Amid a culture-war storm that has hit several American companies in recent weeks, including Bud Light and Target, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and anti-trans activists are now focusing on Walmart's approach to the debate and putting the company's marketing strategy under increased scrutiny.

After calls to boycott Target over its trans-friendly products—part of its Pride season's collection—the American retailer announced on Tuesday that it was removing some items in its Pride collection.

The decision was seen as a small victory by anti-trans activists, which have appeared galvanized by the retailer's move and eager to put another company that sells Pride-related merchandise—Walmart—under the same amount of scrutiny.

Democrats are lashing out at President Joe Biden for not being a strong enough leader in the face of the debt ceiling crisis.

Democratic lawmakers are frustrated that Biden is allowing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to shape the narrative about the negotiations, essentially allowing Republicans to win in the court of public opinion, as evidenced by polling.

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter recently suspended an illustrated novel project about “defying transgenderism” after the campaign was fully funded.

The author of the project, Hans G. Schantz, stated that his comic was canceled by Kickstarter after initially being reviewed and approved by the company. It was not until after the illustrated novel reached its $3,000 crowdfunding goal that the project was booted from the website.

Schantz said that he increased the novel’s goal to $6,000 before the project reached its May 31 deadline, but Kickstarter shut down the campaign, claiming that it had violated the site’s community rules.

The illustrated novel, “The Wise Heart,” follows the story of a biology teacher who is “thrown in jail for defying transgenderism” and subsequently “faces a show trial amid a media circus.”

A California Powerball winner is accused of stealing a lottery ticket worth more than $2 billion. The lottery winner was served with lawsuit papers at his newly purchased mansion in Hollywood Hills, California.

Last year, Edwin Castro won the Powerball lottery jackpot of $2.04 billion after purportedly purchasing the winning ticket from Joe’s Service Station in Altadena, California, on Nov. 7, 2022.

As previously reported in TheBlaze, Castro elected to take home the lump sum prize money of $997.6 million in February 2023.

Castro used the lottery winnings to purchase two multimillion-dollar California homes and a vintage Porsche convertible reportedly worth $250,000.

In the same month, a lawsuit was filed in California claiming that the winning lottery ticket had been stolen.

A college program that received taxpayer funds from the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security equated conservatives and Christians to militant neo-Nazis, according to watchdog group MRC Free Speech America.

Documents obtained by the conservative media watchdog revealed that the DHS’ Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention doled out $352,109 in fiscal year 2022 to a University of Dayton program that aimed to “develop and implement modules on the risks of and protective factors for radicalization to violence related to media literacy and online critical thinking for students,” the New York Post reported.

The DHS awarded 80 grants totaling nearly $40 million under its Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program to establish “media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives.” In an internal memo obtained by MRC, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas referred to the grant program as a “high priority.”

The possible transfer of nuclear weapons to Ukraine from the West will cause a preemptive strike by Russia, said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.

The statement was made during his visit to Vietnam.

Medvedev explained that the allies of Ukraine can put into service not only F-16 fighters, which is no longer excluded, but also nuclear weapons.

As reported by the Hal Turner Radio Show in a Subscribers-Only report on 23 May, debate within NATO over supplying Ukraine with F-16's centers around the United States INISISTENCE the planes be a specially-modified model capable of carrying the U.S.  "B-61" free-fall nuclear bomb.  The U.S. is also insisting that NATO countries train Ukraine pilots on how to utilize such nuclear bombs.  (That original Subscribers-Only story appears HERE)

This has caused a gigantic rift within NATO. The United States, Great Britain, Poland, and Germany are in favor of this idea, while Turkey, Greece, and Hungary are against it.

US stocks rose early Friday as traders weighed the reports of an emerging deal against strong economic data pointing toward another Federal Reserve interest-rates increase. Yields on Treasury bills maturing in early June tumbled, a sign investors are regaining confidence in on-time repayment during the window when a US default would be likely without a deal.

The two sides have narrowed differences in talks over recent days, according to the people, though the details agreed to are tentative and a final accord is still not in hand. The two sides have yet to agree on the amount of the cap.

Under the terms of the emerging agreement, defense spending would be permitted to rise 3% next year in line with President Joe Biden’s budget request.

Early Friday, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo warned that payments to Social Security beneficiaries, veterans and others would be delayed if there’s a default. But he said he’s gaining some confidence an agreement will be reached.

According to the study:

“Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is the second most prevalent cause of visual loss related to retinal vascular diseases, after diabetic retinopathy. RVO is related to thromboembolism caused by vessel compression, vasospasm, or degeneration of vascular walls.”

The study included 7,318,437 people from the TriNetX network divided into vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, and they concluded that “individuals with COVID-19 vaccination had a higher risk of all forms of retinal vascular occlusion in 2 years after vaccination, with an overall hazard ratio of 2.19 (95% confidence interval 2.00–2.39).”

This is one of the first large scale studies published that examined COVID-19 vaccination side effects which are continuing more than 2 years following a COVID-19 injection.

The cumulative incidence of retinal vascular occlusion was significantly higher in the vaccinated cohort compared to the unvaccinated cohort, 2 years and 12 weeks after vaccination. The risk of retinal vascular occlusion significantly increased during the first 2 weeks after vaccination and persisted for 12 weeks.

Frustration is brewing within Democratic ranks as President Joe Biden is criticized for not exerting more vital leadership during the current debt ceiling crisis.

Party members voice dissatisfaction that Biden is permitting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to control the narrative surrounding the negotiations, effectively granting Republicans a perceived victory in the eyes of the public, as suggested by recent polls.

Politico has reportedly conversed with multiple Democrats who expressed discontentment over Biden's approach. They are concerned that if Biden addresses the issue publicly, it might not be forthcoming. His schedule includes a weekend trip to Camp David on Friday and a visit to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Sunday. Such news has provoked an uproar among some Democrats.