Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

A Brazilian legislator last week mocked one of LGBT activists’ core arguments in favor of transgenderism with a simple demonstration during a state assembly session in São Paulo.

Faviana Bolsonaro, a 32-year-old female member of the country’s right-leaning Liberal Party, took the dais on Wednesday to protest the appointment of Erika Hilton, a biological-male transgender activist, to the Chamber of Deputies, equivalent to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Hilton, who is black, is a member of the opposing Socialism and Liberty Party.

A viral video showed that Bolsonaro (who changed her name in solidarity with former conservative president Jair Bolsonaro, no relation) applied blackface during her speech to underscore the point that wishful thinking could not change one’s inherent identity.

“I am a white woman. I’ve had the privileges of a white person my whole life,” she said, according to a translation from the original Portuguese. “Now, at 32, I decide to paint myself, to disguise myself as a black person … and I ask you: did I become black? Do I feel the pain that black people have suffered? … No.”

This post is misleading, not because you must agree with Fabiana Bolsonaro, but because it distorts what she actually said.

Here are her own words, translated as faithfully as possible:

“I am a white woman. I’ve had the privileges of a white person my whole life.”

“Now, at…

— Jose Alfredo 🇧🇷🔺 (@josealfredobh) March 20, 2026

Biographical details are unclear as to when and if Hilton fully transitioned to “female,” although reports suggest that the former sex worker has been living as a woman since at least 2015, when Hilton’s LGBT activism first rose to prominence.

Hilton and another transgender legislator, Duda Salabert, both entered the national parliament following Brazil’s highly controversial 2022 election, the equivalent of the 2020 election in the U.S., in which far-left President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ousted Jair Bolsonaro — known as the “Trump of the Tropics” — under dubious circumstances.

Regardless of the electoral legitimacy, though, Fabiana Bolsonaro argued that Hilton was unfit to lead on women’s issues by virtue of lived experiences — or a lack thereof.

“It doesn’t matter if I paint myself — I don’t know what you went through,” she said.

“That’s why I cannot lead that agenda … because I am not black.”

She added a point that critics of the transgender agenda often seek to make: that many opponents are perfectly willing to respect an individual’s private choice to live a transgender lifestyle, so long as doing so does not intrude upon the rights of others who refuse to indulge it.

“Trans people must be respected. … I don’t want any trans person to suffer discrimination,” Bolsonaro noted.

Dramatic footage circulating on X appears to show a Colombian military Hercules C-130 transport aircraft crashing shortly after takeoff from Puerto Leguízamo in southern Colombia. The cause of the crash remains unknown, and Colombian authorities have not yet released an official casualty count. 

Local outlet Blu Radio reported that 110 Colombian soldiers were on board at the time of the C-130’s straight-out departure from the airport in the remote Amazon border region near Peru.

En un video aficionado quedó captado el momento exacto en el que un avión Hércules de la Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana (FAC) se precipitó a tierra solo instantes después de haber despegado del aeropuerto de Puerto Leguízamo, en el departamento del Putumayo. #VocesySonidos pic.twitter.com/HvbXwwR1cS

— BluRadio Colombia (@BluRadioCo) March 23, 2026

Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said military units had already reached the crash site but noted that “the exact number of victims and the causes of the crash have not yet been determined.”

Sánchez’s translated X post:

Additional footage from the crash area has also surfaced on X.

Atención: Un avión Hércules de la @FuerzaAereaCol se accidentó saliendo de La Tagua, Putumayo. 110 soldados iban a bordo. Ya han sido rescatados 20 militares heridos. Situación en desarrollo. Vía @BluRadioCo pic.twitter.com/Jgb4tw74aP

— Ricardo Ospina (@ricarospina) March 23, 2026

#ATENTOS. Cerca de 100 personas iban a bordo de aeronave siniestrada en zona rural del Putumayo este 23MAR. El hecho fue confirmado por Min/Defensa Pedro Sánchez, quien indicó que el avión transportaba tropas de la Fuerza Pública y que aún se desconocen las causas del siniestro. https://t.co/oVJhzXgiY5 pic.twitter.com/jdhQ1RlAXw

— Colombia Oscura (@ColombiaOscura) March 23, 2026

The Colombian Aerospace Force operates a small Hercules fleet, comprising older C-130B models and newer C-130H variants, with a total inventory estimated at roughly 9 aircraft. The loss of the transport plane represents a meaningful hit to airlift capacity. 

Neither local media nor the government has provided clarity on whether the troops were engaged in a training mission, routine transport, or deployment tied to the escalating border crisis with Ecuador.

The crash comes just one week after Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg deployed 75,000 troops in the South American country to combat drug cartels, while Colombian President Gustavo Petro warned that Ecuador’s campaign was spilling over and that Colombia was being “bombed.” 

🚨¡OPERACIÓN “PODOCARPUS”: DESTRUCCIÓN DE 129 CAMPAMENTOS DE MINERÍA ILEGAL Y AFECTACIÓN ECONÓMICA DE $3 MILLONES A LAS MAFIAS PARA RECUPERAR TOTALMENTE ESTE TERRITORIO!🚨

➡️Con un gran despliegue militar, durante nueve días de operaciones sostenidas en el Parque Nacional… pic.twitter.com/acae76SmhX

— Ministerio de Defensa Nacional del Ecuador (@DefensaEc) March 16, 2026

Latest geopolitical report from the region:

“We’re At War”: Ecuador Deploys 75,000 Troops, Launches Anti-Cartel Missile Strikes; Colombia Warns “We’re Being Bombed”

The absence of evidence so far is foul play, well, at least in the initial reporting. But given rising tensions between Colombia and Ecuador and the broader crisis over the last week, the region warrants close monitoring.

Lawmakers have never met a market they didn’t want to control. And when they can’t do that, they try to crush them – sometimes after taking six-figure donations from competing lobbies. To wit; Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and John Curtis (R-UT), on Monday introduced legislation that would prohibit federally regulated prediction-market platforms from offering wagers on sports events, targeting what they call a regulatory backdoor that has let online betting proliferate beyond state control. Reading between the lines, prediction market betting is clearly a threat to the old guard. 

The bill, titled the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, would bar entities overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission – including leading platforms Kalshi and Polymarket’s U.S. operations – from listing or trading contracts tied to the outcomes of any sporting event or athletic competition. It would also extend the prohibition to “casino-style games” such as slot machines, video poker, blackjack and bingo. The measure marks the first bipartisan Senate legislation aimed squarely at prediction markets’ expansion into sports wagering.

The push comes as the broader U.S. sports-betting industry – legalized nationwide after a landmark 2018 Supreme Court ruling – generated a record handle of roughly $167 billion and gross gaming revenue of about $17 billion in 2025. More than 90% of those bets are placed online or via mobile apps operated by companies such as DraftKings Inc. and Flutter Entertainment Plc.’s FanDuel. Yet prediction markets, which structure wagers as yes-or-no event contracts under CFTC oversight rather than state gambling licenses, have carved out a parallel lane. These platforms, which gained prominence during the 2024 presidential election, now derive a significant share of volume from professional and college sports, offering bets even in states that prohibit traditional sportsbooks.

OF NOTE: The gambling industry contributed $111,876 to Sen. Schiff during the 2023-2024 election cycle, with California tribal gaming entities being particularly supportive – donating six-figure sums to pro-Schiff leadership PACs and related efforts. 

Meanwhile, the American Gaming Association (AGA), which represents licensed operators including DraftKings and FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment, and the Indian Gaming Association (IGA) have publicly pressed Congress and states to crack down on prediction-market sports contracts.

A Regulatory Loophole Sparks Bipartisan Alarm

Schiff and Curtis argue that betting via prediction markets undermines state authority, deprives governments and tribal casinos of tax revenue, and exposes young people to addictive products without the consumer protections that accompany licensed sportsbooks. “The CFTC is greenlighting these markets and even promoting their growth,”  Schiff said. “It’s time for Congress to step in and eliminate this backdoor, which violates state consumer protections, intrudes upon tribal sovereignty and offers no public revenue.”

Curtis, whose home state of Utah remains one of the few without legal sports betting, highlighted concerns about youth access. “Too many young people in Utah are getting exposed to addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts that belong under state control, not under federal regulators,” he said.

The legislation aligns with a companion House effort, the Event Contract Enforcement Act, introduced earlier this month by Reps. Blake Moore, a Utah Republican, and Salud Carbajal, a California Democrat. That bill would require the CFTC to prohibit event contracts related to sports and gaming, among other sensitive categories such as terrorism and elections, while giving states an opt-out for sports-related contracts. “Prediction markets also sponsor sports-related contracts against the wishes of many states, including Utah,”  Moore said in a statement.

States have grown increasingly frustrated. Attorneys general from 39 states and the District of Columbia have urged federal courts to uphold their authority. Nevada secured a temporary restraining order last week blocking Kalshi from offering sports, election and entertainment contracts without state licenses. Arizona filed criminal charges against Kalshi’s parent companies. Lawsuits and countersuits have proliferated, with platforms arguing exclusive federal jurisdiction and states insisting the products amount to illegal gambling.

The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision striking down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unleashed a wave of state legalization. Thirty-eight states plus the District of Columbia now permit sports betting, generating billions in tax revenue and creating thousands of jobs. Major leagues from the NFL to the NBA have embraced partnerships, sharing data for integrity monitoring and reaping sponsorship dollars.

Prediction Markets Exploding in Popularity

Prediction markets have exploded from niche election curiosities into a multi-billion-dollar parallel sports-betting channel. Kalshi posted roughly $17–24 billion in notional volume in 2025 (85–87% sports), while Polymarket reached $21.5 billion overall (sports ~39% globally, nearly 100% on its U.S. app). Combined monthly trading volume for the two platforms surged to nearly $18 billion in February 2026 and hit a record $26 billion in January 2026, with Kalshi alone handling more than $2 billion per week ahead of the Super Bowl. Valuations followed: Kalshi hit an $11 billion mark, Polymarket $8 billion, fueled by venture inflows and retail/crypto traders who treat contracts like liquid equities rather than traditional parlays.

Via dune.com

This growth has turned the platforms into a measurable competitive pressure point. Kalshi’s sports-fee revenue is already running at an annualized pace that rivals roughly 25% of DraftKings’ projected 2026 take, while both operators now serve prohibition states that traditional books cannot touch. User bases have scaled rapidly – Kalshi monthly actives topped 5 million, Polymarket’s on-chain DAU records exceeded 150,000 in recent weeks – creating a younger, more tech-native cohort that bypasses state licensing, taxes, and responsible-gaming mandates. Traditional operators view the trajectory as existential if unchecked: without federal intervention, analysts project the sector could capture 3–5% of national sports revenue in 2026 and far more by decade’s end.

Industry Reaction and Market Moves

Traditional sports-betting operators appeared to welcome the news. Shares of DraftKings rose more than 7% in premarket trading Monday, only to settle up 2.3% as of this writing, while Flutter Entertainment gained nearly 9.5% (now only up 5.15%). The American Gaming Association, which represents many licensed operators, has long warned that unregulated prediction markets threaten state-regulated markets and lack responsible-gaming standards.

Kalshi pushed back sharply. “Banning sports on regulated prediction markets would just push this behavior offshore, where no regulation exists,” said spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana. “It’s clear this bill is motivated by casino interests that are threatened by competition.” Polymarket did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The prediction-market sector itself remains nascent but fast-growing, with platforms reporting billions in trading volume and attracting venture-capital interest. Proponents argue the markets promote price discovery and innovation; critics counter that sports contracts function indistinguishably from gambling.

The new bill joins a slate of bipartisan measures addressing sports betting. The SAFE Bet Act, backed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Paul Tonko of New York, would impose federal minimum standards on state programs – including advertising restrictions during live events, limits on bonus bets and curbs on credit-card deposits. Separately, the POINTS Act would direct roughly one-third of the federal excise tax on sports betting – potentially $100 million annually – toward prevention, treatment and recovery services for gambling addiction.

Supporters frame the efforts as protecting consumers without dismantling an industry that has become a significant economic force. Opponents warn that heavy-handed federal intervention could stifle innovation, reduce tax revenue and drive activity to offshore sites.

Authored by T.J.Muscaro via The Epoch Times,

It has been the worst flooding Oahu has seen in more than 20 years, and as of the morning of March 21, the torrential rains and rushing waters continue to flow across the mountainous island and the rest of the Hawaiian archipelago.

The devastating milestone was announced on March 20 by Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, who said that damages could exceed $1 billion.

The cause is a type of winter storm called a “Kona Low,” which is southerly or southwesterly winds that bring moist air onto the islands. This is the second such storm that Hawaii has faced this month.

Green issued a statement on the morning of March 21, stating that no loss of life had yet been reported, although there were some serious injuries. But the back-to-back storms caused some areas to get between 40 and 50 inches of rain.

The first storm hit between March 10 and March 16 and delivered multiple feet of rain to parts of Kawai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii Island, as well as winds gusting 60–75 mph and even higher than 100 mph in some areas.

This second storm was expected to bring at least another 10 inches of rain to Oahu and more than a foot of rain to Maui between March 20 and 23.

Hawaii Emergency Management warned on March 21 that Maui and Oahu could still face dangerous rainbands capable of producing two to four inches per hour throughout the day, along with wind gusts reaching 45 mph.

“The storm will deliver another four to six inches of rain on Oahu throughout this weekend, but it’s now moving over to Maui, where we expect somewhere between likely four to eight inches, but as much as 10 to 12 in some areas,” the governor said.

He also said that the weather will also move over Molokai and the Big Island.

Flash flood warnings remain in effect for the entire island, which hosts military installations like Pearl Harbor and the state’s capital, Honolulu.

The National Weather Service’s Honolulu office has reported high flood waters closing and collapsing roadways, cutting off entire communities, and lifting homes off their foundations.

Honolulu mayor Rick Blangiardi said on March 20 that dozens, if not hundreds, of homes have been damaged in the storms, but no official damage assessment has been completed yet.

More than 230 people have been rescued, including 72 children and adults who were airlifted by the National Guard and Honolulu Fire Department from a youth camp retreat on Oahu’s west coast.

Ten people have been taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia.

More than 5,500 residents along the island’s North Shore were ordered to evacuate as the consistent rains threatened to cause the Wahiawa dam to fail, which would send rushing waters into their communities.

As of the morning of March 21, the dam remained intact, and some water levels had dropped. But Green later reported that water levels behind the dam were up to nearly 82 feet; 85 feet is the dam’s “threshold of great concern.”

Meanwhile, other Hawaiian islands also remain under flood threats through the weekend.

Maui’s Emergency Management Agency issued evacuation warnings for parts of the ʻIao Valley in Central Maui and parts of Kihei in South Maui because of a potential flooding threat, and it issued advisories for places in East Moloka’i, East Maui, and Lahaina. The agency clarified that neither warnings nor advisories were mandatory evacuation orders.

The Red Cross also deployed disaster assessment teams to Oahu, Maui, and the Island of Hawaii, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it was monitoring the situation.

“We are monitoring the severe flooding in Oahu and closely coordinating with [Gov. Josh Green] and [Hawaii Emergency Management Agency] as the state leads rescue and shelter operations,” FEMA said on X.

“Our teams on the island are embedded and ready to support if needed to help safeguard lives and communities.”

X-energy submitted a draft registration statement to the SEC for an initial public offering of its Class A common stock. The company intends to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “XE.”

X-energy has submitted a draft registration statement on form S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to the proposed initial public offering of X-energy’s Class A common stock. X-energy intends to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “XE.”… pic.twitter.com/Sh6zYpzEFw

— X-energy (@xenergynuclear) March 20, 2026

The company develops the Xe-100, an 80 MWe high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) designed for both electricity generation and high-temperature process heat. Modules can deploy individually or in four- to twelve-unit plants for scalable output. Safety features rely on its core design and proprietary TRISO-X fuel, tristructural-isotropic particles widely regarded as among the most robust nuclear fuels available. X-energy manufactures this fuel through subsidiary TRISO-X LLC to maintain quality control.

Progress on their fuel supply chain is advancing rapidly. Vertical construction began in November 2025 at the TX-1 fuel fabrication facility in Tennessee.

Once complete in mid-2026, the Category II facility will produce approximately 700,000 TRISO pebbles annually, sufficient for up to 11 Xe-100 reactors.

TRISO-X received the first-ever Part 70 high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel fabrication license earlier this year, with confirmatory testing underway at Idaho National Laboratory.

X-energy’s commercial pipeline now exceeds 11 GW across the United States and United Kingdom.

The flagship project is a four-unit Xe-100 plant at Dow’s Seadrift (Long Mott) site in Texas, selected under the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

The installation will supply power and steam for chemical manufacturing.

A construction permit application is under NRC review, though the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper has intervened in proceedings, raising contentions including the financial qualifications of the project entity.

Partnerships continue to expand as well:

   – Amazon holds options for more than 5 GW of Xe-100 deployments by 2039, starting with the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington state alongside Energy Northwest.

   – X-energy signed a letter of intent with Talen Energy to evaluate gigawatt-scale deployments, potentially three or more four-unit plants, in Pennsylvania and the broader PJM Interconnection market. 

   – In Europe, a joint development agreement with Centrica commits to up to 6 GW of advanced reactors in the United Kingdom, with the Hartlepool site under consideration for the initial fleet.

Supply chain momentum supports these ambitions, including recent agreements with Doosan Enerbility for reactor components and SGL Carbon for graphite. Following oversubscribed Series D funding of $700 million in late 2025, the IPO positions X-energy to accelerate licensing, manufacturing scale-up, and project execution.

In yet more unintended blowback from Washington’s Iran war gambit, now in its fourth week, President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russian oil and gas companies must use windfall profits from the Iran war to reduce debt. It’s been no secret that higher crude prices, amid the ongoing massive disruption to global energy supplies due to the Hormuz Strait effective closure, have been a boon to Russia as it continues to fund its war machine in Ukraine.

At a meeting with senior economic officials, Putin said Russian energy firms “should consider directing additional revenues… to pay off their debt to domestic banks.” He underscored, “That would be a mature decision.” It’s not the first time of the war he’s presented this as a ‘wise’ move before Russia’s energy sector.

via Forward

Russia’s Urals crude climbed above $100 per barrel last week, after just prior to Trump’s Operation Epic Fury it had been trading at steep discounts. 

However, the situation drastically changed when the US Treasury Department issued a sanctions waiver this month covering Russian crude and petroleum shipments loaded between March 12 and April 11.

Soon after, several Asian countries reliant on Middle Eastern energy signaled plans to increase purchases of Russian oil.

Per reporting in Financial Times earlier in March, Russia is generating up to $150 million per day in extra budget revenue amid its increased taxes on oil exports to markets like China and India, with potential total added revenue reaching billions by the end of this month.

According to more of Putin’s Monday words:

“Regarding the federal ​budget, it is ​also necessary ⁠to make balanced decisions concerning cyclical revenues to, I repeat, ensure the long-term balance of the ​country’s main financial document,” Putin told a ​meeting with ⁠officials.

“For effective macroeconomic policy, it is important to consider all significant factors and to proactively respond to external risks, which ⁠are currently ​manifesting sharply in global markets and ​within the system of international economic relations,” he said.

As for reaction to all of this in the US, in predictable fashion Congressional Democrats slammed the US easing the pressure off Moscow, arguing Trump’s move is an economic gift to Iran in the middle of a war that the president started.

The Ukrainians are very unhappy with these developments:

Bill Browder: Easing sanctions on Russian oil could give Putin nearly $10 billion.

That money will buy weapons used against Ukrainians.

Lifting the restrictions becomes a pure gift to Putin and undermines Western efforts to contain Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. 1/ pic.twitter.com/TB2aePmWcx

— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) March 16, 2026

“Clown show doesn’t begin to describe it,” Virginia Democrat Don Beyer said days ago in a post on X. In addition to sanctions waivers, the Trump administration released more than 45 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves and temporarily waived a century-old shipping mandate in order to lower transport costs.

In the meantime, ongoing escalation in the Persian Gulf continues to indirectly benefit Russian energy, with deep uncertainty and instability still lingering for global markets…

The outage at the world’s biggest LNG export plant in Qatar is apparently benefiting Russia 🇷🇺 ⚠️

Russia’s largest LNG producer Novatek has signed a preliminary deal to supply Vietnam, Tass reported citing CEO Mikhelson

(Vietnam is struggling to buy LNG from spot market) pic.twitter.com/ubCICicFfR

— Stephen Stapczynski (@SStapczynski) March 23, 2026

Palantir shares gained 4% by early afternoon trading after Reuters reported over the weekend that the Department of War plans to designate its Maven artificial intelligence system as an official program of record. Wall Street views this report as a bullish catalyst and a meaningful validation of Palantir’s long-term role in military command-and-control AI software.

Reuters cited a letter from Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg to DoW heads earlier this month that said embedding the Maven Smart System would provide warfighters “with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains.”

According to Feinberg’s letter, the official decision is not expected to materialize by the close of the current fiscal year, which ends in September.

The letter ordered that oversight of Maven be shifted from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to DoW’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office within 30 days. It also noted that any future contracting with Palantir will be done through the Army.

Maven in use. 

“This is Maven Smart System—Palantir’s software as a service product that we are deploying across the entire department.” pic.twitter.com/hIaQAiq4iJ

— Palantir (@PalantirTech) March 12, 2026

“It is imperative that we invest now and with focus to deepen the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across the Joint Force and establish AI-enabled decision-making as the cornerstone of our strategy,” Feinberg wrote.

Piper Sandler analyst Clarke Jeffries told clients, “The DoW’s intention to deploy Maven is growing and will likely be a staple of the command-and-control infrastructure for a long time to come.”

When Piper began covering Palantir in October, its “primary thesis for the government business was unparalleled wallet share opportunity driven by a profound shift from large cost-intensive assets to agile low-cost strategies enabled by software & unmanned systems,” Jeffries said.

He added, “Investors underappreciate how much of the $1T+ annual defense budget may shift to software-specific capabilities that work in the background to support all of the new autonomous system form factors being created in industry.”

Jeffries maintained an “Overweight” rating with a 12-month price target of $230.

Dan Ives of Wedbush told clients that the Maven adoption “further solidified the US military’s long-term use of Palantir’s technology across the Pentagon” as well as “streamlined the company’s deals across all branches of the military while providing long-term funding to Palantir.”

Ives expects Palantir to ink more deals with the federal government. “We continue to believe that PLTR has a golden path in the AI Revolution and this designation represents another opportunity for PLTR to capitalize while continuing to generate unprecedented traction for its entire portfolio across the federal landscape.”

Ives holds the same stock rating and price target as Piper’s Jeffries.

Bloomberg data show that, across Wall Street, 20 analysts, or about 66.7%, rate the stock a “Buy,” while 8 rate it a “Hold,” and 2 rate it a “Sell.”

Palantir shares were up 4% in afternoon trading in New York, though the stock remains down about 12% year to date. Even after today’s move, shares are still roughly 24.5% below their early November peak of $207.

Will the dip be bought like it was one year ago?

Federal immigration agents on Monday showed up to several major airports to help TSA agents manage long lines amid a showdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Transportation Security Administration. 

The move comes after President Trump floated the idea over the weekend, which was echoed by border czar Tom Homan in a Sunday CNN interview. 

“President Trump is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours-long lines at airports across the country—especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families,” Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told The Epoch Times, confirming that hundreds of ICE officers were being deployed to help manage the long lines. 

Meanwhile, President Trump on Sunday said that Congress should not pass DHS funding until Democrats get on board with the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote. 

As the Epoch Times notes further, in an evening post on Truth Social, the president said that Republicans in Congress should not make “any deal” with Democrats over funding DHS until the SAVE America Act is passed with Democratic support. DHS has remained unfunded since Feb. 13, leading to some Transportation Security Administration (TSA) shortfalls at major U.S. airports.

The passage of the SAVE America Act, Trump stated on social media, is “far more important than anything else” on the Senate’s agenda, including funding for DHS. Earlier this month, Trump said he wouldn’t sign any other measure passed until Congress approves the voting bill.

The measure also should include “their approval of Voter I.D., (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-In Voting (with exceptions), All Paper Ballots, No Men In Women’s Sports, and No Transgender mutilization of our precious children,” Trump wrote.

The bill currently lacks the 60 votes needed ​to overcome Democratic opposition in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats. Meanwhile, the GOP has resisted Democratic lawmakers’ demands for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including mandating that they wear masks, as a ​condition of DHS funding.

In his social media post, Trump also called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to “clearly identify” Republicans who may vote against the SAVE America Act, also called the SAVE Act, and added that those GOP lawmakers “will never be elected again.” 

Republicans should kill the legislative filibuster and stay in Washington during the Easter holiday “if necessary,” Trump said.

Trump this weekend confirmed he would put ICE agents in airports until Democratic lawmakers agree to a DHS budget bill. Video and photos uploaded online showed that ICE agents were already being seen at the airports on Monday morning.

Proponents of the Save America Act, including Trump, have argued that it would help deter voter fraud and have asserted that there are large numbers of people who are in the country illegally who vote ⁠in ​U.S. elections.

Democrats and other critics of the bill have argued that ​it could disenfranchise Americans who lack ready access to passports, birth certificates, and other forms of identification. The left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice and the University of Maryland have estimated that around 21 million Americans lack ready access to such documentation.

An opinion article by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) published in The New York Times on Sunday criticized some of Trump’s arguments and suggested the bill is a thinly veiled attempt for Republicans to win the 2026 midterm elections.

“Republicans like to pretend that the SAVE Act is a voter ID bill. Though on the surface it appears to be one, something far more insidious lies beneath: a system for purging eligible voters from the electorate—voters who are disproportionately likely to vote against Republicans,” he wrote.

Polls have shown that a vast majority of Americans support mandating photo ID to vote in elections. A Pew Research poll released last year showed that 83 percent of U.S. adults support having all voters show a government-issued form of identification, and only 16 percent opposed it. That includes 71 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of black voters, the poll found.

*  *  * DON’T DISENFRANCHISE YOUR SEX LIFE

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Fresh Justice Department files reveal a frantic document destruction operation at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan just days after Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death, adding fresh fuel to suspicions of elite protection and deep state obstruction.

This latest bombshell, drawn from a Miami Herald analysis of thousands of pages in the Epstein files, fits the pattern of irregularities we’ve exposed in our prior reporting.

Less than a week after Epstein was found dead inside his cell on August 10, 2019, an inmate was ordered to take bags of shredded material to the jail’s rear gate and throw them in a dumpster on Thursday, August 15, and again on Friday, August 16. The sheer volume struck him as unusual.

Bags of shredded documents at NY jail after Epstein’s death, officer tells FBI https://t.co/wMZlpaAzNl

— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) March 21, 2026

“They are shredding everything,” the inmate told one of the guards, adding that he was asked to give the officials a hand with the shredding, with key records vanishing before review.

A corrections officer at the detention facility called the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center that same night, a Friday, at 6:28 p.m. to report that he had “never seen this amount of bags of shredded documents coming out to be put in the dumpster at the rear gate of MCC.”

The caller found it suspicious that an after-action team charged with investigating would be shredding huge amounts of paperwork with FBI, BOP and OIG officials in the building.

A back gate corrections officer was also troubled by what he witnessed. In a memo to investigators three days later, on Monday, August 19, he wrote: “I believe that this conduct may be inappropriate for [an] investigative team to be shredding paperwork related to the investigation and you may want to investigate why BOP employees are destroying records.”

“Can we take a look at the Dumpster ASAP to see if the paper is still there? Possible they didn’t dump it yet,” replied one of the federal agents.

But it was already too late. The trash was picked up that very morning.

Federal prosecutors discovered something else amiss: “We learned today that all institutional count slips for dates prior to August 10, 2019, which we requested on August 12, 2019, are apparently ‘missing.’”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York opened three separate probes: one into Epstein’s death, an obstruction-of-justice case involving the shredding of documents and possible misconduct by correctional officers, and a separate “Color of Law” corruption probe. Shockingly, these shifted from potential FBI criminal cases to the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, which cannot prosecute.

Then-Attorney General William Barr immediately announced an “apparent suicide.” The medical examiner ruled the same, so Epstein’s cell was never treated as a crime scene. Critical evidence, including the fabric allegedly used in the hanging, was never properly examined.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, hired by Epstein’s estate and a veteran of over 20,000 autopsies, argued the neck injuries and ruptured capillaries in the eyes were more consistent with strangulation than suicide by hanging.

The Bureau of Prisons conducted a standard “After Action Review,” stating these teams “review such things as various background information for the inmate, health care and personality information, antecedent circumstances, and various other details surrounding the suicide. This team then draws conclusions and makes recommendations to the facility.”

Yet the rush to shred documents and the missing count slips tell a different story.

These developments expose the same bureaucratic stonewalling and selective transparency that has shielded powerful figures tied to Epstein’s network. While some claim simple incompetence, the coordinated destruction of records right under the noses of investigators screams intent to bury connections that could implicate elites.

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Shortly after we posted a breakdown on the incoming helium supply disruption from Qatar for our premium subscribers, ASP Isotopes announced that they had completed the well drilling required for Phase 1 of the Renergen Helium Project approximately four months ahead of schedule. The achievement marks a key operational milestone at the Virginia Gas Project in South Africa, substantially reducing execution risks for the planned helium and LNG production ramp.

The stock spiked higher on the news…

Drilling operations, which restarted in April 2025 following bridge loan funding from ASP Isotopes ahead of the Renergen acquisition, have now achieved the required cumulative nameplate flow rate. Results from the Phase 1C exploration campaign show gas flow rates that meet or exceed previously estimated type curves. Some recent wells delivered flows up to 16 times higher than earlier ones, thanks to improved exploration techniques and reservoir modeling by a U.S.-based expert team.

“This marks a watershed moment for our plans for helium production at the Virginia Gas Project,” said Paul Mann, Executive Chairman and CEO of ASP Isotopes. “This result, together with the cumulative flow data from the broader campaign, demonstrate that the field is capable of sustaining the gas volumes required to operate the helium plant at efficient capacity once wells are tied into the plant”.

Next steps include tying the new wells into the processing plant over the coming months. Once production-ready, total gas flow is expected to support Phase 1 nameplate capacity. Production will ramp in line with customer demand and offtake agreements, with discussions ongoing for LNG and liquid helium supplies. Phase 1 targets output of 2,500 GJ per day of LNG and 58 MCF per day of liquid helium upon completion in 2026.

As we’ve thoroughly tracked, this progress builds directly on the company’s acquisition of Renergen. Following regulatory clearance reported here in December 2025, the deal integrated high-concentration helium assets into ASPI’s portfolio of critical materials. Helium serves not only as a vital input for semiconductors, quantum computing, medical imaging, and space applications but also as a carrier gas in the company’s proprietary isotope enrichment processes.

Readers will recall our earlier coverage of ASP Isotopes’ Silicon-28 supply contracts and U.S. radiopharmacy acquisition in October 2025, the private placement backed by funds linked to Eric and Donald Trump Jr. in November, and more recent advances including a major nuclear operator MOU and progress toward commercial uranium enrichment. This latest update on the helium front further diversifies ASPI’s exposure across nuclear fuel, medical isotopes, quantum materials, and now reliable helium supply amid global constraints, including disruptions tied to Qatar production.