Authored by X user Saggezza Etern,

Obama’s Billion-Dollar Minnesota Fraud Empire

The Heist You Paid For

Imagine waking up tomorrow to find your bank account empty. Every dollar you saved for your children’s tuition, your retirement, your security—gone. Now imagine looking out the window and seeing the thief driving a Porsche bought with your money, laughing as he waves a government-issued thank you note. This is not a hypothetical scenario. It is the reality of the American taxpayer in the wake of the single largest COVID-era fraud scheme in the nation’s history. While you were locked down, masked up, and worrying about the price of eggs, a sophisticated network of fraudsters in Minnesota was siphoning off a quarter of a billion dollars—likely far more—from programs meant to feed hungry children.

The “Feeding Our Future” scandal is not just a story about greed. It is the smoking gun of a much darker political operation. Federal prosecutors have charged 70 people in a $250 million conspiracy, and the FBI is reportedly eyeing fraud that could total over $2 billion across multiple sectors including autism therapy, housing, and daycare. The vast majority of these defendants come from the Somali community in Minnesota. But do not be distracted by the foot soldiers. To understand how a fraud of this magnitude happens, you have to look past the people cashing the checks and look at the architect who built the bank. This industrial-scale theft traces directly back to Barack Obama. It was his administration that deliberately flooded Minnesota with tens of thousands of refugees, creating a dependent, insular enclave primed for exploitation. It was his policy of “equity” that paralyzed oversight. And it is his political heirs who are now frantically trying to bury the evidence.

The Architect of the Enclave

You might be wondering how Minnesota, a state once known for Scandinavian stoicism and lakes, became the global epicenter for Somali diasporic fraud. It was not an accident. It was a federal mandate. Between 2008 and 2016, the Obama administration oversaw the admission of over 54,000 Somali refugees into the United States. But they didn’t just scatter them across the 50 states. They targeted specific swing states and counties, with Minnesota being the primary dumping ground.

By the time Obama left office, Minnesota was home to the largest Somali population in the country, now estimated at over 80,000 people. This concentration was strategic. By clustering refugees in Minneapolis, the Democratic machine created a voting bloc that could be harvested for elections and a demographic that demanded massive government outlays. They called it “diversity.” In reality, it was demographic engineering. The Obama administration poured federal grants into “refugee services,” creating a lucrative industry of nonprofits and community organizers whose entire existence depended on keeping the flow of refugees—and federal dollars—moving. This established the infrastructure for the fraud we see today. When you import a population from a failed state with no tradition of Western civic duty, and you teach them that the government is a bottomless trough of free money, you don’t get assimilation. You get predation.

The “Equity” Shield: How They Paralyzed the Police

The genius of the Obama-era strategy was not just in the importation of people, but in the weaponization of race to silence dissent. Under the guise of “equity,” the Obama administration pushed for relaxed standards in federal contracting, specifically favoring “minority-owned” nonprofits. This created a regulatory environment where asking questions became a career-ending risk.

Consider the mechanics of the “Feeding Our Future” fraud. The fraudsters claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day to children who did not exist. At one site, they claimed to be feeding 2,000 children daily in a second-story apartment. Anyone with eyes could see this was impossible. So why didn’t the Minnesota Department of Education stop it? Because when they tried, they were called racists. The fraudsters, emboldened by the racial grievance culture Obama cultivated, sued the state for discrimination. Terrified of the “racism” label, the state resumed payments. This is the direct result of a decade of Obama-era policy that equated oversight with oppression. The bureaucrats were more afraid of a lawsuit from the ACLU than they were of letting billions of dollars in taxpayer money walk out the back door.

The Protege: Ilhan Omar and the MEALS Act

If Barack Obama built the machine, Ilhan Omar is the operator. Omar is the ultimate product of the Minnesota Somali enclave. She rose to power not despite her radicalism, but because of the demographic reality Obama created. And her legislative fingerprints are all over this scandal.

In 2020, as the pandemic began, Omar sponsored the MEALS Act. This legislation fundamentally altered the rules for federal nutrition programs, allowing parents to pick up meals without children present and removing the requirement for congregate dining. While pitched as a compassionate measure, it effectively removed the only verification mechanism the government had. It was a blank check. It is no coincidence that the fraud exploded immediately after these rules were relaxed. Omar’s campaign has accepted thousands of dollars from individuals later indicted in the scheme, money she quietly returned only after the media glare became too bright. She defends the lax rules as necessary to “feed kids,” twisting the narrative to make you feel guilty for questioning the theft. But the money didn’t go to kids. It went to luxury condos in Nairobi, beachfront property in Turkey, and Porsches in Minneapolis.

The Deep State Money Laundry

The rabbit hole goes deeper than just meal tickets. The connections between the Somali fraud network and the highest levels of the Democratic establishment are becoming impossible to ignore. Take a look at Rose Lake Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Tim Mynett, Ilhan Omar’s husband. As the fraud investigations heated up, astute observers noticed that the firm’s website was scrubbed of some very interesting names.

Prior to the scrub, the firm listed advisors including a former Obama ambassador to Bahrain, a former Obama ambassador to China, and a former DNC treasurer. Why are top-tier Obama officials swimming in the same financial waters as the family of a Congresswoman whose district is ground zero for the largest fraud in history? These networks provide the cover. They provide the legitimacy. And they potentially provide the mechanism to wash the proceeds of the grift. This is not just local corruption. It is a federally integrated operation where the political elite protect the foot soldiers who deliver the votes and the cash.

The Cost of Submission

You are paying for this. Every time you look at your pay stub and see the massive chunk taken out for federal taxes, remember that money is not building roads. It is not securing the border. It is funding the lifestyle of people who hate you. The $250 million stolen in the Feeding Our Future scam is just the tip of the iceberg. Investigators believe the total theft across childcare, autism, and housing programs could reach billions.

But the financial cost pales in comparison to the security threat. Much of this stolen money was remitted overseas. We know it bought real estate in Kenya and Turkey. What we don’t know is how much of it ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab or other extremist groups in the Horn of Africa. By turning a blind eye to this fraud to preserve “community relations,” the Democrats have effectively turned the US Treasury into a piggy bank for foreign interests. And politically, they have succeeded. The Somali bloc in Minnesota votes over 80% Democrat. They have sent Ilhan Omar to Congress three times. They are a captured constituency, bought and paid for with your tax dollars.

Dismantling the Legacy

The Minnesota fraud scandal is the inevitable result of the Obama doctrine: Import a dependent class, dismantle the safeguards against corruption under the banner of “equity,” and brand anyone who notices as a bigot. They counted on your silence. They counted on your fear of being called a name.

But the receipts are in. We know who did this. We know how they did it. And we know who let it happen. The solution is not “reform.” It is a complete dismantling of the refugee resettlement pipeline that Obama built. We need a forensic audit of every federal dollar sent to “community non-profits” in the last ten years. We need to seize the assets—the cars, the houses, the overseas accounts—of everyone involved. And most importantly, we need to stop being afraid. The cry of “racism” is the thief’s final defense. Ignore it. Keep your eyes on the money. Keep your eyes on the truth. They stole your country and sold it back to you as “diversity.” Demand a refund.

What You Can Do Right Now:

• Share this article: The mainstream media is trying to bury the Obama connection. Force the conversation.

• Demand Audits: Contact your state representatives and demand a specialized audit of all Department of Education and DHS grant recipients in your state.

• Reject the Guilt: When they try to shame you for asking where the money went, laugh in their faces. You are the creditor. They are the debtors. And collection day is coming.

. . . 

Chinese-made electric buses are rapidly gaining ground across Southeast Asia as governments push to decarbonize public transport and Chinese manufacturers seek growth beyond a slowing home market, according to Nikkei Asia.

In Jakarta, that shift is already visible. Transjakarta, the capital’s main bus operator, introduced electric buses from China’s BYD in 2022. It now runs 420 electric buses — nearly 10% of its fleet — including models from Skywell and Zhongtong, and plans to fully electrify its 10,000-bus fleet by 2030.

For veteran driver Muhammad Iqbal, the change has been dramatic. A decade ago, Chinese buses in Indonesia were known for breakdowns and even fires, forcing operators to rely on Japanese and European brands. Now, Iqbal says the new electric models are easier and more comfortable to drive. “It’s more comfortable to drive this electric bus,” he said. “It uses an automatic transmission, and drivers don’t have to queue at the gas station each [night] before returning [the buses].”

Nikkei writes that Chinese firms dominate the global electric bus export market, led by Yutong and King Long. In the first half of 2025 alone, China exported about 9,000 electric buses worldwide — a 124% increase from a year earlier. Southeast Asia still represents a small share of that total, but demand is accelerating.

In Indonesia, BYD has partnered with local manufacturer VKTR Teknologi Mobilitas, which opened an assembly plant in Central Java in May. The facility, capable of producing 3,000 vehicles a year, currently builds about 200 and aims to deliver 80 buses to Transjakarta by early 2026. Forty percent of the buses’ components are locally sourced, qualifying the company for government incentives.

Growth is also spreading regionally. Malaysia operates more than 140 electric buses and plans to deploy thousands over the next five years. Singapore has already ordered hundreds of electric buses from Chinese suppliers and aims to electrify half its fleet by 2030. The Philippines and Indonesia have set similar targets, driven by national EV policies.

Vietnam and Thailand are exceptions. Vietnam’s local manufacturer VinFast dominates its electric bus market, while Thailand is prioritizing rail investment over bus electrification.

The rapid expansion has also raised cybersecurity concerns. In November, Norway’s public transport operator warned that Chinese-made buses could be vulnerable to remote manipulation, prompting investigations in Europe. Chinese manufacturer Yutong rejected the claim. Indonesian cybersecurity expert Pratama Persadha cautioned that vehicle data could be exploited and urged governments to require cyberaudits for imported EV systems. As analyst Mark Manantan put it, “Whoever the company is, there will always be a cybersecurity risk.”

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Department of State has instructed U.S. embassies located in Western nations to report human rights abuses occurring there due to mass immigration, according to a Dec. 30 thread on X.

The embassies will “analyze government policies that facilitate mass migration or privilege migrants over citizens,” the department said.

“The United States urges governments to protect their borders and defend their citizens against the human rights abuses caused by mass migration. The United States stands ready to work alongside nations across the Western Hemisphere to end the global crisis of mass migration.”

According to the United Nations’ International Migrant Stock report published in January 2025, the total number of international migrants worldwide in 2024 was 304 million.

Europe hosted 94 million of these individuals, which is “more international migrants than any other region” in the world, the report said.

In second place was North America, which hosted 61 million migrants, followed by Northern Africa and Western Asia with 54 million people.

Between 1990 and 2024, Europe saw the largest increase in international migrants, with 43 million foreigners flowing into the region. North America added 34 million people during this period.

In its X post, the State Department said the United States has seen millions of migrants and massive amounts of deadly drugs flowing into the country on transnational routes operated by terror groups.

“Mass migration has endangered American citizens, threatened the economic security of American workers, and strained America’s asylum system,” it said, adding that the “narco-terror organizations that facilitate mass migration routinely engage in child trafficking, forced labor, sexual assault, and other heinous human rights abuses that threaten the citizens of nations throughout the Western Hemisphere and undermine the rule of law.”

On Nov. 21, the State Department said in a thread on X that it had directed embassies to report on any human rights implications and public safety impacts of mass migration, calling it an “existential threat to Western civilization” that also undermines the stability of key American allies.

“In the United Kingdom, thousands of girls have been victimized in Rotherham, Oxford, and Newcastle by grooming gangs involving migrant men,” the department said. “Many girls were left to suffer unspeakable abuse for years before authorities stepped in.”

The department also noted rapes of teen girls in Sweden and Germany by migrants.

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has arrested and deported “hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens” under the Trump administration, including drug traffickers, rapists, gang members, and kidnappers, the department said in a Dec. 19 statement.

“Seventy percent of those arrested by ICE are criminal illegal aliens who have been charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” DHS said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 39,984 pounds of drugs under President Donald Trump, a 10 percent jump from the same time in 2024, the department said, adding that Coast Guard seizures of illegal narcotics have surged 200 percent since January 2025.

Living on Benefits

As part of strengthening immigration practices, DHS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on Nov. 19 to amend the Public Charge provision regarding the admission of immigrants into the country, triggering opposition from lawmakers.

Under the provision, authorities can deny the application of an immigrant applying for a visa, admission, or adjustment of legal status in the United States who is likely to primarily become dependent on government benefits.

On Dec. 19, more than 100 lawmakers sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph B. Edlow, urging them to withdraw updates to Public Charge rules, saying it would harm immigrant communities, according to a Dec. 23 statement from the office of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).

“The Trump Administration’s proposal would rescind the clear 2022 public charge regulations and replace them with vague, undefined standards, leading to arbitrary decision-making, fear, and widespread confusion,” they said.

“Past public charge expansions have driven families, including those with U.S. citizen children, away from lawful access to health care, nutrition, and early childhood programs.”

In its proposed rulemaking notice, DHS said that the regulations must be updated.

The existing rules are “inconsistent with congressional intent, unduly restrictive, and hamper DHS’s ability to make accurate, precise, and reliable determinations of whether certain aliens are likely at any time to become a public charge,” it said.

DHS wrote that rescinding these rules would restore “broader discretion to evaluate all pertinent facts and align with long-standing policy that aliens in the United States should be self-reliant and government benefits should not incentivize immigration.”

The public has been waiting for years to see the contents of Audrey Hale’s journals and manifesto ever since she shot and killed three students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27, 2023. Her writings were kept under wraps for years by the Biden administration and local law enforcement as court battles dragged on, with media outlets seeking their release.

Many suspected the FBI, operating under Joe Biden, was slow-walking disclosure out of concern that the contents would undermine the preferred narrative at the time—that “white supremacy” was the most significant domestic terror threat facing the country, as well as the possible negative implications for the transgender community.

The FBI released hundreds of pages from Audrey Hale’s journal this week, and they show Hale, a 28-year-old woman who identified as male, methodically weighed attacks on two Nashville schools she previously attended before settling on the Christian elementary school. Covenant School was her school from kindergarten through fourth grade, while she attended fifth through eighth grade at I.T. Creswell Middle School.

What emerges from the pages is something uncomfortable for those invested in certain narratives about mass shootings: racial and religious animus played decisive roles in target selection.

🚨 HOLY CRAP. The Trump FBI just released bombshell docs hidden by the Biden admin proving the TRANSGENDER Covenant Christian school shooter Audrey Hale *specifically* targeted WHITE PEOPLE.

Transgender and anti-white violence is REAL.

They didn’t want this getting out.

The… pic.twitter.com/wDyf2SMJVl

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 30, 2025

The journal entries, some dating back to 2021, reveal that Hale initially identified Creswell as the “1st choice” for her planned massacre.

Then her calculus shifted. 

Regarding Creswell, Hale wrote down several disadvantages that ultimately ruled out the school. The student body at Creswell was “[predominantly] black school (black people I love),” Hale noted.

This phrase appeared twice in the disadvantages section for the school.

Hale explained in her writing that attacking the school would leave the “Black community in despair [and] suffering (I don’t want to cause that) = don’t want to harm them = dread.” Another concern surfaced repeatedly: “Black friends [and] black community will hate me.” Hale also worried about inspiring others, writing that killing black students would be “likely to influence rasist [sic] white shooters in future.”

For Hale, the Covenant School had all the advantages. Being a “predominantly white school” counted as a positive because “white people I hate!” Hale wrote. The school’s religious character sealed the decision. “Christian school (hate religion),” Hale noted, underlining the phrase about hating religion for emphasis. 

Familiarity with the campus layout was also a factor, though by that point the decision had already been made. Hale had found a target that satisfied both racial and religious hatred.

Hale’s parents later told authorities their daughter developed an affinity for black culture while playing basketball on a predominantly black team at Creswell. Her mother explained in a recorded police interview that Hale “felt accepted” by her teammates. 

“I think, somehow, maybe in her mind — you know, she felt because of being in this school, and on this athletic team, and these girls, you know, liked her and were on the team … she felt accepted.” 

The writings make clear that Hale evaluated two schools using criteria that included race and religion. One school was spared because Hale loved black people and feared backlash from the black community. The other was selected because Hale hated white people and Christianity. These weren’t random thoughts. They were made as part of a deliberative process. 

The FBI’s release this week confirms what some suspected and what others hoped to avoid discussing: identity-based hatred can cut in multiple directions, even among those who belong to protected classes themselves.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he’s pulling National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland. 

“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that federal forces will “come back” if crime spikes again. 

Earlier this month a federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration from deploying members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles, and also directed the administration to return control of the Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom – until an appeals court paused the latter. 

In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order. That paves the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalized the Guard in June.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the development a “major litigation victory” in a press release Wednesday. -AP

In October, however, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland as a legal challenge progresses – however in November, a judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there following a three-day trial.

The decision to pull troops also comes a week after the Supreme Court refused to allow the admin to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area to aid in ICE efforts to remove illegals. The order was not a final ruling, but marked a rare setback by the SCOTUS in regards to Trump’s efforts. 

“Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in,” Trump’s post continues. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”

In November, US Northern Command said it was “shifting and/or rightsizing” operations in Portland, Chicago and Los Angeles, but that there would be a “constant, enduring and long-term presence in each city.” 

Trump has made a crackdown on crime a centerpiece of his second term, and has teased the use of the Insurrection Act to stop Democrats from using the courts to block his plans. 

Two Chinese-flagged very large crude carriers are proceeding toward Venezuelan waters despite a U.S.-imposed blockade on sanctioned oil tankers, raising the prospect of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over Venezuela’s crude exports.

Shipping data published by Lloyd’s List on Tuesday shows the Thousand Sunny is expected to arrive at Venezuela’s Jose Terminal in mid-January after rounding the Cape of Good Hope empty in the southern Atlantic, Newsweek reports. The vessel, which is not subject to U.S. sanctions, has historically transported Venezuelan Merey heavy crude to China. A second unsanctioned Chinese-flagged VLCC, the Xing Ye, is currently positioned off French Guiana, awaiting loading at the same terminal, Newsweek said.

Both the State Department and China’s Foreign Ministry have remained mum on the vessels’ movements.

The high-stakes voyages come as President Donald Trump escalates pressure on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, including a mid-December order for a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving the country. U.S. forces have seized at least two tankers carrying Venezuelan crude in international waters this month, with a third evading boarding. The Pentagon has described the measures as a “quarantine” aimed at curbing revenue to the Maduro government, which Washington accuses of links to drug trafficking and terrorism.

Separately, the Central Intelligence Agency carried out a drone strike on a remote coastal dock in Venezuela earlier this month, marking the first acknowledged U.S. operation on Venezuelan territory, according to people familiar with the matter briefed to CNN.The target, believed by U.S. officials to be used for storing and loading narcotics onto boats – potentially by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua – was unoccupied at the time, and no casualties were reported. The strike followed a series of U.S. attacks on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in international waters.

Trump first referenced the operation in a Friday radio interview with WABC’s John Catsimatidis, saying U.S. forces had “knocked out” a “big facility where the ships come from” two nights earlier.

On Monday, Trump elaborated on the mission during a gaggle with reporters, saying, “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs… That is no longer around.”

The White House and Pentagon have declined to provide further details on the operation or its execution. Venezuelan officials have not publicly responded to the reports.

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

JOSEPHINE, Texas – This rural town with farmland stretching to the horizon might as well be a million miles away from New York City with its skyscrapers and big-city worries.

But the residents of the Big Apple and Josephine have something in common—controversy over the construction of a mosque.

Perhaps not since the “Ground Zero Mosque” was proposed two blocks from the World Trade Center site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has a mosque drawn so much attention.

The proposed 2009 Manhattan mosque and Islamic cultural center was known as Park 51. It faced sharp public criticism for plans to place a symbol of Islam so close to where thousands died from an attack by radical jihadists. Groups such as Stop Islamization of America led protests against “radical Islam” before the project was eventually abandoned.

More than a decade later, as Muslim migration to Texas has increased, a similar uproar has risen over a proposed Muslim-focused neighborhood anchored by a mosque in rural Texas, some 40 miles from Dallas.

Promotional materials first described EPIC City, named after the East Plano Islamic Center, as the “epicenter of Islam in America.”

Following backlash at the local, state, and federal levels, it changed its name to The Meadow.

The development would encompass 402 acres of farmland outside Josephine, a town of 8,800 residents founded in 1888 by a railroad company back when cotton was king in Texas.

It would include 1,000 homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, sports facilities, a community college, senior housing, an outreach center, and businesses.

Since the idea was proposed, numerous public officials and community members have worked to halt the development, citing concerns about whether the new community would integrate with the local population and asking questions over sharia—Islamic law—and potential ties to foreign Islamic groups.

The development has prompted legal battles, state and federal investigations, and new state laws addressing neighborhood composition and foreign ownership. The ongoing battle included Texas Gov. Greg Abbott classifying some Islamic groups as foreign terrorist organizations; and the White House is considering similar action.

A new mosque is the centerpiece of the proposed EPIC City, described as the “epicenter of Islam in America.” The city was renamed The Meadow after backlash at the local, state, and federal levels. Republican leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and residents have opposed the proposed 402-acre Muslim development outside the rural town of Josephine, Texas. Rendering from Texas legal documents

Grassroots Backlash

The Muslim-led community would be located in an area largely populated by white and Hispanic residents whose religion is predominantly Christian.

Locally, residents have voiced concerns about Islamic radicalization and sharia law in communities they believe may not integrate into U.S. culture, despite the developer’s denials.

Sharia law is an Islamic code of conduct and law derived from the Quran, often at odds with laws and rights in Western countries.

One woman who spoke at a Collin County Commissioners Court meeting in November raised concerns that sharia would replace U.S. law within the development.

“This remains an Islamic-focused community, and Islam is fundamentally incompatible with our Constitution,” she said.

At the Josephine City Council meeting, a resident of Armenian descent said people should be aware that, in his view, Islam is only peaceful when it is not in control.

“Islam is not truly a religion of peace,“ he added. ”Once they get to a certain point in a culture, they start to ravage it from within.”

Most Muslims are good people, he said, but when their religious ideology demands it, they feel compelled to obey. “They don’t speak up against it.”

He referenced historical events, saying the West should consider the Armenian genocide over a century ago under the Ottoman Empire, which imposed sharia.

“We were walked into the Syrian desert until we died of hunger, of starvation. They hung Christian females to posts and lit them on fire as candles,” he said.

As public concerns intensified, state officials stepped up their efforts to address them.

Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit against the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), which contracted for the land, and developer Community Capital Partners, and others, alleging violations of Texas securities laws.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at a press conference in Anzalduas Park near McAllen, Texas, on April 28, 2021. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

​The lawsuit claims the housing development would be illegally reserved for Muslim residents. It also asserts that the project’s leaders “lined their own pockets” with funds during development.

Abbott took to social media on Dec. 3, stating the development’s name change does not alter its intent and that at least four state agencies continue to investigate “this misguided mission.”

“‘The Meadow’ will remain just that—an empty meadow,” Abbott said. “EPIC can change its name, but can’t change the legality of the flawed structure they seek to impose. They delete social media posts & rewrite contracts. But it’s just a disguise to impose sharia on a community they create.”

Developers Say No Wrongdoing

​Meanwhile, the Texas enclave’s developers and Muslim groups have denounced the legal action as Islamophobic and a violation of their rights.

The Islamophobia Network, a project of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), produced a report about the development condemning Abbott’s actions as politically motivated.

​“Anti-Islam organizing targeting the Muslim-led EPIC City development project saw bias mobilizing the power of Texas government to deny Muslims their equal opportunities to pursue their dreams and potential,” the report said.

​It denounced what it called “anti-Islam” legislation and what it called “advanced conspiracy theories” involving “no-go zones.”

​The report compared tactics used to stop the EPIC development to those used in the controversy over the “Ground Zero Mosque” at Park 51.

​“We also note that Governor Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attack on EPIC City has not resulted in any evidence of wrongdoing to date and may violate Constitutional prohibitions against arbitrary government action,” the group stated.

People watch construction at the World Trade Center site in New York City on Aug. 16, 2010. The proposed Manhattan mosque and Islamic cultural center, known as Park51, drew sharp criticism in 2009 over plans to locate it near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

​High-profile Texas attorney Dan Cogdell, who represents developer Community Capital Partners, held a press conference in the spring as the pressure campaign against the development ramped up.

​​“My clients are law-abiding Texans, law-abiding Americans, and law-abiding Muslims,” he said.

​​He added that no one associated with the community follows or implements sharia and that Abbott was attempting to “demonize” Muslims.

​Neither EPIC nor Cogdell responded to requests for comment.

State Legislation

Republicans campaigning in the Lone Star state are tapping into public unease over mass immigration and the increase in terrorist incidents, such as the Nov. 26 shooting of two Washington D.C. guardsmen by an Afghan immigrant.

​Abbott is currently seeking his fourth term as governor, while Paxton is running in the Senate Republican primary against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

In a flurry of activity this fall, Abbott took steps to block foreign threats and developments in Texas.

In September, he signed House Bill 4211 into law, banning residential property developers from creating exclusionary compounds, specifically citing the EPIC project.

Abbott stated that the law bans residential property developments such as EPIC City “from creating sharia compounds and defrauding and discriminating against Texans.”

“The fact is, religious freedom is a central part of the Texas Constitution. But bad actors like EPIC and EPIC City tried to use religion as a form of segregation. We will ensure that we have the laws and law enforcement in place to prevent attempts to build such discriminatory compounds in the state of Texas.”

​Likewise, in June, the governor signed Senate Bill 17 into law, banning transnational criminal organizations and foreign adversaries—including Iran—from purchasing land.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs a bill at the state Capitol in Austin on April 23, 2025. Earlier this year, Abbott signed measures that would curb exclusionary residential compounds—citing the EPIC project—and restrict land purchases by foreign adversaries and transnational criminal groups. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

On Nov. 18, Abbott cited these laws in a proclamation designating the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ties to Hamas, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and transnational criminal organizations.

The designation authorizes “heightened enforcement against both organizations and their affiliates and prohibits them from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas,” according to the governor’s office.

Abbott took the additional step in December of asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to suspend CAIR’s tax-exempt status, citing longstanding ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

CAIR filed its own lawsuit against Abbott and Paxton in November, calling Abbott’s proclamation “unconstitutional and defamatory.” The group said the proclamation falsely declared the Texas chapter of CAIR as a terrorist group.

A few days later, the White House announced it would investigate whether certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as FTOs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested during a radio interview with “Sid and Friends in the Morning” in August, that designating CAIR as a terrorist group was also “in the works.”

Other leading Republicans, opponents of Islamic extremism and sharia, have weighed in on the EPIC development.

In May, Cornyn said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a civil rights investigation into the development at his request. The investigation was ultimately dropped with no violations cited.

Cruz, who reintroduced a bill in July to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, said during a Heritage Foundation appearance that sharia law was a concern at the EPIC development in North Texas.

​Last month, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who is running for Texas Attorney General, introduced legislation to counter mass migration. The bill would deny legal status to followers of sharia, known or suspected terrorists, and other groups.

​“Many Americans strive to live their life practicing their faith, while our immigration system is actively importing radical Islamic sharia adherents and communists,” Roy said in a press release.

Demonstrators attend a rally with the Coalition to Honor Ground Zero in New York City on Aug. 22, 2010. The rally was held to oppose the construction of an Islamic Center and mosque near Ground Zero. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

‘A Different Population’

​Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, said public fears over Muslim enclaves and mass migration are symptoms of a brewing national identity crisis.

Americans fear they are losing their culture and way of life to foreign influences, including those from the Middle East, he told The Epoch Times.

​The foreign-born population of the United States currently sits at about 16 percent—the highest in history, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s January 2025 Current Population Survey.  The last time it was close to being that high was in 1890, when immigrants mainly from Eastern Europe pushed the foreign-born population to 14.8 percent, according to the Census Bureau.

​“But obviously, now the Muslim population is growing rapidly with immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa—and it’s a cultural change,” Hankinson said.

​“So it’s a new phenomenon. I think people, maybe in parts of rural Texas, were kind of used to the certain makeup that they had.”

More Americans are paying attention to immigration policy because it’s impacting their communities, he said.

Social media is awash in posts highlighting the effect of mass migration in Europe, warning that it’s a harbinger of things to come in America.

On Dec. 20, Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, warned against “Islamist ideology” and sharia taking over the West during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest

“This Islamist ideology is a direct threat to our freedom because at its core it is a political ideology that seeks to create a global caliphate that governs us here in America,” she said.

“If we don’t take action to identify this threat, to define it, to call it out for what it is, and take action to defeat it, then we will find ourselves in a place where many European countries and countries like Australia have found themselves.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix on Dec. 20, 2025. Gabbard warned against “Islamist ideology” and sharia taking over the West. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Hankinson, a British immigrant, said that native-born English citizens are now the minority in London.

​“If you replace a population with a different population, then everything’s going to change,” he said.

​But immigration is not accidental; it is a policy choice that voters make, he said.

Small groups of immigrants with cultures similar to those of the areas they move to tend to assimilate, such as Ukrainians settling in Poland, he said.

​Enclaves of culturally diverse immigrants have been accepted when they are localized and relatively small, he said. ​But large groups of people coming into a country will change that society.

​“I think Americans are noticing, and some of them probably don’t like it,” he said.

Ammon Blair, a security consultant and senior fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Secure & Sovereign Nation Initiative, said the mass migration that occurred during the Biden administration was different from past migrations.

​“This is a completely engineered, fabricated form of immigration where it’s done for the sole purpose of eradicating the sovereignty of a nation and state,” he told The Epoch Times.

​Blair pointed to large immigrant settlements that sometimes remain under the control of the countries they left, making assimilation difficult.

Muslims pray at a mosque during Friday prayers in Plano, Texas, on April 11, 2025. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

This March, President Trump asserted in a proclamation that the Venezuelan transnational gang Tren de Aragua was part of the Cártel de los Soles, sponsored by President Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Tren de Aragua is known to target Venezuelan nationals in the United States.

Another example would be recent fraud rooted in Minnesota’s Somali settlement, which allegedly funds Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization, he noted. Since then, President Donald Trump announced a crackdown on temporary legal status for Somalis.

“It all comes down to not just assimilation, but allegiance,” Blair said.

Hankinson said after experiencing immigration himself and watching countries change, he no longer believes multiculturalism works, saying it has probably “failed as an experiment.”

The ongoing debate over the proposed Muslim-centric development in Texas encapsulates larger questions about immigration, assimilation, and national identity across the United States, he said.

“The idea is that we can all live in one country, but we can have completely different values, beliefs, religions, cultural traditions, etc. I don’t think there’s enough to hold a country together without those things.”

Something very rare just happened in Moscow. Large swathes of Russian capital were plunged into darkness Wednesday after a swarm of inbound Ukrainian drones resulted in a fire at a key electrical substation.

People reported widespread outages across the Moscow region, including a “total blackout” in areas southeast of the capital, leaving homes without electricity for over four hours.

‼️A blackout in Moscow: up to 600,000 residents are without electricity, according to Russian media. pic.twitter.com/X9EXYk28Gr

— WW3 Monitor (@WW3_Monitor) December 30, 2025

Power was cut to hundreds of thousands of residents in and around Moscow, though estimates have varied from 100,000 to up to 600,000 people impacted.

Social media videos and images showed apartment buildings, streets, and and businesses in areas like Zhukovsky, Lyubertsy, Lytkarino, and Ramenskoye, in total darkness.

Moscow authorities confirmed they deployed an army emergency crews with mobile generators to darkened city sectors as repairs were being made.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 100 drones were intercepted between 5:00 and 7pm that night. At least eight were shot down directly over the Moscow region – though drones were observed over various parts of the country, as has become an almost nightly norm.

The evening drone wave resulted temporary closures at Moscow’s airports, disrupting air traffic, which has also occurred a number of times before.

This marks a rare moment that the power grid has been successfully targeted in Moscow, after literally hundreds of attacks on oil and gas sites in various other oblasts of the country, particularly near the Black Sea and southwest Russia.

While numbers have varied, this was clearly a very widespread outage across various districts in Moscow Oblast:

In the Moscow region, 120 thousand people were left without electricity. A blackout has been observed in Ramenskoye, which has lasted for more than four hours. The administration promises to fix the accident in a couple of hours. Also, messaging apps are not working.

So far… pic.twitter.com/t82RntWil0

— Beefeater (@Beefeater_Fella) December 30, 2025

It is more typical for Ukrainian cities to be suffering, amid cold and increasingly winter temperatures. The national grid has needed so many new parts at such rapid pace that it can’t keep up.

“Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid will continue without President Trump stepping in, Ukraine’s top energy executive has warned, as millions risk a freezing winter without power,” Fox reports.

“DTEK’s Maxim Timchenko spoke out as Ukraine braced for further Russian drone and missile attacks on energy infrastructure and a day after Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the third time to bring an end to the nearly four-year war,” it adds.

Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

Millions worldwide will watch a crystal ball descend 139 feet down a flagpole in Manhattan’s Time Square as a throng of thousands counts down the last 10 seconds of 2025 and ushers in 2026 in a blizzard of confetti and a cacophony of kazoos, party horns, whistles, and whatever else imaginative noisemakers can stash and carry.

The minute-long ball drop is among the planet’s most viewed annual live events.

At least a billion will see the 12.5-foot diameter, 12,350-pound “Constellation Ball“ with 32,000 LEDs and 5,280 Waterford crystals shimmer, shine, and sink.

Only this year, they’ll see the ball rise again in a blaze of red, white, and blue as 2026 dawns to mark the 250th birthday of the United States and instantly kick off a year of commemorative celebrations across the country.

The Times Square New Year ball drop is glitter, glitz, and a tradition since 1907 so when it comes to ball drops, it’s the premier event.

But face it: Anyone can drop a ball.

Ask Jacksonville Jaguars’ quarterback Trevor Lawrence. His receivers have dropped the ball an NFL-leading 45 times in 2025. It’s been done. Over and over.

So ever-innovative Americans have found all sorts of weird and wonderful things to drop when saying farewell to one year and welcoming the next.

On New Year’s Eve, anchors and shoes will drop—a “whiskey boot” in Prescott, Ariz.; flip-flops in Folly Beach, S.C.—and pants will be run up and down flagpoles, including yellow breeches on Yellow Breeches Creek in Lititz, Pa.

Marine life will be honored with sardines, mossbunkers, lobsters, oysters, conch, carp, red crabs, and blue crabs dropping in coastal towns, including Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, where “Cosmic Turtle” is set to rise and fall to the occasion like a true hard-shelled urbanite.

There will be birds of all feathers diving into posterity, most commonly eagles, pelicans, and ducks, but in Perry, Ga., a buzzard will wing in the New Year.

Stuffed beavers, bears, goats, a hamster, and a flying pig will be among cherished critters descending to applause with a live possum the honoree in Tallapoosa, Ga. When it comes to, let’s say the most distinctive New Year drops, Georgia and Pennsylvania top the list.

Vegetables and fruits will be frequent fallers. Oranges, blueberries, pineapples, peaches, watermelons, grapes, cherries, strawberries, acorns, mushrooms, lemons, peanuts, olives, lettuce, potatoes, chili peppers, and applies—including apples with arrows shot through them—will take the plunge. There will be pickle drops but the one in Dillsburg, Pa., soberly conducted since 1907, is the best preserved.

Stars, sunbursts, atoms, meteorites, jugs, race cars, hockey pucks, fishing lures, piñatas, ukuleles, guitars, bricks, beer bottles, cannonballs, ping pong balls, golf balls, beach balls, popcorn balls, crayons, kettles, cigars—there’s controversy in Red Lion, Pa., where a lion will defiantly hoist a cigar, but in a parking lot rather than from the municipal building—horseshoes, and gumbo pots will all mark the passage of time and decorum.

Meatballs, sausage, cheese dogs, pretzels, French fries, potato chips, pierogies with kielbasa, tacos, an 80-pound cheese wedge, giant M&Ms, Hershey’s Kisses, lollipops, ice cream cake, doughnuts, a 600-pound moonpie, and tortilla chips will be on the drop menu and, for the 29th year, so will a 150-pound “stick” of bologna in Lebanon, Pa.

Pac-Man, pirates, drag queens—in Key West, pirate drag queens—Las Vegas skydivers in lighted suits, and a Kansas City comedian will be among those who drop as the last seconds of 2025 tick away, as will Jasper The Flea, Lucky The Dead Carp (kiss it for good luck!), Captain Wylie Walleye, Spencer The Stuffed Opossum, Chuck The Chicken, Bob The Shrimp, and Marshall P. Muskrat in top hat and bow tie.

Below are 12 arbitrarily selected towns with distinctive styles in counting down the final fleeting moments of a year.

The 6-foot Bayer aspirin tablet drop Myerstown, Pa., would be included but confirming if that’s happening this year is too much of a headache, and if others are overlooked, someone in marketing dropped the ball.

In Guam, where “America’s Day Begins” 15 hours before the day begins in Times Square, it’s good luck to wear polka dots on New Year’s Eve, and on Cadillac Mountain in Maine, the first place to see a winter sunrise in the continental United States, anyone who sees a snowy owl on New Year’s Eve is destined to have a fortuitous year.

But luck has nothing to do with these local New Year’s drop rituals that drop-kick convention, some for don’t ask, don’t tell reasons lost to antiquity.

— Eastport, Maine: There are two New Year’s Eve drops in the easternmost town in the continental United States as part of The Great Sardine & Maple Leaf Drop. At 11 p.m., an illuminated maple leaf descends to honor neighboring towns across the border in Canada’s Atlantic Time Zone and an hour later, down comes a six-foot sardine that onlookers swarm to kiss for good luck. If smooching a sardine doesn’t appeal, there’s always the DownEast Lobstah Drop an hour away in Machias.

— Key West, Florida: A six-foot queen conch shell will drop 20 feet onto the bar at Sloppy Joe’s during the Key West Conch Drop but whether celebrants notice is always uncertain with all sorts of things dropping elsewhere on Duval Street. There will be plenty of citrus-themed drops across the Sunshine State and kids can pick a brick to drop at Legoland in Winter Haven.

— Unadilla, Georgia: A pig-shaped sign will be lowered in awestruck reverence during the ninth annual “Hog Drop” that includes a BBQ competition, Monster Truck show, dirt bike stunts, fire breathers, racing pigs, chainsaw sculptors, and axe-throwers.

Sure, Atlanta is dropping a big peach, Brunswick has “Bob The Shrimp,” Cornelia the “Little Red Apple,” and Perry has its buzzard, but watching the hog drop in Unadilla is, like, seeing what Georgia is all about.

— Vincennes, Indiana. An 18-foot, 500-pound steel-and-foam watermelon descends 100 feet during the last 60 seconds of the year before hitting the ground and spilling forth a bounty of locally grown watermelon. This isn’t merely some quirky local oddity, this is the National Watermelon Drop—the Super Bowl, World Cup, Nobel Prize of watermelon drops.

— Frederick, Maryland: The 78th annual “Key Drop” on Carroll Creek will commemorate Francis Scott Key, the hometown lawyer who wrote the poem “Defense of Fort McHenry“ that became the United States’ national anthem., ”The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Less than 30 miles away, a giant doughnut will be dunked in Hagerstown to honor Krumpe’s Do-Nuts, a family-owned bakery in business since 1934, because—why not?

— Detroit: The ninth annual “D Burst” will drop at Campus Martius Park to commemorate the Motor City’s renaissance and serve as the finale of a series of celebrations that began with a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, in Naguanee, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the annual New Year’s Midnight Meatball Drop at Strega Nonna, will likely draw many of the town’s 4,600 residents to enjoy a 50-pound meatball that drops into a massive pot of tomato sauce.

— St. Paul, Minnesota: The Midway Saloon will again orchestrate the New Year’s “Minnesota Bobber Drop” that features the descent of the unchallenged, no doubt, Guinness World Records-certified largest functioning fishing bobber—a seven-foot diameter red-and-white float “big enough to make Paul Bunyan proud.”

— Allentown, Pennsylvania: Downtown Allentown isn’t just dropping hockey pucks, it annually stages “The World’s Largest Puck Drop” on New Year’s Eve, just one of many distinctive celebrations across the Keystone State.

Among notable drops: Mabel The Cow from a silo in Blain; Haydn’s Jug in East Petersburg; a wrench in Mechanicsburg; and “chunks of coal” in several towns.

— Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Celebrate the end of 2025, which marked the 80th anniversary of atomic weaponry that somehow, thus far, hasn’t ended life on Earth, at the “Secret City New Year’s Eve Atomic Ball Drop” in the national lab city where it all began.

— Mobile, Alabama: A Mardi Gras-style parade ends with the descent of a 600-pound MoonPie from RSA Tower in Mobile’s 17th annual “MoonPie Over Mobile“ New Year’s Eve party.

For something more down to earth in ‘Bama, there’s always the Wetumpka Crater “Meteor Drop” and Samson’s “Snuff Drop,” which commemorates “an incident where a train containing a shipment of Rooster-brand snuff [tobacco] was parked at the town’s depot for an extended period of time.” Got to be there to learn the details of this “incident.”

— Plymouth, Wisconsin: Home of “The Big Cheese Drop,” where an 80-pound decorated cheese wedge is dangled and dropped 100 feet from a firetruck ladder.

— Show Low, Arizona: The annual “Show Low Deuce of Clubs Drop” will draw locals and tourists to see a giant playing card lowered from the town’s library to commemorate “the infamous card game that started the town.”

Elsewhere in Arizona, iceberg lettuce will be dropped in Yuma and a pinecone in Flagstaff, and a boot in Prescott.

Weeks after National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent warned that thousands of known and suspected terrorists entered the U.S. during the Biden-Harris regime years of a nation-killing open-border invasion, and days after a U.S. government threat assessment flagged elevated risks from lone wolves and small terror cells potentially targeting ‘special events‘ in New York City and Chicago, the deployment of National Guard troops to New Orleans only suggests officials are responding to credible threats.

Chicago authorities warn NYE celebrations could attract foreign and domestic terrorists.

New Orleans to increase security after FBI foils Antifa-affiliated plot to kill Border Patrol agents. pic.twitter.com/pB34XyhPDn

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 27, 2025

A total of 350 Louisiana National Guard soldiers are patrolling Bourbon Street in the French Quarter and other high-value areas across the metro region, one year after a vehicle-ramming terror attack on Bourbon Street killed 14 people.

New Orleans — National Guard troops have been deployed to the French Quarter to provide additional cover for the New Year’s. At the last new year in the same area, a black Muslim ISIS supporter carried out a mass shooting, killing 14. pic.twitter.com/wjjVkbSPbg

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) December 31, 2025

#BREAKING: The National Guard is now in New Orleans ahead of New Year’s Day celebrations. pic.twitter.com/BVyhZZEl45

— Mallory Smith (@mallorysmithtv) December 30, 2025

The deployment follows similar National Guard posturings in Washington and Memphis. Officials note that Guard deployments are merely “routine” in the French Quarter.

“It’s no different than what we’ve seen in the past,’ New Orleans police spokesperson Reese Harper told AP News.

“This is for visibility and really to keep our citizens safe,” Harper said. “It’s another tool in the toolbox and another layer of security.”

Louisiana National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins said the Guard will support local, state, and federal law enforcement to “enhance capabilities, stabilize the environment, assist in reducing crime, and restore public trust.”

However, our assessment is that the presence of National Guard troops in certain major U.S. cities is less about routine crime suppression and more about a broader terror threat.

Earlier this month, NCTC’s Kent told the House Homeland Security Committee that the agency has identified roughly 18,000 known and suspected terrorists who were allowed to enter the country under the Biden-Harris regime.

.@NCTCKent: “So far, NCTC has identified around 18,000 known and suspected terrorists that the Biden administration let come into our country.” pic.twitter.com/XPrHdKMICK

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 11, 2025

It also follows last month’s terror attack in which an Afghan national killed one National Guard member and wounded another just blocks from the White House.

Some may dismiss former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams as a sensationalist, but her warnings about this terror threat from open borders for the last few years are increasingly becoming more mainstream and widely embraced by Trump officials. 

It’s past time @DHSgov stops playing pretend and finally raises the terrorism threat level in this country. We have more than 10,000 Islamist terrorists on our soil, and they cannot keep looking the other way. They don’t get to pad their stats by slapping the terrorist label on…

— Sarah Adams (@sarahadams) November 27, 2025

Importantly, the threat is not limited to radicalized Islamists or even South American transnational gangs; there is also an emerging threat coming from the radical left, as highlighted in a foiled New Year’s Eve bomb plot by Turtle Island Liberation Front.