26 people have been killed and 25 wounded after masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt. The terrorist attack happened in Minya province, about 220km (140 miles) south of the capital city of Cairo. The bus was headed to the Monastery of St Samuel.

The bus was ambushed by masked men in three 4 wheel drive vehicles. An immediate response by Egyptian military and security forces is underway, while units of the police special forces closed all exits to Minya.

According to Egyptian media – the terrorists had driven from the Western Desert to a nearby location of the attacked bus then walked to ambush the bus, where they sprayed the bus with gunfire indiscriminately. During the terrorists exit, they found another group in another bus, which they stopped, killed everyone aboard and fled.

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The Manchester Bomber is one of Hillary Clinton’s Libyan “Rebels”

Islamic State fighters landed in Libya back in November of 2014, and began work establishing training camps in the Libyan city of Derna before launching a terror offensive which included an attack on a Libyan hotel, attacks on oil field workers, and the execution of 21 Copts in a graphic video which made international headlines.

In early through mid-2015 several extremist jihadist elements in Libya swore allegiance to Bakar al-Baghdadi.  A man named Abdelhakim Belhadj took the position as head of ISIS in Libya. Abdelhakim Belhadj was critical in forming “Libya Dawn”, essentially a group of Islamic militia forces (LIFG or Libyan Islamic Fighting Groups) who fought under various banners such as Ansar al-Sharia (al-Qaeda in Libya) and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Today the links emerge between the Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi (22), and these extremist forces within Libya.  It appears the bombing attack against the Manchester concert venue was directed and coordinated by the family of Abedi and their close contacts within Libya including his father Ramadan Abedi who was arrested earlier today.

Important top-lines:

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks *boldly tonight against the backdrop of the Manchester terrorist attack.

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*where “boldly” in 2017 means speaking common sense.

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The suicide bomber who detonated a bomb at a Manchester pop concert killing 22 people including young children has been named as 22-year-old Salman Abedi.

According to the UK Daily Mail the bomber was previously known to authorities. He died at the scene and police carried out a controlled explosion at what is believed to be his home during raids around the city today.

(UK Daily Mail) […] Abedi is understood to have been born in Britain but is from a Libyan family. A school friend told MailOnline had grown a beard when he last saw him and neighbours claimed he had been ‘acting strangely’ recently.

A 23-year-old man, believed to be Abedi’s brother, was also arrested by anti-terror officers as police and security services attempt to work out if the suicide bomber was part of a cell.

Security sources have told MailOnline that initial analysis of the ‘sophisticated’ device suggests it was made by an expert.

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♦ Massive explosion at conclusion of singer Ariana Grade concert in Manchester England. ♦ At least two ‘explosions’. ♦ US officials briefed on the incident say UK officials suspect it was caused by suicide bomber, NBC News reported. ♦ Police confirm 19 people were killed and at least 50 more were wounded. ♦ Mostly teen girls. ♦ 10:30pm Local Time.

(UK Daily Mail) Nineteen people have been confirmed dead and around 50 injured after a terrorist attack inside Manchester Arena at the end of a teen concert tonight.

Video footage showed thousands of people fleeing in tears from the venue, many covered in blood, after the Ariana Grande concert finished.

Horrifying footage showed petrified children leaping over fences as they desperately tried to escape the 21,000-seat venue.

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In January of 2015 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi began a journey of peace by asking the holiest and most influential Islamic Scholars in the Arab world to join him in stepping away from the noise of extremist voices and engaging in long-term introspective review of their Islamic faith.  President al-Sisi called for a religious revolution to focus Islam toward a future of peace.  The engaged Dar al-Iftaa scholarly audience erupted in applause.

President al-Sisi stood up, resolute, spoke of large truths with bold leadership, and took great risk upon himself.  After the speech a coalition of like-minded voices began to grow in number and consequence.   That moment became the pebble dropped in the shoe of the Arab leadership of consequence – the emphasis shifted toward peace.

That influential speech, and more importantly the leadership of all joining member states, including the praise of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia before his untimely death, paved the way forward toward this upcoming weekend.   King Abdullah’s successor, his brother King Salman, is now positioned to put his own footprint in history.

All of the necessary elements, many of them taking years to organize, are aligned in common purpose for this specific moment in time.

More than a dozen heads of state from Arab and Islamic nations have been invited by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to attend the conference with President Trump including: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (Egypt), King Abdullah III (Jordan), Muhammad Fuad Masum (Iraq), Mamnoon Hussain (Pakistan) and all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE).  All are expected to be in attendance.

We are living in one of those rare moments when we are fortunate enough to see the building blocks of historic enterprise being erected while we watch.  The results of these next several days will shape how our children view the landscape of the middle east in all the years to come.

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Very disturbing CCTV video assembled from the scene(s) near Times Square in New York, shows the deliberate and intentional attack of the driver. The driver was identified as 26-year-old Richard Rojas from the Bronx.  His vehicular rampage killed an 18-year-old girl and seriously injured 22 others when he drove through crowds near Times Square.

There is ZERO possibility of this being an “accident”.  Nor was this a DUI or DWI event.  The driver made a U-Turn and intentionally drove on the sidewalk for four blocks specifically targeting the largest possible groups and crowds, steering toward them and accelerating.  It’s actually a miracle more people were not killed.  This video is far, far more graphic than the Nice, France terrorist attack.  This video also removes any doubt this was anything except an intentional and deliberate targeting of people.

The video is below.  WARNING – It’s disturbing.  You cannot ever unsee it.

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Earlier today President Donald Trump signed HR244 into law.  The provisional spending bill that funds government through September 30th, the end of fiscal year 2017.

There has been a great deal of anxiety amid punditry about the spending outline itself, and the spending priorities as determined by both houses of congress.  Some of the criticism is warranted, most is not.

The basic principle the entire professional political class seem to overlook is the reasoning for the CR itself.  Congress has been unable to fulfill its budgetary obligation since 2007.

In fact, the last federal budget (fiscal year ’08) was signed into law in September of 2007.  By the conclusion of this CR it will have been an entire decade without a federal budget.

Perspective: ♦ Over half of all elected federal politicians have never held elected office in any year with a federal budget in place.  ♦ Almost two-thirds of Republicans in congress have never known a federal budget for a single day in office.

THAT FACT should be the target of the ire from all Americans, particularly conservatives.  However, hypocritically, it is not.

For some reason ankle-biters, antagonists, and crony constitutional punditry amid the various CONservative outlets, choose instead to focus their criticism toward the first president in our lifetime to actually deliver on conservative policy, conservative values and expressed policy objectives/outcomes that benefit all common sense Americans.

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During a ceremony today at the State Department, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered remarks of remembrance and honored fallen foreign service workers.

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Media are reporting that at least one police officer had been killed and at least two others seriously wounded by two Kalashnikov-wielding gunmen on the Champs Elysees in central Paris tonight.

French authorities have stated the incident was probably a ‘terrorist act’ and the famous venue was on lockdown by 9pm as heavily armed officers flooded the area. Another individual – believed to be the killer – was killed, according to police sources.

Reports suggest ‘at least’ two shooters were involved in the attack which took place as presidential candidates took part in a TV debate nearby before Sunday’s election.

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