2 months ago
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PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: An attack occurred during an Assyrian Christian festival in northern Iraq, resulting in injuries to three people.
👥 Who’s Involved: The attacker remains unidentified. Victims include a 17-year-old boy, a 75-year-old woman, and a member of local security forces. Ninab Yousif Toma of the Assyrian Democratic Movement responded to the incident.
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📍 Where & When: The attack took place during the Akitu parade in Dohuk, northern Iraq.
💬 Key Quote: “We request both governments to review the religious and education curriculums that plant hate in people’s heads and encourage ethnic and religious extremism,” said Ninab Yousif Toma.
⚠️ Impact: An investigation is underway, and the Assyrian Christian community plans to file a lawsuit. The incident has raised concerns about religious and ethnic extremism affecting minorities in the region.
IN FULL:
An axe-wielding Muslim caused chaos at a Christian festival in Dohuk, northern Iraq, hospitalizing three people. The event, part of the Akitu parade celebrating the Assyrian New Year, attracted numerous Christians dressed in vibrant attire, waving flags in observance of the New Year.
Local security forces reported that the unknown assailant attacked a group of parade-goers, chanting Islamist slogans including, “Islamic State, the Islamic State remains.” Two severely injured victims—a young man, aged 17, and an elderly woman, 75—sustained skull fractures. A local security officer was also injured during the incident.
Ninab Yousif Toma, affiliated with the Assyrian Democratic Movement, addressed the need for government action to combat ethnic and religious extremism. He urged a review of educational content that might incite hatred. “This was obviously an inhumane terrorist attack,” Toma remarked.
“We request both governments to review the religious and education curriculums that plant hate in people’s heads and encourage ethnic and religious extremism,” he added.
Since the 1990s, Akitu celebrations have been carried out peacefully. Toma observed that the Kurdish community in Duhok often extends goodwill gestures towards Assyrians, even during Ramadan fasting periods. He emphasized that this attack would not intimidate the Assyrian Christian community. Authorities have initiated an official investigation. Simultaneously, the Assyrian community aims to pursue legal action.
The violence comes after severe anti-Christian persecutions in neighboring Syria under the new Islamist regime, with over a thousand people reportedly killed last month.
Today, in Duhok, Northern Iraq, Kurdish Muslims attacked Assyrian Christians using axes and (possibly) machetes during an Akitu cultural New Year’s celebration. Several victims are in critical condition. Please pray for the victims! 🙏🏼✝️ pic.twitter.com/tYQkjip3xX
— Iraqi Christian Foundation (@iraqschristians) April 1, 2025
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: New polling shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a prominent America First conservative, soundly defeating Senator John Cornyn, a “moderate” who opposed President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 candidacy, in a GOP Senate primary race.
👥 Who’s Involved: Ken Paxton, John Cornyn, pollsters Fabrizio, Lee & Associates.
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📍 Where & When: Polling was conducted from January 28 to February 2 among 600 likely Texas primary voters.
💬 Key Quote: “John Cornyn has waved the white flag on election integrity, border security, protecting the 2nd amendment, and everything else constitutional conservatives care about.” — Ken Paxton.
⚠️ Impact: Cornyn’s ouster would strengthen the America First movement in the Senate, where establishment Republicans such as the outgoing Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski still hold significant sway.
IN FULL:
A recent poll by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has strong support among GOP primary voters, signaling his potential to oust incumbent Senator John Cornyn in a future U.S. Senate race. An initial ballot had Paxton leading Cornyn 53 percent to 28 percent, while a second “informed ballot,” after respondents had been given more information about the pair, increased the margin to 70 percent against just 14 percent.
Paxton, a MAGA stalwart who describes Cornyn as a representative of “the Bush wing of the GOP,” has gained favor with grassroots Texas Republicans for his aggressive lawsuits challenging Biden government policies on immigration and election integrity.
Cornyn, a Senator since 2002, portrays himself as a so-called “moderate” who supports President Donald J. Trump. However, critics—including Paxton—argue he is a Republican in name only, or RINO, who initially opposed the America First leader’s efforts to regain the White House and refused to challenge the lawfare prosections leveled against him by the Biden Justice Department and state Democrats. Previously, he has opposed President Trump’s border wall, and he is currently counter-signaling his tariff policies.
D.C. scuttlebutt: One-time Trump campaign chief Chris LaCivita is going (back) to work for routine Trump-basher John Cornyn?
You can't have it both ways, Chris.
Either you're running the RNC and the "outside political operation" for @realDonaldTrump, or you're backing his…
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) March 5, 2025
“John Cornyn condemned the House GOP for investigating Soros-backed DA Alvin Bragg’s political persecution of President Trump,” Paxton said in March, arguing the incumbent “was always desperate for the bogus witch hunt to succeed.”
He went further in early 2024, describing Cornyn as a Republican who “has waved the white flag on election integrity, border security, protecting the 2nd amendment, and everything else constitutional conservatives care about.”
Angela Paxton, Ken’s wife and a Texas state senator since 2018, is a key political ally of her husband in the Lone Star state, often energizing his base with her public appearances and evangelical ties through their founding of Stonebriar Community Church.
🚨 BREAKING: New Poll shows Ken Paxton would DEMOLISH John Cornyn in a primary for U.S. Senate in Texas:
Initial Ballot:
Paxton 53%
Cornyn 28%
Informed Ballot
Paxton 70%
Cornyn 14%
Source: Frabrizio, Lee and Associates
1/28/25-2/2/2026
N=600 Texas GOP Likely Primary Voters pic.twitter.com/Rr5wwZVRej
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 2, 2025
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