Ocular Therapeutix (NASDAQ:OCUL) rose 6% amid takeover speculation. There's speculation that a French pharmaceutical company is circling Ocular Therapeutix (NASDAQ:OCUL), according to traders, who cited a Betaville "uncooked" alert that was circulating on Friday.
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Over 1,900 Arrests Made In DC Since Federal Takeover Of Policing
by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,
The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and federal partners have conducted more than 1,900 arrests since President Donald Trump federalized policing in the nation’s capital.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Sept. 5 that, in addition to the total arrests, in just the days of Sept. 4–5, there were 26 arrests involving FBI personnel, five gun recoveries, and four drug seizures.
Trump federalized the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department on Aug. 11, ordering about 800 National Guard troops to assist with law enforcement.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,“ Trump said at a White House press briefing at the time.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also lauded the federal cooperation by law enforcement, saying Department of Justice (DOJ) statistics show 73 total arrests for Sept. 4 alone. Bondi also said that since the federalization of policing in Washington, there have been 200 illegal guns taken off the streets.
The same day, Patel also confirmed, in a post on X, the arrests of two suspects believed to have been involved in the murder of Capitol Hill intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym.
Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, an intern for Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) and a University of Massachusetts student, was shot and killed on June 30. At the time, police believed he was an innocent bystander in the shooting, which injured two others.
Bondi said in a Sept. 5 post on X that if convicted, the two suspects will face “severe justice,” and that she hopes it provides “some measure of solace to his family.”
Patel thanked members of the Metropolitan Police Department and said, “We are delivering on President Trump’s promise to make DC safe again.”
The National Guard presence in Washington has surged to nearly 2,300 troops, and the Pentagon mobilized another 1,700 National Guard members across 19 states to bolster federal immigration enforcement.
A Joint Task Force–D.C spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement on Aug. 24 that troops had arrived in Washington from West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee for a total of 2,270 National Guard members.
Trump has voiced an interest in sending National Guard troops to other major cities, including New York and Chicago, to enforce a similar crackdown on crime in major metropolitan areas.
Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the largest seizure of fentanyl and meth precursors in U.S. history, at a Sept. 3 news conference in Houston.
Pirro spoke to reporters while standing in front of 1,300 barrels of chemicals, and asked those in attendance to “imagine bodies where those barrels are,” saying the work of law enforcement would save lives by keeping drugs such as fentanyl off the streets.
Pirro said it would take 24 18-wheelers to transport the seized chemicals to a storage facility.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/more-1900-arrests-made-dc-federal-takeover-policing
'Israelis call on U.S. President to end Gaza war'
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, issuing direct appeals to U.S. President Donald Trump to force an end to the Gaza war and secure the release of the hostages.
Protesters packed a public square outside the military headquarters, waving Israeli flags and holding placards with images of the hostages. Some carried signs, including one that read: 'Trump's legacy crumbles as the Gaza war persists'.
Another said: "PRESIDENT TRUMP, SAVE THE HOSTAGES NOW!"
"We think that Trump is the only man in the world who has authority over Bibi, that can force Bibi to do this," said Tel Aviv resident Boaz, 40, referring to the Israeli prime minister.
There is growing despair among many Israelis at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has ordered the military to capture a major urban centre where hostages may be held.
Families of the hostages and their supporters fear the assault on Gaza City could endanger their loved ones, a concern the military leadership shares, according to Israeli officials.
Orna Neutra, the mother of an Israeli soldier who was killed on October 7, 2023 and whose body is being held in Gaza by militants, accused the government of abandoning its citizens.
"We truly hope that the United States will push both sides to finally reach a comprehensive deal that will bring them home," she told the rally. Her son, Omer, is also American.
Tel Aviv has witnessed weekly demonstrations that have grown in size, with protesters demanding that the government secure a ceasefire with Hamas to obtain the release of hostages. Organisers said Saturday night's rally was attended by tens of thousands. A large demonstration was also held in Jerusalem.
NO PURPOSE
Trump had pledged a swift end to the war in Gaza during his presidential campaign, but nearly eight months into his second term, a resolution has remained elusive. On Friday, he said that Washington was engaged in "very deep" negotiations with Hamas.
Israeli forces have carried out heavy strikes on the suburbs of Gaza City, where, according to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing famine. Israeli officials acknowledge that hunger exists in Gaza but deny that the territory is facing famine. On Saturday, the military warned civilians in Gaza City to leave and move to southern Gaza.
There are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in the city that was home to around a million before the war.
A video released by Hamas on Friday featured Israeli hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, saying that he was being held in Gaza City and feared being killed by the military's assault on the city. Rights groups have condemned such videos of hostages as inhumane. Israel says that it is psychological warfare.
The war has become unpopular among some segments of Israeli society, and opinion polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu's right-wing government to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Hamas that secures the release of the hostages.
"The war has no purpose at all, except for violence and death," said Boaz from Tel Aviv. Adam, 48, said it had become obvious that soldiers were being sent to war for "nothing".
Hamas has offered to release some hostages for a temporary ceasefire, similar to terms that were discussed in July before negotiations mediated by the U.S. and Arab states collapsed.
The militant group, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, on Saturday once again said that it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw its forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
The prime minister has said Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian militant group, whose October 2023 attack on Israel led to the war.
Hamas has acknowledged it would no longer govern Gaza once the war ends but has refused to discuss laying down its weapons.
Microsoft says Azure cloud service disrupted by fiber cuts in Red Sea
Microsoft (MSFT) said on Saturday that its Microsoft Azure users may experience increased latency due to multiple undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea.
Traffic traversing through the Middle East originating and or terminating in Asia or Europe regions may experience increased disruptions, the company said in a service status update for its Azure service.
“Undersea fiber cuts can take time to repair, as such we will continuously monitor, rebalance, and optimize routing to reduce customer impact in the meantime,” Microsoft said.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-says-azure-disrupted-fiber-205024704.html
"Summer COVID Wave" Prompts Panic In California; Masks Recommended
At least one official in California has recommended that residents wear masks indoors due to an increase in COVID-19 in recent days.
Wastewater data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday show that California is seeing “very high” levels of the virus, while all states on the West Coast are either at “high” or “very high” levels.
As Jack Phillips reports for The Epoch Times, the top health official for Yolo County, located outside Sacramento, said in a statement last week that residents are advised to wear masks indoors. No mandate was issued.
“California is experiencing a summer COVID wave,” Aimee Sisson, the Yolo County health officer, said in the statement.
“Based on current wastewater levels of the virus that causes COVID-19, I recommend that everybody in West Sacramento wear a mask when they are around others in indoor public spaces.”
“I also recommend that people in the rest of Yolo County wear masks when they are around others indoors if they are 65 or older, have a weakened immune system, have an underlying medical condition that puts them at a greater risk of severe COVID-19, or spend time around people who fall into these categories.”
Sisson’s office also said in a news release issued by the county that “wearing a high-quality mask such as an N95, KN95, or KF94 that fits well continues to provide strong protection” before touting vaccines for the virus.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health told the Los Angeles Times, in an article published Sept. 3 that suggests multiple California officials have recommended masking, that it is also recommending people “consider wearing a well-fitted mask in crowded indoor spaces, including when traveling, and to stay at home if they feel sick.”
Multiple requests from The Epoch Times to the city health department have not been returned as of Friday.
In Canada, New Brunswick’s Horizon Health Network told The Epoch Times this week that it would mandate masks for certain clinical areas due to a rise in respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19. Several weeks ago, the government of Honduras announced it had reinstated a nationwide mask mandate in health care settings due to a rise in respiratory viruses.
Last year, multiple California counties implemented mandatory mask requirements in health care settings that lasted from November 2024 until the spring of this year, including counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of the countywide mandates were meant only for employees, while one county required all visitors and patients to wear a mask.
An Epoch Times review suggests that no counties in the United States have recently issued mask mandates or are planning to issue mask mandates for the coming fall or winter months.
The Epoch Times contacted the California Department of Public Health for comment.
An update on the agency’s website posted in late June recommends that certain people wear masks or an N95 respirator variant, particularly if they suspect they were exposed to an infection or “are at a high-risk of becoming severely ill.”
It comes as California, Oregon, Washington state, and Hawaii formed a “West Coast Health Alliance” in response to decisions made by U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including his shakeup of the CDC’s advisory panel.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/summer-covid-wave-prompts-panic-california-masks-recommended
Prayer Works, According to Science
The role of prayer in civil society has emerged in the wake of the Annunciation Catholic School shooting, and this may be a blessing of sorts amidst the tragedy.
This is because scientific research has shown time and again that religious faith and the practice of prayer check pathologies and improve quality of life on almost every level.
However, politicians and commentators belittled “thoughts and prayers” as ineffective in preventing other mass killings. Others, from Vice President JD Vance to Bishop Robert Barron to Franciscan University, were quick to emphasize prayer’s importance in moments of anguish and darkness. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security even tweeted, “Pray without ceasing.”
Both, in some sense, recognize a deep societal sickness has gripped America’s youth for decades, albeit reaching different conclusions. Yet the precipitous rise in anxiety and depression among younger demographics has been coupled with the collapse of regular prayer and religious practice. This should not go unnoticed: the stock of scientific evidence shows prayer produces psychological benefits, reducing stress, loneliness, and fear, as well as increased connection to community. Religious people often live longer too.
In short, those who pray are generally happier.
In extreme cases, a lack of spiritual purpose and practice can contribute to isolation and pathologies culminating in self-harm and hatred and violence toward others. Robert “Robin” Westman — the transgender Minnesota shooter — is such a case. His manifesto reveals a twisted spiritual battle, even so far as depicting his reflection as a demon.
Prayer, however, is not a simple psychological activity, ritual words and postures, or an irrational “neurosis” as Sigmund Freud asserted — but physically, emotionally, and spiritually efficacious with wider implications for an individual and society at-large.
In a religious context, prayer is conversing with God Himself. It allows space to not only offer intentions and discern His will for our lives, but to draw strength for the spiritual battle against Satan and the principalities of darkness, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states. Indeed, the practice is a “vital necessity” for the soul, in which one deepens their relationship with Him.
Detractors, however, would want us to believe otherwise — and the Devil applauds.
Indeed, since the new millennium, fewer Americans are praying. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 44% of people pray each day, which is a decline from 2007, when 58% prayed at least once a day. The report suggests the rise in religious unaffiliates — or “nones” — and the decline of “self-reported frequency of prayer” among Catholics and Christians are the main factors in waning worship.
However, for decades, young teens have not only been influenced by the New Atheists, poor catechesis, and mass apostasy due in part to the horrific clerical sexual abuse scandal, but a lax religiosity known as moral therapeutic deism. In Christian Smith’s Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (2005), he argues that “religion is widely practiced and positively valued by teens, but also de-prioritized and very poorly understood by them.” This belief system affirms adopters to be nice; that God exists to make one feel good; God is distant; all good people go to heaven; and to not act evil.
Spiritual rigor, therefore, is deemed unnecessary. But God is not merely a spiritual ATM, as Father Mike Schmitz — host of The Bible in a Year podcast — emphasizes. Moreover, worldly ambitions and pleasures cannot sustain us, failing to fill the “infinite” caverns of our hearts, which St. John of the Cross describes. Only God can do so since He is infinite.
Yet the past few years have wrought particularly hard circumstances: the pandemic, voluminous social media and pornography usage, anxiety toward artificial intelligence, widening polarization, cultural unrest, and an increasingly unattainable American Dream.
But even in the midst of those worldly plights, God — who is love itself — gives our lives meaning; and prayer is the avenue to approach Him. Certainly, once can surmise Westman — who clearly endured mental and spiritual illnesses — shunned prayer when it mattered most. In the end, he lost the spiritual fight.
Thankfully, Generation Z and millennials are beginning to realize prayer’s importance through consistent religious practice. Young adults have flocked to the Catholic Church in order to find purpose and stand athwart the “cultural drift,” according to the New York Post. Indeed, young adults are “now the most regular churchgoers, outpacing older generations, who once formed the backbone of church attendance,” according to a recent Barna study.
In the wake of mass shootings, policymakers and media personnel often advocate for gun or mental health reforms. While these may be well-intentioned, they mask the persistent underlying “happiness crisis” confronting Americans. Beyond the physical realities, as scientific studies have demonstrated, prayer’s metaphysical and spiritual fruits are more transformative to mind, body, and soul, deepening our filial trust in our Creator. In prayer, we know God loves us — even in the darkest trials of life.
That, in turn, impacts how one participates in and engages with civil society, which religiously affiliated persons are more inclined to do.
In the spiritual battle for America’s soul, we should not ignore science: prayer is necessary to combat the social ills of the age in order to build a more vibrant, connected society. Unlike what some commentators suggest, the United States needs a resurgence of prayer — not less. The empirical evidence proves as much.
Instead, we should seek His wisdom; recognize the spiritual war we are all engulfed in; and strive to do His will.
May the victims of the Annunciation shooting be with the Almighty God. May God bless our politicians and commentators. And may we reignite a spirit of prayer — and pray without ceasing.
Andrew Fowler is the Editor of RealClearReligion. He is also the Communications Specialist at Yankee Institute and author of "The Condemned," a novella about a Catholic priest fighting off the cartel to save the residents of a small desert town (which you can find here).
https://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2025/09/05/prayer_works_according_to_science_1133060.html
When you read 'Experts Say,' stop
One of the great lessons of the past decade is that when you read a variation of “experts say” in a headline, you ought to think twice and for yourself.
This week, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) voted on a resolution that accused Israel of committing genocide in its war against Hamas. Like moths to a flame, the mainstream press ran wild with the story of the organization’s declaration.
“Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, Leading Scholars’ Association Says,” ran the headline in The Washington Post.
The Guardian quoted the president of the association, Melanie O’Brien, declaring that the resolution represented “a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide.” In another interview with ABC News Australia, O’Brien boasted that the resolution passed with nearly 90 percent support.
The BBC’s headline read: “Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza, World’s Leading Experts Say.”
The problem for these publications is that if you kick the tires—even slightly—it becomes obvious that the resolution is a sham, top to bottom.
Let’s start with the organization itself. According to O’Brien, the members of her organization “mainly consist of people who are academics, so scholarly experts, but our membership is also made up of people who come from different communities within the field of genocide prevention, education, and punishment.”
On Tuesday evening, Salo Aizenberg, a board member of Honest Reporting and contributor to NGO Monitor, tested that proposition. After exploring the IAGS website, he found that he could become a member of the organization with just a $30 contribution. “This organization that purports to be a leading organization of scholars is open to anyone who is interested,” he told The Free Press.
After Aizenberg posted about his new membership to X, others joined in on the fun. Newly minted genocide scholars now include Emperor Palpatine, the villain of the Star Wars franchise; Adolf Hitler of Gaza City; and our favorite, “Mo Cookie,” who turns out to be the Cookie Monster wearing a green scarf with the Hamas logo.
IAGS’s open membership is important because as Aizenberg learned in his research on the website, 80 of the 500 members of IAGS all claim to be based in Iraq—a country not known for universities with robust genocide scholarship. But it’s even worse than that. Only 108 out of the organization’s 500 members actually voted for the resolution. So contra O’Brien, only 21.6 percent of the IAGS supported it, not nearly 90 percent. That figure represents 108 out of the 129 people who bothered voting for the resolution at all.
What’s more: The process appears rigged from the start.
One IAGS member, Sara Brown, the author of Gender and Genocide in Rwanda, posted on X that the leadership of the organization prevented members from filing comments criticizing the resolution before the vote. “We were promised a town hall, which is a common practice for controversial resolutions,” she wrote, “but the president of the association reversed that. The association has also refused to disclose who were the authors of the resolution.”
After reading through the resolution, it’s easy to understand why the identities of the authors were shielded from the other members of the group. It’s riddled with inaccuracies and deceptive language. For example, the first paragraph asserts that Israel has killed “59,000 adults and children in Gaza,” without distinguishing between civilians and Hamas fighters.
The resolution makes no mention of how Hamas places weapons caches in homes, schools, and hospitals. Nor does it bother to note that Hamas fighters wear plain clothes. It fails to acknowledge the elaborate and massive tunnel network underneath Gaza, and how the portals to this subterranean city are often situated in residential buildings.
Another source for the resolution is Francesca Albanese, the discredited UN special rapporteur. In December she posted on X that “many Jewish people worldwide, unconditionally in love with Israel, live a lie. Premised upon the invisibilization/erasure of the Palestinians, Israel’s founding ideology (and lie) is now leading to a genocide. What a disgraceful epilogue.”
Whatever one wants to call this, it’s not scholarship. But it’s also—at this point—to be expected. To read a headline with “[Insert Topic], Experts Say” today begs disbelief on the part of the reader, in part because of stories like this one. Activists are dressed up as scholars and subject matter experts, and their words are taken as gospel in news reports.
Today, professors, journalists, and so-called human rights organizations enlist themselves in an information war to defame the world’s only Jewish state. They conduct their campaign even though it is helping Hamas, the authors of the October 7, 2023 pogrom, survive and continue its reign of terror in Gaza.
No wonder Hamas hailed the IAGS resolution in a statement on Monday evening. An organization whose explicit goal is to commit genocide against Israel and the Jewish people has been recast as the victims of a genocide by the country trying to prevent it.
As the genocide scholar Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt told The Free Press: “These scholars are politicizing the field. . . . Their selective criticism (and failure to condemn the originators of the entire conflagration) speaks volumes.”
Lipstadt is right, and we’ll go a step further: Since there’s such consensus among so-called scholars, IAGS ought to release the names of Israel’s “genocide” accusers.
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