It all started with ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem prior to the start of NFL games, ostensibly in protest of police brutality and racial injustice.

It didn’t take long before the protests — which many people view as anti-American — spread to other players throughout the league, as well as in other professional leagues and sports, and even in some cases at the high school level.

According to TheBlaze, a federal judge in California just ruled in favor of protesting players at the high school level, and declared that school districts could not force players to stand respectfully for the playing of the anthem.

That ruling came in response to a lawsuit by a Native American high school football player identified only as “V.A.” against the San Pasqual Valley school district. The suit was filed after the district changed its rules and required student athletes to stand for the anthem.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the district had changed its rules in response to an incident that occurred at a game when students from a rival school in Arizona had yelled racial slurs at “V.A.” and other San Pasqual Valley students because of his kneeling protest prior to a game.

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Those other students from Mayer High School in Spring Valley, Arizona, had allegedly threatened to force the player to stand for the anthem, had hurled obscenities and slurs at the offending player, and had even doused a San Pasqual Valley cheerleader with water.

District Superintendent Rauna Fox implemented a new rule afterward that barred any sort of “kneeling, sitting or similar forms of political protest” at school-sponsored athletic events, and also required all students and coaches to “stand and remove hats/helmets … during the playing or singing of the National Anthem.”

But the student sued the school district on the grounds that they were violating his First Amendment-protected right to political expression, and a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California agreed in a ruling issued on Dec. 21.

According to the judge’s ruling, schools only have the authority to curb a student’s speech if their expressions in some manner threaten to disrupt the educational mission of the school, which in the judge’s view did not appear to be the case in this instance.

Thus, the judge ordered a preliminary injunction against the district that prevents it from enforcing the rule regarding the national anthem protests.

Attorneys representing “V.A.” have already stated that they intend to seek a permanent injunction against the district’s rule against anthem protests.

“We are pleased with this outcome,” stated Katie Traverso, an attorney for the Bush Gottlieb firm that represented the student, in a news release, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Students like our client who conscientiously carry their values and ideals with them, cannot be silenced or directed on what to say or not say by their school in this manner.”

This ruling will be viewed as an unfortunate outcome by many Americans who believe the national anthem protests are disrespectful to the country.

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It could also prompt other students in the state and across the country to feel emboldened to begin protesting as well, or to file challenges of their own against school districts that have implemented similar rules regarding political protests during the national anthem.

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President Trump reduced foreign refugee admissions by roughly 70 percent in nearly the first year of his presidency, a new report reveals.

Center for Immigration Studies researcher Nayla Rush released a new study comparing refugee admissions to the United States under Trump versus those under former President Obama between Jan. 20 to Dec. 20, 2017, and the same time period in 2016.

During the first 11 months of Trump’s presidency, the populist-nationalist president cut the number of foreign refugees entering the U.S. by about 70 percent, according to Rush’s research.

In his first 11 months, Trump admitted 28,875 foreign refugees to the U.S., a vast difference from the whopping 93,668 foreign refugees admitted in the same time period under Obama. Likewise, for Fiscal Year 2018, Trump has lowered the number of refugees who can enter the U.S. to 45,000, which as Rush notes, is the lowest refugee cap since 1980.

Between Jan. 20 and Dec. 20, 2017, more than 53 percent of the 28,875 refugees resettled in the U.S. were Christians, while 32 percent were Muslim, 5.4 percent were Buddhist and nearly 4 percent were Hindu.

Compare that to Obama refugee resettlements in 2016 when 45 percent of the 93,668 refugees admitted were Muslim and 44 percent were Christians.

Due to left-wing judges holding up implementation of Trump’s travel ban — which sought to halt refugee resettlement to the U.S. from terrorist-funding countries — nearly 5,600 refugees from Somalia, Iran and Syria were able to enter the U.S. this year.

But, in December 2017, Trump’s travel ban on refugees from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Somalia, Venezuela, and Yemen was able to be fully implemented, thus far ending refugee resettlement from these countries for the time being.

Under Trump, only roughly 2,000 Syrian refugees entered the U.S. in 2017, a far cry from the mass resettlement of more than 15,000 Syrian refugees in a single year under Obama.

Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz told an influential Knesset committee on Monday that Iran was working to upgrade the military capabilities of the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Katz said: “In recent days, while we face the known threat from Gaza, there is a direct Iranian intervention. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are involved in operative preparations to upgrade the threat to Israel from the direction of Gaza.”

The Islamic Republic was increasing its involvement in the Gaza Strip after Hamas was forced to leave Qatar, following pressure from Saudi Arabia, Katz told the committee, according to a report by the Jerusalem Post.

“This meeting is under the shadow of a four-letter word: I-R-A-N,” he minister told the committee.

“It’s amazing how everything has to do with Iran,” Katz continued. “Whether it’s their nuclear aspirations and the need to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons… the attempt to improve its military preparedness in Syria, training Shi’ite militias [or] actions improving Hezbollah missiles.”

“In a short time we will see ourselves fighting a much more challenging threat on the operative and military levels if we don’t change direction,” the Post quoted the minister as saying.

Referring in brief to the ongoing protest in Iran, Katz said that Israel would like to “see the repressive regime removed and replaced with a democracy. We don’t intervene, but we wish luck to the Iranian people in pursuit of freedom and democracy.”

After he made his comments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his government to avoid commenting on the protests in Iran.

“It’s not that they love Zion,” Katz said in irony, discussing the Iranian investment in money and manpower in several conflicts around the world. “It’s a question of whether resources should be used to support terror and aggression in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. All these developments require Israel to consider them and try to change the situation.”

Over the weekend, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that mortar shells fired at Israel from Gaza were made in Iran.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un delivered a New Year’s Eve speech on the state-run KCTV television stations on Sunday, saying the United States is within range of the country’s nuclear weapons and that he can deploy them at any time.

“The entire mainland of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear weapons, and the nuclear button is always on the desk of my office,” Kim said. “[The U.S.] should accurately be aware that this is not a threat but a reality.”

Kim began his speech by giving a nod to relations with South Korea, saying he is considering sending a North Korean delegation to next month’s PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. He quickly turned to flaunting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and threatening the United States.

“No matter how much America wants to attack us with their military might and nuclear power, they know that now we possess such great nuclear power, and, therefore, they will not dare,” Kim said, adding that the development of nuclear weapons is a “historic accomplishment.”

Kim reportedly stated that he will order his military to mass produce nuclear weapons in 2018.

His 40-minute speech mentioned the United States 11 times.

The Diplomat magazine reported on the speech:

Whether or not Kim Jong-un has a physical button to authorize launch or not, it remains the case that North Korea’s nuclear weapons continue to see highly centralized and assertive command and control.

The implication, for now, is simple: Kim Jong-un’s nuclear forces are operational and ready to deter the United States and retaliate to any first strike that would seek to either disarm Kim Jong-un of his weapons or kill him.

Kim’s speech also addressed the continued pressure on North Korea following the United Nations’ imposing new sanctions on the country in 2017.

Kim said North Korea needs to become more self-reliant, including in the manufacturing and energy sectors, according to the Diplomat: “North Korea is able to export fewer commodities than ever before and is limited in the quantity of refined and crude petroleum products it can import, among other restrictions.”

South Korean media and politicians have largely focused on Kim’s comments regarding the Winter Olympics. Leftist politicians have described the call for dialogue on the athletic front as “a positive sign,” according to South Korean outlet Yonhap. Conservative opposition party figures have dismissed the Olympics talk as “a shallow charm offensive” couched in nuclear threats.

In 2017, North Korea launched 16 ballistic missiles with varying rates of success, according to a CNN timeline.