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New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Seattle journalists attacked by agitators call out far-left media for covering up violence at protests
Two independent journalists who say they were assaulted while covering immigration protests in Seattle accused local media outlets and city leaders of turning a blind eye to violence from the radical far-left agitators. Cameron Higby is an investigative journalist who focuses mostly on protests, especially those of the violent variant. He described his scary encounter at an anti-ICE rally in downtown Seattle in detail with Fox News Digital. Advertisement As evening fell, he said Antifa took over streets downtown and became violent. Videos posted to his social media show rioters trying to break into buildings and blocking cars from being able to proceed through the area. Higby said that Antifa stopped drivers and demanded they say, 'F— ICE' and lit fires under the cars of drivers who wouldn't comply. One video clip shows rioters hurling an object at a car that tried to escape. According to him, one woman was 'so terrified that she abandoned her vehicle in traffic.' 4 Independent journalist Cameron Higby was filmed being thrown to the ground, punched and kicked by masked protesters in Seattle on June 14, 2025. X/camhigby Advertisement Once Antifa returned to the federal building, Higby said things quieted down, so he sat down on the sidewalk. Even though he was dressed like Antifa and wearing a gas mask, he was identified by one man who told him to leave. 'Before I could stand up I was pinned up against a wall,' he said. Higby said three men approached and tried to remove his mask and helmet. 'Then I was picked up by somebody and was choked out, punched in the head twice with sap gloves, which are filled with steel or lead shot. And then he kicked me in the face. I pepper sprayed him and he ran away. They then later found a black Jeep Wrangler that they thought belonged to me. They destroyed it, and the poor guy had to drive his car home with a busted windshield,' Higby recalled. Advertisement 'I ended up with a concussion, nausea, dizziness, ringing in the ears, light flashes, and some headaches. I had to go to the ER and urgent care.' Higby is no stranger to violent behavior at protests he's covered in the past – sharing that one day he was bear sprayed at 'point-blank.' But he said this weekend's assault left him shaken like never before. Higby said three men approached and tried to remove his mask and helmet. 'This is definitely the worst attack I've had on me, depending on how you look at it. I've been assaulted a lot, probably more times than I could count. This is probably the most violent assault. If I wasn't wearing a helmet, I'd probably be dead or in the hospital in critical condition. I mean the staff clubs are like brass knuckles basically. The helmet's dented and he punched me so hard that if you slow the video down you can see the filter of the gas mask actually fly off just from the impact of the hit.' Advertisement 'This literally could've killed me,' he said of the assault, which video only captured after it was already underway. 'If one of my friends hadn't grabbed him and pulled him back, if that hadn't happened, he probably would have kept going.' 'Thankfully, I was able to grab my car keys and my phone and all that. Otherwise, even if I managed to get away, I would have been stranded. I couldn't contact anybody, I wouldn't be able to drive my car,' Higby added. Higby claimed that his sources told him the Seattle Police Department was told not to intervene in the protest – a decision he said would have come from city officials. 'There is a detective on the case now. So it's an extremely slow crawl, and we've just had to twist the arm of the SPD,' he said. 'I don't have any animosity towards the rank-and-file police officers… I know SPD wants to take care of this problem, but they just can't.' The Seattle PD confirmed to Fox News Digital that Higby filed a police report. As for media coverage, Higby said the local media 'hasn't covered anything about it,' and The Seattle Times, along with Mayor Bruce Harrell, 'said everything was peaceful, it's all good.' Brandi Kruse is another local, independent journalist who was attacked by masked protesters on Saturday at an anti-ICE protest in Tukwila, Washington, just south of Seattle. 4 Journalist Brandi Kruse is followed and heckled by Antifa during an immigration protest. Youtube/unDivided with Brandi Kruse 4 While the 'No Kings' protest had remained peaceful, things quickly escalated into violence after Kruse arrived at the DHS Antifa protest. Youtube/unDivided with Brandi Kruse Advertisement She was out covering the anti-Trump 'No Kings' protest in the city that day when her team heard that Antifa was planning to try to disrupt immigration enforcement activities outside a Department of Homeland Security facility in Tukwila. While the 'No Kings' protest had remained peaceful, things quickly escalated into violence after Kruse arrived at the DHS Antifa protest. 'At that point, there hadn't been any sort of confrontations between police and these protesters,' she recalled. 'I would say it took less than two minutes for the assaults to start. So we didn't even really get a chance to do any reporting on the ground there because, within moments, this group was mobbing us.' Video of the encounter that Kruse posted to YouTube shows protesters spraying her with water and trying to block her camera with black umbrellas and protest signs. Several people surrounded Kruse and her armed security member while chanting, 'F— you, fascist,' and 'Nazi.' As Kruse and her team walks away from the crowd to create some distance, they continued to follow her and harass her, she says. Advertisement 'They had no interest in leaving me alone. They kept yelling at me to leave,' she continued. Kruse said a woman dumped a full water bottle on her head, a few people hit her from behind with their signs and one man ran at them and sprayed insecticide in her face as her team tried to get away. 'This thing sprayed a pretty far distance and it burned immediately. And that person followed us for maybe 10, 20 feet, just continuing to spray us in the face with what we later found out was hornet killer,' Kruse explained. 4 Several people surrounded Kruse and her armed security member while chanting, 'F— you, fascist,' and 'Nazi.' Facebook/Brandi Kruse Things turned violent after an undercover army veteran offered assistance to Kruse and her team. Advertisement 'As soon as Antifa realized that this army veteran was with us they pounced on him,' she said. 'There's this part of the video that shows them knocking him to the ground. There's maybe six or seven black-clad Antifa members, and they're kicking him. They're stomping him. It was absolutely brutal.' She said one person threatened the man with a gun before Kruse's security was able to pull the 'innocent bystander' out. Another civilian drove up at this moment and rescued the three from the violent crowd. 'At that point, I didn't really know the driver, but I knew that it was probably better than the situation we're in. So we pile in with this guy, and we just take off as they're pelting his vehicle with who knows what,' she said. Kruse filed a police report with the Tukwila PD afterward. The police confirmed to Fox News Digital a report had been filed, and an investigation was ongoing. Advertisement Kruse is familiar with these protests, having covered them extensively in her 15-year journalism career. She previously worked at a Fox affiliate in Seattle for several years and now hosts a political commentary show called 'Undivided.' In her experience, it's not unusual for Antifa to attack journalists or 'anyone who is exposing their criminal conduct.' She said she was previously assaulted by Antifa during the 2020 summer of protests when the group took over parts of the city. Kruse recalls this experience in the new Fox Nation streaming series, 'Summer of Chaos: Inside Seattle's CHOP Zone.' Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! 'This is a very violent faction of left-wing extremists with a long history of assaulting journalists in Seattle, including myself,' Kruse said. She accused local left-wing outlets like The Seattle Times of covering for violent extremists. On Saturday night, the paper published a report on the protest without mentioning the violence by the protesters. Their report documents Tukwila Police using tear gas against protesters and frames law enforcement as the instigators of violence. 'If you'd just read The Seattle Times article, you would think that the police unleashed on peaceful demonstrators,' Kruse said. 'So you have these media outlets that absolutely cover for violent left-wing extremists. And so Antifa doesn't target them in the same way, because why would they?'
Car and Driver
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
GOAT vs. Goat
The Irreverence: Fun, Provocative, Daring, and Never Boring There's a lot of lore around our GTO-versus-GTO test from 1964. Pitting a Pontiac against a Ferrari sent tweed caps spinning. It's healthy to challenge conventional wisdom and not get swept up in aggrandizing mythology. Seriousness and certainty are the enemies of creativity. GTO versus GTO also served as inspiration for pitting a 2025 Jeep Wrangler—a solid-axle, recirculating-ball-steering, body-on-frame horseshoe crab—against a 1968 Pontiac GTO. The experiment challenges testing director Dave VanderWerp's long-held theory that today's worst-handling vehicle is better than the venerated 1960s muscle car. Settling arguments is often the basis for story ideas, and one particular debate regarding the magnitude of vehicular progress over the past six decades seemed perfect to tackle on the occasion of our 70th anniversary. The question is this: Could the much-heralded, world-beating muscle cars of the 1960s keep up on a back-road blast with even the least coordinated vehicles on sale today? "It's hard to imagine anything worse than this dynamically," remarks executive editor K.C. Colwell after a plunge through our rough-and-tumble evaluation loop in rural Michigan in a 2025 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392. A vehicle, in fairness, whose extended ground clearance, solid front and rear axles, knobby 35-inch all-terrain tires, body-on-frame construction, and recirculating-ball steering are completely at odds with ripping down paved roads. Michael Simari | Car and Driver Yet its imprecision and 470-hp 6.4-liter Hemi V-8 make for a riotous and comedic duo. The dynamic rightness that allows for inhaling corners in today's best sports cars at two or three times their recommended speed earns deep admiration and respect, but it doesn't lead to uncontrollable belly laughing like sawing away at the helm of a Wrangler midcorner and realizing how far you can move the wheel and still have zero effect on the direction the car is pointed. Or laying into the throttle exiting a turn, the Hemi hoisting the Jeep's nose in the air while twisting the rear end like a shammy and screaming a deep-throated bellow all the while. Not since the 2006 Chevy Impala SS that sent V-8 power coursing through the front wheels has anything felt so overpowered or had so few chassis modifications to cope with the additional thrust. Cars today are too sophisticated, too buttoned up, too serious. Although a Wrangler with the base 285-hp V-6 would be a closer accelerative equal to the 1960s brutes, we went V-8 anyway. After all, the Wrangler 392, and the willingness of buyers to fork over more than $100,000 to buy one, demonstrates the continued brilliance of the idea of stuffing a big engine into a small car (or truck). It's kind of surprising such an inspired formula didn't emerge earlier, before bubbling out of John Z. DeLorean's team—yes, that DeLorean—at Pontiac in the 1960s. Well, the idea was the easy part. In what could in hindsight be recognized as the start of a pattern of deception, DeLorean first sold dealers on the idea of turning the Tempest coupe into the high-powered GTO in order to force it through the bureaucracy of General Motors, which, at the time, forbade the unbridled awesomeness of such a large engine in a relatively small car. Michael Simari | Car and Driver Naturally, we wanted a Pontiac GTO for this story, given our history with the nameplate, which began with a March 1964 cover depicting that first Pontiac GTO chasing its namesake Ferrari. Although we never actually got those two GTOs together for that GTO-versus-GTO story—nor did we claim to—the mere suggestion took on a life of its own. But we concluded with what today would be categorized as a serious hot take: "What does surprise us is that we found the Tempest GTO a better car, in some respects, than most current production Ferraris." As is still a regular occurrence today, outraged responses from our readers followed quickly. Our GTO this time around came by way of our managing road test editor, Becca Hackett, whose father has owned this second-generation 1968 convertible for 23 years. This one is powered by a 455-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) monster of a V-8 that was donated from a 1971 Catalina a year after Pontiac started offering this largest engine in the GTO. Michael Simari | Car and Driver It's rare that a 6.4-liter Hemi feels down on torque, but that's the case when the comparison point is Pontiac's beastly 455. We totally understand how our predecessors 61 years ago would fall for this engine and positive-action four-speed manual. Well, it wasn't exactly this engine—and in fact, in that '64 story, they didn't know which engine it was either. We were told the 1964 GTO was powered by the 389-cubic-inch (6.4-liter) V-8, lightly warmed over by Royal Pontiac of Royal Oak, Michigan. But Jim Wangers, chief of Pontiac's advertising agency, fessed up years later in his memoir that the car was a lightweighted cheater powered by a hopped-up 421. It probably wasn't the first time someone pulled one over on us, and it certainly wasn't the last. So it's no wonder the 13.1-second quarter-mile time we recorded in 1964—identical to today's Jeep Wrangler 392's—grew to 15.1 seconds when we tested a legit production 1964 GTO powered by a 389 V-8 20 years later. Michael Simari | Car and Driver Michael Simari | Car and Driver This GTO's gargantuan V-8 revs surprisingly quickly, considering the displacement and technology. The optimum launch point with this 3.55:1 axle ratio is only about 600 rpm above the 455's throbbing 1200-rpm idle—any higher leads to instant wheelspin. With this much torque, is it even physically possible to stall this engine? You ride a light roasting of the rear tires all the way up through first gear and then get a healthy squawk with a quick shift into second and again into third. A gorilla beating its chest doesn't exude the muscularity of the GTO's enveloping low-pitched roar. It's not a revver, as the maximum recommended speed is 5100 rpm, a point by which it's thoroughly out of breath anyway. You're in fourth before you reach the quarter-mile, which we hit in 15.2 seconds at 93 mph. But both the quarter-mile and the 6.5-second 60-mph time would improve dramatically if more modern, sticky tires than these all-season BFGoodrich Radial T/As were available in these classic sizes. With four-wheel launch traction and gobs more power, the Jeep chirps its front tires on the way to a 4.2-second run to 60 mph. Its straight-line win is no surprise. What is remarkable is that the GTO nearly keeps pace in the 50-to-70-mph passing test, even without the benefit of a downshift. Also, considering that the cars' build dates are many decades apart, it's uncanny how similar the magnitude of slop in their recirculating-ball steering is, as is the level of shake in their body-on-frame structures. But you feel the Jeep's elevated ride height, which imparts far more head toss. Steering feel apparently had yet to be invented in the 1960s, and the GTO's helm is absolutely and completely devoid of anything approaching feedback. Even when the tires start squealing, there's zero change in the steering effort. Michael Simari | Car and Driver By 1968, GTOs were available with front discs, and the Pontiac's brakes feel way better on the road than we expected. In our 70-mph braking test, we stood on them as hard as we could without causing lockup, which is why the 307-foot stopping distance isn't any better. What does 60 years of evolution get you? Other than modern features, conveniences, and electronics, the overarching difference with the newer Jeep is isolation. Not from the road; the GTO has that part handled. But you feel its engine constantly thrumming in your backside, and wind noise drowns out conversations. We thought 73 decibels at 70 mph was loud in the Wrangler, with its optional power-operated Sky Top—a hard top with a fabric section in the center that slides open like a sunroof. But the GTO, with an 82-decibel racket, has so much wind noise that you wonder if the top is up or down (although this example may not represent factory-grade sealing). Michael Simari | Car and Driver The Wrangler also keeps the V-8's thermal excesses from reaching the cabin. In the GTO, heat pours out from between the shift boot and the lever, and it feels like the driver's seat might be part of the cooling circuit. It makes you wonder how much of the combusted fuel is actually going toward propulsion, which is a good question. The engine was rated at 325 horsepower in its day (that was an SAE-gross figure), but the number dropped to 250 horses in 1972, when Pontiac started reporting net horsepower figures. Jump off the gas in the Wrangler, and a computer controls the rate at which the throttle plate closes to smooth out anything unbecoming, whereas you're in complete control of the GTO's mechanical linkage. The Jeep's exhaust note gets flatulent in its loud mode, when the engine puts four cylinders to sleep to improve efficiency, another modern "convenience." The Jeep's Hemi did eke out a fuel-economy win—12 mpg to the GTO's 11—which is impressive, considering it makes 88 percent more power and is propelling over 1600 more pounds. We suppose that's what comes with 55 years of pushrod-engine development, although the Jeep also has twice as many gear ratios in its transmission. Michael Simari | Car and Driver Neck protection was a thing of the future in 1968, a time when driver distraction was primarily the vehicle's doing (the noise, the heat, the imprecise steering and handling, the weak brakes). Despite the GTO's relative and genuine light weight compared to modern cars—although it's more than a foot longer, it weighs roughly the same as a rear-wheel-drive BMW M340i—every touchpoint, from the way the doors slam to the shift lever, has a fantastic, high-quality heft to it. But back to cutting up back roads. The Jeep takes a better, more reliable set in corners, and it feels like the level of grip at the onset of tire squeal is roughly double that of the GTO. Behind the Pontiac's long hood, every sweeping curve becomes a half-dozen or more mini corners, depending on what bumps are present and the camber or crown of the surface. Apply steering, wait for the car to respond, and be ready to correct, then correct some more. Sometimes you can see the right side of the car shaking over a sequence of bumps that you don't really feel in the driver's seat. It's like piloting multiple vehicles flying in close formation and not being totally sure which one you're controlling. Michael Simari | Car and Driver However, on the smooth skidpad, the GTO on modern tires is much friendlier. We found it relatively easy to hold it at the limit—the Pontiac handily outgripped the Jeep, 0.73 g to 0.68 g—and adding some throttle brings the rear end around slowly and controllably. That's good, because catching a tank slapper in the GTO is a low-probability event, even with steering that, at 2.8 turns lock to lock, is over twice as direct as the original GTO's. But to answer the question that brought us here: Although the Jeep Wrangler is comically bad in the tightest and twistiest sections, each and every time, no matter which of us was driving, it easily walked away from the GTO. According to the transitive property, that makes the Wrangler better than plenty of now-multimillion-dollar classic Ferraris. Specifications Specifications 2025 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 Vehicle Type: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door convertible PRICE Base/As Tested: $101,990/$109,570 Options: Sky One-Touch power top, $3995; Mopar air compressor, $1995; Mopar heavy-duty full-flooring system, $995; Granite Crystal Metallic Clear paint, $595 ENGINE pushrod 16-valve V-8, iron block and aluminum heads, port fuel injection Displacement: 392 in3, 6417 cm3 Power: 470 hp @ 6000 rpm Torque: 470 lb-ft @ 4300 rpm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic CHASSIS Suspension, F/R: live axle/live axle Brakes, F/R: 13.0-in vented disc/13.8-in vented disc Tires: BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 LT315/70R-17 113/110S M+S 3PMSF DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 118.4 in Length: 192.5 in Width: 79.3 in Height: 75.5 in Passenger Volume, F/R: 54/50 ft3 Cargo Volume: 32 ft3 Curb Weight: 5465 lb C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 4.2 sec 100 mph: 12.3 sec 1/4-Mile: 13.1 sec @ 102 mph Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec. Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 5.1 sec Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 2.8 sec Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 3.5 sec Top Speed (gov ltd): 110 mph Braking, 70–0 mph: 206 ft Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.68 g C/D FUEL ECONOMY 150-mi Trip: 12 mpg EPA FUEL ECONOMY Combined/City/Highway: 14/13/16 mpg -- 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 2-door convertible PRICE Base/As Tested: $28,000*/$29,000* *Prices when new, adjusted for inflation to 2025 dollars ENGINE pushrod 16-valve V-8, iron block and heads, 2-barrel carburetor Displacement: 455 in3, 7455 cm3 Power: 250 hp @ 3600 rpm Torque: 375 lb-ft @ 2400 rpm TRANSMISSION 4-speed manual CHASSIS Suspension, F/R: control arms/live axle Brakes, F/R: 11.1-in vented disc/9.5-in drum Tires: BFGoodrich Radial T/A F: P235/60R-15 98S M+S R: P275/60R-15 107S M+S DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 112.0 in Length: 200.7 in Width: 74.8 in Height: 53.4 in Passenger Volume, F/R: 55/32 ft3 Cargo Volume: 10 ft3 Curb Weight: 3812 lb C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 6.5 sec 100 mph: 17.8 sec 1/4-Mile: 15.2 sec @ 93 mph Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.4 sec. Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 6.7 sec Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.7 sec Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 3.8 sec Top Speed (C/D est): 116 mph Braking, 70–0 mph: 307 ft Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.73 g C/D FUEL ECONOMY 150-mi Trip: 11 mpg EPA FUEL ECONOMY City/Highway: not/good mpg C/D TESTING EXPLAINED Dave VanderWerp Director, Vehicle Testing Dave VanderWerp has spent more than 20 years in the automotive industry, in varied roles from engineering to product consulting, and now leading Car and Driver's vehicle-testing efforts. Dave got his very lucky start at C/D by happening to submit an unsolicited resume at just the right time to land a part-time road warrior job when he was a student at the University of Michigan, where he immediately became enthralled with the world of automotive journalism.
West Australian
7 days ago
- West Australian
Man fights for life after rollover crash on Perth's Kwinana Freeway
A man is fighting for his life in hospital after being cut free from the wreckage of a serious late-night freeway crash. The 32-year-old was a passenger in a red Jeep Wrangler that veered off Perth's Kwinana Freeway and rolled near the intersection with Roe Highway in North Lake, in the city's southern suburbs, about 11.30pm on Sunday. He was carefully removed from the vehicle and rushed to Royal Perth Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition on Monday. The driver, a 22-year-old man, was also taken to RPH with minor injuries. The crash closed the northbound lanes of the freeway for some time, with diversions in place while incident response teams attended the scene. Major Crash investigators are examining the circumstances, and anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Perth Now
7 days ago
- Perth Now
Man clings to life after horrific freeway crash
A man is clinging for life in hospital after he was cut free from the wreck of a serious late night freeway crash. Credit: 7NEWS A man is fighting for his life in hospital after being cut free from the wreckage of a serious late-night freeway crash. The 32-year-old was a passenger in a red Jeep Wrangler that veered off Perth's Kwinana Freeway and rolled near the intersection with Roe Highway in North Lake, in the city's southern suburbs, about 11.30pm on Sunday. He was carefully removed from the vehicle and rushed to Royal Perth Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition on Monday. The driver, a 22-year-old man, was also taken to RPH with minor injuries. The crash closed the northbound lanes of the freeway for some time, with diversions in place while incident response teams attended the scene. Major Crash investigators are examining the circumstances, and anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
7NEWS
7 days ago
- 7NEWS
Man fights for life after rollover crash on Perth's Kwinana Freeway
A man is fighting for his life in hospital after being cut free from the wreckage of a serious late-night freeway crash. The 32-year-old was a passenger in a red Jeep Wrangler that veered off Perth's Kwinana Freeway and rolled near the intersection with Roe Highway in North Lake, in the city's southern suburbs, about 11.30pm on Sunday. He was carefully removed from the vehicle and rushed to Royal Perth Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition on Monday. The driver, a 22-year-old man, was also taken to RPH with minor injuries. The crash closed the northbound lanes of the freeway for some time, with diversions in place while incident response teams attended the scene. Major Crash investigators are examining the circumstances, and anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
