Quote:Hong Kong has become a critical financial and logistical lifeline for Iran’s regime — helping move illicit oil, weapons technology and surveillance tools that fuel Tehran’s military machine and domestic repression, according to a bombshell report released Monday.

The 26-page report by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, titled “Oil, Arms, and Cash: How Hong Kong Fuels the Iranian Regime,” alleges that dozens of Hong Kong-based companies have helped Iran evade Western sanctions while funneling billions of dollars into the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its terror proxies.

“Simply put, without Hong Kong’s help, Iran would not have the money and the missiles that make it so dangerous,” the report states.

“The evidence is consistent and damning,” the report says, citing “Hong Kong’s easy registration of shell companies, its globally connected banking sector, its secretive corporate services infrastructure, and the indifference of its government to Western law enforcement cooperation.”

The report details how Hong Kong-linked firms allegedly facilitated the shipment of Iranian crude oil to China through shadow fleets using deceptive ship-to-ship transfers and falsified cargo documents.

Since 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated at least 95 Hong Kong-incorporated entities for Iran-related sanctions violations, according to an appendix included in the report.

Among the cases cited was Hong Kong-based Petronix Energy Trading Ltd., which US authorities accused in February 2025 of purchasing “hundreds of thousands of metric tons of Iranian crude oil” for shipment to China.

The report also alleges Hong Kong has become a major hub for funneling Western-made electronics and drone components into Iran’s weapons programs.

Quote:Iran executed a promising aerospace engineering student Monday, accusing him of spying for both the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, was hanged at dawn after being convicted of stealing classified satellite information from the scientific organization where he worked, Iranian state media reported.

The regime had accused Shakourzadeh — a post-grad student at the University of Science and Technology in Tehran — of funneling details on satellite activities to the foreign intelligence services.

Shakourzadeh was arrested in February last year and forced into making a confession, according to the Iran Human Rights Society.

Just prior to his execution, the student apparently wrote a message saying the charges were fabricated, the human rights group said.

Shakourzadeh, who is the fifth person executed by the regime since the war broke out in February, spent nine months in solitary confinement where he suffered “severe physical and psychological torture,” the group added.

At the time of his arrest, Shakourzadeh was an elite, top-ranked student at the Iran University of Science and Technology.

Quote:The US-Israel war on Iran “accomplished a great deal,” but cannot be considered over until the Islamic Republic’s enriched uranium is moved outside its territory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued in an interview broadcast Sunday night.

Netanyahu, in his first American network TV sitdown since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran Feb. 28, declined to say when such an operation would occur or who would be responsible for executing it, telling CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Major Garrett that “you’re gonna ask me these questions. I’m gonna dodge them.”

“I’m not gonna talk about military means, but the pres– what President Trump has said to me [is] ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically. That’s not the problem,” the 76-year-old said. “If you have an agreement, and you go in, and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way.”

The interview aired hours after Trump publicly rebuked Iran’s response to a 14-point peace framework offered by the US, writing on social media that it was “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.”

Tehran’s proposal made no mention of curbing its atomic ambitions, according to the official IRNA news agency, instead focusing on fully reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping before moving on to other contentious topics.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, has said Iran has more than 970 pounds of uranium enriched to 60% purity, a short technical step from weapons grade.

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that the month-long cease-fire between the US and Iran “is on massive life support” — but that it’s still in effect as he prepares for a whirlwind trip to China.

Trump, who departs for Beijing on Tuesday, railed against Iran’s “stupid” leaders after receiving an inflammatory peace offer asking that Iran be treated like the war’s winner, with no nuclear concessions.

“It’s on life support,” Trump told reporters during a maternal health event in the Oval Office.

“I would say the cease-fire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living.'”

The cease-fire has been in effect since April 8, though both countries have launched limited attacks during the shaky truce.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), an outspoken supporter of Trump’s war with Iran, told The Post that he wanted the president to “keep throttling the Iranian economy” with the naval blockade that began on April 13.

“China deserves to feel that pain,” Fetterman added, referring to Iranian oil exports failing to reach the world’s second-largest economy.

The Pennsylvania Democrat hailed Trump’s demand that Iran surrender about 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium, likening the Republican to British wartime leader Winston Churchill.

“Demanding Iran surrender its nuclear material is maximum Churchillian,” Fetterman raved.

A national security official told The Post, however, that Trump hasn’t restarted full-scale fighting for several reasons, including his hope to enlist Chinese President Xi Jinping’s support for a “better deal” that ends Iran’s nuclear ambitions without a drawn-out war.

Quote:The United Arab Emirates quietly carried out military counter-strikes against a key Iranian oil refinery just as President Trump declared a cease-fire last month, according to a new report.

After suffering repeated bombardments from Iran, the UAE fired a series of retaliatory attacks against the Islamic republic, with one of the known strikes hitting the Lavan Island oil refinery in the Persian Gulf, sources told the Wall Street Journal.

The attack, which came just as the US was solidifying a cease-fire on April 8, sparked a large fire in the facility and is expected to leave its output crippled for months, the outlet added.

At the time, Iran had said that the refinery was struck by enemy fire. While the Islamic Republic did not name the source, it launched an attack against the UAE and Kuwait in response, similar to what it had been doing throughout the height of the war.

Strikes hit an Iranian oil refinery on Lavan Island today.

Iran is now retaliating with strikes on targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE. pic.twitter.com/xOptoGRjbB

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 8, 2026
While the UAE has not commented on the strikes, the country has repeatedly asserted its right to defend itself against Iran’s mass retaliation campaign in the Gulf.

Quote:The Pentagon revealed the location Monday of one of the US Navy’s most secretive vessels – a stealthy, nuclear-armed submarine – a day after President Trump rejected Iran’s latest peace offer.

The Navy’s Sixth Fleet shared an image of the Ohio-class submarine and its crew docked Sunday in Gibraltar, a British territory off Spain’s southern coast.

“The port visit demonstrates US capability, flexibility, and continuing commitment to its NATO allies,” the Sixth Fleet said in a press release.

“Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines are undetectable launch platforms for submarine-launched ballistic missiles, providing the US with its most survivable leg of the nuclear triad,” the fleet added.

The Navy, which operates 14 nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed Ohio-class submarines, did not share the name of the vessel docked in Gibraltar.

The submarine’s Trident II ballistic missiles have a range of over 4,500 miles.

The Pentagon rarely discloses the locations of its nuclear subs, which is considered highly classified information. 

The disclosure came hours after Trump slammed Iran’s latest peace offer as “totally unacceptable.”

Quote:The CEO of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company is warning that the energy sector will take time to recover from the Iran war’s impact on supply as oil output was slashed due to the ongoing disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said on an earnings call Monday that the global energy market has lost about 1 billion barrels of oil supply during the crisis, though efforts to reroute shipments to avoid using the Strait of Hormuz and releases from countries’ strategic petroleum reserves have eased some of the supply issues.

“The energy supply shock that began in the first quarter is the largest the world has ever experienced,” Nasser said.

He said that the world is now losing about 100 million barrels of oil supply per week as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed to tanker traffic. If the disruption continues for several more weeks, Aramco thinks that oil markets may not normalize until 2027.

“Reopening routes is not the same as normalizing a market that has been deprived of about 1 billion barrels of oil,” Nasser said, adding that years of underinvestment compounded the strain caused by the conflict on global oil inventory.

“Recent events have clearly demonstrated the vital contribution of oil and gas to energy security and the global economy and are a stark reminder that reliable energy supply is critical,” he added.

The conflict prompted Aramco to ramp up the use of its pipeline that transits the Arabian Peninsula from east to west and negates the need for oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil supply passed through before the war began.

“Our East-West pipeline, which reached its maximum capacity of 7 million barrels of oil per day, has proven itself to be a critical supply artery, helping to mitigate the impact of a global energy shock and providing relief to customers affected by shipping constraints in the Strait of Hormuz,” Nasser said on the call.

Quote:Aging, allegedly ailing Vladimir Putin has been mocked over his puffy, strangely altered face after the fearful, paranoid Russian dictator made a rare public appearance in Moscow over the weekend.

The swollen-cheeked 73-year-old despot was spotted at an unusually quiet Victory Day parade to mark the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Putin’s brief appearance during the event in Red Square sparked ripping online comments over his appearance, with one joking that Western sanctions on Russia were affecting the president’s Botox.

“Putin, what’s with the face?” a pro-Ukraine account quipped on X, noting, “The parade ended at lightning speed — just 45 minutes The Kremlin boss [was] immediately rushed off Red Square surrounded by heavy security.”

Another user shared a picture of the Russian tyrant with a pained expression during Saturday’s rally.

“Putin’s last parade,” the person wrote.

A third X user said, “Putin genuinely looks sick, this isn’t the face of a well man even for his age.”

Someone else said, “Putin must be residing in the bunker for an extended period, possibly even longer than this year. He seems to be in dire need of some Botox touch-ups.”

Others pointed to the pared-down nature of the parade, with no armored vehicles or ballistic missiles, as well as Putin’s additional security precautions.

Quote:KYIV – Nearly 20 countries are interested in drone deals with Ukraine, and four agreements have already been signed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.

Since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, Zelenskiy has managed to leverage Ukraine’s expertise in drone warfare into a series of successful diplomatic deals during visits to the Middle East and Europe.

“Nearly 20 countries are currently involved at various stages: 4 agreements have already been signed, and the first contracts under these agreements are now being prepared,” Zelenskiy said on X.

In April, Ukraine signed defense and drone deals in Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands, following long-term security partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in late March.

Ukraine also signed agreements last month with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on defense and energy.

In his post, Zelenskiy also said Ukraine would launch security cooperation within the framework of drone deals with another part of the world, without specifying which.

Ukraine has already started to receive the necessary volume of fuel thanks to the agreements, Zelenskiy added, without elaborating.

Zelenskiy hopes his drone diplomacy can help secure energy-supply deals with Middle Eastern states as well as markets for Ukraine’s agricultural produce.

Quote:Latvia's defense minister has resigned after two Ukrainian drones targeting Russia crossed into the NATO nation last week, with one drone crashing into a fuel storage facility and damaging several empty oil tanks in the country's east.

The incident, which caused no injuries, was the latest example of drones spilling over from the Russia-Ukraine war into NATO territory, exposing gaps in the alliance's air defenses as drones take on a more prominent role in warfare but European and NATO militaries remain ill-equipped to fend them off in large numbers.

Drones penetrating NATO airspace have not been treated as attacks on the alliance so far, meaning they have not triggered discussions over a collective response from all 32 members, but the spillovers have pushed the alliance's members along Europe's eastern edge to quickly invest in anti-drone defenses.

On Sunday, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina called for Defense Minister Andris Sprūds to leave his post, saying counter-drone systems had not been deployed fast enough.

She said trust in Sprūds' leadership was "exhausted," and that the drone incursions last week were the "final straw."

Why Latvia's Defense Minister Resigned
Sprūds, an academic who had served as defense minister since September 2023, said in a separate statement that he was stepping back to "protect the Latvian army from being dragged into a political campaign." He added that the country would continue to beef up its air defenses.

Silina announced that Colonel Raivis Melnis of the Latvian army, whom she described as having "Ukraine experience," would replace Sprūds.

Sprūds' resignation makes Latvia the latest NATO member on the eastern flank to see turbulence in top defense roles as pressure to spend more, and invest quickly in defense, surges. Romania and Lithuania also replaced defense ministers late in 2025.

I get the idea of getting ready to take down ANY drones entering their country. At the same time, it's not like the former minister were guilty of the consequences of such an attack. It would have been a lot easier to blame Zelensky for letting his drones invade NATO territory than Sprūds. Nonetheless, politics isn't always about who's really guilty of anything but who'll become the scapegoat that will keep the current government afloat for the time being.

Quote:The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday received an emergency appeal from Virginia Democrats seeking to revive a voter‑approved congressional map struck down by the state’s highest court, even as the justices separately allowed Alabama to move forward with its own redistricting plan in a ruling released the same day.

The dual developments underscore how the court continues to shape the nation’s political boundaries heading into the 2026 elections.

The Virginia ruling also blocked new congressional districts that would have given Democrats a stronger chance to win four additional U.S. House seats. The emergency appeal followed a 4-3 decision Friday by the Virginia Supreme Court, which found that lawmakers improperly advanced the amendment after early voting had already begun in the fall’s general election.

The ruling wiped out a rare Democratic gain in the nation’s mid‑decade redistricting fight, a contest supercharged by President Donald Trump’s push for Republican‑led states to redraw their maps and by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that sharply weakened the Voting Rights Act.

Losing the Virginia map deprives Democrats of four competitive seats at a moment when Republicans claim to have netted more than a dozen through redistricting nationwide. The appeal also highlights the political stakes surrounding a Supreme Court that has repeatedly shaped the congressional landscape heading into this year's midterms.

What to Know About Virginia Ruling

Democrats argue the Virginia court “overrode the will of the people” who narrowly approved the amendment last month, saying the state must use the new map rather than revert to districts voters rejected.

The state court ruled the amendment invalid because the legislature began the ballot‑placement process after early voting had started, a procedural violation under the Virginia Constitution.

Democrats counter that U.S. Supreme Court precedent defines an election as occurring on Election Day, not during early voting.

Quote:Former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, federal prosecutors announced Monday.

The admission places a sitting U.S. elected official at the center of a foreign influence case tied to undisclosed coordination with Beijing-linked officials. Wang, a Democrat who was elected in 2022, now faces up to 10 years in prison and has resigned from her post.

Federal prosecutors are moving forward with the case, while local officials assess the impact on the Southern California community.

Who Is Eileen Wang?

Wang, 58, is a Southern California politician who was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022 and later became mayor through the body’s rotating leadership system.

In Arcadia, the mayor is selected from the five-member council, a structure that elevated Wang to the role after her initial election to public office.

A longtime resident, she became the first Chinese-American woman elected to the council, helping make it majority female for the first time. Before entering politics, Wang was active in local civic and business organizations, including the Arcadia Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, and served as president of the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce USA from 2018 to 2022.

She ran on a platform emphasizing community engagement and public safety and took part in local initiatives during her tenure, including organizing events and supporting victims following the 2023 Monterey Park mass shooting.

Wang resigned from the city council on Monday, stepping down as mayor following federal charges as the case proceeds.

Quote:President Donald Trump said Sunday that federal agencies must prioritize American-made products in government purchasing, touting efforts to tighten enforcement of "Buy American" policies and limit exceptions that allow foreign goods.

"ALL FEDERAL AGENCIES MUST BUY AMERICAN — NO EXCUSES!" Trump exclaimed on Truth Social. "For decades, Washington politicians sent your Taxpayer Dollars overseas, and let Foreign Countries rip us off while our Workers, Factories, and Supply Chains were left behind. That betrayal is OVER.

"My Administration is strengthening MADE IN AMERICA Laws, ENDING Waiver Loopholes, and STOPPING the Federal Government from buying Foreign Products when Great American Products are available — And to the D.C. Bureaucrats: NO MORE handing out Waivers like candy!" he continued. "No more rubber-stamping exceptions for Foreign Products while American Workers get shafted.

"We are putting American Workers, American Factories, and American Supply Chains FIRST — Bigger, better, and stronger than ever before! I already signed EO 14392 to crack down on fake "MADE IN AMERICA" claims, and we are enforcing it HARD," he added. "No more games. No more fake labels. No more ripping off the American Taxpayer. AMERICA FIRST means BUY AMERICAN!"

The comments come as the Trump administration moves to tighten domestic sourcing requirements across federal procurement, part of a broader push to boost U.S. manufacturing and reduce reliance on foreign supply chains.

In March, Trump signed an executive order aimed at combating fraudulent "Made in America" labels by foreign manufacturers and sellers, Reuters reported.

The order directs the Federal Trade Commission to prioritize enforcement against companies that falsely label products as U.S.-made or make misleading origin claims in violation of existing law.

It also calls on federal agencies responsible for country-of-origin labeling to work with the FTC to consider new regulations and ensure consistent guidance across the government.

Quote:California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing pressure to throw a lifeline to Californians struggling with highest-in-the-nation gas prices as President Donald Trump signed plans to suspend the federal gas tax.

Trump said Monday he plans to “take off the gas tax for a period of time” — though he needs the backing of Congress — calling it a “great idea” to offer Americans relief at the pump.

Newsom has no plans to follow suit in California — where gas prices hovered at $6.16 per gallon Monday, well above the national average of $4.52, according to AAA.

California drivers already shoulder the highest gas taxes in the country, which include an excise tax of 61 cents per gallon, sales taxes and other fees. The federal gas tax is 18 cents per gallon by comparison.

“I support any and all efforts to give Californians relief from high gas prices,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican-leaning independent, told The Post. “A pause in the federal tax would help, but the bigger problem is California’s highest-in-the-nation state tax.”

“I have introduced the Gas Tax Reduction Act to limit this tax and have called on state leaders to suspend the 61-cent-per-gallon tax in its entirety,” he added.

Quote:Savannah Guthrie is the host of a new Wordle game show.

The journalist made the “big announcement” on Monday’s episode of the “Today” show, alongside Jimmy Fallon, the project’s executive producer.

“We’ve been holding in a secret between us for a long time now,” the 54-year-old anchor gushed.

Fallon, 51, replied, “I’m so happy it’s you — we were looking for the perfect host for this. We needed someone who looks like they play Wordle, someone who knows how to run a show.

“We did the pilot, and you were amazing,” the “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” host continued, referring to Guthrie, who guest-hosted “Jeopardy!” for two weeks in 2021.

The game show, based on the New York Times’ popular puzzle of the same name, will begin filming this summer.

News broke in October that “Wordle” was in development, with Guthrie set to host.

Since then, Guthrie has been in the headlines primarily for her personal life as her family navigates her mom Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.

“When everything happened with me and my family,” Savannah explained on Monday, “they just stopped everything and said, ‘We’ll wait for you.’ Hollywood is, like, a really tough business, and I didn’t expect that. And I just want to say thank you, it means so much to me.”

Fallon insisted cast and crew alike agreed they “couldn’t do the show” without the “fantastic” host.

Guthrie went on to share mixed feelings about the “joyous” news.

Quote:Millions of gallons of sewage-tainted water from Mexico continue to pollute some of Southern California’s most popular beaches, triggering repeated closures and mounting health concerns for nearby communities.

In Coronado, county officials have sounded the alarm, urging visitors to steer clear of the water as polluted runoff seeps into the coastline.
Warning signs posted along the shoreline caution beachgoers that exposure could lead to illness.

The contamination is largely tied to the Tijuana River, which carries untreated wastewater from Mexico into U.S. waters before ocean currents push the pollution north along the Southern California coast.

As much as 30 million gallons of sewage-tainted water can flow into the Pacific Ocean daily from Tijuana, reported FOX11.

The pollution has impacted even some of the region’s most high-profile beachfront areas, including waters near the historic Hotel del Coronado.

Health experts warn that exposure to contaminated water can cause gastrointestinal illness, while airborne toxins linked to sewage pollution may trigger headaches, respiratory issues, and other health problems.

Hydrogen sulfide, a gas associated with sewage, can irritate the eyes and respiratory system and may cause more serious effects at higher concentrations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors and community advocates say children in affected communities have been especially impacted, with some reporting worsening asthma symptoms, skin rashes, and other health issues tied to the pollution.

Quote:A Pennsylvania liberal arts college has removed a college professor’s name from a campus building after it emerged he excavated a Native American burial site – but critics say the move is revisionist.

Swarthmore College scrubbed Spencer Trotter’s name from its Trotter Hall building after learning he dug up the site in 1899 and put remains on display on campus, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Trotter, who was part of the college’s biology department, promoted racial hierarchy in his works – which scholars have determined to be “scientific racism.”

Valerie Smith, the college’s president, revealed in December last year that Trotter Hall and Trotter Lawn would be renamed after an 18-month investigation.

The hall has been temporarily named “Old Science Hall” and a permanent name will be announced in the fall.

Smith said the name change “is not merely a matter of renaming spaces” and acknowledged it may be divisive.

“It is an acknowledgment of harm, a commitment to learn from our past, and an affirmation of our responsibility to care for the stories and legacies held on this campus,” she said.

“I recognize that this news may stir a range of difficult emotions and concerns.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in April 2022 that two university professors excavated a Lenape burial ground, but didn’t mention Trotter by name.

The site was donated to the Delaware Nation tribe for just $1 and this process was completed in March 2022. It’s the only officially-recognized Native American burial ground in Chester County.

Quote:An anti-Israel mob clashed with counter-protesters near a Brooklyn synagogue on Monday night — less than a week after a similar demonstration rocked Manhattan.

At least three people were detained after agitators swarmed the area near the Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood, which was hosting an event promoting real estate in Israel and the West Bank.

The anti-Israel mob chanted “Palestine is ours alone,” and several carried a wide banner that read “Israel is killing children.”

During one fight, a person who concealed their face with a medical mask yanked a girl’s hair — and nearly threw her against a parked car in the process, according to a video obtained by The Post.

Shortly after, another man squared up against a squad of young men carrying a Palestinian flag.

“Let’s go motherf–kers, c’mon! C’mon motherf–kers!” the man yelled.

At least two teenage pro-Israel protesters were detained. As the NYPD marched them down the streets, their supporters followed and chanted for the cops to “let them go.”

An anti-Israel protester was also detained, cops said.

All three individuals taken into custody had thrown items during the heated protest, according to the NYPD.

The whirlwind demonstration mirrored another protest that wreaked havoc at the historic Park East Synagogue in Manhattan on May 5.

Both were organized by anti-Israel activist group Pal-Awda NY/NJ, which promoted the rallies with slogans such as “No settlers on stolen land” and “Stop the sale of stolen Palestinian land.”

Quote:A gun-wielding career criminal opened fire at random cars driving down a Massachusetts roadway on Monday, leaving two men with life-threatening injuries before the maniac was shot by responding officers.

Gunman Tyler Brown allegedly fired 50 to 60 rounds indiscriminately from an assault-style rifle as he erratically walked down Memorial Drive in Cambridge around 1:20 p.m., Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said during a press conference.

At 1:06 p.m., Cambridge police received a 911 call from Boston police, who said an individual acting erratically and in possession of a rifle was in Cambridge, Ryan said.

Massachusetts State Police and Cambridge police arrived at the scene as Brown was actively firing down the road of stopped cars, authorities said.

Two men were separately struck by gunfire as the madman unleashed the barrage of bullets. They were both rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, prosecutors added.

A Massachusetts State Police trooper in his cruiser and a Marine licensed to carry a gun also arrived on scene and found people jumping from their cars and scattering to safety.

The pair heroically charged toward Brown with their weapons and shot him multiple times. He was treated on scene by officers and brought to a local hospital, where he is receiving care for gunshot wounds to his extremities.

Quote:San Francisco public school officials’ sneaky new plan for massive school closures was hidden even from the district’s furious school board, according to a new report.

The San Francisco Unified School District plans to close an unidentified number of schools by 2030 to deal with some 14,000 empty seats in the rapidly shrinking district, according to a memo sent to parents last month. 

Like other urban districts in California and across the country, the City by the Bay has seen years of enrollment declines in public schools which reflect declining birth rates and other demographic changes blamed on rising prices, migratory shifts and more.

Superintendent Maria Su is expected to announce the outline and timeline for the school closures tomorrow at the district’s school board meeting, but members of the board told a local publication they’re peeved a newspaper caught wind of the story before they did.

Su broke the news of the upcoming closures in a San Francisco Chronicle story published nearly two weeks ago by longtime education reporter Jill Tucker.

“We are ready for this,” Su told the paper of her plan to close schools. “And it’s about time. We’ve been trying to do this for many years now.”

The article states that Su spent the past 18 months getting the district ready for closures, but it doesn’t say why she’s only gone public with the plan recently, or why she gave the news to the paper before she shared it with the board.

Quote:The United States has increased the pressure on Cuba's top officials, turning the diplomatic, economic and military screws on Havana as concerns swell about whether Washington will invade the Caribbean nation.

President Donald Trump and his administration have long had Cuba's communist leadership in their crosshairs, but in recent weeks slapped Havana with punishing new sanctions and maintained a near-total blockade on fuel supplies making it to the island that has been in place since January.

Already weakened by a decades-long U.S. embargo, dwindling supplies routinely plunge Cuba's residents into blackouts as garbage mounts in streets in a country that has seen its vital tourist trade dry up.

The U.S. is also thought to have ramped up intelligence-gathering flights off the Cuban coast, while the White House has repeatedly hinted at a possible military takeover of the island since U.S. forces swept into Venezuela and captured then-leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas at the start of 2026.

Cuba was heavily dependent on Venezuela's oil exports and is now clinging onto a lifeline of limited fuel deliveries from Russia the U.S. has allowed through to Cuba's ports.

A White House official told Newsweek on Monday that Cuba was a "failing nation that has been horribly run for many years," and Havana's authorities had been hit hard by U.S. action against Venezuela.

The official also referred to Trump's remarks, in which he predicted Cuba "will fall" and the U.S. would "be there to help them out."

Trump joked earlier this month the U.S. could "almost immediately" take over Cuba, suggesting the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, may approach Cuban shores and force officials to "give up" once the U.S. ends its war against Iran.

Quote:Vengeful men on social media are staging punches, simulating stabbings and pointing firearms at the camera phones — which they call “training in case she says no.”

The “she” in question? Women who reject their romantic advances.

While the videos online are being framed as dating satire, advocates against domestic violence fear the trend could help normalize violence against women — as evidenced by shocking real-life events.

20-year-old Alana Rosa from Brazil rejected a man at her gym, Luis Felipe Sampaio, who had reportedly been bombarding her with gifts. After she repeatedly refused his advances, the accused allegedly broke into her home in São Gonçalo, near Rio de Janeiro, and stabbed her nearly 50 times before being stopped by her mother, per France24.

She was then rushed to the hospital and underwent several reconstructive surgeries, while in an induced coma, to recover from her injuries.

Miraculously, Rosa survived the attack. Her mother, Jaderluce de Oliveira, told local officials that the attacker followed similar content online — a detail that alarmed investigators and the public alike.

With her supporters in tow, Rosa attended the first criminal hearing against Sampaio on April 15.

“I think he should stay in prison forever, but I know that won’t happen,” de Oliveira told AFP reporters during a press hearing on the day of the trial.

Rosa’s story is just one example among many in Brazil.

More than 1,400 women in the country died at the hands of a man in 2025 alone, according to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, surpassing the previous record in 2024.

Quote:Guests on board Disney Cruise Line’s all-new Disney Adventure learned their four-night sailing embarking from Singapore was canceled — mere hours after they already boarded the ship.

On Thursday, May 7, after guests boarded, settled in and started their vacation, the captain of the ship announced that there were technical issues and guests were to wait for further information.

A Reddit user who was on the cruise said that they were told they “will set sail soon.”

“Midnight now. We’ve been waiting here since 2 p.m., and they have no update for us,” they wrote in an update in the comments. “What’s even worse is they’ve shut down all kitchens, coffee, etc. Why would they do that?”

About 26 hours later, approximately 2 p.m. Singapore time, it was announced that the cruise would be canceled due to mechanical issues that the engineering team couldn’t fix in time.

Guests were ultimately stranded in Singapore and left to figure out what to do next. At 6:30 p.m., they wrote that they were still waiting for a letter with hotel information before disembarking.

The Reddit user noted that when the cancellation was “really disappointing, especially if vacationing with kids.”

“Good thing is that we did get to experience some parts of the cruise, sad part the shops weren’t open so couldn’t get any Disney merchandise from the cruise,” they added.

With a cruise like this, guests likely planned and booked this trip far in advance, and many traveled internationally to reach the ship.

“The Disney Adventure remains in port in Singapore as our teams continue to address a mechanical issue,” a Disney Cruise Line spokesperson said in a statement, per WDW News Today. “As the issue has not been resolved in the timeframe required to start this voyage, this current sailing has been cancelled. We apologize to our guests and are working with them directly to provide support for their travel needs.”

Quote:A ship anchored off the east coast of the United Arab Emirates has been seized and is heading toward Iranian territorial waters, the British military said Thursday.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said it received reports that the vessel was taken by unauthorized personnel while anchored 38 nautical miles northeast of the UAE port of Fujairah, near the Strait of Hormuz.

UKMTO did not name the ship and said it is investigating.

Fujairah is an important oil export terminal and the UAE’s main port outside of the Persian Gulf.

It has been repeatedly attacked during the war with Iran.

Quote:WASHINGTON — A top Iranian navy commander claimed the Islamic Republic has deployed some of its small submarines, known as the “dolphins of the Persian Gulf,” in the Strait of Hormuz to wreak further havoc on the critical oil chokepoint, according to state media.

The goal is to establish an “invisible guardian” in the beleaguered waterway, lurk on the seabed there and potentially attack vessels attempting to pass.

Iran is known to possess at least 16 Ghadir-class midget submarines in its fleet, which are designed to operate in shallow waters, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Those small subs are believed to have crews of fewer than 10 and can each carry two missiles or two torpedoes.

One key drawback is that they are very noisy, which makes them easier for adversarial navies to track, Bloomberg News reported. The subs are a copy of a similar design from North Korea and are known to have maintenance issues, according to the report.

The Strait of Hormuz reaches a depth of about 100 meters at its deepest point, and the Persian Gulf doesn’t get much deeper than that either, complicating submarines’ efforts to conceal themselves from sonar.

Ghadirs, however, are much smaller and displace just 115 tons of water — a standard metric for submarines — compared to the 6,000 tons that Los Angeles-class attack submarines displace, Bloomberg noted.

Iran has created mayhem in the Strait of Hormuz, through which over a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies once flowed annually, in retaliation for Operation Epic Fury.

The regime has made use of drones and attacks from fast, small boats to deter large oil vessels from traversing the critical waterway.

President Trump has ordered a blockade of all Iranian ships seeking to get through the strait in response, as part of an effort to ramp up pressure on the regime.

Last week, he briefly ordered a “Project Freedom” military escort of ships through the channel, before stopping that initiative.

Iran presented a counteroffer to the US over the weekend, but Trump quickly panned it as “unacceptable.”

Quote:An Iranian father who protested the regime was executed after the state canceled his final visit with his family — only to tell them over the phone afterwards that they already killed him, his grieving relatives said.

Mohammad Abbasi, 55, was executed on Wednesday inside the Qezel Hesar prison, in Karaj, as his family was ordered to come see him one last time, according to the Iran Human Rights Monitor group.

But when the family got there to say their goodbyes, prison officials rejected their plea to see Abbasi, sending them home and calling them later to inform them that his execution had been carried out.

“The prevention of a final visit is not only psychological torture of the family, but also an explicit violation of the Executive Regulations of the Prisons Organization and international standards for prisoners’ rights, which emphasize the right to a farewell before the execution of a death sentence,” Iran HRM said in a statement.

“The objective of these legal violations goes beyond punishing an individual; it aims to psychologically paralyze society and create a ‘paralyzing shock’ among protesters to suppress the public will for seeking justice,” the group added.

Abbasi was sentenced to death over his participation in the January protests that saw thousands rise up against the Islamic regime over its totalitarian rule and failure to fix the nation’s economic crisis.

The 55-year-old was accused of attacking a lieutenant of Iran’s security forces during the protests, with the state claiming Abbasi was a long-time dissident acting on behalf of “the Zionist coup,” according to human rights groups.

Quote:Iran is allowing some vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday following talks with Beijing ahead of President Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Iran cleared the way for the Chinese ships to pass through the strait, allegedly using the new management system set up by the Islamic republic, the semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies said.

China’s foreign minister and ambassador to Iran had allegedly reached out to Tehran to clear the way for its ships, some of which had been traveling through the Strait of Hormuz before the American blockade went into effect last week.

Prior to the war, China served as Iran’s largest oil buyer, with more than 1 million barrels a day exported to Beijing through the Persian Gulf.

While the conflict caused the Strait of Hormuz to close, Iranian and Chinese-linked ships had continued to sail through the passageway at lower volumes, with only a handful of ships crossing every day.

It remains to be seen if the Chinese ships cleared for travel paid a toll under the new system Iran has tried to enforce, or if the vessels would be allowed past the American blockade, which prohibits passage for any ship traveling to and from Iranian ports.

Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the Iranian ambassador to China, attempted to portray the deal as a way to highlight Tehran’s potential as an “important partner” to Beijing.

The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was one of the main topics between Trump and Xi during Thursday’s summit, with the president claiming that his Chinese counterpart would happily assist in the goal.

“He did offer. He said, ‘If I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help,’” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Quote:The FBI announced Thursday it is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension and prosecution of Monica Witt, a former U.S. service member and counterintelligence agent who was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the Iranian government.

Witt, a former active-duty U.S. Air Force intelligence specialist and special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, served in the military between 1997 and 2008, before working as a U.S. government contractor until 2010, according to a news release from the FBI Washington Field Office.

The 47-year-old’s military service and contracting employment provided her access to secret and top secret information relating to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, including the true names of U.S. Intelligence Community undercover personnel.

Officials allege that in 2013, Witt defected to Iran and provided information to the country’s government, placing sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs at risk, according to the indictment.

She allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad, and conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government.

The FBI said Witt’s defection to Iran has benefited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has elements responsible for intelligence collection, unconventional warfare and providing direct support to multiple terrorist organizations targeting U.S. citizens and interests.

Quote:BEIJING — Chinese strongman Xi Jinping appeared to embrace President Trump’s stance on Iran Thursday, agreeing the fanatical regime should open up the Strait of Hormuz and never have access to a nuclear weapon – while pledging not to send arms to the Islamic Republic.

The striking display of alignment came with an offer from Xi, who intends to continue purchasing oil from Tehran, to assist the US in the region.

“President Xi would like to see a deal made, he would, he would like to see a deal made. And he did offer. He said, ‘If I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help,’” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

NEW: President Trump reveals to @seanhannity that Chinese President Xi Jinping has committed to withholding military equipment from Iran following their high-level discussions.

Trump noted that while China continues to purchase Iranian oil, Xi expressed a strong desire to see… pic.twitter.com/gUXZmblk9y

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 14, 2026
“Anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some kind of a relationship with him,” Trump added. “He’d like to see the Hormuz Strait open. He said, ‘If I could be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.’”

About a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supply flows through the strait annually, and China has historically imported the lion’s share of the petroleum transited via the waterway, which has effectively been shut down due to the war.

An estimated 45% to 50% of China’s crude oil imports flow through the Strait of Hormuz. By contrast, only about 2% of America’s oil comes through the strait, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

“Our two countries should be partners rather than rivals,” Xi said at a state dinner with Trump.

Quote:A San Diego-based US Navy amphibious assault ship is preparing for deployment as tensions with Iran escalate on multiple fronts.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told a House subcommittee Tuesday that the 843-foot USS Makin Island is gearing up to deploy with Marines from Camp Pendleton.

While he did not specify the size of the Marine contingent or when the ship would depart San Diego, the mission could position the group in operations tied to the US standoff with Iran.

The amphibious assault ship, which carries advanced F-35 fighter jets, has recently been training in local waters alongside the USS Somerset and USS San Diego, routine partners in a three-ship amphibious ready group.

The timing comes as another San Diego-based force has already been deployed.

Roughly two months after the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group left with about 2,200 Camp Pendleton Marines, the Navy says that unit has been operating in the South China Sea.

However, the US Naval Institute reported Monday that the Boxer is now heading toward the Middle East.

At the same time, political rhetoric surrounding Iran has intensified in Washington and Tehran.

President Trump said the United States could resume military strikes on Iran if no peace agreement is reached, and described the current ceasefire as barely holding together.

Quote:President Trump gave Tehran another reason to worry Saturday, posting a video clip on his Truth Social showing him ordering a military attack on an Iranian aircraft.

“Okay, we have it in our sight. Fire – boom!” Trump says, as a US-flagged destroyer blows one with the Iranian flag out of the sky.

In his latest comments on the war, Trump has dismissed Iran’s latest peace offer as “unacceptable,” while speaking freely about the devastation the US military has already inflicted on Iran — and the targets it spared but could reconsider.

“We hit them unbelievably hard. Look — we left their bridges. We left their electricity capacity. We can knock that all out in two days.  Two days — everything,” Trump told Bret Baier, host of Fox News Special Report in an interview that aired Friday night.

Iran experts told The Post that resumption of the war is a very real possibility.

“I’m sure preparations are underway for more escalation,” said Jon Hoffman, a research fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute.

“Trump has refused to back down from his maximalist demands in negotiations,” he said, while predicting that “Iran won’t negotiate away its leverage.”

“One possibility is a short but intense air attack,” with lower risks but a lower probability of success, said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel with the Center for Strategic International Studies.

“Another possibility is a major military effort to open the Strait,” which he called the most likely, but with a higher casualty risk. Seizing one of the islands in the Strait has “some risk” and won’t end the war but “set conditions for success,” he added.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified to lawmakers this week that the US has an escalation plan in place, if necessary.

“We have a plan to retrograde if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets,”

Quote:A suspected terrorist with ties to Iran’s military has been arrested and hauled to New York to face charges of carrying out and plotting nearly 20 attacks across Europe and Canada – with plans to blow up a Big Apple synagogue – to punish Americans and Jews over the Iran war.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, an accused commander in a terrorist organization linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, allegedly orchestrated the firebombing of the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam, the stabbing of two Jewish victims in London and other foiled counter-attacks in the US in response to the conflict in the Middle East.

“Al-Saadi attempted to disrupt American society through intimidation and violence. In a righteous and just contrast, his prosecution will highlight the best of our country,” Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.

Al-Saadi, a 32-year-old accused high-ranking official of the terror group Kata’ib Hizballah, and bloodthirsty accomplices “planned, coordinated” and took “responsibility” for attacks that also included a March 9 bombing of a synagogue in Liège, Belgium and a March 13 arson of a Rotterdam temple, the feds said.

The Iraqi national was accused of preparing to bomb a “prominent” Manhattan temple on April 6, but the plot was foiled after he unwittingly sent $3,000 to an undercover law enforcement officer he believed was a Mexican cartel member to carry out the disaster.

He allegedly offered to fork over $10,000 in total, and texted the undercover, “I wanna see good news tonight . . . not tomorrow bro” the night the attack was supposed to happen, court docs claimed.

The specific synagogue was kept under wraps by prosecutors as NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Friday police worked with temple leadership to ensure its security when they became aware of the elevated threat.

Quote:Accused terror commander Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi worked through a new Iranian-backed terrorist group that emerged “essentially overnight” after the outset US-Israel war and urged followers to kill President Trump.

The group — Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HIYA) — appeared in March 2026 after the war against Iran started and in just weeks the group was able to carry out 18 bombings, stabbings, and arson attacks targeting Americans and Jews in Europe, according to prosecutors.

“Essentiall overnight, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya was able to activate terrorist cells across Europe to carry out nearly 20 attacks in the weeks immediately following that start of the Iranian Military Conflict,” reads an indictment in the Southern District of New York filed on Friday.

He is alleged to have been involved in the planning and promoted the attacks carried out by Hiya, prosecutors said.

Al-Saadi on April 20 posted a message threatening Trump to Snapchat with the Hiya logo, which is a raised fist holding a rifle.
Al-Saadi implored Hiya acolytes to “kill this arrogant, criminal, cursed Trump.”

“We direct our message to the free people of America, especially the security services, the Secret Service, and the victims of Epstein Island, where the blood of families was spilled and the lives of children were taken,” the screed read.

Hiya is considered a new front organization for the Iran-backed group Kata’ib Hizballah — the terror group in which al-Saadi is alleged to be a high-ranking official.

Following the March 9 synagogue bombing in Liege, Belgium — the first of 18 attacks across Europe — al-Saadi allegedly posted the HIYA symbol on Telegram along with a message prosecutors describe as urging further violence, according to court documents.

Quote:Russia launched hundreds of drone strikes at Ukraine overnight, hitting a kindergarten and killing at least one, as both sides’ fragile three-day ceasefire came to a sudden end, Ukrainian officials announced Tuesday.

More than 200 drones were launched at Ukraine just hours after a White House-brokered ceasefire expired, despite hopes it would be extended.

“We proposed Moscow to extend the partial ceasefire beyond May 11. Instead, this night Russia launched over 200 drones against Ukraine, targeting civilian infrastructure, including a kindergarten, injuring at least six and killing at least one person,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Tuesday.

Of the 216 drones launched by Russia, about 192 were downed or neutralized, according to Ukraine’s air force.

The warring sides’ truce deal, agreed by both countries for May 9 to 11 to commemorate the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany, was part of a US-led push for peace amid more than four years of conflict.

President Trump said Friday he hoped the truce would be extended.

“Russia itself chose to end the partial silence that had lasted for several days,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X on Tuesday.

Ukraine responded to the Russian strikes with attacks of its own, targeting the Russian city of Orenburg about 745 miles from Ukraine’s border, reported the Kyiv Independent.

Another Ukraine attack was aimed at the Orsknefteorgsintez, one of Russia’s largest regional oil refineries and responsible for 6.6 million tons of crude oil production annually, the outlet reported.

Quote:At least 24 Ukrainians were killed as Russian missiles rained down on a Kyiv apartment building in the largest barrage of the entire war – with three children left dead, and dozens of people wounded, according to officials.

Rockets and drones started falling on the capital city Wednesday, with at least one hitting the nine-story apartment block Thursday and leaving a huge section collapsed in a pile of smoldering concrete.

First responders spent over a day digging through the rubble to locate the two-dozen fatalities, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirming the tragic count by Friday.

It was part of a protracted attack which saw nearly 1,600 Russian drones launched across the country over two days, with 180 locations sustaining damage.

More than 50 of those targets were residential buildings, according to Zelensky.

It kicked off just days after a dubious May 9 to 11 ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump.

But the ceasefire – part of celebrations for the anniversary of World War II ending in Europe – was hardly what both sides agreed to, with fighting continuing throughout despite being somewhat scaled back.

Quote:One of Russia’s largest explosives plants was torched in an overnight drone blitz Saturday by Ukrainian forces, as Kyiv continues its campaign to target military infrastructure deep behind enemy lines.

The Nevinnomyssk Azot factory in the southwest city of Stavropol is one of Russia’s largest producers of chemicals used to make explosives.

It’s been described as a “critical component” of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s war machine — producing more than 4 million tons of ammonium products and nitric acid annually to manufacture bombs, artillery shells and missiles.

Footage on social media showed the sky over the facility ablaze with large orange flames and thick plumes of black smoke, as the sound of explosions rang out over the city.

The strike — the sixth on the facility 150 miles from the Ukrainian border — is part of Kyiv’s campaign targeting Russian military infrastructure with long-range weapons.

“These are entirely justified responses to what the Russians are doing,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X.

The blaze at the explosives plant comes a day after one of Kyiv’s largest retaliatory drone campaigns of the war, which set the massive Ryazan oil refinery, 180 miles from Moscow, ablaze — forcing temporary ground stops at two Moscow airports.

Meanwhile, Russian drone attacks killed at least three Ukrainians and wounded 63 more overnight. It launched nearly 300 drones at Ukraine – with direct hits recorded at 15 locations across the country.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a two-day trip to Beijing next week, the Kremlin said Saturday.

The announcement comes less than 24 hours after US President Donald Trump finished his own state visit to China, where he also met Xi to discuss trade and the US and Israel’s war in Iran.

In a statement, the Kremlin said that Putin’s trip, planned for May 19-20, had been scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.

It said that the two leaders would discuss bilateral relations as well as “key international and regional issues” and economic cooperation.

Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, particularly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which left Moscow shunned on the global stage and heavily reliant on Beijing for trade due to Western sanctions.

When Putin visited China in September 2025, Xi welcomed his counterpart as an “old friend.” Putin also addressed Xi as “dear friend.”
The Russian leader is also scheduled to visit China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the city of Shenzhen in November.

Continued strikes and returned remains

Ukraine repatriated the bodies of fallen soldiers on Saturday following an earlier exchange with Moscow involving prisoners of war.

Russia returned 528 bodies that “according to the Russian side, may belong to Ukrainian servicemen,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.

Experts will now “take all necessary measures aimed at identifying the deceased who have been repatriated,” it said.

It comes after Russia and Ukraine swapped 205 prisoners of war on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was the first phase of a planned swap of 1,000 POWs from each side. Some of the Ukrainians had been held by Russia since 2022 and fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles, he added.

Quote:President Trump doubled down on his savage new nickname for Democrats — and revealed which member of Congress inspired it.

“I came up with a new name. I don’t know if I should,” Trump told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity late Thursday in an interview about his historic meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.

“Dumocrats — because they’re dumb,” Trump said, explaining that his version gets rid of the “b.”

The president said he first came up with the nickname while discussing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) — whom he called a “very-low IQ individual.”

“So he’s a dumb guy, he’s a Democrat, and I said, ‘Oh, what a great name for this!’” he said.

Trump last week accused Jeffries of inciting the most recent assassination attempt against him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and demanded he be charged.

“This lunatic, Hakeem ‘Low IQ’ Jeffries, should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE!” Trump raged on Truth Social.

Trump first unleashed the new tag earlier this week in the Oval Office.

The president joked that Democrats would support a border wall if he suddenly opposed it — prompting Dr. Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to break into laughter.

Quote:The Minnesota “mastermind” of the state’s massive COVID meal fraud claims “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar was in on the $250 million scam.

Aimee Bock, founder of nonprofit Feeding Our Future, was convicted in March 2025 of conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud for allegedly helping restaurant owners file fake or inflated claims during the pandemic to steal millions in child nutrition funds from the government.

She spoke to The Post by video call this week from Sherburne County Jail, where she is awaiting sentencing.
“I struggle to believe that she wouldn’t have known,” Bock said of Omar.

Dozens of members of Minnesota’s Somali community have been convicted of fraudulently billing the state’s Department of Education for millions of meals they claimed they served to low-income children during the COVID outbreak — while pocketing much of the money.

Bock has consistently denied knowingly participating in the fraud and insisted she tried to warn state officials. Her group would review the reimbursement paperwork sent by the local restaurants supposed to provide meals, send them out and then distribute the federal funds to them.

“The notion that I’m personally responsible for all of it . . . is so frustrating. I’m the only white person out of 80 or 90 individuals [charged in the fraud]. I’m the only one that doesn’t speak the language,” she added.

Omar was instrumental in loosening the laws that set the stage for the scheme — first by introducing the MEALS Act to Congress in March 2020, which allowed the US Department of Agriculture to issue waivers of school-meal requirements during the pandemic.

The waivers dramatically eased oversight of the federal programs by allowing restaurants to participate without any of the usual site inspections.

Omar would personally step in whenever those waivers ran out, allowing the rampant fraud to continue, Bock alleged.

“There had been a couple times early on that there were some gaps – a waiver would be set to expire on maybe the 15th of a month, and then the renewal didn’t kick in until the 1st,” Bock claimed. “Because of course this was supposed to be a short-term thing . . . we were supposed to be home for two weeks.”

Quote:Gov.  Hochul pushed the Long Island Rail Road strike largely to throw shade on Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and pick up votes from the Republican gubernatorial front-runner on his home turf, the head of a top transit union told The Post.

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence that she’s doing this right in his backyard,” said John Samuelsen, the International President of the Transport Workers Union.

“She believes that she can get a leg up in Nassau and Suffolk County by triggering a strike and then allowing the blame to be cast on Blakeman and the Republicans.”

Samuelsen – whose union, Local 100, represents 40,000 subway and bus workers also in contract talks – blames Hochul and her cronies at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the strike by five LIRR unions.

He also said her inability to stop the strike could affect not only her re-election campaign but also other races for Dems this November.

“I believe that if the Democrats don’t start calling Kathy Hochul out on her behavior and her anti-trade-union ethos, they may very well pay the price,” said Samuelsen, whose union has not endorsed any candidate for governor.

The labor leader also ripped the Hochul-controlled MTA for refusing to follow the recommendations of two federal panels that would have prevented a strike and for tapping Gary Dellaverson as the MTA’s chief negotiator in the labor talks.

Dellaverson served as the MTA’s chief labor negotiator in 2005 during highly contentious contract disputes with TWU Local 100 that led to an illegal walkout that paralyzed NYC’s subways and buses for three days during the December holiday season.

Quote:The wife of jailed drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán continues to rehabilitate her image as her husband rots in a notorious maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Emma Coronel Aispuro, 36, wowed her social media followers earlier this week when she recorded a video of her latest gym session in California, executing a set of pull ups to perfection.

The former beauty queen, who married Guzmán at the age of 18, uploaded the workout on her Instagram Stories feed on Monday.

Delighted users urged her on, commenting “hit the gym hard” and “there you go, Emma.”

“I love you, Emma,” another said.

Surprisingly, Coronel Aispuro’s workout video — which is no longer visible on her Instagram account — was released just hours after US District Judge Brian Cogan nixed Guzmán’s almost daily — and barely legible — handwritten letters begging for a new trial and extradition to Mexico.

In the latest letter dated April 28, Guzmán claimed that “the [Mexican] government was responsible for all the violence crimes: I did not harm to no one.”

He penned another letter on April 24 and argued for his release from the prison in Florence where he is serving a life sentence — claiming “the 1st amendment to the 8th amendment was violated” by the federal court in Brooklyn.

The drug kingpin wrote the day before: “My name is Joaquin Guzman that are fighting for extradition release to Mexico.”

Quote:In a landmark German case targeting chocolate "shrinkflation", a court has found that the manufacturer of Milka's classic Alpine Milk bar cheated consumers and broke competition law.

Cutting back on the amount of chocolate while having the same kind of wrapper meant that customers were being misled, Bremen regional court ruled.

The three-week court case was brought by Hamburg's consumer protection office (VZHH), which accused manufacturer Mondelēz of deceiving consumers by cutting the weight of the "Alpenmilch" bar from 100g to 90g.

Reacting to the ruling Mondelēz told the BBC it was "taking the decision of the court seriously" and would "look at it in detail now".

Manufacturers have often resorted to shrinkflation because of rising costs, reducing the size or content of a product in an attempt to maintain the same price. The practice transcends borders. In the UK, consumer group Which? has called it a "sneaky" tactic.

According to Which? chocolate prices have increased due to the global rise in the cost of cocoa after poor harvests in West Africa.

Mondelēz argued that it had informed German consumers about the change on its website and social media channels, and pointed to the rising costs in its supply chains: "As a consequence in the last years we decided to adjust the weight of several Milka-bars."

Last year, German consumers were not satisfied with the company's explanation and voted the Milka Alpenmilch bar "rip-off packaging of the year 2025".

Although the bar's weight had been reduced, there was no noticeable change in its purple wrapping. The new bar was a millimetre thinner, and the price went up from €1.49 (£1.30) to €1.99 (£1.70) at the beginning of 2025.

Mondelēz had maintained that the lower weight was clearly visible on its packaging and denied the allegations made by the Hamburg consumer group. The company's lawyer argued in court that chocolate bars in the past had a fluctuating weight between 81-100g depending on the product.

Quote:British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing a revolt within his own party — following political turmoil over his falling popularity that could result in the UK seeing its fifth leader in just seven years.

Starmer, 63, whose Labor Party suffered major losses in last week’s local and regional elections, has seen his allies turn against him and call for his resignation to allow a new successor to rescue the ailing party.

So far, however, no successor is openly challenging him — and so he has refused calls to resign.

Should Starmer succumb to the opposition from ally and foe alike, his name would go on a growing list of unpopular PMs who were quickly ousted from leadership of the world’s fifth largest economy.

Former PM David Cameron, who served from 2010 to 2016, is so far the only leader in the last decade who has served longer than three years.

While the prime minister appeared to stave off immediate challenges during a tense cabinet meeting on Tuesday, his position remained rocky as several of his ministers resigned — and urged Starmer to do the same to save the Labor Party.

“It is clear from recent days that the public across the UK has now irretrievably lost confidence in you as prime minister,” Zubir Ahmed, the latest of four junior government ministers to leave on Tuesday, wrote in his resignation letter to Starmer.

A defiant Starmer, who has repeatedly rejected calls for his resignation, said he would not quit on Tuesday and slammed lawmakers for over the latest challenge against him.

“The past 48 hours have been destabilizing for government, and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families,” his office said in a statement.

Quote:A TV producer left disabled for life when bungling paramedics ‘pressed the wrong button’ on a defibrillator during a cardiac arrest has received an undisclosed payout after suing the NHS.

Meg Fozzard has been left with permanent disabilities as a result of her brain being starved of oxygen after ambulance crews delayed a life‑saving electric shock by EIGHT crucial minutes because they failed to use a defibrillator properly.

Meg — just 26 at the time — had collapsed at her home in Walworth, South London, struggling to breathe and fitting as she went into cardiac arrest in April 2019.

Her terrified partner, Xander Font Freide, dialed 999 and was told to start CPR immediately.

But when ambulance crews finally arrived – after struggling to find the flat – they didn’t believe Meg was in cardiac arrest, despite warnings from the emergency call handler minutes earlier.

A defibrillator showed Meg had a deadly heart rhythm that needed an instant shock.

But because paramedics had attached the wrong equipment – monitoring leads instead of defibrillation pads – the device failed to alert them that a shock was needed.

Even then, crews pressed the wrong button on the machine, known as a LifePak, delaying its emergency mode for another four minutes.

There was an eight-minute delay before Meg was given an electric shock to her heart, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust has since admitted.

Quote:A group of protesters in London despicably called for a controversial rightwing figure to be killed, “like Charlie Kirk,” disturbing video shows.

The crowd was filmed chanting about Tommy Robinson, who organized a massive “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London Saturday which saw tens of thousands of demonstrators turn out.

“Shoot him in the neck like Charlie Kirk!” they can be heard chanting in the clip.

The group spewing the vile message was waving Palestinian flags, the video showed.

The heinous incident happened as two separate rallies consumed the streets of London.

In one organized by Robinson, a sea of flag-waving Brits marched down Kingsway before crossing London Bridge and rallying in Parliament Square with many protesters wearing “Make England Great Again” hats.

The estimated 50,000 protesters draped themselves in British flags — including the Union Jack and St. George’s Cross, alongside Scottish and Welsh flags.

SHOCKING EXCL: “Shoot him in the neck like Charlie Kirk” far-left protesters call for Tommy Robinson to be “hung like Mussolini”.

I don’t think incitement to violence on EITHER side is right. Calling for anyone’s death is too far. pic.twitter.com/fq3OErVKtE

— Samara Gill (@SamaramGill) May 16, 2026
A pro-Palestinian march also drew thousands for the commemoration of Nakba Day, memorializing the Palestinians who fled from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948.

London Metropolitan Police arrested 31 people across the two rallies and had a massive force of 4,000 officers to control the crowds, according to SkyNews.

Robinson, an anti-Islam activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, slammed the Palestinian rally and UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Quote:The US government is seeking the death penalty for the suspect charged with killing two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington DC last year.

US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro on Friday filed a notice of intent to seek capital punishment for three out of 13 total charges against 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez.

Prosecutors allege Rodriguez opened fire on the couple - Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26 - outside the Capital Jewish Museum before shouting "Free Palestine" during his arrest in May 2025.

President Donald Trump has embraced the federal death penalty after his predecessor Joe Biden limited its use. Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty.

Pirro's office will seek death if Rodriguez is found guilty of the charges of murder of a foreign official, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and causing death through the use of a firearm.

The suspect has also been charged with other offences including hate crimes and acts of terrorism.

"My office will not rest in our efforts to hold Elias Rodriguez accountable for this horrific, and targeted act of terror against Yaron Lischinsky, Sarah Milgrim and our Jewish community," Pirro said earlier this year.

Prosecutors allege that ahead of the shooting, Rodriguez expressed support for violence against Israelis, including in social media posts where he allegedly wrote "Death to Israel".

Prosecutors have said he travelled from Chicago to Washington with a handgun after researching an upcoming networking event for young Jewish professionals at the museum.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were leaving when the suspect fired 20 shots, killing them both, prosecutors allege. They were in a relationship and Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring, planning to propose to Milgrim on an upcoming trip to Israel, Israel's ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, has previously said.

After the shooting, Rodriguez then allegedly entered the museum, displayed a red keffiyeh, and said: "I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza."

Quote:A US official has struck down security funding allotted for President Trump's White House ballroom project from a proposed spending package, in a win for Democrats.

The Senate rule-keeper ruled against the use of taxpayer funds in the bill on Saturday, after Democrats argued that security money doesn't belong in it.

Trump has said private donors will fund the $400mn ballroom as Republicans have sought to use a portion of $1bn in taxpayer funds for Secret Service security upgrades.

Republicans are seeking the funds to bolster presidential safety following a shooting at a gala Trump attended in April at a hotel. The administration also tried to fast-track the project after the incident.

Republicans, who hold the majority in the Senate, have used complex budget rules - known as the budget reconciliation process - to try to pass bills without Democratic support.

Their latest sprawling package to fund immigration agencies under the Department of Homeland Security also includes a $1bn provision for security funds dedicated to the overhaul of the East Wing of the White House, which includes Trump's plans for the ballroom.

Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who has acted as a referee in the upper chamber of US Congress since 2012, deemed the provision out of order on Saturday, Democrats said.

She determined that the provision funds activities beyond the jurisdiction of the Senate Judiciary Committee and does not comply with a procedure that prevents extraneous non-budgetary provisions, known as the Byrd rule.

Emphasis is mine.

Quote:A judge has declared a mistrial in the rape case against Harvey Weinstein, after the jury in New York said it was deadlocked and unable to reach a verdict.

It marks the third time a New York jury has considered the case against the 74-year-old disgraced film mogul, who remains jailed on other charges.

The month-long trial was centred around whether Weinstein raped aspiring actress Jessica Mann more than a decade ago. He was initially convicted, but the verdict was overturned. A judge declared a mistrial after a second trial last year.

Dozens of women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, including rape, since October 2017. He has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement that prosecutors are currently determining whether to try again in court.

"While we are disappointed that the proceedings ended with a mistrial, we deeply respect the jury system and sincerely thank all of the jurors for their time and dedication," he said.

He thanked Mann for bringing her allegation against Weinstein, adding: "We will consider our next steps in consultation with Ms Mann, and in consideration of Harvey Weinstein's pending sentencing" in a separate sexual assault case.

"As always, we will continue to prosecute crimes of sexual violence – no matter who the defendant is – in a survivor-centered manner that uplifts their voices in the pursuit of justice."

Lawyers for Weinstein said the outcome shows "how deeply public perception and prejudice surrounding Harvey Weinstein have become embedded in society".

"For some people, regardless of the evidence presented, saying 'not guilty' has become emotionally or socially impossible," they argued.

"The Manhattan District Attorney's Office should stop retrying the same case and focus its time and resources on the actual violent crime, chaos, and public safety issues impacting New Yorkers every day," the statement from his lawyers continued.

Quote:The US justice department is reportedly preparing to indict aging Cuban leader Raúl Castro in the coming days over the shooting down of two aircraft three decades ago.

The reported charges, which would need to be approved by a US grand jury, emerged as the director of the CIA travelled to Cuba to meet officials in Havana.

Castro, 94, stepped down as Cuban Communist Party leader in 2021, ending his family's more than half a century in power. He led the country for 15 years, stepping in after his brother, Fidel, resigned.

The potential indictment is the latest move in a US pressure campaign that has included an oil blockade and widespread sanctions.

The charges are said to centre on the 1996 downing of two planes operated by the US activist-humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue.

Unnamed US Department of Justice (DoJ) officials told US media the indictment could come as soon as next Wednesday.

Asked on Friday about the reported indictment plan, President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One: "I'll let DoJ comment on it."

He added: "But [Cubans] need help, as you know. And you talk about a declining country. They are really a nation, a country in decline."

Trump has issued an oil blockade against Cuba, which has exacerbated fuel shortages. This week the island's energy minister acknowledged that Cuba has, in essence, run out of fuel oil.

Potential charges against Raúl Castro were unclear, but officials said the investigation centred on an attack on two small planes, which happened on 24 February 1996 while Fidel was president and Raúl was armed forces minister.

Four people aboard were killed in the incident.

Quote:Police officers responsible for protecting the Royal Family at Windsor Castle are being investigated over allegations they fell asleep on duty and left their posts unattended.

The Metropolitan Police said its directorate of professional standards (DPS) had launched an "urgent investigation" into a number of officers on protective duties at the castle in Berkshire.

The allegations were first reported by The Sun and involve officers from the Met's Royalty and Specialist Protection team.

The Met said: "The alleged behaviour falls below the high standards expected of officers, particularly in frontline protective roles."

The DPS will assess whether those under investigation should be placed on restricted duties, with a decision expected "before the end of next week".

The force said the Independent Office for Police Conduct had been informed and concluded the matter would be investigated locally by the Met.

Windsor Castle is one of the official residences of King Charles III and is regularly used by senior members of the Royal Family for private and state occasions.

Officers from the Met's Royalty and Specialist Protection team are responsible for guarding royal residences and protecting members of the Royal Family.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

Quote:US President Donald Trump has cautioned Taiwan against formally declaring independence from China.

"I'm not looking to have somebody go independent," the US president told Fox News on Friday, at the end of his two-day summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not need to declare formal independence because it already sees itself as a sovereign nation.

The US has long supported Taiwan, including being bound by law to provide it with a means of self-defence, but has frequently had to square this alliance with maintaining a diplomatic relationship with China.

Trump earlier said he had "made no commitment either way" about the self-governing island - which China claims as part of its territory and has not ruled out taking by force.

Washington's established position is that it does not support Taiwanese independence, with continued ties with Beijing being contingent on its acceptance that there is only one Chinese government.

Beijing has been vocal in its dislike of Taiwan's president, who it has previously described as a "troublemaker" and a "destroyer of cross-strait peace".

Many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation - though most are in favour of maintaining the status quo in which Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.

Quote:Taiwan has insisted it is a sovereign, independent nation, after US President Donald Trump cautioned it against formally declaring independence from China.

Trump's remarks came after a two-day summit in Beijing, after which he said he had "made no commitment either way" about the self-governing island - which China claims as part of its territory and has not ruled out taking by force.

After talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump also said he would soon decide whether to approve an $11bn ($8bn) package of weapons to be sold to Taiwan.

The US administration is bound by law to provide Taiwan with a means of self-defence, but has frequently had to square this alliance with maintaining a diplomatic relationship with China.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not need to declare formal independence because it already sees itself as a sovereign nation.

On Saturday, presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said it was "self-evident" that Taiwan was "a sovereign, independent democratic country".

She added, however, that Taiwan was committed to maintaining the status quo with China - in which Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.

Many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation, though most are in favour of maintaining their current status.

Quote:A Hamas official has confirmed to the BBC that Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, commander of the group's armed wing, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that Haddad had been "responsible for the murder, kidnapping and injury of thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers".

Israel described him as "one of the architects of the October 7 massacre".

The strike is the latest launched by Israel on Gaza despite a ceasefire with Hamas.

Three eyewitnesses told the BBC that a residential building known as Al-Mu'taz was struck by three missiles launched simultaneously from two separate directions, before a fleeing car was hit.

The air strike, targeting the apartment block in the centre of Gaza City, sparked a large fire.

Rescue teams rushed to the scene but faced significant difficulties evacuating the wounded, witnesses said.

One eyewitness told the BBC that a body and several injured people had been removed from the building.

A second air strike, targeting a car seen leaving the scene, killed three people, according to eyewitnesses and a local source.

Sources said the vehicle may have been carrying Haddad after he had been seriously injured in the initial strike.

Eyewitnesses and a local source said armed members of Hamas dressed in civilian clothing evacuated a severely wounded person through a side entrance and placed him in a vehicle.

Witnesses said the car was hit around 1.5km (0.9 miles) from the apartment block.

A senior Israeli security official said preliminary information indicated that Haddad had been successfully targeted.

Quote:The United Arab Emirates said a drone strike had triggered a fire near its nuclear power station on Sunday, calling the incident a "dangerous escalation".

Officials are investigating the source of the strike. The country's defence ministry said three drones had entered the UAE from the "western border direction".

While two were intercepted, the third drone struck an electrical generator "outside the inner perimeter" of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi, sparking a fire.

No injuries were reported and there was no impact on radiological safety levels, local authorities said.

The UAE's foreign ministry called the strike an "unacceptable act of aggression" and said it had the right to respond to any hostilities.

It added that "the targeting of peaceful nuclear energy facilities is a flagrant violation of international law, the UN charter, and the principles of humanitarian law".

The country's defence ministry meanwhile said it would "firmly confront any attempts to undermine the country's security".

Officials have not said from where the drone was launched. The UAE has previously accused Iran of being behind attacks on its energy and economic infrastructure since war broke out in the region in February.

The Abu Dhabi Media Office said the fire "broke out in an electric generator" and confirmed precautionary measures had been taken at the plant, which is operating as normal.

The UN's nuclear watchdog said it was monitoring the situation closely and that its director general Rafael Grossi expressed "grave concern" about the incident.

Grossi said "military activity that threatens nuclear safety is unacceptable", according to a statement shared by the International Atomic Energy Agency on X, and called for "maximum military restraint".

Also on Sunday, Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed three drones which had entered its airspace from Iraq.

Quote:Iran’s president admitted Monday that the Islamic republic has “suffered harm” from the joint US-Israeli attacks as he urged officials to “face reality” of the war — but vowed that his country would not surrender.

President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke before the Government Information Council and condemned popular talking points that Iran is thriving despite harsh economic blows dealt by the conflict.

“Officials should avoid any tone or remarks that create division, but we must also face reality: It is not the case that we have not suffered harm,” Pezeshkian said.

“Anyone in a position of leadership must speak honestly and transparently to their society and their people,” he added.

“Misleading information, false messaging, or portraying a reality in which ‘they are collapsing while we are prospering’ is unacceptable.

‘The truth is that both we and others face challenges,” the Iranian president concluded.

Before the war even broke out, Iran’s economy had been spiraling with the value of its rial currency plummeting and inflation at an all-time high.

With mass layoffs taking place and the price of basic food and goods continuing to soar, the Islamic regime has continued to fail to improve the situation, which has only gotten worse due to the war.

Despite the challenges, Pezeshkian said that Iran would not bow to the pressure as America’s naval blockade continues to stifle the country’s already ailing economy.

“We will not sacrifice our country’s dignity and honor for comfort or convenience,” he said. “We have valid reasons and clear justification, and we are fully capable of defending our nation’s rights with strength, backed by our people.”

Yeah, those guys wouldn't last long if they were working in the private sector.

Quote:Pakistan has deployed 8,000 soldiers, along with a squadron of jets and an air defense system to Saudi Arabia as part of their mutual defense pact in the face of ever-growing escalations with Iran, according to a new report.

The troops and aircraft were deployed in early April, including JF-17 fighter jets and the Chinese HQ-9 air defense system, which are meant to intercept any strikes against Saudi Arabia, officials told Reuters.

Under the mutual defense pact, Pakistan may send as many as 80,000 troops to defend the Saudi Kingdom, which had been targeted by Iranian attacks during the height of the war in March, security officials added.

The deployment further fortifies the thousands of Pakistani troops who were already stationed in Saudi Arabia amid the conflict.

The sheer scale of the deployment suggests that Pakistan is taking an active role to protect Saudi Arabia following Iran’s attack on Riyadh’s energy infrastructure, risking a wider war in the Middle East.

Along with the soldiers and aircraft, including drones, Pakistan also deployed warships as part of the security agreement, but it was not immediately clear if any vessel had reached Saudi Arabia yet.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s governments have yet to issue a statement on the latest, large-scale deployment operation.

The full details of the two nations’ mutual defense agreement, which was signed last year, remain unclear, but both sides have said that their countries are committed to defending each other in the face of an attack.

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif implied at the time that the agreement effectively places the Saudi kingdom under Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella.

Pakistan has long provided the Saudis with military support and training, with Riyadh serving as a powerful economic ally that financed much of the equipment that has now been deployed to the kingdom.

Quote:A millionaire anti-war activist who organized the high-profile “humanitarian aid” convoy to Cuba in March has ties to Hamas and the Iranian regime.

The aid flotilla to Cuba attracted much attention as it included Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi and leftist streamer Hasan Piker — who both sung the praises of the ailing Communist ‘paradise’ after their trip.

It was organized by Medea Benjamin, president of the Arc of Justice Foundation, a charity with $51 million at its disposal.

Benjamin, 73, made at least seven trips to Gaza between 2009 and 2012 where she met with Hamas officials, including the group’s then-leader Ismail Haniyeh, publicly posted photos show. Hamas were designated a terror group by the US in 1997.

Both working for activist group CodePink, Benjamin and her friend and fellow activist Tighe Barry, 69, also met Hamas leaders, including foreign affairs minister Ahmed Yusef, who in 2009 handed them a letter to deliver to President Obama, according the group’s website.

Yusef, who has been described as “Hamas’s gate to the West,” was a senior advisor to then-Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who was later assassinated in Tehran in 2024.

Benjamin and Barry promptly delivered the Obama letter to the US Embassy in Cairo on June 4, 2009, during a time when the appointed US administration official was refusing to meet with Hamas.

“CodePink is open about being a conduit between Hamas and Obama, even met with Obama administration official Buffy Wicks at the White House after the letter was delivered,” said a report by Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a New Jersey-based think tank that studies extremism.

“That’s a remarkable acknowledgment of the intermediary role.” Knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization is a violation of federal law, legal experts point out.

Benjamin was a co-founder of CodePink, the group started by China-based software entrepreneur and activist Neville Singham’s wife Jodie Evans, and she is still listed as treasurer, according to the latest available federal filings. Barry was spokesman for Code Pink for over a decade, according to public records.

Quote:President Trump said Tuesday that the high gas prices Americans are currently facing are “peanuts” compared to the goal of stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

With average US gas prices hitting $4.533 per gallon on Tuesday, Trump called on Americans to endure the pain at the pump “for a little while” while his administration works to end Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

“We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon,” he told reporters outside the White House.

“You want to see the world exploded?

“This is peanuts, and I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won’t be much longer,” he added.

Gas prices have remained stubbornly high and continue to increase after Tehran effectively shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint that carries 20% of the world’s oil supply.

Gas prices are currently up by 50% since the US and Israel fired the first shots of the war on Feb. 28.

Trump acknowledged that he knew the war in Iran would have harsh economic consequences, but the president maintains that it beats the alternative.

“I thought the market would go down 25%, and I was OK with that to get rid of a nuclear potential holocaust,” Trump said.

“You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon, and it won’t have a nuclear weapon,” he added. 

The president’s comments come after the latest stall in peace talks between Iran and the US, with Trump repeatedly warning Tehran to get serious about negotiating or else the war would restart.

“We may have to give them another big hit. I’m not sure yet. You’ll know very soon,” Trump told reporters after revealing that he was only “an hour away” from launching fresh attacks on Tuesday.

Quote:World Cup fans are banned from bringing in pre-revolutionary Iran flags and apparel to stadiums this summer — while the controversial Palestinian flag will be allowed.

FIFA has ruled items with the symbolism will not be permitted at this year’s iteration of the globe’s most-famous soccer tournament, The Athletic reported on Tuesday.

FIFA says the flag violates their code of conduct, which states “banners, flags, fliers, apparel and other paraphernalia, that are of a political, offensive and/or discriminatory nature” will not be allowed at event venues.

The Palestinian flag is an “officially approved flag of a member association of FIFA,” The Athletic reported.

Emel Karsaz, an Iranian living in Los Angeles who describes herself as a Iranian-American advocate for freedom in Iran, told The California Post on Tuesday that she’s not expecting FIFA’s ban to change much.

She said she believes the Iranian soccer team “is basically representing IRGC” and “not representing people,” and she’s anticipating Iranians to show up to matches with the pre-revolutionary flags en masse.

“I’m sure it’s going to make everyone so angry that I’ll bet you anything there’s going to be a huge protest,” she said.

“The Iranians will do anything in their power to basically come and do the protest and tell the world that they are not our team.”

Iran and US policy expert Karim Sadjadpour, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, echoed Karsaz’s opinion during an interview with The Athletic.

“Trying to prohibit Iranians in LA from bringing the Lion and Sun flag into the stadium is like trying to prevent Americans from bringing the U.S. flag into an American stadium,” Sadjadpour said. “It would cause mass unrest.”

Pre-revolutionary Iran imagery contains a lion holding a sword and a sun over a green-, white- and red-striped background.

In 1980, following the Islamic Revolution, the country adopted a new national image, which features an Islamic emblem over the same green, white and red bars.

Quote:WASHINGTON — The US war on Iran has degraded Tehran’s ability to launch or direct another mass atrocity on Israel like the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, the top officer in charge of the US military in the Middle East testified Tuesday.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that Operation Epic Fury, combined with the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure last year, set back Iran’s ability to wage war by more than four decades.

“Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis have been cut off from the decades-long flow of military supplies, thus mitigating and eliminating any chance of a future Oct. 7,” he said.

Cooper also estimated the US had wiped out roughly 85% of Iran’s ability to produce more ballistic missiles and drones.

The war so far has aimed to wipe out Iran’s “three pillars of intimidation and coercion: their nuclear program, their ballistic missiles and drones, and their proxies — especially Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” all three of which have been addressed in different ways.

While nuclear is currently being handled through negotiations, Cooper said the military since Feb. 28 has “significantly degraded Iran’s ballistic missiles and drones, while destroying 90% of their defense industrial base, ensuring that Iran cannot reconstitute for years.”

“Iran spent decades and billions of dollars arming proxies. Today, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are cut off from Iran’s weapons supply and support,” he said. “Said a different way, America, American military action derailed Iran’s strategy that was 47 years in the making.”

His claim about the “significant” degradation to Iran’s weapons stockpile comes after the New York Times last week reported that about 70% of Iran’s pre-war missile stockpile and mobile launchers remained untouched despite the war, citing US intelligence.

But Cooper stated in his written testimony that the US had “damaged or destroyed over 85 percent of Iran’s ballistic missile, drone and naval defense industrial base.”

Quote:Iranian state TV anchors brandished assault rifles on live television as the regime ramped up wartime propaganda amid fears of renewed conflict with the US and Israel — with one unhinged presenter firing off some rounds.

In the startling broadcast on the state-run Ofogh channel, host Hossein Hosseini fired an AK-47 rifle inside the studio after receiving weapons training from a masked member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to multiple reports.

“I’ll aim at that,” he said as he pointed the rifle toward a United Arab Emirates flag displayed behind the anchor desk before pulling the trigger, according to South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo. He was then seen firing a second shot into the studio ceiling.

The bizarre segment aired as Tehran reportedly began offering civilians weapons instruction through public “gun kiosks” and mosque-based training sessions across several cities.

On another Iranian state-run channel, presenter Mobina Nasiri appeared on air clutching an assault rifle while declaring loyalty to the regime.

“They sent me a weapon from Vanak Square so that I, too, like all of you people, can learn how to use it,” he said during the live broadcast.

“Through this broadcast, I announce that I am ready to sacrifice my life for my country,” he grimly added.

Iranian state television reportedly described the drills as part of “public readiness to defend the country,” according to Al Jazeera.

The broadcasts have exploded online as tensions escalate across the Middle East.

The fragile ceasefire between Iran and the US-Israel alliance appeared to hold Tuesday — but both sides are openly preparing for a possible return to attacks.

President Trump said he halted a “scheduled” major strike on Iran after Gulf allies urged Washington to give diplomacy another chance.

Quote:The ruthless Iranian regime executed over 2,100 people in 2025, more than doubling the number of those put to death the year before — and pushing the total number of executions across the globe to a staggering 44-year high, a shocking new report said.

Iran carried out at least 2,159 of the approximately 2,707 executions recorded worldwide last year, blowing past its 2024 body count of at least 972 and accounting for nearly 80% of all documented executions in 2025, according to chilling new figures from Amnesty International.

The unprecedented death toll by Tehran marked the highest recorded since 1981, with the use of capital punishment increasingly linked to political repression and control, the report said.

Nearly half of the executions were linked to drug-related offenses, in violation of international human rights law and standards, according to Amnesty International.

The report revealed that Iran dramatically stepped up its killings after hostilities with Israel erupted in June 2025, recording 654 executions between January and June, and 1,505 between July and December.

Hangings served as the ruthless regime’s go-to method of death, as mandatory death sentences and public executions continued across the Middle Eastern country.

The report does not account for the slew of barbaric executions that have been ordered since January’s nationwide revolt and the start of the war with Israel and the US.

Amnesty International recorded a staggering 2,707 executions across 17 countries in 2025 – a 78% spike from the 1,519 confirmed deaths in 2024.

“Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally and has been campaigning globally for its abolition since 1977, when only 16 countries were abolitionist for all crimes,” the report said.

“By the end of 2025, that figure had risen to 113.”

Saudi Arabia exceeded its 2024 total with at least 356 executions, followed by Yemen with at least 51 and the United States with 47. Egypt put 23 people to death, while Somalia, Kuwait and Singapore each recorded 17 killings, according to the report.

Quote:The U.S. Treasury Department on May 19 announced a major expansion of its counterterrorism and Iran‑related sanctions, adding a wide network of individuals, companies, and vessels to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The designations target operatives and facilitators tied to Hamas, HASM, and Iranian procurement networks, many of whom now face “secondary sanctions risk."

OFAC’s update, amid its Economic Fury campaign, includes more than a dozen individuals across Gaza, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Jordan, and Iran. Those newly listed include alleged Hamas‑linked figures such as Marwan Muhammad Ayish Abu Ras and Muhammad Jamal Hassan Al‑Najjar, as well as individuals tied to groups like HASM—an Egypt-based offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood—and the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

Several designees hold multiple passports or residency documents, underscoring the transnational nature of the networks that the Treasury says it supports.

Iranian Procurement Network Hit With Secondary Sanctions

A significant portion of the update targets an Iran‑based financial and logistics network centered around Ebrahimi and Associates Partnership Company.

OFAC designated multiple members of the Ebrahimi family, citing their roles in facilitating transactions and procurement activities for sanctioned Iranian entities. The Treasury said that these individuals and the companies linked to them are subject to secondary sanctions, increasing the risk for foreign firms that continue to engage with them.

More than two dozen companies spanning Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, the Marshall Islands, Panama, Liberia, Nevis, China, and the United Kingdom were added to the SDN list. Many operate in shipping, petrochemicals, wholesale trade, or logistics—industries that the Treasury says are frequently used to obscure Iranian oil sales and illicit financial flows. Entities such as Aquila Worldwide Marine Developments Corp., Great Sail Shipping Limited, and Starshine Petrochemical Corporation Limited are among those newly designated.

OFAC also sanctioned a fleet of vessels—including crude oil tankers, LPG carriers, and chemical tankers—linked to the newly designated companies. Ships such as the Bright Gold, Luna Luster, Midas, and Quantum Star were added to the SDN list, restricting their ability to operate internationally. The Treasury said these vessels have been used to transport Iranian oil or support sanctioned commercial networks.

Quote:Four Republican senators backed a resolution Tuesday that will force a War Powers Act debate on President Donald Trump's war in Iran.

Among those voting yes on the measure was Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, fresh off his primary loss to Trump-backed opponent Representative Julia Letlow. Cassidy's support was enough to tip the number of those in favor of the measure—which has seen multiple attempts—reach a majority.

"While I support the administration's efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, the White House and Pentagon have left Congress in the dark on Operation Epic Fury," Cassidy wrote on X Tuesday evening. "In Louisiana, I’ve heard from people, including President Trump’s supporters, who are concerned about this war. Until the administration provides clarity, no congressional authorization or extension can be justified."

The 50-47 vote means the Senate will now look at whether it wants to force the president to withdraw U.S. troops from Iran, nearly three months into the conflict there, and after seven failed attempts.

Why This Matters Now

A war powers debate in the Senate would underscore a fundamental question at the heart of U.S. foreign policy: how much authority the president should have to use military force without explicit congressional approval.

While presidents have increasingly acted unilaterally in modern conflicts, such a debate could signal that lawmakers are seeking to reassert their constitutional role, and it could force the administration to publicly justify its strategy, legal rationale and objectives at a moment when public support for the war, and its effects, is low.

GOP Senators Vote Against Trump

Cassidy was not alone on his side of the aisle in voting in favor of the war powers debate.

Kentucky's Rand Paul, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski have all voted yes in previous attempts, but their votes were not enough to force a debate.

Following his primary defeat, Cassidy said he was returning to Washington, D.C., to continue his work of upholding the Constitution, adding that he would carefully consider how he would vote on Trump administration priorities.

While only one extra vote, Cassidy's flip on the matter could reflect a growing unease among Republicans around the Iran war, which stretches on without a clear end, or deal, in sight.

All Democrats apart from one voted in favor of the debate. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who has shown strong support for Trump's efforts in the Middle East, voted against it.

Quote:The Trump administration plans to scale back the U.S. military forces that it would make available to NATO in a major crisis, three sources told Reuters, marking a significant shift in Washington’s commitment to the alliance.

The move, expected to be communicated to allies at a defense meeting in Brussels, would reduce the pool of U.S. capabilities designated for rapid deployment under NATO’s force planning system.

The decision underscores a broader push for European countries to assume primary responsibility for their own defense, potentially reshaping NATO’s crisis response and raising new concerns among allies about the reliability of U.S. support.

Sources said the Pentagon has decided to significantly reduce the U.S. share of those forces, though the exact scale and timeline of the reduction remain unclear.

Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon via email on Tuesday afternoon for comment.

Why Are US Troops Pulling Out of Europe?

The U.S. has long said it is looking at withdrawing a significant chunk of the roughly 80,000 American soldiers stationed in Europe, as Washington turns its gaze toward China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific and contends with the strain of two and a half months of war in the Middle East.

The move highlights a broader shift in American defense priorities and reinforces Trump’s long-standing view that allies should shoulder more of the burden for regional security.

“What we’re basically saying is, as the European pillar of the alliance gets stronger, this allows the U.S. to reduce its presence in Europe and limit itself to providing only those critical capabilities that allies cannot yet provide,” Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexus Grynkewich said in a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday. “So we should expect there to be a redeployment of U.S. forces over time as allies build their capacity.”

The planned reduction comes as NATO faces mounting internal strain, with some European governments already concerned that the United States could further scale back its military posture in the region.

Cuts Made In Germany

Trump has already said he will cut 5,000 soldiers from the vast U.S. presence in Germany, and left the door open to slicing this further—although this is seen as largely a reaction to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticizing the U.S.' war against Iran.

Rotation Halted to Poland

Last week, the U.S. also stopped a planned rotation of more than 4,000 American troops en route to Poland.

Quote:China’s military secretly trained Russian troops who later returned to fight in Ukraine, according to a Reuters report citing European intelligence agencies and documents.

The revelation raises new questions about Beijing’s role in the war, potentially undermining its claims of neutrality. The findings could increase pressure on China and shape U.S. and allied responses as scrutiny grows over Moscow’s battlefield support.

Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon via email on Tuesday afternoon for comment.

Covert Training Program Revealed

Roughly 200 Russian military personnel were trained in China in late 2025 under a bilateral agreement signed by senior officers from both countries, according to documents reviewed as part of the Reuters report. Training took place at military facilities, including locations in Beijing and the eastern city of Nanjing.

The program was conducted covertly, with provisions in the agreement limiting disclosure and preventing public awareness of the exercises, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The arrangement also included plans for reciprocal training, with Chinese personnel expected to receive instruction at Russian military facilities, highlighting a deepening two-way military relationship.

Intelligence officials said that around the number planned in the agreement ultimately underwent training, with some of those personnel later identified as having returned to participate in combat operations in Ukraine.

Focus on Drones and Modern Warfare Tactics

The training program reportedly concentrated on battlefield capabilities that have played a central role in the war, particularly drone operations and electronic warfare.

Additional areas of instruction included armored infantry tactics, demining operations and broader battlefield coordination, underscoring the operational nature of the training.

The emphasis on drones is especially significant given the role unmanned systems have played throughout the conflict, with both Ukrainian and Russian forces relying heavily on drones for reconnaissance, targeting and strikes.

Officials also warned in the Reuters report that some of the Russian trainees held instructor-level roles, raising concerns that the techniques learned in China could be passed along to a broader pool of Russian forces, potentially amplifying the program’s impact beyond the initial group.

Quote:A Russian drone struck a Chinese-owned cargo ship, the Ukrainian Navy said Monday, and it comes just one day before Vladimir Putin heads to China to meet Xi Jinping.

The KSL Deyang ship, which has a Chinese crew on board, came under fire near the Odessa region, the Ukrainian Navy wrote on Telegram.

“I wonder what moved the Russians when they decided to “Shaheed” tonight to patrol a Chinese merchant ship in our sea,” Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dymtro Pletenchuk scoffed on Facebook.

“There were no casualties but this is something new. A terrible mistake has occurred, comrades?”

The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel suffered minimal damage and its crew extinguished a fire, Turkiye Today reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the strike on the ship and he claimed, “The Russians could not have been unaware of what vessel was at sea.”

“Russia once again demonstrates that its attacks pose a threat not only to Ukraine, now they are a risk even to its closest partners, whose ships are in the Black Sea,” the Navy said.

Putin’s visit to Beijing will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.

Moscow has been heavily reliant on Beijing for trade after being shunned by the west following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

When Putin visited China in September 2025, Xi welcomed his counterpart as an “old friend.” Putin also addressed Xi as “dear friend.”

Putin is set to visit Shenzhen in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

His visit to China comes just four days after President Trump wrapped up his trip to Beijing.

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would “exchange views” with Xi about the Trump visit.

Quote:Russia launched ‌drones, airstrikes and shelling at Ukraine overnight, targeting cities such as Odesa in the south and Dnipro in the southeast, killing one person and injuring more than 30, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

Drones hit residential buildings, a school and a kindergarten in the ⁠major Black Sea export port of Odesa, Serhiy Lysak, the head of the local military administration, said on messaging app Telegram.

An 11-year-old boy and a 59-year-old man were injured in the attack, he added.

Russia hit the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro with missiles in a separate attack, injuring 18, among them two children, a girl of two and a boy of 10, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on Telegram.

In the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia three people were injured following the overnight attacks, the regional governor, Ivan Fedorov, added on Telegram.

Attacks in the southern region of Kherson killed one person and injured nine, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

In Russia, drones were downed overnight over regions such as Rostov and Belgorod in the south, the Interfax news agency said, citing the defense ministry.

At least four people died over the weekend, three of them in the Moscow region, after Ukraine launched its biggest overnight drone attack on the Russian capital in more than a year, officials said on Sunday.

Quote:China’s Xi Jinping told President Trump that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin might end up regretting his decision to invade Ukraine, according to a new report.

Xi, one of Putin’s top allies, made the frank remark during his summit with Trump in Beijing last week while the two world leaders discussed the ongoing stalemate in Ukraine, sources told the Financial Times.

The admission comes as Russia struggles to make gains along the front lines, and Kyiv’s ever-growing drone strike capability forced Putin to scale back his World War II Victory Day military parade in Moscow earlier this month.

The war, now in its fifth year, has seen Russia’s invasion slow to a crawl as Ukraine’s defenses take out thousands of Moscow troops a week, as new and cheaper technological advances allow Kyiv to hold the front lines.

Ukraine has proved it can now launch long distance drone attacks at the Russian capital — and elsewhere inside Russia.

Putin has reportedly been forced to go into hiding as a result.

Kyiv also claimed that their new capability is why Putin was forced to agree to a cease-fire around Moscow’s Victory Day parade on March 9, which was the smallest it has ever been.

Putin is also facing massive economic pain across Russia as a result of the war — with the Kremlin spiking its value-added tax [VAT] last year by 2% to 22% to raise some $7.4 billion from small and medium-sized businesses.

The Russian president has also reportedly gone hat-in-hand to the country’s oligarchs, asking them to donate to his war fund.

Beijing, which has declared a “no-limits” partnership with Moscow, denied that Xi made such comments, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed the denial.

A White House readout of Xi and Trump’s meeting did not include any conversations about Putin or the war in Ukraine.

Along with discussing Ukraine, Xi reportedly spoke to Trump about the International Criminal Court, which has a warrant out for Putin’s arrest for crimes against humanity committed during the war.

Quote:Ukraine has developed its first home-made guided aerial bomb, which is capable of striking deep into Russia and ready for combat use, Kyiv’s military chief said.

Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov debuted the Vyrivniuvach bomb on Monday with the country’s Brave1 defense platform, hailing the weapon as a Ukrainian innovation with a third of the cost of its American counterpart.

“Ukraine’s guided aerial bomb will soon be striking enemy targets,” Fedorov said in a statement. “We are scaling solutions that extend strike range, enhance precision, and change the rules of modern warfare.”

The guided aerial bomb (GAB) is essentially a bomb equipped with targeting and aerodynamic control systems that allow for long-range, accurate strikes while the firing aircraft remains safe away from enemy lines.

Russia has often used GABs to bombard Ukraine, with Kyiv engineers spending the last 17 months developing their own variant of the weapon in revenge for the Kremlin assaults, the defense ministry said.

The Ukrainian bombs are equipped with a 551-pound warhead and capable of reaching dozens of miles into Russia, with the military already ordering a batch for use in the war.

With pilots currently practicing combat scenarios with the weapon, the defense ministry said it won’t be long before the GABs are used.

The GABs can be used at any time of day, in any weather, with preparations to fire taking less than 30 minutes, according to Brave1 officials.

The development of the bombs is allegedly around a third of the cost of a single American Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) — which goes for about $66,000 — without sacrificing the range, Ukrainian officials said.

Quote:Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicted Sunday that the chances of China invading Taiwan were “pretty low, particularly over the next several years,” despite Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bellicose rhetoric toward the self-governing island.

“I don’t think they want to go in and attack Taiwan. They don’t want to destroy the very chip factories they want to take over,” Gates, now the chancellor of the College of William & Mary in Virginia, told CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” adding that he thought China would prefer to exercise control via “a Hong Kong-style transition over a period of time.”

Successive US administrations have named 2027 as the year when the People’s Republic of China would have built up enough military resources to potential launch a massive attack on Taiwan, and a Pentagon report released in December of last year found that Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army “continues to refine multiple military options to force Taiwan unification by brute force.”

“Those options include, most dangerously, an amphibious invasion, firepower strike, and possibly a maritime blockade.”

Gates said Sunday he was less sure of China’s military capabilities.

“There isn’t one single Chinese general or admiral today that has one day of combat experience,” he told host Margaret Brennan. “The last time these guys fought was 1979 and the North Vietnamese, the Vietnamese gave them a bloody nose. Xi has fired all these generals. There are now no generals left on the Central Military Commission, that kind of oversees the whole thing. He’s fired — and they’re slated for execution — his last two defense ministers.

“So this is not an outfit that I think he has enormous confidence in right now, and he’s been fighting against corruption in their military ever since he became president of China [in 2013]. So I’m not sure that he thinks his military is the greatest in the world.”

Despite his skepticism, Gates warned that China is an adversary unlike any the US has dealt with before.

“We have never faced a country, at least since the British Empire, that had greater manufacturing and industrial capacity than the United States,” he said. “We have not faced a country that was as technologically advanced as we are — ahead of us in a few areas, behind us in a few areas, pretty much even with us in a few others. So we face an adversary that is more powerful, and has more non-military instruments of power, than any adversary we’ve faced, certainly than the Soviet Union.”

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated Nationalists fled there following the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The US “One China” policy, in effect since the late 1970s, acknowledges, but takes no stance on, Beijing’s claims while avoiding advocacy of Taiwan’s independence.

Missing article from last week...

Quote:The Trump administration is probing more than 120 biological laboratories funded by U.S. taxpayers in 30-plus countries in a bid to end potentially dangerous experiments within gain-of-function research, federal officials confirmed Wednesday.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered the investigation following a months-long review of U.S. holdings and files on the Washington-funded biolabs operating overseas, including to uncover specific locations as part of President Donald Trump's executive order in May 2025 to ban all federal funding for gain-of-function research in China or other nations without proper oversight.

"The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have," Gabbard told Newsweek in a statement Wednesday. "Yet despite these obvious dangers, politicians, so-called health professionals, like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration's national security team lied to the American people about the existence of these U.S.-funded and supported biolabs and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth."

Gabbard said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will work "closely with partners across the government to identify where these labs are," as well as what pathogens they contain and details of ongoing research at the facilities, including some that could threaten the "health and wellbeing" of people worldwide.

Initial searches revealed that the United States has funded more than 120 biolabs in more than 30 countries, including Ukraine, which could be threatened because of its ongoing war with Russia. Clinical trials being conducted at the facilities raise "significant ethical, financial and security concerns," ODNI officials said.

Many of the Washington-funded biolabs have conducted research using "hazardous and highly contagious pathogens," according to ODNI, potentially including gain-of-function research that involves the modification of organisms to enhance their biological functions.

Quote:President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a proposal that could more than double the number of white South African refugees admitted to the United States, according to an emergency determination sent to Congress and obtained by CNN.

The determination sent to Congress outlines a plan to raise the refugee admissions ceiling for Afrikaners, a white minority group in South Africa, to as many as 17,500 for Fiscal Year 2026. The figure marks a sharp increase from the administration’s earlier limit of 7,500 total refugee admissions for the year, most of which had already been allocated to white South Africans.

The proposal would allow the admission of up to 10,000 additional Afrikaner refugees in the coming months, citing what officials describe as worsening conditions in South Africa.

"President Trump has been very clear that we are prioritizing the resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa who are escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination," a State Department spokesperson told Newsweek. "Determinations on refugee admissions are up to the President."

Under U.S. law, the president sets the annual refugee admissions ceiling but must consult with Congress before finalizing the figure. The State Department estimates that resettling an additional 10,000 refugees would cost about $100 million.

The plan has already drawn scrutiny from refugee advocates, who argue that the policy disproportionately favors one group at the expense of others facing conflict or persecution globally. However, administration officials maintain that the decision is driven by humanitarian considerations and U.S. foreign policy interests.

The policy is rooted in Executive Order 14204, signed in February 2025, which directs U.S. agencies to prioritize the admission of Afrikaners through the refugee program. The order cites concerns about “government-sponsored race-based discrimination,” including property seizures and broader policies affecting the minority group.

The issue was raised during a contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last year, when Trump played a video of a far-left politician chanting a song with the lyrics “kill the farmer.” Trump has repeatedly claimed that South Africa has failed to address what he describes as systematic violence against white farmers.

Quote:President Trump claimed his latest political scalp Tuesday night after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) lost his hotly contested House primary to the commander-in-chief’s hand-picked challenger, Ed Gallrein.

Gallrein, a Trump-backed farmer and retired Navy SEAL, triumphed over Massie by about 10 percentage points in the Bluegrass State’s Fourth Congressional District race, which will go down as the most expensive primary race in US history, with more than $32 million spent on political ads.

“For the same reason I entered as a Navy SEAL officer in 1983, because I had the audacity to think I could make a difference,” Gallrein said in a speech after winning. “I will serve this district, my party and my nation with that same audacity.”

Trump repeatedly urged his supporters to oust Massie, an MIT-educated, seven-term congressman, after he broke with the president on key votes and led the charge to release the files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Massie’s defeat came on the heels of Trump’s successful intervention in the Louisiana Republican Senate primary against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who had voted to convict the 45th president following his impeachment for incitement of insurrection following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The president also successfully exacted revenge earlier this month against a slate of incumbent Republican state senators in Indiana, who torpedoed a redistricting push in the Hoosier state.

And Trump has already signaled that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who had been stumping for Massie in Kentucky, could be next on his target list by the time the Centennial State holds its primary June 30.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), another Trump-endorsed candidate, emerged victorious in the race to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Quote:The Republican nominee for Georgia’s next governor will be settled in a runoff election next month in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s GOP primary, but both received less than 50% of the vote, triggering the June 16 runoff.

The winner of next month’s runoff will face off in November with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who cruised to victory in the Democratic primary.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who infamously defied Trump when asked to “find” votes in the Peach State after the 2020 election, and state Attorney General Chris Carr came up short of making the GOP runoff.

Jackson went from virtual unknown to front-runner after spending $50 million of his own fortune to flood the Peach State in political ads.

The self-described “conservative outsider” has pledged to run Georgia like one of his businesses.

“Georgia’s at a crossroads. It’s going to take a conservative business leader to shake things up — and to stop Keisha Lance Bottoms from destroying our state,” Jackson wrote on X Monday morning.

“Career politicians make promises. I take action, and I’m going to deliver,” he pledged in a separate post.

Jackson has been endorsed by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, but faced questions on the campaign trail about his loyalty to President Trump — and even acknowledged being “late to the Trump Train.”

Trump endorsed Jones in the Republican primary, telling a tele-rally for the lieutenant governor last week: “He’s just an incredible guy who has my complete and total endorsement in the race.”

Quote:More than 100 days after Nancy Guthrie—mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie—vanished from her home in Tucson, Arizona, a retired FBI agent is challenging assumptions about the single strand of hair publicly linked to the case, arguing that it is almost certainly not the only forensic evidence collected.

In a wide‑ranging interview, former agent Steve Moore also criticized the early handling of the scene by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, questioned the meaning behind Sheriff Chris Nanos’ recent “we’re getting closer” remark, and outlined how leadership turmoil could either stall or accelerate the investigation depending on who is ultimately responsible for the breakdowns described by deputies.

In an interview with NewsNation's Miami Bureau Correspondent Brian Entin on his YouTube channel, Moore said that if investigators located even one hair inside the home, “there are probably 10 more” that have not been disclosed publicly. He added that evidence in major cases is often “invisible” to the naked eye and that trained technicians know where to look for fingerprints, skin cells and trace material.

Why It Matters

The hair may be just a fraction of the evidence. Moore said that finding one hair almost always means more exist, suggesting that investigators likely recovered additional trace material that has not been disclosed.

Early confusion may have compromised the scene. Sergeant Aaron Cross described the chaotic first hours, conflicting information from family members, and communication breakdowns between deputies and the FBI. Moore said confusion at a crime scene signals a failure of leadership and preparation.

Leadership questions could affect the investigation. With recall efforts and political pressure mounting on Nanos, Moore said removing a sheriff mid‑case can temporarily slow progress but could ultimately help if leadership was part of the problem.

Discovery of remains would reshape the case. Moore said that if Guthrie’s body were ever found, even months later, the location alone would provide “a treasure trove” of evidence, from tire tracks to environmental clues.

What to Know About the Hair Found at the Scene

Moore said the hair found inside Guthrie’s home is unlikely to be the only trace evidence collected, calling it “very possible” that investigators recovered far more than has been publicly disclosed.

“Imagine the odds of a person coming into a crime scene, losing only one hair, and you find it,” he said. “That’s not likely. If you find one hair, there are probably 10 others that you’ve missed.”

Moore also argued that the confusion described by Cross—who said deputies encountered conflicting information from family members and communication breakdowns within the department—signals a deeper problem.

“You’re not allowed to have confusion at a crime scene,” Moore said. “If there’s confusion, it means nobody’s in charge who knows what they’re doing.”

Quote:A fast-moving wildfire burning near Simi Valley continues to spread under gusty winds, with flames pushing toward Los Angeles County communities still under evacuation warnings as firefighters race to increase containment.

The Sandy Fire, fueled by dry conditions and shifting winds, has already scorched over 1,600 acres and prompted evacuation orders and warnings across parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Officials say the wind-driven blaze remains only minimally contained, raising concerns that its path could expand further into densely populated areas as crews struggle to gain control.

Winds spurred the flames after ignition, and winds were expected to remain strong until around noon Tuesday local time, according to an incident update video.

The threat posed by the Sandy Fire comes after a series of wind‑driven blazes across Southern California last year, including the Palisades and Eaton fires, which rapidly spread under strong offshore winds and low humidity. Those fires highlighted how quickly flames can move through dry brush when gusty conditions align, overwhelming containment efforts and forcing widespread evacuations. Officials have warned that similar weather patterns, especially gusty, shifting winds, can again accelerate fire growth, increasing the risk to communities in the fire’s path.

Containment Levels of Sandy Fire

As of the most recent update from the Ventura County Fire Department and Cal Fire, the Sandy Fire was 5 percent contained. Wind-driven fires can quickly explode out of control, making containment difficult. However, a low containment number doesn't mean firefighters aren't making progress.

Containment refers to how much of a wildfire’s perimeter has been surrounded by control lines, and firefighters are confident the fire won't keep spreading in these areas. For this reason, containment numbers typically move very slowly, Ventura County Fire Department Public Information Officer Andrew Dowd told Newsweek.

Simi Valley Evacuations: Latest Orders and Warnings

More than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders in Southern California as the fast-moving wildfire threatened homes in and around Simi Valley and Los Angeles County, the Associated Press reported. The fire has destroyed at least one home.

Quote:An Illinois park executive is facing backlash after she was accused of using a taxpayer-funded credit card to help pay for an $800 helicopter rental for her daughter’s prom photoshoot.

Quintina Brown, head of the Markham Park District outside Chicago, arranged for the helicopter to land at Roesner Park on May 8 so her 17-year-old daughter Quamyra could pose for pictures in front of it.

The helicopter company gave an invoice to city attorney Kelly Krauchun that included a credit card number linked to Brown, according to WPSD.

The invoice reportedly listed “Markham Parks” as the customer, used the park district fieldhouse address and included Brown’s signature.

Krauchun said at least the deposit was charged to a park district credit card funded by taxpayers.

“They told me that the deposit was charged to the card, and they have not been successful in getting the remaining $800 off the card, for whatever reason,” Krauchun said, referring to the helicopter company.

The invoice was reportedly for a minimum of $800 for one hour of service.

Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa said residents should be concerned if a park district credit card was used either to pay for or secure the booking.

Brown denied any misuse of public money, telling NBC 5: “There was no misuse of funds at all,” and insisting she used her own credit card.

“[My daughter] was graduating and this was going to be a memorable experience. I just wanted to be able to provide that for her,” Brown told WGN-TV.

“She wanted to do a prom photo shoot.”

Quote:Three beachgoers were stabbed while hundreds of teens took over packed New England beaches in separate incidents on Tuesday, sparking fights and forcing evacuations of the summer hotspot.

The suspected stabbing broke out just after 3 p.m. Tuesday at Narragansett Town Beach, a popular summer vacation retreat in southern Rhode Island, as temperatures reached into the 90s.

Responding officers located three victims suffering from minor stab wounds, Narragansett Police Chief Kyle Rekas said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Police have not identified a suspect or a motive behind the stabbings.

It was not known if the victims knew each other or if the stabbing was random.

The wounded victims were treated by first responders before being transported to local hospitals for minor injuries, Rekas said.

The commotion from the stabbings sent the crowded beach into a frenzy as hundreds of beachgoers raced to flee the area.

“Due to the chaos on scene with hundreds of people attempting to leave the beach at the same time, several other small disturbances broke out,” Rekas said.

Two adults were arrested on charges of simple assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstruction of justice.

The two individuals, who were not identified, are not believed to be connected to the stabbings.

Roughly 20 miles away in Middletown, RI, about 1,200 teens overran the Second Beach on the Sachuest Bay, the Middletown Police said.

The large crowd began to swarm the area around 12:45 p.m. and was peaceful until one beachgoer started to harass a large group.

Quote:A “teen takeover” dissolved into a violent brawl inside a Washington, DC, restaurant, according to a viral video shared online mere days after federal prosecutors announced they would be charging parents of the miscreants involved in similar public disruptions.

A mob of teenagers descended on a Chipotle in Washington’s Navy Yard over the weekend and, at some point, started throwing punches — and furniture, according to jarring videos shared by witnesses.

People could be heard screaming in the background as the youths vaulted on top of one another, throwing punches at random and even using an abandoned highchair as a makeshift sledgehammer.

One teen ran up behind another and hit him over the head with the highchair while a little girl cowered off to the side in her father’s arms, according to witness videos shared online.

Some of the teenagers retreated when chairs started flying across the eatery.

The combatants largely concealed their faces with medical masks, and all wore similar all-black outfits.

While the boys wreaked havoc, a gaggle of girls watched outside the restaurant. Some shrieked when the boys started using furniture as weapons, while others laughed in apparent glee, the footage shows.

“Oh my f–king God, bro, damn!” one girl cackled.

Soon, flashing police lights and sirens reflected in the chain’s window.

“The police! Oh, we gotta go!” the same girl screeched while taking off on foot.

It’s unclear if any of the brawlers were arrested or the exact date of the fight.

On Friday, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced that her office will step in and prosecute parents of minors involved in the increasingly frequent “teen takeovers,” specifically citing similar instances of chaos in the city’s Navy Yard neighborhood.

Quote:WASHINGTON — The top Democrat in a southern Texas House race, sex therapist Maureen Galindo, has called for transforming an immigration facility into a “prison for American Zionists” equipped with a castration center.

Galindo’s campaign made a vile pledge that she will introduce legislation to that effect if she gets elected to Congress after baselessly alleging her Dem runoff foe was “being paid to put Jews and Mexicans in concentration camps via Zionist trafficking networks.”

“When Maureen gets into Congress, she’ll write legislation so that all Zionism and support of Zionism is undoubtedly Anti-Semitic, since it’s Zionism harming the Semites,” her campaign wrote on Instagram last week.

“She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking. (lt will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists).”

Karnes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Center has long been subject to protest activity from the progressive left.

Oddly, Galindo’s campaign made the comments while trying to dispute her primary foe, Johnny Garcia’s claims that she wants to put Jews in warehouses.

Yet her remarks about dumping Zionists into an ICE facility sound a lot like putting Jews in warehouses.

“The standard that Democrats rightly apply to right-wing antisemites must apply equally to left-wing Jew-haters,” the watchdog group StopAntisemitism said in a statement. “Democratic leaders must clearly, publicly denounce these bigots infecting their party without hedging.

“They must decline to appear on platforms with Hasan Piker. They must stop winking at extremist voices and truly stand for the principles they claim to stand for.”

Galindo was the top Democrat in the March primary election, with 29.2% support to Garcia’s 27%. Since no one got a majority, the two advanced to a runoff election next Tuesday.

Thank you for calling it out, Jon!#TX35 residents are struggling to put gas in their tank and buy groceries. Instead of focusing on table-kitchen issues my opponent is pushing conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric.

That’s why Republicans are spending to boost her campaign. https://t.co/vy7YVKHXa1

— Johnny Garcia For Congress (@johnnygarciatx) May 19, 2026
They are vying for Texas District 35, which includes a slice of land from San Antonio to the suburbs of Austin. It is currently held by Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), but Republicans have reconfigured its borders with the goal of picking up the seat.

“Instead of focusing on table-kitchen issues my opponent is pushing conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric. That’s why Republicans are spending to boost her campaign,” Garcia chided on X Tuesday.

His accusations about Republican subterfuge elevating Galindo revolve around the Lead Left PAC, a mysterious entity that has spent some $428,713 backing her, according to the latest data from Federal Election Commission filings.

And then you wonder why people think that therapists are crazy by default.

Quote:California could soon add another paid holiday for state employees as lawmakers push to formally recognize Native American Day, a move supporters say is tied directly to the state’s violent history toward Indigenous people and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 apology for what he called a “genocide.”

The proposal, authored by Assemblymember James Ramos, D-Highland, cleared a major hurdle last week when the Assembly Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the measure to make Native American Day a fully paid state holiday observed on the fourth Friday in September.

Ramos, the first Native American elected to California’s Legislature, said the bill is meant to confront the state’s dark past and honor California’s tribal communities.

“Most Californians know little about the bloody history that built this state,” Ramos said in a statement. “They picture romanticized missions, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, not the genocide, violence, enslavement, and dispossession of Native Americans.”

The push comes six years after Newsom issued a formal apology to Native Americans on behalf of California and signed an executive order establishing a Truth and Healing Council to examine the state’s historical treatment of tribal communities.

During remarks at the time, Newsom said the atrocities committed against Native Americans amounted to a “genocide.”

“California must reckon with our dark history,” Newsom said in 2019. “California Native American peoples suffered violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history.”

California is currently home to more than 100 federally recognized tribes.

Historians estimate the Native population in the region exceeded 300,000 before European settlement expanded through the state in the late 18th century.

Dark history? I'll tell you what's part of the real dark history of the state of California: Newsom's economic boycott. Like the day when he decided his administration had to destroy hydroelectric dams in order to protect some non local fish species that now live there.

Quote:Canada’s public broadcaster is facing backlash over a satirical TV project that allegedly used fake identities and fabricated business ventures to lure conservative figures into filmed interviews about residential schools.

Commentator Lindsay Shepherd and academic Frances Widdowson, both critics of mainstream narratives surrounding Canada’s residential school system, say they were deceived into participating in what was later described as a satirical “social experiment.”

The controversy has sparked criticism from Conservative politicians and renewed scrutiny of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) public funding, with critics questioning whether taxpayer money should support productions allegedly using deceptive tactics.

In a statement to Newsweek, CBC said it is not involved in the production of the show and that "social experiments and satirical prank shows are a long-established television format used by broadcasters and streamers around the world, including many public broadcasters."

Newsweek has contacted the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) via the media contact form on its website for comment.

Canada's Residential Schools

Canada’s residential school system operated for more than a century as part of a government-backed effort to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian society. More than 150,000 Indigenous children attended the schools, which were run by both the government and religious organizations. The last facility closed in 1996.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded the system amounted to “a systematic, government-sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages.”

In 2021, a radar survey at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia identified what researchers described as the probable presence of 215 unmarked graves.

Both Widdowson and Shepherd have previously criticized aspects of the public discourse surrounding possible unmarked graves connected to residential schools.

Participants Accuse Producers of Deception

The program, Northland Tales, is being produced for the CBC and the APTN. According to the Indigenous Screen Office, the show is an unscripted satire series intended to confront “modern and historical injustices against Indigenous peoples..”

Shepherd said the group behind the interviews created what she described as a fake company, “Heritage Figures Canada,” complete with a website and consulting arrangement.

The commentator, author and former Conservative Party of British Columbia staffer described what she called an “elaborate scheme” in a post on X, alleging that producers operating under fake names approached her earlier this year for interviews related to her book A Day with Sir John A and discussions about Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.

“I found out recently that I was deceived by social activists in an elaborate scheme dating back to January,” Shepherd wrote.

Quote:The Trump administration is expected to announce criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro on Wednesday, in a move that would mark a step-up in ‌Washington’s pressure campaign against the Caribbean island’s communist government.

The charges against Castro, 94, are expected to be based on a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles, a US Justice Department official told Reuters last week on the condition of anonymity.

The Miami US Attorney’s office is planning to host an event starting at 1 p.m. EDT to honor victims of the incident. The Justice Department said on Tuesday it would make an announcement in conjunction with the ceremony, but did not provide details about the announcement.

President Donald Trump has been ⁠seeking regime change in Cuba, where communists have been in charge since Raul Castro’s late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.

The US has effectively imposed a blockade on the island by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and delivering blows to its already fragile economy.

Cuba has yet to comment directly on the threat of indictment though Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed defiance in public comments on May 15.

“Despite the (US) embargo, sanctions and threats of the use of force, Cuba continues on a path of sovereignty towards its socialist development,” Rodriguez said.

Born in 1931, Raul Castro was a key figure alongside his older brother in the guerrilla war that toppled US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

He helped defeat the US-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and served as defense minister for decades. He succeeded his brother as president and remains a powerful behind-the-scenes figure in Cuban politics.

He was defense minister ‌at the ⁠time of the 1996 incident.

The two small planes that were shot down were being flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a group of Miami-based Cuban exile pilots. All four men aboard were killed.

The group said its mission was to search the Florida Straits for Cuban rafters fleeing the island, and routinely flew near the Cuban coast.

Missing article from last week...

Quote:President Donald Trump said on Friday that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second-in-command of ISIS globally, was eliminated in Africa.

"Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield," Trump said in the post on his Truth Social platform.

"Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing," Trump added.

"He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans. With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished. Thank you to the Government of Nigeria for your partnership on this operation. GOD BLESS AMERICA! President DONALD J. TRUMP."
Trump did not provide details of the exact location of the operation.

But Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed the operation and said Al-Minuki was killed alongside “several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin.”

Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon via email for comment late Friday night.

The Context

Trump has previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants in the northwest. Nigeria has denied discriminating against any religion, saying its security forces target armed groups that ‌attack both Christians and Muslims.

The Friday night operation was the latest instance in a string of covert missions abroad that Trump has announced this year, starting with the stunning overnight raid in January to capture and remove Venezuela’s then-leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the U.S., followed nearly two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the war with Iran.

Quote:Vanessa Trump, the ex-wife of the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., revealed Wednesday that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Trump, 48, shared the devastating “personal health update” in an Instagram post.

“I’ve recently been diagnosed with breast cancer,” she wrote. “While this isn’t news anyone expects, I’m working closely with my medical team on a treatment plan.

“I would like to thank my doctors for performing a procedure earlier this week on me.”

Trump said she is “staying focused and hopeful while surrounded by the love and support of my family, my kids, and those closest to me.”

“Thank you for your kindness and support it truly means more than I can express,” she added. “I kindly ask for privacy as l focus on my health and recovery.”

Trump’s social media post was flooded with well wishes, including one from the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump.

“Praying for your continued strength and a swift recovery. Love you mama,” Ivanka wrote, while half-sister Tiffany Trump liked Vanessa’s post.

Trump, who was married to Donald Jr., from 2005 to 2018, shares five children with ex-husband — 19-year-old Kai, 17-year-old Donald, 14-year-old Tristan, 13-year-old Spencer and Chloe, 11.

Vanessa Trump was photographed celebrating Kai’s prep school graduation in Florida last week with her ex-husband and family friends.

Well, the title should say "linked to someone posing as Tom Selleck" instead.

Quote:An elderly California couple found dead inside their country club home had reportedly been caught in a disturbing online scam involving someone posing as actor Tom Selleck before their deaths, according to a close friend.

Donald Whitaker, 80, and his wife Karen, 79, were discovered with traumatic injuries inside their home at Bermuda Dunes Country Club last Friday after Riverside County deputies responded to a welfare check shortly before noon.

Authorities have not revealed how the couple was killed, and no arrests have been made.

As investigators continue probing the double homicide, family friend Joy Miedecke says Karen had spent months sending money to an online scammer pretending to be Selleck.

Miedecke said the ordeal began after Karen posted a Facebook tribute to a deceased school friend.

Soon after, someone allegedly contacted her by text message claiming to be the Hollywood star.

“They found her phone number and they text messaged her and they said they were Tom Selleck,” Miedecke told News Channel 3. “And that they knew this girl and had dated her. And now we have something in common. And that started the whole thing.”

According to Miedecke, Karen initially sent small amounts of money through gift cards before the payments escalated.

“She was living and breathing this part of her life, and they were constantly texting her every single day, text after text, and people around her started noticing,” Miedecke said.

Friends and family tried repeatedly to stop the alleged scam.

Quote:Seattle’s lefty Mayor Katie Wilson admitted she was wrong to slam Starbucks and push for a boycott of the mega-coffee chain birthed in the Pacific City.

Wilson, 43, issued a terse mea culpa to the New York Times this week as questions swirl about whether the liberal Northwest city can attract and retain businesses, including Starbucks, which recently chose to expand its footprint in Tennessee.

The democratic socialist made waves last fall when she joined a barista union rally as mayor-elect and expressed her disgust with one of Seattle’s most recognizable businesses.

“I am not buying Starbucks, and you should not either,” she whined in November, according to KUOW.
But several months later, Wilson appeared to walk back her statement.

“Those comments were not productive in the sense that they caused more harm than good,” she told the New York Times.

Wilson also told the outlet she’s aware that everything she says could be used as possible anti-business missives, and she needs to have a “multidimensional relationship” with corporations like the coffee giant.

Starbucks recently revealed it was going to build a 2,000-person corporate office in Nashville, which fueled concern that the business could leave its hometown high and dry.

Seattle City Council Member Rob Saka told the Times he is “gravely concerned” about the loss of business.

“This is real,” he said.

Wilson insisted this week that her office and Starbucks have a good relationship, and the snub in favor of Nashville was not a surprise, the outlet reported. Starbucks was also a sponsor for a new tiny house homeless shelter that was announced earlier this month, according to KOMO.

“I want them here, and I believe they want to be here,” the mayor said.

Starbucks noted the plan for Nashville was an effort to expand in other parts of the country, the Times reported.

Quote:A woman allegedly tied to Minnesota’s massive “Feeding Our Future” scandal has been charged in a daycare fraud scheme after being featured in a viral video by influencer Nick Shirley, authorities said.

She is accused of pocketing millions of dollars meant for children’s meals.

Fahima Egeh Mahamud was charged Wednesday with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to court documents.

Earlier this year, Mahamud was indicted for her alleged role in the initial $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme.

Prosecutors allege she enrolled Future Leaders Early Learning — a Minneapolis daycare where she served as CEO — into the federal child nutrition program, falsely claiming to serve thousands of meals at her childcare center.

In addition to her involvement in the nutrition program fraud, Mahamud was federally charged Wednesday with a secondary scheme to defraud the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which provides daycare assistance to low-income families.

Between October 2022 and December 2025, she allegedly submitted over 13,000 fraudulent claims to CCAP totaling approximately $4.6 million.

Prosecutors state the claims were fraudulent because she falsely certified that she had collected mandatory co-payments from families, which is a material requirement for federal reimbursement.

The Future Leaders Early Learning center was featured in Shirley’s viral video, FOX 9 Minneapolis reported, which showed him visiting apparently empty, Somali-run childcare centers in and around Minneapolis while alleging widespread fraud.

The video served as a catalyst for an immediate and aggressive multiagency crackdown by the Trump administration.

Quote:An Air France flight was blocked from entering US airspace and instead diverted to Canada over fears of one passenger’s exposure to the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

Air France Flight 378 was scheduled to land at Detroit Metro Wayne Airport in Michigan late Wednesday afternoon before it changed course for Montreal Trudeau International Airport in the Canadian city.

US officials stopped the flight from entering the country after it was revealed a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo was allowed to board “in error,” the US Customs and Border Protection told CBS News.

“Due to entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus, the passenger should not have boarded the plane,” a CBP spokesperson told the outlet. “CBP took decisive action and prohibited the flight carrying that traveler from landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and instead, diverted to Montreal, Canada.”

The Air France flight was flying in conjunction with Delta Airlines during the change in arrival location.

Air France confirms that, at the request of US authorities, Flight AF378 was diverted to Montreal Airport after a Congolese passenger on board was denied entry into the United States,” and Air France spokesperson told WXYZ. “There was no medical emergency on board, and like all airlines, Air France is required to comply with the entry requirements of the countries it serves.”

Ongoing outbreaks in Eastern and Central Africa have forced government agencies to adjust protocol and restrict travel from anyone who has visited the affected region into the US.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security implemented Monday heightened measures, including enhanced travel screening, restricted entry and public health measures to prevent Ebola from entering the country.

Quote:A sinkhole found on a LaGuardia Airport runway Wednesday led to flight delays, as workers scrambled to make repairs, officials said.

The pit was discovered around 11 a.m. near Runway 4/22 as the Port Authority conducted its daily morning inspection of LaGuardia’s airfield, the agency said.

The runway was quickly shut down as emergency construction and engineering crews descended on the site to complete repairs and determine the cause of the sinkhole “as quickly and safely as possible,” according to a spokesperson.

The Port Authority cautioned travelers to expect disruptions.

“The Port Authority is in close communication with airlines and airport partners and will continue providing updates as conditions evolve,” the rep said.

“Travelers should expect delays and cancellations, particularly with forecast thunderstorms expected later today, and are strongly encouraged to check directly with their airlines for the latest flight status information.”

Several passengers at the travel hub told The Post their flights made wonky detours to work around the runway closure, delaying their landings.

“We flew around Manhattan in a weird direction. Lately, with all the mishaps and near misses at major airports, I’m thankful they found it before a plane went into it. I hope there were no injuries,” said Kit Deason, an IT manager from Alabama who flew Southwest.

“The pilot said that there were delays because the planes were ‘single file lining up at LaGuardia’. They didn’t say a sinkhole. I’m a firefighter, so I know if they’re shutting down runways, there’s a problem,” added Ryan Mastian, who flew American Airlines from Indianapolis to meet up with Deason.

The runway snafu also snarled some people’s travel plans, including those hoping to board connecting flights.

Quote:The widower of a Barnes & Noble shopper who was allegedly stabbed to death by a deranged homeless man is suing the owner and managers of the Florida shopping mall and the book giant.

Jorge Loncharich’s wife, Rita, was murdered following a “recurring pattern” of disturbing incidents at the shopping center, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed on his behalf on Tuesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

The 65-year-old was reading a magazine at the Barnes & Noble while Christmas shopping when she was killed in a frenzied knife attack by a mentally ill homeless man on the evening of Dec. 22, 2025, according to officials.

Antonio Moore, who was 40 at the time of the attack, had arrived in Florida just days earlier after boarding a bus from Georgia, according to an affidavit.

The Barnes & Noble branch at the Legacy Place shopping center in Palm Beach Gardens saw more than 60 documented police incidents in less than five years, according to the lawsuit filed by Morgan & Morgan P.A. on behalf of Loncharich.

These included 16 calls coded as “Unwanted Guest,” 23 shoplifting calls, nine for “Suspicious Person,” eight welfare checks, four suspicious incidents, and 14 general police calls, according to the lawsuit, citing Palm Beach Gardens PD records.

Legacy Place and the Barnes & Noble location specifically also had a long-standing pattern of criminal activity, loitering, trespassing, and confrontations involving transient and homeless people, the complaint alleges.

“Defendants, their agents, employees, and/or servants, had actual or constructive knowledge of a history of criminal activity on and in the vicinity of the premises… and knew or should have known that there was a likelihood for criminal conduct,” the complaint states.

The suit, which seeks damages exceeding $50,000 and a trial by jury under the Florida Wrongful Death Act, names four defendants: property owner LSREF6 Legacy LLC, property manager Trademark Property Company Florida, on-site property manager Ana Torres, and store operator Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Quote:Three people are dead, and nearly 20 first responders in New Mexico were hospitalized for exposure to an “unidentified substance” on Wednesday, according to authorities.

New Mexico State Police arrived at a residence in Mountainair around 11:00 a.m. to assist the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office with a suspected overdose involving an unknown substance.

After entering the home, cops grimly discovered four unidentified people unresponsive. Three of the four people have since died, authorities added.
Eighteen first responders who arrived at the property were exposed to the substance and began experiencing symptoms, including nausea and dizziness, police said.

The remaining occupant and the slew of emergency workers were rushed to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where they are “currently being quarantined, evaluated, and monitored,” the department continued in a statement.

Two of the first responders are currently in serious condition.

“Albuquerque Fire Rescue HazMat teams are assisting at the scene in efforts to identify the substance involved. At this time, investigators believe the substance may be transmitted through contact and do not believe it to be airborne,” the statement said.

Officials stressed there is no current threat to the public, and a secure perimeter has been established around the home.

“We ask the public to avoid the area and keep all affected individuals and first responders in their thoughts,” cops wrote.

Quote:Texas officials have ordered a Muslim university in the Dallas area to shut down after accusing the school of illegally offering degree programs without state approval.

In a May 6 letter sent to TexAM University at Dallas, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said that the entity “must immediately cease advertising, offering, and enrolling students in degrees or programs of study until it has applied for and been granted a Certificate of Authority.”

The letter alleged that TexAM University at Dallas “is operating a ‘university’ that ‘offer[s] STEM degree programs’ both online and ‘at the Richardson campus.’”

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board wrote that, following a review, it found that TexAM is not compliant with Texas laws and regulations.

“TexAM’s advertising and postings via its website indicate that your entity publicly holds itself out as offering in the State of Texas STEM degree programs, including a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and admissions to bachelor’s degree programs in computer science, IT, cybersecurity, and health informatics,” the letter read.

On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he was suing TexAM University at Dallas for “unlawfully presenting itself as a university, offering degrees it is not authorized to grant, and misleading prospective students about its legitimacy.”

In a press release, Paxton said that TexAM University at Dallas also “adopted branding and a name ‘confusingly similar’ to Texas A&M University.”

“TexAM has repeatedly disregarded Texas law, misrepresented its authority to grant degrees, and risked deceiving students about its legitimacy,” Paxton said. “My office will not allow illegal, unaccredited degree mills to operate in Texas.”

In their letter, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said that by May 8, TexAM University at Dallas was required to sign an attached letter and return it to the agency confirming the entity had ceased its offerings.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Shahid A. Bajwa, founder and chairman of the board of trustees at Texas American Muslim Institute for Technology said, “We just learned that Attorney General’s office has filed Lawsuit for non-compliance. They sued our Institute and personally me, along with two other Members/Directors of the Non-Profit corporation, for $1 Million. We fail to understand how the following facts of compliance were overlooked and not even mentioned in the Lawsuit. Still, we are ready to discuss and resolve any misunderstanding.”

Quote:Seven pro-Palestine protesters are on trial in San Francisco this week, accused of bringing one of the nation’s most iconic bridges to a grinding halt, and if convicted, they could spend up to 15 years in prison.

The case centers on an April 15, 2024 demonstration in which all southbound traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge was brought to a standstill for more than four hours, triggering major disruption across San Francisco’s main entry point.

Inside the courtroom Wednesday, prosecutors told jurors the incident was not a peaceful inconvenience but a deliberate obstruction of a major public roadway.

“This case is simple,” Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze told the jury, backing her argument with video evidence from the scene that showed officers on the bridge interacting with Sarah Cantor, who identified herself as the “police liaison” during the protest.

The footage also captured protesters blocking the roadway in vehicles as officers coordinated around the scene.

Roze said the actions were unmistakable.

“The evidence that you see is exactly what the defendants did,” she continued. “There is no question that they obstructed a thoroughfare.”

She also drew a firm boundary between political belief and criminal conduct.

“While you may agree with their cause, and it may be an important one, it does not excuse breaking the law.”

The defense is expected to argue the opposite, that the blockade was driven by moral urgency over the war in Gaza and carried out only after other forms of protest failed.

Public defender Nuha Abusamra told jurors, “There was no legal alternative at this point.”

She added, “It was time for civil disobedience.”

Abusamra also said her client River Allen and others were willing to “move to make a lane,” referring to the bridge’s movable median barrier, in an attempt to allow emergency access through the shutdown.

Another defense attorney, Katy Isa, said her client Conrad DeJesus “had no other choice but to get involved,” pointing to what she described as constant exposure to conflict imagery “coming through his feed every day, morning, noon and night.”

The legal fight follows a turbulent aftermath from the same protest.

Quote:Five members of California’s parole board were reappointed by top Democrats despite a furious backlash over the release of child predators under the state’s controversial elderly parole program.

Commissioners William Muniz, Michael Ruff, Rosalind Sargent-Burns, Mary Thornton and Jack Weiss were approved by the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday over Republican objections, and now head to a full Senate vote.

The panel – all appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom – faced intense scrutiny from GOP lawmakers over a string of high-profile releases, including convicted child abusers and sex offenders.

That includes the parole of David Allen Funston, 64, who prosecutors said kidnapped and molested at least eight children – seven girls and one boy – after luring them with Barbie dolls and candy.

In March, commissioners also freed Gregory Lee Vogelsang, 57, who had been serving a more than 300-year sentence for sexually abusing children as young as five.

Another case involved Roberto Antonio Detrinidad, 39, who was released despite a life sentence for breaking into a San Francisco apartment and sexually assaulting a sleeping woman.

Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones blasted the decisions, saying they had “badly shaken” confidence in the board.

“Mr. Vogelsang acknowledged that his sexual attraction to children is always going to be there,” Jones said.

“As a board member, can you explain how factors like age, time served, and good behavior can outweigh a public safety risk when an inmate admits ongoing sexual attraction to children?” he asked.

Quote:King Charles III was mistakenly declared dead by a UK radio station Tuesday in a shocking on-air blunder that left listeners stunned before the station suddenly went silent.

Radio Caroline, which broadcasts across parts of England, accidentally triggered its “Death of a Monarch” protocol due to what station bosses later described as a “computer error.”

Regular programming abruptly stopped before presenters announced that normal broadcasts had been suspended following the “death” of the 77-year-old monarch.

“This is Radio Caroline. We have suspended our normal programs until further notice as a mark of respect following the passing of His Majesty King Charles III,” the broadcast said, according to The Telegraph. “This is Radio Caroline. His Majesty King Charles III has passed away. As a mark of respect, we will play continuous, suitable music until further notice.”

“God Save the King” then played over the airwaves before the station fell silent for roughly 15 minutes.

Station manager Peter Moore later apologized and blamed the mistake on a computer error.

“Due to a computer error at our main studio, the Death of a Monarch procedure, which all UK stations hold in readiness while hoping not to require, was accidentally activated on Tuesday afternoon (May 19), mistakenly announcing that HM the King had passed away,” Moore wrote in a Facebook statement.

“Radio Caroline then fell silent as would be required, which alerted us to restore programming and issue an on-air apology.”

“We apologize to HM the King and to our listeners for any distress caused,” he added.

The on-air announcement sparked confusion among some listeners, who later took to social media to describe their reactions.

“I dashed indoors shouting to the missus ‘He’s dead! Charlie is dead!’ She looked puzzled,” one listener wrote after the mix-up.

“I heard this on my car stereo as I was just leaving work and for a moment i had to ask myself whether it was true or just a sick joke,” another listener said.

“It did give me a bit of a shock, but I accept these mistakes can happen and was glad to find out it wasn’t true,” a third added.

The station did not say exactly how long the false report remained on air before staff realized what had happened.

Quote:“Father Ted” writer Graham Linehan has received a groveling apology from Britain’s largest police force eight months after he was arrested by armed cops for social media posts critical of the transgender issue.

Linehan, 57, was taken into custody by London’s Metropolitan Police as he arrived at Heathrow Airport last September and told his X posts were hate speech, after a transgender former cop reported him.

Scotland Yard finally accepted it was a mistake and apologized for the arrest that sparked a storm of criticism.

A five-month investigation found that “the service provided was not acceptable and recognize the distress and impact this matter has caused Mr. Linehan,” Inspector Matt Hume, from the department’s directorate of professional standards, wrote in a report obtained by the Telegraph.

However, none of the five armed officers who arrested Linehan will see any punishment beyond “learning “through reflection,” the Telegraph said.

However, the Met said it will change how it handles hate-crime allegations with high-profile people, according to the report.

Lineham said Sunday that “the ‘apology’ I received from the police, doesn’t sound like an apology.”
He quoted a part of it as stating: “The Met concluded that while the arrest was lawful, aspects of the investigation were flawed and misunderstood, with officers focusing on the anti-transgender nature of Linehan’s posts and inadequately on the alleged incitement to violence.”

Linehan was arrested over three posts he made on X back in April 2025, including one that read: “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.”

Quote:The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships entered the Caribbean Sea Wednesday as part of an apparent effort by the Trump administration to apply pressure on Cuba from all directions.

“Welcome to the Caribbean, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group!” US Southern Command posted on X.

The strike group includes the Nimitz aircraft carrier, its air wing – F/A-18 Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, E-2D Hawkeyes, C-2A Greyhounds and MH-60R/S Sea Hawks – the USS Gridley destroyer and the USNS Patuxent replenishment oiler.

US Southern Command touted the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group as “the epitome of readiness and presence, unmatched reach and lethality, and strategic advantage.”

“USS Nimitz has proven its combat prowess across the globe, ensuring stability and defending democracy from the Taiwan Strait to the Arabian Gulf,” US Southern Command added.

The arrival of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group comes on the same day the Justice Department unsealed a criminal indictment against former Cuban President Raul Castro, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a Spanish-language message to the Cuban people, offering them a “new relationship” with the US.

The strike group’s arrival also comes a week after CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to the communist island to meet with top Cuban officials.

The Trump administration plans to keep the carrier strike group in the region for at least a few days as “a show of force” and not for major military operations, a US official told the New York Times.

The USS Iwo Jima amphibious assault ship, the USS Fort Lauderdale amphibious transport ship, the USS Lake Erie guided-missile cruiser and the USS Billings littoral combat ship have also been operating in the Caribbean Sea in recent days, according to the US Naval Institute’s fleet tracker.

Cuba is “on our mind,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday after Castro was hit with murder and other charges stemming from the deadly 1996 shootdowns of two civilian planes over international waters.

“It’s very important,” Trump said of the indictment. “It was a very big moment for people, not only Cuban Americans, but people who came from Cuba, that want to go back to Cuba, see their family in Cuba.”

Quote:Former Cuban president Raul Castro and five others were indicted for the murder of four US nationals who assisted Cuban refugees in the 1990s, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Wednesday.

Blanche told a news conference in Miami that a federal grand jury handed up the charges against Castro, 94, on April 23 for directing the 1996 shootdown by Cuba’s air force of two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, an exile-run humanitarian group.

The regime’s fighter jets fired air-to-air missiles at two unarmed civilian Cessna aircraft carrying Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales, killing all four, who were US nationals. Three were American citizens.

Brothers to the Rescue was founded in 1991 to help Cuban migrants “stranded or lost at sea” while attempting to flee the island’s Communist regime, according to the 19-page unsealed indictment.

Castro and his co-defendants have been charged with conspiring to kill US nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder in the Feb. 24, 1996, incident.

At the time, Castro was serving as head of Cuba’s armed forces under his brother, then-President Fidel Castro.

“For nearly 30 years — 30 years — the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” Blanche said. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida Straits.”

“For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in this country … for acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens,” he added. “Nations and their leaders cannot be permitted to target Americans, kill them, and not face accountability.”

The indictment drew parallels to the federal charges levied against Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who was captured by US special forces from his Caracas compound in a daring Jan. 3 operation to face narco-trafficking and firearms charges in New York City.

Quote:On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) discussed possible legal action against Raul Castro and said that “Legal accountability is critical. And, by the way, the Trump administration people may think about that as they undertake illegal wars and illegal actions, for example, the double-tap strike on the two individuals, the drug runners who were clinging to a sinking boat.” And “It is possible that Raul Castro undertook criminal activities, not a concept that would be entirely foreign to the occupant of the Oval Office himself.”

Guest host Jim Sciutto asked, “Given that this might be following a Venezuela model here, would you support Castro’s indictment first and removal later, if the administration were to support that?”

Himes answered, “Well, I would say this: Legal accountability is critical. And, by the way, the Trump administration people may think about that as they undertake illegal wars and illegal actions, for example, the double-tap strike on the two individuals, the drug runners who were clinging to a sinking boat. Accountability is important for everybody. We care about justice. And so, in fact, if there’s a case to be made against Raul Castro, let the facts play out. What is not okay is us deciding that we are going to use the military to enforce global laws. That’s not what the military is for. And so, again, the president has talked for a very long time about going after Cuba. It is possible that Raul Castro undertook criminal activities, not a concept that would be entirely foreign to the occupant of the Oval Office himself. But the use of American military force is not okay, and it is certainly not okay when it is not approved by the United States Congress, as the Constitution demands.”

Quote:Many Cubans hope the US indictment against former president Raul Castro announced Wednesday will usher in the collapse of the entire Communist regime.

Dissidents on the island and exiles in the US welcomed the historic charges — for murder over the downing of two aid jets in 1996 — saying while most of the island starves under choking sanctions, the political elite and military continue to syphon aid and lead normal lives.

In Havana, Ranses Mones Quintero, 32, told The Post he welcomed the criminal charges, saying: “We are happy and hopeful. And if there has to be blood, if Cubans have to die to get rid of the government, then we’re prepared. People are just tired of waiting for change.”

In Havana, Ranses Mones Quintero, 32, told The Post he welcomed the criminal charges, saying: “We are happy and hopeful. And if there has to be blood, if Cubans have to die to get rid of the government, then we’re prepared. People are just tired of waiting for change.”

However, presently he’s most worried about where he’s going to find medication to treat his pneumonia.

“There’s nothing here,” he said, explaining he survives on remittances his family sends from the US, from which the government takes a portion of that cash.

“There’s no medication, no work and we only have electricity for a couple of hours a day.”

Castro, 94, was charged along with five others with seven counts of murder, conspiracy to kill US nationals and destruction of aircraft over the destruction of the Brothers to Rescue jets by Cuban MiG-29 fighter planes in 1996.

Quote:China’s Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday as they traded veiled jabs at the US just days after Beijing hosted President Trump — but failed to reach a breakthrough pipeline deal for Moscow. 

Xi and Putin met in Beijing to sign more than 40 cooperation agreements surrounding trade, technology and media exchanges.

Putin specifically highlighted the deals made in the energy sector, alluding to Russia’s role in propping up China during the American war in Iran.

“Amid the crisis in the Middle East, Russia continues to maintain its role as a reliable supplier of resources, while China remains a responsible consumer of these resources,” Putin said, taking a jab at the economic upheaval caused by the conflict. 

Russia’s oil exports to China grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2026, with Moscow serving as one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to Beijing, a Putin aide said.

Xi made his own apparent remarks against the US as he slammed a world order under “unilateralism and hegemonism.”

“The world faces the danger of reverting to the law of the jungle,” the Chinese president said as he positioned his country to serve as a competing global influencer.

Both leaders also addressed each other as longtime friends during the meeting, touting the bilateral trade between the two nations that reached around $228 billion in 2025, according to Xinhua news agency.

But among the agreements signed, there was no visible progress made on the prospective Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline that Russia has promoted to boost exports to China.

The planned 1615-mile pipeline would carry 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually to China, but the means of financing, delivery of the fuel, and its price system remains unresolved.

Quote:WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is coming under pressure to sequester shipments of Labubu dolls coming into the US due to forced labor concerns.

A test found that 16 of 20 of Pop Mart’s plush monster toys were comprised of some cotton from Xinjiang, where China is accused of carrying out human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur population.

The heads of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and State Armor, both China hawk groups, urged DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to stop imports of those products in response.

“The forced labor system that feeds Pop Mart’s supply chain is setting records. In 2025 alone, Chinese authorities carried out 3.36 million ‘labor transfers,'” the heads of the two groups wrote to Mullin and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.

“Worker consent is rendered structurally impossible by the system’s design,” they added. “The scale of Pop Mart’s U.S. market makes the urgency acute. Pop Mart has announced plans to expand its U.S. retail footprint and membership base.”

The test identifying the ties to Xinjiang was commissioned by the Campaign for Uyghurs. The New York Times later confirmed the results independently.

The US bans imports from Xinjiang, a region also known as East Turkistan, due to alleged human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim population, including accusations of internment camps, sterilization, forced labor, and more.

State Department officials have classified the alleged human rights abuses there as genocide.

Pop Mart CEO Wang Ning had been defensive of Xinjiang cotton, previously blasting Adidas for vowing to avoid the region, alleging that the company had “baselessly smeared Xinjiang for violations of human rights” and “seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”

Quote:Poland’s defense minister said no decisions have been made to reduce the number of American troops in the country and recent US moves may only temporarily delay their deployment, after meeting US Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Christopher Mahoney.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Tuesday a US troop deployment to Poland had been delayed, but that it was not accurate to say the troops were being withdrawn from Europe.

Poland was earlier alarmed by reports the Pentagon had canceled plans to deploy 4,000 US troops in the country.

Officials tried to reassure Poles that this was not the case.

“Decisions that are made in the US and their consequences may temporarily delay the deployment of US forces to Poland, which is exactly what we said–that there was no decision to reduce them, only a temporary suspension,” Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters after meeting Mahoney.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said it would withdraw 5,000 troops from NATO ally Germany, in part due to a widening rift between US President Donald Trump and Europe linked to the Iran conflict.

Poland says its role as a hub for military and other supplies to Ukraine, following Moscow’s full-scale invasion, has made it a target for Russian spies gathering intelligence and carrying out acts of sabotage.

The country plans to spend 4.8% of its GDP on defense this year, the highest percentage in NATO, and underlines it has always been a loyal partner to the US.

“Poland is a model ally,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, adding it was working together on “plans for the deployment of American forces in Europe.”

Quote:WASHINGTON — Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir traveled to Tehran on Friday in the latest push to forge a US-Iran deal as President Trump weighs military action this weekend.

Munir, the chief of Pakistan’s armed forces, has forged a bond with Trump, who regularly praises his work in mediating the US-Iran negotiations.

A delegation from Qatar also joined the field marshal in Tehran to lobby Iranian officials to make an agreement with Washington.

Doha and other Gulf states have been increasingly concerned Iran will target their oil and gas infrastructure as retaliation if the US decides to renew military action this weekend, sources familiar with the matter tell The Post.

“Many Gulf countries want a deal — but they want the right deal,” a regional source said. “Not a half-baked arrangement that will let Iran keep holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage.”

Saudi Arabian state media claimed to have obtained a copy of a deal framework that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume peace talks within a week — but it made no mention of Tehran’s nuclear program, the longstanding sticking point between the two adversaries.

That omission fueled skepticism in Washington and Jerusalem, where officials have argued that Tehran has repeatedly used regional negotiations to sidestep pressure over its nuclear ambitions.

Among the reported provisions were commitments by both sides to avoid targeting military, civilian, or economic infrastructure; ensure freedom of navigation in the strait; halt media “incitement” — and on the US side, gradually lift some sanctions in exchange for Iran’s adherence to the agreement.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio cast doubt on the reporting Friday, telling reporters at a NATO meeting in Sweden that “it would be pretty ambitious to be able to open the straits at this meeting here today.”

Quote:First Daughter Ivanka Trump was targeted for assassination by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) trained terrorist in a twisted plot to avenge the president taking out his mentor, The Post has learned.

Recently captured Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, made a “pledge” to kill Ivanka and even had a blueprint of her Florida home, sources claimed.

The Iraqi national was allegedly targeting President Donald Trump’s family in response to the killing of Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad six years ago.

“After Qasem was killed, he [Al-Saadi] went around telling people ‘we need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house,'” Entifadh Qanbar, a former deputy military attaché in the Iraqi embassy in Washington told The Post.

“We heard that he had a plan of Ivanka’s house in Florida,” Qanbar added. A second source also confirmed Al-Saadi’s plot to kill Ivanka.

Al-Saadi also posted a picture of a map showing the enclave in Florida where Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner have a $24 million home on X, alongside a chilling threat in Arabic which translates to: “I say to the Americans look at this picture and know that neither your palaces nor the Secret Service will protect you. We are currently in the stage of surveillance and analysis. I told you, our revenge is a matter of time.”

Al-Saadi is said to be a high-ranking figure in Iraq-Iran terror circles, arrested in Turkey on May 15 and extradited to the US where he is charged with 18 attacks and attempted attacks throughout Europe and the United States, per the Department of Justice.

He’s been behind attacks on US and Jewish targets including the firebombing of the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam in March, the stabbing of two Jewish victims in London in April and a shooting at the US consulate building in Toronto, also in March, according to the DoJ.

He also “planned, coordinated” and allegedly took responsibility for attacks against Jewish people including the bombing of a synagogue in Liège, Belgium, the arson of a temple in Rotterdam in March, according to the feds, as well as various other foiled counter-attacks in the US in response to the current conflict in the Middle East.

Quote:Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Friday against Iran trying to create a “tolling system” for commercial shipping to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

“They’re trying to convince Oman, by the way, to join them in this tolling system,” he said while in Sweden for a NATO foreign ministers meeting. ”There is not a country in the world that should accept that.”

“I don’t know of anyone in the world that should be in favor of a tolling system in an international waterway, that’s just not acceptable. It can’t happen,” Rubio continued.

President Trump reiterated Thursday that he was against any sort of tolling system for the strait: “We want it open. We want it free. We don’t want tolls. It’s international. It’s an international waterway.”

The Gulf of Oman is adjacent to the strait and needs to be traveled before reaching it from the east. Oman is an American ally and it’s unclear what its talks with Iran mean for peace negotiations.

But shipping via the critical waterway has come to a near complete halt, and gas prices have spiked around the world. U.S. forces have redirected 97 commercial vessels since the start of the military blockade of Iranian ports, U.S. Central Command said on Friday.

Rubio said there has been “some progress” in the talks with Tehran but added that the US was dealing with “a very difficult group of people.”

The reopening of the strait is a sticking point in the talks, as is the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

But the secretary of state also said it’s time to come up with a “Plan B” in case an agreement can’t be reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

He noted the NATO countries discussed the matter in their meeting in Sweden.

“At that point, something has to be done about it, and I would argue that there are countries represented here today that are more deeply impacted by this than even the United States is,” he said.

The Atlantic alliance has been reluctant to get involved in President Trump’s war, which has been a point of contention between those countries and Washington.

Rubio conceded no agreement had come from the meeting, but reiterated that “we have to start thinking about it.”

Quote:Senate Republicans — including the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee — called on President Trump to resume military strikes on Iran on Friday after he met with his senior national security team and Tehran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman slow-walked diplomacy.

“We are at a moment that will define President Trump’s legacy,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said in a statement on Friday. “His instincts have been to finish the job he started in Iran, but he is being ill advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on.”

It came after Trump huddled at the White House with Vice President Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other officials to discuss possible strikes on Iran, Axios reported.

The same day, the president announced he’d canceled weekend plans — even missing his eldest son Don Jr.’s wedding in the Bahamas — citing his duty to stay in Washington to deal with “circumstances” believed to be Iran.

Trump this week made clear US forces are at the ready to launch strikes at any moment should he decide to take that route. He nearly launched strikes on Tuesday, before Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states convinced him to delay military action as they believed a peace deal was close.

At least some US troops’ holiday weekend leave has been canceled as a precaution, a source familiar with military planning told The Post. The service branches did not respond to requests for comment.

The Pentagon also culled some troops from military bases in the Middle East should Iran attempt to retaliate should Trump decide to attack, CBS reported Friday.

The news came the same day Iran war-opponent Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard submitted her letter of resignation, citing her husband’s bone cancer.

Meanwhile, Tehran threatened retaliation should the US strike, claiming they have “new equipment, “novel targets” and new “war strategy,” according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News.

“America knows that the path to any military superiority is closed,” an Iranian military source told IRNA. “If America engages in excess demands, pretext-making, and potential military action, it will experience its third major punishment in less than a year; this time in a more specific and novel form.”ncer.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark) also said the US needs to “finish the job” on Iran.

“The airstrikes last summer destroyed all their nuclear infrastructure, but it’s clear that they didn’t abandon their nuclear ambition,” he told Arkansas Money and Politics. “… We need to finish the job and make it clear that we won’t tolerate them threatening free commerce on the high seas.”

Wicker went a step further, criticizing current diplomatic efforts to secure a deal with Iran — as both Pakistani and Qatari officials engaged in a now-or-never push to get Iran to sign an agreement with the US to restart talks.

Quote:Israeli security forces arrested three Hamas-affiliated terrorists in Hebron overnight on Wednesday, thwarting a planned shooting attack, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Thursday.

According to the military, troops operating in the city detained the suspects during a counterterrorism operation targeting a Hamas-linked terror network.

“The terrorists planned to carry out a shooting attack in the near future,” the IDF said.

The IDF said the operation was carried out by soldiers from the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion together with reservists from the 5016th Battalion.

The suspects were taken into custody for questioning by security officials.

In a separate operation earlier this week, security forces arrested an additional suspect in the village of Deir al-Ghusun, near Tulkarem, whom the military accused of advancing efforts to establish a terrorist network. All four suspects were transferred for further interrogation.

“The security forces continue to operate to thwart terrorism in the area and against anyone who harms or attempts to harm Israeli civilians and security forces,” the IDF said in a statement.

Israeli forces have intensified counterterrorism operations across Judea and Samaria since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, carrying out frequent raids aimed at dismantling terrorist infrastructure and preventing attacks against Israeli civilians and military personnel.

Quote:An explosive New York Times report claims US and Israeli officials explored the shocking possibility of elevating former far-right hardliner Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s new leader.

While both Washington and Jerusalem refrain from denying the story, experts told The Post there’s likely more to the story.

“This story is like Swiss cheese — with a lot of holes,” Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, told The Post, casting doubt on key elements of the reporting.

The report, published Tuesday, suggested a Feb. 28 strike on Ahmadinejad’s home “had been designed to free him from house arrest” — not kill him.

But Sabti said the idea of the deeply anti-Israel former president would be so unreasonable to the Jewish state that it casts doubt on the idea that Washington and Israel could have wanted him to fill a leadership vacuum in a post-regime Iran.

“Israel would never want Ahmadinejad to be the leader because since 2005, he brought out again that antisemitism of [Tehran] and said that famous sentence, ‘Israel must be wiped out of the map of the world.’

“He did a lot of antisemitism conferences, and the competition of cartoons against Jews and antisemitic short movies, things like this,” he added.

The report claimed Ahmadinejad was even in on the plan to some extent, but “became disillusioned with the regime change plan” following the strike on his home that injured him.

Asked for responses to the report, neither the White House nor the Israeli prime minister’s office would confirm or deny the allegations.

Quote:Russian missiles packed with depleted uranium warheads were used in an attack on northern Ukraine last month, triggering radiation to spike near bomb sites, Ukraine’s security agency said.

Toxic radiation levels were detected from an unexploded R-60 air-to-air missile mounted on a modified Geran-2 drone used by Russian forces to target Ukrainian helicopters and aircraft carrying out air defense missions in Chernihiv Oblast on April 7, according to Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).

The radiation was traced to depleted uranium projectiles containing Uranium-235 and Uranium-238.

“During a radiation survey conducted near the wreckage of the drone carrying the missile, specialists recorded a gamma radiation level of 12 μSv/h, significantly exceeding natural background radiation and posing a potential threat to human life,” security officials said.

Ambient background gamma radiation typically ranges from 0.05 to 0.3 microsieverts per hour.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of uranium enrichment used to produce nuclear fuel and weapons.

It is roughly two-and-a-half times denser than steel – a trait that helps it tear through heavy battlefield armor. When a weapon tipped in depleted uranium strikes a solid target, such as the side of a tank, it can burst straight through and erupt in a burning cloud of vapor.

The vapor then settles as dust, which is toxic and slightly radioactive.

The poison-laced missile warhead was secured by the SBU, State Emergency Service units, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the village of Kamak and transported to a radioactive waste storage facility.

The SBU urged Ukrainian citizens to be extremely cautious if they encounter debris from drones, missiles, or other debris.

Quote:STAROBILSK, Russian-controlled Ukraine, May 22 — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered his military to prepare options to retaliate against Ukraine for what he described as a drone attack on a student ‌dorm that killed six people and wounded dozens, with 15 still unaccounted for.

Putin said the attack had struck the dorm in Starobilsk in Luhansk, a Russian-controlled region in eastern Ukraine.

He said Kyiv’s military must have known what it was targeting.

Ukraine’s military denied the Russian accusations and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area. It said that Kyiv complied with international humanitarian law.

Putin said in his own statement, which was carried by state TV, that there were no military targets near the dorm.

“There are no military facilities, intelligence service facilities, or related services in the vicinity. Therefore, there ⁠is absolutely no basis for claiming that the munitions struck the building as a result of our air defense or electronic warfare systems. The strike was not accidental; it came in three waves, with 16 drones targeting the same location,” Putin told officials.

The Russian military had been ordered to draw up options for Moscow to retaliate, he added.

Reuters was not able to independently verify what happened. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians in the war.

Ukraine wants to recapture Luhansk, one of four eastern regions that Moscow unilaterally claimed as its own in 2022 in what Kyiv denounced as an illegal land grab.

Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, said that 86 teenagers aged 14 to 18 had been asleep inside the hostel belonging to Luhansk Pedagogical University’s Starobilsk college when Ukrainian drones had attacked it during the night.

Leonid Pasechnik, the top Russian-installed official in Luhansk, said two people had been pulled from the rubble. Maria Lvova-Belova, presidential commissioner for children’s rights, said up to ‌18 children ⁠could still be trapped.

Quote:WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS — The Trump administration is planning to tell NATO allies this week that it will shrink the pool of military capabilities that the US would have available to assist the alliance’s European nations in a major crisis, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Under a framework known as the NATO Force Model, the alliance’s member countries identify a pool of available forces that could be activated during a conflict or any other major crisis, such as a military attack on a NATO member.

While the precise composition of those wartime forces is a closely guarded secret, the Pentagon has decided to significantly scale down its commitment, said the sources, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the plans.

President Trump has made clear he expects European countries to take over primary responsibility for the continent’s security from the United States.

The message to allies this week is a concrete sign of that policy being implemented.

Several details were unclear, such as how quickly the Pentagon plans to shift crisis-mode responsibilities onto European allies.

The sources said, however, that the Pentagon plans to announce its intention to lessen its commitment at a Friday meeting of defense policy chiefs in Brussels.

Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby has said publicly that the United States will continue to use its nuclear weapons to protect NATO members, even as European allies take the lead on conventional forces.

The US will likely be represented by Alex Velez-Green, a key aide to Colby, the sources said.

Adjusting the NATO Force Model has emerged as a key priority of Colby’s team heading into the next NATO leaders’ summit, which will take place in Turkey in July, one of the sources added.

Quote:President Trump threw his support behind a congressional bill to end the twice-a-year Daylight Savings Time switch after a House committee backed the bid with overwhelming bipartisan support.

House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Sunshine Protection Act on Thursday by a 48-1 vote — which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

The measure appears to have wide support in the House, with 32 bipartisan cosponsors of the bill. A similar measure in the Senate has 18 cosponsors from both parties.

“It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial.

“This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks,” the president said. “Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!”

The measure was tucked inside a transportation bill, and would do away with standard time altogether — meaning when clocks spring forward an hour during springtime they would stay there forever, and the fall back to standard every autumn would be eliminated.

That would generally lead to an hour or more of sunlight at the end of each day — which proponents argue would help both public safety and economic productivity.

But that would also mean winter sunrises could come extremely late in some places — with daylight coming as late as 8 a.m. or 9 a.m.

Critics also argue permanent daylight savings hours would go against the human body’s natural sleep cycle — where dark evenings induce sleep and bright mornings awaken.

Some health experts say making standard time permanent would more closely follow those rhythms.

It is unclear who cast the single “Nay” in Thursday’s vote, but Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA.) raised arguments about the health impacts of permanent daylight savings time, the Hill reported.

Any changes still have a long way to go before becoming a reality, however, with Thursday’s successful vote just the first step in the process.

The bill still needs pass the full US House, and then the Senate from there to come into law.

The switch has been proposed every year since 2018, with Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) regularly proposing it with bi-partisan support — though it has never been able to pass. It briefly passed under President Nixon in 1974, but was repealed the same year by President Ford.

Quote:President Trump touted GOP-backed tax cuts in Rockland County on Friday as he credited Rep. Mike Lawler for relentlessly pushing legislation that’s helping New Yorkers hold onto their hard-earned dough.

The Queens native returned to his home state to trumpet the expansion of the SALT deduction cap to $40,000, which he jokingly claimed Lawler, a two-term Republican, was a “pain in the ass” about.

“Your SALT deduction, we brought it back,” said Trump inside an arena on Rockland Community College’s campus Friday afternoon after he was introduced by New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart.

“I cut your taxes, cut the taxes on workers, families, small business, who are the soul of this state,” Trump told a raucous crowd of supporters, stressing, “These are all Republican tax cuts. The Democrats voted against every one of these tax cuts.”

The SALT — or state and local tax deduction — cap was limited to $10,000 during the first Trump presidency, crushing homeowners in high-tax states like New York.

But Lawler — whom Trump described as “fantastic” — lobbied to expand the deduction, now at $40,000, as part of negotiations tied to the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

“He didn’t stop. This guy was a pain in the ass, it was terrible, he didn’t stop,” Trump said jokingly while calling Lawler “Mr. SALT” and pointing to a red “Mr. SALT” hat the congressman was wearing.

Lawler, a former state assemblyman, said in a speech leading up to Trump’s appearance that he wasn’t going to back down over the SALT fight.

“I said, yeah Mr. President, it would be terrible for New York, but it would be really bad for you,” Lawler recalled, as he did his best Trump impression.

“He said ‘ooh, why is that’. I said ‘because I’ll kill your bill.” And he looked at Mike Johnson and he said, ‘Mike, Mike, don’t let it happen. Get Lawler all the SALT he wants.”

The law also raised the average refund for New Yorkers to more than $3,800, White House data indicates.

“My constituents were seeing anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 refund checks, which is pretty massive,” Lawler said.

Trump’s visit to the Hudson Valley came as Lawler faces a perilous path to re-election in what’s considered a critical “toss-up” district.

But Trump said the only way to “straighten” the Empire State out was by backing Lawler and other GOP candidates, such as Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor who was also in Rockland. 

The former Manhattan businessman said wealthy people and corporations were leaving in droves for red states while New York Democrats refused to get a handle on crime and illegal migrants.

Quote:President Trump declared that “total jerk” Stephen Colbert is “finally finished” at CBS as the “Late Show” host took his final bow on Thursday.

“Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning. “You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”

Colbert had hosted the late-night program for 11 seasons — replacing David Letterman in 2015 — before the network announced it was canceling the failing series last July due to a “financial decision.”

“This show has been a joy for us to do for you,” Colbert said in his final monologue. “I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other, and how much we mean to each other.

“We love doing the show for you, but what we really love, is doing the show with you.”

The 62-year-old comedian blamed Trump for his show being axed following CBS owner Paramount’s legal settlement with the president.

Colbert has long been a critic of the commander-in-chief, and ramped up his anti-Trump jokes following the cancellation announcement.

However, Colbert steered away from political discourse during his farewell episode.

He did allow lead Trump-basher Bruce Springsteen to take jabs at the White House in Wednesday’s penultimate show.

“I’m here in support tonight for Stephen, because you’re the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we’ve got a president who can’t take a joke,” Springsteen told the crowd.

“And uh, because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want,” The Boss added, referring to the Paramount CEO and his son.

Colbert’s show had been a haven for liberal politicians and journalists to express their views against Trump.

Between 2022 and July 2025, Colbert hosted 176 left-leaning guests and only one conservative, according to a study by media watchdog NewsBusters.

Trump had ramped up his criticism of Colbert in the show’s dying weeks ahead of the series finale.

“Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success,” Trump said back in December.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard submitted her resignation Friday, citing her husband’s recent cancer diagnosis.

Gabbard, a longtime skeptic of US intervention overseas, did not mention the ongoing Iran war in the letter announcing her departure.

“Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026,” the 45-year-old wrote. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”

The former Hawaii Democratic congresswoman thanked Trump for “the trust you placed in me.”

The president, who recently fired three female cabinet secretaries — Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer — in under a month, praised the departing Gabbard in a statement.
“Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her,” he wrote.

“Her wonderful husband, Abraham, has been recently diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, and she, rightfully, wants to be with him, bringing him back to good health as they currently fight a tough battle together.”
Gabbard’s deputy, Aaron Lukas, will serve as acting director following her departure.

The news broke within minutes of the president saying he plans to remain at the White House this weekend rather than at his New Jersey golf course, fueling speculation he’s poised to resume attacks on the Islamic Republic.

Gabbard publicly remained loyal to Trump during Operation Epic Fury, testifying to the Senate in March that “the intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability.”

But she has rarely been at the forefront of the administration — with Trump often singling out and praising CIA Director John Ratcliffe for his contributions to the war effort.

Gabbard aligned with Trump on other priorities, such as punishing alleged “deep state” leakers and investigating alleged fraud in the 2020 election.

Quote:Kevin Warsh was sworn in Friday as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, taking over leadership of the world’s most powerful central bank at a moment of rising inflation fears, market jitters and ongoing concerns about the entity’s independence.

President Donald Trump said at a White House ceremony Warsh would be “totally independent”

“I want Kevin to be totally independent,” he said. “Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody.”

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas swore in Warsh, 56, whom the Senate confirmed as chair last week.

“I will lead a reform-oriented Federal Reserve, learning from past successes and mistakes, both escaping static frameworks and models and upholding clear standards of integrity and performance,” Warsh said.

He succeeds Jerome Powell, who has the option to remain on the Fed’s board through January 2028. In a break from precedent, Powell has indicated he’ll take that step after years of Trump blasting him for failing to lower interest rates quickly enough.

The transition comes as inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target and policymakers debate whether rates may need to rise again despite Trump’s long-running demands for cuts.

Bond traders are already betting Warsh may have to raise interest rates before the end of the year — a dramatic reversal from earlier Wall Street expectations that Trump’s handpicked Fed chief would usher in rapid rate cuts.

Markets sharply repriced Friday after Fed Governor Christopher Waller warned policymakers should remain open to additional tightening as inflation pressures intensify, underscoring the economic minefield Warsh inherits on day one.

The former Morgan Stanley banker has repeatedly argued the Fed kept policy too loose for too long and allowed inflation to spiral. He has also blasted the central bank’s massive bond-buying campaigns and promised to shrink the Fed’s balance sheet.

During his confirmation hearings, Warsh declared that “inflation [is] the Fed’s choice,” arguing policymakers have the tools to restrain price growth if they are willing to use them.

Warsh has been seen as more amenable to cutting rates than Powell.

Quote:An Indiana sheriff’s deputy was shot three times Friday morning in a hospital emergency room by a stranded motorist he had stopped to help and later learned might be connected to an earlier crime, authorities said.

La Porte County Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Samuelson, a 12-year veteran of the force, was airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital and remains in critical condition.

The alleged gunman, Sharod Grafton Jr., was arrested in the woods near the hospital minutes after the shooting.

Samuelson, 33, was driving to a training session around 6:45 a.m. when he stopped to help a stranded motorist, Grafton, on State Road 2, authorities said.

At some point the deputy took Grafton, a Chicago resident, to Franciscan Hospital in Michigan City at his request, police said.

“Once at the hospital, the officer learned that the subject may have been involved in an earlier criminal incident,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Glen Fifield told reporters.

“The officer returned inside the hospital where an altercation took place in the emergency room between the suspect and himself, which resulted in the suspect producing a firearm and shooting the officer.”

Authorities did not specify the crime Grafton is allegedly connected to.

Grafton fled into a nearby wooded area but was quickly arrested, authorities said. A handgun believed to have been in his possession was found, police said.

“This is a senseless shooting that didn’t have to take place,” Fifield said.

“Our officers and deputies from the La Porte County Sheriff’s Department and all over the state of Indiana and Illinois risk their lives every day. This officer thought he was helping a stranded motorist and it turned into this. So once again, he was out helping somebody and it turned into this.”

Samuelson, who is married with no children, comes from a “long lineage of law enforcement,” police said.

His grandfather was the chief of police for the city of La Porte, and his father is a retired Michigan City police officer, authorities said.

Quote:As nasty weather begins across portions of the East Coast on Thursday, your Memorial Day weekend plans could be in jeopardy due to widespread thunderstorms.

To begin the weekend, Americans along the West Coast luck out, with mild temperatures 5 to 10 degrees above average, sunny skies and dry conditions through Memorial Day.

Saturday forecast

Forecasters are predicting little to no impact on major travel hubs such as Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle to start the weekend.

Unfortunately, this weather pattern will be the opposite for portions of the Southern Plains, Southeast and Northeast US, as rounds of persistent heavy rain are expected for most of the weekend.

Over 45 million people plan to travel for the holiday, anticipating travel disruptions at major airports in New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Georgia, and New Orleans amid the unpleasant weather.

The FOX Forecast Center does not expect these widespread storms to be severe.

Still, a few strong ones could develop across the Southern Plains, as persistent heavy rain will bring a Level 2 out of 4 flash flood risk for most of the Texas Gulf Coast, including Houston and parts of southern Louisiana.
Sunday forecast

By Sunday, portions of the North and Central Plains will see dry conditions return, bringing temperatures into the low-to-mid 80s, a perfect late spring feel for this time of year.

Conditions will remain soggy and wet across the Northeast as an area of low pressure moves through Southern New England.

This could bring scattered showers, continuing the trend of possible delays in airport travel.

The Northeast will not be the only region experiencing unfavorable conditions leading into Memorial Day, with wet weather expected to persist across portions of Texas and Louisiana, bringing another Level 2 out of 5 flash flood risk.

This could bring scattered showers, continuing the trend of possible delays in airport travel.

The Northeast will not be the only region experiencing unfavorable conditions leading into Memorial Day, with wet weather expected to persist across portions of Texas and Louisiana, bringing another Level 2 out of 5 flash flood risk.

Quote:Mayor Zohran Mamdani has reportedly forged a bond with a radical anti-Israel sheikh, meeting with him multiple times in the Big Apple – despite the Muslim cleric publicly lauding Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israel for inspiring “great change” for the world.

Mamdani, a staunch critic of Israel, has met with Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani, imam of the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens — who also has a disturbing record of denying the Holocaust — at least three times since January 2025, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The meetups — the mayor’s latest in February when he celebrated Ramadan at the cleric’s Jamaica mosque — came after Al-Sahlani praised Hamas for making a “big difference” for Muslims just weeks following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

“One movement can make a great change,” the sheikh, an Iraqi native, hailed in a Nov. 3, 2023, sermon, in which he justified the terror group’s heinous attack on the Jewish state as a fight against “injustice.”

“What we are witnessing is the one movement, Hamas, has made a big difference not only for the Arab Muslim world, but the whole world. According to anybody who has a sense, who has a spirit of freedom of the people, whoever has that, will learn that Palestinians are the ones who suffer injustice.”

He went on to slam Congress for approving a $14.3 billion aid package backing Israel’s campaign against Hamas, accusing the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” and “war crimes” in Gaza.

Al-Sahlani later argued that real, lasting change would only come once more Muslims are elected to political office.

“When we have been dealt an injustice, we’re giving permission to fight back,” he said, fuming that Arabs and Palestinians have lived in an “open prison” in Israel for over 70 years.

“Now we have to stand with those who have suffered injustice. We cannot make that change unless we’re involved heavily in the political system in the United States, then maybe we can make a little bit of change.”

Mamdani — New York City’s first Muslim mayor — met with Al-Sahlani three times in 2025 before being elected, including two visits to the sheikh’s mosque in January and July, videos showed.

The pair also met during an August 2025 fundraiser on Long Island, the Free Beacon reported.

The 34-year-old democratic socialist most recently trekked to Queens to mark Ramadan in February — a month after he took office — and addressed attendees at the same podium where Al-Sahlani hurled his vile remarks.

Quote:The Trump administration announced Friday that noncitizens who have applied for a green card will be required to leave the US indefinitely in order to obtain lawful permanent resident status, in a major change to federal immigration policy.

The shift will impact some 1.2 million legal immigrants with pending green card applications for legal permanent residence, according to the Cato Institute, who will be required to “self-deport,” under the new policy.

Immigrants in the US, including the spouses of American citizens and their minor children, have previously been able to apply for the so-called “adjustment of status” from within the country.

In the 2024 fiscal year, 782,770 migrants obtained lawful permanent residency through adjustment of status.

“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Zach Kahler said in a statement.

“This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes,” Kahler added. “When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the US illegally after being denied residency.”

Under the new policy, green card petitioners will be required to wait for their application to be processed outside the country through consular processing via the State Department.

The policy is in line with the Trump administration’s position that noncitizens in the country on student, tourist or temporary work visas should not use that permission as a launching point for obtaining a green card.

“Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over,” Kahler said. “Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process.”

The new policy “frees up limited USCIS resources to focus on processing other cases that fall under its purview, including visas for victims of violent crime and human trafficking, naturalization applications, and other priorities,” according to the agency.

“The law was written this way for a reason, and despite the fact that it has been ignored for years, following it will help make our system fairer and more efficient,” the USCIS spokesman argued.

Quote:A crude oil tanker at the Port of Los Angeles doubled as a massive drug mule, carrying roughly 500 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $6.4 million, according to federal authorities.

In another major blow to international drug-smuggling operations, a Coast Guard narcotics detection canine alerted agents to suspected contraband concealed on the vessel earlier this month.

Boarding teams later confirmed the discovery of approximately 500 pounds of cocaine, the Department of Homeland Security told The California Post — some of the packages bore “Dior” branding.

“The success of this narcotics seizure is a testament to the coordinated efforts of the DHS enterprise to dismantle the efforts of drug smugglers under our respective authorities and responsibilities,” said Captain Stacey Crecy, Sector Commander at Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach.

“Through stellar coordination, we effectively detained the suspect and removed the contraband from the vessel to protect the maritime transportation system and facilitate commerce as quickly as possible,” he continued.

Following the bust, Crecy ordered the tanker held at an outer anchorage near the Port of Los Angeles as federal investigators expanded the probe.

HSI arrested one suspect, while two additional individuals were taken into custody.

“This operation highlights Homeland Security Investigations’ unwavering commitment to combating transnational crime and safeguarding the United States from illicit narcotics,” said Eddy Wang, HSI Los Angeles Special Agent in Charge, in a statement.

“HSI’s swift response and investigative expertise were instrumental in identifying and seizing over 226 kilograms of cocaine destined for our communities. We remain dedicated to pursuing those who attempt to exploit our ports and transportation systems, and to working with our partners to disrupt criminal organizations that threaten public safety,” Wang added.

The seizure is the latest in an aggressive federal campaign targeting maritime trafficking networks and so-called “ghost fleet” vessels suspected of moving embargoed oil and illegal cargo to bankroll hostile regimes and transnational criminal organizations.

Earlier this year, authorities carried out similar enforcement operations involving the Motor Tankers Bella I, Sophia, Olina, and Veronica.

Federal officials say the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remain prime targets for international cartels because the massive shipping hub handles roughly 30% of America’s international seaborne cargo.

Drug seizures at the ports occur constantly, with authorities routinely intercepting massive shipments of cocaine, fentanyl and other narcotics.

Quote:The United States has arrested the sister of the executive president of GAESA, a sprawling conglomerate of military-run businesses in Cuba, due to her alleged ties to the communist regime.

GAESA has been cited for reportedly diverting millions in aid meant for the Cuban people “at the behest of the regime,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X Thursday.

Adys Lastres Morera was taken into ICE custody after the State Department revoked her lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, according to Rubio.

Morera, who was managing real estate assets while living in Florida, reportedly aided Havana’s communist government, officials said.

Her status termination was carried out at Rubio’s discretion. Morera entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 2023, Reuters reported.

“Today, Adys Lastres Morera, a Cuban national with ties to the communist regime in Havana, was arrested following the Department of State’s termination of her lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, at my direction,” Rubio said.

Morera is the older sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, who was sanctioned earlier this month for her role as executive president of GAESA.

GAESA has been described by officials as an exploitative communist entity that siphons resources from the Cuban population.

“While the Cuban people suffer from the collapse of Cuba’s non-functioning communist economy, GAESA functions to allow a small circle of regime elites to plunder all the remaining resources of the island, squirreling away as much as $20 billion in illicit funds away in hidden overseas bank accounts,” Rubio said.

He added that Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, as a senior executive, is responsible for managing international assets allegedly used to fund the “lavish lifestyles” of the Castro-era elite, as well as supporting efforts tied to broader ideological influence abroad.

Rubio also pointed to worsening conditions inside Cuba, including widespread blackouts and severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, arguing that GAESA is diverting resources away from basic needs under the communist system.

Quote:The United States has sanctioned Tanzania’s police chief and barred him from entering the US, citing alleged human rights violations committed by the police force.

The sanctions announced Thursday followed a general election in October in which President Samia Suluhu Hassan won a full term with 97% of the vote after a crackdown on opposition figures.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in December said the country was reviewing its ties with Tanzania over repression and election violence.

Rubio said the sanctions designation against police Senior Assistant Commissioner Faustine Jackson Mafwele was based on credible information he was involved in rights violations.

“One year ago, members of the (Tanzanian police) detained, tortured, and sexually assaulted Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire and Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, who were in Dar es Salaam to observe the trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu,” he said in the statement.

The Ugandan and Kenyan activists were arrested and detained in Tanzania in May last year.

They alleged that they were tortured by Mafwele while in detention before being abandoned near the Kenya–Tanzania border.

A commission Hassan appointed to investigate postelection violence found 518 people were killed and thousands were injured.

The opposition believes the casualty figures are much higher in the first major violent protests in the East African nation in decades.

The commission’s report, released in April, recommended further investigation of police conduct during the protests, during which unarmed civilians were reportedly shot in their homes.

Quote:Numerous women who were detained in the San Francisco County Jail have accused the department of violating their rights after being subjected to a mass strip search that prosecutors said were used “for training” purposes.

Nearly 20 women have accused the San Francisco sheriff’s office of forcing them to strip naked in the county jail on May 22, 2025, and times before and after that date, while male deputies watched and cracked jokes.

The federal class action lawsuit was filed Friday in the United States District Court for Northern District of California. The suit was filed against the city and county of San Francisco, the SF County Sheriff’s Department, SF County Sheriff and several members of the department, per the complaint obtained by The Post.

The women alleged that while they were detained in the county jail, they were subjected to strip searches in front of male deputies who allegedly taunted and filmed them. Prosecutors claimed that this was not by accident and “it was deliberate,” per the complaint.

The plaintiffs include women who were strip-searched before May 22, women who were strip-searched during the mass operation on May 22, and women who were subjected to “suspicionless post-movement strip searches in the months that followed,” the complaint read.

The women claimed they were not only forced to strip naked in front of other women but that this also allegedly occurred while deputies wore body-worn cameras and recorded the searches.

“Multiple plaintiffs heard Sergeant Ibarra, the supervising officer, explicitly instruct Deputy Dockery not to deactivate her body-worn camera during the searches,” per the complaint.

“When Dockery asked whether she should turn her camera off, Ibarra said no. Ibarra later told detainees the footage might be ‘used for training purposes.’”

The complaint goes on to allege that Ibarra “told women the footage was similar to what they ‘see on YouTube’ and was ‘just like ‘Cops’” the TV show.

Quote:A Vallejo man accused of gunning down a young woman with “dreams of recording music” is now suspected in a second shooting on the very same street, and police say he remained free for weeks before officers finally tracked him down after a chase and neighborhood manhunt.

Roberto Alfonso Tamayo-Cazarez is charged with murdering 29-year-old Ceicilia Corsetti, who was shot May 1 near the intersection of Indiana and Sutter streets, just blocks from her mother’s home, according to investigators and family members.

Corsetti was rushed to a local hospital with at least one gunshot wound, but doctors were unable to save her.

Loved ones described the aspiring artist and musician as a woman with a “beautiful soul,” KRON reported.

Detectives later identified Tamayo-Cazarez as the suspect in the homicide case, and the Solano County District Attorney’s Office issued a murder warrant on May 6.

But despite the warrant, authorities said the suspect stayed on the streets for nearly two more weeks.

Then, in the early morning hours on Tuesday another victim was shot on the 600 block of Indiana Street, the same street tied to Corsetti’s killing.

Police said an adult male suffering from at least one non-life-threatening gunshot wound was driven to a hospital by a friend around 4:30 a.m.

Detectives quickly identified Tamayo-Cazarez, who was already wanted for murder, as the lead suspect in that shooting too.

Later that afternoon, officers working with a California Highway Patrol helicopter spotted Tamayo-Cazarez driving in Vallejo and attempted to stop him.

Instead of surrendering, police said he fled, triggering a pursuit through the city.

Officers eventually used tire deflation devices near Chico Street and Beverly Drive to disable the vehicle before the suspect allegedly bailed out and ran into a residential neighborhood.

Quote:Two attorneys were blasted by gunfire outside a North Carolina courthouse Friday morning.

Mary Harris and Jeffrey Whitley of the national law firm, Fox Rothschild, were shot by Raleigh resident Gwendolyn White outside the old Wake County Courthouse in Rolesville around 10:30 a.m. after she “became belligerent in court,” according  to WRAL News and Raleigh Chief of Police Rico Boyce.

The legal pair were representing the Rolesville Police Department in a court case over police-worn body camera video, court records show.

White, 57, left the courthouse, allegedly grabbed the gun from her car and sprayed bullets at the attorneys as they left the building.

Court filings indicate that the contents of the body cam video were linked to White’s mother’s death last year.

Harris’ father confirmed she underwent surgery and is currently in stable condition. Whitley’s condition remains unclear.

White was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder.

She was denied bond and will return to court on May 26, CBS17 reported.

The town of Rolesville confirmed that Fox Rothschild has represented the municpality for decades, the outlet reported.

“We are saddened to learn that two attorneys representing the Town of Rolesville in a civil matter were shot outside the Wake County Courthouse this morning. Fox Rothschild has represented the Town of Rolesville for decades, and while they are not employees of the Town, this incident is deeply disturbing,” the town said in a statement.

“We are thankful to the first responders who provided life-saving care and apprehended a suspect. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved.”

Fox Rothschild declined comment when contacted by The Post Friday night.

Quote:The 17-year-old suspect accused of launching a random shooting spree across Austin has been identified as an illegal immigrant, prosecutors revealed Tuesday.

Cristian Mondragon-Fajardo is one of three suspects who allegedly carried out 12 separate shootings across the city over the weekend, leaving three people injured and another victim in critical condition.

The two other suspects, ages 15 and 16, have not been publicly identified due to their age.

During Mondragon-Fajardo’s court appearance Tuesday, prosecutors disclosed that an ICE detainer had been issued following his arrest Sunday, according to Fox 7 Austin.

“The ICE detainer does add an extra component to his process,” Criminal Defense & Immigration Attorney Robert Jimenez said.

The development comes after a retired Austin police officer blasted the city’s left-leaning leadership, accusing the city council of embracing policies that weakened law enforcement before the violent rampage, including the stripping of key tools used by police.

Last weekend’s violent crime spree targeted the city’s first responders, with gunfire striking two Austin Fire Department stations and three fire trucks. Authorities said additional incidents included gunfire damage to five vehicles and four homes, as well as the theft of a firearm and five cars.

Mondragon-Fajardo was reportedly charged with six felonies, including two counts of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, two counts of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, theft of firearms and evading arrest in a motor vehicle.

Prosecutors said Mondragon-Fajardo is being held without bond, arguing he poses a danger to the community and could face deportation if released, the outlet said.

Quote:An Obama-appointed judge dismissed the human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday, ruling that the Justice Department’s prosecution of the El Salvadoran illegal immigrant was vindictive.

“The evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power,” Nashville District Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in his 32-page order granting Abrego Garcia’s request to dismiss the case.

Crenshaw determined prosecutors would not have brought the case alleging Abrego Garcia was part of a conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants from Texas to Maryland had his wrongful March 2025 deportation to El Salvador not been successfully challenged.

“The Court does not reach its conclusion lightly,” the judge wrote. “The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution.”

The human smuggling case against Abrego Garcia stemmed from a November 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. There were nine passengers in the car when Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding, and Tennessee Highway Patrol officers discussed their suspicions of smuggling among themselves but allowed him to continue on his way.

Crenshaw noted a federal investigation into whether Abrego Garcia was smuggling migrants when he was pulled over had been “closed” and reopened “only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights.”

“What the Government labels as ‘new evidence’ was not new as a matter of law,” the judge said. “The prosecutor’s subjective good faith does not cure the retaliatory taint.”

“Absent [Acting Attorney General Todd] Blanche’s tainted investigation … [prosecutors] would not have sought an indictment against Abrego.”

Crenshaw argued the June 2025 indictment against Abrego Garcia “provided the Executive Branch cover” to comply with a federal judge’s order to facilitate the migrant’s return to the United States after he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation violated a 2019 immigration court order granting him protection from deportation to his home country, after the judge found he faced danger there from a gang that targeted his family.

The 2019 order allowed him to live and work in the US under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision, but he was not given residency status.

Quote:The reclusive and disgraced Eric Swalwell has paid a law firm more than $313,000 so far to fend off his sexual misconduct claims, according to a recent campaign finance disclosure.

In his most recent disclosure spanning from April 19 to May 16, Swalwell’s campaign paid Sara Azari’s New York law firm in two separate payments of $250,000 and $23,251, totaling $273,251, for “campaign legal compliance.”

The payments came after he had already given her $40,000 to defend him publicly.

Swalwell, who dropped out of the gubernatorial race and resigned his seat in Congress due to the claims, has been quiet in recent weeks. His name will still appear on the June 2 primary ballot for governor, reminding voters of his temporary presence in the race.

Azari says she specializes “allegations of sexual misconduct in a post-#MeToo landscape.”

She recently gave a full-throated defense of the disgraced ex-congressman during an interview with NewsNation, saying “regret is not rape” in claiming Swalwell’s alleged victims were just ashamed by any sexual activity they engaged in with him.

“The fact that, you know, a day later, years later, or whatnot, you maybe had shame around what you did, or maybe you were in a relationship and shouldn’t have done what you did, doesn’t make it rape,” she told the network, to which she also contributes.

Quote:Parents in Minnesota were paid up to $1,500 per child if they enrolled kids for bogus treatments at two autism centers in the largest-of-its-kind fraud and money laundering scheme, the feds have alleged.

Four accused fraudsters paid parents from the local Somali community kickbacks ranging from $300 to $1,500 a month for each child they enrolled for unrequired treatments at autism clinics Smart Therapy Center and Star Autism Center, a new indictment alleges.

It’s unclear how many Minneapolis and St. Cloud area children were wrongfully listed as autistic, but it was enough during a five-year period to amass $46 million in fraudulent healthcare claims, the feds allege.

The kickbacks — referred to by the code word “computer” — were “disguised” when the defendants wrote checks to employees and family members of the facilities that were then cashed and paid to the parents each month, the filing alleges.

As part of related cases, the defendants also helped pilfer other taxpayer-funded programs to receive payments for hundreds of thousands of meals for kids at Smart Therapy — that were never fully provided, according to federal prosecutors.

The fraudsters were part of a sprawling scheme to use the stolen money to benefit themselves and their families, including buying property in Kenya and a truck, between 2019 and 2024.

Shamso Ahmed Hassan, 55, a co-owner of both Smart Therapy and Star Autism, and employee Hanaan Mursal Yusuf, 25, were charged Thursday for bilking Medicaid and state funding earmarked for autism treatment to the tune of $46.6 million — in the largest autism scheme ever, federal prosecutors alleged.

In all, $21.2 million in autism funding was paid out to just those two defendants through the fraudulent benefits claimed through Star Autism and Smart Therapy, the court papers allege, both of which lost their Minnesota state licenses earlier this year.

Asha Farhan Hassan, 28, and Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, 27, both previously took plea deals tied to their involvement in the scams at Star Autism and Smart Therapy. The duo — who are awaiting sentencing — are apparently siblings.

The new indictment against Shamso Hassan and Hanaan Yusuf — both of Brooklyn Park, Minn. — include allegations against co-conspirator 1 and 2, whose identifying details match those of Asha Hassan and Abdinajib Yussuf.

Specifically, the four schemers allegedly defrauded the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) benefits program, which is meant for services for people with autism who are under 21.

From 2018 to 2025, spending in Minnesota’s EIDBI program, which funds autism centers, rose from more than $600,000 to more $400 million, Department of Justice officials said.

Hassan and Yusuf — the lead biller at Smart Therapy — enrolled with the health department as Level II providers of autism services through the EIDBI, with Yusuf eventually upgrading to become a Level I provider on Jan. 1, 2024, the court papers claimed.

Quote:A Texas mom is suing the cops who arrested her for warning on social media how her town’s dirty drinking water has “hospitalized” citizens.

Jennifer Combs, of Trinidad, was tossed in jail earlier this month as alleged political retaliation for posting about the “serious” public health concern on Facebook — a possible freedom of speech violation, according to FOX 4.

“It was probably one of the most humiliating things I’ve ever gone through in my entire life. It was very, very bad,” she told the outlet.

Combs called her May 8 arrest for felony false alarm or report is “an extreme stretch” — considering even the city’s mayor, Dennis Haws, has admitted that residents are plagued by disgusting brown-and-yellow tap water “issues.”

“There’s people that are saying that their appliances are getting ruined, they can’t cook with the water, they can’t bathe with it, they can’t do laundry,” Combs said.

“A lot of them feel hushed, and like they don’t have a voice and no one listens to them and no one takes them seriously.”

Combs posted a Facebook message on her citizen watchdog group page, Southern Belle Watch, on April 6  — imploring those who have been sickened by the city’s tap water to report it.

“We have received reports that some citizens have been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. This is a serious public health concern that deserves immediate attention,” she wrote.

“If your water looks discolored, contains sediment, has a strong odor, or you have experienced related health issues, please send us a message. We are gathering information and reporting findings to the state.”

Following the post, Combs was arrested and Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory later doubled down on the move.

Gregory called the case  “cut and dry,” and said her claims about hospitalizations “are simply false and have only caused unnecessary fear and confusion in our community,” according to a May 10 Facebook post.

Trinidad police claimed Combs wrote “false information that creates fear, panic, or unnecessary emergency response within a community.”

The city, however, posted its own notice to residents urging them to boil their water  to “avoid harmful bacteria” on April 21 — weeks after Combs’ post.

Trinidad has suffered through a long-running water infrastructure problem with pipes dating back to the 1950s, according to the mayor.

“We have to get to a position where we can fix that infrastructure, and it’s very expensive as I’m sure you can imagine,” Haws said Tuesday.

Well, the woman's claim has been proven true by now. I guess the local authorities should now compensate her somehow for getting arrested for such a lousy reason.

Quote:Kyle Busch was lying on a bathroom floor coughing up blood the day before he died, according to a 911 call obtained by The California Post.

In the audio, a man can be heard asking for an ambulance to come to the General Motors Charlotte Technical Center in Concord, N.C. at around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday after the NASCAR star had suffered some kind of medical emergency.

“I’ve got an individual that’s shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out and is producing a little bit of blood — coughing up some blood,” the man told dispatch.

“He is awake,” the man later added. “He’s awake. He’s on the bathroom floor right now.”

The man then can be heard giving emergency medical personnel instructions for the quickest way to get to Busch when they arrive at the property.

Busch was ultimately taken to a nearby hospital with what his family called “a severe illness.”

He later died on Thursday at 41 years old.

“On behalf of the Busch family, everyone at Richard Childress Racing and all of NASCAR, we are devastated to announce the sudden and tragic passing of Kyle Busch,” NASCAR said. “Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch. A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation. He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans.”

An official cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Busch’s passing rocked the racing world, as tributes from current and former drivers poured in the hours after his death was announced.

“Kyle was one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. No one can deny that,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared on X. “But he was also a father, a husband, brother, son, and a friend to many. My heart is broken for the Busch family. I will never be able to make sense of this loss but I am thankful that we had found a way to become friends.”

“There aren’t really words for today,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrote in a statement on his social media page. “I’ve raced against Kyle for a long time, and anyone who’s lined up next to him knows exactly what made him special, he gave you everything he had, every single lap, and he made all of us better for it.

Quote:California health officials are investigating an E. coli outbreak linked to beef kofta sold at The Kebab Shop that has infected nine people, including six children, and hospitalized five victims across the state.

The California Department of Public Health said the illnesses were connected to grilled beef kofta served at locations in both Northern and Southern California.

Investigators identified the seasoned ground beef kebab as the likely source after interviewing people who became sick.

The outbreak involves a strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), with reported illness dates stretching from March 27 through April 30.

Two patients developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a dangerous complication that can trigger acute kidney failure.

No deaths have been reported.

State officials announced that The Kebab Shop voluntarily halted sales of grilled beef kofta at all locations on May 18 while cooperating with the ongoing investigation.

Health authorities said the threat is not believed to be continuing because the beef product tied to the outbreak was distributed only to The Kebab Shop.

Symptoms of STEC infection can include stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea that is often bloody.

According to officials, symptoms typically appear three to four days after exposure, though severe illness can develop in young children and other vulnerable groups.

Consumers who ate beef kofta from the popular restaurant chain and become sick within 10 days are being urged to contact a health care provider.

Officials also advised customers to throw away any leftover grilled beef kofta purchased from the chain.

The Kebab Shop addressed the outbreak in a statement posted on its website, outlining several actions taken after state investigators connected the product to the illnesses.

Quote:A leak of toxic chemicals from a massive tank at a Garden Grove aerospace facility forced evacuations to be reissued on Friday, a day after residents were first ordered out of the area.

Firefighters on Thursday afternoon responded to a vapor release from a 34,000-gallon tank containing methyl methacrylate at the site on the 12100 block of Western Avenue, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.

The industrial chemical is used in plastics and manufacturing, officials said.

The leak occurred at the GKN Aerospace plant, KABC reported.

The tank’s temperature had increased, activating a relief valve designed to safely release vapors, according to OCFA.

An overhead sprinkler system was activated to cool the tank, and vapor conditions improved as the liquid’s temperature decreased, officials said.

Firefighters also used large unmanned firefighting hoses to help cool the tank while industrial cleanup contractors assisted with the next phase of the operation, according to OCFA.

Evacuation orders were initially issued for the area north of Garden Grove Boulevard, east of Monarch Street, south of Orangewood Avenue and west of Beach Boulevard.

Rancho Alamitos High School’s gym at 113351 Dale Street in Garden Grove was established as a reunification site for evacuees.

The orders were later lifted for residential areas, though street closures remained in place on Western Avenue from Garden Grove Boulevard to Chapman Avenue and on Lampson Avenue from Santa Rosalia Avenue, according to OCFA.

Officials reissued evacuation orders Friday morning as a precaution while mitigation work continued.

The new evacuation zone covered the area north of Garden Grove Boulevard, east of Springdale Avenue, west of Dale Street and south of Orangewood Avenue, OCFA said.

A notice that appeared to be sent to Garden Grove Unified families and was posted to Reddit said several campuses would be closed Friday, though the district notice could not immediately be independently verified.

The notice said the closures were tied to “ongoing containment efforts” related to the leak and listed Pacifica High School, Rancho Alamitos High School, and several elementary and intermediate schools among the affected campuses.

The notice also said emergency responders were evacuating a mile-radius area around Chapman Avenue and Western Avenue while crews worked to safely contain the incident.

Quote:Europe is dealing with a full-blown sexual health crisis as cases of gonorrhea and syphilis skyrocket to unprecedented levels, shocking new data show.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) revealed the continent is in the grips of a dirty STI explosion not seen in over a decade.

Gonorrhea cases across Europe hiked a staggering 303% since 2015, clocking in at 106,331 painful infections, while syphilis cases more than doubled over the same period, topping more than 45,550 cases.

Spain ranks as Europe’s hotspot, racking up 37,169 gonorrhea cases and 11,556 syphilis infections in 2024, according to the BBC.

Meanwhile, congenital syphilis — where the dangerous infection passes directly from pregnant mothers to their newborns — nearly doubled in participating European countries between 2023 and 2024.

Health officials are blaming “widening gaps” in testing and lack of condom use for the nasty surge.

“These infections can cause severe complications, such as chronic pain and infertility and, in the case of syphilis, problems with the heart or nervous system,” said Bruno Ciancio, the head of the ECDC’s directly transmitted and vaccine-preventable diseases section.

“Protecting your sexual health remains straightforward. Use condoms with new or multiple partners, and get tested if you have symptoms, such as pain, discharge or an ulcer.”

Quote:WASHINGTON — The White House vowed “no dust, no dollars” for Iran on Sunday — asserting that unless the Islamic Republic gives up its enriched uranium, it will get no sanctions relief — as President Trump tapped the brakes on forecasting a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump revealed Saturday that the US and Iran were close on a memorandum of understanding that would get oil flowing again while allowing 30 days for nuclear negotiations.

The plan unleashed panic among some Republicans and Israel backers — prompting Trump officials to clarify that no deal was imminent, and that it would take at least five to seven days to finalize any agreement.

Crucially, a senior administration official stressed that Iran would gain little without fulfilling back-room pledges to surrender its enriched uranium.

“Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, Sunday — a day after saying the the deal with Iran was “largely negotiated.”

That still remains accurate, but the last details appear to be the biggest.

“95% is done, but literally changing words requires days of deliberation in their system,” the official said.

The senior source briefed reporters at least twice clarifying that the agreement wasn’t imminent and that there won’t be a repeat of Barack Obama’s infamous 2016 airlift of cash.

“No dust, no dollars — in other words, no highly enriched uranium, then the Iranians aren’t going to get any real relief,” the official told journalists in a morning briefing.

“If they do nothing, they get nothing. If they do a lot, they can actually get a lot.”

The same top Trump official declared in a Sunday afternoon briefing that “we’ll get a better deal” than Obama’s multinational Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) pact, with the new arrangement featuring “clear enforcement, or no deal.”

There will be “no pallets of cash [and] no other relief for opening the strait,” he said.

Republican senators had expressed alarm at a seeming rush to ink a deal and warned that Trump risked repeating the mistakes of the past by walking away from the three-month war without clear terms.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the potential framework a “nightmare for Israel” and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) saying he was “deeply concerned” the plan would be“a disastrous mistake.”

Quote:A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at another Russian oil terminal overnight, local officials in Russia’s Krasnodar region said Saturday, in what appeared to be the latest attack on Moscow’s vital oil industry.

Authorities in the city of Novorossiysk said falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil terminal, injuring two people.

Russia’s Astra news outlet said Ukrainian drones struck the Sheskharis oil terminal and depot, the terminus for Russian state-controlled pipeline company Transneft’s main oil pipelines in the region.

Images posted by Astra appeared to show smoke rising above the oil terminal, but they could not be verified.

On Saturday afternoon, Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had struck the Sheskharis oil terminal overnight.

“The facility provides shipment of oil and oil products for export and is involved in meeting the needs of the Russian army,” the General Staff wrote on Telegram, adding that Ukrainian forces had also hit a tanker in the Black Sea belonging to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.”

Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically to battle Russia’s four-year-old invasion.

Attacks on Russian oil assets that play a key part in funding the invasion have become almost daily occurrences.

Meanwhile, the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike overnight into Friday on a college dormitory building in Starobilsk, a city in Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Luhansk region, rose to 18, the press service of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said.

Quote:Russia launched a massive aerial assault on Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv and injuring scores more, as President Volodymyr Zelensky reported Moscow had used the powerful, rarely- deployed Oreshnik hypersonic missile.

Zelensky said the missile struck near the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region as part of a sprawling overnight barrage that included around 600 drones and 90 missiles launched from air, sea, and ground platforms. He did not say what the target was.

Air defenses intercepted most incoming strikes, but damage was recorded across at least 40 locations around Kyiv including near government offices, residential buildings, and schools.

Russia's Defence Ministry later on Sunday also confirmed it had used the new missile system which it says can evade conventional air defences.

Widespread Damage

Explosions were heard across the city on Sunday as air raid sirens sounded through the night and continued into the morning.

“It was a terrible night, and there had never been anything like it in the entire war," said Kyiv resident Svitlana Onofryichuk, 55, who has worked in a market that was damaged for 22 years.

“I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now, I am not staying there anymore, there is no possibility," she added. “My job is gone, everything is gone, everything has burned down.”

Damage was reported across multiple districts of the capital, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, in a post on Telegram.

Quote:A crazed gunman who believed he was Jesus Christ pulled out a revolver and opened fire outside the White House Saturday night, before he was quickly taken down by a barrage of shots from the Secret Service, sources said.

Nasire Best, 21, fired at a checkpoint at about 6:10 p.m. after being seen pacing in a strange manner up and down 17th St. Northwest, sources told The Post. He only got off a few shots before he was shot and killed in a hail of bullets from federal officers.

At least one bystander was hit and seriously wounded in the fusillade, the sources said.

While a motive for the attack hasn’t been confirmed, sources said Best is a mentally troubled individual who was well-known to the Secret Service for repeatedly loitering around various entry posts and who has violated a previous court order to stay away from the White House.

“FBI is on the scene and supporting Secret Service responding to shots fired near White House grounds – we will update the public as we’re able,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.

The sound of shots from the incident terrifed members of the press who were doing their normal reporting at the White House, including one ABC reporter who was seen diving for cover during a live stream.

“I was in the middle of taping on my iPhone for a social video from the White House North Lawn when we heard the shots,” said Selina Wang, a senior ABC White House correspondent.

“It sounded like dozens of gunshots. We were told to sprint to the press briefing room where we are holding now.”

Secret Service quickly put the White House on lockdown and told reporters to gather on the north lawn and to run into the press briefing room. After about half an hour, the lockdown was lifted. The shots rang out a little less than two hours after President Trump announced on Truth Social that he was in the Oval Office working on a peace deal with Iran.

Best, who was taken down by members of the Secret Service Uniformed Division, had previously been involuntarily committed on June 26 for obstructing vehicular traffic at 15th Street and E Street NW, before being arrested again on July 10 for Unlawful Entry.

Quote:President Trump on Sunday claimed the crazed gunman who opened fire outside the White House had a “possible obsession” with the Executive Mansion as he praised the Secret Service and law enforcement.

“Thank you to our great Secret Service and Law Enforcement for the swift and professional action taken this evening against a gunman near the White House, who had a violent history and possible obsession with our Country’s most cherished structure,” the president wrote on Truth Social just after midnight.

“The gunman is dead after an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service Agents near the White House gates.”

Nasire Best, 21, armed with a revolver, walked up to a security checkpoint near the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue when he opened fire at about 6:10 p.m.

Best fired off several shots before he was taken down by fast-acting agents stationed at one of the various checkpoints on the perimeter of the White House complex.

Best, who believed he was Jesus Christ, was well known by the Secret Service for repeatedly loitering around various entry posts and had violated a previous court order to stay away from the White House.

He was busted back in July 2025 when he attempted to cross a White House checkpoint without authorization, failing to listen to officers’ orders and claiming he was Jesus Christ as he begged to be arrested, the Associated Press reported.

Quote:WASHINGTON — US officials are discussing possible ways for Iran to dispose of its highly enriched uranium without directly handing it off to Washington, The Post has learned.

An initial memorandum of understanding, which could be finalized by the end of this week, would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and confirm an agreement in principle by Tehran to cease future nuclear enrichment. A tense second round of talks would then focus on dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.

One option floated inside the Trump administration would have Iran deliver its roughly 1,000 pounds of near-weapons-grade uranium to Pakistan, Turkey, Russia or China — for possible onward transfer to the US, a national security official said Monday.

“We are trying to land on language that allows both sides to save face, and that’s how deals like this are done,” this person explained.

“The president would still ideally like it to eventually wind up with the United States, but there are interim options being discussed as well. [And] they could turn into permanent options.”

A second option under discussion would allow Iran to heavily dilute and keep the uranium — under the theory that its refinement facilities are so badly damaged by Operation Epic Fury that further enrichment would be impossible without detection.

The dilution option would require strict international oversight, which itself would be subject to additional negotiation.

“This is one of the things that is going to be worked out in the second track,” the official said.

“I don’t think they want to hand it over — [and] the biggest thing is they don’t want to hand it over to the United States directly.”

The insider added that “it is likely that the first part of the deal is done here soon, but the longer negotiations go on, the more likely you will have outside spoilers try to undermine the agreement.”

White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said: “Anything attributed to unnamed, anonymous, and uninformed sources who are not part of the inner circle who actually know what’s going on should be considered baseless speculation — all announcements regarding a potential deal will come from the President or administration directly.”

Shortly after this article was published, Trump effectively confirmed The Post’s reporting in a social media post.

“The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event,” Trump wrote.

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump mourned the deaths of 13 military service members in the ongoing war with Iran as part of his Memorial Day remembrance Monday — with one bereaved family in attendance for his remarks at Arlington National Cemetery.

“These incredible men and women gave their lives to ensure that the world’s number one state sponsor of terror will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said moments after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“Oh, and they won’t. They will never have a nuclear weapon. I’m sure you know that one.”

Trump then called out to the family of Air Force Capt. Ariana Savino, 31, of Covington, Wash. — who died in the March 12 crash of a KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft over Iraq — asking them to stand for applause.

“In two wars recently, we’ve lost a total of 13 service members,” he said.

“In Venezuela, which was a complete and total victory … we took that over in one day, lost no one. In Operation Epic Fury, we lost 13 wonderful souls — wonderful, special people.”

The president announced Saturday that a “largely negotiated” memorandum of understanding with Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping while leaving nuclear terms for a second phase of talks.

Administration officials clarified Sunday that an initial deal was likely to be at least five to seven days away, with Trump himself releasing a statement saying: “Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that he was ready “to assure the world that we are not after a nuclear weapon” — although Tehran has long made that claim while refining uranium to near-weapons grade.

Trump is facing pushback from some Republicans in Congress who fear that he may end the three-month war without permanently ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Underage WWII vet ‘among the last’

Trump also led a round of applause Monday for a 97-year-old Battle of the Bulge veteran who fought against Nazi Germany’s last major counteroffensive in World War II.

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump kicked off Memorial Day on Monday by bashing “all of the Dumocrats, RINOS, and Fools who know nothing about the potential deal I am making with Iran.”

“Happy Memorial Day to all, including the Dumocrats, who disrespect our Military and all of the tremendous success that it has had over the last year. God Bless those that have made the ultimate sacrifice. I love you all!” Trump posted on Truth Social at 6:18 a.m. ET.

The president has made a habit of attacking his political enemies in social media posts marking national holidays throughout his two terms in office, and Monday proved to be no exception.

Earlier, Trump vented that critics of talks with Iran “should go home and rest, they do nothing but create division and loss. In other words, they are losers!”

Discussions with Tehran had dominated Trump’s weekend as his team scrambled to see if it could get a deal over the finish line. An initial framework for negotiations could be agreed to in days, according to US officials, though the president later clarified that he had instructed his team not to “rush” into anything.

“I laugh at all of the Dumocrats, RINOS, and Fools who know nothing about the potential deal I am making with Iran, things that haven’t even been negotiated yet,” Trump seethed on Truth Social before gloating over recent primary defeats of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

“The deal with Iran will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal,” he continued. “It will be the exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster negotiated by the failed Obama Administration.”

The rumored framework had rattled GOP hawks, who fretted that it would be too soft on Iran, while some Democrats needled Trump by suggesting that the framework was similar to the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Trump pulled the US out of that 2015 nuclear agreement during his first time.

The White House is “confident” that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has signed off on the “broad template” for a peace plan, including agreeing “in principle” to disposing of the Islamic Republic’s enriched uranium, a senior official said Sunday.

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump claimed Monday that he had demanded the leaders of six Muslim nations join the Abraham Accords if they want to be part of the Iran nuclear deal, which he said is “proceeding nicely!”

The president said he told the heads of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and Jordan during a Saturday call that he wants those countries to normalize relations with Israel by agreeing to the 2020 US-brokered accords. Also included on the call were the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which are already signatories to the accords.

“I stated that, after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together,  it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Trump recounted on Truth Social in a Memorial Day post.

The UAE and Bahrain were the first two nations to sign on to the Abraham Accords in September 2020, later joined by Morocco that December and Sudan the following January.

“It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be,” added Trump, saying that he was “mandatorily requesting” the concession.

“If they don’t, they should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention.”

Trump even suggested that Iran could join the Abraham Accords, which would amount to an extraordinary breakthrough given nearly five decades of hostilities between Tehran and Jerusalem. It was not immediately clear whether Israel would accept normalizing relations with the Islamic Republic.

“In speaking to numerous of the Great Leaders mentioned above, they would be honored, as soon as our Document is signed, to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. Wow, now that would be something special!” Trump declared in the post.

“[I]f Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition.”

Throughout his presidency, Trump has sought to push Saudi Arabia into normalizing relations with Israel, reportedly having tense discussions about the topic last year with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Saudis and other Arab nations have insisted that the Palestinian issue be resolved before full normalization with Israel can be achieved.

Before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Jewish state, the Saudi crown prince repeatedly signaled that his country was moving in that direction.

But Israel’s ground war in Gaza has inflamed tensions with the Jewish state’s Arab neighbors.

The Trump administration is trying to iron out a “broad template” of a peace plan with Iran, with a senior official claiming Sunday the sides were about 95% of the way there.

Quote:WASHINGTON — GOP Sen. Thom Tillis ripped Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Sunday, saying he gave President Trump bad advice on Iran and makes disastrous ex-cabinet member Kristi Noem look like “a five-star recruit.”

The retiring North Carolina pol and member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee blasted the Pentagon chief for allegedly overstating America’s military successes against Iran in the early stages of the war and for stopping a troop deployment to Poland, something Trump ended up reversing.

“When you tell the president that you have obliterated Iran and you’re in a position to pretty much dictate terms, and now you see what we have,” there’s an issue, said Tillis on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“When you see Hegseth pull back on operations in Poland when Ukraine — when Russia is raping, killing, murdering, torturing countless people in Ukraine — I think, with all these mistakes in total, it’s beginning to make Kristi Noem look like a five-star recruit,” he added, referring to the former Homeland Security secretary who spectacularly flamed out as her hubby’s cross-dressing “bimbo” fetish was revealed.

Hegseth had been one of the most fervent backers of Operation Epic Fury attacks against Iran.

Yet despite him touting the US decimating Iran’s missile stockpile and other key military assets, Tehran managed to inflict considerable economic pain by wreaking havoc in the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil once flowed annually.

To effectively shut down the critical waterway, Iran has planted mines and used drone attacks to scare off ships from crossing it. The US has responded with a blockade of Iran’s ports.

As the deadly conflict drags on, multiple lawmakers have expressed concerns about US stockpiles of critical firepower, including Patriot interceptors and Tomahawk missiles.

“We were told about 11 weeks ago by Hegseth and Department of Defense that they had obliterated Iran’s defenses and it was just a matter of time before we had the nuclear material,” Tillis complained.

“Now we are talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran? How does that make sense at all?”

Quote:The United States has conducted "self-defense" strikes in southern Iran on Monday, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian vessels trying to establish mines, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

In a statement to Newsweek, Captain Tim Hawkins, CENTCOM spokesman, said, "U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces. Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines.

"U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire," the statement concluded.

The strikes come as President Donald Trump said Monday on Truth Social that negotiations with Iran are "proceeding nicely!"

Trump added in part, "It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!" He also said that certain countries in the Middle East should "sign onto the Abraham Accords," citing work done by the United States "to try and pull this very complex puzzle together."

Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, posted on X Monday, saying in a translated post: "During the military war, our tactic was an eye for an eye; in the diplomatic war, it is action against action. Do not believe the bluff of the failed president; time is against the Americans. If they want an agreement, they should negotiate; if they want $6 gas, they should stand firm and bluff until the grass grows under their feet. Iran does not bow to force or threats."

Quote:A Kremlin propagandist has suggested that it is better the devil you know as he predicted election wipeout for Donald Trump in the U.S. midterms but warned that whoever replaces the U.S. president, such as Marco Rubio, could in fact be worse for Russia.

Russian state television pundits have had a complicated relationship with the Trump presidency, initially hailing his return to the White House as a boost for the Kremlin, given his ties with Vladimir Putin.

While not necessarily reflecting Kremlin thinking, Russian state TV coverage can be positive when Trump undermines Ukraine, marginalizes Europe, or pushes Russian narratives about NATO expansion but can be critical when he threatens Russia directly or boasts about American military superiority.

Political analyst Rafael Ordukhanyan, who specializes in American politics, told the show One’s Own Truth on the NTV channel that the mood music following this month’s statewide elections in New Jersey, Louisiana and California, in which the GOP suffered defeats, pointed toward a faltering Trump administration ahead of November’s ballots.

"Look at what is happening in the U.S.," he said in the clip posted by Russia watcher Julia Davis from the Russian Media Monitor, "elections have started and we can already see that the results clearly won’t be in Trump’s favor."

"We can expert a new person, an utterly Russophobic Rubio due to his family traditions," he added, referring to the U.S. secretary of state. The anchor Roman Babayan chimed in and took a swipe at Rubio’s Cuban roots in which his family fled the Castro regime ruling Moscow's Caribbean ally. "The communists have taken everything from him," Babayan said, laughing.

Ordukhanyan continued: "In this case in two years, a totally different group of people will come to power, believe me, we won’t like it at all."

Trump has diminished U.S. support for Kyiv's fight against Russian aggression and tried to reinstate ties with Moscow after years of deterioration under Joe Biden. Ordukhanyan suggested that it was unclear what a new White House administration would mean for the war or for Moscow more generally and that the Russian government now has two years "to solve our problems."

Quote:At least eight people have been killed in missile and drone attacks on Russian ‌and Ukrainian territory in the past 24 hours, local authorities on both sides said on Monday, with damage reported to energy infrastructure in Russia’s Belgorod region.

The strikes follow one of the heaviest Russian bombardments of Kyiv since the start of the four-year war, after Moscow vowed on Saturday to retaliate for what it described as a deliberate drone strike on a student dorm in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region.

Ukraine’s military denied the Russian ⁠accusations and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area.

Since then, four people, including two teenagers, have been killed in the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian town of Horlivka, its mayor Ivan Prikhodko said on Monday on Telegram, blaming Ukrainian armed aggression.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, one man was killed and another injured in a missile and drone attack that also cut power and water supplies, local authorities said on Telegram.

Attacks across Ukraine

In Ukraine, two people were killed and 16 wounded in Russian shelling, missile, and drone attacks in the southern Kherson region over the past 24 hours, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram on Monday.

In another attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s ‌second biggest ⁠city, one person was killed and two were injured.

The regional governor said that according to preliminary information, Russia carried out a missile attack on the town of Derhachi, just outside the city.

A further eight people were wounded, including a six-year-old boy, in the southeastern Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said in separate Telegram posts.

Quote:Ukraine’s first McDonald’s was left battered — with its golden arches melting off its building — but still operating after devastating overnight Russian strikes that killed at least four people and injured dozens.

The marble walls and pillars of the fast-food eatery, which opened in Kyiv in 1997, were riddled with holes, while some of its windows were shattered from the deadly attack.

Footage showed the restaurant’s signature arches and white “McDonald’s” sign also melting from the onslaught, according to Ukrainian media.

But the Kukyanviska McDonald’s was still standing tall after the assault — reportedly the sixth it’s withstood since the war began in February 2022.

The Kremlin unleashed hundreds of drones and missiles in its latest hourslong barrage on Kyiv, including an Oreshnik hypersonic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads fired toward the capital, according to Ukrainian officials.

There was no indication the Oreshnik missile was equipped with a nuclear warhead.

The attack killed at least four people, injured nearly 100 civilians and damaged dozens of residential and commercial buildings and schools in the city center.

Local reports said the air reeked of burning plastic and building materials after the relentless onslaught.

Several people also were reported dead in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine from Ukrainian attacks, according to Moscow authorities Monday.

“It’s important that this does not remain without consequences for Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram, urging his country’s allies to take action.

“Decisions are needed – from the United States, from Europe and others,” Zelensky said.

Quote:The federal government overpaid welfare and social services recipients by a stunning $186 billion in fiscal year 2025, a startling surge of $24 billion from the previous year’s total.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 15 federal agencies made up the massive improper payments overage spanning 64 programs, with approximately 82% of the overages the result of overpayments.

And these are just the mistakes that the government caught — usually not outright fraud, like the billions alleged in Minnesota.

The GAO’s analysis comes as a fraudtask force helmed by Vice President JD Vance seeks to apply pressure to states, including New York, to root out the sources of fraud or risk losing federal funding.

Medicare was responsible for the largest share of overpayments, according to GAO’s analysis, coming in at $57 billion.

Medicare — the second largest government program after Social Security — has a budget of nearly $1.1 trillion.

Medicaid mistakes cost $37 billion, while the government doled out $21 billion for the Earned Income Tax Credit to people who didn’t deserve it.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — food stamps — received $10 billion more than they should have.

The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program, a pandemic-era program that provided billions in emergency COVID-19 relief for certain live venues, museums and movie theaters also got $10 billion too much.

The remaining 59 programs combined made up $51 billion in improper payments.

The issue has long dogged the federal government, with GAO putting the total overpaid since 2003 at a staggering $3 trillion — though the agency says the actual total could be much higher.

The figure includes a dramatic uptick during the pandemic years of 2020-2023, when new programs were quickly developed and existing programs were rapidly expanded, leading to a significantly greater risk of fraud and improper payments, Kristen Kociolek, managing director of GAO’s Financial Management and Assurance team told the Washington Times.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been criss-crossing the country on a national tour, huddling with Dem powerbrokers and taking other steps that many seeking the presidency pursue — all while insisting she isn’t focused on the White House.

During the 2026 midterm primary season, Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has worked to boost lefty candidates in the Democratic Party, building critical connections that could come in handy next year as a 2028 decision looms.

“They assume that my ambition is positional,” she told famed Obama strategist David Axelrod earlier this month, ducking a question about whether she will seek the presidency.

“They assume that my ambition is a title or seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country,” she went on. “Presidents come and go. Senate [and] House seats, elected officials come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever.”

Over the past month, the Bronx and Queens rep has swung through Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, and more as part of her crusade to boost progressive causes.

Those trips have given her the chance to workshop her messaging strategy and make inroads with key constituencies who may be valuable later on in a presidential primary.

Recently, she stumped for Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb (D), a self-styled democratic socialist, in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. Rabb later won the Democratic nod.

Ocasio-Cortez also traveled to Montgomery, Ala. to rally for voting rights, spoke at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and fired off more endorsements in contests across America.

This week, she will roll through Montana to back candidate smokejumper Sam Forstag in his congressional race.

Quote:WASHINGTON — “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar dismissed a proposed constitutional amendment championed by right-wing Rep. Nancy Mace that would bar foreign-born politicians from election to Congress.

Omar (D-Minn.), who was born in Somalia but became a US citizen in 2000, seemed unfazed, telling Fox News Digital when asked about the measure last week: “Good luck to her.”

Mace and Omar have long had an acriminous relationship. The South Carolinian has unveiled multiple measures targeting Omar, including an unsuccessful motion in the House Oversight Committee earlier this year to subpoena the Minnesota rep’s family records to explore unproven accusations that she married her brother.

Mace (R-SC) unveiled her proposed amendment last week. It would also bar foreign-born individuals from becoming federal judges or Senate-confirmed administration officials.

Currently, only American presidents and vice presidents are constitutionally required to be natural-born citizens.

Mace singled out Omar and two of her Democratic colleagues in the House while rolling out the proposal.

“Ilhan Omar. Shri Thanedar. Pramila Jayapal,” she posted on X. “All born in foreign countries, none were citizens by birth. All sitting in the United States Congress. All making clear every single day their loyalty is not to America.”

Currently, 19 Democrats and seven Republicans in the House of Representatives were born overseas. Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Thanadar (D-Mich.) were both born in India.

“If you hold power in the American government, you should be a natural-born American citizen,” Mace told the outlet in a statement. “For too long we have allowed foreign-born members to hold seats in this government, while making clear their loyalty is not here. We see it every day.”

A constitutional amendment hasn’t been approved since the 27th Amendment was enacted in 1992, restricting Congress from making changes to its salaries until after the following House election.

A proposed amendment must receive two-thirds approval in the House and Senate, then be ratified by 38 of the 50 state legislatures.

Last week, Vice President JD Vance indicated to reporters that Omar is facing some sort of investigation related to her immigration status.

Omar denied that claim, telling Fox News Digital: “That is not something that is happening. That man is delusional.”

Quote:WASHINGTON — Far-left streamer Hasan Piker has been visibly rattled by the federal investigation into whether his jaunt to Cuba back in March violated US sanctions.

“This is not great,” Piker bluntly told his audience about the probe Sunday. “I mean it’s bulls—, but still not great that they’re after your boy. They’re up my ass.”

“Yeah, free me. Free me,” the 34-year-old riffed in response to a comment that flashed on his feed. “I can’t believe I’m saying that. But I’m about to be seemingly made an example of.”

Over the weekend, Fox News reported that the feds subpoenaed Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin over their trip to the Communist island 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

Left-wing Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) added salt to Piker’s wounds by reposting a mocking video needling him for declining to vote for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

“I mean Kamala would have never,” Threads user TalkUrShxxtNene chided Piker in the video, to which Crockett reacted with sideye emojis. “That’s what you get for telling people to vote third party or not vote at all.”

Piker and Benjamin were two of more than three dozen individuals under investigation by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The subpoenas for communications and other relevant documents came in response to an online rumor that Piker and his comrades stayed at a US-sanctioned hotel in Havana. Participants in the trip have denied that rumor.

The Treasury Department declined to comment when asked by The Post about the investigation.

The Treasury’s Cuban Assets Control Regulations place tight restrictions on dealings with Cuba, particularly regarding certain hotels and other businesses that have direct ties to the government.

There are carveouts for humanitarian initiatives, as well as journalism, education, and similar ventures.

Piker was among hundreds of lefties who joined the “Nuestra America Convoy,” featuring socialists from Europe and North America, who traveled to Cuba under the pretense of distributing humanitarian aid.

Quote:WASHINGTON — The heroic, Purple Heart-winning Army veteran, who US Senate hopeful Graham Platner sneered in a screed on his burner Reddit account didn’t deserve to live, tore into the Democrats for continuing to back the Maine candidate.

Pfc. Ted Daniels, who captured viral helmet footage of himself moving into open terrain to draw Taliban fire away from his squad in 2012, said Democrats backing Platner owe his children an apology.

“I’m very thick-skinned, and he said it,” Daniels told The Post. “I don’t want an apology, and any apology from him [Graham] at this point would definitely not be sincere.”

“What I’d really like is for [Sen.] Elizabeth Warren, [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer, [Sen.] Bernie Sanders, [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries, and everybody else on the far left to tell my children to their face that they are endorsing and supporting a man who said that their father should have not lived. Cheering on the death of their father.”

Daniels had gone viral in 2012 over heart-pounding footage of himself out in the open on a ridge in Afghanistan with bullets flying all around him, trying to create an opening for his seven fellow soldiers.

At the time, he was a 37-year-old father of two children.

Ultimately, he was hit four times, but all members of his squad survived the chilling firefight. Later, he was awarded the Purple Heart for sustaining injuries.

About seven years ago, Platner, a Marine veteran, sneered at Daniels from his “P-Hustle” Reddit account.

“This video never gets old. Dumb mother—er didn’t deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt,” Platner, then a 34-year-old, chided on his burner Reddit account.

The Post has verified Platner’s remarks using Pull Push. Platner has mass-deleted his Reddit account history. The Post reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.

Daniels, who ran for Congress and later for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor as a Republican years ago, tore into Platner for his attacks against the late “American Sniper” Chris Kyle and Vice President JD Vance over their military service.

Quote:The worst fears around an unstable, increasingly high-temperature chemical plant in Orange County will fortunately not come to pass, fire officials announced Monday.

The Orange County Fire Authority said the threat of a massive chemical explosion has been “eliminated.”

“The BLEVE is off the table,” officials said, using the acronym for “boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.”

There had been worries that a rupture in the container filled with methyl methacrylate, as temperatures increased, could result in a devastating explosion as one of the possible scenarios.

Methyl methacrylate, which is highly flammable and used to make plastics, has a low boiling point, so it can easily overheat and turn to gas. Firefighters had been spraying water in an attempt to lower the temperature, now at 93 degrees.

“That is incredible positive news as we turn the corner of this incident,” OCFA division chief Craig Covey said in ruling out an explosion.

A crack that appeared on the chemical tank gave hope that internal pressure would eventually release and avert the threat of an explosion. Officials had done an overnight operation “to confirm that the pressure in the tank has been released.”

Despite the good news, there is still the potential that about 7,000 gallons of the chemical could spill out into the streets.

Evacuation orders remain in place during this five-day-and-counting crisis for 50,000 people living in Garden Grove, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.

Four shelters for evacuees were full as of Monday morning, according to the city of Garden Grove, while three have space available.

The crisis has prompted extreme worries for officials, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who pleaded with President Trump to issue a federal emergency declaration to bring in more support.

Quote:President Trump granted a federal emergency declaration Monday after Gov. Gavin Newsom and California officials spent days warning that a dangerous chemical leak in Garden Grove was at risk of spiraling into a catastrophic explosion.

Trump’s approval of a federal emergency declaration unlocks assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as hundreds of emergency workers continue to battle the hazardous materials crisis in Orange County. Roughly 50,000 people were forced to evacuate the area.

The jockeying for credit was in full swing Monday as Newsom’s office put out a press release touting its quick actions to address the potential disaster.

“California didn’t wait for this situation to escalate — we moved early, aggressively, and in close partnership with local responders to protect lives and support impacted communities,” Newsom said in a statement.

“We are grateful for the federal government approving our request and helping strengthen the resources already on the ground to help this community recover safely.”

The declaration comes after Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency Friday and formally requested federal support as local officials warned that a damaged methyl methacrylate tank posed a potentially massive public safety threat.

Overnight, the Orange County Fire Authority announced that crews had successfully reduced the immediate danger of a large-scale explosion — a major breakthrough after days of emergency operations around the industrial site.

Officials cautioned, however, that evacuation orders remain in effect as environmental and public health risks are still being monitored.

More than 785 state and local emergency personnel have been mobilized during the response, including firefighters, hazardous materials experts, environmental scientists, transportation crews, law enforcement officers and public health officials working around the clock.

The emergency response escalated rapidly over the weekend after officials warned that instability involving the chemical tank could trigger a devastating blast in the heavily populated area surrounding the site.

Authorities ordered evacuations near the incident and repeatedly urged residents to stay away from the area while emergency crews worked to stabilize conditions.

Quote:Los Angeles firefighters have broken ranks to tear into Mayor Karen Bass over the disastrous state of the department across the city.

Officers revealed to the California Post they are trapped in marathon shifts, missing paychecks and going through hell while its budget flatlines despite rising risks of wildfires.

They warned response times are climbing and emergency callouts are exploding but City Hall was refusing to pump in desperately needed cash.

Fire crews are now pooling together more than $1 million of their own cash to push for a sales tax measure they claim would cover just the basics to keep the department running.

Rich Ramirez, vice president of UFLAC Local 112 and a firefighter paramedic, told The Post: “We don’t have relief. We can’t just shut something down and tell residents no one is coming. So you stay.

“You can go from doing CPR on a child to a traffic crash, cutting someone out of a car, then straight to a drowning. That all happens in a single 24-hour shift.”

Firefighters describe 48-hour tours that spiral longer, with mandated overtime keeping some on duty up to 120 hours in high-intensity conditions.

Doug Coates, president of UFLAC Local 112 and a firefighter engineer, continued: “You think you’re going home, and they tell you you’re staying. You miss birthdays, you miss your family.”

Even as overtime piles up, some firefighters say they are still fighting just to be paid, with missed checks and delayed wages adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for crew members.

Quote:The police chief of a small town in Lake County, Indiana – where his dad is running for the high-profile position of sheriff – was arrested on a slew of misconduct charges over the weekend after feds raided his home and found a trove of guns and steroids, according to reports.

New Chicago Police Chief Earl Mayo was charged Sunday with misconduct, obstruction of justice, theft and unlawful possession of an anabolic steroid – a synthetic derivative of testosterone – following his arrest in Clark County, Ohio, around 6 p.m. Friday.

Earlier that day, county police and federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had executed search warrants at Mayo’s Merrillville, Indiana, residence – where more than 100 guns were seized, local news outlet NWI Times reported, citing sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Mayo was taken into custody in Ohio and is expected to be extradited back to Lake County, where the criminal charges were filed. It’s unclear why he had crossed state lines ahead of his arrest.

His former police jurisdiction was taken over by state law enforcement Friday.

“The Lake County Sheriff’s Department has taken responsibility over all New Chicago police services,” Sheriff Oscar Martinez reportedly said, adding that there was “no need for the citizens of New Chicago to worry” about a lack in law enforcement.

New Chicago, which covers less than one square mile west of Lake Station, is home to roughly 2,000 people.

Mayo’s father, Indiana State Police Major Jerry Williams – who recently won the Lake County Democratic primary and will be the party’s sheriff nominee in the November election – said he and his wife were “deeply concerned” about their son’s arrest in a statement released Saturday.

Quote:Roughly a dozen hikers have reportedly fallen ill with a nasty stomach bug after traversing a section of the scenic Pacific Crest Trail.

The popular hiking destination spans more than 2,600 miles and goes from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington.

The Pacific Crest Trail Association acknowledged reports of “gastrointestinal illness” in the Wrightwood area of the hike, writing in an Instagram post on Thursday that they are working with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health to asses the situation.

“Illnesses like norovirus or other communicable diseases are serious issues, people should prioritize their health and safety,” Chris Rylee, the director of communications, told SFGATE in a statement. “We sincerely wish for all affected hikers a speedy recovery and the chance to get back to the trail.”

A reddit page dedicated to the Pacific Crest Trail said there is an “outbreak” of norovirus — a highly contagious stomach illness that can cause sudden and severe vomiting and diarrhea.

Over the past two weeks, there have been “7-12 confirmed” cases in and around Wrightwood, with one hiker even having to be airlifted to a hospital for medical attention, according to the Reddit post.

“Since Sunday, there have been approximately 2 dozen hikers who’ve had symptoms and 7 who were seen and diagnosed with Noro by medical professionals,” the post read.

The first cases of the virus started popping up the around May 8, according to SFGATE.

When 73-year-old Ron Hals settled into his camp in the Wrightwood area on the night of May 14, he told the paper that he has “never been that weak” and was so ill that he struggled to even leave his tent.

Hals, who planning to hike the first 1,000 miles of the trail as a personal challenge after his wife died, called 911 and was ultimately airlifted out to receive further medical attention.

“My emotions were very much on the surface, and I admit that I cried because I didn’t want to go,” Hals, who was later diagnosed with norovirus, told the paper. “But I knew that these people had risked their lives to come find me, and I couldn’t just tell them to go away.”

While its unclear how the outbreak started, some cases appeared to have originated near a water cache in Swarthout Valley between Cajon Pass and Mount Baden-Powell, according to the outlet.

The Reddit page urged hikers to practice good hygiene to avoid catching the virus, including washing hands and drinking from sealed water bottles.

Quote:The owner of a heavily decorated pro-Trump home in Southern California has died days after he was beaten to a pulp allegedly by a Navy veteran.

Kerry Sheron, a 69-year-old Army veteran known locally for covering his residence with MAGA banners and American flags, died Sunday night after nearly a week hospitalized in critical condition.

The attack happened May 20 outside Sheron’s home in Escondido, police said.

Prosecutors allege 32-year-old Thomas Caleb Butler attacked Sheron in what officials described as an unprovoked assault.

Butler, who has been described in local reports as a Navy veteran, has pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted murder, elder abuse, criminal threats and battery.

Deputy District Attorney Ross Garcia previously told the court that Sheron suffered catastrophic injuries during the incident.

“It was a single punch to the jaw,” Garcia said. “The victim then falls to the floor, and there are subsequent hits to the victim’s head area.”

Security footage obtained by local media allegedly showed Sheron standing outside his Buchanan Street home before the suspect approached and attacked him. A nearby witness reportedly attempted to intervene before the suspect fled the area on foot.

Police later located Butler nearby and took him into custody shortly after the incident, according to investigators.

In the days before Sheron’s death, his wife Maria gave an emotional update, telling reporters there was “no hope” for her husband as he remained hospitalized with devastating injuries.

She also said the family had been preparing for the worst after doctors warned that Sheron’s condition had rapidly deteriorated due to severe head trauma.

Photos published after the assault appeared to show Sheron bruised, bandaged and connected to medical equipment inside his hospital room.

Authorities said Butler remains jailed without bail. Prosecutors indicated the charges could now be upgraded following Sheron’s death.

He is expected to be formally re-arraigned as early as this week, with homicide-related charges now under consideration, officials said.

Investigators have not publicly identified a motive and said it remains unclear whether the two men knew each other before the confrontation.

Quote:Five-time heavyweight boxing champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. is taking a swing at an ex-con major donor to former Mayor Bill de Blasio over an alleged $175 million fraud scheme involving jewels and a secret jet sale.

The superstar pugilist claims in a new Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that Jona Rechnitz — an ex-mayoral donor who once tried to bribe NYPD cops with hookers — orchestrated “a multi-year fraudulent scheme” involving real estate, jewelry and his beloved Gulfstream Jet famously emblazoned with “MAYWEATHER” on the fuselage.

“As they say, the gloves are off,” Mayweather’s lawyer, Leo Jacobs, told The Post. “This case is about restoring to our client what is rightfully his.”

Rechnitz had spent years cultivating a relationship with Mayweather, who has earned a reported $1 billion during his career but whose high-flying lifestyle has left him cash-strapped at times.

In 2024, Rechnitz became the “de facto” manager of the boxer’s investment, banking and real estate assets — before betraying the champ’s trust by diverting his fortune to himself and a broker pal, according to legal documents.

Rechnitz previously pleaded guilty in 2016 for his role in the infamous prostitute-packed NYPD corruption scandal that also involved private jets.

He had been a top donor to de Blasio — who called him a “brother” in emails.

Mayweather says in his suit that Rechnitz hid his criminal past from him, which has included a separate $17.7 million judgment against the former powerbroker and his pal Ayel Frist, who also is being sued by Mayweather.

The boxer’s lawsuit demands that Rechnitz pay back the claimed $175 million in losses — detailing exactly how the alleged jaw-dropping clandestine fraud went down.

Quote:Beijing's restrictions on the export of several critical minerals to Japan are part of efforts to pressure the U.S. ally to reverse what China describes as a path toward "remilitarization," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday.

In January, China's commerce ministry moved to tighten controls on exports of items with potential military applications to Japan, barring any party anywhere from transferring such "dual-use" goods for Japanese military end users or military purposes. Beijing cited remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi linking Japan's security to that of Beijing-claimed Taiwan.

China tightened the restrictions twice more in February. While Beijing has not published a comprehensive list of affected items, they include rare earth elements and other critical minerals essential to the manufacture of advanced technologies.

"China, in accordance with laws and regulations, prohibits the export of dual-use items for Japanese military users and military uses, with the aim of stopping Japan's remilitarization and nuclear ambitions," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday during a regular news conference.

Speaking to lawmakers in November, Takaichi linked her country's security to that of Taiwan, saying a Chinese blockade of the self-ruled island would constitute a "survival-threatening situation" and could enable Tokyo to deploy its Self-Defense Forces to assist responding U.S. forces.

China considers Taiwan a rogue province that must eventually be brought under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification. Beijing responded with a wave of retaliatory measures, while anti-Japanese rhetoric reached a fever pitch, repeatedly accusing Tokyo of returning to the militarism of Imperial Japan in the 1930s and 1940s.

"China's rare earth restrictions underscore that economic statecraft is now a central element of deterrence and coercion, not a peripheral tool," wrote Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Meredith Schwartz, an associate fellow with the program.

"Beijing is demonstrating that it can shape allied behavior and crisis dynamics through supply-chain leverage well before any military move against Taiwan. For the U.S., this means Taiwan deterrence cannot rest on military posture alone; it should also account for how economic pressure could constrain allied decision-making in a crisis."

Last week...

Quote:Arson attacks on Ebola treatment centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo underscore the serious challenges authorities face — including a backlash in local communities — as they try to stem an outbreak of the infectious disease that has been declared a global health emergency.

On Sunday, Congolese authorities said suspected cases have now passed 900 in the east of the country, mainly in Ituri province, where the ongoing outbreak is centred.

The burning last week of the centres in two towns at the heart of the outbreak exposed the anger in a region beset by violence linked to armed rebel groups, the displacement of a large number of people, the failure of local government and international aid cuts that experts say have stripped health facilities in vulnerable communities.

"A devastating set of emergencies are converging," said the Physicians for Human Rights non-profit.

Here's a look at the longstanding crises in eastern Congo that have made it home to one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, and how they are now affecting the response to a rare type of Ebola.

Constant threat of violence

Eastern D.R.C. has for years seen attacks by dozens of separate rebel and militant groups, some of them with links to foreign countries or the extremist Islamic State group.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are in control of parts of the region. While the Congolese government still largely controls the northeastern Ituri province, the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak, that control is tenuous. The Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist group linked to ISIS, is one of the dominant rebel groups there and responsible for violent attacks against civilian targets.

Before the outbreak, Doctors Without Borders said in an assessment that the insecurity in Ituri had worsened recently, causing doctors and nurses to flee and leaving overwhelmed health facilities and in some parts, "catastrophic conditions."
...
Anger from local communities

The burning of treatment centres in the Rwampara and Mongbwalu areas — which have the highest Ebola case counts — show how a backlash in some communities is further complicating the response.

Colin Thomas-Jensen, director of impact at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, said the attacks may reflect the "built-in skepticism and anger" of people in eastern D.R.C. over how the region has been treated, with years of violence from foreign-linked rebel groups and a failure of their government and international peacekeepers to protect them, he said.

Another source of anger has been the strict protocols around the burial of suspected victims of Ebola, which authorities are taking charge of wherever they can to prevent further spread of the disease in traditional burials — when families prepare the bodies and people gather for a funeral.

The first burning of an Ebola centre in Rwampara was by a group of local young men trying to retrieve a friend's body, according to witnesses and police. The witnesses said the crowd accused the foreign aid group operating there of lying about Ebola.

Authorities in northeastern Congo have now banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people, and armed soldiers and police are guarding some burials carried out by aid workers.

Quote:A Russian drone entered NATO member Romania's airspace overnight and crashed onto the roof of an apartment building, injuring two people, officials said on Friday.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan said it was "the most serious security incident to occur on Romanian territory" since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian drones have repeatedly strayed into NATO territory since 2022, although these incursions have not been treated as direct attacks on the alliance so far.

But as Ukrainian drones targeting Russian assets have increasingly veered into NATO countries like the Baltic states and Finland, worries have surged over how often the war is leaking into alliance territory.

The drone that struck the apartment building on Friday was one of several picked up by radar while flying close to Romania's border with Ukraine. It struck a residential building in the southeastern city of Galați and exploded, Bucharest's defense ministry said.

Galați sits close to the border with both Ukraine and Moldova.

Two people sustained minor injuries and several residents required medical attention, said Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu. She said Russia's ambassador to the country had been summoned to the foreign ministry.

Romania's defense ministry said investigators were on site in Galați and initial information suggested the "entire load" of explosives packed into the drone detonated when the device struck the apartment building.

Bucharest identified the drone as a Geran-2, the Russian-made version of Iran's notorious Shahed attack drones that Moscow has widely used against Ukraine.

Two Romanian F-16 fighter jets took off from an air base southwest of Galați at 1:19 a.m. local time on Friday and emergency alerts went out to residents around the city, as well as in the nearby Tulcea and Brăila counties, Romania's government said.

Dan said he had spoken with NATO chief Mark Rutte, thanking the alliance for strengthening anti-drone defenses against Russia in eastern Europe.

Fragments of a Russian drone were found in Galați in late April after an electricity pole and part of a residential building were damaged, but no one was injured.

Romania shares 400 miles of border with Ukraine, and fighter jets stationed in the country frequently take to the skies when the Kremlin bombards Ukraine's southern port cities.

Last Wednesday...

Quote:WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with President Trump and Congress to marshal Patriot missile systems as his war-torn country braces for an expected bombardment from Russia.

Zelensky’s five-page missive came on Memorial Day and dramatically warned that “the fate of many lives is being decided” while underscoring how American defensive weaponry can save scores of civilians from Russian attacks.

“Frankly, while we have achieved significant success in defending against all types of drones, Ukraine has not yet built its own capability to produce anti-missile defense systems,” the Ukrainian leader wrote.

“When it comes to defending against ballistic missiles, we rely almost exclusively on the United States. Patriot systems remain the most effective defense against every type of Russian ballistic missile,” he added. “The majority of Russian missiles can be stopped.”

Trump has refrained from green-lighting massive military aid packages to Ukraine and has instead championed the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), which allows NATO to purchase American firepower for the war-torn country.

PURL is currently Ukraine’s only “available for securing Patriot interceptors of ballistic missiles,” according to Zelensky.

“But the current pace of deliveries through the PURL program is no longer keeping up with the reality of the threat we face,” Zelensky stressed. “We understand that today there is high demand for Patriot antiballistic missiles in other regions as well.”

“Ukraine is ready to purchase the number of Patriot systems and interceptor missiles we need,” he went on. “[A]fter all we have been through together, have we not earned a place among your allies?”

The letter was first reported by Kyiv Independent.

Zelensky touted Ukraine’s successes with drones, intercepting Russian ones by over 90%, and noted how Kyiv has offered deals with countries like the US to share its technology.

Quote:Ukraine has a six-month window to seize the battlefield momentum and create a major “turning point” in the war against Russia, whose invading force has been exhausted, a senior Kyiv commander said.

Brig. Gen. Andriy Biletsky, who leads Ukraine’s Third Army Corps — one of the country’s most respected fighting forces — said Russia had suffered its worst year of the invasion since the war began in 2022, with Moscow’s army now exhausted and its manpower dwindling.

“I believe the next six to nine months are a turning point,” Biletsky told Reuters, predicting a major shift along the front lines. “More precisely, I think the next six are the most critical. “

With Ukraine’s Donetsk “fortress belt” successfully repelling Russia’s army for dozens of months, Kyiv is poised to start retaking key positions in the greater Donbas region, which Moscow has repeatedly claimed was a must-have prize in the stalled peace talks.

Thanks to the layout of the land, Russia has been forced to launch head-on attacks against the fortress belt. Biletsky’s forces, who hold one-tenth of the total front line, have held back the invaders every time.

Russia’s meatgrinder tactic has cost it nearly 35,000 soldiers per month in 2025 alone, according to the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

With 2026 nearly halfway through, Biletsky said Russia’s forces continued to be drained like never before, creating a key opportunity for the frontlines to shift.

“The lack of personnel no longer allows them to advance the way they did, for example, a year ago,” said Biletsky.

Russia’s troubles and fatigue have been on full display this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that his forces had retaken nearly 230 miles back from Moscow so far in 2026.

“We need to define those directions where we can improve our positions, take some strategic points, and then speak with the Russians from a position of strength — not weakness — about a truly stable truce,” Biletsky said of the current situation.

“From a military point of view, this is realistic,” he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was also notably forced to downsize his annual Victory Day parade earlier this month in the face of Ukraine’s ever-evolving drone attacks, which have now proven to reach Moscow more consistently.

Quote:Iranian officials are urging its long-suffering people to conserve water, fuel and electricity — as ongoing US sanctions and fallout from the war continue to cripple the regime.

Iranian state media has issued repeated appeals for citizens to cut back their water ahead of the punishing summer dry season, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“All executive bodies, organizations, and public institutions—both governmental and nongovernmental—are required to install water-saving equipment and manage water consumption,” Tehran Province’s state-run water and wastewater company spokesperson Behnam Bakhshi said recently.

Even Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged the strain on resources, warning that the country couldn’t easily export oil, collect taxes or ignore the problems facing businesses.

The country’s oil minister also urged citizens during the war to conserve fuel after US and Israeli attacks decimated parts of Tehran’s fuel supply network.

The US and Tehran reached a tentative agreement Thursday that would extend an April 8 cease-fire. If approved, the deal would also see the US drop its blockade on Iranian ports in exchange for a return to “unrestricted” shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the White House.

It would also begin a 60-day period for the US and Iran to begin negotiating on Tehran’s nuclear issues.

But the water crisis, in particular, has been a daunting challenge regardless of war, as the country has suffered through a historic drought for six years — the result of half a century of foolish modern engineering projects, according to experts.

As Iran’s population swelled in the second half of the 20th century, the Islamic Republic regime built dams on rivers too small to sustain them, drying up wetlands and underground water reserves.

The crisis is now so acute it directly threatens the country’s agricultural sector and food supply.

Quote:A New York City man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Wednesday for his role in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the Iranian regime.

Jonathan Loadholt, of Staten Island, previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for taking part in the scheme to kill journalist and human rights advocate Masih Alinejad.

Alinejad, an Iranian national who fled the country in 2009 and became a US citizen in 2019, had been targeted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for publicly encouraging Iranian women to defy the repressive regime’s rule that women wear headscarves.

“Jonathan Loadholt served as a hired gun to stalk, surveil, and ultimately assassinate Masih Alinejad — a United States citizen — on behalf of the IRGC,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle Jr., said in a statement. “The FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force disrupted and arrested him before he could carry out his plan. 

“The FBI will squash all attempts to silence critics of oppressive regimes on American soil.”

Loadholt, 37, is the second defendant to be sentenced in what the Justice Department described as a “stalk and murder” plot against Alinejad.

Carlisle Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison in January after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. 

The would-be hitmen were offered $100,000 by Farhad Shakeri, who reported directly to IRGC leaders, to purchase weapons, conduct surveillance on a Brooklyn home they believed to be Alinejad’s, follow her to a February 2024 speaking event at Fairfield University in Connecticut and ultimately kill her, which they failed at doing.

At one point during their nine-month long surveillance efforts, Rivera allegedly complained to Shakeri: “This b—h is hard to catch, bro.”

“The Government of Iran has repeatedly attempted to locate and murder Masih Alinejad, right here in New York City,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement. “The Government of Iran tried to silence Ms. Alinejad because of her efforts to stand up to the Iranian regime and expose its discriminatory treatment of women, corruption, and human rights abuses.”

“While this plot was directed from Iran, the would-be assassins were American citizens who agreed to kill Ms. Alinejad for money — out of greed,” Clayton added. “Today’s sentence should be a serious warning to anyone who tries to profit by carrying out the wishes of a hostile foreign regime on United States soil.”

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump threatened to attack Oman Wednesday if the Arab nation partners with Iran to assert joint control over the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has discussed partnering with Oman to charge tolls on ships passing through the strategic waterway, the New York Times reported last week.

“Nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting.

“It’s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that. They’ll be fine.”

Oman’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The State Department tweeted a video Trump’s warning — indicating the US government wasn’t shying away from the threat.

US and Iranian negotiators are working to finalize a memorandum of understanding that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping — without tolls — and allow additional time for an agreement on the fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpiles.

Trump, 79, added at the cabinet meeting that if a deal is not agreed, “we’ll have to just finish the job” militarily.

Oman served as a mediator between the US and Iran before the launch of Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28.

The absolute monarchy, with a population of 5 million, hosted unsuccessful nuclear talks in early February between Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.

Quote:US forces deployed to war zones have been targeted using commercially available location data, according to reports fielded by military officials, an illustration of how the global surveillance economy is shaping the battlefield.

In a letter shared with Reuters by US Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, USCentral Command said it had “received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil US personnel in theater.”

The message, sent on April 14, offered no further specifics, but Centcom’s area of responsibility includes the Gulf, where US forces are facing off against the Iranian military over the Strait of Hormuz.

The disclosure was the first official confirmation that US forces had been targeted in an active war zone, Wyden and a bipartisan group of legislators said in a letter sent on Thursday to the Pentagon.

“Commercial location data can be used to identify where US troops congregate and their pattern of life, which can be exploited by adversaries to target attacks such as missiles, drones, and roadside bombs, as well as for counterintelligence purposes,” the letter warned. Wyden said in a statement that it was time to “start treating the adtech industry as a national security threat.”

The Pentagon did not return messages seeking comment. The lawmakers said in their letter that their efforts to obtain more information from military officials about the reported targeting had been unsuccessful.

Location data is widely used in digital advertising, which is a key source of revenue for many tech companies. Such data is typically collected from smartphones or other devices by apps or service providers before being sold to data brokers who collate and resell the data, sometimes via complex networks of intermediaries.

Although the threat to privacy inherent in selling the details of people’s day-to-day movements on the open market has long been a matter of public discussion, its potential as a national security risk has recently drawn concern as well.

As far back as 2016, one US defense contractor was able to leverage commercially available location data to track special operations forces from their bases in the United States to a sensitive staging post in Syria, according to an account first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal.

More recently, journalists at Wired and two German news outlets drew on billions of coordinates collected by a data broker to expose the granular comings and goings of people stationed at or around 11 US military and intelligence sites in Germany.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday he will be “shutting down” Iranian airlines — after a Post op-ed called attention to their illicit cash flow — and also slapped sanctions on the new Iranian entity set up to toll the Strait of Hormuz.

Bessent leads President Trump’s Operation Economic Fury — a financial squeeze complementing US military efforts — and announced the moves despite reports that a peace framework is complete and awaiting Trump’s final approval.

The Trump administration will “be shutting down both Iranian airlines’ access to landing spots, refueling, and ticket sales. Only a satisfactory outcome in negotiations will end the downward spiral,” Bessent announced.A Post op-ed written last week by Mark Dubowitz and Miad Maleki of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies called on the administration to tactically target Iran’s airlines.

Dubowitz and Maleki warned that Mahan Air and Iran Air had restored 15 international routes since the ongoing cease-fire took effect on April 8, offering the beleaguered regime an income infusion.

“Iran’s airlines are not just flying passengers,” the op-ed argued. “They are flying cash, weapon components and foreign fighters. They are the second front of Iran’s economy, and right now, that front is open.”

Bessent told a Post reporter at a White House briefing Thursday that the airlines were “outlaws.”

“When these airlines fly, they have to be refueled, they sell tickets, they pay landing fees. Anyone who accepts those, we will sanction,” Bessent said.

“So, they should be very clear that the state-owned Iranian airlines are outlaws and cannot do this.”

Bessent said there would be narrow exceptions.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed Thursday that 6 million American children are enrolled in the about-to-launch “Trump Accounts” while brushing off what he called “short-term challenges” to the economy.

Bessent, hosting a White House briefing, dismissed what he called a “doomer view” of the Iran war’s impact as he championed a more optimistic view of Americans’ well-being, pointing to stock indices notching all-time highs and ballooning 401k values.

In wide-ranging remarks, the Treasury secretary predicted that inflation, gas prices and the national deficit would soon recede — and said Americans’ personal savings rate slumping to a four-year low actually could signal economic confidence.

“Academic literature would tell you a lower savings rate can mean one of two things, the kind of the doomer view that you took, or that people have more confidence,” Bessent told reporters.

“Stock market gains or 401k gains might not show up in savings, so they’re looking at that and think that they can draw down their household savings.”

401k values are up on average $30,000 since Trump took office, lower drug prices through the TrumpRx platform have saved consumers an estimated $600 million and unemployment has stayed relatively low at 4.3%, he said.

Bessent predicted that a possible deal to end the Iran war could swiftly reverse concerning economic signals, such as the spike in inflation that catapulted the Consumer Price Index to 3.8% in April.

“We’ve already seen oil prices come down substantially. We are pumping more oil than we’ve ever seen before, and as I said, these are short-term challenges that we will get over,” Bessent said, forecasting “substantial disinflation” in the near future.

Brent crude sold for about $85 a barrel Thursday, down nearly 30% from late April but still elevated from pre-war rates.

“Oil prices are down about 10% in May. There are almost 2,000 ships waiting to come out of the [Persian] Gulf, and I think the oil market is going to be very well supplied on the other side of this, and that we could see prices come down very quickly,” he said.

“We perhaps have the makings of [an Iran war] deal here, and I believe that the economy, it is challenging now, but unemployment is still low, tax refunds were high, and consumer spending is still quite high.”

Quote:U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) disputed a reported from Iranian state TV claiming that Iranian forces downed a U.S. aircraft near Bushehr.

Taking to X, CENTCOM said on Thursday night in part, "TRUTH: No U.S. aircraft were shot down. All U.S. air assets are accounted for."

According to Reuters, Iran's state TV said that an American aircraft was destroyed in the country's Jam ‌governorate ⁠in Bushehr, citing Governor Masoud Tangestani.

Newsweek reached out to CENTCOM via email on Thursday night for additional information.

The conflicting accounts arrive amid a reported 60-day memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran to de-escalate the ongoing conflict. Axios reported Thursday that the memorandum would in part extend a ceasefire, allow unrestricted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and start negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, citing two U.S. officials and a regional source. U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to give final approval, per the outlet.

Rajan Menon, professor emeritus of International Relations at the City College of New York, told Newsweek on Wednesday before the memorandum was reported that, "I think the window for reaching a deal is closing rapidly. Trump is encountering severe blowback from those who think he’s about to sign a deal on Iran’s terms. He’s therefore signaling to Iran that it could face renewed war if it doesn’t offer better terms. Iran, for its part, believes that time is on its side given the steep price increases created by a war that the majority of Americans now oppose as well as Trump’s plummeting approval ratings.

"The situation now resembles a game of chicken: each side is racing full speed ahead, hoping that the other will swerve first to avoid a collision. The result could well be a collision—meaning a return to war. That outcome is not inevitable, but it is becoming much more likely."

When asked about the reported memorandum on Thursday, Menon told Newsweek, "The administration keeps saying a deal is near—Iran has been noticeably more circumspect—but then also says that Iran must hand over (or agree to have transferred to a third country) all of its enriched uranium and also that the Strait of Hormuz must revert to the status it had before the war: a waterway open to shipping with no fees collected by Iran. Tehran has consistently said that both conditions are unacceptable."

"This leaves me wondering how they’ll reach an agreement given the continuing differences on these two critical points—unless one of the two sides has shifted its position. An added complication is that the US and Iran continue to trade fire, which means that escalation remains a risk," he added.

US Strikes on Iran

The U.S. military launched new strikes against Iran on Wednesday, according to a U.S. military official, who said American troops shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones "that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz."

An Iranian ground control station was also struck as a fifth drone was getting ready to be launched, the official added. The station is in Bandar Abbas, the official told Newsweek on Wednesday.

"These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire," the U.S. official added.

The attack follows the United States conducting "self-defense" strikes in southern Iran on Monday, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian vessels trying to establish mines, according to CENTCOM.

In a previous statement to Newsweek, Captain Tim Hawkins, CENTCOM spokesman, said, "U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces. Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines.

Quote:(May 27, 2026 / JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday night that he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to expand ground operations against Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.

“The IDF is operating with large forces on the ground and seizing dominant terrain. We are fortifying the security zone to protect the communities of the north,” the premier said, according to a readout of remarks delivered at a Security Cabinet meeting.

“Concurrently, we are leading a massive national effort to advance creative and innovative solutions against explosive drones,” Netanyahu continued.

“We back and praise our heroic commanders and soldiers. They are deep in the field. We trust you!”

The announcement came hours after Netanyahu convened Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir for a security assessment at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the start of the Security Cabinet meeting:
"As per the directive of myself, the Defense Minister and the IDF Chief of Staff, we are deepening our operation in Lebanon. The IDF is operating with large forces on the ground and seizing… pic.twitter.com/GBLuWgEbyl

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) May 26, 2026
In a separate statement on Tuesday night, Netanyahu said the IDF had eliminated some 2,500 Hezbollah terrorists since the terror organization joined the war on Iran’s behalf on March 2.

The prime minister noted that since the US-brokered ceasefire with Lebanon took effect on April 17, the military has eliminated 700 Hezbollah operatives in defensive operations, adding that fewer terrorists were killed during the entire Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Quote:Two Minnesota fraudsters allegedly swindled more than $21 million in funding earmarked for autism services through two bogus companies and then spent it lavishly on overseas property, officials said.

Shamso Ahmed Hassan, 55, and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf, 25, whose mugshots were released on Wednesday, made off like bandits by submitting millions of dollars in fake claims to Minnesota’s Early Intensive Development and Behavioral Intervention Program [EIDBI] between May 2020 and December 2024, authorities said.

The pair enrolled two companies co-owned by Hassan — Smart Therapy Center LLC and Star Autism Center LLC — as service providers to submit the claims and were secured $21.2 million in funds aimed at helping people, under 21, with autism.

The swindlers were part of an extensive scheme to use the stolen money on themselves and their families, including buying property in Kenya and a truck.

Hassan and her employee, Yusuf, who live together and are both US citizens, remain in federal custody pending court proceedings, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Their arrests are part of a larger fraud scheme that totaled more than $46 million and included two other defendants, Asha Farhan Hassan, 28, and Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, 27 — who appear to be siblings — both previously took plea deals tied to their involvement in the scams at Star Autism and Smart Therapy.

The $300-$1,500 monthly payments meant for autistic children — referred to by the code word “computer” — were “disguised” when the defendants wrote checks to employees and family members of the facilities that were then cashed and paid out to the parents as kickbacks each month, according to federal prosecutors.

The new indictment against Shamso Ahmed Hassan and Hanaan Yusuf — both of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota — include allegations against co-conspirator 1 and 2, whose identifying details match those of Asha Hassan and Abdinajib Yussuf.

Hassan and Yusuf — the lead biller at Smart Therapy — enrolled with the health department as Level II providers of autism services through the EIDBI, with Yusuf eventually upgrading to become a Level I provider on Jan. 1, 2024, the court papers claimed.

This allowed “Smart Therapy to bill for her services at a higher rate,” the indictment alleged.

Hassan is also accused of scamming both adult and child food benefits programs by claiming Smart Therapy was serving 300 children both breakfast and lunch seven days a week, the feds alleged.

By April 2021, Smart Therapy claimed to serve 1,200 meals a day, seven days a week — which Hassan knew was “grossly inflated,” prosecutors said.

Quote:WASHINGTON — A wannabe spy convinced the CIA to give him $40 million in gold bars by claiming it was for “work-related expenses” — and it was just the latest in a lengthy career full of increasingly brazen lies, according to federal prosecutors.

David Rush made a series of requests to the agency to obtain “a significant quantity” of foreign currency and hundreds of gold bars between November and March, according to a federal affidavit.

Astonishingly, Rush received what he asked for, according to the court documents, and the agency was later unable to locate any record of Rush explaining the work-related purpose for the enormous sums.

When the FBI raided his Virginia home on May 18, they found $2 million in greenbacks, 35 luxury watches — “many of which” were Rolexes — and more than 300 one-kilogram gold bars worth over $40 million.

The price of the precious metal has skyrocketed 164% this year, which sharply increased the value of his alleged scheme.

Dan Meyer, a partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey specializing in security clearance issues, told The Post that the tens of millions of dollars in gold bars and US currency appeared to be “resources to be used in US operations overseas” that were “diverted for his personal use.”

“I doubt this is coming from a foreign source,” he added.

Former CIA staff operations officer Tracy Walder told The Post she was shocked Rush managed to lie his way to his top secret security clearance job and get his hands on so much gold from the agency.

“The fact that this slipped through the cracks makes me concerned that there are other people who slipped through the cracks,” she said.

Having gone through the agency’s rigorous vetting process herself, Walder said it was no casual affair.

“They don’t just verify your college. They came to my sorority house. They talked to my sorority sisters. They came to my parents’ house. They went to the friends of the friends of my parents,” she said of the process she herself endured before joining the agency.

“This would have been a large-scale lying cover-up. There would have had to be a lot of other co-conspirators,” she said.

Court documents alleged that the FBI’s investigation revealed Rush provided false information about his education and military service for decades — using each lie to attain a higher and higher position in the military and government.

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump’s meme coin may be getting fresh competition.

Key administration officials are pushing the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a $250 banknote with Trump’s image.

Should the Treasury Department move ahead with the plan, it would mark the first time a living person’s face was slapped on a greenback since 1866. The Treasury Department has confirmed it’s moving to produce a $250 “commemorative note” with Trump’s signature on it.

The $250 note would be a nod to America’s 250th birthday this year.

“In response to active legislation sponsored by Representative Joe Wilson, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) is conducting appropriate planning and due diligence,” a Treasury spokeswoman told The Post.

“Should this legislative mandate be signed into law, the BEP is moving proactively to produce a $250 commemorative note which will appropriately recognize the 250th Anniversary of our great nation.”

The Washington Post first reported the plans for a $250 bill.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted that there was nothing “untoward” about his department’s work, stressing that it was simply getting prepared in case Congress decided to request Trump’s face be put on a $250 bill.

“You have to prepare in advance. You can’t draw something up the day before,” Bessent told reporters Thursday. “I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the … person who is president of the United States on the 250th anniversary bill.”

Under the Thayer Amendment, which passed in 1866, it is illegal to put the likeness of a living person on official US currency, bonds, or other financial notes.

Quote:The federal Environmental Protection Agency is on the scene of a  dangerous chemical leak at a Garden Grove aerospace facility that led officials to evacuate roughly 50,000 residents over an explosion threat, the agency told The California Post.

At the request of Orange County Health Care Agency, the EPA is providing air monitoring support and vital air quality information to local authorities.

“EPA has monitors located throughout the area and in the community, and all air monitors are currently showing non-detect. EPA is working closely with state and local authorities, including Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), the lead for this response,” it said in its statement.

The monitoring comes after a pressurized storage tank holding 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, a highly flammable liquid used in plastic manufacturing, began heating up after the cooling mechanism stopped working.

Fire authorities said there were two scenarios that could happen: A catastrophic explosion or a major spill of the liquid.

Thanks to a crack in the container and cooling attempts by fire authorities, the explosion was ruled out earlier in the week. And on Tuesday night, Orange County Fire Authority Chief TJ McGovern told reporters that all public evacuation orders have been lifted.

“To the residents, we thank you again,” he said. “We understand the inconvenience and the difficulties and the challenges that this has all brought to you.”

A street closure remains in effect, Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra said. Western Street from Garden Grove Boulevard to Chapman Avenue is closed.

Crews are checking the temperatures of the tank and mitigating any issues. Orange County Health Officer Dr. CK said air monitoring would continue to ensure fumes from the chemicals don’t pose a threat.

Exposure to the chemical can have serious health consequences.

Quote:Today, the U.S. Department of State is designating Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) and intends to designate both groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), effective June 5, 2026. 

CV and PCC are two of the most violent criminal organizations in Brazil. Together, they command thousands of members and have orchestrated brutal attacks against Brazilian police officers, public officials, and civilians. Their influence and illicit networks extend far beyond Brazil’s borders, across our region and into our country.

The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to protect our nation and our national security interests by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narco-terrorists. Today’s action taken by the State Department further demonstrates the Trump Administration’s unwavering commitment to dismantling cartels and criminal organizations in our region and ensuring the safety of the American people. 

Today’s actions are taken pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224.  FTO designations go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register. 

Quote:China's military has published a video accusing a Dutch navy helicopter of operating without permission in Chinese-claimed airspace in the contested South China Sea—a claim denied by the Netherlands.

The encounter near the disputed Paracel Island group, which China controls, took place on Wednesday, and footage released late the following evening showed the Chinese navy deploying at least two warships and a fighter aircraft to intercept the Dutch frigate HNLMS De Ruyter.

Electronic interference measures were used to force away the foreign ship, the Chinese military said.

The confrontation highlights growing international resistance to China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing asserts through its controversial "nine-dash line."

The Chinese claim historic rights to nearly the entire sea via the dashed line and sweeping baselines drawn around the Paracels in the west and the Spratly Islands in the east, among other maritime zones.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin told a month-end press briefing on Thursday that the Dutch operation had violated China's sovereignty and undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea.

"We urge the Dutch side to stop its infringement, risk-taking and provocation, and to strictly restrain its front-line naval and air forces to avoid unexpected incidents," Jiang said.

The De Ruyter, a 6,000-ton air defense frigate, carries an NH90 helicopter designed for anti-submarine warfare and other roles including maritime search and rescue.

"The frigate has not been in territorial waters" and "operates in accordance with international law," Dutch navy spokesperson Marinka Hiraldo Vos-van Kooten said in an email to Newsweek.

"HNLMS De Ruyter continues sailing in waters where free movement is permitted," the statement said, adding: "We are not providing further details for operational reasons."

Quote:WASHINGTON — One of the final sticking points standing in the way of a tentative US-Iran peace deal is the phased unfreezing of funds held by Qatar and intended for humanitarian purposes, The Post has learned.

President Trump and Iranian negotiators are haggling over the final details of a memorandum of understanding that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping while giving additional time for a second round of talks on the fate of roughly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium.

The funds in question would not be directly provided to Iran, but would be used to purchase food and medical supplies, which are then sent to the war-torn nation.

The gradual disbursement would be tied to Iran meeting benchmarks, including opening the strait and de-mining it, an administration official said.

Qatar holds $6 billion released by former President Joe Biden as part of a September 2023 prisoner swap that brought home five detained Iranian-Americans, in exchange for five Iranians held by the US.

Iran-backed Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack on Israel weeks later in October 2023 — prompting a clampdown on plans to draw down the money.

It’s unclear when exactly Washington and Iran will finalize the memorandum of understanding, but the administration official said it was the “closest” the two sides have been.

The developments came after Trump huddled with his national security team, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for about two hours in the White House Situation Room on Friday. Trump said on Truth Social he was making a “final determination” on a proposed deal, but made clear getting rid of Iran’s nuclear dust was his red line.

The peace process has been belabored by the fact that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is in hiding for fear of assassination by the US and Israel, requiring an elaborate days-long courier process to communicate messages.

Resolution of the final points still is believed to be possible within days — rather than weeks.

Many elements of the second phase of the peace process remain unsettled, with the central focus on how exactly Iran might dispose of its enriched uranium.

Quote:War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday the US could resume battering Iran if necessary – and has plenty of arms to unleash an overwhelming arsenal.

“Our ability to recommence if necessary … we are more than capable,” Hegseth told the Shangri-la defense conference in Singapore.

“We’re focused on being postured and prepared to re-engage if we have to.”

Joined by other top world defense officials – but not China’s – Hegseth addressed the US’s ability to supply its allies in the region while at war with Tehran, even after the Trump administration suspended a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan.

“Our stockpiles are more than suited for that, both there and around the globe, so we’re in a very good place,” the head of the Pentagon added.

“Right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury – which we have plenty,” Navy Secretary Hung Cao told senators May 22, speaking of the opposition that took out Iranian leaders and targeted Iran’s missile and nuclear sites.

He spoke Saturday with still no word on whether President Trump would OK an Iran peace deal as the internation community awaits his “final determination.”

Trump huddled with his security team Friday in the Situation Room but did not announce a decision.

Hegseth said the Iranians “are coming in our direction” – indicating the situation wasn’t finalized. He said Trump was “patient” and wants to make a “great deal” that ensures the Islamic Republic regime does not get a nuclear weapon.

Oman’s authorities, meanwhile, posted an alert Saturday saying they saw a “floating object” – an expected mine – in the Strait of Hormuz, and urged all seafarers to “exercise the utmost caution.”

That came after US Central Command said it had struck Iranian mine-laying vessels Monday in a “defensive” action. Centcom warned Friday that Tehran was seeking to “impede mine clearance” and that it would target any vessels engaged in mine-laying activity.

An Iranian lawmaker claimed its parliament was plannin to approve a bill to formalize “sovereignty” over the critical strait – which Trump says must remain free and open.

Quote:An Iranian missile strike on an air base in Kuwait has reportedly injured several Americans, as President Trump weighs whether to accept Tehran’s latest peace proposal or return to war.

The Americans injured some time within the last 24 hours included contractors and active duty personnel, a source told Bloomberg News Saturday, with minor injuries suffered after Kuwaiti air defenses struck an incoming Fategh-110 missile.

The attack also seriously damaged a pair of MQ-9 Reaper drones, which cost about $30 million as debris fell on the Ali Al Salem air base.

President Trump huddled with his security team Friday, and said he plans to make a “final determination” on a deal with Iran that would extend a cease fire for 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and set up further negotiations on Iran’s nuclear material while the US lifts its blockade.

Located about 20 miles from the Iraqi border, the base hosted US troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US, meanwhile, continues to enforce a blockade of Iranian ports, disabling a Gambia-flagged vessel Saturday, a US official told the Associated Press.

The bulk carrier Lian Star is currently adrift in the Gulf of Oman after US aircraft undertook the action, the outlet reported.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told a defense conference in Singapore Saturday that “We’re focused on being postured and prepared to re-engage if we have to.”

CENTCOM posted images Saturday of a Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter landing on the flight deck of USS Tripoli (LHA 7) while transiting the Arabian Sea., as well as a US Air Force F-16 flying over the Middle East during a patrol.

“U.S. forces remain present and vigilant across the region,” it said.

Quote:(May 29, 2026 / JNS) Israel controls approximately 60% of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

He added that he has instructed the Israel Defense Forces to expand that figure to 70% as part of its ongoing campaign against Hamas.

Speaking at the Jordan Valley Conference, Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to increase pressure on the terrorist organization nearly three years after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Israel controls 60% of the Gaza Strip,” the prime minister said. “My directive—70%. We’ll start there.”

The comments marked the first time Netanyahu publicly set a new territorial objective for Israeli forces in Gaza.

Earlier this month, the prime minister confirmed that the IDF had expanded its control of the enclave from 50% to 60%.

Under the terms of the first phase of the Oct. 10, 2025, ceasefire brokered by the United States, Israeli forces were given control of 53% of Gaza’s territory, east of the truce-established Yellow Line.

“We know exactly what our mission is, and our mission is one: to ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said on May 18. “We are carrying out this mission with the help of our heroic soldiers.”

On Thursday, Netanyahu indicated that Israel intends to maintain military pressure on Hamas until the terrorist group’s military and governing capabilities are dismantled.

He spoke a day after the IDF targeted two senior Hamas commanders in northern Gaza.

Quote:A Russian Oreshnik missile fired at Ukraine in January appears to have been made nine years ago and contains only Russian and Belarusian components, Ukrainian experts said on Friday after examining fragments of a weapon Russia says is a game-changer.

The Oreshnik, which Russia first used against Ukraine in 2024, is a nuclear-capable missile with a range of over 3,100 miles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept, though many Western experts have questioned that assertion.

Debris recovered from the small number of Oreshnik missiles fired by Russia during its war in Ukraine has helped Kyiv to learn more about the weapon – and to question some of the hype around it.

Ukrainian authorities assess the Oreshnik to be a modernized version of the older RS-26 Rubezh missile which was first successfully test-launched in 2012.

At a presentation of electronics recovered from Russian missiles and drones, a Ukrainian missile forensics expert said on Friday that the Oreshnik recovered in January had been assembled in 2017 from components dating to 2016 or earlier, all of them made in Russia or its ally Belarus.

“We were rather surprised, because they say that this is a very new missile, but if you look at the year of assembly, it says 2017,” said the expert, who identified himself only as Petro for security reasons.

AT LEAST THREE STRIKES

Russia has struck Ukrainian territory with the Oreshnik at least three times during the war, including a town near Kyiv during a heavy air assault on May 24.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s sanctions adviser, said the surviving electronics were recovered from an Oreshnik that hit the western city of Lviv in January. Vlasiuk said the missile debris from the latest Oreshnik strike this month was still being studied.

He also said that Ukrainian investigators were observing a greater degree of substitution of western missile components for Chinese ones, which Vlasiuk said appeared to be a “forced” substitution.

Quote:The Ukrainian military released a theatrical, action-packed video showing the destruction of two Russian planes and a key missile system in the Black Sea.

Ukrainian drones took out two of Moscow’s Tu-142 naval aircraft at the military airfield in Taganrog, near the Sea of Azov, and destroyed a launcher for the Iskander ballistic missile system on Saturday, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Released video recorded by the drone show the kamikaze course of the unmanned weapon as it dove into the four-propeller plane while it sat on a runway.

“We are rightfully bringing the war back to where it came from. Russia could have ended its aggression long ago, but instead chose to prolong and continue it,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X Saturday.

The war in Ukraine continues to rage after more than four years of fighting.

Another clip showed the Iskander launcher incinerated with another drone recording the resulting fireball.

The Tu-142 is a valuable long-range marine anti-submarine aircraft.

The Iskander missile system has been used by Moscow to launch ballistic missiles at Ukraine from a range of up to 500 kilometers.

A fuel tank, an oil tanker and a Russian administrative building in Taganrog caught on fire as a result of the strikes, according to Rostov Oblast Governor Yuri Slusar, the outlet reported.

Quote:At least five Ukrainians were killed and 40 more wounded from a thunderous Russian air attacks, as the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was struck Saturday.

Russia batter their war-torn adversary unleashing 290 drones and six missiles overnight, Ukraine’s Air Force reported.

In Sumy, a 59-year-old man was killed and a train station was nearly obliterated from several dozen kamikaze drones in separate attacks — as air raids lasted nearly 24 hours on the frontline region.

“The civilian railway station, from which hundreds of residents of the Sumy region set off every day for their peaceful affairs, has become another target of the terrorist country,” Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.

At least another two civilians were killed in Kharkiv, a 65-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man, and two more in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, where houses and apartment buildings were struck, local governors said.

Ukraine still controls the city of Zaporizhzhia and the north of the region, but most of the south, including the nuclear plant has fallen under Russian occupation since the start of the more than four-year-old war.

The plant was struck Saturday, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom reported.

“We are one step closer ⁠to an incident that will most likely affect even those who live far beyond the ⁠borders of Russia and Ukraine,” Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev said.

The explosion didn’t damage the main equipment, but caused a hole in the turbine hall wall of one of the units, Likhachev said, blaming Ukrainian drones for the strike.

Throughout the fighting, Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for strikes on the Zaporizhzhia plant, which needs reliable power to cool its six reactors and avoid a nuclear disaster.

The ongoing attacks come as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that intelligence has information indicating Moscow is preparing for a new large-scale assault on Kyiv — and that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin was getting more emboldened to expand his attacks even beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Quote:Conspiracy theories that Vladimir Putin has died and been replaced by body doubles are alight again after a Russian politician appeared to call the president by a completely different name — Pal Laich.

“Pal Laich, thank you very much. I have prepared a presentation,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev appeared to say to Putin in footage from a recent meeting in Moscow.

The clip was published by the Kremlin itself, but an official transcript from the meeting switched “Pal Laich” to Putin’s full name, “Vladimir Vladimirovich,” the Times of London reported.

Nope, not a double here. He addresses Putin clearly with a clipped Vladimir Vladimirovich. https://t.co/TTDNOsFTXi

— Vlad Vexler (@VladVexler) May 27, 2026

Pro-Krelim newspaper Kommersant was even baffled by the moment, admitting “it seems that no one can explain what it was. Maybe he got overstressed. Maybe he wanted to say something about something, but he caught himself.”

And the puzzling detail has left some speculating the minister may have accidentally tipped the truth about Putin’s supposed use of body doubles — an unverified claim which has dogged him for years.

Theorists claim that Putin has at least three body doubles who often stand in for him, with people pointing out details like his ear shapes and height appearing to change over the years.

Body doubles being used by paranoid world leaders is not unheard of — Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein supposedly forced men to undergo plastic surgery to look more like him — with leaders sometimes using them to keep themselves safe from assassination.

Ukrainian intelligence has even backed the claims, saying Putin has three known body doubles and highlighting various physical characteristics that have supposedly changed over time.

“There are at least three people who periodically appear,” Ukraine’s then-head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said in 2022, according to the Times.

Some Putin theorists have even posited that the long-ruling president is in fact dead, and that a shadowy cabal inside the Russian government is using doubles to hide that while running the country themselves.

Putin himself admitted in 2020 that a body double plan had been presented to him decades ago, but that he decided against it.

And the theories haven’t held up to technology — with a 2024 analysis using photo software from the Russian opposition group Meduza finding a more than 99% chance that each image of Putin analyzed was in fact Putin.

Quote:Vladimir Putin has sunk billions of Russian dollars into outlandish human longevity experiments — but some critics are skeptical whether the so-called-science has any grounding in reality.

Putin, 73, has dropped at least $26 billion on state research for the likes of gene-therapy drugs intended to slow cellular aging in a project known as “New Health Preservation Technologies,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

That drug “represents one of the most promising avenues in the fight against aging,” Russia’s Deputy Science Minister Denis Sekirinsky said in April — but is just one of numerous longevity projects Putin has been pushing in a decades-long obsession that apparently began when he was as young as 16.

Other avenues Putin has pushed include growing human organs inside pigs for transplant into humans in a procedure called xenotransplantation, and 3D-printing live tissue in a practice known as bioprinting.

Government-funded Russian scientists claim to have successfully printed a mouse thyroid gland and human cartilage, and have said they’ll be printing whole human organs for transplant by the end of the decade, the Journal reported.

And those projects aren’t just the works of mad scientists toiling in secrecy — Putin himself publicly announced the initiative in April 2024 and vowed such methods would have saved 175,000 lives by 2030.

“In the Russian Federation, work is under way on a whole range of scientific programs in this field,” the Kremlin told the Journal. “These projects are supported by the state, and many scientific and research institutions are taking part in them.”

One of the leading figures of the initiative is Putin’s own daughter, 41-year-old endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, who is leading the state genetics projects. Prominent Russian physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk — whose brother Yuri is a financier closely tied to Putin — has also played a central role.

“It is difficult to discuss immortality, but the ability to repair man will undoubtedly increase,” Kovalchuk has told media in Russia, arguing that humanity will soon be able to indefinitely repair and place organs.

Quote:CNN’s Abby Phillip accused the Biden administration of “deceptiveness” for covering up President Joe Biden’s health decline, after a “stunning admission” from Jill Biden that she’d feared her husband had a stroke onstage during the disastrous 2024 presidential debate.

During CNN’s “NewsNight” on Wednesday, Phillip argued that the ex-first lady’s comments marked a complete reversal from 2024, when the Biden White House vehemently dismissed health concerns about him.

“I appreciate that we now get to see at least some version of a truth that she’s putting out there because I think, yeah, the conversation should be had about the deceptiveness that was behind this,” Phillip said.

“The autopsy that the Democrats did didn’t delve into that, but it should. What kind of political system covers that up and makes it okay to lie to people about what everybody knows is true?” she added.

In a preview clip from a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview set to air later this week, Jill Biden discussed her husband’s pitiful performance against former President Donald Trump, in which Joe Biden stumbled over his words and repeatedly lost his train of thought.

“I wasn’t horrified, I was frightened. Because I had never, ever seen Joe like that, before or since,” Jill Biden told CBS News correspondent Rita Braver in the snippet.

“I don’t know what happened. I mean, as I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

Phillip said the “stunning admission” represents “the first time that we’ve heard her express any concern about that debate that ultimately ended Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign. But that stands in stark contrast to what Jill Biden had to say just moments after the debate.”

She then cued up footage from immediately after the 2024 debate, when Jill Biden stood onstage next to her husband and spewed praise into a microphone to rally a crowd of Dems — giving the appearance of being unperturbed by any potential stroke.

Quote:The illegal alien accused of murdering 18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman in March of this year has been hit with additional charges after jail staff found him in possession of a shank in Cook County, Illinois.

As Breitbart News has chronicled, 25-year-old illegal alien Jose Medina-Medina of Venezuela was arrested by the Chicago Police Department and charged with murdering Sheridan Gorman in a random attack on a pier at Tobey Prinz Beach on March 19.

Prosecutors say Sheridan was with a group of friends on the pier when she noticed Medina-Medina hiding with a mask on his face and a gun. When Sheridan and others in the group started running for safety, Medina-Medina allegedly fired the gun, shooting and killing the young woman, who was in her freshman year of college at Loyola University.

This week, while in Cook County Jail, Medina-Medina was caught with a 6-inch shank, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. The charges allege that when Medina-Medina was recently searched in jail, staff found a sharpened piece of metal in his pocket with a handle that had been fastened to it with tape.

The news comes as Sheridan’s parents, Thomas and Jessica Gorman, recently spoke during a rally in Rockland County, New York, hosted by President Donald Trump.

Jessica Gorman said her daughter planned to see the Northern Lights alongside her friends the night she was murdered.

“She never got to see those lights. Instead, her life was stolen by a man who should have never been in this country, a man who never should have been set free in that community,” Jessica Gorman said. “And every step the system had a chance to stop him and at every step, the system failed. And my daughter paid for those failures with her life.”

“No family should ever have to bury their child because public officials failed to put innocent American lives first,” Jessica Gorman continued.

“We did not just lose Sheridan, we lost our peace, we lost our future, we lost the life that we knew,” Thomas Gorman said. “And no family should have to become experts in immigration failures, release policies, warrants, sanctuary laws, enforcement breakdowns because their daughter was killed by someone who should not have been here and should not be free.”

Quote:Anti-ICE protesters are pooling cash to deliver riot gear to the front lines of the ongoing chaos in Newark outside the Delaney Hall detention center — fueling criticism that the mayhem is a well-funded, coordinated effort.

Donations are pouring in to help the protesters buy “helmets” and “knee/wrist/shin/arm guards” along with military-grade goggles to stay outside Delaney Hall, according to one list blasted out on social media by lefty political activist group the 50501 Movement — which was behind the No Kings anti-President Trump rallies.

The protesters specifically listed MIL-PRF-32432 shatterproof goggles on their wish list — which is considered “U.S. military specification” that ensures protection from “battlefield-level projectile threats.”

The armor was listed as a high-priority need to be dropped at the chaotic protest site, while organizers from further away were supporting the purchases by sending cash to the personal Venmo of organizer Jenny Garcia.

The tools are allegedly necessary for their battle against the “ICE Gestapo,” according to 50501, which formed last year and was behind an eponymous nationwide protest. Its name stands for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 day.”

The untold amount of pooled money was also being spent on wheelchairs, P100 respirators — which are considered “oil-proof” — Sudecon, a decontamination wipe used to remove irritants such as pepper spray, and “welding gloves for incoming tear gas cannisters.”

Garcia’s page has an archive of apparent previous donations, most of which were paired with captions reading “F–k ICE.”

Garcia is a communication coordinator for the Detention Watch Network, which opposes detaining illegal migrants.

Delaney Hall has been the scene of raucous demonstrations in recent days related to the the alleged poor condition of detainees inside the facility, which the Department of Homeland Security vehemently denies is the case.

Quote:Pro-ICE supporters arrived Saturday outside Delaney Hall in Newark to support federal agents and give the leftist agitators who have descended on the Newark ICE facility a piece of their mind

The 200 pro- and roughly 300 anti-ICE supporters were each cordoned off behind separate barricades, but continued to scream and hurl insults at one another.

“Right now, [ICE is] only doing their job, which is to protect Americans, New Jerseyans and keep these people off the streets,” said John Raftery, 70, who showed up to support ICE wearing a red MAGA hat and a sign that read “American First.”

ICE supporters chanted “We love ICE” and “U-S-A!” in an attempt to drown out the protesters’ screams of “Stop the raid! Stop the hate! Immigration makes us great!”

Pro-Icers called for Gov. Mikie Sherrill to squash the demonstrations in light of the escalations this week.

“This is a bulls–t protest and it should be cleared out. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money. We don’t want to see it,” said Proud Boy member Rufus Cutt.

Tim Walsh, a GOP candidate for Bergen County Clerk, also joined the pro-ICE barricades, telling The Post that the Young Republicans of New Jersey stand with President Trump.

“And they stand for law and order, and the mission of ICE,” said Walsh.

“There are plenty of people who have stories about the conditions inside prison. It’s not a good place. You should stay out of prison, jail, by not breaking the law.”

“It’s a jail, not a hotel,” he added.

Quote:California’s most violent youth offenders are being housed in loosely regulated “less restrictive programs” — non-secure facilities that can operate in residential neighborhoods near schools and parks with little oversight and no background checks for operators.

“It could be anything, anywhere,” one county probation chief told The California Post, saying some facilities charge up to $30,000 a month per youth.
Multiple probation chiefs, speaking anonymously, claim counties often don’t even know where the programs are located or who runs them until operators appear in court seeking to take house the offenders.

“These programs are popping up with basically zero regulation,” another chief said, adding courts are often forcing probation departments to place youths there before officials believe they are ready.

That means juveniles convicted of crimes including murder, rape, and aggravated assault are sometimes being released back into communities before completing treatment programs and placed in homes run by people with little rehabilitation training.

“We have maybe one place that we know, it’s vetted and we have a strong contract with, and then there’s places that choose to call themselves that [LRPs] but we don’t know anything about them,” a probation chief told The Post.

Less restrictive programs (LRPs) began expanding across California after Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 823, which led to the official closure of the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) in 2023 and shifted responsibility to the counties.

The law created a legal framework for LRP’s under the Welfare and Institutions Code, and the state later established the Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) to oversee the transition away from state-run youth facilities — including shaping policy, supporting counties, and providing oversight for the system.

OYCR’s own guidance states that there is no special license or requirement to operate an LRP for youth 18 or older — meaning essentially, anyone can open and run an LRP at practically any location.

OYCR told The Post there is no available statewide list of LRPs, and said registering or vetting is a city and county level issue. 

Despite multiple attempts, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors failed to respond to The Post’s questions about the registration process, eligibility requirements, and existing oversight or monitoring.

But county probation chiefs told The Post there is none.

“No licensing, no screening, no screening for the staff that work there, which to me is really troubling,” one Chief said. “We’re talking about murderers, attempted murderers, robberies, rapes, kidnapping, arson, sex offenders, and other very serious violent felonies.”

For example, an LRP housing sex offenders could be right next to a school and no one in the area would know, the chief warned.

Quote:Five people were killed and 44 others were hospitalized when a Staten Island bus driver, who didn’t speak English, smashed into stopped traffic along I-95 in Virginia, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

Jing S. Dong, a Chinese native who obtained US citizenship, was allegedly driving the motorcoach from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina, when it struck a Chevrolet Suburban in Stafford County, near Quantico, just after 2:30 a.m. Friday morning.

The crash sparked a chain reaction involving at least 6 vehicles, officials said. Traffic had slowed down for a work zone on the highway at the time of the crash.

“The preliminary investigation indicates that traffic was slowing southbound for an upcoming work zone,” state police. “A bus failed to slow for traffic and struck six vehicles.”

Survivors detailed the harrowing scene inside the bus which rolled over and landed off the roadway.

“Boom, people screaming on the bus, glass flying everywhere, the bus turning over,” a passenger identified as Judy told WTVR.

“You had blood, people bleeding, people screaming, the bus smoking. A stranger came, bust the window open and let us all out. I’m thankful for that.”

“It was horrible,” said Wayne Tobin, another passenger on the doomed bus., told the outlet.

“It was just like blood everywhere, it was people holding their head. Their heads were bleeding.”

A 25-year-old unidentified woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, was killed inside a Suburban.

A family of four from Greenfield, Massachusetts, all died when the Suburban slammed into their Acura, causing the family’s car to catch fire, police said.

Dmitri Doncev, 45, his wife Ecaterina, 44, and their two children, Emily, 13, and Mark, 7, were all pronounced dead.

“With broken hearts, we share the devastating loss of our beloved brother and his family in the tragic accident on South I-95 in Virginia early this morning,” Iuri Doncev, Dmitri’s brother, wrote on Facebook.

Quote:It failed spelling.

A Rhode Island high school mistakenly misspelled the word “school” on its yearbook cover.

Over 100 copies of Johnston Senior High School’s 2026 yearbook are missing the letter “c” in the word “school” written on its spine.
Students, faculty and parents at what was dubbed “Johnston Senior High Shool” in the keepsake graduation book are shaking their heads at the cringeworthy mistake.

“It was really a shocking thing to see, a whole high school misspelling the word ‘school,'” Johnston senior Neari Vazquez told NBC 10. “It’s kind of a bad look.”

Johnston Senior High School Superintendent Scott Sutherland told 12 News that he wrote a letter to the school’s families to apologize for the error, made by the yearbook printing company Treering.

In the note, he explained that Johnston’s yearbook club looked over a digital proof of the book prior to publication, but it did not show the spine.

However, Treering, which is based in Silicon Valley, released a statement disputing his claims.

“The school reviewed and approved both before the book went to print,” the spokesperson wrote.

“The yearbook was printed exactly as the school’s editorial team approved it.”

The school’s yearbook club first noticed the glaring error when the boxes of books arrived at the school.

“One little thing, it’s like everything is perfect but this one thing is messed up,” yearbook club member Nate Dellamorte told NBC 10.

“When I talked to the advisor, he was already actively trying to fix it and a lot of the members said they’re gonna help him.”

Sutherland is outraged over the embarrassing oversight, and has already consulted with lawyers for advice on the matter.

“We are extremely disappointed that this error made it through the company’s quality control and production process,” he continued in his letter.

Quote:Millions in taxpayer cash were directed towards an Islamic organisation with alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood by the German government, reports have revealed.

According to reports from Berlin’s Federal Audit Office, obtained by paper of record Die Welt, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office (AA) gave Islamic Relief Germany (IRD) nearly 8.5 million euros ($9.9m) between 2013 and 2016 and millions more on top of that.

This is despite the group’s parent organisation, Islamic Relief Worldwide, having been classified as a terror group in 2014 by Israel, which accused the group of having funnelled money to Palestinian Hamas terrorists, a charge the supposed charity denies. A 2009 report from Germany’s Baden-Württemberg Office for the Protection of the Constitution also accused the group of being tied to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to impose Sharia on the world.

A later 2019 government report found that the IRD had “significant personnel connections to the Muslim Brotherhood or organisations close to it,” following which the Foreign Office ceased funding the group.

The reports from the Federal Audit Office concerning the grants provided by the German government to IRD were classified and withheld from the public for over five years, with the government arguing that the release of the information could “lead to polemics” and would risk public discourse that would not be “conducive to the welfare of the federal government.”

However, the findings were finally disclosed following a lengthy lawsuit from attorney Seyran Ateş and the Institute for Secular Law. According to Die Welt, the first report found that the Foreign Office was “unable to explain on what basis” it had decided that Islamic Relief Germany was a reputable charity and worthy of millions in government grants.

It also claimed that the Foreign Office had ignored a “clear and binding directive” from 2009 to not work with the organisation.

A second report found that financial support for the IRD was done “blindly” by the Foreign Office, “without first verifying the legality and economic efficiency of the previous funding.”

Representing Islamic Relief Germany, the law firm Höcker said: “Our client has no contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, does not see himself as part of or a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has absolutely nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.” The firm also denied any connection to Hamas.

Quote:The global order is unraveling as powerful countries flout international law when it suits them and "prey upon the weak," Vietnamese President To Lam said in a speech Friday.

This is one of three crises that are shaking the international community to its core, To said in the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defense summit.

"The world can adapt to the fast-changing order, but it should do so through rules, self-restraint and dialogue—not coercion or the threat of force," he said, without naming specific countries.

The crisis begins when international law is "interpreted selectively, applied inconsistently, or subordinated to the logic where might makes right and the strong prey upon the weak," To said.

"In such an environment, states—particularly small and medium-sized countries—face mounting pressure to choose sides, and are increasingly vulnerable to coercion in the economic, technological, financial and security domains."

Vietnam's "bamboo diplomacy" approach in recent decades—pragmatic yet flexible—has sought to balance ties between China, a powerful neighbor and top economic partner, and the U.S., with which it has expanded security ties.

While Vietnam continues to pursue stable relations with Beijing, tensions remain over disputes over territory and fishing rights in the South China Sea.

Vietnam, like many of its Asian neighbors, has also been hit by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. The resulting three-month disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz—a critical chokepoint through which Vietnam sources around 85 percent of its oil imports from the Middle East—has strained energy supplies and raised costs.

Quote:U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's remarks on Taiwan at a top defense summit in Singapore on Saturday appeared calibrated not to derail President Donald Trump's efforts to manage tensions with China, an analyst at a Chinese state-affiliated think tank told Newsweek.

The address came 15 days after Hegseth joined Trump on his state visit to China, the first by a U.S. president in nine years. Both sides framed the trip as an opportunity to reset the great-power relationship after years of tensions spanning trade, technology supply chains, and the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

Due to pressure from Beijing, Taiwanese officials are not permitted to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue—an annual conference that draws an eclectic mix of diplomats, military officials, and policy wonks from across the world.

Hegseth Treads Carefully Around Taiwan

In his remarks, Hegseth sought to project and touted expanded military cooperation with South Korea and Australia. He also called on U.S. partners in the region to shoulder more of their own defense costs, echoing Trump's concern allies in Asia and Europe are overly reliant on defense guarantees funded by U.S. taxpayers.

Hegseth leveled some criticism at China, saying there was "rightful" alarm in the region over Beijing and its "historic military buildup." Yet the defense secretary struck a more restrained tone than during his fiery address at the same forum last year, calling China-U.S. relations under Trump now "better than they've been in many years."

Whereas last year he warned a Chinese attack against Taiwan could be "imminent;" this time around, he did not mention Taiwan by name.

Hegseth did, however, stress U.S. national security strategy for the region centers on deterrence, making conflict as unattractive as possible through "denial along the First Island Chain" that requires making "escalation unattractive." The First Island Chain is a string of islands stretching from Japan south to Borneo that the Pentagon considers key to containing Chinese military forces in the event of a conflict.

During the Q&A session that followed Hegseth's speech, he dismissed concerns the U.S. defense industry would be unable to replenish munitions depleted during the recent conflict with Iran—the explanation acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao cited earlier this month for delaying a $14 billion weapons package for Taiwan.

Quote:The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have unveiled a new joint project to develop advanced underwater drones, marking a fresh push to strengthen their security alliance and boost military capabilities in response to growing concerns over China’s maritime power.

The announcement, made at a major Singapore summit on defense, signals a shift from long-term planning toward faster delivery of deployable technology.

It comes as Chinese-linked vessels have been suspected in incidents involving damaged undersea cables near Taiwan and in European waters, adding urgency to efforts by Washington and its allies to secure critical seabed infrastructure.
Officials from all three countries said the first capabilities could be ready as early as next year, with the U.K. committing $200 million to the effort as part of a wider push to modernize allied forces.

Key Points

• U.S., U.K. and Australia will jointly develop uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) under the AUKUS alliance, a trilateral defense pact to boost military capabilities
  
• First capabilities are expected to be ready as early as next year
  
• Project will focus on protecting undersea infrastructure and boosting surveillance and strike capabilities
  
• Officials say the move reflects a shift toward faster delivery after criticism of slow AUKUS progress
  

The Background

The U.S., U.K. and Australia announced on May 30, 2026, that they will jointly develop underwater drone technology under AUKUS to protect infrastructure and strengthen military capabilities.

The move comes amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific and growing concerns in Washington over China’s expanding naval presence and undersea activities.

It accelerates AUKUS cooperation, delivering new military technology to U.S. and allied forces while reshaping how undersea threats are monitored and countered.

Quote:His grandfather ruled Cuba with an iron fist, but now top US officials have identified the shadowy Castro relative known as “The Crab” — for his six-fingered hand — as their go-to guy in critical negotiations.

Raúl Guillermo Rodriguez Castro is the influential eldest grandson of ex-dictator and 94-year-old Raul Castro, who was indicted for murder in Miami on May 23 in connection with the 1996 shoot-down of two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue.

The younger Castro oversees his grandfather’s security, which grants him sway in a government where experts say Raul Castro still has considerable authority despite stepping back as president in 2018 and relinquishing official duties in 2021.

“Whenever Raul appears in public, he is right over his shoulder – right there,” said American University Latin America expert Dr. William LeoGrande.

The younger Castro, called Raulito, is a colonel in Cuba’s Interior ministry. He was present when CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Havana to meet with Cuban officials, including Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence.

A CIA statement after the Ratcliffe meeting mentioned Castro’s name first – even though he didn’t have the leading official role. It said the Director went “to personally deliver President Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”

The first approach came in February at an annual conference on the island of Saint Kitts, where Raulito Castro met with advisors to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Miami Herald reported.

Raulito Castro’s late father Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja built the military conglomerate Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA), which the Trump administration says profits off the backs of the Cuban people and accounts for 70% of the country’s hard currency. His mom is Debora Castro Espín, Raul’s eldest daughter.