Frat members at San Diego State University charged after pledge set on fire during party skit

January 8, 2025

Four members of San Diego State University’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity are facing felony charges after a skit performed at a party last year led to a pledge being set on fire.

The member set on fire suffered third-degree burns that covered more than 16% of his body as a result of the skit performed on Feb. 17, prosecutors said.

Caden Cooper, 22; Lucas Cowling, 20; Christopher Serrano, 20, and Lars Larsen, 19, were each charged Monday with at least one felony, and all four pleaded not guilty. Larsen was the person set on fire.

The charges include recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, conspiracy to commit an act injurious to the public and violating the social host ordinance. If convicted of all charges, the defendants could face seven years in prison.

FLORIDA FRATERNITY BROTHER WITH BRAIN DAMAGE FROM HAZING SENDS LIFESAVING WARNING TO FUTURE GREEKS

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at San Diego State University on Wednesday, May 7, 2008, in San Diego. (AP)

The four charged were all either active members or pledges of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Cooper was the fraternity’s president and Cowling was on the Pledge Board, while Serrano and Larsen were pledges, prosecutors said.

Larsen and Serrano, who were not of legal drinking age, also drank alcohol before the skit while in the presence of Cowling.

In recent years, the university’s fraternities have engaged in activities that have prompted investigations, with at least half a dozen having been put on probation in the past two years, according to the university.

In 2020, the university probed allegations that a frat leader promoted blackout drinking. That came a year after the death of a freshman who fell out of a bunk bed and cracked his skull after drinking with his fraternity the night before.

Students and parents walk on campus during move-in day at San Diego State University in San Diego, California, on Friday, Aug. 21, 2020. (Getty Images)

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity was already on probation by the university for violating its policies on alcohol and hazing when the burning incident at the party happened nearly a year ago.

The party involved a skit that included Serrano setting Larsen on fire, according to prosecutors.

Cowling, Serrano and Larsen planned the skit in which Serrano set Larsen on fire, according to prosecutors. Larsen was in the hospital for weeks with third-degree burns, mostly to his legs.

After the incident, Cowling, Larsen and Cooper lied to law enforcement investigating the incident, deleted evidence on social media and told other fraternity members to delete evidence and not talk to anyone about what happened, according to prosecutors.

OLE MISS FRATERNITY SUSPENDED OVER HAZING ALLEGATIONS AFTER VIDEO SURFACES

Hepner Hall on the campus of San Diego State University (SDSU), part of the California State University (CSU) system, in San Diego, California, on Thursday, July 9, 2020. (Getty Images)

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The four were released from jail and ordered to return to court March 18 to prepare for a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 16.

They were also ordered not to participate in any fraternity parties or recruitment events and to follow alcohol laws.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Justin Trudeau’s Political Career in Photos

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January 8, 2025

The image of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau receiving a vaccine against the coronavirus, like those of other world leaders, was meant to convey a reassuring public health message. It also put prim and buttoned-up politicians in the rare, if sometimes awkward, position of showing more skin.

When Mr. Trudeau rolled up his sleeve, it exposed his tattoo: an image of a globe inside a Haida raven, an Indigenous symbol.

Mr. Trudeau was Canada’s second-youngest leader when he took power in 2015. The heir to the political legacy left by his father, who served as prime minister for about 15 years, Mr. Trudeau burst onto the world stage and captured Canada’s imagination, with a head of flowing hair and signature cool socks.

He was a magnet for the cameras and, at times, appeared in the society pages nearly as often as in the news sections. Being so heavily photographed also, of course, had its down sides. His tattoo, initially praised by Indigenous people in British Columbia, later became a source of scorn after the government approved a natural oil and gas project near their traditional fishing grounds.

On Monday, after almost a decade in office, Mr. Trudeau, who became deeply unpopular among many voters unhappy over pocketbook issues, stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party and his role as prime minister will soon end. Here are some of the images that defined his career.

Credit…Andy Clark/Reuters

Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau greeting his sons, from left; Justin, Sacha and Michel, after returning home from a foreign trip. Michel, Mr. Trudeau’s youngest brother, died in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in British Columbia in 1998. Grief shattered his father’s life, Mr. Trudeau wrote in his 2014 memoir: “From the time we buried Michel until his own passing two years later, my father was never the same man.”

Vjosa Isai contributed reporting from Toronto.

Trump trolls Canada again, shares map with country as part of US: ‘Oh Canada!’

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January 8, 2025

President-elect Trump on Tuesday again suggested that Canada should be added as the U.S.’s 51st state, sharing maps showing Canada as part of the U.S.

Trump shared a pair of posts to his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday night — one with a map of the U.S. and Canada with “United States” written across the two countries and another post with the U.S. and Canada covered in an American Flag.

“Oh Canada!” he wrote in one post.

The incoming president has been pushing recently for Canada to be added to the U.S., including earlier on Tuesday.

TRUMP TROLLING CANADA AS 51ST STATE COULD BOOST DEMOCRATS WITH ‘BLUE-STATE BEHEMOTH’

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk prior to a NATO round table meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, Dec. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

“Canada and the United States. That would really be something,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “They should be a state.”

On Monday, the president-elect argued in a social media post that “many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State.”

WHAT TRUMP IS SAYING ABOUT CANADA BECOMING THE 51ST STATE

“The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them,” he added. “Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”

President-elect Trump and Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau

President-elect Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, left, CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images, right.)

Trudeau, who announced Monday that he will resign as Canadian prime minister once a replacement is chosen, said Tuesday there is no way Canada would join the U.S.

“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Trudeau wrote on the social media platform X. “Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

Trump has been trolling Canada in recent weeks, floating the idea of it becoming the 51st state and posting a doctored photo of him standing beside a Canadian flag on top of a mountain.

President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak at a news conference at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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The president-elect has also mocked Trudeau, repeatedly referring to him as “governor.” Additionally, Trump has threatened to impose massive tariffs on Canada.

Trump has also been pushing for Denmark to sell the North Atlantic island of Greenland to the U.S.

Former Cambodian Opposition Member Lim Kimya Killed in Bangkok

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January 8, 2025

The killer was waiting by a noodle stand on Tuesday afternoon, on a busy street in Bangkok, with foreign backpackers milling around. When the bus traveling from the border with Cambodia pulled up, he strolled toward it, video footage released by the Thai police showed. Three shots rang out, like firecrackers, witnesses said. Then the assassin casually returned to the noodle stand, where his motorcycle was parked, and left the scene of the crime.

The victim was Lim Kimya, 73, a former legislator with the popular Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was crushed by the Hun dynasty that has ruled the Southeast Asian nation for four decades.

Thai police say they are still investigating the killing, and an arrest warrant has been issued for the suspect. But members of Cambodia’s beleaguered political opposition say that their ranks have suffered from dozens of arrests, imprisonments and assassinations, all for daring to stand up to the Hun family.

Mr. Lim Kimya’s killing, they say, echoes the kind of political violence that has turned Cambodia into a country where independent thinkers fear for their lives and internationally lauded environmentalists flee into exile.

Um Sam An, a fellow former parliamentarian for the C.N.R.P. who is in political exile in the United States, called Mr. Lim Kimya’s death a “political assassination.”

“Dictators around the world are increasingly resorting to transnational repression,” said Sam Rainsy, the onetime president of the party and himself the target of repeated assassination attempts.

Since formally taking over two years ago from his father, Hun Sen, Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, has shown little evidence of loosening the family’s tight grip on power. Arrests of dissidents have continued. On Tuesday, the day of Mr. Lim Kimya’s killing, Mr. Hun Sen, who still heads Cambodia’s Senate, pushed for the passage of a law that would deem political dissent as terrorism.

Mr. Lim Kimya, who was a dual French and Cambodian citizen, was traveling by land from Cambodia to neighboring Thailand with his French wife. As Thai paramedics tried unsuccessfully to administer C.P.R., she stood near him, his blood spattered on her face.

On Wednesday, the Thai Criminal Court issued a warrant for Ekaluck Paenoi, 41, the motorcyclist who it said was responsible for the fatal shooting.

Pen Bona, a spokesman for the Cambodian government, said that since the killing happened in Thailand, journalists’ questions should be directed to the Thai authorities.

For more than three decades, Mr. Lim Kimya was a civil servant in France, working at the ministry of economy and finance. He studied statistics in France, the former colonial power in Cambodia, after having left home in the 1970s when the country began descending into anarchy under the radical Communist Khmer Rouge. He eventually returned to Cambodia and aligned himself with opposition political parties, including the C.N.R.P.

Mr. Lim Kimya was elected to the National Assembly in 2013, four years before the party was dissolved by Cambodia’s top court.

Mr. Hun Sen was a minor official in the Khmer Rouge, which presided over the deaths of up to a quarter of Cambodia’s population. After its fall, he rose to power, eliminated political rivals and became the world’s longest-serving prime minister before handing the reins to his eldest son. While Cambodia’s economy has developed quickly in recent years, with backing from China, so, too, has corruption and kleptocracy.

Last month, Mr. Lim Kimya wrote on his Facebook page about the dramatic ousting of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator who inherited power from his father. He noted the familial nature of the al-Assad political dynasty. He wrote of the woes of autocracy. He didn’t have to make a direct comparison with Cambodia for the criticism to sting.

“Mr. Lim Kimya was a highly educated, patriotic man who served both his motherland and his second country, France,” said Kem Monovithya, the exiled daughter of Kem Sokha, another former opposition leader who is under house arrest in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, after being sentenced to 27 years for treason.

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is both a magnet for political dissidents from nearby autocratic countries and, increasingly, a staging ground for deportations and forced removals that human rights groups say border on illegality. In November, seven Cambodians who were registered with the United Nations refugee agency were forcibly sent home by Thai authorities. After their return, six of the seven — one was a child — were charged with treason in a Cambodian court.

Thailand is not a signatory to the U.N. refugee convention and therefore does not officially recognize individuals who claim political asylum. Thai authorities have returned asylum seekers and others trying to seek refuge here to Vietnam, Laos, China and other countries with repressive governments.

Hundreds of Cambodian dissidents have flocked to Thailand in recent months, but the forced deportations last year and Mr. Lim Kimya’s killing have them spooked.

Khem Monykosal, 52, a political activist, fled persecution in Cambodia two years ago. He has barely left the room where he is sheltering in Thailand, he said, despite registering with the U.N. refugee agency. He worried about the possibility of political assassinations. Then came Mr. Lim Kimya’s killing on Tuesday.

“As an asylum seeker in Thailand, I am very worried about my safety,” he said. “There are planned plots to kill.”

Sun Narin contributed reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Muktita Suhartono from Bangkok.

Is The Squad dead? Cori Bush on the future of progressive politics

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January 8, 2025

Five years ago progressive Democrats seemed to be on the rise. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had just ousted a moderate Democrat, and Senator Bernie Sanders looked like he could win the party’s nomination. Now, two members of the progressive group known as “The Squad” have lost their re-election bids.

This week, Brittany sits down with one of them, former congressional representative, Cori Bush of Missouri. They get into what the progressive politics are in 2025 and what the future holds for Democrats and identity politics.

Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content by joining NPR+ today.

Why Zuckerberg killed fact-checking as he keeps cozying up to Trump

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January 8, 2025

Honoring Jimmy Carter’s legacy

Peterson Institute senior editorial adviser Steven Weisman joined ‘MediaBuzz’ to discuss the life and legacy of the 39th president.

Mark Zuckerberg, who often bends with the political winds, is getting out of the fact-checking business.

And this is part of a broader effort by the Meta CEO to ingratiate himself with Donald Trump after a long and testy relationship.

After a previous outcry, Zuck made a great show of declaring that Facebook would hire fact-checkers to combat misinformation on the globally popular site. That was a clear sign that Facebook was becoming more of a journalistic organization rather than a passive poster of users’ opinions (and dog pictures).

But it didn’t work. In fact, it led to more info-suppression and censorship. Why should anyone believe a bunch of unknown fact-checkers working for one of the increasingly unpopular tech titans?

MESSY BACKSTAGE JOCKEYING IN TRUMP TRANSITION COULD SHAPE HILL STRATEGY 4 YEARS AFTER JAN 6

A side-by-side of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and President-elect Donald Trump. (Getty Images)

Now Zuckerberg is pulling the plug, announcing his decision in a video to underscore its big-deal nature:

“The problem with complex systems is they make mistakes. Even if they accidentally censor just 1 percent of posts. That’s millions of people. And we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.”

Let me jump in here. Zuckerberg bluntly admits, with that line about “cultural tipping point,” that he’s following the conventional wisdom–and, of course, the biggest tipping point is Trump’s election to a second term. And skeptics are portraying this as a bow to the president-elect and his team.

TRUMP THREATENS MORE LAWSUITS AGAINST MEDIA AS ABC TO PAY $15 MILLION TO SETTLE CASE

“So we’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms…

“We’re going to get rid of fact checkers” and replace them with community notes, already used on X. “After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy.

“We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the U.S.”

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk speaks at a town hall with Republican candidate U.S. Senate Dave McCormick at the Roxain Theater on October 20, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

It was Zuckerberg, along with the previous management at Twitter, that banned Trump after the Capitol riot. This led to plenty of Trumpian attacks on Facebook, and the president-elect told me he had flipped his position on banning TikTok because it would help Facebook, which he viewed as the greater danger.

Trump said last summer that Zuckerberg plotted against him in 2020 and would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he did it again.

The president-elect boiled it down in a posting: “ZUCKERBUCKS, DON’T DO IT!”

Here’s a bit more from Z: “We’re going to simplify our content policies and get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse. What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas. And it’s gone too far.”

Indeed it has. And I agree with that. In 2020, social media, led by Twitter, suppressed the New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop, dismissing it as Russian disinformation, though a year and a half later the establishment press suddenly declared hey, the laptop report was accurate.

DONALD TRUMP’S TOUGH TALK—BUY GREENLAND! TAKE BACK PANAMA CANAL!—SPARKS DEFIANCE FROM MANY REPUBLICAN REBELS

Let’s face it: People like Zuckerberg and Elon Musk (now embroiled in a war of words with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over an alleged coverup of gang rapes of young girls when Starmer was chief prosecutor) have immense clout. They are the new gatekeepers. With so-called legacy media less relevant–as we see with the mass exodus of top talent from Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post and the recent rise of podcasts–they control much of the public dialogue. And yes, they are private companies that can do what they want.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer listens to the speech of Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

At yesterday’s marathon news conference, a reporter asked Trump about Zuckerberg: “Do you think he’s directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past with promises?”

“Probably. Yeah, probably,” Trump said, twisting the knife a bit.

Meanwhile, having made the obligatory trek to Mar-a-Lago for dinner, the CEO has taken a number of steps to join forces with the new administration. And it doesn’t hurt that Meta is kicking in a million bucks to the Trump inaugural.

Zuck named prominent Republican lawyer Joel Kaplan as chief of global affairs, replacing a former British deputy prime minister. On “Fox & Friends” yesterday, Kaplan said:

“We’ve got a real opportunity now. We’ve got a new administration and a new president coming in who are big defenders of free expression, and that makes a difference. One of the things we’ve experienced is that when you have a U.S. president, an administration that’s pushing for censorship, it just makes it open season for other governments around the world that don’t even have the protections of the First Amendment to really put pressure on US companies. We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on that kind of thing around the world.”

We’re going to work with President Trump. Got it?

What’s more, Zuckerberg is adding Dana White, chief executive officer of United Fighting Championship, to the Meta board. White is a longtime Trump ally, so MAGA now has a voice inside the company.

In other words, get with the program.

Footnote: At his news conference, where Trump seemed angry about the latest court battles and plans to sentence him, the incoming president said–or “didn’t rule out,” in journalistic parlance– “military coercion” against two of his latest targets.

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“Well, we need Greenland for national security purposes,” he said. And Americans lost many lives building the Panama Canal. “It might be that you’ll have to do something.”

He’s not going to use military force against either one. But his answer stirs the pot, as he knew it would.

Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX News Channel’s MediaBuzz (Sundays 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET). Based in Washington, D.C., he joined the network in July 2013 and regularly appears on Special Report with Bret Baier and other programs.

Short of Heat and Power, the Breakaway Region of Transnistria Struggles Without Russian Gas

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January 8, 2025

After struggling without heat for six days, a breakaway region in the Eastern European country of Moldova is now short of electricity, too, with the authorities ordering eight hours of power cuts a day to prevent the overloaded electricity system from collapsing.

The energy crisis in Transnistria, a sliver of pro-Russian territory between Moldova and Ukraine, began on Jan. 1 when Moscow stopped supplying natural gas through a pipeline running across Ukraine. It intensified this week as residents tried to keep warm using electric heaters, overloading and often blowing out an antiquated Soviet-era electricity grid. The power outages have in turn interrupted water supplies.

The halt in Russian gas deliveries, prompted by Ukraine’s refusal to renew an expiring gas transit deal, has raised questions about the survival of Transnistria, which declared itself an independent microstate in 1990 and has survived since then thanks to economic and military support from Moscow.

Inhabited largely by Russian speakers, Transnistria on Tuesday celebrated Orthodox Christmas, usually a festive occasion, but one that was made painful this year by the absence of gas for cooking and heat. In a grim Christmas message, the region’s president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, urged people not to give up, telling them “it is very important to hope for the best and believe that everything can be overcome.”

Moldova’s prime minister, Dorin Recean, said Monday that his government had offered to help Transnistria, located mostly on the left or eastern bank of the Dniester River, but had been rebuffed.

Transnistria’s leader, Mr. Krasnoselsky, said in remarks broadcast by local media that he had received no offers of help, accusing Moldova of trying to “strangle” his breakaway territory and force it to give up its claims to statehood, a status that is not recognized by any country.

Indirectly addressing the question of whether Russia, by cutting off gas, has effectively given up on Transnistria, Mr. Krasnoselsky said that “talk of Russia abandoning Transnistria” was being spread by “unfriendly” outsiders to create panic.

Prime Minister Recean, speaking to journalists at an online news conference, said “Moldova’s objective is to reintegrate the country” but said this would be done peacefully and could only happen once Russia withdraws troops “illegally stationed there.”

The escalating energy crisis, however, has raised the possibility that people could start fleeing the enclave, leaving it an empty husk — unless Russia steps in using alternative gas conduits that skirt Ukraine.

“If they cannot survive any more on the left bank without electricity, heating and water, then we will be hosting them here on the right bank,” Mr. Recean said.

Moscow has so far balked at getting gas to Transnistria by using a pipeline under the Black Sea to Turkey, which connects to a gas route through the Balkans to Moldova and the separatist enclave. Doing that would involve extra transit fees for the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which, even before Ukraine shut down the cheaper route, was already losing large amounts of money because it delivered gas largely for free to Transnistria.

Mr. Krasnoselsky pleaded with residents on Tuesday to unplug electrical heaters “so that an already difficult situation does not get worse,” noting that there had been 160 emergency power outages the previous day. Local media outlets posted photographs of burned out fuse boxes and reported multiple electrical fires. Military field kitchens have appeared on the streets of Tiraspol, the region’s capital, to feed residents hot food.

Russia sent troops to Transnistria as peacekeepers during a brief war in 1992 between Russian-speaking separatists and Romanian-speaking fighters from Moldova but they are still there more than three decades later.

Unable to resupply its forces since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, Russia has increasingly relied on local supplies and manpower to maintain its military force in Transnistria of around 1,500 soldiers.

Biden and the Democrats are truly bad at everything, including losing

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January 8, 2025

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

So it’s clear that MAGA may be the most consequential political movement in a century. But right now we’re experiencing another movement. And unlike MAGA, this one really stinks.

VIDEO: Biden’s last BM!

Yeah. You won’t see that on the Faulkner Focus. So, he’s crapping on us, OK? Follow me. You saw that Biden just released 11 detainees with suspected al-Qaeda ties from Gitmo, including two of Bin Laden’s bodyguards. I believe we have a picture of the bodyguards right here. But wait, as Joy Behar once said after her doctor sawed off a dozen skin tags, there’s more. Joe just banned all drilling offshore, and it has nothing to do with Epstein’s island. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, Joe. Let’s make energy prices skyrocket when people are already having a hard time economically.

President Joe Biden speaks at the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior in Washington, on Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

He understands the nation, like P Diddy understands the age of consent. In yet another bold move guaranteed to restore American greatness, the White House decided to ban natural-gas-fired water heaters. And here I thought these d**** love to gaslight. But I understand why Joe despises fossil fuels, since that’s what Joe’s going to be when they cremate him. This, on top of Biden’s commutation of federal death row inmates, ensuring that taxpayers are on the hook for the lifelong care and feeding of murderers and child rapists. F**** Democrats. They look at murderers on death row like starving children in Africa. For just a few dollars a month, you can keep them fed and clothed.

I’m surprised they don’t send us a picture of them every month and a letter telling us how well they’re doing. Dear Greg, I only shanked two guards today and me and the boys are hosting a toilet wine tasting in Cellblock C. Think about it. The money that would go to feeding your kid goes to feed a heinous criminal. But enough about Liz Cheney’s pension. Then there’s the pardons, including the one he promised us was never coming. If you believe that, I’ve got an MSNBC to sell you. We already talked about his medals of freedom.

What a joke. What’s next? Hunter getting a Purple Heart for getting crabs in the Navy? What’s going on here? First, Biden and the Democrats are truly bad at everything, including losing. They lost and instead of maybe asking, Hey, did we misread the room, they decided the problem isn’t them. It’s the room. And so what did they do? They trashed the room, i.e., our country. They’re like the bitter ex you just dumped who keys your car, poisons the fish in your koi pond, burns all your copies of penthouse letters. It’s the last time I date anyone from Outnumbered. And like any bitter ex, they believe we just didn’t understand how much they cared about us.

TRUMP PLANS TO ‘IMMEDIATELY’ REVERSE BIDEN’S ‘RIDICULOUS’ BAN ON NEW OIL AND GAS DRILLING ALONG US COAST

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: And we really didn’t show the kind of empathy and concern to average, or show enough of it, to average working families who didn’t realize how much we had done and how much we care for them.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. speaks during a news conference following the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 10, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Really, penguin? What have you done to show that you cared? Released criminals? Destroyed the border? Defend the butchery of kids? The last time somebody cared about me that much, I was on Valtrex for three years. You want to know the worst part? We still don’t know who’s calling the shots. You think Joe actually knew who the killers were? Whose sentences he commuted? You think he really knew what he was signing when these orders on drilling came through? No.

He thought he was ordering tapioca pudding for dessert. Right now, the White House is essentially a bunch of sullen brats fighting to get daddy to sign a will that gives them all the goodies they ever wanted. Out of anger, arrogance and disbelief that they didn’t outsmart all of America, they’re grabbing what they can as they go out the door like a smash and grab at Kay Jewelers. Now, they could reflect on what they did wrong and do better, but they’re not interested in changing, only destroying.

JUDGE DENIES TRUMP MOTION TO STOP NY CRIMINAL CASE SENTENCING

And by doing so, they remind Americans why they went with the other guy. It’s quite a disparity. In this transition, it’s a contrast unlike any I’ve ever seen. Have you? The incoming guy is determined to do the job for Americans — to reciprocate your trust in him. You defended him, you fought for him. Now he’s doing what you expect him to do. The outgoing guy?

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He’s a cardboard corpse employed by unnamed radicals not to save America, but to punish it. And you, the American voter, have no impact on their desires. But wasn’t that always the case with Democrats? It’s just that now, everyone sees it.

Greg Gutfeld currently serves as host of Gutfeld! (weeknights, 11PM-12AM/ET) and co-host of cable news’ highest-rated program The Five (weekdays, 5-6PM/ET).

In Tibet, Earthquake Survivors Face Freezing Weather Conditions

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January 8, 2025

Rescuers working in subzero conditions and bracing winds searched the rubble on Wednesday after a strong quake in Tibet toppled thousands of houses in a remote area near the northern foothills of Mount Everest. Tens of thousands of residents were being transferred to safety while dozens were being treated for injuries.

At least 126 people have died and 188 were injured in the quake, which struck on Tuesday morning in Dingri County, near one of Tibet’s most historic cities, in western China, state media reported. The quake was China’s deadliest since December 2023, when 151 people were killed in a magnitude 6.2 temblor in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Qinghai.

The area has since recorded 660 aftershocks, some exceeding a magnitude of 3.0, Chinese state media said. Survivors and rescuers have had to brave freezing temperatures, as the mercury dropped to a low of minus 18 degrees Celsius or 0 Fahrenheit at night. Recent aerial images near the epicenter showed frozen lake surfaces, and temperatures are expected to remain low for the next three days, which could narrow the window for rescuing survivors.

The true extent of the damage was hard to determine independently. Tibet is one of the most inaccessible and underdeveloped parts of China. Security has been heightened for decades because of tensions between Beijing and Tibetans, many of whom have struggled to maintain their cultural identity and religious traditions in a country dominated by Han Chinese. Foreign journalists are forbidden from traveling independently in the region.

Much of the relief effort is focused on warding off the cold. The state broadcaster showed video footage of rescuers setting up tents draped with an insulated layer and rigging them with light panels powered by generators as displaced residents draped in blankets huddled on cots and chairs.

Zhang Guoqing, the vice premier, visited hospitals and tent camps on Monday night. He instructed rescue teams to focus on finding remaining survivors, delivering medical care for the infirm, and ensuring that the displaced have enough food and warmth to survive the frigid winter.

Rescuers have pulled out more than 400 survivors from the rubble overnight. More than 30,000 people were relocated to safety.

Chinese state media reported that road obstructions have been cleared, and electricity has resumed in most surrounding towns and villages. The state broadcaster showed footage of soldiers digging through rubble with gloved hands and shovels.

Li You contributed research in Beijing.

Celebrities impacted by Pacific Palisades Fire in Southern California

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January 8, 2025

Pacific Palisades Fire engulfs homes on mountain

Reality TV star Spencer Pratt filmed fire engulfing his home and others in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood after he and wife Heidi Montag were forced to evacuate. (Credit: Spencer Pratt / Snapchat)

A wildfire raging through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate as it consumes homes in the ritzy area, including those belonging to celebrities.

The Palisades Fire, driven by strong Santa Ana winds, began in the Santa Monica Mountains late Tuesday morning and quickly engulfed 200 acres within an hour, surging to nearly 3,000 acres by sunset, FOX Weather reported.

Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy joined “Fox News @ Night” on Tuesday to give an update on how firefighters are battling the fast-moving flames, but said there isn’t much that can be done to stop them, so crews are focusing on evacuating and rescuing anyone still in the area.

“Our main focus is getting people, lives out of the way of these fires,” Fennessy said. “There’s not a lot we can do other than get people out of the way of these fires and then try to attack them … certainly in the Palisades, that’s been the story today.”

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A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Jill Connelly/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Reality TV star Spencer Pratt and wife Heidi Montag, who began dating on The Hills, lost their home in the Palisades Fire, Pratt and Montag confirmed on their Snapchat accounts on Tuesday.

In a series of videos, Pratt showed how the fire quickly moved over the hill toward their home.

“Well, this isn’t looking good,” Pratt said while videoing the fire on the mountain behind their home. “First time I’ve seen the flames coming over. Aw, man. Okay, I’m going to go pack up I think.”

He later posted a video from his car stating that he was watching their home burn down on their security cameras.

Montag posted a video in a grocery store stating that their home did burn, but they are safe.

Spencer Pratt security camera picture of fire

Reality TV star Spencer Pratt shared a picture from his security camera as his house was engulfed by the Palisades Fire. (Spencer Pratt / Snapchat)

Actor Chris Pratt posted on X and asked that people join him in praying for “the brave firefighters sacrificing so much to save our houses and our town.”

“Jesus protect the lives of those battling the flames and the lives of those who couldn’t evacuate,” Pratt wrote.

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Actress Denise Crosby, also in a post on X, said that she is safe, along with her husband and dog, but she is not sure if she has a house.

Crosby shared a video from a beach on Tuesday night and followed that post up with videos from earlier in the day showing smoke near an alley behind her home and from Sunset Boulevard.

Actor James Woods posted a series of videos on X showing his home and neighbors’ homes surrounded by smoke and flames. Woods said his family evacuated from the area safely, and commended first responders and community members for evacuating children from elementary schools within the neighborhood.

“To all the wonderful people who’ve reached out to us, thank you for being so concerned. Just letting you know that we were able to evacuate successfully,” Woods wrote on X. “I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing, but sadly houses on our little street are not.”

Professional dancer Derek Hough shared photos to his Instagram account of the fire and said he and his wife are preparing to evacuate with their pets.

“The winds are hitting 100mph, and we’re packing up, preparing to evacuate with our five animals JUST IN CASE,” Hough wrote. “It’s scary with power lines exploding around us and the fires spreading so fast.”

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Hough continued his post by thanking firefighters for “risking everything to keep us safe” and said he is sending prayers and love to all firefighters and victims.

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