Trump-backed Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella wasted no time putting his law-and-order agenda into high gear, launching a major military offensive against Marxist FARC dissidents days after taking office on Friday.
"The new government's kinetic approach is already underway in southwestern Colombia," local outlet Colombia One wrote on Sunday.
The report continued, "A military operation is currently unfolding against the FARC dissidents led by alias' Ivan Mordisco' in the department of Cauca. The combats are heavily concentrated in the rural area of El Tambo, where initial reports indicate that at least five members of the dissident structure have been killed."
De La Espriella announced on Sunday evening that Colombia and the United States are strengthening their strategic alliance:
Colombia and the United States strengthen their strategic alliance. Following the inauguration of President Abelardo De La Espriella, the United States announced its intention to allocate USD 1 billion for a new security package for Colombia, which must be processed in coordination with the U.S. Congress. The new bilateral agenda seeks to bolster the capabilities of our Public Force, intensify the fight against drug trafficking and transnational crime, regain territorial control, and expand technological and intelligence cooperation. A new stage in the relationship between Colombia and the United States, based on shared objectives: security, prosperity, and defense of our nations
Colombia y Estados Unidos fortalecen su alianza estratégica.
Tras la posesión del presidente Abelardo De La Espriella, Estados Unidos anunció su intención de destinar USD 1.000 millones para un nuevo paquete de seguridad para Colombia, que deberá ser tramitado en coordinación… pic.twitter.com/cUN28Lg5em
Footage of the offensive:
🚨 | URGENTE:
Avanzan los operativos para capturar o eliminar al criminal guerrillero FARC Alias Mordisco, no descansan los héroes de la patria, y menos, nuestro mandatario, el tigre Abelardo.
¡Llegó la Patria Milagro! pic.twitter.com/cB24KU9vWN
🚨 #ÚltimaHora | Máxima tensión en El Tambo, Cauca. Fuertes combates entre el @COL_EJERCITO y las disidencias de las FARC (frente Carlos Patiño) dejan al menos 5 criminales abatidos en la vereda El Recuerdo y el cerro Santana.
La población civil permanece confinada por el fuego… pic.twitter.com/wp3brB4g0Z
Esto es diciendo y haciendo: Comenzaron los operativos contra las Farc en Cauca. Las ratas narcosocialistas a correr y el glorioso Ejército a cumplir su deber constitucional.
Vamos a ver cuánto tiempo se demoran los alcahuetas de los terroristas es salir a berriar por esas… pic.twitter.com/BRkSEqqyZ2
🇨🇴🇧🇷‼️COLÔMBIA: Pelo menos 4 caças Kfir da Fuerza Aeroespacial teriam decolado da base de Tolemaida com destino à Amazônia.
Segundo informações preliminares, o alvo seria a localização de alias Iván Mordisco, líder das dissidências das FARC (EMC).
O movimento ocorre logo após a… pic.twitter.com/o3S2ygiFGS
🚨🇨🇴| En este momento se desarrolla una fuerte ofensiva militar contra las disidencias de la guerrilla de las FARC de alias Iván Mordisco, en la Zona rural de El Tambo, Cauca. Al menos 5 disidentes abatidos. ¿Apoyas la MANO DURA de Abelardo de la Espriella contra los criminales? pic.twitter.com/ZftyMPSvua
— Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) August 9, 2026¡ATENCIÓN COLOMBIA!
¡En Nariño se escriben páginas de gloria!
El valiente Ejército Nacional está librando duros y contundentes combates contra las estructuras criminales del ELN. Nuestros soldados, con coraje y profesionalismo, están golpeando con fuerza a quienes siembran terror…
La moral de nuestro Ejército volverá a ser la de antes: firme, honorable y leal a Colombia. 🇨🇴🇨🇴 pic.twitter.com/sy8OeqLOcD
— 𝕲𝖚𝖘. 『X』 (@CapGusXMan) August 9, 2026🇨🇴 Colombia’s army just captured a FARC dissident commander known as “Menor” as armed groups intensify attacks across the country.
The 29th Brigade detained the mid-level leader of the Dagoberto Ramos structure during a raid earlier this month.
At the same time, one of the… pic.twitter.com/aljOl6h6jE
Otro escuadrón de la JUNGLA acaba de salir de una extracción caliente en plena selva de coca. Por fin Colombia tiene un gobierno que no solo habla, sino que actúa. Golpea donde duele a los narcotraficantes y trabaja de verdad por los colombianos. Esto no es un operativo más: es… pic.twitter.com/bK5nx48I5p
— Jhonf Fonseca (@Jhonffonseca) August 9, 2026Here's our coverage of De La Espriella's inauguration and the broader political realignment sweeping across the Americas, where a growing red wave has sent the region's far-left and socialists into panic mode.
Visualize the political shift across the Americas:
Marxists are not happy: they have launched numerous car bomb attacks against De La Espriella:
With Colombia strengthening ties with the Trump administration, El Colombiano's Alberto Sierra wrote on X that FARC dissidents and other far-left terror networks could soon confront the uncomfortable reality of US-made MQ-9 Reaper in the skies. He effectively warned that there may soon be nowhere left to hide:
Take a good look at this machine. Because it represents more than just military technology.
It is the MQ-9 Reaper, one of the most advanced aerial surveillance platforms used in operations against armed organizations and criminal networks.
Colombia is preparing to incorporate this capability.
The difference?
Hours of surveillance. Real-time information. Tracking of movements. Identification of targets. Greater capacity to anticipate enemy operations.
In a country where the geography allowed armed groups to vanish among jungles, mountains, and rivers for decades, this changes the rules.
The goal is not to turn technology into propaganda. It is something much simpler: to make the State see.
Because whoever controls the information controls the initiative.
And when the enemy knows that it can be located even in the places where it once felt safe, its margin for maneuver begins to shrink.
○ Miren bien esta máquina. Porque representa algo más que tecnología militar.
Es el MQ-9 Reaper, una de las plataformas de vigilancia aérea más avanzadas utilizadas en operaciones contra organizaciones armadas y redes criminales.
Colombia se prepara para incorporar esta… pic.twitter.com/LNLvFEz0he
"In just 24 hours, the Colombian army has captured and taken down several narcos, extortionists, and guerrillas, and now the left has come out crying about human rights—typical of lefties, defending criminals," X user Escuela Austriaca de Economía said.
What is unfolding in Colombia appears to be part of the Trump administration's broader effort to restore order across the Western Hemisphere after years in which socialist and Marxist governments allowed narco-terrorist networks to expand amid widespread lawlessness.
Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 21:35Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,
Election officials in Arizona and California won separate court victories Friday in disputes over voting rules, with a federal appeals court upholding key provisions of an Arizona voter-registration law and a California judge temporarily blocking a local election overhaul.
Arizona Voter Registration LawIn Arizona, an 11-judge en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously ruled that voting rights organizations lacked standing to challenge two provisions that dictate how counties should maintain their voter rolls.
The Arizona law, enacted in 2022 as Senate Bill 1260, requires county recorders to cancel a voter’s registration after receiving confirmation from another county that the person has moved and registered there. Another provision makes it a felony to knowingly provide a “mechanism for voting” to someone registered in another state.
The Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, Voto Latino, and Priorities USA sued the Arizona attorney general, secretary of state, and the state’s 15 county recorders in 2022, arguing that portions of the law violated federal voting law and constitutional protections.
The groups argued, among other things, that the cancellation provision could improperly remove eligible voters from the rolls and that the felony provision was vague enough to expose organizations conducting voter registration and education activities to prosecution.
A federal district court initially issued a preliminary injunction blocking the cancellation and felony provisions. A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel later reversed that order, finding that the organizations lacked standing to challenge the cancellation provision and were unlikely to prevail in their challenge to the felony provision.
The plaintiffs successfully sought review by the full court, but Friday’s en banc ruling reached the same conclusion.
The groups argued that they were forced to spend extra time and resources educating voters about the law and helping them cancel prior registrations. The court, however, concluded that this did not count as a concrete injury needed to prove standing.
“Because the organizations have not clearly shown that the cancellation provision affects or interferes with their voter-registration and voter-education efforts, they have not established an injury-in-fact,” U.S. Circuit Judge Anthony D. Johnstone wrote for the court.
The court also rejected the organizations’ request to block the felony provision pending the litigation.
“Although the stand-alone phrase ‘mechanism for voting’ arguably encompasses voter registration and education, the full text and statutory context of the Felony Provision show that it likely does not criminalize those activities,” Johnstone wrote.
California Court Blocks County MeasureAlso on Friday, a California judge temporarily blocked Shasta County from implementing a voter-approved measure that would dramatically change how elections are conducted in the Northern California county.
Measure B, approved by about 56 percent of voters in June, would require government-issued photo identification for voter registration and in-person voting, restrict vote-by-mail and early voting, require ballots to be counted by hand, and establish a county voter-registration system separate from California’s statewide system.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber sued to block the measure, arguing that Shasta County’s status as a charter county does not mean it can adopt its own election rules conflicting with those of the state.
State officials had sought an expedited ruling, since election preparations were already underway for November and the county’s 116,000 registered voters needed certainty about how they would cast their ballots.
On Friday, Shasta County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Hanna sided with the state in granting the preliminary injunction, meaning the county will conduct the Nov. 3 general election under existing California election laws while the lawsuit proceeds.
A Shasta County official confirmed that the measure’s provisions would not be implemented unless the court issues another order.
“Following a preliminary injunction by the Shasta County Superior Court regarding a proposed amendment to the Shasta County Charter titled, Measure B, Voter ID, Hand-Counted Ballots, and Absentee Voting Limits Initiative, the election and voting policies described in Measure B will not be implemented for the November 3, 2026, General Election, unless further order of the court,” the county said in a statement.
Bonta welcomed the decision, saying it would provide clarity for voters ahead of the election.
“Today’s ruling prevents Measure B from taking effect while our litigation proceeds, providing certainty that the November election will be conducted under California’s established election laws,” he said. “We will continue fighting to permanently strike down the measure.”
Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 21:00Apparently, one of the best ways to make $400,000 a year in the New York area is to work for the Port Authority, according to the NY Post.
Twenty Port Authority employees, including 17 cops, cleared $400,000 in total compensation last year as the agency's payroll sailed past $1.2 billion. And much of the magic came from everyone's favorite government money fountain: overtime.
According to payroll data obtained by the Empire Center for Public Policy, 323 employees collected at least $100,000 in overtime alone. Of those, 189 were Port Authority cops. Eight top earners managed to rack up more than $200,000 each in OT. Police Lt. Nicholas Federico won the unofficial jackpot. His $180,691 base salary came with another $215,717 in overtime, helping push his total compensation, including benefits, to $466,775.
Detective sergeants Dewan Maharaj and Robert Zafonte Jr. weren't exactly eating ramen either. Both finished around $448,600, with Maharaj collecting nearly $148,000 in overtime and Zafonte adding about $139,000. The NY Post writes that the overtime crown belonged to chief maintenance supervisor Reginald Bowers, who piled up $231,916 in OT and finished with $421,041 in total compensation.
Chart: New York PostAnd this wasn't just a few employees discovering the cheat code.
Of the Port Authority's 8,356 workers, 5,711 received overtime last year. That's 68% of the workforce. Altogether, overtime cost the agency $196 million, representing about 16% of its entire payroll.
Port Authority police accounted for $85 million of that OT bill. The agency's 1,968 cops averaged $184,949 in pay, while 68 of its 100 highest-paid employees worked in the Police Department.
Perhaps the funniest comparison is at the top. Richard Cotton, who was actually running the Port Authority before retiring in January, earned $327,918. Ninety-four people working underneath him made more.
The Empire Center says taxpayers may get the privilege of paying for all of this more than once.
“Taxpayers are getting fleeced twice,” President Zilvinas Silenas said, arguing that taxpayers first fund the salaries and overtime and can later get stuck with pension costs influenced by those earnings. He also warned that rising payroll expenses could eventually show up in higher tolls and fees.
Which would be particularly charming considering those are already going up. The Port Authority raised bridge and tunnel tolls 3% in January while eliminating some off-peak E-ZPass discounts. PATH fares have also increased, with more hikes scheduled in the coming years.
The agency says the compensation reflects the enormous security demands involved in protecting airports, bridges, tunnels, rail systems and other critical infrastructure.
“Keeping the people we serve safe is non-negotiable and our highest priority,” spokesman Seth Stein said, noting that many Port Authority facilities remain potential terrorism targets. The agency also pointed out that it has added hundreds of police officers in recent years and said average police overtime actually declined 9% between 2024 and 2025.
So yes, overtime is apparently improving. It just happens to be improving at a place where hundreds of employees are still making six figures in overtime and 20 workers are clearing $400,000. Progress.
Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 20:25