Account information for this Lucianne member

From New York to California, students protesting the Israel-Hamas war slept in tents at college campuses, as some universities moved to shut down encampments and arrested dozens of demonstrators after reports of antisemitic activity. With the death toll mounting in the war in Gaza, protesters nationwide are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say enable the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus. At Columbia University in New York City, where early protests sparked pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country, students and administrators have engaged in negotiations,

We might start by returning to energy independence. The climate would not be hurt one bit: The US has plenty of oil under the ground; we can extract it more cleanly than anyone. Instead, we are paying exorbitant prices to, say, Russia for oil that is far dirtier, while the Chinese Communist Party are opening two new coal plants a week. The result, in terms of clean air, is therefore currently either net-zero or, thanks to "protecting" the planet from America's clean oil, actually down. Additionally, the US outlay for buying overpriced foreign oil and gas for immediate domestic use has simply served to finance both Russia's war on Ukraine,

On Thursday, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump revealed outside a Manhattan courtroom that his campaign is planning a massive campaign rally at Madison Square Garden and the South Bronx as Trump continues to campaign in the Empire State. "And I think we have a good chance of winning New York. We're going to give it a big play," Trump explained. "We're going to go to the South Bronx to do a rally and we're going to do a rally at Madison Square Garden. We'll be honoring the people who make New York work. We're honoring a lot of people. It will be very exciting."

The Biden administration’s expanded mass parole program for illegal immigrants could threaten lawful voter registration, election law and border experts contend. Under President Joe Biden’s parole system—which targets illegal aliens from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—up to 30,000 migrants per month who wouldn’t normally qualify for a visa may use a U.S. government app on their cellphones to gain parole and either cross the border or fly into the United States.

The United States, France, Germany, Russia and Argentina, who had dual nationals taken hostage, did not try to bomb Hamas infrastructure and places where Hamas hid. Instead, they let Israel do it and then accused Israel of destroying the Gaza Strip. Rather than putting any pressure on Qatar and demonstrating in front of Qatari-owned hotels in France, the United States and elsewhere in Europe, the families of the hostages have been putting pressure on the Israeli government, thereby doing exactly what Hamas would presumably like them to do.

Hypocrisy is Washington, DC’s lifeblood, so it was a nice change when DC Judge Ana Reyes lambasted the Justice Department for instructing two lawyers in its Tax Division to disregard a congressional subpoena in the Hunter Biden investigation, all while it has been zealously prosecuting Trump officials for the very same offense. Peter Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, is sitting in jail for defying a subpoena from Nancy Pelosi’s star chamber, the January 6 committee. “There’s a person in jail right now because you all brought a criminal lawsuit against him because he did not appear for a House subpoena,” Reyes said, referring to Navarro.

A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders. The comments by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of cease-fire talks. The suggestion that Hamas would disarm appeared to be a significant concession by the militant group officially committed to Israel’s destruction.

Embattled Columbia University president Minouche Shafik caved to pressure from anti-Israel protesters early Wednesday — giving them another 48 hours to dismantle the tent city that’s popped up on campus. The administration announced early Wednesday that it will continue dialogue for “the next 48 hours” following “important progress with representatives of the student encampment.” The backtrack from Shafik came just as a protest leader was seen on video telling students through a bullhorn to form platoons and “turn up quickly en masse, in front of the encampment” to block police from making arrests in the event of a sweep.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday with U.S.-China ties on a steadier footing, but with a daunting array of unresolved issues threatening the stability of relations between the global rivals. Blinken will meet with business leaders before heading to Beijing for talks on Friday with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and a likely meeting with President Xi Jinping. Blinken's visit is the latest high-level contact between the two nations that, along with working groups on issues from global trade to military communication, have tempered the public acrimony that drove relations to historic lows early last year.

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that’s expected to face legal challenges and disrupt the lives of content creators who rely on the short-form video app for income. The TikTok legislation was included as part of a larger $95 billion package that provides foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and was passed 79-18. It now goes to President Joe Biden, who said in a statement immediately after passage that he will sign it Wednesday.

Donald Trump is running into a problem with Fox News. It’s one he had no idea existed. And Kellyanne Conway left Trump speechless with this dirty secret about Fox News. Puck News’ Tara Palmeri reported that Donald Trump is welcoming former campaign manager and White House Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway back onto his team. But unlike in 2016 when Conway managed Trump’s campaign down the stretch, Conway will play a different role as Palmeri revealed Conway will largely serve as a high-level surrogate for Trump on Fox News. “Conway still has Trump’s ear and serves as a rare high-level surrogate on Fox News,” Palmeri wrote in her “The Best & The Brightest” newsletter.

Many years ago, I worked for Virgin Atlantic airline and was fortunate to be awarded a free fam pass on El Al airlines to Israel. I ended up trading the ticket away to another employee but I always regretted not taking this opportunity to visit the Holy Land because of my cowardice. At the time, it seemed like every week there would be a bus blown up or an explosion in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and I wondered how any one could live in such a turbulent environment. I grew up in a poor tenement in Spanish Harlem,