International
Hawley: Whistleblowers say Trump’s security detail was unprepared, inexperienced

From The Center Square
Senate committee holding bipartisan investigation, hearing
Multiple whistleblowers have come forward telling U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that many working as part of former President Donald Trump’s security detail at a rally in Pennsylvania one week ago weren’t Secret Service and were “unprepared and inexperienced personnel,” Hawley says.
The accusation comes after the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, on which Hawley sits, announced it will conduct a bipartisan investigation into the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump.
Multiple whistleblowers contacted his office “with disturbing new information behind the assassination attempt on the former president,” he said.
They did so after Hawley opened a whistleblower tip line, pledging to protect the anonymity of everyone who contacts his office. Whistleblowers are encouraged to make protected disclosures by calling (202) 224-6154 or emailing [email protected].
In response to the information he has received so far, Hawley contacted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the U.S. Secret Service, demanding answers.
“Whistleblowers who have direct knowledge of the event have approached my office. According to the allegations, the July 13 rally was considered to be a ‘loose’ security event,” he wrote to Mayorkas.
“Whistleblower allegations suggest the majority of DHS officials were not in fact USSS agents but instead drawn from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations. This is especially concerning given that HSI agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events, according to the allegations.”
Other security failures identified, he says, include not using canine units to monitor entry and detect threats among the perimeter or crowd; unauthorized individuals accessing the backstage areas; and DHS personnel not “appropriately polic[ing] the security buffer around the podium and … not stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter.”
Hawley demanded answers after DHS “has not been appropriately forthcoming with members of Congress,” he said, and after he called on the committee’s chair, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., to immediately launch an investigation.
“Although we still do not have all the facts, the little that we do know suggests a staggering security failure,” he wrote to Peters. “Evidently, the shooter was able to gain an elevated position on a rooftop with a clear line of sight of the President, well within accurate range, with a firearm. The details of this tragedy must be vigorously investigated by Congress, including the motive of the shooter, and the serious operational failures that occurred on July 13.” Hawley called on Peters to “launch a full, public, and comprehensive committee investigation into this assassination attempt and failures to adequately protect the former president,” including calling Mayorkas and Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify.
Peters and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, the ranking member of the committee, announced the committee will conduct a bipartisan investigation and hold a hearing. They first requested an urgent briefing with the Secret Service, DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A call committee members did have, Hawley says, was ended before they could ask a single question. “This is completely unacceptable and contrary to the public’s interest in transparency,” he added.
Peters said the committee “is focused on getting all of the facts about the security failures that allowed the attacker to carry out this heinous act of violence that threatened the life of former President Trump, killed at least one person in the crowd, and injured several others.”
Peters and Paul also sent letters to Mayorkas and to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting a range of documents and information on security process, among other information. A briefing was requested before July 25 and a public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 1.
Hawley is also demanding answers from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink requesting all records related to the assassination attempt after it became public that the alleged shooter appeared in one of BlackRock’s commercials.
What appears to be a clip of the commercial “has circulated widely on social media and raised the question about what your company knows about the shooter,” Hawley told Fink.
Fink is requested to provide the information by July 24.
When accepting his party’s nomination for president, Trump said at the Republican National Convention last week that surviving the assassination attempt was “a gift from God.” At a rally on Saturday, one week after the shooting, he said he “took a bullet for democracy.”
Honest reporting on election integrity
International
Poland’s president signs new zero income tax law for parents with two children

From LifeSiteNews
Polish president Karol Nawrocki presented the new law as a way to help families financially and encourage a higher birth rate.
Poland’s president has signed into law the cancellation of personal income tax for parents who are raising two or more children, in an effort to support and encourage families and boost the economy.
The newly enacted bill removes the income tax obligation for families earning up to 140,000 zloty (€32,973, or $38,486) a year. The average Polish family is expected to keep in pocket an extra 1,000 zloty (€235 or $274) per month as a result of the tax break.
Polish president Karol Nawrocki, who was sworn into office in August, presented the bill before it was approved by Parliament as a means to financially help families as well as encourage a sustainable birth rate in a country suffering, like most others, from birth rate decline.
“Financial resources must be found for Polish families,” said Nawrocki while presenting the bill. He highlighted the fact that Poland is suffering from a birth rate crisis. Last year, the number of births in Poland fell to a new low. Poland’s birth rate is one of the lowest in the world, at 1.1 by 2024, far below replacement rate. Only eight countries have a birth rate lower than Poland’s according to the Population Reference Bureau.
Public consultations about the law before its passage found that the tax break is very popular among Poles. About 76 percent of respondents said the law was “definitely needed,” and only 16 percent were strongly opposed to the bill, EuroNews reported.
Demography experts such as data analyst Stephen Shaw, the creator of the documentary “Birthgap,” are skeptical about whether economic incentives can reverse the trend of population decline. He has noted that even the Roman Empire, in its later stages, enacted policies aimed at increasing birth rates, including taxing the childless.
According to Shaw, “No society in history has been known to come out of” the “spiral” of population decline.
In his film “Birthgap,” he has documented how declining birth rates in the U.S. and around the world are being driven by an “explosion” in childlessness as opposed to smaller family sizes.
International
Australian territory bans men from women’s prisons in national first

From LifeSiteNews
Australia’s Northern Territory has become the first in the country to ban men claiming to be women from female prisons, after a woman was reportedly sexual assaulted by a man while incarcerated.
Australia’s Northern Territory has banned gender-confused men from women’s prisons, after women were assaulted by men while being incarcerated.
On October 13, Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro announced new policies to keep men claiming to be women out of female prisons, becoming the first territory in Australia to protect women from predatory males in jails.
“There should be no men in women’s prisons, full stop,” Finocchiaro told The Australian. “I can tell you now, here in the Northern Territory there are no blokes in women’s jails and we’re not having that here, not on my watch.”
“If you’re born a bloke, you go into a men’s prison. At the end of the day, this is really about women’s safety. It’s about women’s dignity,” she continued.
The announcement came just a few days after a female inmate revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a man pretending to be a woman while being incarcerated at an Australian prison.
Finocchiaro condemned Australia’s current polices for failing to protect women, saying, “women need to be protected, both in and outside of jail. This is not rocket science, and some people have forgotten why they’re there, and some people have made life far more complicated than it needs to be.”
“This is about people’s fundamental right to be safe. And it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that,” she continued, condemning the Labour government’s decision to prioritize “woke” ideology over women’s safety.
“It’s just absurd to think that people would be putting men equipped with male genitalia in women’s prisons,” Finocchiaro declared.
Additionally, in September, a convicted male child pedophile was placed in a female prison after claiming he was “transgender.” These two cases sparked outrage across the country as advocates called for further protections for women.
Following these two cases, the Women’s Forum Australia appealed to state premiers and territory leaders as well as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to protect female inmates from dangerous men pretending to be female.
Women’s Forum Australia CEO Rachael Wong celebrated Finocchiaro’s new policy in a post on X, writing, “NT Chief Minister @LiaFinocchiaro showing the rest of Australia’s leaders how it’s done!”
Wong condemned Australia mainstream prison policy for perpetuating “a national pattern of state-sanctioned injustice and abuse, whereby male offenders are being permitted to enter women’s prisons under the guise of gender identity.”
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