News From Around the Web
#10 One of the Largest Solar Flares Ever Recorded Knocks Out Radio, Could be Headed for Earth - Collin Jones for Blaze Media
"The New York Post reported that the solar flare occurred on Thursday after a sunspot known as AR 3514 erupted with a class X.28 solar flare — the largest variety of flare that our sun is capable of producing. The report went on to say that the flare was the largest the star has generated since 2017. However, it appears that the solar flare was just one part of the ominous activity on the surface of the sun. If scientists are correct in their prediction, our planet could experience a geomagnetic storm no later than December 17. The phenomena could wreak havoc on satellites and ultimately lead to a blackout on Earth that could cost billions of dollars, according to the Post."
#9 U.S. Enters 2024 with its Smallest Military in Over 80 Years as Active-Duty Troop Numbers Sink to Less than 1.3 Million and All Branches Except Space Force MISS Recruiting Goals and Pentagon Issue 'National Call of Service' to Gen Z - Nick Allen for The Daily Mail - Citizen Free Press
The United States is set to enter 2024 with its smallest military in more than eight decades and faces one of its 'greatest challenges' as it tries to boost recruiting from Gen Z, Pentagon officials said. Under the $886 billion annual defense bill passed by Congress this week total active-duty troop numbers will fall to 1,284,500 next year. That is the lowest total since before the U.S. entered the Second World War in 1941, and officials said there should be a 'national call to service.'
The US Army is facing a TikTok mutiny as Gen Z recruits are taking to social media to whine about low pay, 'sh***y' food, and fitness tests. The brazen posts - by uniformed troops on US bases - represent an audacious challenge to top brass amid a recruitment crisis. The Army fell short of its target by 25 percent last year. One of the posts by military influencer Anthony Laster slams Army life for having 'No Privacy, The Pay Sucks, Sh***y Food, Disrespectful Leadership, NO SLEEP!' and has been viewed more than 600,000 times.
-This is what happens when you have an entire generation win participation awards 🙄
#8 Baby Found Alive in Tree after Tennessee Tornado - Khloe Kim from BBC News
A four-month-old baby has been found alive "by the grace of God," his parents said after the child was sucked up into a tornado in Tennessee. The couple said a deadly tornado on Saturday tore apart their mobile home, picking up a bassinet with the baby still inside of it. He survived and was discovered in a fallen tree in the pouring rain. The baby, his one-year-old brother, and his parents only suffered from minor cuts and bruises. As the tornado approached, the mother of two, 22-year-old Sydney Moore, said the roof of their mobile home was ripped off. "The tip of the tornado came down and picked up the bassinet with my baby, Lord, in it," Ms Moore told a local news station. "He was the first thing to go up." Her boyfriend - and the boy's father - lunged to protect Lord in the bassinet but ended up getting picked up by the tornado, too.
#7 Rudy Giuliani Ordered to Pay $148 Million as Defamation Trial Wraps Up - Chris Pandolfo, Adam Sabes and Jake Gibson for Fox News
Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay $148,169,000 to two women he falsely accused of committing election fraud in the 2020 election. The former New York City mayor, Donald Trump ally, and former personal lawyer was on trial for the defamation of two Georgia election workers this week at a federal court in Washington, D.C. Giuliani had accused Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, of fraud while advancing former President Trump's unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
#6 Rudy Giuliani Lawyer Shifts Blame to St. Louis-Based Gateway Pundit in Defamation Case - Jason Hancock for The Missouri Independent
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s attorney on Thursday tried to distance his client from the violent threats faced by Georgia election workers he falsely accused of fraud, arguing St. Louis-based Gateway Pundit was more responsible. During his closing arguments in the defamation lawsuit against Giuliani, attorney Joseph Sibley tried to convince a Washington, D.C, jury that Giuliani was a minor player in the unfounded election fraud allegations that led to an avalanche of threats against Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. Others deserve more blame, Sibley contends, specifically pointing to the right-wing website Gateway Pundit over its publication of security camera footage that linked Freeman and Moss to the unfounded allegations of election fraud touted by Giuliani and former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
#5 Horrified Joe Biden Looks On as Car Smashes Into His Motorcade: President is Bundled Away by Secret Service as Agents Draw Guns on Driver Outside Delaware Campaign HQ - James Gordon for Daily Mail
President Joe Biden stood frozen in shock as a car rammed an SUV that was part of his motorcade before Secret Service agents rushed him into a vehicle and drove him from the area Sunday night. The president and first lady Jill Biden were leaving his Wilmington, Delaware, campaign headquarters around 8 pm after sharing a meal with staffers when the collision happened. A pool of reporters and photographers captured the dramatic footage that saw the president hurried into the back of his armored SUV by Secret Service agents, not knowing if the crash was part of a deliberate attack.
#4 Florida Republican Leaders Vote to Strip Authority from Party Chairman Accused of Rape - Matt Dixon for NBC News
The Republican Party of Florida on Sunday voted to functionally strip all power from current Chairman Christian Ziegler, who is under criminal investigation for allegations of sexual assault, including rape. The vote came during an emergency meeting of the Florida GOP’s state executive committee in Orlando, a gathering that was called as the Sarasota Police Department investigates allegations Ziegler raped a woman in early October in her Sarasota apartment. Nearly every major Florida Republican, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, has called on Ziegler to resign, but he has so far resisted. In a letter to party leaders earlier this month, he called the allegations “false,” and he’s been taking counsel from former Trump administration officials Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski, who have encouraged him to fight the ouster. Lewandowski has worked on political campaigns with Ziegler in the past. The investigation by the Sarasota Police Department is focused on rape allegations brought by a woman whom Christian Ziegler and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, had known for 20 years, according to a search warrant affidavit. The couple were planning on having a consensual sexual encounter with the accuser, but the woman tried to cancel when she was informed Bridget would not be there, the affidavit said. Christian still showed up at her apartment and allegedly raped the woman, the affidavit said.
#3 Transportation Department Fines Southwest $140 Million for Christmas Meltdown - Ian Duncan for The Washington Post
The Transportation Department fined Southwest Airlines $140 million for what it said were multiple violations of the law during its meltdown around last Christmas and New Year’s, while also ordering the airline to establish a $90 million fund to compensate passengers affected by future delays.
-Just in time for 2023 Christmas Travel.
#2 European Union Investigating Musk's X Over Possible Breaches of Social Media Law - AP News
The investigation will look into whether X failed to do enough to curb the spread of illegal content and whether measures to combat “ information manipulation," especially through its crowd-sourced Community Notes fact-checking feature, were effective. The 27-nation EU will also examine whether X was transparent enough with researchers and will look into suspicions that its user interface, including its blue check subscription service, has a “deceptive design.” “Today we open formal infringement proceedings against @X” under the Digital Services Act, European Commissioner Thierry Breton said Monday in a post on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
#1 Senate Staffer Who Allegedly Filmed Public Sex in Congress Ousted from Ben Cardin’s Office - Jon Levine for The New York Post
A US Senate staffer allegedly caught filming himself having sex in a Judiciary Committee hearing room no longer has his job, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) said on X.“Aidan Maese-Czeropski is no longer employed by the U.S. Senate. We will have no further comment on this personnel matter,” a Cardin spokeswoman told The Post. Maese-Czeropski, a 24-year-old legislative aide, was accused of posting a video of himself in flagrante delicto with another man on a public X account. His face appeared to be clearly visible, according to The Spectator, which first broke the story Friday.
And Now for Something Special 
Oklahoma Teen Overcomes Shyness to Collect and Give Away 54,000 Toys
Reed Marcum was just a kid when he learned that some children in his town of McAlester, Oklahoma, didn’t have any toys under their Christmas tree. A shy kid who was bullied in school, Reed remembered the moment very clearly, since he was no stranger to feeling left out. Whatever the reason, his heart or his blues, he proposed to his mother to hold a toy drive. “There was a great response—lots of people went out and bought new toys to donate, or they sent money for us to buy them,” his mother said. That was all 7 years ago, and now as a university freshman, Reed still drives two-and-a-half hours home from his campus in Stillwater to participate in the annual toy drive, now in its seventh edition. 54,000 toys have so far been given out to kids in McAlester, which unfortunately has a poverty rate of 24% according to international statistics.
