BRAZIL SHOWS HOW TO FIGHT THE WAR ON DRUGS AT HOME

Protests erupt after police raid in Brazil leaves 119 dead and draws accusations of excessive force

 

By Eleonore Hughes and Diarlei Rodrigues

 

Associated Press

Oct 29, 2025

 

 

Residents look at the bodies of people killed on Tuesday in Brazil

A man looks at the bodies of people killed during a police raid targeting the Comando Vermelho gang at the Complexo da Penha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 29, 2025

Bodies are seen lined up on Sao Lucas Square of the Vila Cruzeiro favela at the Penha complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 29, 2025

A woman mourns over the bodies of people killed on Tuesday during a gang raid in Brazil

Bodies piled up in poor neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro on October 28 as police launched their biggest ever raids on the city's drug traffickers, leaving at least 132 dead in war-like scenes

A drone views shows mourners gathering around bodies on October 29, 2025, in Brazil

Relatives mourn beside the bodies of people killed in a gang raid on Tuesday in Brazil

As many as 2,500 heavily armed officers, backed by armored vehicles, helicopters and drones took part in the operation targeting Brazil's main drug-trafficking gang in two favelas, in Rio

Police transport bodies to a hospital following Operacao Contencao (Operation Containment) at the Vila Cruzeiro favela, in the Penha complex, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 28, 2025

Police officers escort suspects arrested during the Operacao Contencao

Dramatic images from the raids show alleged criminals being led away by police, who made around 81 arrests

Police officers guard alleged criminals arrested during the Operacao Contencao

The central government said the blitz was launched to halt the narcotics network of a gang called Comando Vermelho - meaning Red Command - from expanding its operations

(Photos from the Daily Mail - ed.)

 

RIO DE JANEIRO — A massive police raid on a drug gang embedded in low-income neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro that left at least 119 people dead drew protests for excessive force Wednesday and calls for the Rio’s governor to resign.

Dozens of favelas residents gathered in front of the state’s government headquarters shouting “assassins!” and waving Brazilian flags stained with red paint, a day after Rio’s deadliest raid and hours after families and residents laid dozens of dead bodies on a street in one of the targeted communities to show the magnitude of the operation.

Questions quickly arose about the death count and the state of the bodies, with reports of disfigurement and knife wounds. Brazil’s Supreme Court, prosecutors and lawmakers asked Rio state Gov. Claudio Castro to provide detailed information about the operation.

“This was a massacre,” said Barbara Barbosa, a domestic worker from the Penha complex of favelas, one of the two huge communities targeted in the police operation. She said her son was killed in a prior operation in Penha.

“Do we have a death sentence? Stop killing us,” said activist Rute Sales, 56. Many residents came Penha in Rio’s poor, northern zone to the imposing Guanabara Palace on motorbikes.

The toll of 115 suspects and four policemen killed was an increase over what authorities originally said were 60 suspects dead in Tuesday’s raid by about 2,500 police and soldiers in the favelas of Penha and Complexo de Alemao.

Felipe Curi, Rio state police secretary, told a news conference that bodies of additional suspects were found in a wooded area where he said they had worn camouflage while battling with security forces. He said local residents had removed clothing and equipment from the bodies, in what would be investigated as evidence tampering.

“These individuals were in the woods, equipped with camouflage clothing, vests and weapons. Now many of them appeared wearing underwear or shorts, with no equipment, as if they had come through a portal and changed clothes,” Curi said.

Earlier Wednesday, in the neighborhood of Penha, residents had surrounded many of the bodies — collected in trucks and displayed in a main square — and shouted “massacre” and “justice” before forensic authorities arrived to retrieve the remains.

“They can take them to jail, why kill them like this? Lots of them were alive and calling for help,” resident Elisangela Silva Santos, 50, said during the gathering in Penha. “Yes they’re traffickers, but they’re human.”

The tally of suspects arrested stood at 113 — up from 81 cited previously, Curi said. The state government said some 90 rifles and more than a ton of drugs were seized.

Police and soldiers had launched the raid in helicopters, armored vehicles and on foot, targeting the Red Command gang. They drew gunfire and other retaliation from gang members, sparking scenes of chaos across the city on Tuesday. Schools in the affected areas shuttered, a local university canceled classes, and roads were blocked with buses used as barricades.

Many shops remained closed Wednesday morning in Penha, where local activist Raull Santiago said he was part of a team that found about 15 bodies before dawn.

“We saw executed people: shot in the back, shots to the head, stab wounds, people tied up. This level of brutality, the hatred that is spread - there’s no other way to describe it except as a massacre,” Santiago said.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Castro to provide information about the police operation and scheduled a hearing with the state governor and the heads of the military and civil police next Monday in Rio.

The Senate’s commission for human rights said it was asking for clarifications from the Rio state government. Meanwhile, Rio prosecutors requested that Castro provide detailed information about the operation and proof that there was no less harmful means of achieving its objectives.

And the federal public prosecutor’s office asked the Forensic Medical Institute to ensure that autopsy reports contain full descriptions and photographic and radiographic documentation of all injuries.

Castro said on Tuesday that Rio was at war against “narco-terrorism,” a term that echoed the Trump administration in its campaign against drug smuggling in Latin America.

On Wednesday, Castro called the operation a “success,” apart from the deaths of the four police officers.

Rio’s state government said that the suspects who had been killed had resisted police.

Rio has been the scene of lethal police raids for decades. In March 2005, some 29 people were killed in Rio’s Baixada Fluminense region, while in May 2021, 28 were killed in the Jacarezinho favela.

But the scale and lethality of Tuesday’s operation are unprecedented. Non-governmental organizations and the U.N. human rights body quickly raised concerns over the high number of reported fatalities and called for investigations.

“We fully understand the challenges of having to deal with violent and well-organized groups such as Red Command,” said U.N. Human Rights Spokesperson Marta Hurtado said.

But Brazil must “break this cycle of extreme brutality and ensure that law enforcement operations comply with international standards regarding the use of force,” she said, adding that the body was calling for full-fledged policing reform.

Late on Wednesday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on X that he had instructed the justice minister and director-general of Federal Police to meet Castro for a meeting in Rio.

Brazil cannot accept that organized crime “continues to destroy families, oppress residents, and spread drugs and violence across cities,” he said.

The operation’s stated objectives were capturing leaders and limiting the territorial expansion of the Red Command gang, which has increased its control over favelas in recent years.

Gang members allegedly targeted police with at least one drone. Rio de Janeiro’s state government shared a video on X of what appeared to show a drone firing a projectile from the sky.

Gov. Castro, from the conservative opposition Liberal Party, said Tuesday that Rio was “alone in this war.” He said the federal government should be providing more support to combat crime — in a swipe at the administration of Lula’s leftist administration.

His comments were challenged by the Justice Ministry, which said it had responded to requests from Rio’s state government to deploy national forces in the state, renewing their presence 11 times.

Gleisi Hoffmann, the Lula administration’s liaison with the parliament, agreed that more coordinated action was needed but pointed to a recent crackdown on money laundering as an example of the federal government’s action on organized crime.

Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said it was clearly an extremely bloody and violent operation.

“We should reflect on whether this kind of action is compatible with the Democratic Rule of Law that governs us all,” he told journalists on Wednesday.

Criminal gangs have expanded their presence across Brazil in recent years, including in the Amazon rainforest.

Roberto Uchôa, from the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety think-tank, said that criminal gangs have strengthened despite these kinds of operations, suggesting that they are inefficient.

“Killing more than 100 people like this won’t help decrease the Red Command’s expansion. The dead will soon be replaced,” Uchôa said.

FROM HER PHOTO I WONDER IF SHE'S TRANSGENDER

Judge rules case of trooper fired over failed drug sample can go forward

 

By Brendan J. Lyon

 

Times Union

Oct 28, 2025

 

 

 

Former New York State Trooper Jamie Kasper alleges she was wrongly terminated from her job after testing positive for amphetamine. A second test, including a hair sample, was negative and her attorney said the first test should have been discarded. Kasper had asked the New York Inspector General's Office to investigate her case, but the office did not pursue it. She has since filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement.

 

ALBANY — A lawsuit filed by a former state trooper who was fired after testing positive last year for amphetamines can move forward following a state Supreme Court justice’s ruling this week that found she has made “sufficient allegations” that her due process rights were violated. 

 

The petition filed in state Supreme Court in Albany on behalf of Jamie R. Kasper alleges State Police relied on an unauthorized urine test that her attorneys say may have returned a false positive due to her use of over-the-counter dietary supplements. Kasper is suing to get her job back as well as her police certification, which was revoked by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services in the wake of her termination in February by State Police Superintendent Steven G. James.  

 

State Supreme Court Justice Daniel C. Lynch ruled this week on the legal claims underpinning the lawsuit, finding that Kasper’s attorneys have made proper arguments that her disciplinary hearing was tainted because the State Police used evidence that allegedly should have been excluded from the hearing. They said that positive test also was not referenced in the disciplinary charges filed against her, so it should not have been considered by the hearing board that recommended her termination.

The case will now move to the appellate division in Albany for review.

The lawsuit centers on Kasper’s attorneys allegations that State Police relied on an unauthorized urine test that may have returned a false positive due to her use of over-the-counter dietary supplements. 

An expert witness hired by her attorneys testified during an arbitration proceeding that the test lacked the specificity to distinguish “amphetamine from structurally similar isomers found in many unregulated supplements,” and that the supplements are a well-known cause of false-positive drug tests.

“Women in law enforcement face an uphill battle to succeed and advance in what has for far too long been a male-dominated profession,” Kasper, a U.S. Army veteran, told the Times Union earlier this year. “For nearly two decades, I worked hard to demonstrate my ability to do the job, and more than performed the duties expected of me. All I’m asking for is fair, equal treatment and to be able to return to the work that I love — protecting and serving the people of New York.”

Kasper’s attorneys filed a formal complaint asking the state inspector general’s office to investigate the handling of her case, but the office declined to do so. That complaint had accused the State Police of applying different standards in the case because Kasper is a woman.

That complaint also accused State Police hierarchy of targeting her for a random drug screening last year as retribution for a lawsuit that her husband — also a former trooper — had filed against the agency weeks earlier in an effort to have his law enforcement certification credentials reinstated. The court petition filed by Kasper’s attorneys focuses on the allegedly flawed arbitration and drug testing processes, and does not invoke arguments about her husband’s case or gender bias.

Charles W. Murphy, president of the New York State Troopers PBA, had previously alleged that “State Police leaders manipulated due process and disregarded their own internal policies to take vindictive and targeted actions against a veteran, mother, and dedicated public servant.”

Following Monday’s ruling by Lynch, Murphy said: “We are gratified by the judge’s decision that allows Trooper Kasper to have her day in court and continue to believe that the facts in this case merit her immediate reinstatement.”

Kasper is a former National Guard member who was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and 2004 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom — and later became a state correction officer. She was sworn in as a trooper in October 2016.

Kasper, in an interview in April, had said that she had a “spotless record” as a trooper assigned to Troop F in the Hudson Valley before the agency conducted a random drug test on her at a Kingston barracks in January 2024.

She and her attorney had said the sample was then tested in a procedure that violated the agency’s policies and that State Police also later improperly sought access to her personal medical records as part of an alleged vendetta to punish her for her husband’s litigation. Her husband, Christopher Collins, joined the State Police at the same time as Kasper. He resigned in October 2022 after he had been investigated for a drug test that showed results for amphetamine, which he attributed to a prescription for Adderall, which treats attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and THC — which he had attributed to an over-the-counter CBD gummy he had ingested.

Collins, who later became a police officer in Saugerties, had sued the State Police after they sought to have his police officer certification revoked by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. That decision was later reversed as a result of the lawsuit he filed in January 2024 — a few weeks before State Police randomly drug tested his wife.

“I’ve never had a drug test come into question in my entire job-related history,” Kasper said six months ago. “The system … it’s broken. It needs to be fixed. I’m just hoping that through this, it’ll shed some light, or maybe (lead to) some changes.”

The complaint filed with the inspector general’s office had also raised questions about whether State Police can manipulate the “randomization” of drug tests to be able to test specific troopers.

The amphetamine result could have been a “false-positive” due to her taking workout and dietary supplements, including energy drinks and other over-the-counter products she had consumed as part of her training regimen as a former amateur fitness competitor.

Her attorneys also cited an earlier case in which a male senior investigator who tested positive for a banned substance faced no discipline after telling the agency that he may have tested positive for antidepressants because he had been taking a weight-loss supplement.

During an arbitration proceeding, an attorney for the state had assured Kasper and her attorney that they would not retest the sample that had been positive, and acknowledged that the procedure used to test that sample was unauthorized. But during an arbitration proceeding, they said, the state’s attorneys “secretly” had a second sample retested using another procedure — that came back positive — after agreeing they would not do that.

That decision “deprived (her) of the opportunity to prepare and present a meaningful defense,” the court petition states, adding that the State Police “changed its own rules mid-hearing by introducing new evidence procured through procedures forbidden by its own regulations.” 

According to Lynch’s decision, Kasper alleged “that the introduction of the (second test) result violated her due process rights, as this positive test was not referenced in the disciplinary charges filed against her, and she was led to believe such a test would not be performed or admitted into evidence.”

Kasper and her attorney, John M. Tuppen of Albany, also noted that there was no evidence or testimony of her being a drug user or knowingly ingesting amphetamines and that a second test, including a hair sample test, refuted the results of the first test, which they said was performed in violation of the agency’s policies.

Beau Duffy, a spokesman for the State Police, disputed that the random drug test was staged to target Kasper or that her termination was not warranted.

“Jamie Kasper tested positive for a controlled substance during a random drug test and was terminated after an administrative investigation that followed all the appropriate procedures for investigating and adjudicating misconduct,” Duffy said in April. “The fact that her husband separated from the New York State Police and challenged his decertification had no bearing on her selection for drug testing, which is randomly determined, or the handling of her investigation.”

I AM SURE THOSE WEAPONS WERE INTENDED FOR THE MEXICAN ARMY TO FIGHT THE DRUG CARTELLS

Feds intercept 300 high-powered weapons headed to Mexico

 

By Julian Resendiz

 

Border Report

Oct 28, 2025

 

 

A photograph submitted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office show guns seized from a trailer heading to Mexico from Laredo, Texas on Oct. 23, 2025.

 

EL PASO, Texas – From El Paso to Laredo, Texas, federal officials are ramping up efforts to curb firearms smuggling to Mexico.

Those efforts paid off last Thursday with the seizure of 300 high-powered rifles and guns headed to Mexico from Dallas over the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge in Laredo.

Officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Anti-Terrorism and Contraband Enforcement Team watching traffic flow south spotted two approaching vehicles apparently traveling in tandem.

One was a Chevrolet Tahoe with Alabama license plates; the other a Chevrolet Silverado with Mexican tags. Both vehicles were hauling utility trailers, also with Mexican license plates.

The CBP officers stopped the vehicles, approached the drivers and told them to proceed to a secondary inspection area before they exited the country.

Court records show a CBP canine promptly alerted officers to anomalies in the trailers. The vehicles and haul were scanned with X-rays. After that, officers opened the trailer boxes, emptied unspecified contents and found hidden wall compartments.

Inside were tightly packed stacks of firearms and ammunition boxes.

According to a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, drivers Edgar Ramirez Diaz and his father, Emilio Ramirez Cortes, told Homeland Security Investigations agents they picked up the trailers in Dallas and were promised money for transporting them to Mexico.

The two allegedly admitted they knew they were smuggling guns to Mexico. The suspects told agents they have taken to Mexico pull trailers loaded with guns on 12 previous occasions, the complaint states.

The two trailers had 300 rifles and pistols concealed in the hidden compartments. A photograph submitted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office shows AR-15 and M4 carbine styled rifles.

Records show the two men had their initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Monday on charges of smuggling goods from the United States and requested a public defender. A detention hearing is scheduled for October 31.

Meantime, in El Paso, special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) received a tip from a local gun dealer regarding a suspicious purchase. It involved the delivery of a .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifle and $4,000 in .50-caliber ammunition purchased online.

ATF agents engaged the buyer as he arrived at the dealership to pick up the rifle and ammo. Court records show he agreed to be interviewed and stated a Mexican man named Mario Iturbe Gallardo provided money for the purchase and would be picking up the merchandise at the buyer’s apartment.

ATF agents waited for Iturbide to come and questioned him and another man from Mexico who accompanied him. Records show Iturbe pointed to his companion as the one who put up the money and told him to hire the buyer.

Iturbe further stated that the companion, Eduardo Zatarain Ramirez, planned to disassemble the rifle, file off the serial number and hide the weapon on the floor of a vehicle back to Mexico, where they live. 

Court records show Zatarain declined to talk to agents. Both men were in possession of B1/B2 U.S. visitor visas.

A federal grand jury in El Paso last week indicted the two on charges of trafficking in in firearms and unlawfully purchasing a firearm on behalf of another person (straw purchase).

YEARLY THING

By Bob Walsh

 

  

The New York Times' coverage of events after the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds in America, with Orson Welles at the microphone.

 

This evening I will play my copy of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater doing War Of The Worlds.  Modern audiences will likely find it incredible that this could have literally panicked huge numbers of people into believing we were actually being invaded by Martians.  If nothing else the time compression is completely off.  Radio was a relatively new medium in 1938 and something that APPEARED to be legitimate news broadcasting was taken more at face value than it might be today.

It is a really interesting piece of cultural history.

As an aside the same play was presented in the early 1950s in South America.  Columbia I think.  It totally freaked out the local population.  When they found out it was a radio play and not "real" a mob stormed the radio station, burned it down and murdered several people in the building.  They were a tad miffed.  At least we didn't do that.

NOT SURE HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS

By Bpb Walsh

 

 

Donald Trump has just announced that, for the first time in over 30 years, the U.S. will resume testing of nuclear weapons because both Russia and China are doing so.

It is my understanding that some aspects related to the storage of nuclear weapons are problematic and that long-term storage can substantially degrade these weapons.  Therefore occasional testing is necessary to ensure they will go BANG when and if they are needed.  

I don't much like the idea, but I believe that it may be necessary.  

INTERESTING LEGAL ACTION

By Bopb Walsh

 

Regular readers will remember I wrote recently about the unfortunate death of Marysville P.D. officer Rodarte during a combined task force drug operation.  CalOSHA had gotten involved and in fact levied fines against both the Marysville P.D. and the Yuba County S.O. over what they asserted were deficiencies in how the raid was handled.

Marysville and Yuba County are now both suing CalOSHA.  It is there position that this agency has no jurisdiction in the matter.

The first hearing is scheduled for about two weeks from today.  It will be very interesting to see what shakes out.  As far as anybody has been able to figure out this is the first time that OSHA has inserted themselves into this sort of situation since the agency has been around.  

GO WOKE, GO BROKE ?

By Bob Walsh

 

Jeremy Allen White and Bruce Springsteen attend the UK premiere of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere 

 

The new Springsteen biopic by Disney is laying a huge egg.  It is getting very mixed reviews.  The two I heard on the radio speculated that when Springsteen started going in-your-face woke several years back and more or less calling his blue collar fans a pack of fascists his fan base kind of dried up.  

I wonder why Disney can't get their DEI head out of their Woke ass and make movies that people want to see?  Hell, Tom Cruise can do that and he is more than a little crazy.  

Maybe if they make enough stinkers they will see the light.  But probably not until their artsy-fartsy types get their minds right.

LACKING IN SUBTLETY BUT REMARKABLY EFFECTIVE

By Bob Walsh

 

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Nunez was fatally shot Monday while responding to a domestic violence call in Rancho Cucamonga, authorities said.

A suspect accused of killing a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy speeds along the 210 Freeway before crashing into a moving car. 

 

Deputy Andrew Nunez, 28, was among deputies who responded to a domestic in Rancho Cucamonga.  Man with a gun threatening a woman.  The suspect opened up on the deputies, hitting Deputy Nunez in the head.  He was a six-year veteran of the department and left behind a child and a pregnant wife.

The suspect fled at very high speed on a motorcycle.  Hit 150 mph.  A off-duty sheriff's deputy in an unmarked department vehicle heard the action on the radio, got into position and sideswiped the bike as it blew past him on the freeway.  Dude looked like he was dryer surfing without the dryer.  Scratched the bike up a bit too.

The suspect was airlifted to a hospital where he is being cared for.  He is likely to be booked on suspicion of murder when he is medically released.  

BARRY COMES OUT AGAINST THE FIRST AMENDMENT

By Bob Walsh

 

There is a very interesting audio clip making the rounds on the media today.  The talker is former president Barrack Hussein Obama.  His statement is that we need to have more government control of the press. Specifically the government should determine what the FACTS are.  Once that has happened journalists will be free to do what they will with them, but if they assert things as facts that are not government approved they could be in trouble.

Just thought you might like to know.

NO IKE DIKE ... WHAT WILL HAPEN TO HOUSTON-GALVESTON IF STRUCK BY CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE

By Howie Katz

 

Before and after photos show damage in Jamaica

 

Hurricane Melissa caused catastrophic damage to Jamaica and Cuba, leaving some areas unrecognizable. 

 

If a Category 5 Hurricane were to strike Houston-Galveston, it would cause similar damages, but on a much, much larger scale than that experienced in the Caribbean. That is because the Ike Dike proposed in 2009 by Texas A&M professor William Merrell has not been built.

 

 

 

The Ike Dike was torpedoed by environmentalists who claimed that the proposed flood gates at Galveston would interfere with the migration of marine life, and by a Rice University group who proposed protecting the petro-chemical complex along the Houston ship channel instead.

 

The environmentalists disregarded the fact that the flood gates would be closed only during the approach of a hurricane and the Rice group disregarded the fact that the Ike Dike also would have protected their beloved petro-chemical complex. 

 

So far Houston-Galveston has not been hit by a Melissa strength hurricane, but how long can our luck last? When it does hit us, we will curse those damn environmentalists and Rice eggheads.  

KRISTI NOEM ALSO LIED IN THE $400 MILLION TV AD WHERE SHE SAYS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO VOLUNTARILY SELF-DEPORT 'MAY HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO RETURN LEGALLY IN THE FUTURE' ... THEIR CHANCES OF BEING ABLE TO TO RETURN LEGALLY ARE NEXT TO NONE

Kristi Noem exposed for using misleading footage to hype DC immigration raids

 

By Victoria Churchill 

 

Daily Mail

Oct 29, 2025 

 

The $400 million TV ad in which Kristi Noem says illegal immigrants who voluntarily self-deport "May have an opportunity to return legally in the future." 

 

A new investigative report has revealed misleading footage being used in social media videos posted by a top federal agency. 

Analysis published by the Washington Post on Wednesday exposed video footage used in social media posts by President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem misrepresented scenes about Washington, DC.

One scene drew on video from a prior ICE raid in Nantucket, Massachusetts to promote the administration's hardcore crackdown narrative about the nation's capital. Other videos included footage from Florida and California while being about Washington, DC.

The Post additionally notes that it found uses of 'similarly misleading footage in at least six videos promoting its immigration agenda shared in the last three months.'

Asked by the Daily Mail for comment about the Washington Post's report, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin only noted an uptick in attacks against the department's officers. She did not address the Post's claims.

'Violence and rioting against law enforcement is unacceptable regardless of where it occurs. In both Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois, violent antifa terrorists have assaulted and brutally attacked our officers and agents,' McLaughlin said.

Immigration enforcement has been a key priority of the Trump administration since the president took office in January, and Congress provided billions in additional funding for immigration agencies as part of the GOP budget bill passed by Congress in July.

Border security efforts got a major cash infusion estimated to be around $150 billion for increased immigration enforcement. It included $46 billion for Customs and Border Patrol to build a border wall and enhanced security measures, and around $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

 

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem participates in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Phoenix, Arizona on April 8, 2025

A military photo from the US Coast Guard that DHS included in a video 

 

However, the White House is reportedly unhappy with the pace of deportations.

A Friday report from the New York Times noted that per DHS, more than 400,000 deportations have taken place during the second Trump administration thus far.

That number is said to be short of Stephen Miller's target of 3,000 per day, currently averaging between 1,000 to 2,000 daily.

By the end of the year—according to DHS—Trump is presently on pace to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants, short of his 1 million goal.

IN THE 1950S, WHEN I USED TO STAY AT VEGAS CASINO-HOTELS, MEALS WERE CHEAP, ALCOHOLIC DRINKS WERE FREE, TOP SHOWS COST $15, AND ROOMS WERE DIRT CHEAP

Iconic Vegas hotel chain admits it had 90,000 empty rooms during backlash over 'rip-off' prices

 

By James Cirrone 

 

Daily Mail

Oct 29, 2025

 

Caesar's Entertainment admitted that 90,000 of its hotel rooms went unsold in the three months ending on September 30 

 

One of Las Vegas's largest casino and resort operators said that 90,000 hotel rooms went unbooked across its eight strip properties throughout Sin City's summer tourism lull.

The admission came from Caesars Entertainment CEO Thomas Reeg on a Tuesday earnings call, though he did try to soften the blow by saying the company knew the summer would not be kind.

'We told you on the last call [three months earlier] that Vegas was going to be a soft summer. It was a soft summer,' he said.

He explained that the company's average daily rate - how much revenue a hotel earns per occupied room per night - was down 6 percent in the third quarter ending on September 30.

Furthermore, occupancy sagged to 92 percent, a big decline from last year's 97 percent, said Caesars President and COO Anthony Carano.

As bookings sagged, there were also signs that gamblers were able to get an edge over the house.

Reeg reluctantly told investors that 'hold' - industry jargon for how much the casino keeps after paying out winners - was down 6 percentage points in the third quarter.

'On a year-over-year basis, it impacted us a little over $30 million,' Reeg said. 'July was the worst month of the quarter.'

 

Pictured: The lobby of Caesar's Palace, the company's flagship property on the Las Vegas Strip

This is the latest sign that Americans, and even would-be international visitors , are increasingly abandoning Las Vegas because of how prohibitively expensive it has become

 

Overall, Caesars revenue in Las Vegas — which accounts for about a third of its business — dropped 9.8 percent from a year ago.

Shares in the company have dropped over 10 percent since market close on Tuesday and are down nearly 40 percent since the start of 2025.

This is the latest sign that Americans, and even would-be international visitors, are increasingly abandoning Las Vegas because of how prohibitively expensive it has become.

Many casino operators have sought to stop the damage by offering one-time discounts to lure customers.

Caesars has a deal expiring December 31 where customers can spend $300 and get a two-night stay at Harrah's, The LINQ, the Flamingo, the Horseshoe or Planet Hollywood with all taxes and resort fees included. 

On top of that, they will get a $200 food and beverage credit that can be used at any Caesar's property in the city.

Still, tourist traps remain. One was uncovered by the Daily Mail over the summer at Caesar's Palace, the company's most iconic property on Las Vegas Boulevard.

The Bacchanal Buffet, which sits on the casino floor directly across the pools, charges $90 for 90 minutes of unlimited food, the most expensive in Las Vegas.

 

The Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's Palace is Las Vegas's most expensive buffet - but a Daily Mail reporter says the quality of the food on offer will do little to repair Las Vegas's worsening rip-off reputation  

Natalie Nguyễn (left) said the buffet's lobsters were poor and the tacos were 'meh'. Her friend David Hoang (right) said the hamburgers tasted 'weird'  

Pictured: This billboard outside the Circus Circus casino in 1990 advertised a $2.69 buffet brunch and a $3.89 buffet dinner

 

Daily Mail reporter Ruth Bashinsky said the buffet hall was crowded and chaotic, while adding that the quality of the food was sorely lacking.

Natalie Nguyễn, 21, and David Hoang, 22, were visiting Las Vegas from Houston and told the Daily Mail they agreed the food was disappointing.

‘It was like you have lobster but it is not good lobster,’ Nguyen said. ‘The tacos - same thing. They had all these tacos but it was meh. I liked the snow crabs but it got tiring very quickly.’

For Hoang, the hamburger sliders were a big disappointment.

‘Honestly, they tasted weird. I would not eat them again if I come back. The texture was a little off. It had a weird bitter taste to it. It wasn’t for my palate.’

Buffets used to be a cheap way to get some calories in Las Vegas. In 1990, Circus Circus had a dinner buffet for $3.89 per person.

That same buffet should cost $9.92 today if it were tied strictly to inflation. Instead, it costs $25 per person. 

MAHMOOD MAMDANI, ZOHRAN'S FATHER, BLAMED AMERICA FOR THE ATROCITIES COMMITED BY THE NAZIS DURING HITLER'S REIGN

Zohran Mamdani’s dad claims Nazis learned to commit atrocities from US — including ethnic cleansing 

Mahmood Mamdani wrote in one of hi books: “The United States is the outcome of a history of genocide, ethnic cleansing, official racism and concentration camps (known as Indian reservations).”

 

By Isabel Vincent

 

New York Post

Oct 24, 2025

 

 

Mahmood Mamdani (right) exhorted his son Zohran to “change the world” in one of his academic books.

 

Zohran Mamdani’s dad claims the Nazis took direct cues from the United States’ “history of genocide, ethnic cleansing, official racism and concentration camps.”

Mamdani, 34, has often credited his father as his greatest influence, but in the elder Mamdani’s politically charged writings, he takes a dim view of the Western culture he happily lives in on the Upper West Side.

Radical socialist Mahmood Mamdani, 79, goes as far as to claim at one point that the Nazis got their idea for killing Jews from watching the US.

“The Allies who prosecuted individual Nazis at Nuremberg were invested in ignoring Nazism’s political roots, for these roots were also America’s,” he wrote in one of his books.

“The United States is the outcome of a history of genocide, ethnic cleansing, official racism and concentration camps (known as Indian reservations).”

That book, “Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities,” is dedicated to Zohran Mamdani. And, in the acknowledgments, the elder Mamdani exhorts his son to revolution.

“And Zohran, our son, who understands that the time has come to go out and join those impatient to change the world,” he wrote.

 

Scholar Mahmood Mamdani has said the Nazis learned about ethnic cleansing from America’s treatment of its indigenous populations

Survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp cheer US forces during its liberation in May 1945

US soldiers saved thousands of Jewish prisoners being transferred from Bergen-Belsen to another death camp in April 1945. In one of his academic works, Zohran Mamdani’s father says the Nazis learned about ethnic cleansing from the US. 

 

By that time, Zohran Mamdani was poised to blaze that trail when he entered the state Assembly, equipped with his parents’ anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist and anti-capitalist views.

As a student at Bowdoin College in Maine, he had founded a branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Israel group.

 

“The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” a film by Mira Nair, was completely funded by the government of Qatar, which provided the movie’s $15 million budget

 

“Neither Settler Nor Native,” the elder Mamdani’s academic treatise on settler colonialism around the world, was also published in 2020, and argues that “Zionist settlers in Israel forcibly exiled and concentrated non-Jews, an ongoing process.”

Mahmood — who did not respond to The Post’s request for comment — is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, alongside others in his anthropology department, such as Lila Abu-Lughod and Brinkley Messick, who both backed sanctions against Israel and were included in the acknowledgments section of his book.

Messick also pushed for scholars to boycott Israeli academic institutions in 2016 and urged Columbia to divest its pension funds from Israel. He died in August.

Born in India, raised in Kampala and educated at US universities, Mahmood Mamdani is an anti-imperialist who helped to found the Uganda-Korea Friendship Society in 1981, a group connected to North Korea. Mamdani traveled to Pyongyang in the early 1980s, writing a report that noted “what struck us from the beginning was the immense mobilization of the population. School children going to or coming from school march in orderly groups singing songs.” 

 

Zohran Mamdani’s radical views were largely shaped by his parents. 

 

Zohran Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair — who won an Academy Award for her film “Salaam Bombay!” — also opposes Israel.

In 2013, she rejected an invitation to attend the Haifa International Festival as a guest of honor to screen her 2013 film “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” which was made with a $15 million grant, the film’s entire budget, from the Doha Film Institute in Qatar, The Post revealed.

“I will go to Israel when occupation is gone,” she wrote in a social media post at the time. “I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when apartheid is over.”

In 2004, Nair established a film school in Kampala, the Maisha Film Lab, to give scholarships to aspiring filmmakers. The film school is partly funded by Qatar as well as the OSI Development Fund, a nonprofit run by progressive philanthropist George Soros, according to the film school’s website.

 

Zohran Mamdani said he owes everything to his parents, filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani

George Soros’ Open Society Foundations contributed more than $600,000 to Kampala’s Makerere University, where Mahmood Mamdani founded the school’s Institute for Social Research in 2010

 

In addition, a portion of Mahmood Mamdani’s scholarship was also financed by Soros.

The progressive philanthropist between 2020 and 2023 gave a total of $620,000 to Makerere University, where the elder Mamdani headed up a social policy research center, oversaw the construction of a new pavilion, a library and established a PhD program.

The largest single grant of $450,000 was earmarked for Mamdani’s Makerere Institute for Social Research for the “decolonization of knowledge in Africa and in the African academy,” according to Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

In additions to the family’s anti-Israel views, the elder Mamdani embraces the same kind of radical socialism favored by his son, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. In his latest book, “Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State,” released last week, Mamdani faults Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for nearly 40 years, for embracing international capitalism. 

HAMAS MAKING A MOCKERY OF TRUMP'S PEACE PLAN

Hamas’s grotesque theater of cruelty tests Israel’s resolve

After the terror group staged a macabre provocation, Jerusalem must respond firmly yet keep its eyes on the broader Trump peace plan. 

 

By Fiamma Nirenstein 

 

JNS

Oct 29, 2025

 

 

Israeli drones captured the moments Hamas terrorists threw a body out of a window into a pit and then attempting to bury the body under dirt and sand.

 

Hamas is once again playing hardball—provoking, violating the truce and openly challenging both Israel and the United States. Overnight on Monday, while the world looked on in disbelief at the grotesque “return” of a hostage’s body, the terror group launched another attack, ambushing Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza with anti-tank weapons.

At the same time, it cynically announced—and then withdrew—its supposed decision to hand over one of the bodies of the 13 hostages it still holds.

Provocation is Hamas’s only real strategy. It thrives on humiliation and cruelty, using deceit as diplomacy. The challenge for Israel is to resist the trap—to respond decisively, yet without derailing the larger peace framework still on the table. The situation has grown more complex amid internal tensions between Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

Exploiting this confusion, Hamas has pushed beyond every limit, aware that the clock is ticking on Trump’s 48-hour deadline after which he once again vowed to ensure its destruction.

As the farce of the “body’s return” unfolded, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered strikes on Rafah. Israel cannot stand idly by as Hamas desecrates the dead and fires on its soldiers. Yet it also seeks to preserve what remains of the American-led peace track. 

Militarily, Israel holds the upper hand, controlling around 60% of Gaza. With most hostages either freed or tragically gone, and Hamas weakened in men and arms, Israel could, if it chooses, strike decisively.

But the greater strategic goal remains the broad peace plan of U.S. President Donald Trump—a vision of regional realignment and normalization, encompassing the Abraham Accords and beyond.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands the stakes: his calculus has been to let Egypt mediate cautiously while keeping Qatar and Turkey out of the core process. Rightly accusing Hamas of “a blatant violation” of the ceasefire-for-hostages agreement, he ordered “forceful strikes” in Gaza on Tuesday.

For the remains of the last 13 hostages held by Hamas, every effort is being made. Hamas still has the chance to return more bodies, but doing so would mean entering the next phase—disarmament.

That, for Israel, is essential to achieving the full dismantling of Hamas and Hezbollah, the weakening of Iran and the Houthis, and rapprochement with Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

Nothing should endanger that progress, but neither can Israel avoid confrontation. Trump, weighing his next move, is consulting with CENTCOM in its new Kiryat Gat command complex. He has insisted that “nothing is going to jeopardize” the ceasefire, warning, “If Hamas does not behave, they will be terminated.”

Hamas’s aim is clear: to drag Israel away from the strategic vision of peace and isolate it once again. Israel must not fall into this trap.

Meanwhile, anger and disbelief are growing. Many Israelis are asking how an agreement could have been made with such an enemy, and why heavy machinery is needed to “find” bodies when Hamas already knows where they are.

In truth, the excavators seem more useful for concealing tunnels than uncovering the truth. The macabre scene—of the partial remains of 27-year-old Ofir Tzarfati dumped into a pit and theatrically “discovered” before being handed to the Red Cross—was an act of psychological warfare no less horrific than the massacre of Oct. 7.

Hamas knew its deception would be exposed, as it was in the cases of Yarden Bibas and others. Yet it continues, feeding off the poison it spreads. The same organization that signed its name to mass rape, murder, and arson is now scripting scenes of false compassion.

Even provoked, Israel is unlikely to break with Washington. It will respond militarily where necessary, but with an eye on the larger prize—lasting regional peace.

Hamas, in its usual duplicity, now claims that supposed Israeli violations prevent it from releasing another body. The excuse is absurd—but the purpose is clear: to stall peace and preserve its own power.

Israel knows it is fighting on two fronts—one on the battlefield, the other against despair and manipulation. The war must be won, but not at the cost of losing sight of what comes after: a region in which Israel stands strong, secure and unashamed to lead with both courage and conscience.

BAYOU DEATHS NOT THE RESULT OF A SERIAL KILLER AS FEARED BY SOME HOUSTONIANS

Data shows 189 bodies recovered from Houston bayous since 2017

 

By Jaewon Jung, 

 

Click2Houston

Oct 28, 2025

 

Harris County – We’re taking a closer look at the bodies found in Houston bayous from the last decade.

KPRC 2 requested data from Jan. 2015 until now, but the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office was only able to provide data from Jan. 2017.

Here’s what we found.

Since the beginning of 2017, there have been a total of 189 bodies found in the bayou. We excluded the bodies that were found in a vehicle along the bayou.

Here is the breakdown by year:

2017	18
2018	17
2019	12
2020	26
2021	15
2022	19
2023	22
2024	34
2025	27

Here is the breakdown by manner of death:

Undetermined	75	39%
Accident – Drowning	45	24%
Suicide	25	13%
Homicide	17	9%
Accident (Other)	11	6%
Pending	9	5%
Natural	7	4%

Here is the breakdown by sex:

Male	161	85%
Female	27	14%
Unknown	1	<1%

The most recent body was found on October 8 of a man. The medical examiner’s office has not identified the person yet.

City leaders previously said there is no evidence of a serial killer connected to these bodies and that many of the victims may be from the homeless population.

KPRC 2 previously interviewed the sister of Anthony Curry, whose body was found in May. She told us her brother was not homeless and she is still seeking answers to the circumstances of her brother’s death.