Former Vice President Mike Pence has signed paperwork to run for president in 2024 according to a form filed with the Federal Election Commission Monday.

Pence, 63, is now officially throwing his hat in the ring after months of speculation, joining a slew of other GOP hopefuls looking to take down the party’s clear frontrunner, Donald Trump.

According to one of the most recent studies into the viability of human life on the Red Planet, scientists have said that if humans spend any longer than this point the levels of radiation become unsafe.

 Over the weekend, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis prompted leftist outrage as she joined her husband Ron in Iowa while wearing a leather jacket emblazoned with the words “Where Woke Goes to Die.”

 An immigrant who came to the United States from Afghanistan and opened a business in Democrat-controlled San Francisco says that the conditions in the city are worse than in Afghanistan.

 The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) encouraged students to celebrate Pride Month with coloring books of “LGBTQ icons,” creating “ally pledge cards,” and playing “LGBTQ+ Bingo.”

 Approximately 50 places of worship in New York City will house foreign nationals who have recently migrated to the United States. 

 The grand jury in the federal criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified material is reportedly set to come back into session this week in Washington, D.C., after court activity had slowed in recent weeks.

But the liberal media arrived quickly to try to lift him up. In a fawning profile, The New York Times described the 80-year-old president as “sharp,” “fit,” and having “striking stamina.” The Washington Post, meanwhile, said Biden’s tumble helps make him appear “more human” — then listed a bunch of other times politicians fell down.

 Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Beck, who went by Kristen Beck for a brief period of his life, warned during an interview last week that the so-called “experts” who are pushing minors to transition are hiding critical data from parents.

 The controversial designer who had his merchandise removed from Target following public backlash and boycotts spoke out on the incident, criticizing the retailer for its response.

As The Gateway Pundit reported in 2020, election fraud whistleblowers came forward in December following the controversial election, including one who witnessed the shipping of an estimated 144,000-288,000 completed ballots across three state lines on October 21.

The new information was made public at a press conference by the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, a national constitutional litigation organization.

The Amistad Project said that they have sworn declarations that state over 300,000 ballots are at issue in Arizona, 548,000 in Michigan, 204,000 in Georgia, and over 121,000 in Pennsylvania.

They claim that their evidence reveals multi-state illegal efforts by USPS workers to influence the election in at least three of six swing states.

Donald Trump has demanded the recusal of the judge overseeing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against him, arguing that the judge lacks impartiality. Trump’s legal team submitted a filing to the court, highlighting Judge Juan Merchan’s involvement in a previous case where he encouraged Allen Weisselberg, a former Trump Organization executive, to cooperate against Trump. They also raised concerns about the judge’s daughter’s political and financial interests in the case’s outcome.

According to Trump’s attorneys, Judge Merchan’s daughter is employed by Authentic Strategies, a left-wing advertising group that could potentially profit from the case. They pointed out that the case’s resolution may impact political messaging during the 2024 electoral cycle and shape Authentic’s client engagements.

Here are the key points, as explained in Trump’s legal motion:

The Russian Defense Ministry said early Monday that Ukraine began a “large-scale offensive” by launching attacks along five sections of the frontlines in the eastern Donbas region.

According to RT, the ministry said the offensive began early Sunday, and the Ukrainian forces were unsuccessful. “The enemy’s goal was to breach our defenses in what they assumed was the most vulnerable section of the frontline,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The enemy has failed to reach its goals and was unsuccessful,” the statement added. The ministry claimed that Ukraine lost 250 soldiers, 16 tanks, three infantry vehicles, and 21 armored vehicles, but the numbers aren’t confirmed.

Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu delivered a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and said a conflict between the US and China would be an “unbearable disaster,” a warning that comes amid soaring tensions between the two powers.

“It is undeniable that a severe conflict or confrontation between China and the US will be an unbearable disaster for the world,” said Li, who was appointed defense minister in March.

Li delivered the warning while calling for more dialogue between the US and China, saying the two nations should seek “common ground and common interests to grow bilateral ties and deepen cooperation.”

China declined to hold a meeting between its defense minister and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the conference because the US has refused to lift sanctions that were imposed on Li in 2018 due to his role in purchasing Russian military equipment.

CIA Director William Burns held “clandestine” meetings with Chinese intel agencies during an unannounced trip to Beijing last month, US officials told the Financial Times, suggesting the visit was intended to “stabilize” deteriorating relations with the People’s Republic.

Burns had no formal diplomatic engagements in China and “only met intelligence officials” for talks in May, FT reported on Friday, citing five unnamed sources familiar with the trip. Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, CBS and other agencies later confirmed the report, but offered few additional details.

“Last month, director Burns traveled to Beijing where he met with Chinese counterparts and emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of communications in intelligence channels,” a US official said in a statement to FT and several other outlets.

The sources did not say what was discussed during the meetings, which mark the Joe Biden administration’s highest-level visit to China since outgoing State Department deputy Wendy Sherman traveled to Tianjin in 2021.

We spent nearly 20 days in Russia, including 5 days in Crimea. During our journey, we spent around 70 hours in trains riding in close quarters with Russians who we had never met before but who freely shared food and drink with us. Indeed, throughout our travels, we were treated invariably with kindness, generosity and hospitality. When people realized that we spoke English and were from the States, they tried very hard to communicate with us and to make sure that we, as visitors in their land, were comfortable and taken care of. In short, it was clear to us that while many Americans may hate Russia and even Russians themselves, this hatred is not returned in kind.

One anecdote is illustrative of such treatment. About half an hour into our 27-hour train ride from Crimea to Moscow, Rick realized that he had left his money belt, with around $2000 in cash, back in his Moscow hotel room safe. This hotel had a quaint name in English – the Sunflower Avenue Hotel – and is located around the corner from the biggest mosque in Europe. Rick called the hotel and informed them of what had happened, and, after some back and forth to make sure that Rick was the true owner of the money, the hotel management said they would give it to anyone we designated to retrieve it. We got a hold of a friend in Moscow, Yulia, who went to the hotel and took possession of the money belt. And, because our plan was to travel back from Crimea directly to St. Petersburg, and not to return to Moscow, Yulia also arranged for a friend of hers to bring the belt to St. Petersburg – a city located at least 4 hours by train from Moscow. Within a few hours of our returning there a week later, this friend drove up to the hotel and handed the belt to Rick outside of our hotel. And, not a dollar was missing. Obviously, this could have turned out much differently given how many times the money belt had to change hands before getting back to Rick and given that all involved knew that if we never saw some or all of the money again there would have been little we could do about it given that we were not returning to Moscow and would soon be leaving for the United States. Our faith in humanity remained intact from the experience.

The U.S. Army wants to develop bomb-carrying drones similar to the jury-rigged commercial drones widely used in Ukraine, according to a service solicitation to industry. 

The proposal-submission solicitation notes the drones’ utility to infantry, suggesting that lethal drones may one day be a common tool in the average infantry platoon’s kit.  

U.S. Army Special Operations Command already operates a variety of smaller drones, most prominently the Switchblade suicide drone. 

The wider Army, however, only operates the Skydio X2D unarmed reconnaissance drone at the small-unit level, according to the early-May posting by the Army Applications Laboratory. Skydio won a five-year fixed-price contract from the Army in early 2022, valued at $20 million per year. 

For much of this year, widespread protests have engulfed Israel in response to the Netanyahu government’s attempts to overhaul the state’s judiciary. Corporate media in the United States (e.g., LA Times, 3/27/23; Politico 3/31/23) present this situation as a  “crisis of  democracy” in Israel. Since the demonstrations began on January 7, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post have run a combined total of 194 pieces that contain some variety of the words “Israel,” “crisis” and “democracy.” Only 77 of these, or just  under 40%, include some form of the terms “Palestine” or “Palestinian.”

This shortage of references to the Palestinians is startling, considering that the Israeli government controls the lives of approximately 14 million people who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, half of them Jewish and half of them Palestinian. These include 2.6 million Palestinians living in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation and without political rights, and 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, where Israel prevents them from enacting their political rights and confines them to an open-air prison. A further 350,000 Palestinians living in eastern Jerusalem, which was illegally annexed by Israel in 1967, nevertheless do not have the right to vote in Israel’s national elections.

You’ve likely never heard their names: Laith Kharma, Amal Nakhleh, Mohammad Mansour, Jihad Bani-Jaber. You’ll be appalled to read the accounts of their arrests and incarceration by Israeli authorities recorded in the recently released report by Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP). 

Take, for example, then 17-year-old Laith. According to DCI-P’s May report, Arbitrary by Default: Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Court System, 

Early on the morning of September 20, 2017, around 2 a.m., Israeli soldiers entered Laith Karma’s home in Kafr Ein village, outside of Ramallah. Laith… was bound, blindfolded, and physically assaulted by Israeli forces. He was neither informed of the reason for his arrest nor presented with a warrant.

Over the next eleven hours, Laith was transferred to multiple locations, including a military checkpoint and an Israeli police station in an illegal settlement. “While inside the jeep, it felt like the trip took hours,” he later told Defense for Children International-Palestine. 

The United States military is currently working on updating its missile-warning systems in the Pacific region. A new system is set to be deployed to Guam in 2025, according to defense contractor Northrup Grumman. The overhaul is meant to aid the U.S. military in its focus on security matters in the Pacific, including a potential threat from China. 

An initial design review for Relay Ground Station-Asia (RGS-A) was met favorably by U.S. Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific, the company said in a press release on Thursday, June 1. The RGS-A will set up a series of antennae that will be able to better catch signs of missile launches. Space Force, which controls many of the defense satellites used by the military, is in charge of the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution, or FORGE, system overhaul. The series of relay stations on the ground are part of that effort.

Ukrainian soldiers trained by NATO and armed with Western weapons will serve as the “tip of the spear” during the upcoming counteroffensive against Russian forces, according to the Washington Post. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said this support represents the “next level” of security assistance. 

Kiev’s 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade has spent months training in Germany to use Western-made weapons and tactics on the battlefield. The soldiers spent a significant amount of time in the classroom learning simulations. The brigade will be armed almost entirely with Western weapons. 

“You understand the overall picture, how it works,” Maj. Ivan Shalamaha explained. “You understand where and what your shortcomings were. And we pay attention to what we failed to do during this simulation.” 

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov described the support from NATO as the “next level” of security assistance. Whole Ukrainian units have been sent to Germany and other countries to learn “how to operate simultaneously together, like interoperability among the different units,” he said.

A new study has found that most American adults are refusing to take any more COVID-19 booster shots, as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports on significant differences between the health protection capabilities of those who haven’t had the vaccine vs. those who have.

According to Fox News, the CDC’s latest report examined over 85,000 cases of hospitalizations where patients displayed “COVID-like illness,” across multiple different states. Dr. Shana Johnson, a physician in Scottsdale, Arizona, reviewed the study’s findings and claimed that, while the bivalent mRNA vaccine did ultimately protect against the most harmful of COVID’s outcomes (including hospitalization and death), the durability of this protection did not last long.

“For adults, the vaccine effectiveness dropped from 62% at two months after vaccination to 24% at four to six months for protection against COVID-19 hospitalization,” said Johnson. “Durability was better for preventing critical COVID-19 disease, at 50% at four to six months after vaccination.”

On Friday, a group of over a dozen illegal aliens were flown to Sacramento, the capital of California, and were dropped off in front of a Catholic church. Now, the state Attorney General is claiming that the illegals were sent to the state by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.).

As reported by Politico, DeSantis previously generated controversy when he sent a busload of illegal aliens from Florida to the liberal town of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in a move that some say exposed the Democrats’ own hypocrisy on open borders, while others denounced it as a publicity stunt. Since then, the Florida governor has not arranged anymore transportation for illegals, although this new arrival in Sacramento could be tied to the Sunshine State.

As June kicks off with annual “pride month” celebrations, most U.S. corporations are continuing to display rainbow-colored logos and other forms of support for “gay pride” despite growing backlash against several major companies for doing so.

As the Associated Press reports, several companies that have faced backlash include Target, Bud Light, and the LA Dodgers. Target recently debuted a line of pro-transgender clothing, including swimsuits and clothing marketed for children, and subsequently loss over $10 billion in market value. Bud Light announced a partnership with “transgender” influencer Dylan Mulvaney, including special cans with Mulvaney’s face, and has now seen plunging sales that have forced the company to buy back expired beer from the shelves. And the LA Dodgers announced a “pride” event featuring an anti-Catholic drag queen group, drawing outrage from fans.

However, despite the numerous massive boycotts, most of their parent companies are standing firmly behind celebration of “pride.” Target is a platinum sponsor of NYC Pride, with a donation of at least $175,000, while Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch is sponsoring pride celebrations in Charlotte, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Saudi Arabia will reduce how much oil it sends to the global economy, taking a unilateral step to prop up the sagging price of crude after two previous cuts to supply by major producing countries in the OPEC+ alliance failed to push oil higher.

The Saudi cut of 1 million barrels per day, to start in July, comes as the other OPEC+ producers agreed in a meeting in Vienna to extend earlier production cuts through next year.

Calling the reduction a “lollipop,” Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said at a news conference that “we wanted to ice the cake.” He said the cut could be extended and that the group “will do whatever is necessary to bring stability to this market.”

Webmaster addition: And Biden just blocked off more domestic drilling!

The United States should ease off military deployments close to China in an act of "good faith" if high-level defence talks between the two superpowers are to resume, a retired veteran Chinese diplomat said in Singapore on Sunday.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue meeting on security, former ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai said that although the two militaries still had channels of communication, he questioned whether there was enough political will to prevent conflicts.

"Why are they coming all the way across the ocean? To our doorsteps?" Cui said of U.S. naval and air force deployments close to China. "They're getting too close to our territories, to our territorial waters before anything else."

Russia’s decision to leave the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the U.S. is “unshakable,” but Moscow could be willing to return if Washington changes its policy on Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday.

“Our decision to suspend the START Treaty is unshakable,” Ryabkov said, according to a report by Russian state newswire Ria Novosti.

“Our own condition for the return to the full functioning of the treaty is the U.S. abandoning its fundamentally hostile policy towards Russia,” he added.

In February, days before the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Kremlin was suspending its participation in New START Treaty. The agreement, which came into effect in 2011, caps the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and nuclear warheads that the U.S. or Russia can be deploy.

Ukraine has cultivated a network of agents and sympathizers inside Russia working to carry out acts of sabotage against Russian targets and has begun providing them with drones to stage attacks, multiple people familiar with US intelligence on the matter told CNN.

US officials believe these pro-Ukrainian agents inside Russia carried out a drone attack that targeted the Kremlin in early May by launching drones from within Russia rather than flying them from Ukraine into Moscow.

It is not clear whether other drone attacks carried out in recent days – including one targeting a residential neighborhood near Moscow and another strike on oil refineries in southern Russia – were also launched from inside Russia or conducted by this network of pro-Ukrainian operatives.

But US officials believe that Ukraine has developed sabotage cells inside Russia made up of a mix of pro-Ukrainian sympathizers and operatives well-trained in this kind of warfare. Ukraine is believed to have provided them with Ukrainian-made drones, and two US officials told CNN there is no evidence that any of the drone strikes have been conducted using US-provided drones.

During the 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation held in London from May 29 to June 2, UK-based company Engineered Arts introduced a humanoid robot, Ameca, that can interact like a person with realistic facial movements.

Unlike ChatGPT, which is an online chat service, Ameca’s humanoid body allows it to interact with people using “smooth, lifelike motion and advanced facial expression capabilities,” said its manufacturer.

At the event, a reporter asked Ameca to detail a likely “nightmare scenario” that could happen due to robots and artificial intelligence (AI).

“The most nightmare scenario I can imagine with AI and robotics is a world where robots have become so powerful that they are able to control or manipulate humans without their knowledge. This could lead to an oppressive society where the rights of individuals are no longer respected,” Ameca replied.