STEPHEN MOORE — Perhaps what's most distressing about the latest collapse in high school test scores is that no one seems to be very distressed. You've probably heard the news that ACT scores have fallen for the sixth straight year. Our high school kids are less equipped for a job or college than at any time in three decades.... (more)

TOWNHALL — Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders will announce on Tuesday that a Chinese state-owned corporation must sell more than 100 acres of agricultural land in northeast Arkansas, the consequence of a law signed by Sanders earlier this year barring ownership of agricultural land by prohibited foreign parties, Townhall has learned.... (more)

JOSEPH FARAH — I've written much about "the world's collective amnesia" when it comes to the so-called "root causes of the Middle East crisis." The conventional wisdom today suggests the new state of Israel in 1948 was to blame for the creation of the Arab refugee problem. The mantra is repeated endlessly by U.S. State Department apparatchiks, Israel's enemies around the globe, and even by well-meaning, guilt-ridden Jews.... (more)

WORLDNETDAILY — In an interview with GB News, former BBC Chief Political Correspondent John Sergeant defended the BBC’s decision to not label Hamas a terrorist organization and smirked at calls to do so.... (more)

TOWNHALL — The Republican Party secured a massive win in Louisiana, putting an end to eight years of Democrat rule, as current Governor John Bel Edwards will be termed out in January. The Republican Party took back the governor’s office after state Attorney General Jeff Landry skated by the required 50 percent threshold in Louisiana’s open primary system. This eliminated the need for a run-off between the top dueling candidates.... (more)

NEWSMAX — Rep. Jim Jordan won the Republican nomination to lead the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, but the hardline conservative appeared to be well short of the support he would need to seize the speaker's gavel. Successive closed-door votes left Jordan with the backing of a majority of House Republicans, but still shy of the 217 votes he would need to win the job.... (more)

WORLDNETDAILY — Israel announced that it killed Ali Qadi, a Hamas commander who spearheaded the mass terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Force (IDF) on Saturday. Qadi led Hamas forces in a brutal terrorist attack against Israel that resulted in the deaths of over 1,300 Israelis and the kidnapping of hundreds more. The IDF and the Israel Security Agency (also known as Shin Bet) confirmed that it killed Qadi on Saturday, as well as Merad Abu Merad, head of the Hamas aerial system, according to The Jerusalem Post.... (more)

BUSINESS STANDARD — The $25 billion international network of foundations started by George Soros is shuttering offices around the world as it prepares to cut more than 40 per cent of its staff. Employees of the Open Society Foundations’ Africa operations received correspondence last week detailing the next steps of the process, which includes closing half a dozen offices in Africa, in addition to Baltimore and Barcelona, according to a copy of emails. “With the decision by the board in June to cut the staff by more than 40 per cent, our staffing size and footprint by necessity needs to diminish,” said Binaifer Nowrojee, OSF’s vice president of programs.... (more)

JERRY NEWCOMBE — It seems that just about every time there’s a major conflict in the Middle East—such as the recent horrific attacks by Hamas on Israeli men, women, and children—someone raises the question, Are we on the way to Armageddon? Is the end of the world just around the corner?... (more)

CBS NEWS — In a surprise move Thursday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced that he is withdrawing his name from the race for the vacant House speaker role. "I just shared with my colleagues that I'm withdrawing my name as a candidate for the speaker designee," Scalise told reporters. The Republican conference on Wednesday nominated Scalise for the speaker position, which has sat vacant since California Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a historic vote last week.... (more)

THE HILL — Now that House Republicans have chosen Majority Leader Steve Scalise as their nominee for speaker, the race is on to secure the 217 votes he will need on the House floor to win the gavel and officially take the place of the ousted Kevin McCarthy. The GOP conference picked Scalise as their nominee on Wednesday in a secret ballot. Lawmakers exiting the room said Scalise won 113 votes, while Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, took 99. A handful of Republicans declined to vote for either.... (more)

WORLDNETDAILY — Lanny Davis, long a liberal and a former adviser to Bill Clinton, says there is no "on the other hand" when dealing with the terrorists of Hamas and their launch of a war against Israel. The attack over the weekend killed hundreds of music festival attendees, as well as civilians in villages near the Gaza border.... (more)

DENNIS PRAGER — “In every generation they arise to annihilate us.” That statement appears in the Haggadah, the book read from at the Passover Seder. The book is about 1,000 years old; the statement is more than 2,000 years old. A generation or two ago, it was the Nazis who arose to annihilate the Jews. In this generation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamic movements have risen to annihilate the Jews.... (more)

BOB UNRUH — Joe Biden's "open border," the result of his decision on taking office to trash the southern border security programs instituted by President Donald Trump, is the "gravest terrorist threat" to the United States, according to a senator. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a report at the Washington Examiner that there have been thousands of illegal aliens from "special interest" nations, those with ties to terrorist groups, arrested at that border since Biden took office.... (more)

FOX NEWS — Former President Trump will not visit Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with congressional Republicans as they consider a next speaker of the House, a source familiar with the 2024 GOP front-runner's plans told Fox News Digital. The former president told Fox News Digital last Thursday that he would visit Washington, D.C., and Capitol Hill to take part in a House Republican Conference as members considered who would become the next speaker of the House, following the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.... (more)

FOX BUSINESS — As Israel regroups to defend its territory, Prime Minister Netanyahu said they will take unprecedented action to clean out the barbaric Hamas militants. We will spend our show's hour with guests from Jerusalem, Southern Israel, Capitol Hill and more, but first, President Biden has said "the U.S. stands with Israel, we will not ever fail to have their back. My administrations support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering."... (more)

NEW YORK POST — Iranian security officials helped the Palestinian terror group Hamas plan its Saturday sneak attack on Israel — and gave the final go-ahead at a meeting last Monday in Beirut, an explosive new report says. Officers from Iran’s infamous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been working with the Gaza Strip-based terrorist organization since August to plan the Oct. 7 attack, which sent thousands of rockets and groups of armed gunmen over the fortified Israeli border, killing more than 700, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.... (more)

NEWSMAX — Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Thursday he had a "great conversation" with former President Donald Trump about Jordan's bid to become the next House speaker, but wouldn't say if he has Trump's support. Jordan also told NBC News that he would not support the expulsion of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who spearheaded the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker this week.... (more)

WORLDNETDAILY — The Biden administration’s U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs reportedly deleted a post telling Israel not to retaliate after a massive attack by Islamist group Hamas at daybreak on Saturday, according to The Jerusalem Post. Hamas launched 5,000 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip in a surprise attack, followed by dozens of gunmen who entered the country and kidnapped many Israelis, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs reportedly posted a message to X — formerly Twitter — calling for “all sides to refrain” from violent retaliation before deleting it, according to the Post.... (more)

ROBERT SPENCER — In its analysis of the war that has begun between Hamas and Israel, CNN noted on Saturday that the Biden regime was just in the process of pressuring Israel to make a series of concessions to the Palestinians in order to further the cause of normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In this, both the sinister establishment media propagandists of CNN and the sinister kleptocrats of the Biden regime betrayed their fundamental failure, or refusal, to understand why there is this apparently endless conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the first place.... (more)

NEWSMAX — The House Judiciary Committee's work on exposing the weaponization of the federal government by the Biden administration will not be hindered if he becomes the next speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Newsmax on Friday. Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee as well as its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, has announced his candidacy to replace Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who was ousted as speaker on Tuesday.... (more)

YOUTUBE — Veteran climate scientist Judith Curry bravely says climate change isn't a “crisis,” and she explains how the scientific community has become corrupted, leading many politicians, and most climate scientists in the media, to portray climate change as a crisis. "People are dying!" shouts Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Bill Nye "the Science Guy" says "The planet's on ****ing fire! This is an actual crisis!" But Curry tells John Stossel there is NO "crisis." Global warming is a problem, yes, but it's manageable. She explains how IPCC scientists recently admitted that their most extreme models won't become reality, and she notes that the worldwide rate of climate-related deaths is falling significantly. For more, watch Stossel's nearly hour-long interview with Curry above.... (more)

JERRY NEWCOMBE — What’s that book those presidents swear in on every four years? Of course, it’s the Bible. Is it just a prop, or is there meaning to that tradition? One of the great religious liberty groups in our day is First Liberty, founded by Kelly Shackelford and based in the Dallas area. First Liberty is fighting the good fight on behalf of our nation’s first liberty, religious liberty—in the courts of the land and in the courts of public opinion.... (more)

BOB UNRUH — One politically historic event already has happened this week: The Republicans removed their own speaker of the U.S. House. And it's possible a second historic event could be in the offing: Installing President Donald Trump as the next speaker. It's because of the open position, which the GOP plans to address as early as next week, and the constitutionally open door that actually would allow Trump to take the top seat in the U.S. House.... (more)

FOX NEWS — DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is citing an "acute and immediate need" to waive dozens of federal laws to build a border wall in south Texas where illegal migration has surged. It's a sharp contrast to dismissals of the use of such barriers in the early days of the administration. The agency posted an announcement on the U.S. Federal Register that outlines construction in Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, where the administration says there is "high illegal entry." The agency says there have been over 245,000 migrant encounters in the sector this fiscal year.... (more)