Brazil's Lula seen walking for first time since surgeries

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted an Instagram video on Friday where he can be seen walking for the first time since being rushed to a hospital earlier this week, providing visual evidence of a delicate recovery.

The 79-year-old leftist leader, known simply as Lula, underwent two operations in Sao Paulo's Sirio-Libanes Hospital to relieve and prevent bleeding in his skull.

The latest health scare suffered by the veteran politician, now in his third non-consecutive term as president, has provoked doubts among political analysts, with some arguing that succession plans within Lula's Workers Party would be cast into disarray if he cannot run again in 2026.

The president's spokesman on Thursday shrugged off any concerns that health or age would thwart Lula's expected reelection bid.

In the Instagram video, Lula appears with bandages on the top of his head and on his arm while casually talking with his wife Rosangela da Sivla and doctor Marcos Stavale, who led the surgery.

The video was posted several hours after a medical note from the hospital saying that Lula was in "semi-intensive care," adding that he "remains lucid, is eating normally and walked through the hallways."

Doctors operated on Lula for about two hours on Tuesday to drain bleeding between his brain and meningeal membrane, which they said was linked to a fall at his home in late October.

The president underwent a second procedure on Thursday, a middle meningeal artery embolization, aimed at minimizing the risk of additional bleeding in the future. He later had a drain removed from his head without complications.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazils-lula-doing-well-recovers-144116905.html

Russian cargo plane departs Syria for Libya, more flights expected, official says

 A Russian cargo plane departed from Russia's air base in the Syrian port city of Latakia for Libya on Saturday, a Syrian security official stationed outside the facility said, following rebels' overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad last weekend.

The official told Reuters that additional Russian departures from the Hmeimim air base in Syria's coastal Latakia province were expected in the coming days.

Increased activity has been observed at the air base throughout the day. In addition to the departing cargo plane, an Ilyushin II-76 cargo plane and an Alligator helicopter were seen landing at the base.

Helicopters were also seen flying within the base, and a SU-34 jet landed for refueling. A Zeppelin hovered overhead, and two trucks carrying Russian flags were seen traveling within the base.

On Friday, satellite images showed Russia moving military equipment at Hmeimim air base, with two Antonov AN-124 cargo planes visible.

Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad, granted the ousted Syrian leader asylum last weekend after helping him to flee his country as the rebels approached Damascus.

Moscow has said it hopes to maintain its two bases in Syria - the Hmeimim air base at Latakia and a naval base in Tartous - in order to keep up efforts against what it called international terrorism.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday contacts with the political committee of Syria's Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham were "proceeding in constructive fashion".

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-cargo-plane-departs-syria-072025002.html

Israel Sees 'Opportunity' For Attacking Iran Nuke Sites With Syria Knocked Out

 With Syria burning and no longer a threat, Israel's military said it is currently conducting preparations for "potential strikes" on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Its air force has already been carrying out literally hundreds of raids on Syrian Army bases in the wake of Bashar al-Assad's overthrow. Israel has complete domination of Syria's skies, and given that Assad's anti-air defense missile systems are no longer an issue, this would make it much easier to strike the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to a Thursday report in The Times of Israel, the IDF "believes that following the weakening of Iranian proxy groups in the Middle East and the dramatic fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, there is an opportunity to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, military officials said Thursday."

"The Israeli Air Force has therefore continued to increase its readiness and preparations for such potential strikes in Iran," the report states.

"The IDF also believes that Iran — isolated after the fall of the Assad regime and the weakening of its main proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon — may push ahead further with its nuclear program and develop a bomb as it scrambles to replace its deterrence," it adds.

Iran has long maintained it develops only peaceful nuclear energy, and there's little doubt that after the dramatic events unfolding in Syria, and with Hezbollah top leadership largely decimated, Tehran finds itself on a back foot. 

Some Israeli and Western officials believe that all of this will make Iranian leaders more desperate to ensure they have a final and ultimate defense against any threats (as in rapidly developing a nuke).

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said in a new statement, "The Syrian air defense array is one of the strongest in the Middle East and the blow caused to it is a significant achievement for the Air Force’s superiority in the region."

Any potential preemptive Israeli attack directly on Iran would however unleash more immense anti-Netanyahu controversy in Israel, at a moment he's already under fire by hostage victims' families for his handling of Gaza.

Israel and Hezbollah just achieved a long hoped-for ceasefire in Lebanon, and any attacks on Iran could also open up that front again, at a moment Israel is trying for the safe return of its citizens to northern towns and settlements, which the ceasefire is aimed to achieve. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/idf-sees-opportunity-attacking-iran-nuke-sites-syria-knocked-out

Amazon To Donate $1 Million to Trump's Inauguration Fund, Live Stream On Prime Video

by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Amazon said Thursday it will donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund and an additional $1 million in-kind donation by live-streaming the historical event on Prime Video.

Jeff Bezos speaks during an Action on Forests and Land Use event on day three of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 2, 2021. Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Amazon’s announcement, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, coincided with news that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

The move marks a shift for tech leaders who appear to want to improve the previously rocky relations with Trump, who will take office next month.

Trump has previously criticized the Amazon- and Jeff Bezos-owned The Washington Post over political coverage. Bezos has publicly condemned some of Trump’s rhetoric and accused him of bias in a 2019 lawsuit over a $10 billion Pentagon contract.

Bezos has recently softened his stance, expressing optimism about Trump’s second term and endorsing proposed regulatory reforms while at a business summit last week.

Bezos and Trump are set to meet next week, potentially marking a turning point in their relationship.

Amazon’s donation and live-streaming offer, as well as Meta’s donation, signal a strategic effort to improve relations with Trump and his incoming administration after years of tension.

Trump’s relationship with Meta was strained by the suspension of his Facebook and Instagram accounts in January 2021, following the breach of the Capitol. The company attributed the deplatforming to what they said was Trump’s “praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6.”

The company restored his accounts in early 2023 and announced stiffer penalties for public figures who repeatedly violate its policies “in ways that incite or celebrate ongoing violent events or civil unrest.”

This heightened scrutiny was later revoked on July 12, one day before the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Zuckerberg expressed praise for Trump following his brush with death, and called him.

“Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most bad-[expletive] things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg days after the shooting.

Trump’s stance on Zuckerberg has also softened since the call, he revealed on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast. Trump said during the interview that he appreciated the tech leader’s call and praised him for “staying out of the election.”

This was a reference to the $400 million Zuckerberg and his wife donated $400 million to election offices around the country during the 2020 elections, with 90 percent directed toward Democrat-leaning counties in key swing states.

In recent months, Zuckerberg has publicly supported some of Trump’s economic plans.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, has said Zuckerberg wants to support and assist the president-elect in implementing national reforms. The donation marks a turning point in the billionaires’ previously rocky relationship.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/amazon-donate-1-million-trumps-inauguration-fund-live-stream-prime-video 

Yes, It Was A Landslide

 by J.T.Young via American Greatness,

Having lost the election, demoralized Democrats now argue their defeat wasn’t a landslide. Nice try. Their reaction is more than knee-jerk petulance; instead, it arises from fears of permanence. With Trump gaining momentum, even before his inauguration, Democrats rightfully fear that they could fare even worse in 2028 and beyond.

Before the election, the Democrats’ presidential complaint was the Electoral College. Certain they would win the popular vote, Tim Walz, speaking in October, voiced what other Democrats thought: “I think all of us know the electoral college needs to go.” On the night of November 5, their concern changed. Now Democrat apologists (CNN, NYT, LAT, and more) are all arguing to diminish Trump’s victory—and thereby his momentum.

While Democrats and their supporters’ need is understandable, Trump’s landslide gets bigger the more it is scrutinized.

Even on the surface, its particulars are impressive. Trump was the Republicans’ first presidential candidate to beat a Democrat in the popular vote in 20 years. He won more popular votes than any Republican presidential candidate in history. He won each of the contest’s seven swing states—and he came close to flipping several (NJ, VA, NM, NH, and MN) seemingly solid blue states. And he won the electoral vote 312-226.

Conversely, compared to Biden in 2020, Democrats’ popular vote percentage dropped in 50 of 51 states and the District of Columbia, going up only in Utah by a scant 0.2 percentage points.

Big as Trump’s win was on the surface, closer examination shows it was bigger still.

Trump’s victory came despite finishing behind Harris by over four million votes in California and New York combined and despite these states combining for 84 electoral votes. Dismissing the result in these two states, Trump won by five percentage points in the other 48 states and 312 to 142 in electoral votes. Take away the results of Massachusetts and Washington, and Trump won by almost seven percentage points in the popular vote and 312-121 in the electoral vote.

Basically, apart from the coasts, Trump won overwhelmingly: where 80 percent of the presidential electoral votes are, Trump won three-quarters of them.

Next, put these impressive numbers into the context of their occurrence.

Trump amassed these numbers while being enormously outraised and outspent. Harris had hundreds of millions more to fuel her campaign than Trump did. And she had to only focus on the seven swing states that everyone knew were the fulcrum of the contest. Yet, Trump still swept all seven—something that neither he nor Biden had been able to do in 2016 and 2020.

Trump also rang up his numbers despite eight years of unrelenting negativity from the establishment media. For almost a decade, there has been nothing approaching balanced coverage: regardless of his opponent—Hillary, Biden, and Harris—each received a strong establishment media tailwind. Yet despite this, Trump increased his general election popular vote percentage each time.

And that establishment media bias was never stronger than in the aftermath of Biden’s withdrawal.

For over 100 days, the establishment media gave Harris a pass: on press conferences, on interviews, on evading questions, on softball venues when she did appear, on often not answering questions in even these friendly confines, and on nonsensical responses when she did speak.

And Trump won despite having almost the entirety of America’s self-styled elite opposing him.

In academia, in Hollywood, in music, in sports, the coolest of the cool and the biggest of the big were overwhelmingly and vocally against him. Not surprisingly, in the face of all this opposition, Trump’s favorability rating was below Harris’s.

Yet, Trump still racked up his impressive numbers.

Despite every conceivable disadvantage, Trump beat not one, but two Democrat nominees to win the presidency. Outright - not only in electoral votes but by almost 2.5 million votes.

That is the definition of a landslide.

Of late, Americans have suffered a surfeit of Democrats and their apologists saying something isn’t true when it patently is—that Joe Biden was capable of being president, that the Democrat elite wasn’t deposing Joe Biden when they drove him from the ticket, that Kamala Harris was his qualified replacement, that Joe Biden wouldn’t pardon Hunter. The list is endless; it stretches back in time and extends uninterrupted into it. But nowhere is Democrat denial greater than in their attempt to deny Trump’s November presidential landslide.

Their reason is as obvious as the truth they are seeking to deny. They fear its repetition.

They worry that Republicans will continue Trump’s conservative populism, and they know that next time 2024’s overwhelming advantages will be gone. Bad as November’s landslide was, the ones Democrats potentially face going forward could be far worse.

*  *  *

J.T. Young is the author of the new book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left, from RealClear Publishing, and has over three decades of experience working in Congress, the Department of Treasury, and OMB, and representing a Fortune 20 company.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/yes-it-was-landslide

MicroStrategy, Palantir, Axon Score With Nasdaq 100 Additions

 

• Moderna, Illumina and Super Micro to leave tech-heavy index
• Changes are effective prior to market open on Dec. 23

MicroStrategy Inc., the dot-com-era software maker whose metamorphosis into a leveraged bet on Bitcoin has transfixed Wall Street, is joining the Nasdaq 100 Index, the benchmark’s overseer said Friday. Software company Palantir Technologies Inc. and Axon Enterprise Inc., a maker of Tasers and police body cameras, will also be added.

Illumina Inc., Super Micro Computer Inc. and Moderna Inc. will be removed from the Nasdaq 100. The changes will be effective prior to market open on Monday, Dec. 23.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-14/microstrategy-palantir-added-to-nasdaq-100-moderna-removed

California Docs, Hospitals Sued For Rushing 12-Year-Old Into Gender Transition

 A 20-year-old woman has filed suit against California hospitals and doctors, saying they rushed to conclude she suffered from gender dysphoria and then “fast-tracked [her] onto the conveyor belt of irreversibly damaging” medical interventions that included puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and a double-mastectomy at age 14.  

According to the complaint filed in Los Angeles, Kaya Clementine Breen says she was sexually abused as a young child and that, around age 11 or 12, "began struggling with the thought of developing into a woman and began to believe that life would be easier if she were a boy." When she shared those feelings with a school counselor, the counselor told Breen that she must be transgender, and then called her parents to push the same assumption as a fact. 

Kaya Clementine Breen says she was irreversibly damaged by doctors and others who hastily commenced "gender-affirming" care on her at age 12 

Breen's parents sought out "experts" at the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, including Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, one of the world's most vocal advocates for the gender-transitioning of children. "At her very first visit, after mere minutes, Dr. Olson-Kennedy diagnosed Clementine with gender dysphoria and recommended surgical implantation of puberty blockers," according to the complaint, which also alleges that Olson-Kennedy neglected to perform a mental-health assessment or inquire about past trauma or abuse. 

Echoing a grievance that commonly surfaces in the gender-transition realm, the complaint alleges Olson-Kennedy told Breen's parents that their daughter would "commit suicide if she did not begin taking testosterone...At that time, Clementine had never had any thoughts of suicide, and she certainly had never expressed anything along those lines to Dr Olson-Kennedy." According to The Economist, Olson-Kennedy's own notes made no mention of suicidal ideation. Ironically, it was only after enduring transition procedures and "therapies" that Breen would later attempt suicide as her mental health declined and she contended with extreme depression and anger. 

The fateful Dec. 27, 2016 consultation with Olson-Kennedy led to years of drastic medical alterations of Breen's body. These included puberty-blockers at age 12, cross-sex hormones starting from age 13 through 19 and a "gender-affirming" double-mastectomy at just 14 years old. She was also "urged" to have a hysterectomy at age 17, though it's unclear from the complaint if she did so. The mastectomy surgeon is among the many defendants, and is accused of his own negligence in carrying out the drastic procedure, having only met Breen for about 30 minutes on the very morning of the life-altering surgery.  

Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy is accused of baselessly telling Breen's parents their daughter would commit suicide if she didn't commence a gender transition at age 12

It was only via mental health care that she started receiving near the end of high school that Breen eventually concluded she was not "trans" after all. She stopped identifying as a male named "Finn," and has begun de-transitioning -- to the extent it's possible. Summarizing Breen's experience as "a despicable, failed medical experiment and a knowing, deliberate, and gross breach of the standard of care," the complaint lays out a long and disturbing list of enduring harms:

She has suffered physically, socially, neurologically, and psychologically. Her voice has permanently deepened. Her female body did not develop, and she has a very masculine body structure. Her fertility is almost certainly destroyed from the combination of years on puberty blockers and testosterone.

And even if she could conceive and deliver a child, she would not be able to breastfeed because her healthy breasts were removed when she was only 14. And she has to seethe scars from that unnecessary surgery every day. She has experienced vaginal atrophy, and her sex life has been materially impacted. She is also at risk for bone-related problems later in life.

Breen's experience closely matches the picture Megyn Kelly painted in her searing indictment of "gender-affirming care" during her October appearance on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher": 

Olson-Kennedy came under fire earlier this year when she admitted to withholding the findings of her team's research, which found puberty blockers did not result in mental health improvements for children, telling the New York Times, “I do not want our work to be weaponized. It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time." Earlier this year, a British study concluded that a great many children who think they may be transgender have mental health issues that spring from abuse or difficult family situations.  

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/california-docs-hospitals-sued-rushing-12-year-old-gender-transition