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Sierra Club Power Struggle Ends in Leadership Collapse

"Climate Justice Now" Sign (Markus Spiske/Unsplash)

The Sierra Club’s leadership crisis has boiled over, ending with the board’s unanimous vote to fire Executive Director Ben Jealous for cause after what members described as leadership collapse. The environmental group confirmed Monday that the board “has unanimously voted to terminate Mr. Jealous’ employment with the Sierra Club for cause following extensive evaluation of his conduct.” Board president Patrick Murphy said the move was “a difficult but principled decision to uphold our values and commitment to accountability.”

Jealous, a prominent progressive activist, had been placed on leave last month following demands from local chapters for a no-confidence vote. His tenure was marked by multiple rounds of layoffs, open feuds with staff, and strategic controversies. Union president Erica Dodt praised the board’s decision, saying, “Over a year ago, our union members overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Jealous’ leadership, citing his mismanagement of our organization’s strategy and budget and his ongoing attacks on our union.”

Jealous has faced past criticism for political inconsistencies, including giving contradictory answers to Jewish and Muslim voters on the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement during his failed 2018 Maryland gubernatorial run. His campaign also contacted a lobbyist convicted of fraud, despite pledging to avoid such individuals.

In response to his firing, Jealous told the New York Times, “It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support. I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail.”

Toronto Film Festival Caves to Anti-Israel Pressure, Scraps October 7 Doc

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Ariel Schalit (2017), Mideast Wars. Associated Press.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has ignited outrage after canceling a Canadian documentary on Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, in what critics call an act of Hamas censorship. The film, The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, follows retired Israel Defense Forces general Noam Tibon as he rescues his family and others during the massacre. It includes video Hamas terrorists recorded themselves—footage the festival demanded be altered before screening.

TIFF claimed it pulled the documentary because the filmmakers failed to meet “general requirements, including legal clearance of all footage.” But Deadline reports the real reason may be fears over “potential risks of disruptive protests” from anti-Israel demonstrators. The Canadian Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs condemned the move, saying, “It is inconceivable that TIFF allows a small group of extremists—using intimidation and threats of violence—to dictate which films Canadians can see at the festival.”

Sources say the festival made escalating demands, including proof of indemnification, legal letters, insurance certificates, and a third pre-screening just weeks before the event. When the filmmakers refused to withdraw voluntarily, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey canceled the screening outright. Tibon blasted the explanation as “absurd and bizarre” and warned that such actions “constitute further harms to the victims” of Hamas.

Calling the decision a moral failure, Tibon declared, “The Toronto Film Festival has succumbed to pressure and threats, and has chosen to silence and erase October 7. My message to the festival management: The truth cannot be erased. The atrocities committed by Hamas cannot be erased or denied.”

Radical From Anti-Israel Extremist Group Plants Incendiary Devices in Boston

Boston Marathon
(Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)

Anti-Israel terror unfolded in Boston, where 25-year-old anti-Israel extremist Jermaiah Yusuf Sawaqed allegedly planted homemade explosive devices in the Boston Common and vandalized multiple landmarks with pro-Hamas graffiti. Police say Sawaqed is a member of the newly formed Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation (DAMPL), a group that “explicitly rejects peaceful protest, instead endorsing violent resistance and sabotage” while pledging support for Hamas.

Investigators accuse Sawaqed of defacing the Massachusetts State House, the George Washington statue, and an MIT research lab with slogans such as “Death to the IOF” and the Hamas triangle symbol. After the July State House vandalism, police say he fled through the Boston Common, leaving behind two “homemade improvised explosive devices” constructed from toilet paper rolls with attached fuses. DAMPL later posted a video claiming responsibility, boasting that it had targeted the State House with “paint mixed with feces” and lit homemade flares on its gates.

Authorities seized flyers, anti-Israel propaganda, gasoline cans, and a commercial-grade firework modified to resemble the same devices found at the scene. The arrest comes amid a surge of anti-Semitic violence nationwide, including the May killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and a fatal Molotov cocktail attack on a Jewish woman in Colorado.

Police reports warn DAMPL has “raised significant public safety concerns,” citing its violent rhetoric such as “Intifada until liberation” and “Palestine or we scorch the earth.”

Famine Fraud: U.N.-Linked Group Lowers the Threshold for “Famine” in Gaza

EREZ WEST CROSSING, ISRAEL - NOVEMBER 11: Trucks carrying humanitarian aid cross into the Gaza Strip on November 11, 2024 in Erez West Crossing, Israel. Last month, the UN's Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Joyce Msuya, said that Israel had blocked food aid from entering northern Gaza between October 2-15. According to the UN, more than 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing "extremely critical" levels of hunger. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a U.N.-affiliated watchdog, altered its methodology in July to make it easier to declare famine in Gaza. This change has fueled accusations of political bias and manipulation, with critics warning that the move undermines the credibility of humanitarian reporting. The famine fraud controversy centers on the IPC’s decision to replace its longstanding 30% malnutrition threshold—based on detailed weight and height measurements—with a looser 15% threshold measured by mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), a far less precise method.

Historically, the IPC has declared famine only when 30% of children in a region suffer acute malnutrition confirmed by weight-for-height data. The July Gaza report, however, used MUAC to claim famine-level conditions in Gaza City at 16.5%, while Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis measured below 8%. One veteran aid worker told the Washington Free Beacon it’s “like lowering the bar or making it more possible, essentially, to declare whatever it is that they’re going to declare.”

The IPC’s decision drew further scrutiny because much of its data comes from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry and affiliated organizations with alleged terror ties. Critics say such sources are not independently verifiable, yet their claims are presented as fact in global media outlets. Richard Goldberg, a former White House and National Security Council official, said, “There is no famine in Gaza—the data thresholds don’t support that claim—and yet we have the United Nations changing the rules to fit the desired political outcome.”

Democrat Admits Family Members are ‘Undocumented’

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) admitted that several members of her family remain “undocumented” in the United States.

“DISGUSTING. If there was any doubt that the Congresswoman from Illinois is fighting for illegal aliens over her ACTUAL constituents, here she is proudly claiming that her family is ‘undocumented,'” ICE wrote on social media, sharing a clip of Ramirez’s statement. “Sanctuary politicians should be thanking law enforcement for removing criminal illegal aliens from their communities.”

The congresswoman’s comment came just days after she described ICE as a “terrorist organization.”

“Well, Tom Homan, let me tell you, all over the country,” she said. “We will continue to stand up for our rights, and we will continue to call out the terrorist organization that is ICE.”

Earlier this month, Ramirez declared that she is a “proud Guatemalan before I’m an American” during an event in Mexico City.

Ramirez defended her comment in a release from her office, where she asserted the criticisms were a “weak attempt to silence my dissent and invalidate my patriotic criticism of the nativist, white supremacist, authoritarians in government. It is the definition of hypocrisy that members of Congress —who betray their oath each day they enable Trump— are attacking me for celebrating my Guatemalan-American roots.”

“Honoring my Guatemalan ancestry only strengthens my commitment to America. That is the truth I carry with me always. And it is a truth that many Americans carry with them,” her statement added. “Anyone who denies our claim on this country simply because we dare to honor our diverse heritage and immigrant roots only exposes how fragile and small-minded their own idea of America really is.”

$5 Million Reward Placed on Haitian Gang Leader ‘Barbecue’

Haiti (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

President Trump’s Department of Justice announced an indictment for Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as “Barbecue,” and Bazile Richardson, of a conspiracy to transfer funds from the United States to Cherizier to fund gang-related activities.

Since Cherizier’s Specially Designated National (SDN) label, he and Richardson have “led a wide-ranging conspiracy” to raise funds for the gang, the DOJ said, including soliciting money transfers from the Haitian diaspora across the U.S.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Cherizier’s arrest or conviction.

“There’s a good reason that there’s a $5 million reward for information leading to Cherizier’s arrest. He’s a gang leader responsible for heinous human rights abuses, including violence against American citizens in Haiti,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

“The U.S. government sanctioned Cherizier in 2020 because he was responsible for an ongoing campaign of violence, including the 2018 La Saline massacre, in which 71 people were killed, more than 400 houses were destroyed, and at least seven women raped by armed gangs,” Pirro explained. “The U.S. Attorney’s office is committed to apprehending Cherizier and bringing him to justice, along with individuals like defendant Richardson, who has sent money and other support to Cherizier from the United States in violation of U.S. sanctions. Our office is committed to keeping Americans safe anywhere in the world, and the gang violence that has ravaged Haiti must end.”

In 2024, the increase in gang-related violence in Haiti led to U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) airlifting non-essential personnel from the U.S. Embassy. “The increase in gang violence in neighborhoods near the U.S. embassy and airport has led the State Department to decide to proceed with the departure of additional agents,” a U.S. spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the time.

Trump Threatens Russia with ‘Severe Consequences’ if Ukraine Conflict Continues

(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump threatened “very severe consequences” for Russia if President Vladimir Putin fails to reach a peace deal in Ukraine.

“There will be consequences,” Trump told reporters. “I don’t have to say. There will be very severe consequences.”

“I’ll tell you what. I’ve had that conversation with him. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building, and people are laying dead in the streets,” Trump said. “So, I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation. I want to end the war. It’s Biden’s war, but I want to end it. I’ll be very proud to end this war, along with the five other wars I ended. But, I guess the answer to that is probably no.”

President Trump’s comments come ahead of his meeting with Putin, scheduled to be held in Alaska on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

“If the first one goes OK, we’ll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately,” Trump said, as per The Hill. “I think the second meeting – if the second meeting takes place. Now there may be no second meeting, because if I feel it’s not appropriate to have it because I didn’t get the answers that we have to have, then we’re not going to have a second meeting.”

In a recent interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Vice President JD Vance said the “very simple” expectation is that the talks will center on a settlement tied to the current front lines, aimed at stopping the conflict and saving lives.

Harmeet Dhillon Nearly Robbed by Homeless Man

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, said she was nearly robbed by a “malodorous” individual in Washington, D.C.

“A malodorous homeless person attempted to swipe my phone today while I was walking in DC back to the DOJ from an appointment — but he was not in his right mind and I artfully dodged the attempt,” she declared on social media. “It’ll be a while till things feel safe in this city, so everyone stay alert!”

“For those asking, I’m ok, nothing happened. I was faster than the homeless guy,” she wrote in a subsequent post. “It was next to the NY Ave Presbyterian Church. Several other homeless and mentally fragile people around. Close to the WH and tourist stuff.”

This week, President Trump issued an executive order to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C.

“Washington, District of Columbia, is our Nation’s capital and home to the central institutions of American governance. Yet rising violence in the capital now urgently endangers public servants, citizens, and tourists, disrupts safe and secure transportation and the proper functioning of the Federal Government, and forces the diversion of critical public resources toward emergency response and security measures,” the Monday order read.

“These conditions cannot persist,” Trump’s order added. “We will make the District of Columbia one of the safest cities in the world, not the most dangerous.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was robbed in Washington, D.C., earlier this year while dining at a restaurant. The suspect was later identified as an illegal immigrant.

Children Protected as Court Upholds State’s Ban on Gender Changes

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Transgender flag (ev/Unsplash)

A federal appeals court ruled that laws prohibiting child sex change surgeries do not violate parental rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled 8-2 that Arkansas’ Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act (SAFE) can take effect.

“The question is whether this Nation’s history and tradition, as well as its historical understanding of ordered liberty, support the right of a parent to obtain for his or her child a medical treatment that, although the child desires it and a doctor approves, the state legislature deems inappropriate for minors,” the majority wrote. “This court finds no such right in this Nation’s history and tradition.”

“Given the two parallel currents in this Nation’s history and tradition—first, states can prohibit medical treatments for adults and children, and second, parents cannot automatically exempt their children from regulations—this court does not find a deeply rooted right of parents to exempt their children from regulations reasonably prohibiting gender transition procedures,” the court added.

“This is a win for common sense – and for our kids,” Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) said of the ruling. “Arkansas’ first-in-the nation law to protect kids from life-altering gender experiments is back in effect!”

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin also celebrated the ruling. “The Eighth Circuit held that Arkansas’s SAFE Act is constitutional. That law prohibits healthcare providers from performing gender-transition surgeries on minors or providing them puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones,” he said. “I applaud the court’s decision recognizing that Arkansas has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological health of children and am pleased that children in Arkansas will be protected from risky, experimental procedures with lifelong consequences.”

The ruling comes days after a similar ruling had been made in Oklahoma. Citing the Supreme Court’s June decision in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld a related law in Tennessee, Circuit Judge Joel M. Carson ruled that Oklahoma’s law is legally sound and “functionally indistinguishable” from the Tennessee statute. The court found the state has an appropriate basis for regulating gender transition procedures to protect minors’ physical and psychological well-being.

Judge Orders UCLA Funding Reinstated

(tommao wang/Unsplash)

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate part of the federal grant funding it recently suspended for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) over civil rights violations and antisemitism concerns.

Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled Tuesday that the administration violated a June preliminary injunction directing the National Science Foundation (NSF) to restore dozens of terminated grants to the University of California system. Lin wrote that the NSF continued to halt funding to UCLA despite the injunction, reclassifying “terminations” as “suspensions” in what she described as an unreasonable interpretation of her order.

“NSF’s actions violate the Preliminary Injunction,” Lin stated in her decision.

According to UCLA, the federal government has frozen $584 million in funding. The university said it is reviewing a settlement proposal from the administration that would require UCLA to pay $1 billion, warning the payment would “devastate” the institution.

The funding freeze follows a series of high-profile controversies. UCLA agreed last month to pay more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit alleging antisemitism and faces another suit over a 2024 mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters. Large demonstrations on campus last year intensified scrutiny from federal authorities.

The Trump administration has reached other settlements with universities accused of similar violations, including Columbia University, which agreed to pay over $220 million, and Brown University, which will pay $50 million over ten years. Negotiations with Harvard are ongoing.

The case, Thakur v. Trump, is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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