This is the picture President Trump is alleged to have drawn for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, according to The Wall Street Journal. His team says he didn’t. Either way, it’s one of the dumber political news cycles of our time.
In Case You Missed It
⚖️ Thailand’s Supreme Court has ordered former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to serve one year in prison, ruling that his prior hospital “detention” in a VIP wing did not count toward his corruption sentence—marking a major setback for the Shinawatra political dynasty
🛂 The Supreme Court has lifted restrictions on immigration raids in Southern California—allowing ICE to resume broad enforcement actions.
🕵️♂️ CBS News hired an "ombudsman" to review “editorial concerns” raised by employees and viewers — in plain language, that means he’ll monitor for bias. If journalists can’t even identify slant in their own reporting, are they qualified to call themselves journalists at all?
🎯 Greta Thunberg narrowly escaped unharmed after a fire broke out on her Gaza-bound flotilla boat in Tunisian waters, with organizers blaming a drone strike and authorities denying it.
✊ At least 19 protesters—most of them young students—were killed when Nepalese police opened fire during Generation Z–led demonstrations against a sweeping social media ban and endemic corruption.
*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00 AM.
Lead: Netanyahu’s Gaza Offensive Intensifies as World Looks Away
Photo credit: Gov.il
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that Israel has destroyed 50 high-rise buildings in Gaza City in the last two days and warned Palestinians to flee because the assault is “about to intensify.” Hard to imagine what could be more intense than that.
His explanation was the usual one — that Hamas used the buildings — but no proof was offered. Why would they need to when the world accepts this excuse with impunity?
“Now, all of this is only the introduction, only the beginning of the main intensive operation – the ground incursion of our forces, that are now getting organized and gathering, into Gaza City. Therefore, I am taking this opportunity to say to the residents of Gaza, listen to me carefully: You have been warned; get out of there,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum is under fire for suggesting that “Never Again” should apply to other groups facing genocide. Their post — “‘Never Again’ Can’t Only Mean Never Again For Jews” — sparked outrage from Jewish groups who took it as criticism of Israel. The museum apologized and removed the statement. In 2025, it seems, “Never Again” can only mean never again for Jews. For Palestinians, mass death is permissible.
Marriage, Children, and the Great Political Split
Photo credit: NBC News
A new NBC poll shows a deep divide in priorities between Gen Z voters who backed Vice President Harris and those who voted for President Trump in 2024. The starkest contrast is over family.
To put it bluntly: Democratic voters do not view marriage or children as markers of life’s success. Both men and women in this group ranked their own careers, possessions, and bank accounts above family life. Marriage and children landed at the bottom of the list.
Republican voters ranked marriage and family at the top. For male Republican voters, having children was the number one indicator of a successful life.
Where does this divide come from? Increasingly, mainstream media has promoted family breakdown as empowerment. The New York Postreports that “menodivorce” is on the rise, claiming menopausal women are leaving marriages due to “built-up resentment.” And the Telegraphpraises a woman who lives with her teenage children while entertaining a revolving door of sexual partners.
But does this really deliver fulfillment? Can a “Sex and the City” lifestyle — with no one to care for and no one to care for you in return — be a recipe for happiness? Why would the liberal media promote this as a cultural ideal?
The data say otherwise. A new study shows that marriage and parenthood do increase the likelihood of happiness. Humans crave deep, lasting connections — why is this suddenly treated as novel?
If Democrats truly cared about their voters, they wouldn’t punch down at family life — the very thing that keeps people grounded and happy. Instead, they’ve earned the reputation of being lonely, bitter, and shriveled up. And given that they’re already bleeding voters, they might want to rethink that before their base of embittered singles simply dies out.
Who would have thought that it would be considered radical to believe that family still matters?
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When Fetish Masquerades as Identity: The Story of a U.K. Surgeon
Photo credit: Genspect
This may be the craziest story I've seen all year.
A respected U.K. surgeon faked sepsis, got both his legs amputated, and was hailed in the press as a heroic family man until he was found guilty of having faked the sepsis to get his legs amputated due to a sexual fetish.
Last week, Dr. Neil Hopper was sentenced to 32 months in prison for insurance fraud and possession of extreme pornography — not for the amputations themselves, which were self-inflicted.
Hopper has what is known as apotemnophilia: sexual arousal at the thought of being an amputee. The media originally celebrated his bravery, running glowing features about his resilience. He was only exposed after investigators found he subscribed to videos from The Eunuch Maker, described by Genspect as “the leader of a castration fetish ring who was arrested for orchestrating and livestreaming castrations and amputations in his London home.”
In court, Hopper’s defense attorney even argued his client “wanted to be a woman.” That’s where this bizarre case touches something bigger.
Apotemnophilia is closely related to autogynephilia, the paraphilia in which a man is aroused by the idea of himself as a woman. According to Mia Hughes, author of The WPATH Files, researchers once acknowledged this overlap openly. A 2005 paper found that nearly 20% of apotemnophiles also wished to be members of the opposite sex.
While attempts to rebrand apotemnophilia as “amputee identity disorder” largely failed, trans activists succeeded in reframing autogynephilia as a legitimate identity — and eventually as a right to be celebrated. Hughes points out that psychiatry’s pathologizing of childhood gender nonconformity swept up many gay and lesbian kids, creating the perfect smokescreen to hide paraphilic men inside a new umbrella of “trans rights.”
The result has been devastating. What was once understood as a niche fetish has been reframed as civil rights, and legions of vulnerable young people have been swept into the medicalization of normal puberty.
And so the world applauded. Hopper’s story is shocking, but it’s also a mirror: when paraphilias are repackaged as “identities,” the media and medical establishment have shown they are all too willing to celebrate — until the truth can no longer be hidden.
News By The Numbers
Photo credit: United Nations
80th. That is how many sessions the United Nations General Assembly will have had when the 80th session begins on Tuesday.
8. That is how many bear encounters there have been in wester Tokyo this last month alone. Bear run-ins are reportedly on the rise in Japan. A man in a fishing village had his face clawed by a bear in August.
900. That is how many people were arrested in London over the weekend for protesting on behalf of Palestinians.
What's Trending?
Photo Credit: Banksy on Instagram
Banksy is trending because this new mural by the famous artist appeared on London's High Court on Sunday, only to be covered up by the government by Monday. It shows the court beating down a protestor and appeared the day after British police arrested more than 900 people supporting Palestinians.
The Country Music Awards are trending because the nominees for 2025 were announced on Monday.
Lachlan Murdoch is trending because he is the heir to his father Rupert Murdoch's media empire after he and his siblings came to a legal settlement.
Why Is the Media Hyping a Treatable Parasite?
Photo Credit: CDC
The CDC has warned about an “endemic” of Chagas disease, and the media has picked it up with hysteria. Is that justified? Let’s put this in perspective.
Chagas is a parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi; it’s more common in animals than people, but human cases do occur and can cause heart problems — and doctors can usually treat it successfully with anti-parasitic drugs.
Earlier this year The Lancetargued that the WHO should declare Chagas endemic in order to fast-track vaccine development. But why a vaccine when anti-parasite drugs already work? The LA Times claims people don’t know they’re sick until a heart attack or stroke. That’s not accurate — there are warning signs like fever, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, or swelling near the eye.
Even more concerning, The Lancet admits a vaccine would be trialed in poor Latin American communities, including patients with existing heart inflammation — a condition that an immune-stimulating vaccine could make worse. In other words, the poorest and sickest people could be used to test an experimental product even though effective drugs already exist.
And remember: “endemic” doesn’t mean cases are surging. It simply means the disease is present at a steady baseline level in a region.
So why this sudden panic about Chagas disease — especially given that your vet wouldn’t even panic if they found it in your dog? They’d just treat it. Well… we don’t know why. Do you?
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This newsletter is written and researched by Natali Morris. Please feel free to reach Natali at [email protected] for any editorial feedback.
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