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y88 games The number of Queenslanders who avoided prosecution for drug possession under the Police Drug Diversion Program more than tripled after the former Labor government widened the scope. While the program previously applied to those caught with small amounts of cannabis, in May this year it was expanded to include other illicit substances such as heroin, cocaine and ice. The move coincided with the expansion of police wanding operations, which continue to detect more people with drugs than knives, especially in Brisbane entertainment precincts. The Queensland government is set to wind back the state’s drug diversion program, despite it having the support of police and health groups. Credit: Adobe Stock Under the diversion program , people found to be carrying drugs for personal use are given three chances before they face a criminal charge. An official warning is followed by an agreement to attend an assessment program and seek treatment. Queensland Police Service data shows that in the six months since the scope of the program was widened, 9,057 people were diverted from the criminal justice system. Loading By comparison, 2,307 people were diverted in the same period (May 3 to November 3) the previous year. Police and health groups had welcomed the changes, saying it allowed officers to focus on serious crime while promoting positive health practices in the community. However, the Liberal National Party campaigned on the need for tougher crime policies , and the Crisafulli government intends to wind back the program.WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump's supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump's movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump's Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer , a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer's comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks , whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar." Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government , weighed in, defending the tech industry's need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump's world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment. Musk, the world's richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect , was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump's movement but his stance on the tech industry's hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry's need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Trump's own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration , including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order , which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump's businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club , and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country" and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country," he told the “All-In" podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump's budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the 1948 Nakba, is the latest from a daring dev

Originally published Nov. 21 on IdahoCapitalSun.com . Pete Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense , has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy. Hegseth is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Christ Church, a controversial congregation in Moscow, Idaho, that has become a leader in the movement to get more Christianity in the public sphere. In an appearance last year on the Christ Church-connected streaming show “Crosspolitic,” Hegseth talked about how building up fundamentalist Christian education systems is important in what he sees as a “spiritual battle” with the secular world. He sees Christian students as foot soldiers in that war and refers to Christian schools as “boot camp.” “We’re in middle phase one right now, which is effectively a tactical retreat where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize and as you do so, you build your army underground with the opportunity later on of taking offensive operations – and obviously all of this is metaphorical and all that good stuff,” he said on the show. Hegseth did not immediately respond to requests for an interview. HEGSETH HAS SPOKEN POSITIVELY ABOUT CHRIST CHURCH PASTOR DOUG WILSON'S WRITINGS Christ Church is led by Pastor Doug Wilson, who founded the Calvinist group of churches called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. CREC has congregations in nearly all 50 states and several foreign countries. Hegseth’s church is a member of CREC, and Hegseth has spoken positively of Wilson’s writings. Wilson and his allies have a rigid patriarchal belief system and don’t believe in the separation of church and state. They support taking away the right to vote from most women, barring non-Christians from holding office and criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community. Recently, Wilson has increased his influence nationally as he’s built a religious, educational and media empire. His Association of Classical Christian Schools has hundreds of fundamentalist schools around the country, and his publishing outfit Canon Press churns out dozens of titles a year as well as popular streaming shows that highlight unyielding socially conservative ideals. In the recently released podcast, “Extremely American” (created by this reporter), Wilson says one of his goals is to get like-minded people into positions of influence. In an emailed response for this story, he said he’s closer to that post-election and that he supports Hegseth’s nomination, though he downplayed any influence he has on him. “I was grateful for Trump’s win, and believe that it is much more likely that Christians with views similar to mine will receive positions in the new administration,” he said. HEGSETH NOMINATION COULD THREATEN COHESION, DIVERSITY OF U.S. MILITARY, EXPERTS SAY That’s what worries Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, who is the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation . Weinstein says Hegseth, if confirmed as Secretary of Defense, would threaten the cohesion of a religiously and racially diverse U.S. military. “Pete Hegseth is a poster child for literally everything that would be the opposite of what you would want to have for someone who’s controlling the technologically most lethal organization in the history of this country,” he said. Weinstein sees Hegseth’s nomination as an example of the dangers of Project 2025, a 900-page policy paper written by far-right political activists. It lays out a plan to gut the federal government and install Christian nationalist ideals. “Christian nationalism is an absolute fatal cancer metastasizing at light speed (for) the national security of this country,” he said. “It is a Christian version of the Taliban.” Matthew D. Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said Hegseth is “one of the most extreme far right figures ever nominated to a cabinet post, at least in modern memory.” Taylor said he’s broadly concerned about Christian nationalists, who tend to take a dim view of democracy, potentially having a lot of sway in this administration. “I think we should expect a profound degradation of our democratic norms of the rule of law, and I think we are edging closer to a de facto Anglo Protestant establishment, of the kind where Anglo Protestant Christianity as the de facto official religion in the United States,” he said. Hegseth faces some headwinds in his nomination process due to multiple marital sex scandals and the recent revelation that he paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault in exchange for her not speaking about it. He denies he assaulted her but admits he paid her . He’s also gotten criticism for tattoos that are symbols of the Crusades and wrote a book titled “American Crusade,” where he derides Muslims. Before becoming a TV personality, Hegseth led the conservative veterans group Concerned Veterans for America, which advocated for increased privatization of veterans’ health care. He has also said that women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles in the military, and has complained about what he terms “woke” policies in the military.Removing the Bible from classrooms across the country has led to devastating effects like increases in crime and teen pregnancy, according to lobbyist Blaine Conzatti. Conzatti, president of the Christian nonprofit Idaho Family Policy Center , told the Times-News Tuesday that he believes it's time to bring the Bible back. He said he has drafted a bill for the 2025 Idaho Legislative session that would create a legal requirement for public schools to ensure that 20 Bible verses be read in classrooms every morning. According to tax forms, the center is a Boise-based group that advances the lordship of Christ in the public square and trains statesmen to advocate for Judeo-Christian values. "It is our belief that our children and our communities are starved for the biblical principles that once made our society the greatest in the world," Conzatti said. "That's why we're arguing that it's critical for the Idaho state Legislature to take this historic opportunity and bring the Bible back into the classroom." The Bible is read aloud Nov. 25, 2013, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City. He said the Bible was read in Idaho classrooms for over 100 years, ending in 1964. He said the draft legislation is similar to an Idaho law passed in 1925, but with significant updates to ensure it passes modern constitutional muster. The new bill includes conscience protections for teachers and students who do not want to participate, he said. Conzatti said he is not concerned about how students who practice other religions would feel if the Bible was read every day. He said the draft legislation includes no assignments, discussion or instruction of the Bible. "We are not expecting anyone to affirm the Christian religion," he said. He added that he does not believe the legislation would open the door for reading other holy texts, like the Quran, as there is not a history and tradition of reading the Quran in this country. To back up his constitutional argument, Conzatti said he has seen a shift recently in federal judiciary establishment clause jurisprudence. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free practice thereof. Conzatti said he truly believes school sponsored Bible reading is constitutional and he said he is not trying to create a test case for the U.S. Supreme Court. "It took place in Idaho for around 100 years until a federal court and an activist judge invalidated the practice," Conzatti said. Local thoughts The Times-News spoke with four state legislators and one Twin Falls pastor to hear their thoughts on requiring the Bible in the classroom and using public funds for private schools. Sen. Ron Taylor (D-Hailey) will be the only Democratic legislator from the Magic Valley and the only legislator the Times-News spoke with who referenced the U.S. Constitution. He said the state is constitutionally bound to require free and fair education to everyone, but not bound to provide religious doctrine. "Our Constitution has a very clear delineation of church and state," Taylor said. Taylor said he has voted against public funds for private schools before and he will do it again. He expressed clear opposition to the Idaho Family Policy Center's proposal. "We should not be reading the Bible in our public schools," Taylor said. Taylor said the Bible proposal is a distraction. He said he wants to support tax relief and protect the agriculture industry from the looming threat of mass deportation under the incoming Trump administration. Representative-elect Mike Pohanka (R-Jerome) said he went to private school and read the Bible every day. He said decisions on public school teachers reading the Bible in schools should be left up to local school boards. "If they do that's fine, if they don't that's up to them," Pohanka said. "I think it just needs to be at the local level." Rep. Lance Clow (R-Twin Falls), the longest serving legislator in the Magic Valley, said he expects several bills regarding school choice and public funding for religious schools in the coming session. He did not comment on the Bible proposal. "Until we're in the Legislature, you don't see anything," Clow said. "Everything's all hypothetical at this point." On school choice, he said he thinks the best path forward is a compromise that protects public schools. Clow presented HB 289 in 2023 that would have allowed families to use a portion of public funds for tuition at private schools. The bill did not make it out of the education committee. "I believe that eventually at some point we need to make some form of a compromise to deal with that question," Clow said. "Just a yes or no is not a simple answer." The Twin Falls Republican Central Committee earlier this month narrowly passed a resolution in opposition to diverting public to private, religious or homeschools, including any form of vouchers, tax credits or educational savings accounts. Twin Falls County GOP Central Committee approved two resolutions to be forwarded to the Idaho GOP for consideration at its January meeting. Rep. Douglas Pickett (R-Oakley) said he hasn't heard about any proposals to require public schools to read the Bible and he doesn't have a comment on his stance. "I think we need to really see what they are proposing before we make any judgments on that," Pickett said. He said he expects school choice will be one of the biggest issues in the coming session and that he thinks there are situations where using public funds for private schools is justified. Money Conzatti is both president of the Idaho Family Policy Center and director of the ID Family PAC, an organization with no website, but he told the Times-News that there is no legal or official relationship between the two groups. Both share the same street address, at 1116 S Vista Ave in Boise, but the Center has an office in suite 227 and the PAC has a P.O. box at that address. In another connection between the two groups, Chad Israel Waitman is both a current board member for the Center and a former treasurer for the PAC. The PAC is led by chair Christian Welp, who is also a registered lobbyist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise. Of the 12 state legislators representing the Magic Valley, five received contributions from ID Family PAC during the 2024 campaign: Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld (R-Twin Falls), Sen. Kelly Anthon (R-Burley), Representative-elect Joshua Kohl (R-Twin Falls), Steve Miller (R-Fairfield) and Pickett. Of those five, only Pickett returned phone calls from the Times-News . Of the five, ID Family PAC spent the most money to support Kohl. His campaign received a contribution of $1,000 from the PAC as well as $8,653 in independent expenditures. Magic Valley Liberty Alliance PAC also endorsed Kohl. Zuiderveld's campaign spent $600 in October for an event at The River Christian Fellowship during the 2024 election season. Scott Spencer, assistant pastor at the church, told the Times-News on Friday that the U.S. was founded on Christian principles, like treating other people well and being nice. He said he thinks it would be good for teachers to read the Bible in schools, as kids today have no compass and no sense of right and wrong. "The biblical principles are true whether or not you're actually reading the scripture or not, about treating other people well, about helping other people," Spencer said. A former teacher himself, Spencer said he used to teach from a book that taught morals without specific biblical references, but that book has since been replaced with one that teaches nothing but a progressive, leftist, woke agenda. "What we've had for the last four years with the whole woke agenda," Spencer said. "That's being pushed way harder than any of the Christian principles that made our country great." Spencer echoed a false claim from President-elect Donald Trump. It is illegal in all 50 states to kill a child after live birth. Spencer said, as a country, we are at the point where a woman can have a live baby and then kill that baby after it is born. "The mom can say, 'I don't want the kid,' and they can kill it," Spencer said. "In some states that's legal. That's horrific to me." Spencer also expressed disdain for transgender people. "Someone can say, 'I'm a girl,'" Spencer said. "No you're not." The Idaho Family Policy Center circulated a 2024 candidate questionnaire that includes questions about protecting biological females in bathrooms, removing exceptions for abortion in the case of rape or incest, prohibiting drag shows, protecting traditional marriage between a man and woman and holding teachers accountable for teaching critical race theory. None of the legislators the Times-News spoke with said they had filled out the questionnaire. Conzatti said the U.S. Supreme Court has established that the U.S. is a Christian nation and that legislators need to reflect that sentiment. "We are a Christian ministry and believe that government officials are God's ministers and they are expected to uphold God's standards of justice," Conzatti said. "They are expected to govern according to biblical principles." Sean Dolan writes about education and politics for the Times-News . Reach him at 208-735-3213 or email him at sean.dolan@magicvalley.com . 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MEN'S BASKETBALL AP TOP 25: Kansas stays at No. 1 ahead of showdown vs. No. 11 DukeSuella Braverman's husband set to defect to Farage's Reform in new scalp from the Conservative Party - and insiders predict she will follow next year By ANNA MIKHAILOVA Published: 23:37 GMT, 7 December 2024 | Updated: 23:55 GMT, 7 December 2024 e-mail View comments Nigel Farage is poised to announce another scalp from the Conservative Party . Westminster has been awash with speculation that the former home secretary Suella Braverman is poised to defect to Reform UK. But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that it is her husband, Rael, who is about to be unveiled as the party’s latest recruit. It is understood that Mr Braverman, a businessman known in Tory party ranks, will become a senior campaigner for Mr Farage on defending farmers. Insiders said the move comes after secret discussions between Mrs Braverman and the Reform leader Mr Farage, and will only intensify speculation that she will be next to cross the floor and join the ranks of Reform. A senior Tory source said: ‘She will watch and wait for a year or 18 months before deciding to follow suit’, while another said: ‘Suella will definitely be going over at some point.’ Last night Mrs Braverman said: ‘I am not defecting.’ Asked about her husband joining Reform, she told the MoS: ‘This is the 21st century and not the 18th, my husband does not speak for me nor does he control my political affiliations.’ A Reform source said: ‘Nigel thinks he will be a good activist.’ It follows defections last week of former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns and Boris Johnson ’s former adviser Tim Montgomerie, who founded the Conservative Home website. Suella Braverman's husband, Rael, is about to be unveiled as the Reform party’s latest recruit Insiders said the move comes after secret discussions between Mrs Braverman and the Reform leader Nigel Farage Last week Mr Farage told a gathering of the Westminster establishment at the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards: ‘At the next election in 2029 there will be hundreds of newcomers under the Reform UK label' Last week Mr Farage told a gathering of the Westminster establishment at the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards: ‘At the next election in 2029 there will be hundreds of newcomers under the Reform UK label. We are about to witness a political revolution the likes of which you’ve not seen since Labour after the First World War.’ His MPs are increasingly ‘bullish’ about their prospects, after Reform overtook Labour in a voting intention poll for the first time last week, pushing Labour into third place. It prompted Reform chairman Zia Yusuf to declare that the party would win the next general election. Read More We'll stand a Reform candidate in EVERY Holyrood constituency in 2026, vows Farage The party’s chief whip Lee Anderson - who defected from the Tories in March - has been meeting Conservatives who lost their seats in the election and urging them to jump ship. ‘He says - it is only going one way from now on,’ one said. Mr Yusuf has said the party now has 105,000 members in 400 branches. The party is gaining support in Wales ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections, while Ms Jenkyns is seen as having a decent chance of becoming Greater Lincolnshire mayor in May. Mr Braverman works as a finance manager at Mercedes. He was born in South Africa and moved to the UK as a child. He proposed to Mrs Braverman in 2017 while on holiday in Cyprus. After they were introduced by mutual friends, she invited him for a day in Parliament. Mr Braverman said last year: ‘As far as first dates go it was certainly an unusual one, but I’ve always been interested in politics so I went along with it. ‘I thoroughly enjoyed it and we agreed to meet up again. We had our first “proper” date a few weeks later and it all took off from there.’ Mrs Braverman has previously said her husband is her biggest supporter, helping her campaign in general elections and for Brexit. While Home Secretary, the MP for Fareham and Waterlooville frequently made headlines for her tough stance on migration, policing and criticism of pro-Palestinian ‘hate marches’. After the general election, Mrs Braverman said the Tories must woo back Reform voters, and that the party poses an ‘existential threat’ to the Conservatives. The views are privately echoed by Tories who express doubts about Kemi Badenoch’s leadership. Some are calling on her to ‘pick a fight’ with the centrist ‘One Nation’ Conservative MPs. Conservatives Suella Braverman Nigel Farage Share or comment on this article: Suella Braverman's husband set to defect to Farage's Reform in new scalp from the Conservative Party - and insiders predict she will follow next year e-mail Add comment