by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News August 16, 2026

New York state Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a self-proclaimed "democratic socialist," contends that shoplifters who steal for "biological need" should not be charged with a crime.

In comments on Thursday outside Manhattan Criminal Court, Gallagher said:

"Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty-people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap. And that means if you're stealing those things, you need them. And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by. So I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail simply for having a biological need."

Gallagher said her plan is to "pass things like treatment not jail and that we hold the line on the incredible criminal justice reforms that we have done over the last 10 and 20 years that are constantly being threatened by right-wing media who

by WorldTribune Staff, August 16, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday announced it is establishing the first multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force.

Task Force Falcon Strike integrates American military personnel and regional partner nations to operate one-way attack drones and unmanned systems across the air, sea surface, and underwater domains, the Department of War said in a press release.

The Falcon Strike initiative was announced nine months after CENTCOM established Task Force Scorpion Strike, the U.S. military's first dedicated one-way attack drone squadron in the Middle East.

Scorpion Strike rapidly achieved key operational milestones, including the first launch of an aerial attack drone from a Navy warship last December. The squadron also employed one-way unmanned aerial systems during Operation Epic Fury and during strikes on Iranian port facilities in July using unmanned attack vessels at sea.

"Task Force Falcon Strike

by WorldTribune Staff, August 16, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

In May 2021, then-acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock warned Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins that systems tracking side effects from the Covid shots were not working and warned that a failure to thoroughly research those side effects "will come back to bite your," newly released emails show.

Woodcock wrote to Fauci and Collins to encourage a study into reports she had received of adverse events after the Covid injection. Woodcock had received many of these reports from "healthcare professionals," she wrote in the email released by Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson that were obtained from Fauci's government email.

"The symptoms do not fit together into a distinctive syndrome and most are not easily quantifiable or evaluated with standard laboratory testing," she wrote in the May 27, 2021 correspondence. "Clearly during mass vaccination you will get a lot of psychological reactions and it is hard to sort these things out. But the peoples' main complaint is that no one takes them seriously, no

Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, August 16, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

The Deep State, many observers contend, operates a narrative engine that allows it to ensure that higher-ups can deflect blame, dismiss evidence, and safely claim ignorance of any thorny situation its operatives are caught up in.

It's known as plausible deniability.

And it may just extend to the wives of Deep State operatives as well.

An FBI search warrant affidavit reportedly reveals that Patrice Comey, the wife of former FBI Director James Comey, sent him a Google screenshot of a nonviolent definition of the term "86" exactly two minutes before he published his "86 47" seashell photo on Instagram.

According to investigative journalist Paul Sperry, the newly uncovered text indicates preemptive forethought.

Critics argue the Comeys knew the post could be construed as an assassination threat against President Donald Trump (the 47th President) and sought to establish plausible deniability.

The text message is expected to be a central piece of evidence for proving or disproving intent when Comey goes to trial in October.

In May, a North

by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News August 17, 2026

After an inspection visit to Fort Knox, Sen. Rand Paul confirmed the gold was there. The Kentucky Republican then lamented the loss of the dollar's purchasing power since the U.S. severed the currency's link to gold in 1971.

"Yes, the gold is there all (approximately) 147 million ounces," Paul wrote on X after the visit on Aug. 10.

Fort Knox holds 147,341,858.382 fine troy ounces of gold (about 4,580 metric tons), which is roughly half of the total U.S. government gold reserves. Located in Kentucky and managed by the Department of the Treasury, the depository stores standard gold bars weighing about 27 pounds each.

Confirming all the gold in Fort Knox is still in Fort Knox was only part of the story for the senator.

The larger lesson for the country, he said, is what has happened to the dollar while all that gold has remained in the vault.

Paul said the dollar has lost 97% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, adding that $100

Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, August 17, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

The Free State of Florida was one of the first to resist the devastating lockdowns imposed by the Covid overlords.

While Floridians were enjoying that freedom, David Jolly was fleeing the state. He headed for locked-down Pennsylvania, where he proceeded to bash the Sunshine State and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Jolly even proclaimed that obeying strict Covid rules was "greater than the calling of personal freedom."

Breitbart's Hannah Knudsen noted that Jolly had once told a group of people that he and his wife ask themselves every single day, "Should we raise our children in this state?"

Now, Jolly is running for governor of Florida as a Democrat.

He is expected to win Tuesday's Democrat primary. Polls show him with a substantial lead over the four other candidates. The candidate who polled closest to Jolyy, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, pulled out of the race in June after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

During the pandemic, Jolly fled Florida as millions flocked to the state of Florida to taste

by WorldTribune Staff, August 17, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

Parents are expressing shock over what they say is Islam's intrusion into schools in Texas and California.

Field trips to mosques, distributing Qurans and hijabs to students, and handing out pamphlets extolling the upside of Sharia law have all occurred in the past few years in school districts in both states.

"They've never bussed students to temples or churches. They said we must keep religion out of schools. WTF is going on??" one X user commented in reaction to the video.

"Teaching about different religions is one thing. Handing out sacred texts, putting religious clothing on students, photographing them without permission, and framing one faith as the vehicle for social justice is something else entirely," Kyle Reyes, owner of Law Enforcement Today, Blue Lives Matter and The Police Tribune, and CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing noted in a post to LinkedIn.

Students at Palo Alto High School in California "were handed Qurans, encouraged to wear hijabs, and told Islam promotes social justice on a school field trip. Now parents are suing," Reyes noted.

Jewish,

by WorldTribune Staff, August 17, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

Big Tech continues to filter, suppress, and deplatform (mostly conservative) legally protected expression in what critics say is the greatest threat to the First Amendment freedoms of Americans.

Groups such as the America First Policy Institute contend that Big Tech wields unchecked power over public discourse and uses vague terms-of-service policies regarding "hate speech" or "misinformation" which result in viewpoint discrimination and effectively silences (mostly conservative) Americans.

"This isn't a conspiracy theory; it's a documented reality," the Conservative Stack blog noted.

"Before Elon Musk's courageous acquisition of Twitter, the platform worked in concert with government actors to suppress legitimate stories that were inconvenient to the Democratic party, most notoriously the Hunter Biden laptop story just weeks before the 2020 election. This wasn't a mistake or a content moderation error—it was a deliberate act of election interference, plain and simple. President Donald J. Trump, while a sitting president, was permanently banned from the platform, an unprecedented act of political censorship that silenced the leader of the free world."

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