The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will end all nonhuman-primate research conducted at its own facilities, marking the first time since the National Institutes of Health retired its chimpanzees in 2015 that a major federal health agency has fully shuttered an in-house monkey program, Science reports.

The decision affects roughly 200 macaques currently housed at the CDC’s Atlanta campus. A CDC spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that the agency is developing a wind-down plan but declined to provide a specific timeline or details on the fate of the animals.

The move follows years of criticism from animal-welfare groups and some scientists who argue that monkey models have produced limited translational value, particularly in HIV vaccine development, where decades of primate studies have yet to yield a licensed product. The CDC cited both ethical considerations and a strategic pivot to human-relevant alternatives, including organ-on-a-chip platforms, advanced cell cultures, and computational models, as factors in the decision.

Separately, the CDC has grappled with biosecurity incidents involving imported primates. Internal data reviewed by PETA show that between 2021 and 2024, quarantine screening identified 69 cases of tuberculosis in incoming macaques, with an additional 16 cases detected after animals had been released to laboratories.

“PETA has warned the CDC since 2022 that its monkey import pipeline is a ticking TB time bomb,” said Dr. Jones-Engel. “Yet its willful blindness has allowed a known biosecurity threat to pour into the U.S. We urge the CDC to end the importation of monkeys to laboratories—for public safety, scientific integrity, and the primates themselves.”

The phase-out aligns with broader federal efforts to reduce animal testing. Signed in 2022, the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act 2.0 removed the mandate for animal testing before human trials, while the NIH, EPA, and FDA have all expanded funding for non-animal approaches.

“This move is historic. For the first time, a U.S. agency is choosing modern, human-relevant science over a failed system of monkey experiments,” said Janine McCarthy, acting director of research policy for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “Now, the CDC should use that funding to transition to human-relevant research and to ensure that these monkeys are sent to sanctuaries for the remainder of their lives.”

“The CDC just sent a message to the entire biomedical establishment: The era of monkey experimentation is over,” McCarthy added.

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered by the country’s supreme court to start serving his 27-year sentence, even as what could be a very lengthy further appeals effort carries on.

He was convicted in September for plotting a coup, based on allegations he also cooperated with foreign influence, for not accepting the election results which brough President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to power. 

Bolsonaro, who only somewhat recently was living in Florida after which he returned to his home country to face and attempt to fight the charges, will reportedly begin this jail sentence in a 12 square meter room at a police base in the capital Brasilia.

Supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered him directly to jail after over the weekend police raided his home, where he was on house arrest, when it was learned he attempted to remove his ankle monitor, which showed signs of damage from a soldering iron.

Others among his top officials and supporters are also expected to begin serving out their sentences, reports The Guardian: 

Bolsonaro’s six co-conspirators were also ordered to start their sentences.

The former defense minister Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, and the former minister for institutional security Gen Augusto Heleno were arrested and imprisoned in the Planalto Military Command in Brasília. They received sentences of 19 and 21 years respectively.

The former navy commander Adm Almir Garnier Santos, who received a 24-year sentence, was reportedly arrested by navy officials and held on a navy base.

Bolsonaro’s former defence minister, Gen Walter Braga Netto, who received a 26-year sentence, was already in custody having been arrested last December.

The former justice minister, Anderson Torres, who received a 24-year sentence, was expected to be sent to a penitentiary for police officers and other “special” prisoners in Brasília called Papudinha.

Still, the start of these jail terms could result in large-scale protests among what is still a significant pro-Bolsonaro base:

“He’s been kidnapped,” complained Ronny de Souza, a 43-year-old Bolsonaro activist, as he stood outside the federal police base where the politician was taken last weekend after being arrested amid suspicions he was about to abscond to a foreign embassy.

We detailed Saturday that federal police rushed to his residence to take him out of house arrest, and initiated what’s being called a ‘preventative arrest’ – and he was whisked away to police headquarters in Brasilia. The arrest order issued from the country’s top court came hours after his ankle monitor was shown to be violated at 12:08am on Saturday. From there, authorities considered Bolsonaro a flight risk, explaining he is in close proximity to foreign embassies where he might try and gain asylum.

Photos released by the court show the ankle monitor’s cap heavily damaged, after he reportedly at one point took a soldering iron to it. According to The New York Times:

At first, Mr. Bolsonaro told the police that he had banged his ankle monitor causing it to malfunction, according to a report from the capital region’s prison authority.

But when an agent on the scene asked about the burn marks on the device, Mr. Bolsonaro admitted using a soldering iron to try to melt it. In a video of the exchange released by the authorities, Mr. Bolsonaro can be heard apparently telling the agent that he had started torching the monitor hours earlier.

His legal team has since claimed that “Bolsonaro would have no way of escaping” as he is “an elderly man who suffers from serious health problems.

Trump reacts, but merely says “that’s too bad”…

Hear me out: TRUMP WAS IN ON BOLSONARO’S ESCAPE PLAN.

Bolsonaro spoke with him before getting arrested for tampering with his ankle monitor. Here is Trump saying he expected to meet him “in the near future” and was stunned he ended up back in jail.#Maddow pic.twitter.com/2xCBcX7ptg

— Canada Hates Trump (@AntiTrumpCanada) November 25, 2025

However, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has long been a political enemy (the US has even sanctioned him personally) as well as chief overseer of the case, described over the weekend, “He is located about 13 kilometers (8 miles) away from where the United States of America embassy lies, in a distance that can be covered in a 15-minute drive.”

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times,

Japan’s finance minister on Nov. 25 unveiled a plan to cut wasteful government spending, drawing parallels to the United States’ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama arrives at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, on Oct. 21, 2025. Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama launched the “Office for Administrative Reform and Promotion of Efficiency,” which she said will work with the finance and internal affairs ministries to review measures such as government subsidies and special tax treatments for companies, according to The Japan Times.

“The public requires the government to show a constant commitment to maintain fiscal sustainability. It is crucial that this commitment is always present in Kasumigaseki and Nagatacho,” Katayama said during a press conference, referring, respectively, to Japan’s government district and where its parliament—the Diet—is located.

Katayama sought to distinguish Japan’s office for reform from the U.S.’s efficiency agency, saying, “Unlike DOGE, we’re not aiming to overhaul government organizations,” but rather on reviewing how taxpayers’ money is spent.

“To maintain trust in the sustainability of Japan’s finances, it’s very important to show the public how we are always looking into how we spend,” she said.

DOGE’s $214 Billion in Savings

U.S. President Donald Trump established DOGE in January as a task force designed to root out fraud, waste, and abuse from the federal government. It is due to expire on July 4, 2026.

In its latest contracts update from Nov. 23, DOGE wrote in a post on X that Federal government agencies terminated and reduced 78 “wasteful” contracts over the previous nine days, with a ceiling value of $1.9 billion, generating $335 million in savings.

Among the terminated contracts was a $4.3 million IT services contract for “Inflation Reduction Act transformation project management support” at the IRS, a $661,000 Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) IT services contract for “social media monitoring platform subscription,” and a $191,000 U.S. Agency for Global Media contract for “broadcast operations and maintenance in Ethiopia, Africa.”

The HHS ranked at the top of agencies with the most savings under DOGE, followed by the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Small Business Administration, according to DOGE’s Agency Efficiency Leaderboard.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk shakes hands with President Donald Trump as they speak to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 30, 2025.  Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

According to the DOGE website, the initiative has generated total savings of $214 billion as of Oct. 4, which amounts to more than $1,329 per taxpayer.

The savings were achieved through measures such as asset sales, interest savings, workforce reductions, regulatory savings, deletion of fraud and improper payments, and cancellation or renegotiation of contracts/leases, according to the website.

Musk’s Departure

DOGE was headed by Elon Musk until he left the department earlier this year when his 130-day tenure as a special government employee expired.

Musk and Trump appeared in the Oval Office on May 30 to answer questions before his departure, during which the president credited the tech entrepreneur with “a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington.”

After accepting a ceremonial key from the president, Musk said: “I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job. They’re going to continue to be doing an incredible job.”

Trump praised Musk’s work, saying he led the “most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations.”

Software engineers have been increasingly relying on AI to help with complex coding tasks, a practice known as “vibe-coding.”

While vibe-coding has been largely limited to helping with portions of a project, Chinese developers have created an AI tool that converts text into a complete app. 

The app, LingGuang, launched last Tuesday and reached over 1 million downloads in four days. By Monday, the app crossed 2 million downloads, according to the developer – Ant Group (an affiliate of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group), while LingGuang ranked #1 on Apple’s mainland China App Store for free utilities apps, and #6 overall for free apps. 

Shortly after going viral, the ‘flash program’ feature temporarily crashed amid a flood of users. 

The flash program allows users to create personalized, interactive apps using natural language prompts in 30 seconds. According to Ant Group, people are creating apps like ‘kid activity generators’ and car cost savings calculators. 

“LingGuang is bringing every user their own personal AI developer: someone who can code, create visuals, build programs, and turn complex ideas into simple solutions — right in your pocket,” according to a Tuesday press release from Ant Group CTO He Zhengyu. 

On Monday, the company said that the explosive popularity makes LingGuang “a key player worth following in the quickly evolving global AI race,” noting that the app hit its first million downloads faster than ChatGPT and Sora. 

Beyond the flash programming feature, LingGuang is being advertised as a multimodal AI tool that can generate 3D models, interactive charts, animations and other illustrations in order to help users understand abstract concepts. The tool also includes an “AGI camera” that can understand inputs in real time and help users analyze or edit pictures or videos on the fly. 

h/t Capital.news

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Scandinavian countries are moving to suspend the mandated use of Bovaer, a methane-reducing additive designed to reduce bovine flatulence. A contributor to methane pollution, cow farts were supposed to be reduced by the additive to reduce climate-harming pollutant. However, there are widespread reports of collapse, lethargy, reduced feed intake, fever, diarrhea, and significant drops in milk production.

There are also reports of cow miscarriages and deaths, though most involve discomfort and farmers reported that the cows improved after cessation of the supplement. What could follow is a colossal product liability lawsuit.

Various countries, like Denmark, made the additive mandatory for the inclusion in feed only to have widespread reports of serious harm to cows. Norway and other countries have suspended the use of Bovaer. It is also used in the United States, but it is not required.

Most reports involve sickness and reduced production in dairy herds.

The question is whether the manufacturer is liable. Elanco US is still advertising the benefits of the supplement:

“Every dairy could use additional, diversified income. That’s where Bovaer® from Elanco comes in. Bovaer is one of the most scientifically researched and recognized methane-reduction feed ingredients globally. Bovaer provides an access point for dairy producers to be financially rewarded for reducing their dairy’s carbon footprint by decreasing their herd’s enteric methane emissions.”

There is also the question of the liability of countries that forced dairy farmers to use the product.

If these reports are accurate, the manufacturer could be sued for a design defect and, in light of the statements above, possible warning defects.

Given the widespread complaints, there is a legitimate question of whether the drug was adequately tested. Alternatively, the company could argue that these reports are condition-related and reflect other causes, where correlation is not causation. The company could also claim that the problems are due to incorrect use of the supplement, such as incorrect dosage or delivery.

What is interesting about this case is the possible increase in damages in countries where the supplement was mandated. It is not clear if there are added protections or waivers granted to the company in these countries.

This could be a warning, manufacturing, or design defect. We do not have enough facts. A manufacturing defect is the least likely unless it is shown that the company failed to properly monitor the concentration of the active ingredients during production or allowed them to be altered by environmental conditions.

It could prove both a warning and a design defect. The company states that “Bovaer has no negative impact on the quantity or quality of milk produced.” It cites a 2022 study to support that claim: Hristov AN, Melgar A, Wasson D, Arndt C. Symposium review: Effective nutritional strategies to mitigate enteric methane in dairy cattle. J Dairy Sci. 2022:105(10):8543–57. However, that study also adds a caveat about the use of certain ingredients in some of these methane-reducing products. For example:

“The red macroalga Asparagopsis taxiformis has a strong CH4 mitigation effect, but studies are needed to determine its feasibility, long-term efficacy, and effects on animal production and health. We concluded that widespread adoption of mitigation strategies with proven effectiveness by the livestock industries will depend on cost, government policies and incentives, and willingness of consumers to pay a higher price for animal products with decreased carbon footprint.”

Again, we need to know more about the composition of the supplement used in these countries.

Under the Restatement Second of Torts, the consumer expectations test asks whether the product is more dangerous than the expectations of the ordinary consumer. Under the more demanding test of the Restatement Third, the question is whether there is a reasonable alternative design. Both would appear viable for plaintiffs if these accounts are proven correct.

The most obvious approach in the United States would be a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer. Indeed, we could see filings in various states and the need for the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) to intervene and consolidate the cases in a single district.

It was back in February, when we explained to Elon Musk why his strategy to shock the US government into spending “efficiency” through DOGE, while noble, is ultimately doomed to wit: “What Musk is doing in trying to streamline the govt is admirable but ultimately it will be Congress that decides the endgame. And there things are as status quo as always.”

Status quo it was indeed, and it took the world’s richest man several months to realize it, and while there has been a heated fight in the press whether DOGE is still technically active inside the Trump admin, we have some bad news: after a valiant start to 2025, the US has regressed to its old drunken-sailor spending ways… and has seemingly done so on steroids.

Earlier today, the Treasury published the October budget data, and it was ugly. Not all of it, mind you: tax receipts were actually quite solid: at $404 billion, consisting of $217 billion in income taxes and $128 billion in social security receipts…

… government revenues were actually a solid 23.7% improvement to the $326.8 billion collected in October 2024. Of course, that includes the now solid monthly contribution from Trump’s tariffs which in October added $31 billion to the tally.

As usual, it was government spending that was the problem again, and at $688.7 billion, or over $22 billion per day, the October total was a 17.9% jump compared to the $584.2 billion spent a year prior. And just when the US was making some modest progress on merging the red (spending) and green (revenue) lines.

The combination of these two numbers resulted in a $284.4 billion deficit for the month of October, which was not only higher than the $257.5 billion deficit last October, but also higher than the record covid budget buster of $284.1 billion in October 2020! 

And since we are now (only) one month in fiscal 2026, we now have the worst budget-deficit start to a fiscal year in US history.

In other words, no matter what the official line is, DOGE has left the building. 

Taking a closer look at the causes of the October budget-busting deficit reveals the same usual suspects: spending across all major categories increased in October, but the most dramatic one was once again the relentless surge in the gross US interest, which is now a record $1.24 trillion in the last twelve months, and is rapidly approaching social security ($1.589 trillion LTM) as the largest source of government spending. 

And here is the punchline: October gross interest was a record $104.4 billion, the highest for the month on record…

… and at $1.24 trillion in LTM interest expense, it means that 24 cents of every dollar in collected taxes goes to pay interest on the debt. 

Bottom line: after a brief period of irrational hope in early 2025 when Musk’s obsession with DOGE and cutting spending gave the US some hope that there just may some – very painful – way out of this Minsky Moment, we are not only back at square zero one and back on the fast-track to the debt-death of the United States, but the US fiscal picture has never been worse!

No wonder why in a recent public commentary, Musk fully agrees with us: the government is unfixable.

🚨ELON MUSK: “I haven’t been to DC since May. The government is basically unfixable. I applaud David (Sacks’) noble efforts…but at the end of the day if you look at our national debt…if AI and robots don’t solve our national debt, we’re toast.” pic.twitter.com/XKSes4fBfq

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) September 10, 2025

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced the launch of a new national hotline that allows public housing residents to report on criminals and illegal immigrants in HUD-funded housing.

The hotline, 1-800-347-3735, can be used by residents to call the HUD Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for reporting “criminals, illegal aliens, sex offenders, human traffickers, and those guilty of gang activity, drug distribution, and fraud,” Turner said at a Nov. 24 press briefing in Memphis, Tennessee.

Residents can also submit tips on the 24/7 monitored Hudoig.gov/hotline website.

Housing Secretary Scott Turner (R) with President Donald Trump in Washington on July 22, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

According to Turner, law enforcement personnel stand ready to assist with any complaints received through the hotline or website. The activity is coordinated with assistance from the FBI, the Department of Justice, and state and local partners.

He encouraged public housing residents to make use of the reporting platforms.

“We’ll clean up our public housing so that they can fulfill their function of sanctuaries for the most vulnerable people in our country, where American citizens can get a temporary hand up and then gain independence from government help,” the Housing secretary said, adding that the department wanted to assist American citizens specifically.

“Illegal aliens have no place in public housing. It’s outrageous that people who should not be here come across our borders, and now usurp spots and housing units that support American people.

“Establishing this hotline is an important step in fighting this injustice for both the people of Memphis and for Americans nationwide.”

Turner said the hotline was part of President Donald Trump’s effort to make the city safe again, which includes the Memphis Safe Task Force. The task force was set up following a Sept. 15 directive from Trump that ordered the National Guard and government agencies to assist in restoring law and order in Memphis.

More than 3,000 violent fugitives have so far been arrested by the task force since the operation began in October, Turner said. This includes more than 300 known gang members and up to 12 homicide suspects.

An estimated 6.8 million Americans rely on public housing assistance, based on data from the National Center for Health in Public Housing (NCHPH).

According to a September 2020 report from NCHPH, crime rates are higher in areas where Public Housing Primary Care (PHPC) Health Centers are located than the national average. These centers provide medical services to patients living in public housing or in close proximity to it.

“There is an average of 505 violent crimes per 100,000 population in PHPC Health Center counties compared to the national average of 386 per 100,000,” the report reads.

Mixed-Status Families

Trump signed an executive order in February ordering agencies to ensure that “no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.”

Following the executive order, Turner issued a letter to HUD grant recipients and stakeholders in April, informing them that federal housing assistance benefits will no longer be granted to illegal immigrants.

“The Department will take steps to ensure that Federal resources are not used to support ‘sanctuary’ policies of State and local jurisdictions that actively prevent federal authorities from deporting illegal aliens,” the letter reads.

Meanwhile, in a Sept. 15 post, policy research group Urban Institute raised concerns about how HUD’s policies would affect mixed-status families in which members have varied immigration statuses.

The institute said that fewer than 1 percent of households receiving housing assistance are mixed-status and that the “HUD’s data request will have dire consequences” on this group, including psychological distress, financial hardship, and harm to children’s development.

HUD said in a Nov. 21 statement that it has supported housing affordability for more than 1 million Americans this year.

Since January 2025, the Federal Housing Administration, an agency under HUD, has insured mortgages for more than 700,000 homebuyers and refinance borrowers, which includes first-time homebuyers and senior citizens, it said.

During this period, the Government National Mortgage Association, or Ginnie Mae, has supported more than 430,000 Veterans Affairs loans, HUD said, adding that nearly a third of these loans went to first-time homebuyers.

“President Trump’s bold leadership is empowering HUD to use every tool at our disposal to make the American dream of homeownership a reality,” Turner said in a statement.

Today, Tupelo, MS is the nation’s most affordable city, where your dollar can stretch 21% further than the U.S. average.

Similarly, several Southern cities have the lowest cost of living in the country, typically seeing smaller populations and more affordable housing. In contrast, New York and California continue to rank among the most expensive places to live.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the U.S. cities with the lowest and highest cost of living, based on data from the Council for Community and Economic Research.

Where Are America’s Affordable Cities?

Below, we rank cities by their cost of living index, which measured 61 items in Q2 2025:

Oklahoma stands out for affordability, with three of the nation’s 10 most affordable cities. Texas and Kansas follow closely, each with two.

In Oklahoma City, the median home sale price sits at $225,167, and more than half of homes sold in August went for less than the list price. Down south, McAllen, Texas saw the third-lowest grocery costs in the country.

At the other end of the spectrum, living costs in Manhattan are more than twice the national average—72% higher than even San Francisco. Neighboring boroughs like Brooklyn and Queens also rank among the least affordable in the U.S., driven by an influx of Manhattan buyers during the pandemic.

Honolulu, meanwhile, takes the lead for grocery expenses, with prices more than 32% above the U.S. average, and 13% higher than in Manhattan.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the world’s most expensive real estate markets.

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a federal lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after he designated the controversial Muslim advocacy group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Transnational Criminal Organization.

CAIR Litigation Director and General Counsel Lena Masri said in a statement that the group filed the lawsuit on Nov. 20 to defend itself.

“No civil rights organizations are safe if a governor can baselessly and unilaterally declare any of them terrorist groups, ban them from buying land, and threaten them with closure,” she said.

In a Nov. 18 proclamation, Abbott also assigned the same designations to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization created almost a century ago.

Although the Muslim Brotherhood, which has branches all over the world, says it has renounced violence and now aims to establish Islamic rule through elections and other peaceful means, the proclamation said the Muslim Brotherhood “provides support to localized branches in countries and territories throughout the world, including groups that conduct terrorism internationally.”

The proclamation describes CAIR as a Muslim Brotherhood “successor organization,” and notes that the FBI has described CAIR as a “front group” for “Hamas and its support network” in the United States.

The new state-level designations empower the Texas attorney general, currently Ken Paxton, to sue to shutter both groups and block them, as well as their affiliates, from acquiring land in Texas, the Republican governor said. The organizations were designated under the Texas Penal and Property Codes, according to the proclamation.

“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Abbott said in a statement.

“The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable,” he said.

After the lawsuit was filed, President Donald Trump said on Nov. 23 that he was planning to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a move that he has considered since his first term.

On Nov. 24, Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of designating “certain chapters or other subdivisions” of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorist entities under federal law.

Although neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood had to date been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the president, the State Department has designated specific branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as Specially Designated Global Terrorist entities, according to the proclamation.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned or labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization in several countries, among them Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.

Under U.S. law, a Foreign Terrorist Organization is a foreign organization that the federal government recognizes as engaging in or having the capability of engaging in terrorism that threatens U.S. national security. U.S. law forbids persons in the United States from providing material support to such a designated organization and requires U.S. financial institutions to report funds in the organization’s possession to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department.

A Specially Designated Global Terrorist is a person or entity that the State Department or the Treasury Department has designated as a terrorist. The person or entity has been deemed to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism “that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.” The designation allows the federal government to direct U.S. financial institutions to block the assets of the person or entity.

The Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters of CAIR filed the new lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, calling Abbott’s proclamation “defamatory.”

The group alleged in its complaint that the governor is attempting “to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because [he] disagrees with its views.”

Abbott allegedly violated the First Amendment by issuing the proclamation, which “chills Plaintiffs’ freedom of speech and freedom of association, and retaliates against Plaintiffs for their exercise of their rights,” the complaint stated.

The group also stated that Abbott’s statement that it functions as a “front group” for Hamas is “inflammatory” and has no basis in fact.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the governor’s office and the Muslim Brotherhood. No replies were received by publication time.

Aldgra Fredly and Jacob Burg contributed to this report.

Recently obtained internal documents from the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the US, focus on training educators to become far-left activists in support of spreading woke propaganda to their students.  

According to information gathered by a conservative non-profit called Defending Education, the NEA’s upcoming training at an undisclosed location this December doesn’t focus on academics, but on attacking Republicans as “racist and transphobic,” pushing race-class-gender narratives, and promoting gender-transition guides for staff.

The training is targeted for union staff and teams as part of the NEA UniServ and Organizing Training Program 2025–2026.  

The goals of the session include, but are not limited to, “dismantling systems of privilege and oppression as it relates to LGBTQ+ educators and students” and “deepening skills and strategies to confront implicit bias, micro-aggressions and stereotypes.”  

Republicans are characterized as using an “arsenal of racist dog whistles,’ according to training materials. Participants are instructed how to evoke a “Race Class Gender Narrative” to push back.  

“Over the last ten years, Republicans in state legislatures have increasingly turned to anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation as a powerful complement to their arsenal of racist dog whistles used to whip up fear and consolidate power…they have paired these attacks with fear-mongering about Critical Race Theory, mobilizing their base with a potent mix of racist and transphobic tropes.”

The documents focus heavily on issues like “structural oppression” and transgender propaganda with an emphasis on defending the medical transitioning of children.  Teachers are encouraged to use gender fluid language (like neutral pronouns) with students while avoiding scrutiny from parents and administrators. 

Teacher’s unions have consistently acted as a root source for woke indoctrination, feeding talking points and activist strategies to leftist teachers who then operate as grooming agents rather than academic educators.  As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis notes on X:

“The radical partisanship of these teacher unions has been a major contributor to education decline in the US.  They see the K-12 school system as as a political means for adults to further their agenda.  This is why the unions fought so hard to close schools during COVID; it was never about the kids.”

“The NEA is the largest teachers’ union in the country, and they have decided to vilify half the country in an upcoming training,” said Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications for Defending Education.  “As far as they are concerned, the only reasons anyone could oppose their preferred ideologies are racism and transphobia and they name Republicans as villains, in writing!” 

Sanzi added:

“Their federal charter was granted because they promised to ‘elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States…Seeing as their leadership—and by extension, the organization itself—has morphed into a far-left insane asylum that is actively destroying the cause of education, that charter is no longer defensible…”

Leftist activism within the education system is perhaps one of the greatest existential crises in America’s recent history.  Children are brainwashed by teachers to believe in deconstruction ideology; to hate western civilization, to embrace moral relativism, to ignore biological facts and adopt mentally unhinged sexual theories. 

Since progressives are increasingly refusing to have their own children and build their own families, the only way they can carry on their doctrine to the next generation is to poison the minds of other people’s children.  Teachers unions have played an integral role in this agenda.