PROVO, Utah, July 6 (Reuters) – A police officer at the university where prominent conservative U.S. activist Charlie Kirk was killed last year testified on Monday he observed what looked like a “sniper pad” atop the building from which the fatal shot was fired, as prosecutors began laying out their case that a Utah man should stand trial for the crime.

In a packed Provo, Utah courtroom, Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk sat feet away from Tyler Robinson, the man accused of driving four hours from his Utah town of Washington to murder Kirk, 31, on September 10. Members of Robinson’s family also were present. Robinson, wearing a gray jacket, sat between his lawyers, taking notes. 

Donald Trump Jr. was at the preliminary hearing, media reported, and right-wing activist Jack Posobiec was seen entering the courthouse.

During the week-long hearing, state prosecutors must convince District Court Judge Tony Graf that probable cause exists to believe that Robinson, 23, fired the single shot that killed Kirk in front of thousands of people in Orem, Utah.

Kirk was an influential figure credited with energizing many young voters behind Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Kirk was shot while appearing at Utah Valley University, 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, for one of his campus debates that drew crowds and gave him national prominence.

Chris Bagley, who was an officer with the university’s police force on duty the day of the killing, said he saw Kirk shot and described the ensuing chaos.

“He was answering a question, and then I heard a shot fired,” Bagley testified as the first prosecution witness. “Everybody started getting up and starting to run in a sort of chaotic, panic situation.”

Bagley said he saw Kirk slump to the left after the gunshot.

An initial report, which turned out to be mistaken, said a suspect had been taken into custody, Bagley said. 

Bagley said he ran to a campus building from which he believed the shot came, and went up four flights of stairs to the roof. There, Bagley said, he found a screwdriver and markings in gravel, photographs of which were entered into evidence. Bagley also said he saw depressions in the roof’s gravel surface apparently made by elbows, knees and feet.

“To me it looks like a sniper pad,” Bagley said.

Bagley said he later viewed campus police video showing a person on that roof getting into position to shoot Kirk, taking a shot, then running to the northeast side of the building. The person dropped off the roof into grass below and escaped, Bagley said.

In cross examination, Robinson’s lawyer Kathryn Nester asked Bagley about an empty pistol holster the officer saw on the ground in the courtyard area where Kirk was shot. Bagley said the holster was never recovered for evidence, nor checked for fingerprints.

If the judge finds probable cause, Robinson would enter a plea at an arraignment that could take place the same day, and the case would be set for trial at a later date. He faces seven criminal charges including aggravated murder. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty for Robinson, who was studying to be an electrician.

Kirk’s killing, captured in cellphone video that spread widely on social media, is among a series of attacks targeting U.S. political figures in recent years that have fueled debate over political violence in a deeply polarized country. 

He co-founded Turning Point USA when he was 18 in 2012, and the conservative youth organization became an influential force in Republican politics.

Prosecutors are expected to show graphic video of the killing, and Kirk’s family may leave the courtroom when some evidence is presented, according to a person familiar with the situation. 

They also are expected to present video that they allege shows Robinson at the university before and after Kirk was shot.

Prosecutors also plan to offer other evidence they allege links Robinson to the crime, including DNA from the rifle that authorities say was used in the killing, a recorded statement from Robinson’s former roommate and a handwritten message reading, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I took it.”

Lawyers for Robinson are likely to highlight ballistics testing that proved inconclusive in matching a bullet fragment removed from Kirk’s body with the alleged murder weapon.

Robinson surrendered to police after his parents saw images of the gunman and confronted him, according to court filings. 

Erika Kirk, who took over Turning Point USA after Kirk’s death, was in the courtroom. Kirk’s parents Kathryn and Robert were seen entering the courthouse before the hearing.

“Charlie was a beloved husband, son, brother, friend and father. Every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death and the loss that has irrevocably impacted our lives and the lives of his children,” Kirk’s parents, wife and sister said in a statement on Monday.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; editing by Donna Bryson, Cynthia Osterman and David Gregorio)

None of the zombies seemed to notice, or even looked at us

Kerr Krissa played his college basketball at each Kentucky, Cincinnati, West Virginia and Arizona

'The matter is especially sensitive'

The semi-truck driver charged with killing a Pennsylvania State Trooper last week is a Haitian illegal alien who was flown into the United States under […]

Source

While the president spoke proudly about the country and its values, Mamdani focused on criticizing America and outlining his vision for transforming it.

The seemingly peaceful offer was snatched back rather quickly

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, a Texas lawmaker is calling on the Legislature to convene a special session to combat birth tourism.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that birthright citizenship may remain in place, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

The following day, Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison, sent a letter urging the Texas Legislature to convene an immediate special session to protect Texans from “birth tourism.”

In his letter, Harrison called for legislation making it a felony to operate or participate in birth tourism within Texas, expanding the criminal offense of illegal entry to include entering the state for the purpose of birth tourism, and granting the Texas attorney general authority to investigate and prosecute birth tourism cases.

Harrison is also urging lawmakers to adopt a resolution formally condemning the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision and another resolution calling on Congress to take action on birthright citizenship.

Harrison’s letter comes as reports have surfaced that U.S. hospitals have advertised “birth packages” costing up to $5,000 for foreign nationals seeking to give birth in border states such as Texas. 

One advertisement for Mission Regional Medical Center appeared on a highway billboard. Written in both English and Spanish, it directed expectant mothers to call a phone number or visit a website for information about giving birth in South Texas.

According to the billboard, a natural birth cost $3,950, while a cesarean section cost $5,525.

When visiting the website, havemybabyinTexas.com, visitors were initially greeted with a Spanish-language homepage featuring testimonials and information about two Texas hospitals that offer childbirth services: Mission Regional Medical Center and Knapp Medical Center—both located in South Texas near the border.

After images of the billboard circulated on social media and prompted backlash, the website appears to have been taken offline.

Harrison also pointed to Texas Department of State Health Services policies regarding birth certificates. 

According to the agency, a foreigner may use certain forms of identification, including an El Salvadoran consular certification, El Salvadoran Unique Identity Card, Honduran consular certification, or a Mexican voter registration card when applying for a Texas birth certificate.

The department’s website also states that an immediate family member—including a sibling, grandparent, or spouse—may request a birth certificate under certain circumstances, rather than only the child’s mother or father.

Harrison’s proposal has drawn support from members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Chip Roy who wrote on X, “Texas should do this—and more.”

Harrison said Texas should act despite the Supreme Court’s decision and pressure the federal government to address birth tourism and birthright citizenship.

“After yesterday’s Supreme Court decision, Texans deserve action, not just rhetoric, from their state leaders. Texas must start acting like the sovereign state it is and stop taking it on the chin when actions from D.C. threaten to destroy the very fabric of our republic,” Harrison said. 

“Texas must not simply act like a powerless bystander but take bold and decisive action to protect liberty for future generations. I am publicly demanding an immediate special session to combat the harms from mass birth tourism, pressure the federal government to fix birth tourism, and to protect the value of citizenship that countless paid the ultimate price for.

“I hope every elected Republican in Texas joins my call for immediate action. Delay is unacceptable for a state like Texas,” his letter concluded.

Global weather patterns have begun to resemble a Hollywood disaster movie, and the mainstream media is starting to admit what many of us have known all along. Thanks to the “Super El Niño” that is now upon us, the second half of this year is going to be really crazy. Europe was just hit by the worst heatwave that it has ever experienced. Throughout all of last week, I was writing about the “mega heat dome” that brought unprecedented temperatures to many areas of the east coast. As I write this article, an absolutely colossal storm is causing apocalyptic damage in the Pacific Ocean, and a severe lack of rainfall threatens to cause a horrifying shortage of rice in India. It is often the case that the mainstream media needlessly freaks out about things, but in this case they are right on target.

I wish that I was exaggerating about the power of this Super El Niño, but I am not.

Every El Niño brings higher temperatures, but this one is really baking us…

We’re officially in an El Niño year, and as predicted, it’s a scorcher.

Record temperatures are already being recorded around the world, from the streets of New York to the icy shelves of the Antarctic. Even the surface waters of the world’s waterways are under unprecedented stress from the heat, with the average global ocean temperature breaking the all-time record high for the month of June.

We are less than a month into this El Niño.

How bad will conditions be once we get a few months down the road?

Even CNN is calling it “a Super El Niño”, and they are openly warning that “computer models are predicting this El Niño could be stronger than any other event”…

El Niño is poised to rapidly strengthen in the tropical Pacific Ocean during the next few months and is forecast to reach the upper echelon of intensity by the time it peaks in late fall to early winter, forecasters warn.

It’s already being referred to colloquially as a Super El Niño. Only a handful of events have reached that level of intensity in the last few decades, with the most recent one occurring in 2015 to 2016.

But now some computer models are predicting this El Niño could be stronger than any other event, back to at least 1950. “I think it’s fair to say that, depending on [the] model, the forecasts are close to unprecedented,” said Michael Tippett, an atmospheric scientist at Columbia University, in an email.

CNN is not supposed to run articles like this.

But they just did.

One expert that CNN interviewed explained that the projections for the intensity of this El Niño have been getting higher each month…

“The consensus is definitely shifting towards an even stronger event,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist who is closely following El Niño model projections.

“The model runs have been consistently showing higher probabilities for a very strong event compared to a few months ago, and every month sees higher estimates,” he said. “Currently, the odds of seeing a record-strong El Niño event this year are quite large.”

It has become clear that this El Niño is going to dwarf any El Niño that has come before.

It is even going to surpass the Super El Niño of 1877-1878 that resulted in 50 million people starving to death.

India always receives less rain during an El Niño, and rainfall in many key rice producing areas is already way below normal…

The warning comes during India’s kharif planting season, when crops such as rice and maize depend heavily on the southwest monsoon. El Niño can weaken the summer monsoon across much of India, putting rainfed crops under stress during a critical growing period, the FAO said.

Between June 1 and 22, half of India had received deficient rainfall (-20% to -59% below the expected normal), while nearly a quarter had recorded large deficient rainfall (-60% to -99% less than the expected normal), according to the categories used by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The FAO analysis, based on 41 years of satellite data from its Agricultural Stress Index System, identifies a broad belt of elevated drought risk across Asia — from Pakistan and India through Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and further east to the Philippines, Indonesia and Timor-Leste.

The world is not going to grow enough rice this year.

In fact, the amount of rice grown won’t even be close to enough to feed everyone.

That is very troubling news, because more than half of the population of the world is heavily dependent on rice…

Over half the world’s population relies on rice. India and China grow more than half of the world’s supply, and rice supplies more than half of all daily calories in countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Poorer households spend the largest share of income on food, so price spikes hit them first and hardest. In 2007-08, rice prices roughly tripled, food riots broke out in dozens of countries, and in Haiti, the unrest helped bring down the prime minister. Securing rice is about more than food – it underpins public order.

During this “Super El Niño”, some parts of the planet will experience drought, while others will get hammered by absolutely gigantic storms.

Just hours ago, a monstrous “super typhoon” with frighteningly high winds absolutely pummeled the island of Rota…

A “super typhoon” with equivalent force to a category-5 hurricane made landfall on the U.S. island of Rota in the Pacific on Monday, the National Weather Service said, warning of “catastrophic damage and (a) life threatening situation.”

“The western eyewall of Super Typhoon Bavi is currently moving over the island of Rota. The latest forecast intensity is at 180 mph (290 kph) as it passes over Rota,” the NWS said. “Catastrophic winds exceeding 150 mph will continue across Rota during eyewall passage.”

The weather system also brought extremely strong winds and lashing rain to other parts of the Northern Marianas and the nearby separate U.S. territory of Guam, collectively home to around 210,000 people.

Nearly every structure on Rota has been flattened.

According to the National Weather service, the island will be “uninhabitable for weeks”…

Before the NWS had said that a direct hit on Rota would make most of the island “uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. Many non-concrete, non-reinforced homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse.”

“Nearly all trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months,” it said.

How would you like to be without power for months?

Now Super Typhoon Bavi is headed for Taiwan and China…

Bavi is expected to produce destructive wind gusts around Taiwan and across eastern China from Friday into Monday. Wind gusts up to 160 mph (260 km/h), with an AccuWeather Local StormMax of 200 mph (320 km/h), are anticipated and will result in power outages, structural damage and logistical delays.

The super typhoon is expected to maintain its intensity or strengthen slightly as it tracks west-northwest through at least Thursday, July 9, local time. Bavi is expected to impact Taiwan and eastern China from Friday into Monday.

More giant storms are coming as 2026 rolls along.

You can count on that.

Meanwhile, the weather has been so hot and so dry in Europe, and this has produced ideal conditions for huge wildfires to erupt…

Thousands of people were evacuated in southern France on Monday as ‘catastrophic’ wildfires ravaged the region, while poisonous clouds swept through Greece and Costa Brava in Spain was put on alert.

It comes as temperatures across Europe are on the rise again, predicted to reach 40C in parts still suffering the aftermath of a recent record-breaking heatwave.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling blazes that have devastated more than 19,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land – an area more than twice the size of Manhattan – across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece.

This is no ordinary heatwave.

Week after week, Europe is getting absolutely cooked, and a lot of people are dying. For example, just check out what has been happening in the Netherlands…

More than 3,500 people died in the Netherlands during last week’s extreme heat, according to provisional mortality figures from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The number is about 16 percent higher than what was expected, based on seasonal trends.

RIVM said there were around 480 excess deaths compared with expected levels, with most fatalities among people aged 80 and older. Proportionally, the highest impact was seen in the east and south of the Netherlands, where temperatures were highest during the heat period.

The RIVM noted that the figures are not yet complete, as it can take several weeks for deaths to be officially registered.

Of course people have been dying from the heat in the U.S. as well.

At this point, we are being told that at least 25 residents of New Jersey have died as a result of heat exposure just since Thursday…

At least 25 people died in New Jersey since Thursday amid a sweltering heat wave.

Temperatures soared into the triple digits over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in New Jersey, New York, DC and other East Coast states.

Power outages in New Jersey and New York reportedly affected 1 million customers.

According to officials, many of the deceased were found in their homes with no air conditioning.

After experiencing an extremely hot weekend, now the east coast is facing the threat of severe flash flooding…

A life-threatening flash flood threat is increasing for nearly 60 million people across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and southern New England, with more rounds of heavy rain expected to soak the region through Monday night.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms from this weekend saturated the soil across the region, creating prime conditions for flash flooding Monday, particularly in the New York City metro area.

All over the world, this “Super El Niño” is going to produce monster storms, extreme heat and severe drought in 2026.

We were already experiencing a worldwide food crisis before this “Super El Niño” came along, and so there is no way that we are going to avoid very serious global food shortages.

In fact, the number of people on our planet that are experiencing acute hunger was already at an all-time record high before the war with Iran started.

What we are facing is not a theoretical disaster that may or may not happen someday.

It is happening right now.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and we are going to witness so much chaos in the months ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post The Mainstream Media Freaks Out As This “Super El Niño” Causes Unprecedented Heat, Monster Storms And Catastrophic Damage All Over The Globe appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

'Red card is a red card is a red card'

Platner denies the allegations

U.S. — A study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Monday revealed that exactly 92% of a husband's time is spent waiting for his wife.

Early in my career, I managed money for a federal judge. She couldn’t hold a single stock. No individual securities, no sector bets, no company-specific exposure of any kind. Any ruling touching a publicly traded company had to be beyond reproach. The appearance of a conflict was enough. She accepted that as a condition of public service.

Members of Congress don’t.

They write laws governing entire industries, receive classified briefings about policy decisions before they’re public, and sit on committees with direct oversight authority over the sectors they’re trading. Most of them keep trading. This is a structural feature of an ethics framework designed by the people it was supposed to constrain.

Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution grants each chamber the power to “determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.” Congress has never lacked the authority to police itself; it has lacked the will.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, known as the STOCK Act, applied insider-trading prohibitions to members of Congress and required disclosure of trades over $1,000 within 30 days of the transaction. The civil penalty for a late filing is $200. No member has ever been prosecuted. A decade of violations, and the deterrent is indistinguishable from zero.

I’ve spent 30 years in institutional investment management and testified as an expert witness in securities and fiduciary litigation. The framework for evaluating an insider trade is clear: material nonpublic information, a fiduciary relationship, and a trade that benefits from the combination. Every CEO, board member, and portfolio manager who touches that combination faces SEC enforcement, potential criminal referral, and civil liability.

Congress gave itself a disclosure form with a $200 fine.

In January 2026, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil introduced the Stop Insider Trading Act, which would ban members, spouses, and dependent children from purchasing publicly traded stocks and require seven to 14 days of public notice before any sale. Violations carry a fine of $2,000 or 10% of the transaction value, whichever is greater, plus disgorgement of any gain.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., introduced a Senate companion in March. President Donald Trump called for passage in his State of the Union address, receiving a standing ovation that was, by some accounts, genuinely bipartisan.

The first quarter of 2026 came and went without a floor vote. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., promised a vote, filed a discharge petition that gathered 82 signatures, and kept pressing. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, noted that time was ticking. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., noted other priorities.

A December 2025 Common Cause study found members executed 13,324 trades totaling $635.6 million in 2025 alone. The institution being asked to ban stock trading is populated by people who are actively trading.

The case of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is worth tracing in detail. At the end of 2023, Omar’s household assets stood at roughly $51,000. Her 2024 disclosure reported that her husband Tim Mynett’s stake in his venture capital firm, Rose Lake Capital, had jumped from under $1,000 to between $5 million and $25 million. His California winery, eStCru, appeared at $1 million to $5 million. Total reported household assets: between $6 million and $30 million—a 3,500% increase in a single year.

In February 2025, before filing any amendment, Omar posted on X that claims of her millionaire status were “categorically false” and “ridiculous,” and challenged followers to check her public financial statements. Those same public statements still showed the $30 million range. She denied being a millionaire even as her active disclosure said otherwise.

In March 2025, she filed an amended disclosure cutting household assets to between $18,004 and $95,000 and attributing the original figures to “an accounting error.” But the amended filing still listed Mynett as having received between $100,000 and $1 million in income from Rose Lake Capital—the same firm whose ownership stake was simultaneously valued at zero.

Paul Kamenar of the National Legal and Policy Center, which filed a formal ethics complaint against Omar, put it plainly: “She can’t keep her story straight.”

The 2025 disclosure, filed in May, dropped further still—total assets between $20,000 and $125,000, net worth potentially negative. Meanwhile, Mynett’s own accountants, in a 2025 email reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, valued his businesses at a combined $9.4 million. The House Oversight Committee has opened a formal probe.

The broader point isn’t about Omar specifically. It’s about what happens when the penalty for a late disclosure is $200, no member has ever been criminally charged under the STOCK Act, and the Ethics Committee’s track record on self-policing is closer to a compliance formality than an enforcement mechanism.

The bipartisan standing ovation at the State of the Union was an accurate read of public sentiment. 86% of Americans across party lines support prohibiting members from trading individual stocks. The bill is stalled not because the public doesn’t want it but because the institution that would pass it has a financial stake in not passing it. That’s a structural conflict of interest—the same kind the bill is designed to eliminate.

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to fix this. Article V gives citizens the authority to fix Congress when it won’t. Twenty states have passed Convention of States resolutions. If the Stop Insider Trading Act doesn’t reach a floor vote this Congress, that failure becomes one more entry in the case for why citizens need a mechanism to bypass the legislature entirely.

The rules don’t apply when you write the rules. The Founders understood that. Article I, Section 5 gave each chamber the power to punish its own members rather than trusting the other branches to do it. They assumed Congress would use that power. The assumption has aged poorly.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

'Bonta argues a Glock is not even an arm'

When celebrities or high-profile individuals split up, it can have unexpectedly impactful results on people who have never met them. This emotional reaction can spark an unexpected amount of conversation and broader discourse around the incident, with the couple’s falling-out becoming part of the national conversation. It isn’t difficult to see why high-profile separations, custody […]