms that contradict every principle of public health.
This is before there were any lockdowns in the United States or the UK.
This Feb. 28, 2020, report, is still on the WHO website:
“Achieving China’s exceptional coverage with and adherence to these containment measures has only been possible due to the deep commitment of the Chinese people to collective action in the face of this common threat. At a community level this is reflected in the remarkable solidarity of provinces and cities in support of the most vulnerable populations and communities.”
It goes on:
“At the individual level, the Chinese people have reacted to this outbreak with courage and conviction. They have accepted and adhered to the starkest of containment measures—whether the suspension of public gatherings, the month-long ‘stay at home’ advisories or prohibitions on travel. Throughout an intensive 9-days of site visits across China, in frank discussions from the level of local community mobilizers and frontline health care providers to top scientists, the Joint Mission was struck by the sincerity and dedication that each brings to this COVID-19 response.”
Or as WHO spokesman Dr. Bruce Aylward said following his Wuhan mission in February 2020, “Copy China’s response to Covid!” This exhortation was praised by the Chinese Communist Party. Incredibly, the WHO was so influential on the world that 194 nations followed the model and did exactly that. They issued stay-at-home orders and shut business, churches, and schools.
Not only did the WHO support lockdowns, it urged them on the entire world in the name of public health, as a method of following the Chinese plan. Indeed, this report was the basis of the lockdowns that came to the United States and UK. It provided the cover necessary for imposing this unprecedented violation of rights.
When the lockdowns next came to Northern Italy, the WHO celebrated those, too. A spokesman for the WHO and director of WHO Europe, Hans Kluge expressed his “full support for the measures adopted by Italy to address the novel coronavirus emergency and the World Health Organization’s willingness to offer every means of full cooperation!”
The lockdowns came to the United States and most nations in mid-March 2020. Already the disaster was unfolding all around us within a week or two. A month later, the WHO urged nations not to open up too soon. They sent out communications demanding universal track-and-trace policies with testing, full protective equipment, social distancing, and a massive propaganda campaign of fear and loathing.
In other words, while the WHO recognized that people were going crazy in lockdowns and would not stand much more of this, it refused to recognize the need for freedom but rather doubled down on tyranny, surveillance, and control as the right way to manage a virus.
A month later, the WHO warned against lifting lockdowns because this would only result in more infections and danger. It posted on social media: “Further guidance was published that outlines the key questions countries should ask prior to the lifting of lockdowns: Is the epidemic under control? Is the health system able to cope with a resurgence of cases that may arise after relaxing certain measures?”
Later that month, the WHO said lockdowns are actually wonderful because they address the problem of climate change. “The pandemic has given us a glimpse of what our world could look like if we took the bold steps that are needed to curb #ClimateChange and #AirPollution,” it quoted Tedros as saying, in a social media post.
By mid-summer, the WHO said that lockdowns were great but not enough, and that all government should be engaged in universal contract tracing to control the virus that everyone would get anyway.
By October 2020 and following the Great Barrington Declaration, the WHO once again endorsed lockdowns. “We recognize that at certain points, some countries have had no choice but to issue Stay-At-Home orders and other lockdown measures, to buy time,” the WHO posted, quoting Tedros, on Oct. 12, 2020.
This was not accidental messaging, but rather stated WHO policy throughout.
The moment that the vaccine was rolled out, following the November 2020 election, the WHO actually changed its definition of herd immunity to exclude the possibility of natural immunity. It previously said that herd immunity is reached through vaccination or exposure from infection. The WHO suddenly eliminated the second point and said that vaccines are the only path.
What this note at the World Health Organization did was delete what amounts to the entire million-year history of humankind in its delicate dance with pathogens. You could only gather from this that all of us are nothing but blank and unimprovable slates on which the pharmaceutical industry writes its signature.
In addition, the editorial change at WHO ignored and even wiped out a century of medical advances in virology, immunology, and epidemiology. It was thoroughly unscientific—shilling for the vaccine industry in exactly the way that the conspiracy theorists say that the WHO has been doing since the beginning.
By the time that the virus weakened to become no more dangerous than a cold, the WHO was still at it. “We’re concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of the vaccine, and because of Omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary. Nothing could be further from the truth,” it stated.
This was worse than bad health and policy advice. The WHO allowed itself to beused as a handmaiden of totalitarian controls across the globe. Many nations had trusted this organization and followed advice. This was a disaster for health and for freedom. The United States simply cannot be a member of such an organization.
The WHO once served a valuable function, and those functions are still necessary. That said, each nation alone needs to embrace its own health sovereignty based on its own needs. There is, in short, no such thing as global or world health. This is why every nation should leave the WHO, which proved itself to be completely compromised by its celebration of the CCP and then its promotion of a dangerous product. It has no credibility remaining to its name.
New Footage Appears To Show Alex Pretti Spit At ICE, Break SUV Tail Light In Prior Minneapolis Confrontation
The killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last Saturday sparked national outrage – particularly when it comes to the 2nd Amendment and his right to carry while protesting. The incident resulted in two federal agents involved in the shooting being placed on leave, and the ouster of US border patrol chief Gregory Bovino as the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation drive.
While the circumstances of his death are still under investigation – many believe this gun went off after an agent took it off his body, spooking the shooter or shooters – he was known to federal authorities, and had suffered a broken rib during a violent confrontation with agents about a week before his death, CNNreported Tuesday.
Now, new footage appears to show Pretti armed and spitting at ICE agents before he smashes the taillights of their black SUV during a wild confrontation roughly a week before his death.
The video, verified by the BBC, captures what appears to be Pretti screaming at federal agents while they were driving away during a Jan. 13 protest. As their SUV leaves, he kicks the taillight – breaking it, causing agents to exit the vehicle and tackle him to the ground.
The agents continue to hold him down until he retreats and joins a crowd shouting at agents, as his gun is visibly tucked into the back of his pants.
Video of Peaceful Alex Pretti helping old ladies cross the street and doing volunteer work at the orphanage
OR
Swearing like a drunken sailor, spitting and destroying property pic.twitter.com/FChuxZ7Zwy
Prior to the protests, Pretti’s parents specifically warned him against engaging.
“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” said Michael Pretti. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
While this changes nothing about an American’s 2nd Amendment rights, it certainly changes the narrative insofar as whether ICE agents identified Pretti prior to his death and considered him to have an elevated risk profile.
So the “hero nurse” was actually a crazy psycho spitting on ICE agents and attacking their vehicle. Guy should have been charged for this. Might still be alive if he had been. He was looking for trouble for weeks. https://t.co/owRNNIvTRD
Most of the recent vitriolic opposition to ICE is a feint by unrepentant open-borders progressives. They won the first round when Joe Biden was elected president, lost the second when Donald Trump returned to office, and are back for a rematch.
Democratic leaders portray ICE agents as violent Gestapo thugs and murderers. They claim ICE kidnaps good people off the street, rips apart their families and communities, and deprives them of due process. They give lip service to deporting the “worst of the worst,” but they lead sanctuary cities that release hardened criminal illegal aliens and incite protesters to harass and prevent ICE from arresting rapists, child predators, and killers.
For most, the venom has little to do with how ICE performs its mission and everything to do with preventing the Trump administration from undoing Biden’s brazen deluge of illegal migrants. But for the protests, ICE would be nearly invisible to most Americans, who abhor these violent confrontations. Instead, two Americans have tragically died in Minneapolis.
Democratic leaders deflect when challenged with the fact that disruption and mistakes would be greatly reduced if sanctuary cities turned over criminals already confined. Minnesota alone refuses to comply with 1,360 detainers for illegal aliens in its jails, including 500 previously ordered to be deported by federal judges.
The Democratic establishment sees mass immigration as the path to secure permanent rule, with much of the radical left expecting immigrants to force America to abandon its traditional values.
A refresher on how the Biden administration unlawfully admitted at least 12 million unvetted migrants underscores the radical left’s deep commitment to open borders. It also explains why Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Alan Frey flirt with insurrection by inflaming rage-filled protesters who accost ICE agents, invade churches, and protect criminals.
On his first day in office, Biden stopped construction of Trump’s border wall and ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy. He dismantled virtually all Trump immigration policies, exempted most illegal immigrants from deportation, granted protected status to about 1 million illegals, boosted refugee admissions, issued green cards to immigrants who required public benefits, allowed Title 42 authority to lapse – increasing illegal immigration by nearly one million migrants each year, distributed free cell phones and housing subsidies to entice even more illegal immigration, and, in the dead of night, flew hundreds of thousands of migrants from the southern border into American cities and towns.
In 2024, just five of 203 Democrats in the U.S. House supported legislation requiring proof of citizenship to vote, and the Biden Justice Department sued Virginia to prevent it from removing noncitizens from its voter rolls.
Trump won his second term on a platform of closing the borders and deporting illegal aliens, particularly those admitted by Biden or who had committed other crimes. Pollsshow majority support for deporting all illegal immigrants, and 78% support (including 69% of Democrats) for deporting criminal illegal aliens.
Despite Minnesota’s refusal to cooperate, ICE has already arrested 3,000 illegal aliens in Operation Metro, including migrants convicted of murder, aggravated assault, domestic abuse, drug trafficking, and other serious crimes. Claims that ICE’s mandate is unlawful or unconstitutional, or that it requires permission from sanctuary cities, is nonsense, repudiated by the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, 250 years of jurisprudence, and well-settled federal law.
So far, Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez has refused to grant the temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop ICE sought by Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul in a frivolous lawsuit that inverts the 10th Amendment into a right for states or even cities to veto federal laws they dislike. Though, in a separate lawsuit, she ordered ICE not to arrest or tear-gas peaceful demonstrators who are not obstructing ICE or who are “safely” following from an “appropriate” distance. That virtue-signaling order, now stayed by the Eighth Circuit pending an appeal, largely summarizes existing law. It likely would not have applied to Renee Good or Alex Pretti.
Contrary to Democratic spin, Good was part of a group that sought to derail ICE operations. She had been stalking ICE, and obstructed its vehicles with her SUV. Instead of complying with instructions to step out of her SUV, she abruptly accelerated, hitting an ICE agent hard enough to cause internal bleeding. As her SUV leapt forward, the agent fired, killing her.
Good either intended to strike the agent, or she acted recklessly by hitting the accelerator on a snowy, icy road in an SUV surrounded by agents. The legally relevant question for the agent is whether he reasonably believed that he or others were in “imminent danger” of death or serious injury.
It is unclear why a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Pretti on Saturday, during yet another protest. Video shows that he intervened between an agent and a woman. To the administration, he was an “armed domestic terrorist.” To Democrats, he was a “murdered nurse.” Both include some truth and premature conclusions. What is known is that he was doing something he should not have been doing because Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. shamelessly ignored America’s sovereignty to admit tens of millions of illegals, and now Democratic leaders and the progressive media are willing to sacrifice people like Good and Pretti on the corrupt altar of open borders.
Polls show that the all-out Democratic campaign to vilify ICE; disturbing video of militarized law enforcement officers in gas masks and fatigues; a growing toll of injuries and fatalities, regardless of fault; adverse court decisions, though many are reversed on appeal; and the administration’s caustic rhetoric are eroding support for ICE and Trump’s deportation program, and may imperil Republican control of the House.
The administration requires support from the public to keep ICE and the public safe, and for ICE to be effective. Democrats sense weakness, and will do everything they can to prevent that. The administration must be the adult in this situation. It must soften its language. ICE should avoid militarized operations and more clearly focus on deporting criminal aliens, and unvetted illegal aliens admitted during the Biden administration. Although it’s time for a reset, backing down is not an option.
Putin Hosts Syria’s Sharaa As Russian Forces Exit North In Tandem With US Drawdown
Syria’s self-declared President Ahmad al-Sharaa is in Moscow on Wednesday, where he has met with President Vladimir Putin, at a moment Russia’s long-running presence in Syria is in question. Sharaa, formerly Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who founded Syrian al-Qaeda and began fighting the ousted President Assad under the flag of ISIS, is trying to shore up international recognition for his rule.
“Russia has supported Syria’s territorial integrity and unity, and has also played a historic role in the stability of the region,” President Putin stated during the meeting. “I would like to emphasise the need to preserve Syria’s unity and territorial integrity.”
He hinted that ending the American occupation of the oil and gas rich northeast is paramount. “The return of eastern Syria to Damascus’s control is an important step,” Putin said.
But while Russian forces are still present at historic bases on the coast, there are signs of a final Russian withdrawal from the country underway, also as US troops appear to be making a slow exit:
Days before the scheduled meeting, Russian forces began a phased withdrawal from Qamishli Airport in northeast Syria, relocating personnel and equipment to the Hmeimim Air Base in Latakia, according to a security source cited by Shafaq News last week.
…The final stage involved the relocation of what the source described as an “elite team,” marking the departure of the last Russian contingent stationed at the airport. The redeployment was carried out in coordination with both Syrian and US sides, according to the same account.
AP journalists who visited the base next to Qamishli airport reported it was guarded by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters, who said Russian troops had been “evacuating bit by bit” over several days.
Conflict has been engulfing the same region, as Syrian forces loyal to Sharaa attack Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces. While the US trained and weaponized the SDF for years, Washington appears to be throwing its Kurdish allies under the bus once again.
ISIS/Daesh hits the Kremlin.
After being normalized in Washington and Brussels.
Moscow had been worried about the possibility of a “populist anti-Russia” government emerging in Damascus when Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the London-based RUSI think tank, told Al Jazeera.
“They feared he [al-Sharaa] would squeeze them out, but the Russians have been pleasantly surprised, even if they’ve had to downgrade their ties from before,” Ramani added.
Indeed Moscow has sought to keep its lone deep water port and Mediterranean base at Tartus, and this appears to be happening. But there has been a military and equipment draw-down, and now the Russian operations are said to be ‘humanitarian-focused’.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa:
“Russia has supported Syria’s territorial integrity and unity, and has also played a historic role in the stability of the region.”
Russian President Putin:
“I would like to emphasise the need to preserve Syria’s unity and territorial… pic.twitter.com/96lFJuMNPN
Russia seems to be hinting that it is OK with a draw down so long as the Americans exit the region too. One irony in all this is that Assad and his family are currently living in exile from their homeland at a posh Moscow apartment, keeping a very low profile.
The First Amendment protections for free speech have inspired people worldwide and laid the foundation not just for American society but also for entire industries – from social media to this very publication. But as someone who travels the country both speaking and setting up events on college and university campuses, I can tell you that “free speech” isn’t free.
Nobody knows that better than those of us mourning Charlie Kirk’s passing. At this time last year, Students for Life of America honored Charlie as our “Defender of Life” at our sold-out National Pro-life Summit, and this year at the National Pro-Life March, our signs and messaging will create a sea of thousands of young people celebrating his legacy. But in the wake of his murder, I continue to reflect on the high cost of free speech for those of us who refuse to abandon college and university campuses.
Manipulative schools have worked hard to develop financial and logistical obstacles to student speech – from special, additional, and often last-minute insurance to requirements for bomb-sniffing dogs. And everything comes with a price tag.
To practice “free” speech, we start with time-consuming permits with the endless, additional, and sometimes arbitrary requirements that come with a cost.
Special event insurance can run from $800 to $5,000, though in Washington, D.C., it can easily run close to $15,000 or higher. We were actually quoted a $20,000 fee in required event insurance to chalk pro-life messages in Miami.
And if you need to rent a bomb-sniffing dog – because why not – it usually runs $650. My Kevlar vest set me back $1,000. And police, on campus or off, with or without weapons, county, city, or state (which has a range), commonly add $1,200 per event. Private security, if needed, has a price of about $600 per professional. Equipment rental for security wands or metal detectors may be needed. And we can’t forget that a commitment to free speech is a decision to keep lawyers on retainer, especially for the last-minute “requirements” from school administrators.
Even before the tragedy that ended my dear friend’s life, security costs for our Students for Life events had risen about 25%, putting the average cost of a campus event at $4,000. That’s a lot of money for a passionate student to raise, and we work with them to make it happen.
But not everyone can afford free speech.
Students for Life’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement just released our 2026 Survey USA poll, looking at the abortion views of registered youth voters.
They understand that free speech comes at a high cost. Asked about whether colleges and universities should prioritize and financially support free speech, more than nine in 10 (93%) said yes, with 33% saying it’s extremely important.
But they are worried about those engaging on campus. Almost half (49%) of registered youth voters think violence on college campuses and in public spaces has increased, and more than nine in 10 (92%) are concerned about violence directed at those using their free speech rights, with one in four extremely concerned.
Their fears are probably heightened by the 2025 Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) annual College Free Speech Rankings survey, which reported that one in three students thought it was acceptable to use violence to stop speech.
Previously, the most common attacks on free speech have been:
A Vandals Veto seen in destroyed messaging and outright theft of displays and signs, and lately in a trend of protestors eating rubber fetal models brought to illustrate the size of babies in the womb.
A Heckler’s Veto, in which schools cancel or move events when extremist groups or a disgruntled student oppose a speaker.
A Slow-Walk-to-Nowhere when a pattern of delays for approval of events or clubs creates a virtual veto of student speech.
A Not-Even-Separate-but-Equal Accommodation as schools refuse similar support for pro-life students as given to others.
A Religious Gag Rule in which schools may allow students to speak as long as they stay silent about faith.
A Required “Trigger Warning” in which the school signals through signs posted in the areas where pro-life speech is taking place that such speech is controversial and offensive, to be possibly avoided or protested.
A Power-of-the-Purse Veto involving biased use of student fees.
A Threat-of-ViolenceVeto, making school administrators unwilling to allow any speech that might be confrontational.
But now we deal with a supersized Virtual Poll Tax on some students’ speech.
Our team has endured bomb threats, vandalizations, stolen and damaged property, physical attacks, urine throwing, stalking, student doxxing, and general cruelty, all of which can raise the emotional cost of public speech. Threats of rape and murder are common, and we keep a file, just in case.
Such opposition is surely designed to discourage those who wish to participate in the free marketplace of ideas. Silence Dogood, believed to be a pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin, wrote, “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
But it’s not free. And without better support, many will be priced out of the public arena.
Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, with more than 1,600 groups on middle and high school, college and university, medical and law school campuses in all 50 states. Follow her @KristanHawkins or subscribe to her podcast, The Kristan Hawkins Show.
Last week the California Highway Patrol (CHP) announced that they arrested Michael Jay Kamfolt, a 40-year-old conservative activist who has an underground bunker containing a cache of ‘illegal weapons,’ ammo, and body armor.
After receiving tip about an illegal marijuana grow operation, CHP Air Operations conducted a flyover of the property located in the city of Anderson, located around 150 miles north of Sacramento in Shasta County.
Authorities conducted a month-long investigation of the property owned by Kamfolt, after which CHP executed a search warrant at the location on Jan. 20.
And while they didn’t find any weed being grown, officers recovered 13 firearms – including three AR-style assault rifles, one of which was a “ghost gun” without a serial number, along with a sawed-off shotgun and two firearms that had been reported stolen, one in 2016 and the other in 1978.
A ‘ghost gun’ can be assembled at home, which is usually milled out of a hunk of aluminum or 3D printed.
The bunker, equipped with power, ventilation, a concrete floor with built-in drainage, and the necessary supplies to grow weed, also contains a home gym, armchair, television, and workbench with a Bennington flag.
Investigators also found roughly 10,000 rounds of ammunition – an amount not uncommon among enthusiasts and preppers, including armor piercing rounds, 30 high-capacity magazines, and four soft-body armor vests.
“During the search, officers discovered an underground bunker accessible through a 100-foot-long culvert,” reads a press release. ‘The bunker was equipped with power, ventilation, a concrete floor with built-in drainage and the necessary supplies to cultivate marijuana.”
Kamfolt was arrested and booked for the following:
30605(a) PC – Possession of an Assault Rifle
30600(a) PC – Manufacturing of an Assault Rifle
33215 PC – Manufacturing of a Short Barreled Rifle
32625(a) PC – Possession of a Machine Gun
32625(b) PC – Converting a firearm into a Machine Gun
23920 PC – Possession of an Altered Firearm Serial Number
24610 PC – Manufacturing and Possession of an Undetectable Firearm
496(a) – Possession of a Stolen Firearm
29180(b) PC – Manufacturing of a “Ghost Gun”
30315 PC – Possession of Armor Penetrating Ammunition
32310(C) PC – Possession of High Capacity magazine
He was held in the Shasta County Jail overnight. Bail was set at $50,000 and he is no longer in custody according to county jail records.
According to county records available so far, Kamfolt is not facing federal charges. Some of his alleged offenses — such as owning a machine gun — are only illegal in certain states such as California, while other allegations, like obliterating an identifying marker on a firearm, also violate federal gun laws.
Kamfolt was also active in local politics:
In November of 2024, the day before the presidential election, Kamfolt visited the county election office with Supervisor Crye who said he’d just met Kamfolt that day. Speaking to a reporter, Kamfolt expressed his support for Crye’s work in the community and his interest in the importance of this particular election. He said he wanted to observe for himself that it was being facilitated correctly. At the time, former Registrar of Voters Tom Toller was running the election office.
A few days later, Kamfolt made an appearance at a county board meeting alongside members of the local Cottonwood Militia. The group showed up after community member Jenny O’Connell-Nowain was arrested for allegedly disrupting the meeting. She was protesting statements by Supervisor Patrick Jones about another election official, former Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut. Earlier this month, O’Connell-Nowain was found guilty of disrupting that meeting by a Shasta County jury. –Shasta Scout
“This operation went far beyond an illegal grow,” said CHP Northern Division Chief John Pinoli. “The combination of a hidden bunker and an alarming cache of illegal firearms and ammunition highlights the threat posed to public safety.”
Again, Californians – your state doesn’t play around.
Illinois-based Century Aluminum Co. has entered into a joint development agreement with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to construct the “first new primary aluminum production plant in the United States since 1980,” Century said in a statement on Jan. 26.
Primary aluminum production involves smelting alumina to produce new aluminum metal. This differs from secondary production, in which existing aluminum is recycled.
“The new plant, to be built in Inola, Oklahoma, as previously announced by EGA, is expected to produce 750,000 tonnes of aluminum per year, larger than previously envisioned and more than doubling current U.S. production. The Inola plant will create 1,000 permanent direct jobs at the facility and 4,000 jobs during construction,” Century stated.
“About 85 percent of the aluminum needs of American industries are currently met by imports. The new smelter will expand the domestic supply of this critical mineral and grow the American aluminum workforce, revitalizing U.S. aluminum expertise and know-how.”
According to data from the International Aluminum Institute, China was the largest producer of primary aluminum in 2025, accounting for an estimated 44.2 million metric tons out of the 73.78 million metric tons of global output.
Commenting on Century’s plan to build a U.S. aluminum smelter, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai said in a Jan. 26 post on X, “President Trump’s tariffs are working.”
Trump’s Tariffs
In March 2025, the Trump administration’s 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports came into effect. In June, the tariff rate doubled to 50 percent.
At the time, the Aluminum Association, a group representing the U.S. aluminum industry, had struck a cautious tone on the tariffs, saying they would neither increase domestic aluminum output nor support mid- and downstream industries.
In a post on June 5, 2025, the Council on Foreign Relations warned that if aluminum and steel prices were to rise, it could negatively affect industries such as automotive, appliances, electrical, oil and gas, and machinery.
President Donald Trump justified the tariffs in February 2025, a month before the 25 percent tariff took effect, saying they were essential to bolster domestic production, bring jobs back to the United States, and stop other nations from taking advantage of the United States.
“Our nation requires steel and aluminum to be made in America, not in foreign lands,” he said at the time. “This is a big deal, the beginning of making America rich again.”
In August 2025, the federal government announced tariff hikes on more than 400 products, subjecting them to the 50 percent steel and aluminum import tariffs.
The move affected 407 product categories, including furniture, railcars, and compressors.
Jeffrey Kessler, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, said at the time that the action “expands the reach of the steel and aluminum tariffs and shuts down avenues for circumvention—supporting the continued revitalization of the American steel and aluminum industries.”
Aluminum Plant
Construction of the Inola plant is set to begin by the end of the year, and production is scheduled to kick off by the end of the decade, Century stated.
The plant will be constructed at the industrial park at Tulsa Port of Inola, located on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which connects to the Mississippi River system, providing efficient bulk freight movement.
Once construction is completed, the Inola plant will be the largest ever primary aluminum production plant in the United States.
The plant is expected to drive forward the development of an aluminum-focused industrial hub in the state, which would result in thousands of additional jobs, Century stated.
Under the deal, EGA, the world’s largest “premium aluminum” producer, will own 60 percent of the joint venture, and Century will hold the remaining 40 percent. The plant will use EGA’s “state-of-the-art” EX technology, its next-generation aluminum smelting technology.
Jesse Gary, CEO of Century Aluminum, said that key industries such as aerospace, automotive, construction, and national defense stand to benefit “greatly” from the venture.
“Our partner EGA brings world-class smelting technology and construction expertise that are fast-tracking our collective efforts to realize President Trump’s vision of rapidly increasing domestic primary aluminum production,” he said.
“We are once again proving that President Trump’s leadership is working to spur investment and innovation to revitalize the U.S. aluminum industry, which is essential to our nation’s defense and the economic vitality of working-class communities across the country.”
GM CEO Warns Of ‘Very Slippery Slope’ As Canada To Import Cheap Chinese EVs
Shortly before Davos, Canada and China announced a 5-point ‘strategic partnership’ which includes slashing tariffs on Chinese EVs from 100% to 6.1% for the first 49,000 units, in exchange for China cutting tariffs on Canadian canola from 85% to 15% until at least the end of the year.
After Donald Trump stomped his feet and threatened to slap a 100% tariff on Canadian exports, PM Mark Carney assured the US that the deal with China was simply ‘rectifying’ some ‘issues’ that developed over the last several years.
Yet, the reduced EV tariffs remain…
In response, General Motors CEO Mary Barra told employees at an all-hands meeting that the EV deal is a risk to North American auto manufacturing, WSJreports.
“I can’t explain why the decision was made in Canada,” Barra told employees, warning “It becomes a very slippery slope,” and noting that Chinese automakers benefit in China from high tariffs imposed on importers, plus technology restrictions that prevent other companies from entering their market.
Under the agreement between China and Canada, at least half of the EVs imported would be required to have a price of $35,000 Canadian dollars (US$26,000), according to Carney’s office. Canada will also work with Chinese automakers to ensure timely vehicle certifications, and that they meet the country’s motor-vehicle safety standards.
Canada, meanwhile, is a major market for Detroit automakers. In 2025, Ford, GM and Jeep owner Stellantis sold over 700,000 vehicles combined in Canada. One factor which makes this easy is that Canada’s emissions standards closely mirror those of the US.
That said, Canada’s auto industry has been burnt, badly by Trump’s tariffs on vehicles and parts made there, causing US automakers to scale back manufacturing as a result. Last year GM made the decision to stop making slow-selling electric vans at an Ingersoll, Ontario factory, while Stellantis has canceled plans to build the electric Jeep Compass in Ontario – and will instead make them in Illinois.
Chinese automakers, meanwhile, have been rapidly gaining global market share in recent years, but continue to be effectively barred from entering the massive US car market due to triple-digit tariffs on Chinese vehicle imports. Meanwhile, they’re making roughly 25% of new Chinese cars in Mexico.
