Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr on Thursday opened a probe into diversity practices at Verizon and raised the telecommunications company’s ongoing effort to purchase Frontier Communications.

Carr, a Republican designated by President Donald Trump last month, earlier this month told NBC News-parent Comcast he was opening a similar probe into the company’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Verizon is awaiting FCC approval for its $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier.

“In order to aid the FCC’s resolution of these matters, please reach out to the agency personnel that have been working on Verizon’s pending transactions at the FCC,” Carr wrote. “They are the FCC personnel most familiar with Verizon’s operations due to their merger review activity.”

https://nypost.com/2025/02/27/business/fcc-chair-opens-probe-into-diversity-practices-at-verizon/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nypost

Don Jr. brought the heat tonight 💥

“All the Democrats had to do was not play their games in 2020. You would have had the same can kicking from 2020 til now. You’d probably end up with a Democrat president right now.

But now you have the most supercharged, knowledgeable, aggressive Trump that you can possibly have. That was the mandate from the American people…

We likely don’t just have this 4 years to do it. We’ll likely have a 12 year runway with incredible candidates…

We finally learned to fight. It’s the first time where we’re actually on the offense. We’re not just playing defense anymore. They’re the ones playing defense.”

Absolutely nailed it.

https://x.com/thestormredux/status/1895303124941770955

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Wednesday it would reopen a 1,000-bed New Jersey detention center after signing a $1 billion contract with a private global lender.

ICE will use the Delaney Hall facility in Newark for federal immigration processing.

“The location near an international airport streamlines logistics, and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens from our communities,” acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello said in a statement.

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This is a master class in deploying the Socratic Method by Boone.

An Indiana man who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and had recently been pardoned by President Donald Trump told authorities that he couldn't afford to be in legal trouble just before he was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop last month, body camera video released Thursday shows.

A special prosecutor said that the Jasper County sheriff’s deputy was legally justified in shooting Matthew Huttle, 42, on Jan. 26.

Huttle ran to his vehicle, said he would shoot himself and raised a handgun after being told he was under arrest for a traffic-related felony, and the deputy shot him after a struggle, special prosecutor Chris Vawter said in a statement released with video of the traffic stop. 

“I can’t do it. I can’t go to jail for this, sir," Huttle told the deputy as they both stood at the rear of Huttle’s vehicle, body camera video shows.

Huttle runs toward the driver’s side door as the deputy yells, “don’t you do it, buddy,” and Huttle gets in the car.

“I’m shooting myself,” Huttle says. The deputy says “No, no, no” and fires, the video shows.

Vawter said that there was a struggle and that the deputy saw Huttle raise a firearm.
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Thousands of UK customers are suffering online banking problems on Friday, with reports of trouble accessing internet and app services.

Nationwide, Lloyds and Halifax earlier confirmed problems with their online banking systems, and said they were working to fix them.

Users also reported problems with the TSB and Bank of Scotland banking apps. Halifax and Bank of Scotland are part of the Lloyds Banking Group. Lloyds said its app and online banking services are now working as normal for Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland customers.

Nationwide said in a message on its website that “some incoming and outgoing payments are delayed at the moment” but “everything else is working normally”. It has since confirmed its services are working normally.

It said direct debits and standing orders were working as normal but that payments were in a queue and would arrive soon, adding that customers did not need to do anything.

First Direct confirmed on its website that its mobile and online banking services were “experiencing issues with payments”. It said this had since been resolved and services were operating as normal.

There has also been a rise in problems reported by Lloyds customers, and at its Halifax operation, according to the Downdetector website.

Analysts said the app is functioning and Lloyds customers are able to access it, but some are experiencing problems that may delay their logging in.

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson said: “We know some of our customers are having issues logging on to internet banking and our app. We’re sorry for this, and we’re working to have everything back to normal.”

These problems come on what is payday for many people in the UK.

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🔥 A step in the right direction 👏

Utah could soon become the first U.S. state to ban the addition of fluoride to drinking water.

On Friday, the Utah State Senate approved a bill that prohibits adding the mineral to public water systems. If signed by Governor Spencer Cox, the measure would go into effect on May 7. The governor has not publicly commented on whether he supports the bill.

The passage of the Utah bill comes roughly two weeks after the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as health secretary. In November, Mr. Kennedy vowed that the Trump administration would “advise all U.S. systems to remove fluoride from public water.”

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A senior aide for former President Joe Biden has admitted the administration was “gaslighting” Americans when it repeatedly dismissed growing concerns about the oldest-ever president’s age and ability.

Michael LaRosa, a former White House aide and longtime press secretary for first lady Jill Biden, admitted that the campaign was aware from “day one” that the 81-year-old’s age was an issue — and aides were “scared to death” of letting him do off-the-cuff interviews ahead of the election, Puck reported.

“Cover-up to me is a little hard, a little harsh. Every politician, everybody, every human being tries to cover up age. We were always, from day one, cognizant that age was an issue,” LaRosa said Wednesday at a Science Institute at American University seminar.

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SOROS CAUSING FAKE OUTRAGE🎥: Those getting all their news from the mainstream media may be forgiven this week for believing that there was a popular uprising underway against President Donald Trump's assault on the federal bureaucracy.

'Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash,' blared a New York Times headline on Sunday.

'GOP lawmakers confronted by constituents angry with Trump-Musk cuts,' reported CBS News last Friday.
NBC News even suggested that the president's allies may cancel public events altogether after facing down 'angry' crowds.

The pitchforks are out!

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force better run for the hills lest they be tarred and feathered!

Well, not so fast.

The truth is that many of these outraged townsfolk are, in reality, partisan Democratsorganized by the very left-wing organizations that stand to lose millions in federal funding if DOGE succeeds at its mission to root out government waste.

But the so-called journalists at the New York Times, CBS News and others appeared determined not to let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Consider the raging 'protests' at a town hall held by Georgia Republican Rich McCormick last Thursday, as he returned to his district for the recent Congressional recess.

Clips of the meeting went viral on social media and DOGE critics held it up as evidence of a widening fallout.
'McCormick faces furious locals in Town Hall DOGE Mega-Backlash,' wrote The Daily Beast.

Politico presaged 'classic early signs of backlash.'
After all, Trump got 60 percent of the vote in McCormick's solid-red district. If these voters are this enraged, then something must have gone dreadfully wrong.

The problem with that narrative is this 'protest' was more astroturf than grassroots.

CBS News spoke to town hall attendee Maggie Goldman, who insisted the outrage was bipartisan. 'I think there were conservatives there,' Goldman said. 'I think there were Republicans.'

What CBS didn't mention, as a Washington Free Beacon investigation has now shown, is that Goldman is a former organizer for Mayor Pete Buttigieg's Democratic presidential campaign who donated to the Harris 2024 ticket and has run for office in McCormick's district as a Democrat.
Hardly an objective observer, I'd say.

Moreover, Georgia-based radio host Erick Erickson noted that the McCormick event was held near the border with a neighboring district that is heavily Democratic, not far from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a big government agency in Musk's sights.

'Many of the people who were at the town hall were not actually voters within the Seventh Congressional District, according to the Congressman's staff and numerous others who attended the event that I have spoken to,' Erickson reported.

It was a similar story elsewhere across the country. And the media malpractice alone is cause for concern. But there is something even more chilling going on here.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement will reopen a federal immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey that has a 1,000-bed capacity — the largest facility of its type on the East Coast.

ICE announced Thursday that Delaney Hall will be the agency’s first detention center to open under the Trump administration, which has made cracking down on illegal immigration a top priority.

“The location near an international airport streamlines logistics, and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens from our communities,” acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello said in a statement.
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Prince William stepped out solo as he continued his mission to help the unhoused.

The Prince of Wales, 42, was on the south coast of England on Feb. 28 to see the latest initiatives for housing for those facing mental health difficulties and a boat-building course that helps young people find jobs.

His five-year project Homewards, which he set up in 2023, operates in six pilot areas around the U.K., and he visited one in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area to see an organization that helps people with mental health challenges find housing.

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BREAKING: Microsoft is shutting down Skype, the internet calling service it bought almost 14 years ago for $8.5 billion.

Skype posted on X on Friday: "Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available. Over the coming days you can sign in to Microsoft Teams Free with your Skype account to stay connected with all your chats and contacts. Thank you for being part of Skype."

Jeff Teper, Microsoft's president of collaborative apps and platforms, said in a statement: "Hundreds of millions of people already use Teams as their hub for teamwork, helping them stay connected and engaged at work, school, and at home. In the past two years, the number of minutes spent in meetings by consumer users of Teams has grown 4X, reflecting the value Teams brings to everyday communication and collaboration." 

Paid Skype features will not be offered to new customers, Microsoft said.
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President Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would for the first time make English the official language of the U.S., according to White House officials.

In its nearly 250-year history, the U.S. has never had a national language at the federal level.

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President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was inclined to back a deal between Britain and Mauritius over the future of a U.S.-UK military base in the Chagos Islands, in a boost for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Trump signaled his backing for the deal as he met Starmer at the White House for their first in-person talks since the Republican leader upended U.S. policy on a number of areas, from Ukraine to global trade.

Britain struck the agreement in October to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control under a 99-year lease of the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
The deal, yet to be finalized with a formal treaty, had the backing of former U.S. President Joe Biden but has been mired in uncertainty since Trump's re-election. Britain had said it would give the Trump administration chance to review the deal before finalizing it.

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FBI agents questioned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees this week about a Biden-era $20 billion climate grant program, intensifying a criminal probe that has already led to a senior prosecutor’s resignation.

Badlands Media
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TEL AVIV—Israeli decision-makers plan to resume the Gaza war in four to six weeks with overwhelming force, sending in tens of thousands of troops to conquer the entire strip in a single coordinated offensive against Hamas.

Incoming military chief of staff Eyal Zamir has, at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Israel Katz, started developing the plan, according to several current and former Israeli officials with knowledge of high-level discussions. Under the plan, Israel will deploy more troops to Gaza than it has to this point in the war—over 50,000—before relocating the civilian population to humanitarian zones and waging a ruthless ground campaign against Palestinian terrorists across the rest of the strip.

"We’re going to see four to five divisions simultaneously attack in the north, in the center, and in the south, to occupy every area and clear out the enemy," said Hezi Nehama, a former Israeli colonel who co-authored the Generals’ Plan, an influential proposal for a staged siege of Gaza. "It will look different than what we saw in the war until now."

"It’s going to be decisive," said Amir Avivi, a former Israeli brigadier general who has advised the Israeli government and military during the war. "Israel will use every tool it has to conquer Gaza and eradicate Hamas."

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GOOD TO SEE THIS BEING COVERED: Suspected victims of a new and alarming condition linked to Covid jabs have shared how it has left them unemployed, homeless and even relying on antidepressants.

Their harrowing tales came after Yale scientists said the previously-unknown condition, called post-vaccination syndrome (PVS), can can persist years after receiving the shots—made by the likes of Pfizer and Moderna.

It also comes as official data show the total number of British claims for compensation for injuries or deaths linked to Covid vaccines has reached a new high of 18,500.

According to the experts behind the new research, PVS can cause several persistent symptoms including brain fog, insomnia, tinnitus and palpitations.

Since the story broke MailOnline has received a torrent of emails from readers who have detailed their own health battles which they say were triggered by the jabs.
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Vietnam has pledged to support the repatriation of a few dozen Vietnamese nationals detained in the U.S. and to quickly handle new requests for deportations after U.S. threats of trade tariffs and visa sanctions, a lawyer briefed on the matter said.

The move is part of a broader set of concessions the Communist-run country is considering to avoid duties that could cripple its economy, which is the most reliant on exports to the United States among all top U.S. trade partners.

Vietnam has agreed to respond to U.S. deportation requests in 30 days, "which is a lot faster than they have ever done in the past," said Tin Thanh Nguyen, a U.S.-based immigration attorney.

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