A former Republican mayor of a small Kansas town has been taken into federal immigration custody after pleading guilty to illegally voting as a non-citizen.

Jose “Joe” Ceballos-Armendariz, 55, a Mexican national who has held a green card since 1990, turned himself in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials at their Wichita office on Wednesday.

Ceballos is now being held at the ICE-contracted Chase County Jail in Cottonwood Falls and faces potential deportation proceedings.

The green card holder served two terms as mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, a conservative Comanche County town of fewer than 700 residents.

Ceballos was first elected in 2021 and won re-election in 2025 with 83% of the vote.

The charges surfaced the day after that re-election when Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced felony election fraud charges.

Court records show Ceballos illegally voted in multiple elections despite knowing he was not a U.S. citizen. He also admitted during a January citizenship application that he had falsely claimed U.S. citizenship.

In April, Ceballos pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct in a plea deal that included a $2,000 fine and one year of probation but no jail time.

Ceballos has claimed he believed his green card allowed him to vote and felt “misled” by the plea agreement.

Speaking outside the ICE facility after surrendering, he told reporters, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know where they’re going to take me and what I can and can’t do inside there,” according to a report from Fox News.

“Obviously, we’ll go through the process,” Ceballos said. “We’ll do what they want us to do and, you know, take one day at a time. Just do what they ask; that is my goal.”

Ceballos’s attorney called the detention “a travesty of justice,” arguing the misdemeanor plea was not supposed to trigger immigration consequences.

In a statement to Fox News, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis praised the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program and urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require photo ID for voters and other election security measures.

“The SAVE program is a critical tool for state and local governments to safeguard the integrity of elections across the country,” Bis said.

“President Trump has been unequivocal: Nothing is more fundamental than the integrity and security of our elections. That’s why the Trump Administration has repeatedly called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act — commonsense legislation that requires voters to present photo ID and implements other critical measures to protect federal elections from fraud. Our elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens.”

The post Former Kansas Mayor Detained by ICE After Guilty Plea for Illegally Voting appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Whether you love or hate the People’s Republic of China (PRC), I think we can all agree that it is time Taiwan finally granted them independence.

Shortly after his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump warned Taiwan not to declare independence unilaterally. The media took this to mean that Trump had thrown Taiwan under the bus or was withdrawing U.S. support for Taiwan’s current independent status. The reality is that Trump has always been a strong supporter of Taiwan.

During his first term, he placed U.S. combat troops and trainers in Taiwan, the first stationed there since 1979. He repeatedly increased both the type and value of weapons provided to Taiwan, approving a $1.4 billion package in June 2017 and a $330 million package in October 2018.

In 2017, the National Security Council introduced the Free and Open Indo-Pacific framework, which includes defending countries in the first island chain, including Taiwan, approved by Trump in 2018. In his second term, Trump approved an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan, larger than anything in his first term.

Trump’s warning reflects longstanding U.S. policy, not a reversal of it. The U.S.-Taiwan defense framework recognizes a One China policy and holds that Taiwan’s status must be resolved peacefully between China and Taiwan. The U.S. position has long been that it would not defend Taiwan if Taiwan were to unilaterally declare independence.

Trump’s warning was a reminder of that framework, which has governed U.S. policy since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. The media’s claims that Trump is abandoning Taiwan should be accompanied by condemnation of Europe, which has never done a fraction of what Trump and the U.S. have done to maintain Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Taiwan is a multiparty democracy with its own army, currency, laws, and freedoms distinct from mainland China. Its passport ranks 31st globally, providing visa-free access to 134 countries including the entire EU. Taiwan’s GDP per capita was approximately $34,400 in 2024, more than double that of the average mainland citizen. Its people enjoy freedom of speech, religion, and political affiliation, as well as the freedom to leave and return as they wish. The fate of Hong Kong demonstrates what Taiwan would lose if absorbed into the PRC.

The question of Taiwan’s formal status, however, remains unresolved, and the resolution may lie not in a declaration of independence but in something more unexpected: Taiwan granting independence to the mainland.

The 1947 ROC constitution states in Article 4 that the territory of the Republic of China shall not be altered except by resolution of the National Assembly. No such resolution has ever been passed to remove the mainland claim, and in 2019 the ROC Supreme Court in Appeal 334 affirmed the ROC still claims sovereignty over mainland China under that article. Both the ROC and the PRC use maps derived from the same 1925 KMT territorial claims, with Taiwan’s constitution still asserting sovereignty over the mainland and the PRC claiming the same territory plus Taiwan itself.

In practice, Taiwan already treats the mainland as foreign. The 1991 constitutional amendments and the Cross-Strait Relations Act label the mainland as ROC territory while simultaneously treating it as foreign land. The 1991 amendment also recognized the PRC as a legitimate and equal political entity rather than a rebellious group.

Both the PRC and the ROC have officially adhered to the “one China” principle, differing only on who represents it. Beijing exploits this shared premise at every diplomatic turn to frame the Taiwan question as an internal Chinese matter. As long as Taipei’s own constitution claims the mainland, Beijing can point to Taipei’s own founding document to support that argument. By granting PRC independence, Taiwan would weaken any claim the PRC makes toward Taiwan.

Legal scholars at Lawfare have noted that Taiwan’s official position does not fulfill the international-law criteria for an independent state. This is because the ROC statehood claim extends not just to the Taiwan Area but also to the mainland, over which Taiwan exercises no effective control.

Dropping that claim and asserting sovereignty only over the territory Taiwan actually governs would align its legal position with reality. It would also strengthen Taiwan’s case under the Montevideo Convention criteria of defined territory, permanent population, government, and capacity for foreign relations.

Beijing has spent decades portraying Taiwan as a renegade province seeking to break away. If Taiwan formally relinquishes its claim to the mainland, framed as a sovereign act of recognition, it repositions Taiwan as the party ending a dispute, not a separatist movement.

It would be like Taipei saying to Beijing, “I think we should start seeing other people.” Taiwan could then add, to soften the blow, “But it’s not you, it’s me. I’m the broken piece.”

Recognition of the PRC as a separate country would force Beijing to either accept the recognition or publicly reject a peaceful resolution, exposing the PRC’s position as a territorial claim against a foreign sovereign state.

Under the current ROC constitution, changing the territorial claim requires initiation by one-fourth of Legislative Yuan members, passage by a three-fourths supermajority with three-fourths attendance, then approval by majority referendum. The bar is high, but the mechanism exists. It is a political will problem, not a legal impossibility.

The post It’s Time for Taiwan to Grant Independence to the People’s Republic appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

If left unchecked, Labour will destroy Britain.

If you think the situation in Britain was bad under failed Prime Minister Keir Starmer, just wait until you learn the plans of his two challengers.

It arises today that both former Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham defend the thesis that Britain must rejoin the European Union.

They would both ‘seek a mandate’ for this move if elected Labour Party leader and Prime Minister.

“Britain’s future lies with Europe – and one day, back in the European Union.”

Former health secretary Wes Streeting says the UK needs a new special relationship with Europe, as he calls Brexit a ‘catastrophic mistake’.https://t.co/SYHV5Ws1Hc

Sky 501, Virgin 602 pic.twitter.com/ipUewHFKmj

— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 16, 2026

“In the long term there is a case for that” (rejoining the European Union) Andy Burnham tells @itvnews pic.twitter.com/3y4yUFi0JG

— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) May 16, 2026

The Telegraph reported:

“In a speech on Saturday, Mr. Streeting called for the UK to rejoin the European Union, saying that ‘Britain’s future lies with Europe’. The former health secretary described leaving the EU as a ‘catastrophic mistake’, adding that Britain needed a new “special relationship” with the trading bloc.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph was told by Mr. Burnham’s allies that he stood by his stance of wanting to rejoin the EU in due course. Speaking at the Labour conference last year, Mr. Burnham said: ‘Long term, I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it, I want to rejoin it. Look, I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin the European Union’.”

Reform UK will reportedly make ‘Brexit betrayal’ one of its key attack lines in the by-election campaign that Burnham needs to win to return to Parliament and challenge Starmer.

“On Saturday, Mr. Burnham signaled that as prime minister he would embark on a program of mass nationalization, including of energy, housing, water and transport.

He used an interview with Channel 4 News to call for the UK to go down a ‘completely’ different path to the past 40 years, which would involve putting ‘more things back under stronger public control’.”

Burnham and Streeting’s stance on rejoining the EU caused a backlash today, including among MPs from their own party.

Read more:

Failing British PM Starmer Attacks Trump and Putin, Tries to Avoid Blame for His Own Energy Fiasco – PLUS: Scandal Erupts as It’s Revealed He Was ON A HOLIDAY as Iran War Escalated

The post FROM BAD TO WORSE: Both Labour Leaders Challenging Failed PM Keir Starmer Want Britain to Rejoin the European Union appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Two pet goats helped save an Oklahoma family trapped beneath the rubble of their home after a devastating tornado tore through Enid last month.

Adam Sloat, 53, his wife Mary, their teenage daughter, and two neighbors took shelter in an underground storm cellar on April 23 after a rare tornado emergency warning was issued.

An EF-4 tornado, packing winds estimated between 170 and 200 mph, slammed into the area shortly after 8 p.m., destroying the family’s home.

“We were relaxing, watching the NFL draft on TV when the signal went off,” Sloat said in an interview with The New York Post.

Pet goats save trapped family after killer tornado demolishes their home https://t.co/ysPhtjd2hU pic.twitter.com/J6ffE9kx3R

— New York Post (@nypost) May 16, 2026

The family and their neighbors rushed into the shelter moments before the tornado ripped through the property.

Inside the cellar, the group heard glass shattering and debris crashing down as the half-mile-wide tornado tore through Enid.

At one point, the shelter doors were struck by what turned out to be a collapsed chimney, trapping those inside under thousands of bricks.

After the storm passed, the group managed to contact 911, but rescuers arriving at the scene could not locate them beneath the wreckage.

However, they were eventually saved by an unlikely breakthrough.

“My daughter and I could have sworn that we heard goat noises, and I thought there’s no way,” Sloat said.

The family’s pet goats, Percy and Penny, had survived the tornado and remained directly above the buried shelter, bleating and stomping until first responders noticed them.

“The rescuers had no idea where we were, but Percy and Penny knew,” Sloat said.

“They stood right over us and kept up a steady stream of noise until the emergency people came over and started removing the bricks.”

Breaking! Enid EF4 upgraded to 180 mph EF4! #okwx pic.twitter.com/Cy3wPpxHOb

— Oklahoma Tornadoes (@OKTornadoDB) May 16, 2026

The family was eventually pulled to safety.

“We finally emerged and couldn’t believe our eyes,” Sloat said. “Everything was gone.”

A firefighter later told him: “We had no idea where you were until we saw your goats.”

Despite widespread destruction across Enid, authorities reported only minor injuries.

The Sloats are now beginning to rebuild their home.

The post Hero Goats Lead Rescuers to Family Buried Alive After Monster Tornado Levels Oklahoma Home appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Another week, another vehicular attack on Europeans.

Modena, in Italy, was visited by a tragedy that is becoming very common: several people were injured when a car drove into pedestrians, according to police.

After hitting several people, the driver, a man in his 30s identified in social media as ‘Moroccan’, crashed into a shop window.

The he got out and stabbed a person trying to restrain him.

#Modena, #Italy (UPDATE) — A driver deliberately plowed his Citroën car into pedestrians at full speed in the city centre, then jumped out and stabbed a man trying to stop him.

At least 8 injured, 4 critically (one woman lost both legs on impact). Suspect — 31-year-old, Salim… pic.twitter.com/BrPXZ9YnG4

— Leanne (@LeanneSpurs) May 16, 2026

The Telegraph reported:

“The suspect, who was described as ‘highly intoxicated’, was subdued by bystanders and arrested by police. At least eight people were injured, with at least four left in critical condition, the authorities said. A woman was reported to have lost her legs in the car ramming.

Luca Signorelli, a witness, told local media: ‘He [the driver] ran away. So, I chased him, and in the meantime, four or five other people followed me. He disappeared behind a pile of cars and then popped back out with a knife in his hand’.”

Modena, Italy – Chaos in the city center: 31‑year‑old economics graduate Salim El Koudri plowed into six pedestrians, then fled and stabbed the passerby who stopped him; 7 injured, multiple video clips show the suspect during the attack and arrest, he is now under police… https://t.co/pSv2cvFWOE pic.twitter.com/vTrTbhKdIE

— GeoTechWar (@geotechwar) May 16, 2026

“Massimo Mezzetti, Modena’s mayor, said the driver was an Italian national born in Bergamo, of North African origin, and a resident of the Modena area. ‘We are trying to find out more details’, he added.

Mr. Mezzetti said: ‘It seems [the driver] deliberately drove onto the sidewalk, hitting several people and crashing into a shop window. He then got ‌out of his car and brandished a knife. Some citizens chased and captured the fugitive, handing him over to law enforcement. He was armed with a knife. It took courage and great civic sense. I thank them’.”

BREAKING:

Suspected terror attack in Modena, Italy.

A 2nd-generation North African migrant has rammed a crowd of people. He then got out of the car & stabbed people.

Unofficial sources speak of 2 dead & 8 seriously wounded. A woman was seen on the ground with both legs missing pic.twitter.com/vS1e19jjDw

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 16, 2026

Read more:

Scientists Achieve World’s First Animal ‘De-Extinction’ — Resurrect Dire Wolf Species Lost for 12,500 Years and Popularized on ‘Game of Thrones’

The post BLOODY WEEKEND: Horror Footage Shows Intoxicated Morrocan Man Plowing Car Into Pedestrians in Italy, Stabbing Passerby Before Being Arrested – Several People Injured in Suspected Terror Attack appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.