By Jennie Taer Wrote:Ten illegal migrant youths, most of them unaccompanied, were found at a California marijuana farm during a tense immigration raid on Thursday, prompting federal officials to launch an investigation into possible child labor violations.
The youngsters, one just 14 years old, were discovered by federal agents at Glass House Farms in Southern California during a chaotic operation in which one protester appeared to fire a gun at authorities, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said on X Thursday.
“This is Newsom’s California,” Scott said in response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who shared a video of the raid.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin revealed Friday the feds “rescued” eight of the minors, who crossed the border “unaccompanied.”
McLaughlin said the alarming situation “looks like exploitation, violation of child labor laws and potentially human trafficking or smuggling.”
Scott announced the child labor probe into the farm in his Thursday night social media post.
Farrar has donated to the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee’s federal political action committee and Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif, on multiple occasions, according to the records.
He also donated $10,000 to Newsom in 2018, according to California records.
“Yesterday, Glass House Brands received immigration and naturalization warrants. As per the law, we verified that the warrants were valid and we complied. Workers were detained and we are assisting to provide them legal representation,” the company wrote.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors. We do not expect this to affect operations moving forward. We will provide additional details when applicable.”
Farrar reacted to the raid, saying “our team has been continually on site and we are focused on taking care of our people and our plants.”
“Know there are lots of questions, we have a lot of them too, as we get more information we will update,” Farrar posted to X.
When immigration and border agents descended on the cannabis farm, they were met by dozens of rioters who tried to block a road between fields.
The screaming mob eventually scattered when agents deployed an unknown substance to control the crowd. Several protesters appeared to hurl rocks at the officers, according to ABC 7.
A masked man also was seen allegedly firing a few shots as he and other protesters scampered away. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the alleged shooter’s arrest.
The feds set up a blockade with military-style vehicles as they clashed with protesters for four hours.
About 200 immigrants were arrested in the raid under suspicions of being in the US illegally, authorities said Friday.
One farm worker died from injuries he sustained during the raid and several others were critically injured, according to the United Farm Workers union.
A source noted that the ICE building “smelled like weed heavily” as the individuals were taken in for processing.
Glass House Farms said on social media that it “fully complied with agent search warrants” presented by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Thursday.
The farm has a permit to grow cannabis in Ventura County, and as of last year, used half of the space for cannabis while half was dedicated to tomatoes and cucumbers, the Ventura County Star reported.
The Biden administration has lost track of roughly 320,000 unaccompanied migrant kids, many of whom are believed to be at risk of sex trafficking, forced labor and other forms of exploitation, according to a government watchdog.
Rescuing children from Slave Labor should not be an issue.
That 320,000 children were lost under the Biden administration, and these rescued children are among those missing should be.
And that so-named protestors have fought back against this action, even to fire guns, should be of grave concern.
Up is down, left is right and sideways is straight ahead. - Cord "Circle of Iron", 1978 (written by Bruce Lee and James Coburn... really...)
Quote:A U.S. company has announced a $400 million deal with the United States Department of Defense amid soaring demand for domestically mined rare earth elements that are critical for both civilian and military technologies.
The MP Materials deal is being hailed as a major move toward building out the U.S. mine-to-magnet supply chain and cutting the country's reliance on geopolitical rival China.
Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon and MP Materials via request for comment outside of office hours.
Why It Matters
China supplies 70 percent of the rare earths imported by the U.S. and controls about 85 percent of the world's refining capacity—a virtual stranglehold on production of the high-performance magnets used in everything from electric vehicles to missiles.
This dependency is viewed in Washington as an Achilles' heel. That concern has driven the administration of President Donald Trump to seek out new deals—such as one signed with Ukraine in May.
What To Know
MP Materials Corp announced Thursday it had entered a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense that would, in its words, "dramatically accelerate the build-out of an end-to-end U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain and reduce foreign dependency."
Under the deal, the Pentagon will invest $400 million for a 15 percent ownership stake in the Las Vegas-headquartered firm, whose Mountain Pass mine in California remains the country's only rare earth mining facility.
The company also processes rare earth concentrate, though most of the final refining and magnet production still takes place in China.
"This initiative marks a decisive action by the Trump administration to accelerate American supply chain independence," said James Litinsky, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of MP Materials.
MP Materials shares surged by over 50 percent when trading opened Thursday morning.
Quote:Attorney General Pam Bondi has fired several Department of Justice (DOJ) employees who worked with former special counsel Jack Smith on two criminal investigations into President Donald Trump's possession of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Reuters reported on Friday.
...
The Trump administration has pursued sweeping personnel changes across federal departments and agencies, particularly targeting those they deem disloyal or involved in investigating Trump. The administration has carried out large firings on Friday evenings before, including the termination of several inspectors general in January.
Prior to assuming office for his second term, Trump faced two major criminal investigations overseen by then-Special Counsel Smith that involved multiple indictments. Over a dozen DOJ employees who worked with Smith have been fired since Trump took office again.
Outside of the judiciary, the president has also directed criticism and executive orders at lawyers and law firms linked to Smith.
What To Know
At least seven of the individuals fired Friday night worked as support staff on Smith's team, sources told Reuters.
Some of the now terminated DOJ employees most recently worked in U.S. Attorney's offices across the U.S. including Florida and North Carolina, the wire service reported.
Reuters initially reported that nine DOJ employees were fired, but later updated its reporting to note the number had risen to around 20. Axios and ABC News have also reported that at least 20 people were terminated.
Smith spearheaded the federal classified documents case in Florida and the case involving Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump faced dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally keeping classified documents that he took with him after he left the White House in 2021 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and then obstructing the government's efforts to get them back. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied wrongdoing.
Last summer, Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the classified documents case on grounds that Smith was not properly appointed by then Attorney General Merrick Garland because he was not approved by the U.S. Senate.
Quote:Elon Musk escalated his public feud with President Donald Trump over the weekend, urging the release of documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein "as promised."
The billionaire responded to Trump's Truth Social post defending U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has faced backlash from the MAGA movement over her handling of the Epstein files.
Musk replied to a screen grab of Trump's post and said: "Seriously. He said 'Epstein' half a dozen times while telling everyone to stop talking about Epstein. Just release the files as promised."
[Tweet]
Why It Matters
The Epstein issue has become a symbolic litmus test for parts of the conservative base, especially among voters who believe Trump promised full transparency. MAGA is clearly divided over Epstein, with multiple calls for Bondi to be sacked.
Influential voices on the right, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, have warned that suppressing the Epstein documents could be politically devastating. "You're going to lose 40 House seats over this if you don't release the files," Bannon said recently.
As Trump seeks to shore up his base for November, the controversy threatens to alienate populist factions once firmly in his corner.
What To Know
Musk was one of the most prominent supporters of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, spending at least $250 million to support his bid.
But the pair fell out over Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, a major tax and spending package that passed the Senate with Vice President JD Vance's tiebreaking vote.
Quote:President Donald Trump publicly backed FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino during a press gaggle on Sunday, stating that Bongino is staying at the FBI for now following reports of potential resignation this week.
Trump described Bongino as "a very good guy" and said he believes the deputy director is "in good shape" amid ongoing tensions within the administration over the handling of Jeffrey Epstein files.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email on Sunday for comment.
Why It Matters
Epstein, the financier and sex offender who died in prison six years ago, socialized with some of the world's most powerful people. While his death was ruled a suicide, conspiracy theories persist that he was instead killed due to his purported "client list," which many have speculated to contain the names of politicians including Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew.
Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign suggested he would release files related to Epstein, with a first batch publicized in February by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. However, earlier this week, Trump and Bondi said they found "no incriminating 'client list'" related to Epstein, triggering major backlash among both Democrats and MAGA supporters.
Billionaire Elon Musk last month said the government had not released records related to the case because Trump "is in the Epstein files." While the president has dismissed Musk's claim, it has sparked further interest in the government's records.
What To Know
Speaking with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Trump revealed he had spoken with Bongino earlier on Sunday about his future at the FBI.
The president expressed confidence in his deputy director, emphasizing their long-standing relationship and Bongino's regular appearances on Trump's campaign trail. Trump noted he had "done his show many, many times," referring to The Dan Bongino Show podcast, which ranked as the 56th most-popular podcast on Spotify before Bongino took his FBI position.
The president's comments came amid reports that Bongino was considering resignation following a heated exchange with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the management of Epstein files. According to CNN, Bongino did not report to work on Friday, fueling speculation about his potential departure.
Trump appointed Bongino to his FBI deputy director role in late February, praising him as "great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice." Bongino previously served in the New York Police Department (NYPD) and as a Secret Service agent, protecting Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Quote:Two women were killed, and three others, including a Kentucky State Trooper, were injured after a suspect shot at the officer and fled to the Richmond Road Baptist Church, Kentucky authorities said on Sunday.
Police have confirmed that the suspect is also dead.
Newsweek has reached out to the Lexington Fire Department and the Richmond Road Baptist Church for comment via email on Sunday.
What To Know
"I'm heartbroken to share the shooting in Lexington at Richmond Road Baptist Church has taken the lives of two people," Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post.
Four people were shot at on church property, the two women who were killed and two men who have been transported to the hospital, the Lexington Police Department said in a press release.
"One victim was reported to have sustained critical injuries and the other was reported in stable condition," the police said.
In a second post, the governor wrote: "Violence like this has no place in our commonwealth or country. Please join Britainy and me as we pray for the families of those lost, each one a child of God gone too soon."
A single suspect was involved in two shootings Sunday in Lexington, with the first reported around 11:36 a.m. local time in Fayette County, Kentucky. The suspect "shot a trooper and then fled the scene, ending up at the Richmond Road Baptist Church," the Kentucky State Police (KSP) said in a statement emailed to Newsweek on Sunday afternoon.
The Lexington Police Department said in a Sunday statement the shootings are "connected," noting the first took place "on Terminal Drive, where a Kentucky State Trooper was shot."
The statement continued, "While that shooting occurred on Terminal Drive, it was unrelated to the Blue Grass Airport. The Trooper is in stable condition, receiving medical treatment."
Quote:A McDonald's manager was stabbed to death at work by an employee after an argument at a Detroit-area restaurant on Thursday, police have said.
The victim has been named as Jennifer Harris, a 36-year-old mother-of-six who had worked at the Eastpointe McDonald's, on 9 Mile and Schroeder Avenue, for 15 years.
What To Know
Harris had asked the employee to leave following an argument between the pair, police said. The employee went home but then returned with a kitchen knife and stabbed Harris multiple times shortly before 8 a.m., police said.
The 26-year-old suspect tried to run out of the restaurant after the attack but a customer with a gun fired a warning shot and detained the suspect, police added.
A witness at the drive-thru said the suspect was wearing a mask when she returned, according to Fox2Detroit.
"She started stabbing her and I ran for help and basically asked everybody like "help help" or whatever," the witness said. "I tried to stop her - it was no stopping her. She stabbed her everywhere."
Harris' daughter Antonia Griffin told reporters: "My momma was a good person, she was the best mom anybody could ever ask for. My momma, she woke up every day to work for us. My momma died trying to take care of us!"
The Context
Workplace violence remains a persistent problem in the United States. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that about 2 million American workers experience workplace violence each year.
Hospitality workers experience 8 percent of workplace violence cases with guest interactions and late-night hours contributing to vulnerability, according to the report.
Quote:North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reaffirmed his country's "unconditional support" for Russia in the Ukraine war, telling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday that he strongly believes Moscow will emerge victorious from the conflict.
The exchange between the two was reported by North Korea state news agency KCNA on Sunday, which described the meeting between the so-called supreme leader and Lavrov as taking place in "an atmosphere full of warm comradely trust."
A Tightening Partnership
Kim and Lavrov met in the eastern coastal city of Wonsan during the Russian top diplomat's three-day visit to North Korea, the latest in a recent series of trips meant to further tighten the relationship between the two pariah countries.
The strategic partnership between the two countries, which position themselves as allies against the same West which has isolated them, has quickly escalated in recent years—in a way that experts consider dangerous. If in the first months following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022 the relationship between the two countries was based on rather practical cash-for-weapon exchange, Pyongyang has recently gone as far in its support as sending more than 10,000 troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
Kim's recent statement to Lavrov suggests that there is no turning back for North Korea, even as the country has admitted losing hundreds of soldiers in Ukraine.
"Kim Jong Un reaffirmed that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) is ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis," KCNA wrote on Sunday.
Russia seems equally as enthusiastic about the friendship between the two countries. On Saturday, Lavrov was quoted on Russian media as celebrating Moscow and Pyongyang as "an invincible fighting brotherhood." The Russian diplomat also reportedly thanked Kim for the deployment of his country's troops to Ukraine.
What Is Happening In Ukraine
On the same day of the meeting between Kim and Lavrov, Ukraine said that Russia fired hundreds of drones and long-range missiles across the country overnight, in what the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) described as the third combined strike with over 400 drones and missiles in July alone.
"Twenty-six cruise missiles and 597 attack drones were launched, of which more than half were 'Shaheds' [Iranian-made drones]," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening speech. According to the Ukrainian air force, 319 Shahed drones and 25 missiles were brought down, while one missile and about 20 drones had hit "five locations."
"The Russians are intensifying terror against cities and communities to increasingly intimidate our people. But despite Moscow's plans, the air defense forces are achieving good results," Zelensky wrote on X.
It seems sort of clear now that North Korea is heavily training its military to make its soldiers become truly professional combatants, and this might only mean they're waiting for the day when another war starts. But this time it'll be in the Pacific theater.
Quote:Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said on Sunday that it successfully tracked down and "neutralized" two Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents who were suspected of assassinating Colonel Ivan Voronych, a high-ranking SBU Special Operations Centre officer, in Kyiv on July 10.
Newsweek has contacted the SBU, Ukrainian officials, and the FSB on Sunday via email for comment.
Why It Matters
Colonel Voronych served in the Special Operations Center (Alpha) and led high-risk operations targeting Russian military assets. As reported by RBC-Ukraine, his unit was involved in sabotage operations behind enemy lines and was credited with eliminating high-ranking members of the Russian administration.
His assassination marked a significant and brazen escalation in the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia that began in February 2022 when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded the Eastern European nation.
What To Know
As reported by Newsweek, Voronych was shot dead as he left his home in Kyiv on Thursday morning. A masked gunman approached the senior intelligence officer from a residential parking lot and shot him several times with a silenced handgun before fleeing.
According to SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk, the two agents, identified as a man and a woman, were dispatched into Ukraine several days before Voronych was gunned down in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district.
Surveillance footage captured the two suspects following Voronych to a firearms cache where they retrieved a suppressed pistol. Around 9 a.m. local time on July 10, they ambushed and fatally shot him.
An update posted to the Ukrainian government Telegram channel stated: "The SBU eliminated the killers who killed the Security Service colonel in Kyiv. During a special operation, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine eliminated agents of the Russian special services who, on the instructions of the FSB of the Russian Federation, carried out the murder of the SBU colonel in Kyiv.
"The special operation to find the killers of the Ukrainian defender was personally led by the head of the SBU, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk. The FSB agent-combat group was routed to Ukraine in advance and three days ago committed the murder of an SBU employee, our brother Colonel Ivan Voronych."
SBU and National Police located the pair in Kyiv Oblast during a special operation led personally by Malyuk. When the agents resisted arrest, a gunfight ensued, ending with both suspects being killed in the operation
"SBU and National Police officers established their location in the Kyiv region. This morning, a special operation was conducted, during which members of the FSB intelligence and combat group of the Russian Federation began to resist, so they were eliminated," the post said.
It went on to say that the head of the Ukrainian special service thanked the employees of the National Police of Ukraine for their professionalism and support, emphasizing that "effective counteraction to Russian special services is a key area of activity for the Security Service."
Quote:Finland has formally notified the United Nations (U.N.) of its intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, which bans the use of antipersonnel land mines, according to Reuters—a move that several European allies have made in the face of Russia's ongoing aggression in Ukraine.
Newsweek reached out to NATO via email outside of normal business hours on Friday night for comment.
Why It Matters
The move by Finland, a country sharing an 830-mile border with Russia, highlights growing apprehension in Eastern Europe due to the heightened threat of Russian invasion. Finland joined NATO after decades of holding a position of neutrality between the alliance and Russia, but changed course following the invasion of Ukraine.
In a joint statement earlier this year, Poland and the Baltic defense ministers said their decision would send "a clear message: Our countries are prepared and can use every necessary measure to defend our territory and freedom."
The Ottawa Convention, which took effect in 1999, requires signatory states to ban the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines. Finland's withdrawal was announced as regional partners—including Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—also indicated their exit amid fears of Russia's military actions following its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, international watchdog Landmine Monitor reported that Russia and other countries had actively used land mines in recent conflicts. At least 5,757 people were killed or wounded by the mines and unexploded ordnance in the past year, most of whom were civilians—including significant numbers of children.
Comrade Peskov is back after discovering that water is wet!
Quote:Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peksov has admitted there is "unprecedented" military censorship of the media in Russia, but defended it as necessary in the current circumstances, as Moscow's invasion of Ukraine continues.
Peksov, speaking to Russia's Expert magazine, acknowledged that many independent publications had closed down and journalists had left the country.
"But do not forget the situation we are in," Peskov said, in comments translated from Russian, in the interview published on Friday, July 11.
"Now is the time of military censorship—unprecedented for our country.
"After all, the war is also going on in the information space. And it would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the media that are deliberately engaged in discrediting Russia. Therefore, I believe that this regime is justified now."
Russia Throttles Media Freedom
According to Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group focused on media freedom, almost all independent media sources in Russia have been banned, blocked, or subjected to censorship and other sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"The remaining media are owned by the state or by Kremlin allies. Their employees must follow orders issued by the president's office regarding subjects to be avoided, and must censor themselves closely," says Reporters Without Borders.
Most Russians consume news via television, whose channels are heavily controlled by the government.
Moscow has framed the conflict in Ukraine as a "special military operation" against what it characterizes as a "Nazi" regime, and says it is pushing back against Western threats to Russia's security as well as attempts to eradicate its culture.
Ukraine says Russia has launched a brutal imperial war of aggression to seize control of a neighbor and remove its sovereignty to prevent it joining groups such as the European Union (EU) and the U.S.-led defensive alliance NATO.
Peskov Praises New 'Patriotism' in Coverage
Peskov praised the Russian media for becoming increasingly "patriotic" in its coverage.
"I think that most people have always had a sense of love for Russia and pride in it, but it was not customary for many media outlets to promote such an agenda," he told Expert.
"I would even say that part of the editorial policy of a number of Russian media was to express skepticism toward their own country."
But he said there "will come a time when a softer information policy will be in demand, and then we will see the emergence of more neutral media that write about both problems and achievements."
If you were asking yourself if Soviet Russia was alive and kicking, this should open your eyes to the saddening and bloody red truth.
Quote:Two heavily armed Chinese coast guard vessels have been tracked in what Tokyo considers to be territorial waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands, according to the Japanese coast guard.
...
Japan administers the uninhabited islands, which China and Taiwan have long claimed—calling them the Diaoyu and Diaoyutai, respectively. Japan's nationalization of the islands in 2012 prompted China to step up its activities in the area.
The latest patrols come against a backdrop of tensions between the U.S. ally over China's military buildup. Analysts say China is using its coast guard to normalize its presence in disputed waters through "gray zone" actions that stop short of what would likely trigger a military response.
What To Know
The pair of Chinese coast guard cutters crossed into Japan-claimed territorial waters—which extend 12 nautical miles, or about 14 miles, from shore—near the Senkaku Islands early Wednesday morning, Japan's coast guard told local media.
The vessels, both of which were equipped with deck-mounted autocannons, attempted to approach a Japanese fishing boat operating in the area, the agency added.
Japan's coast guard said its ships had repeatedly ordered their Chinese counterparts to leave the area and managed to prevent them from sailing closer to the fishing vessel.
Nevertheless, both Chinese ships were still operating in territorial waters as of Thursday and were again successfully blocked from intercepting a fishing boat, the agency said, criticizing the move as "a violation of international law."
Quote:Iran is prepared to resume talks with the United States but only if it meets certain conditions, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
Iran's suggestion that talks can be resumed comes nearly three weeks after President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iran aimed at stopping its nuclear program following initial Israeli strikes.
Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Department of State for comment.
Why It Matters
The comments and the setting of conditions indicate the challenge to reviving talks.
The impact of the U.S. strikes on the Iranian facilities is not clear, leading to speculation of more attacks and major questions over efforts to revive diplomatic engagement between the two long-time adversaries.
Iran's nuclear program may get more difficult to monitor if no deal is reached with the United States. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has withdrawn its inspectors and nuclear experts believe Iran relocated more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium—enough for 10 nuclear weapons—to a secret location.
What To Know
Araghchi, in a written interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, said the United States should compensate for the "serious damages" caused by the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and guarantee there won't be more attacks. He also warned that sanctions complicate diplomacy and efforts to build trust around Iran's nuclear program.
"It was the U.S. that broke off negotiations and turned to military action. It is therefore essential that responsibility for these mistakes is acknowledged and that a clear sign of a change in behavior is observed," Araghchi said.
LATIN AMERICA
Please keep in mind that China is involved in this mega project.
Quote:Brazil and China have signed an agreement to launch a technical, environmental and economic feasibility study for a proposed 2,800-mile railway linking Brazil's Atlantic coast with Peru's Pacific port of Chancay.
The memorandum of understanding, made public on Monday, was agreed between Infra S.A., a Brazilian state-owned entity attached to the Ministry of Transport, and the China Railway Economic and Planning Research Institute.
Why It Matters
The proposed transcontinental corridor, if constructed, would represent a multibillion-dollar logistical overhaul for cross-continental trade, with estimates suggesting the cost could rise above $70 billion. Linking Brazil's Atlantic coast with the Pacific Ocean in Peru could shorten shipping times to Asian markets by as much as 12 days compared with current routes passing through the Panama Canal.
This diversification of trade infrastructure could decrease dependence on maritime choke points and foster expanded economic ties between South America and Asia. Infrastructure improvements on such a scale could make South American exports more competitive in Asian markets and potentially realign global supply chains.
What To Know
The feasibility study follows months of growing engagement between Brazil and China. In April, a Chinese delegation visited Brazil's Fico and Fiol railway lines, which are anticipated as important components for the larger corridor. The same group toured the Port of Santos, the busiest port in Latin America, which is also being expanded with Chinese investment.
The planned 2,800 miles of rail line would stretch from Ilhéus, Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, through the Amazon and the state of Acre, and ultimately cross the Andes Mountains into Peru.
The final destination would be Chancay, a major Pacific port. The project's cost, estimated at over $70 billion, makes it one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in South American history. As of the agreement, both countries have limited their commitment to a feasibility study, which will examine technical, environmental and economic implications. The study is projected to take up to five years before any construction could begin.
The feasibility study will need to account for significant logistical, technical and environmental hurdles. The planned railway traverses ecologically sensitive regions including portions of the Amazon rainforest and the Andes Mountains, raising concerns about potential impacts.
Both parties remain in the study phase and have not made final commitments on route selection or environmental mitigation.
The memorandum was signed after months of negotiation and on-site assessments, including a review of Fico and Fiol.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:The U.S. Supreme Court said President Donald Trump's administration can proceed with plans to lay off some 1,400 employees at the Department of Education—marking another win for the White House from the conservative-leaning high court.
A majority of the justices lifted a lower-court ruling that had indefinitely paused the administration's plan. Liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
"Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press release.
"While today's ruling is a significant win for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution."
Quote:Three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were killed in a blast at a compound that houses the agency’s arson and explosive unit on Friday morning.
The explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training facility in East Los Angeles resulted in the department’s worst loss of life in a single event since 1857.
The officers were identified as Detective Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Detective Victor Lemus and Detective William Osborn, all of whom were assigned to the Special Enforcement Bureau’s Arson Explosives Detail.
The fallen members — whose elite unit responds to 1,000 calls yearly — were longtime veterans who had been on the job for 19, 22 and 33 years, respectively.
The three were remembered as heroes by the county’s top cop.
“There are no words to express the pain and sorrow we feel,” Sheriff Robert Luna said late Friday night. “These heroes represented the best of our Department, exemplifying courage, integrity, and selfless service. This is not only a heartbreaking loss for their families, but for all of us.”
At an earlier press briefing, he said they were “fantastic experts and, unfortunately, I lost three of them today.”
It’s unclear what sparked the deadly blast, though investigators are preliminarily looking at a possible training accident, a person briefed on the matter told the Associated Press.
Aerial footage from local news helicopters showed the explosion happened in a parking lot where patrol cars and box trucks were parked.
No other injuries were reported, and the scene was deemed safe about four hours after the explosion.
“There is currently an investigation going on to determine what happened from the very beginning to the end,” Luna said. “I know everybody wants answers, please understand we just rendered the scene safe.”
Quote:Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made a quick U-turn Thursday after initially fuming that the discourse surrounding government documents related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was a “distraction.”
About an hour after suggesting that Americans should focus on the debate over the rescissions package being considered in Congress, rather than the so-called “Epstein files,” Pelosi weighed in on President Trump’s handling of the convicted sex predator’s case – demanding that documents be released.
“This is a distraction,” Pelosi told MSNBC host Chris Jansing, when asked about what Trump could do to get his supporters to move on from the Epstein matter. “We have major issues right here with things we’re voting on today in the Congress.”
“And instead we’re talking about him – about this thing, and his own base has its own views of what the president should do,” she continued.
“I’ll leave it up to them to talk it out.”
“[W]hether it’s Jeffrey Epstein or Alcatraz, it’s all off the subject of what they’re doing with this budget that is harmful to the kitchen table, meeting the kitchen-table needs of the American people,” Pelosi fumed.
When asked to clarify her comments, Pelosi doubled-down, calling the Epstein debate and Trump’s vision of refurbishing Alcatraz so it can once again house prisoners “both distractions.”
“I think that they’re off the subject of what is happening, changing the character and the culture of America by undermining – by placing huge, trillions of dollars of national debt on future generations to carry forward at the expense of the health, nutrition and education of the American people,” she argued.
Quote:President Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi Thursday to release “pertinent” grand jury testimony in the case of notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — so long as a court allows it.
“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!” the president added.
Trump’s decision follows intense pressure from his base for more transparency in the case, and comes hours after The Wall Street Journal published a story about a note he allegedly wrote to Epstein.
Grand jury testimony in the Epstein case took place in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York — and Bondi indicated that she would petition the court Friday for the release of the files.
“President Trump — we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,” Bondi wrote on X.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, a month after he was charged with sex trafficking minors by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The FBI and Justice Department announced the conclusion of a “systematic review” of the Epstein case last week in a controversial, unsigned memo.
The review found “no credible evidence” that Epstein “blackmailed prominent individuals” or that investigations against “uncharged third parties” were warranted.
Investigators also concluded the financier died by suicide and never had a “client list” of powerful associates allegedly implicated in his sickening crimes.
The memo indicated that no further disclosures would be made in the case.
Trump, backing the FBI and DOJ’s decision, has described the case as a “hoax” and has urged his supporters to move on from the issue since the release of the memo.
Quote:President Trump sued the publisher of The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over an allegedly “fake” and “defamatory” article that claimed he sent a lewd letter, with the drawn outline of a naked woman, to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.
News Corp, its chair emeritus Rupert Murdoch and chief executive Robert Thomson; Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher; and the reporters who authored the report were named as defendants in the suit filed Friday in federal court in the Southern District of Florida.
A Dow Jones spokesperson responded: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
Reps for News Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit, which seeks $10 billion in damages, stated “no authentic letter or drawing exists” showing Trump, 79, using “salacious language” to wish Epstein a happy 50th birthday in 2003.
“To attempt and inextricably link President Trump to Epstein, Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo falsely claim that the salacious language of the letter is contained within a hand-drawn naked woman, which was created with a heavy marker,” wrote Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito.
The report goes on to “provide a series of quotes from the nonexistent letter, claiming that the letter was written in third person, beginning with a voice over interluding a conversation, followed by a purported dialogue between President Trump and Epstein — as if they were characters in a play.”
Brito also accused the Journal of trying to “falsely represent as fact that President Trump drew the naked woman’s breasts and signed his name ‘Donald’ below her waist, ‘mimicking pubic hair.'”
“Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light,” the suit alleged.
Quote:An undocumented woman faked her own kidnapping and blamed it on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to generate sympathy and donations, the Justice Department has claimed.
The DOJ said in a press release Thursday Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, a 41-year-old from Los Angeles, was taken into ICE custody and charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers.
The case comes amid criticism of President Donald Trump’s mass immigration deportation efforts, which have brought a spike in immigration raids across the country.
Federal prosecutors claimed, citing court documents filed Wednesday, that an attorney representing Calderon’s family held a press conference on June 30 saying the woman was kidnapped five days earlier in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in Los Angeles.
The lawyer claimed she was brought to San Ysidro near the southern border, where “she was presented to [a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] staffer” and “presented with voluntary self-deportation paperwork,” prosecutors said.
When Calderon refused to sign the papers and demanded to speak to a judge and a lawyer, “she was punished” and sent to a warehouse in an undisclosed location, the attorney claimed, according to prosecutors.
A GoFundMe page with a fundraising goal of $4,500 was set up by Calderon’s daughter, who claimed her mother “was taken by masked men in an unmarked vehicle…when she was on her way to work,” according to the DOJ’s press release.
A fundraising page matching the DOJ’s description said Calderon is the head of the family household and describes her as an “amazing mother and very dedicated.”
Her daughter said her mother takes care of her, two teenage children and two adults with disabilities.
“We are asking for help because we are also facing an eviction. Every single dollar could help us at this moment, and we are hoping that we could find out where they have her. We have already looked in detention centers as well as warehouses, and we still have no idea why they did not process her,” Calderon’s daughter wrote on the page.
When The Independent reached out to GoFundMe about the $80 raised on Calderon’s behalf, a spokesperson for the company said: “GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform, or any attempt to exploit the generosity of others, and cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing.
“This fundraiser was removed from the platform and the $80 raised was refunded; at no point did the organizer have access to any of the funds. The GoFundMe Giving Guarantee guarantees donors a full refund in the rare case something isn’t right.”
Quote:A federal judge blocked on Friday the enforcement of US President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting those who work with the International Criminal Court.
The ruling follows an April lawsuit by two human rights advocates challenging Trump’s February 6 order authorizing potentially far-reaching economic and travel sanctions on people who work on ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies, such as Israel.
In her ruling, US District Judge Nancy Torresen called the executive order an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.
“The executive order appears to restrict substantially more speech than necessary to further that end,” she wrote.
“The executive order broadly prohibits any speech-based services that benefit the prosecutor, regardless of whether those beneficial services relate to an ICC investigation of the United States, Israel, or another US ally.”
The White House and the ICC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The executive order imposed sanctions on ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who is British. The US treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also places him on a registry of sanctioned individuals and entities.
US citizens who provide services for the benefit of Khan or other sanctioned individuals could face civil and criminal penalties, according to the order, which has been condemned by the ICC and dozens of countries.
Has that judge ever thought that the ICC might have overreached its own legal authority in the US and Israel by any chance?
Quote:The Trump administration is offering former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers up to $50,000 in bonuses to rejoin the agency now that it has additional funding to carry out migrant deportation arrests.
“You served the United States of America with distinction and honor. Now, your country calls upon you to serve once more,” read an email sent by ICE to a retired employee and obtained by The Post.
“Due to the prior administration’s disastrous immigration policies, the men and women of ICE now face unprecedented challenges,” the message continued. “Your experience and unwavering commitment are critically needed to secure our communities and uphold our laws.”
The “urgent call” to former ICE officers has been dubbed “Operation Return to Mission.”
As part of the deal, returning employees may serve in their “current location and previous job series,” and they could be eligible for lucrative bonuses.
ICE is offering a signing bonus of $10,000 upon returning to service; another $10,000 bonus for those who submit applications by Aug. 1; and annual $10,000 bonuses, for up to three years, for those who take part in Operation Return to Service.
The agency notes that “dual compensation waivers” will also be offered, allowing former federal workers to retain pension payments and benefits if they come out of retirement.
“By returning to ICE, you are providing an honorable, indispensable service to our nation,” the email said.
ICE noted that President Trump’s July 4 signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has allowed the agency to “significantly” grow its team and that it is “starting with bringing back our former colleagues.”
The massive piece of legislation granted ICE $75 billion in extra funding to carry out Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including $30 billion for arrest and deportation efforts and $45 billion to expand detention capabilities.
Quote:The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the elimination of its research and development office Friday, along with thousands of job cuts that will save taxpayers nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.
The reduction in force (RIF) will target the Office of Research and Development, the EPA’s scientific research arm which informs decision making, the agency said.
The EPA expects the overhaul to result in $748.8 million in savings.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.
“This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,” he added.
The EPA previously announced that it planned to shift scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that handle “statutory obligations and mission essential functions,” such as ensuring clean air and water.
The agency also said it is creating a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions that will “allow EPA to prioritize research and science more than ever before and put it at the forefront of rulemakings and technical assistance to states.”
EPA union leader Justin Chen slammed the decision to axe the Office of Research and Development, which he described as “the heart and brain” of the agency.
Quote:CBS brass say they pulled the plug on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” because of its punishing losses — pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year — and claim politics had nothing to do with it, The Post has learned.
The 61-year-old host got canned just days after he took a dig at the Tiffany Network over its $16 million settlement with Donald Trump over a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris as the network’s parent Paramount negotiates with the Trump administration regulatory approval for its $8 billion sale to independent studio Skydance.
“I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company,” Colbert said of the truce in his Monday night monologue.
“But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”
‘Gets no advertising’
But scathing jokes at the expense of CBS brass wasn’t the problem, according to insiders.
Instead, the network’s bosses could no longer stomach the fact that Colbert has been plagued with an increasingly dire shortage of advertisers.
That’s despite Colbert’s No, 1 ratings in his time slot and his status as a key face for the Tiffany Network.
In the end, Paramount’s co-CEO George Cheeks decided to kill the show, sources said.
“Colbert gets no advertising and late night is a tough spot,” said a person with direct knowledge of CBS’s decision.
“Colbert might be No. 1, but who watches late night TV anymore?”
Some Democrats voiced suspicion, citing the host’s left-wing leanings and CBS owner Paramount’s urgent need to gain an OK from the Trump administration for the merger with Skydance, the Hollywood studio behind the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” lefty Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote on X.
“America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
Skydance CEO David Ellison is the son of Donald Trump pal and tech billionaire Larry Ellison.
As The Post first reported, CBS just paid $16 million to Trump and has agreed to run millions of dollars more in MAGA-friendly ads to settle the president’s lawsuit alleging that “60 Minutes” deceptively edited its 2024 interview with Kamala Harris to make her look better.
Trump, meanwhile, celebrated Colbert’s canning in a Friday morning post on Truth Social.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” the president wrote.
Quote:The Obama administration knew before and after the 2016 election that Russia did not affect the vote’s outcome through cyberattacks, according to a bombshell document released by the Trump administration Friday.
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard made public more than 100 pages of emails, memos and other records cataloguing what she called Obama officials’ “conspiracy to subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory.”
Both before and after Democrat Hillary Clinton’s loss, the US Intelligence Community assessed that Russia played no significant role influencing the election.
Among the documents was a Sept. 12, 2016, Intelligence Community Assessment that determined “foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain the capabilities to successfully execute widespread and undetected cyber attacks” on election infrastructure.
On Dec. 7, 2016, then-DNI James Clapper’s office also concluded: “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome” and “We have no evidence of cyber manipulation of election infrastructure intended to alter results.”
Other findings, prepared the following day for Obama’s Presidential Daily Brief, only pointed to the “likely” hacking of an Illinois voter registration database that did not affect the electoral count and was “unsuccessfully attempted” in other states.
“Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes,” the draft of the brief stated.
But those findings were suppressed after the FBI — led by Director James Comey — said it was going to “dissent” from the draft’s conclusions “based on some new guidance.”
Clapper then spearheaded an alternative intelligence report claiming the Kremlin orchestrated hackings of Democratic National Committee emails, thousands of which were later posted online by Wikileaks, and intervened in the presidential contest in favor of Trump.
Several officials — including CIA Director John Brennan, Secretary of State John Kerry, and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe — met at the White House on Dec. 9, 2016, where Obama began “tasking” each to look into “Russia Election Meddling.”
White House chief of staff Denis McDonogh, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also attended that meeting.
The 44th president ordered a new intelligence assessment from the CIA, FBI, NSA and DHS, with comprehensive information about Russia’s activities related to the US presidential race by early January — an assessment which ended up including the since-debunked dossier produced by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.
Quote:United States will revoke visas from other seven justices of Brazilian Supreme Court, in addition to judge Alexandre de Moraes, local newspaper O Globo reported on Friday, without citing its source.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced earlier the immediate visa revocations from “Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members”, citing court orders against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders against Bolsonaro on Friday, banning him from contacting foreign officials over allegations he courted the interference of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump has already tried to use pressure to help Bolsonaro by announcing a 50% tariff on goods from Latin America’s No. 1 economy.
Bolsonaro told Reuters that he believed the court orders were a reaction to Trump’s criticism of his trial before the Supreme Court for trying to overturn the last election.
The court’s crackdown on Bolsonaro added to evidence that Trump’s tactics are backfiring in Brazil, compounding trouble for his ideological ally and rallying public support behind a defiant leftist government.
Bolsonaro was banned from contacting foreign officials, using social media or approaching embassies, according to the decision issued by Moraes, who cited a “concrete possibility” of him fleeing the country. His home was raided by federal police and he had an ankle monitor placed on him.
In an interview with Reuters at his party’s headquarters on Friday, Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator” and described the latest court orders as acts of “cowardice.”
Quote:A Minnesota state senator was convicted of burglary Friday for breaking into her estranged stepmother’s home, and faced calls for her immediate resignation from a closely divided chamber where she holds a deciding vote.
After about three hours of deliberations, the jury found Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell, 51, guilty of first-degree burglary and possession of burglary tools.
She told police right after her arrest that she went there to search for her father’s ashes and other mementos, but tried to back away from that story on the witness stand.
Mitchell displayed little emotion as the verdicts were read.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy was quick to issue a statement saying that Mitchell has told colleagues that she planned to resign if convicted, “and I expect her to follow through on that pledge.”
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson reiterated the GOP’s long-standing demand for immediate resignation or face expulsion.
Gov. Tim Walz’s office said he expects her to resign.
But one of Mitchell’s attorneys, Dane DeKrey, said in text messages that he didn’t know if she would heed the calls. He said they’re exploring their options for an appeal.
The Democrat from the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury maintained her innocence and refused to resign since her arrest in the early hours of April 22, 2024, at her stepmother’s home in the northwestern Minnesota city of Detroit Lakes.
Mitchell’s father died in 2023 at the age of 72.
He had been married to Mitchell’s stepmother, Carol Mitchell, for nearly 40 years.
The jury saw bodycam video of Mitchell telling police repeatedly after her arrest that she broke into the home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her father, including some of his ashes, photos and a flannel shirt.
Quote:The Big Apple will devolve into a crime-ridden dystopia unsafe for civilians and cops alike if socialist Zohran Mamdani wins the keys to City Hall, Mayor Adams predicted.
The far-left Democratic mayoral nominee’s anti-cop, soft-on-crime agenda will destroy the work Adams has done driving down major crimes in his first term, Hizzoner warned in an exclusive sit-down Thursday on the backyard porch of Gracie Mansion.
“Look at [Mandani’s] policies: once you empty out Rikers Island, that’s a major impact,” he told The Post, referring to Mamdani’s plan to drastically lower the jail complex’s 7,600 population. “It’s going to go back to the communities that crime came from.”
Adams, a retired NYPD captain, said Mamdani’s plan to have social workers respond to domestic violence calls — rather than cops — is another recipe for disaster.
He referred to NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, and his rookie partner Jason Rivera, 22, who were shot dead by 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil on Jan. 21, 2022 in East Harlem.
“Mora and Rivera, the two cops who were shot in the beginning of my [mayoral] career, they died and were assassinated responding to a domestic violence call,” said Adams, whose voice cracked with emotion while delivering eulogies at memorial services for the men days later.
“I think that we’re going to see some real errors” if Mamdani is elected mayor, Adams said. “His policies are harmful to the city.”
During a wide-ranging interview, Adams, sporting a gray pinstripe suit, black loafers and a silver watch, insisted he’s had to waste too much time in office “cleaning up” a “mess” he inherited thanks to state bail reform laws and other left-wing policies implemented under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a registered Democrat who like Adams is also running for mayor as an independent.
He also insisted a bombshell lawsuit filed this week by former top cop Tom Donlon accusing him of running the NYPD like a criminal enterprise is both “baseless” and “politically” motivated — and that he has a great working relationship with current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who he wants back if he’s reelected.
Quote:More than 30 people were hurt after a driver plowed into a crowd standing outside an East Hollywood nightclub on Friday night, according to officials.
Seven of the victims were in critical condition after the incident, which unfolded at 2 a.m. Saturday when a Nissan Versa flew into the crowd outside of The Vermont Hollywood club on Santa Monica Boulevard, near the intersection of Vermont Avenue, officials said.
“They were all standing in line going into a nightclub. There was a taco cart out there, so they were…getting some food, waiting to go in. And there’s also a valet line out there,” Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Adam VanGerpen said. “The valet podium was taken out, the taco truck was taken out, and then a large number of people were impacted by the vehicle.”
The majority of the people in line for the concert at the nightclub, which was billed as “So-Cal’s Biggest Reggaeton & Hip-Hop Party,” were women, according to VanGerpen.
At least three victims were in critical condition.
One of the patients had a gunshot wound, said paramedics, but the victim had yet to be identified and it was unclear if that victim was connected to the crash.
The majority of the 31 patients were being treated and transported to area hospitals and trauma centers, Van Gerpen said.
The cause of the crash was being probed, officials said.
“This is under police investigation,” VanGerpen said. “This will be a large investigation with the LAPD.”
People inside the club came out to help the victims in the minutes before emergency crews arrived on the scene, the captain said.
Quote:A stolen plane triggered a major security incident at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) on Tuesday afternoon, temporarily halting operations and forcing multiple flights to reroute.
Just before 1:30 p.m. local time on July 15, a “security incident” involving a small private plane led to a temporary halt in airport operations, according to a statement from YVR.
The plane, flying within YVR’s airspace, forced nine incoming flights to reroute to different airports.
At approximately 1:45 p.m., following a 39-minute air traffic suspension, the Cessna 172, operated by a single individual, safely landed.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) then apprehended the pilot.
In an air traffic control recording obtained by the Vancouver Sun via LiveATC.net, a controller alerted other pilots: “We do have an aircraft that has been hijacked and is in the vicinity of the airport … just in case anything starts heading toward [you], you have the ability to move at your discretion.”
“They are currently flying overhead,” a voice from air traffic control can be heard saying.
“At this time, I have no further updates. We have the aircraft in visual range—please stand by for further instructions.”
Later, air traffic controllers instructed grounded aircraft to remain on standby during the ongoing situation:
“We’re not certain what will happen next. The aircraft continues to circle above, and its intentions remain unknown. For now, we are holding position.”
RCMP later confirmed that the aircraft had been taken from Victoria International Airport and had flown around 40 miles into Vancouver’s airspace.
Quote:The Mexico City government on Wednesday announced a preliminary plan to deal with gentrification, a week after a fierce protest against rising housing prices some link to mass tourism and an increase in foreigners often called “digital nomads” who live temporarily in the capital city.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada said the plan will include regulation so that landlords cannot increase rents above inflation. Authorities will also share a list of “reasonable rental” proposals.
Brugada said her government will open a discussion with residents of Mexico’s capital about her plan, but that the idea is to work on a bill that includes measures to promote affordable rent.
The protest in early July was fueled by government failures and active promotion to attract digital nomads who work remotely often for foreign companies from Mexico City, according to experts.
Hundreds of people marched in neighborhoods popular with tourists, but the demonstration turned violent when a small number of people began smashing storefronts and harassing foreigners.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the protest was marked by xenophobia.
“The xenophobic displays seen at that protest have to be condemned. No one should be able to say ‘any nationality get out of our country’ even over a legitimate problem like gentrification,” Sheinbaum said back then.
Many Mexicans have complained about being priced out of their neighborhoods — in part because of a move made by Sheinbaum in 2022, when she was the Mexico City mayor and signed an agreement with Airbnb and UNESCO to boost tourism and attract digital nomads despite concern over the impact short-term rentals could have.
During the protest, some people marched with signs reading “Gringo: Stop stealing our home” and “Housing regulations now!”
Some anti-gentrification groups have called for a new protest this weekend.
So now the Mexican president is promising to solve the very same issue she caused in the first place!?
Quote:Authorities at the Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport (P.G.I.A.) say they were alerted to a U.S. man who was hijacking a small plane in Belize on Thursday.
The man stabbed two passengers and a pilot, before one of the stabbed passengers fatally shot him, according to officials in Belize and the United States. The passenger was licensed to carry a firearm and later turned his weapon over to the police.
"We are praying for him," Chester Williams, Belize police commissioner, told reporters. "He’s our hero."
Williams identified the hijacker as Akinyela Taylor and said he was a U.S. military veteran, a report by The Associated Press said. U.S. officials could not confirm the Belize police commissioner’s statement that Taylor was a military veteran.
The air flight Cessna Caravan V3HIG from Corozal to San Pedro had 14 passengers and 2 crew members onboard, the statement from P.G.I.A. said.
A full emergency was declared immediately after the incident started and the aircraft circled in random directions for approximately two hours until finally landing safely at the P.G.I.A., according to a statement by the Belize Airport Concession Company.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a news briefing in Washington that officials were still gathering information about what occurred.
"Horrifying," she said. "We are grateful, I think all of us are, that it did not turn into a mass casualty event with, I believe, over a dozen people on the plane. Clearly we know a few details. We don’t know much more."
U.S. officials said they did not know the motive for Taylor’s hijacking but were working with Belizean authorities to determine what happened.
Quote:A German doctor went on trial in Berlin Monday, accused of murdering 15 of his patients who were under palliative care.
The prosecutor’s office brought charges against the 40-year-old doctor “for 15 counts of murder with premeditated malice and other base motives” before a Berlin state court. The prosecutor’s office is seeking not only a conviction and a finding of “particularly serious” guilt, but also a lifetime ban on practicing medicine and subsequent preventive detention.
Murder charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. If a court establishes that the defendant bears particularly severe guilt, that means he wouldn’t be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany.
Parallel to the trial, the prosecutor’s office is investigating dozens of other suspected cases in separate proceedings.
The man, who has only been identified as Johannes M. in line with Germany privacy rules, is also accused of trying to cover up evidence of the murders by starting fires in the victims’ homes. He has been in custody since Aug. 6.
The doctor was part of a nursing service’s end-of-life care team in the German capital and was initially suspected in the deaths of just four patients. That number has crept higher since last summer, and prosecutors are now accusing him of the deaths of 15 people between Sept. 22, 2021, and July 24 last year.
The victims’ ages ranged from 25 to 94. Most died in their own homes.
The doctor allegedly administered an anesthetic and a muscle relaxer to the patients without their knowledge or consent. The drug cocktail then allegedly paralyzed the respiratory muscles. Respiratory arrest and death followed within minutes, prosecutors said.
Quote:A mosaic panel on travertine slabs, depicting an erotic theme from the Roman era, was returned to the archaeological park of Pompeii on Tuesday, after being stolen by a Nazi German captain during World War II.
The artwork was repatriated from Germany through diplomatic channels, arranged by the Italian Consulate in Stuttgart, Germany, after having been returned from the heirs of the last owner, a deceased German citizen.
The owner had received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht captain, assigned to the military supply chain in Italy during the war.
The mosaic — dating between mid- to last century B.C. and the first century — is considered a work of “extraordinary cultural interest,” experts said.
“It is the moment when the theme of domestic love becomes an artistic subject,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and co-author of an essay dedicated to the returned work. “While the Hellenistic period, from the fourth to the first century B.C., exulted the passion of mythological and heroic figures, now we see a new theme.”
The heirs of the mosaic’s last owner in Germany contacted the Carabinieri unit in Rome that’s dedicated to protecting cultural heritage, which was in charge of the investigation, asking for information on how to return the mosaic to the Italian state. Authorities carried out the necessary checks to establish its authenticity and provenance, and then worked to repatriate the mosaic in September 2023.
Quote:A Staten Island native came face to face with the worst of Italy’s migrant crisis this week when he was nearly killed while vacationing in Milan.
Nick Pellegrino was attacked on a train Tuesday by a pair of North African migrants, who stabbed him in the neck with a 5-inch knife before making off with his luggage and jewelry — leaving him to die in a pool of his own blood in his family’s homeland, which has experienced a surge in criminal migrants over the past four years.
“With these very loose, lefty immigration laws, these immigrants come into these countries and they’re running amok, trying to murder people. It’s a playground for terror, for the vicious,” said Pellegrino, 29, speaking by phone from his hospital bed in the town of San Donato Milanese.
“It’s f–king crazy,” he said. “I know America has a big immigration problem, but it is worse here.”
Pellegrino — a former teacher at prestigious Monsignor Farrell High School in Oakwood who was visiting friends and family in Italy — recalled looking down at his phone as the train from Melegnano to Milan Bovisa rolled into the San Giuliano Milanese station.
When the train doors opened, his mid-20s, Arabic-speaking attackers darted towards him, stabbing him in the neck, nicking his jugular vein, Pellegrino said.
“They looked like the 9/11 hijackers,” Pellegrino said. “I remember looking at the floor in the train and just seeing the blade of the knife, and the most frightening amount of blood I have ever seen.”
Pellegrino was later told by EMTs he lost about a liter-and-a-half of blood, said Pellegrino, who now teaches religion and coaches track at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco.
Before stealing his luggage and leaving him for dead, Pellegrino’s homicidal attackers snatched the gold crucifix from around his neck, he said.
A blood-soaked Pellegrino managed to stumble onto the train platform, where a 16-year-old boy dialed 112, Italy’s 911 equivalent.
Quote:A volcanic eruption in southwestern Iceland has once again forced the evacuation of local residents and the internationally known Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, the national broadcaster RUV reported.
The eruption began around 4 a.m. following an intense seismic swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, Iceland’s Met Office said.
The town of Grindavik was evacuated shortly after the seismic activity began, with campers and guests at the Blue Lagoon forced to quickly pack their bags, RUV reported.
Lava from the eruption is flowing southeast from a fissure in the barren landscape that is 2,296 to 3,280 feet wide, but the molten rock isn’t threatening any infrastructure, the Met Office said.
Grindavik has been evacuated repeatedly since November 2023 when a volcano in the area came to life after lying dormant for some 800 years.
Quote:France’s prime minister proposed on Tuesday the elimination of two public holidays from the country’s annual calendar — possibly Easter Monday and the day marking the Allied victory over the Nazis — to save money in next year’s budget.
That’s among a raft of spending cuts laid out by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in a sweeping, and potentially doomed, budget plan.
He argued that removing two state holidays would bring in tax revenues generated from economic activity, contributing to around 44 billion euros ($51.3 billion) in overall savings.
President Emmanuel Macron tasked Bayrou with crafting a budget that shaves costs to bring down France’s staggering debt and deficit, while also adding billions in new defense spending to face what Macron says are resurgent threats from Russia and beyond.
Bayrou questioned the religious importance of Easter Monday. And Victory Day, celebrated on May 8, comes in a month that has become a “veritable Gruyere,” or holey cheese, of days off that includes May Day and the Catholic holiday of Ascension, he said.
He said that those holidays were just suggestions, and that he was open to other ideas. France currently has 11 official holidays per year.
With no parliamentary majority, Macron’s centrist grouping must win support from adversaries on the left and right to pass the budget this fall.
Bayrou’s proposals, which are just a first step in the budget process, were quickly assailed by unions and the far-right National Rally, the largest single party in the lower house of Parliament.
Bayrou’s job is precarious, and he could be voted out if he fails to reach a compromise on the budget.
Quote:South Korea’s jailed ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted on additional charges on Saturday as a special prosecutor continues investigating him for his short-lived declaration of martial law in December.
The new charges include obstruction of the exercise of others’ rights by abuse of authority, ordering the deletion of records and blocking the execution of arrest warrants, the prosecutor’s office said in a briefing.
Yoon has been on trial on charges of insurrection, which is punishable by death or life imprisonment, facing additional charges since the special prosecutor was appointed in June to take over the cases against him.
Yoon has denied all wrongdoing. His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new charges.
Quote:North Korea is banning the entry of foreign tourists to a recently opened mega beach resort, a move that dims prospects for the complex that leader Kim Jong Un hailed it as “one of the greatest successes this year.”
DPR Korea Tour, a website run by North Korea’s tourism authorities, said in a notice Friday that the eastern coastal Wonsan-Kalma tourist complex “is temporarily not receiving foreign tourists.”
It gave no further details including why a ban was established or how long it would last.
North Korea says the complex can accommodate nearly 20,000 guests.
The resort opened to domestic tourists July 1 before receiving a small group of Russian tourists last week. Observers expected North Korea to open the resort to Chinese tourists while largely blocking other international tourists.
Ban comes after visit by Russia’s top diplomat
The announcement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew to the complex to meet Kim and Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui for talks last weekend.
North Korea and Russia have sharply expanded military and other cooperation in recent years, with North Korea supplying weapons and troops to back Russia’s war against Ukraine.
During a meeting with Choe, Lavrov promised to take steps to support Russian travel to the zone.
“I am sure that Russian tourists will be increasingly eager to come here,” he said.
But experts say North Korea likely decided to halt foreign travel to the zone because of a newspaper article by a Russian reporter who traveled with Lavrov that implied North Koreans at the zone appeared to be mobilized by authorities and not real tourists.
Quote:President Trump announced Monday the US will send “billions of dollars” worth of weapons to Ukraine via Washington’s NATO allies — and threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” on Moscow’s business partners in 50 days if no peace is agreed to end the 40-month-old war.
The weapons will include “everything,” Trump said during his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office — though the president did not immediately reveal specifics.
The White House also did not provide additional information on the specific weapons sent over to Europe.
When asked whether “Patriot missiles” — officially known as Guided Mulitple Launch Rocket Systems — or “Patriot batteries” would be sent to Ukraine, the president responded: “It is all of them. It is a full complement.”
“We will have some within days,” Trump continued. “A couple of countries that have Patriots will swap over, or replace the Patriots with the ones they have.”
“NATO may choose to have certain of them sent to other countries where we can get a little additional speed, where the country will release something, and it’ll be mostly in the form of a replacement,” he added.
Later Monday, ahead of a White House faith luncheon, the 79-year-old Trump reiterated that there will be “weapons of all kinds” sent across the Atlantic, with other members of the alliance paying for them by raising their defense spending to 5% of GDP over the next decade.
“We are going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them,” Trump said, with Rutte agreeing that European countries should be “stepping up” and paying for the American-made materiel.
“This is really big,” Rutte, 58, said of the announcement, lauding Trump’s leadership in supplying Kyiv with much-needed munitions.
“It will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defense, but also missiles, ammunition, etc., etc.,” the NATO secretary general and former Dutch prime minister added.
Quote:Russia assaulted Ukraine with a fresh wave of deadly drone and missile strikes Wednesday in another audacious rebellion of President Trump’s 50-day peace ultimatum to Vladimir Putin.
Northeastern city Kharkiv was rocked by 17 strikes in just 20 minutes after midnight, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing Ukrainian government officials.
The intense barrage was focused on the city’s Kyivskyi district, where at least two people were killed and several more injured, Reuters reported.
There were also strikes reported to the east of Kharkiv in the town of Kupiansk and in the city of Kryvi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Power and water supplies were knocked out of service at several of the bombed areas, the outlet reported, citing a local military official, and explosions were also heard in Izmail, a city in Odesa Oblast in southern Ukraine.
The deadly strikes mark the second day in a row that the Russian military violently rebelled against Trump’s 50-day peace ultimatum he issued to Putin on Monday.
Early Tuesday morning, Russia killed five and injured 43 others, including two teens and four children, in bombing strikes targeting Sumy, with Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblast also under assault, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Russia claimed to only target military-industrial facilities, but local reports stated several residential buildings, a university and medical sites were also hit by drones, according to EuroNews.
Quote:President Trump reportedly questioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about whether Kyiv could blast Moscow and St Petersburg, but later indicated publicly that Russia’s capital should be off limits.
“Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? … Can you hit St Petersburg too?” Trump asked on a July 4 call with Zelensky, a day after the president had a disappointing phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Financial Times reported, citing multiple sources.
Zelensky, who has pressed Western powers for years to provide more long-range missiles, reportedly replied, “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.”
The president later clarified to reporters Tuesday that Zelensky “shouldn’t target Moscow” and stressed that he’s “on nobody’s side” with the simple goal of stopping the killing. Trump further said that he has no plans to give Ukraine long-range missiles.
The White House insisted in a statement to The Post that the comments should not be taken out of context, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushing back on the Financial Times’ framing of the call, which suggested Trump encouraged Zelensky to step up strikes deep into Russian territory.
“The Financial Times is notorious for taking words wildly out of context to get clicks because their paper is dying,” Leavitt told The Post.
“President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. He’s working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war.”
Trump’s reported query came after he spoke with Putin and was left convinced that the Kremlin wasn’t going to halt its war machine.
The reported question marks a significant turnaround from Trump’s explosive Feb. 28 Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, in which he raged that the Ukrainian leader was “gambling with World War III” and that “you don’t have the cards right now.”
On Monday, Trump announced a deal with NATO for the US to step up its supply of weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot missile systems and what he called a “full complement” of firepower to the war-torn ally.
Quote:The Kremlin mocked President Trump’s warning that Russia would face 100% secondary tariffs if it did not agree to a cease-fire deal with Ukraine as nothing more than a “theatrical ultimatum.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and top ally of Vladimir Putin, said the Kremlin would not abide by Trump’s call for a cease-fire agreement to be reached within 50 days, slamming threats of 100% secondary tariffs against Moscow as inconsequential.
“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care,” Medvedev wrote on X.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s senior diplomat, joined the criticism and described Trump’s warnings as unacceptable and pointless.
During his meeting with NATO’s top official on Monday, Trump said America would seek harsh secondary tariffs against Russia over Putin’s repeated dismissal of US-backed cease-fire deals and the ever-escalating airstrikes on Ukraine.
Secondary sanctions are meant to punish individuals or entities who do business with a country, with Trump aiming at those who prop up Russia’s war machine.
The tariffs would likely target China, India and Turkey, the biggest buyers of crude oil from Russia, the world’s second-largest exporter.
Trump also vowed to provide “billions of dollars” worth of weapons to Ukraine via Washington’s NATO allies to bolster Kyiv’s defenses.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said some of Trump’s remarks were personally addressed by Putin, warning the US and NATO that the discussions are being seen as “a signal to continue the war.”
“The US president’s statements are very serious,” Peskov told reporters. “We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington.”
Outside the Kremlin, Russia has been shocked by Trump’s latest policy against Moscow after previously touting his conversations with Putin and falsely accusing Ukraine of starting the war.
The front page of Kommersant, one of Russia’s most respected newspapers, led with the headline, “Et tu, Trump,” invoking the betrayal in William Shakespeare’s classic, “Julius Caesar.”
The latest development comes as Russia launched hundreds more drones and missiles into six Ukrainian regions overnight, killing at least two people, including a child.
Quote:North Korea is now supplying almost half of Russia’s ammunition for its war against Ukraine, South Korean military data shows.
Pyongyang is accused of shipping millions of artillery shells and other munitions to Vladimir Putin’s military, South Korea’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said on Sunday.
The 28,000 containers loaded with shells and munitions are believed to exceed roughly 12 million rounds when converted into 6-inch artillery shells, the DIA said.
“North Korea is continuing to supply weapons to Russia. Our military is constantly reassessing the scale of North Korea’s weapons support to Russia in coordination with relevant agencies and allied nations,” the DIA said in a statement shared with South Korean lawmaker Kang Daeshik.
Pyongyang is now supplying Russia with as much as 40% of its ammunition needs for the war, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, told Bloomberg.
Kim Jong-un’s regime is also sending other weapons including ballistic missiles and artillery systems to aid Putin’s war, Budanov said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on a visit to Pyongyang last week that North Korea had affirmed its “clear support” for Russia’s war and for the Kremlin’s leadership.
In return, Russia is supplying the hermit communist dictatorship with money and technology, Budanov said.
“Ukrainian and South Korean sources have been warning about Russia’s increasing reliance on North Korean shells for a while, and it is indicative of how Russia’s allies are propping up this war effort,” Russia Analyst from the Washington-based think-tank the Institute for the Study of War, Angelica Evans, told The Post.
“Russia’s alliance with North Korea is a huge asset to the war effort, as North Korea has a defense industrial capacity that Russia has benefited from and will likely continue to draw on,” she said.
“Putin is working very hard to minimize the impact of the war on regular Russians, and whatever industrial support Russia gets from its allies helps offset money that Russia can use to fund social programs and keep the Russian people placated,” Evans added.
Quote:The chairman of Russia’s Security Council called on Moscow to be ready to strike the West if it escalates the war in Ukraine — days after President Trump vowed to ramp up weapon shipments to Kyiv if a cease-fire isn’t reached soon.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and top ally of Vladimir Putin, warned that Russia would be ready to respond “in full” should the West get further involved in the conflict that has raged for more than three years.
“We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes,” Medvedev told the state-owned TASS outlet as he claimed that many in the West have “treachery in their blood.”
As he called for Russia to be prepared for war with the West, he also dismissed fears from NATO nations in eastern Europe who worry that they’ll be next on the chopping block should Moscow complete its goal of conquering Ukraine.
The Putin ally slammed the fears — which has prompted countries like Sweden and Finland to bolster their armies — as nothing more than “complete nonsense.”
“What is happening today is a proxy war, but in essence it is a full-scale war (launches of Western missiles, satellite intelligence, etc.), sanctions packages, loud statements about the militarization of Europe,” Medvedev said.
“It’s another attempt to destroy the ‘historical anomaly’ hated by the West — Russia, our country,” he added.
The Kremlin said Medvedev’s remarks were justified given the alleged “confrontational” environment of Europe, with the UK and France recently agreeing to a joint partnership to improve NATO and serve as the blocs’ nuclear defenders.
The tensions come about a year after Putin expanded Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, warning that any nuclear superpower that assists an enemy of Russia with long-range missiles can and should be considered a viable target for the Kremlin’s nukes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is currently weighing all options after President Trump threatened to slap 100% secondary tariffs on Russia and arm Ukraine with “billions of dollars” of new weapons if Putin does not agree to a peace deal in 50 days.
Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not ready for compromises” to end his brutal war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Post in an exclusive interview on Wednesday — but President Trump has the power to bring him to his knees by speeding up tough sanctions that could cause a “social explosion” in Russia.
“He needs to feel this,” Zelensky said.
The leader said he was “very grateful” that Trump supports sanctions, referring to the president’s Monday announcement that he would levy 100% tariffs on countries that purchase Russian oil if Moscow does not agree to a peace deal.
However, the 50-day deadline, he said, only means more death and destruction for another almost two months.
“Fifty days, for us, is just — every day is scary,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky said the solution to the more than three years of bloodshed is to make Putin want to end his war.
“Putin does not want a conclusion … so he’s just not ready to compromise,” Zelensky said.
“If Ukraine has to do this on its own, we have a very long way to go with a lot of deaths to convince him that it’s important [to end the conflict] because it’s not just words — they need serious leverage.”
It comes as Putin’s war machine has become increasingly savage, intentionally targeting civilians — including babies — with explosive drones, which his forces are launching into Ukraine in record numbers.
The Russian military even targets the first responders after an attack, Zelensky said. Secondary strikes are common, with Moscow sending additional drones to take out those attempting to help victims.
“They hit civilian infrastructure, a house, and they know that an ambulance is coming,” the president said.
“And at that moment, after the first blow, they pause. Then the cars come, the people who provide the opportunity to save lives come, the ambulance, the doctors, the nurses, the SES, and they come, and at that moment, when they are there, they strike again,” he continued.
Quote:Ukraine was pounded by hundreds of Russian bombs overnight into Saturday in a fiery scene that claimed the lives of at least eight civilians and wounded 31 others — leaving behind a trail of destruction across multiple frontline regions.
In the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Russian troops launched more than 20 drones and a missile, according to local officials, striking residential buildings and other infrastructure, killing at least one civilian.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation continues to remain “difficult” along the border — particularly in the areas of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
“The Russian army continues to torment our people in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, attacking civilians with various types of drones,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Flames badly engulfed one apartment building in Odesa, after a strike set fire to the top four floors of the nine-story structure, the state emergency service said.
Emergency crews pulled people from the burning apartments, but one of the women rescued died, local authorities said.
Six others were wounded, including a child.
The attack left behind charred rubble — as children’s clothes and the wreckage of furniture were seen piled up in destroyed apartments.
The onslaught came just as President Trump issued Russian strongman Vladimir Putin a 50-day ultimatum this week to agree to a peace deal.
In Pokrovsk — a key battleground city on the eastern front’s Donetsk region — five people were killed and nine more injured over the past day, the region’s governor said.
The Ukrainian “fortress city” has come under heavy Russian attack recently, after holding strong for much of the year.
Two more civilians were killed overnight, one in Kherson and another in Zaporizhzhia, according to local authorities.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:President Donald Trump labeled those, including many of his "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) supporters urging the government to release more information in the Jeffrey Epstein case, as "troublemakers" in a social media post Saturday.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice (DOJ) via their online contact form for comment on Saturday.
Why It Matters
From lawmakers and attorneys to concerned voters, many say that full transparency is essential to restoring public trust and bringing clarity to one of the most high-profile criminal investigations in recent memory.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting further sex trafficking charges. The disgraced financier had well-documented connections to powerful figures, and his death has long prompted numerous conspiracy theories, particularly about a "client list" and the way in which he died.
Frustrated MAGA supporters have pointed to Trump's past promise to make the materials public, as well as Attorney General Pam Bondi's claim that the list was on her desk. The backlash has led Trump to call out members of his own base in social media posts.
What To Know
In a Saturday morning post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he has instructed the DOJ to release the grand jury testimony related to Epstein, writing, "I have asked the Justice Department to release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval."
The president continued: "With that being said, and even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request," he concluded, adding, "It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!"
The statement comes a day after the DOJ requested the unsealing of grand jury transcripts related to Epstein. Bondi's top deputy, Todd Blanche, submitted the motion to unseal the Epstein transcripts, as well as those in the case against convicted British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, just one day after Trump publicly directed the department to take that step.
In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. The 63-year-old, meanwhile, has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate her conviction.
Quote:Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, delivered sharp criticism of her Republican colleagues during a Saturday afternoon MSNBC interview, accusing them of showing loyalty to what she called a "wannabe Hitler" in reference to President Donald Trump.
The remarks came amid growing controversy over the Trump administration's handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related files.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email on Sunday for comment.
Why It Matters
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting further sex trafficking charges.
The disgraced financier had well-documented connections to powerful figures, and his death has long prompted numerous conspiracy theories, particularly about a "client list" and the way in which he died. From lawmakers and attorneys to concerned voters, many say that full transparency is essential to restoring public trust and bringing clarity to one of the most high-profile criminal investigations in recent memory.
The controversy has created fractures within Trump's own Make America Great Again (MAGA) base while highlighting broader questions about government transparency and executive accountability.
What To Know
During her Saturday MSNBC appearance on Alex Witt Reports, Crockett addressed Trump's reversal on releasing Epstein files after initially pledging transparency.
The lawmaker predicted her Republican colleagues would avoid taking decisive action on the matter, noting that several GOP lawmakers "just skipped a previous vote this week." Crockett suggested Republicans are deliberately protecting Trump from potentially damaging revelations because "they understand that it is most likely problematic for him as well as the MAGA brand."
The Texas Democrat characterized Republican loyalty to Trump in stark terms, saying lawmakers want to "pledge their loyalty" to someone she described as a "wannabe Hitler." She expressed skepticism that Republicans would support any measures "that may harm them or their fearless leader."
Yes, Trump's words have been proven right once again.
Quote:Chinese nationals once again dominated foreign purchases of U.S. homes over the past year, according to a new report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), with their expenses increasing by 83 percent compared to 2024.
In its latest report on international transactions in U.S. residential real estate, NAR found that Chinese buyers accounted for $13.7 billion of the total $56 billion spent by foreign buyers in the U.S. housing market between April 2024 and March 2025.
It was more than double the investment that Chinese buyers made a year earlier, $7.5 billion, and a little more than they spent in 2024, at $13.6 billion.
In terms of the number of existing homes purchased by foreign buyers, Chinese buyers snapped up 11,700 of the total 78,100. They represented 15 percent of all foreign buyers, followed by buyers from Canada (14 percent), Mexico (8 percent), India (6 percent), and the United Kingdom (4 percent).
Chinese buyers also paid the highest purchase price of the top five foreign buyers, according to NAR. Over the last year, their average purchase price was $1,168,800, while their median purchase price was $759,600.
Why Are Chinese Buyers So Interested In U.S. Homes?
Matt Christopherson, the director of Business and Consumer Research at NAR, believes that China's real estate crisis is partially to blame for the surge in interest in U.S. homes among Chinese buyers.
China's real estate sector, which at its peak contributed 25 percent of the country's total GDP and 38 percent of Beijing's government revenue, played a significant role in driving the country's spectacular economic growth over the past few decades.
But excessive borrowing and speculation brought the sector to a breaking point. In 2021, Evergrande defaulted on its debt, shaking confidence in the sector. Other developers, like Country Garden, followed in its footsteps, further destabilizing the market.
Since then, China's real estate sector has been navigating troubled waters, with declining prices and stalled construction. The crisis is having a negative impact on the entire Chinese economy, slowing growth despite authorities' efforts to prop up the housing market.
According to Christopherson, these challenges at home are prompting Chinese buyers to seek alternative investment opportunities for their hard-earned money.
"The Chinese housing market has been slow to recover following the pandemic, so Chinese buyers see a beneficial opportunity in diversifying their investment portfolios with exposure to stronger U.S. markets," Christopherson told Newsweek.
Quote:Representative Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat, has introduced legislation that would restore the 100 percent deduction for gambling losses that Senate Republicans reduced to 90 percent late in the passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB).
Titus spoke with Newsweek about her Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation (FAIR BET) Act, which she says so far has garnered "10 times the response" from constituents in her state and beyond compared to other aspects of the OBBB.
Republican Representatives including Troy Nehls of Texas and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, also support Titus' bill.
Why It Matters
The roughly 900-page bill passed by Congress included a provision inserted by Senate Republicans without consent of the House that imposed a tax increase on Americans who gamble, reducing from 100 percent to 90 percent the amount of losses they can deduct from gambling winnings for their income taxes.
The new provision, added by the Senate Finance Committee late in the legislative process ahead of the July 4 bill signing by President Donald Trump, means that gambling losses that have traditionally been fully deductible would no longer be so and gamblers could owe taxes even if they ended up with net losses in a year.
For example, someone winning $100,000 and then losing that same amount may still owe $10,000 in taxes on that income—even though they broke even.
What To Know
Titus, in an exclusive interview, said the issue has drawn more widespread attention on the OBBB compared to other scrutinized portions of the legislation, such as Medicaid and food stamp cuts.
"We've certainly heard from the industry, they've all kind of now gotten on board," Titus said. "But I can tell you that we put out a lot of messages about that big, bad BS bill and we talked about Medicaid, we talked about food stamps, we talked about renewable energy, but this issue has gotten 10 times the response than any of those have."
The congresswoman continued: "I think it's people who are on the internet, I think it's young people who found an issue that they can kind of identify with. And I don't think it's just limited to the people directly impacted by gaming in Nevada. It's a national issue because now everybody can gamble on their phone, and so they're writing in, they're texting in, they're calling in to say, 'We should fix this.'"
Quote:Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused "neocolonial" Western powers of modern "robbery and looting" in the pursuit of rare earth metals to gain an advantage in the artificial intelligence (AI) race.
These highly prized resources are vital for the manufacture of cutting-edge technology, and President Donald Trump has put a particular emphasis on procuring them from Ukraine, Greenland, China, Africa, and elsewhere.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also touted rare earths to Trump from the areas of Eastern Ukraine currently occupied by Moscow, which has tried to seize control of Kyiv in its full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
"[Rare earth metals] are the prize in the trade wars underway between the key suppliers of AI solutions to the market," Zakharova wrote in an op-ed titled "Neo-coloniAIism" for the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, state news agency Tass reported.
"Political elites in Western countries, most of which don't have such reserves, seek to gain pre-empted and unrestricted access to the fields held by the countries of the global majority, and while doing so, they pursue an aggressive neocolonial policy bordering on robbery and looting."
Russia, China Rare Earths
The competition over rare earth elements—comprising 17 minerals essential for advanced electronics—has intensified in recent years due to their vital use in critical technologies, notably AI hardware.
Rare earths are foundational in manufacturing high-strength magnets found in electric vehicles, smartphones, wind turbines, and AI-centric semiconductor devices, such as Nvidia's H20 AI chips
Russia possesses significant rare earth reserves within its territory but has yet to develop these resources at scale for global supply.
The sector is underdeveloped compared to China, but Moscow views these minerals as strategically valuable—for domestic technological ambitions and as potential political leverage.
Ukraine Minerals Deal
The significance of Ukrainian mineral wealth is widely recognized, although full-scale exploitation has been hindered by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and lack of investment.
Trump sealed a critical minerals deal with Ukraine that will see Kyiv share its resources and the profits from them with the U.S. in exchange for investment and other support to develop its industries.
The White House saw the deal as a partial repayment for U.S. military aid as Ukraine fends off Russia's ongoing invasion.
Western officials have noted Russia's increased focus on critical minerals within occupied Ukrainian territories, further complicating the global supply landscape. The European Union (EU) has also raised concerns over the security implications of Russian access to rare earth assets amid its war in Ukraine.
China Exposure in Supply Chain
Supply chain vulnerability came into sharp focus after China introduced stricter controls on rare earth exports in April in retaliation for new U.S. tariffs.
The result was widespread disruption across the U.S. tech and auto sectors, with automakers temporarily suspending operations due to shortages.
Following weeks of stalled negotiations and further tit-for-tat export curbs, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke directly, paving the way for a renewed agreement in June.
As described by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the deal effectively unblocked rare earth shipments to the U.S., although China said it would approve export applications on a case-by-case basis to ensure compliance with dual-use and military end-user restrictions.
Quote:For the second time in a week, NATO member Poland has scrambled its aircraft in response to a widespread Russian attack on Ukraine.
The Polish Ministry of Defense announced the operation overnight on Friday, which coincided with drones and missile strikes Russia launched against Ukraine's cities.
On Saturday, the Polish Defense Ministry told Newsweek that no Polish airspace was violated and that Swedish aircraft were also involved in the operation.
Why It Matters
Poland has been among NATO's eastern flank members that have warned about the security risks posed by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The second deployment of Polish aircraft within a matter of days shows Warsaw's concerns about the risk of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine spilling over into alliance territory.
What To Know
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched drones and missile on the regions of Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Sumy, Kherson, Volyn, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Zhytomyr.
As Russia launched the attacks, Poland's Armed Forces said on X that it launched "all available forces and assets," which included aircraft being scrambled and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance being put on the "highest state of readiness."
The Polish Armed Forces told Newsweek in a statement that a pair of Polish and Swedish fighter jets on duty in Poland were scrambled.
Quote:Australia has sent Ukraine the first batch of dozens of U.S.-built M1A1 Abrams tanks that it had promised Kyiv for its fight against Russian aggression, according to the Defense Ministry in Canberra.
Ukraine's ally in the South Pacific announced that Kyiv had received the majority of the 49 decommissioned tanks it had pledged, with the rest scheduled to arrive later this year.
The delivery follows reported delays due to initial resistance from the U.S. about the American vehicles.
Why It Matters
Australia is one of Ukraine's largest non-NATO partners and has been supplying Kyiv with assistance, ammunition and defense equipment since the beginning of the war. The delivery of main battle tanks could be a battlefield boost for Ukraine as it awaits further pledges of military support from U.S. President Donald Trump.
What To Know
Australia is providing 49 Abrams tanks to Ukraine to help its fight against Russia as part of a pledge it made in October.
The delivery was delayed because of objections from the U.S., the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported, citing unnamed defense officials.
Washington had warned Canberra against sending the tanks, and Trump's decision to pause military aid earlier this year may also have added to complications, according to the Australian outlet.
Experts have voiced concerns about their battlefield effectiveness due to the vulnerabilities of the tank's roof to drones.
However, the Australian Defense Ministry said on Friday that most of the tanks had been shipped to Ukraine, adding to the mobility and firepower of Kyiv's forces. The rest are set to arrive in the coming months.
Ukraine also awaits additional military aid pledged by Trump on July 7, when he unveiled a plan to funnel weapons to Ukraine via a NATO- and EU-backed program.
Retired U.S. Vice Admiral Robert Murrett told Newsweek that Washington's decision to provide more arms to Ukraine mostly through European allies was a good step, although the Kremlin is still convinced that conditions on the ground are working in its favor.
Despite high Russian losses, Moscow is not interested in a ceasefire, in spite of Kyiv's willingness to accept such a move, added Murrett, the deputy director at Syracuse University's Institute for Security Policy and Law.
He continued, "Both sides are likely to sustain the fight, and keep a close eye on arms, prospective additional sanctions and military activity in the skies and front lines in Ukraine."
Quote:Russia's drone attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure have begun to target military recruitment centers, according to a data analyst group.
Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) said Russia began to hit enlistment centers in recent weeks in a concerted effort to disrupt Ukraine's mobilization.
Olha Polishchuk, ACLED's Eastern Europe research manager, told Newsweek this new tactic by Russia was part of a clear pattern to hamper efforts by Kyiv to bring in new troops at a critical time.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Why It Matters
Three and half years into Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine is looking to draft more troops. But Russian strikes against enlistment offices appear to be a tactic to disrupt this process as the government looks to extend martial law.
What To Know
In the first part of the year, Russian intelligence operatives were behind three terrorist attacks on enlistment centers in Dnipropetrovsk, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne oblasts using local residents, The Kyiv Independent reported.
However, ACLED's Ukraine conflict monitor said that since June 30, Russia has targeted military recruitment centers in the first recorded wave of such strikes.
Russian drones targeted centers in Poltava and Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region, causing casualties among both service members and civilians.
On July 6, an enlistment office in Kremenchuk in the Poltava region was struck. On the following day, recruitment centers in the cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia were also hit in drone attacks that struck other targets.
Citing Ukrainian sources, ACLED said the attacks aim to destroy data on those liable for military service not yet entered into the unified register of conscripts and to disrupt the draft by scaring people from visiting the centers.
Polishchuk told Newsweek that this strategy marks a real shift in how Russia is trying to weaken Ukraine's war effort and that the strikes are not isolated incidents but part of a clear pattern.
Russian propagandists have acknowledged that enlistment centers are being targeted, spreading social media reports saying military recruitment in Ukraine are forced and unpopular, she added.
Quote:Ukraine launched renewed attacks on the Russian capital overnight into Sunday, according to Russian and Ukrainian sources, after Moscow doubled down on missile and drone strikes across Ukraine.
Why It Matters
Kyiv has occasionally targeted Moscow with long-range drone strikes, and launched a string of attacks on the Russian capital in recent days.
Russia has intensified its own aerial assaults on the Ukrainian capital and many other regions of Ukraine in the past few weeks, despite U.S. efforts to secure a ceasefire deal and increasing frustration from U.S. President Donald Trump with Russia's President, Vladimir Putin.
What To Know
Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said Russian air defenses had destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones over Moscow, then quickly said another seven had been intercepted.
Russia's Defense Ministry said in its own statement that Ukraine had launched 93 drones at Russia between 11:30 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday and 7 a.m. local time on Sunday. A total of 19 Ukrainian drones flew over the broader Moscow region, with 16 heading directly for the Russian capital city, the Russian government said. The Defense Ministry later reported Ukraine had launched seven more drones over the Moscow region from just after 8 a.m. Moscow time to midday.
A pro-Kremlin Telegram channel with purported links to Russian law enforcement reported a car "exploded after being hit by debris" from a Ukrainian drone in Zelenograd, on the northwestern edge of Moscow. The Baza Russian Telegram channel reported that debris from an intercepted drone had fallen on a multi-storey building in Zelenograd.
Russian state media reported temporary restrictions were put in place at Sheremetyevo airport, east of Zelenograd, citing the country's federal air transport agency. Restrictions were also imposed on the Moscow airports of Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, as well as Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, according to several Russian reports.
A total of 134 flights were diverted over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Rosaviatsiya federal air transport agency said.
"Moscow was attacked by UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles]," Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine's national security and defense council, said in a post to social media on Sunday. Kovalenko shared footage the Ukrainian official said showed passengers at Sheremetyevo, which Newsweek could not independently verify.
Ukraine said on Sunday Russia had launched 57 drones at several regions of the war-torn country overnight, after reporting Moscow fired 344 drones at Ukraine into Saturday morning. Russia also used 12 short-range ballistic missiles and 15 cruise missiles from late on Friday into the early hours of Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said.
U.S.-brokered efforts to push Moscow into a ceasefire deal have so far failed, and Trump told the BBC earlier this month he was "disappointed" in the Russian leader, but "not done with him."
Quote:Ukraine has proposed a fresh round of negotiations with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Why It Matters
Ceasefire talks pushed by the U.S have failed to yield progress toward an agreement after Russia refused to ink an American proposal that Ukraine agreed to back in March. Ukrainian and Russian officials have met directly for talks twice in recent months.
U.S. President Donald Trump has grown increasingly irritated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pivoting from chasing a thaw with the Kremlin to overtly criticize the Russian leader.
In a marked departure from the White House's tough stance on Ukraine, Trump upped military support for Kyiv via NATO nations and said earlier this month Russia had 50 days to clinch a ceasefire deal or face tariffs. Moscow said Ukraine saw this as a "signal to continue the war" and abandon peace talks. Western leaders and Ukraine have repeatedly said Russia is stalling ceasefire negotiations.
What To Know
The chief of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), Rustem Umerov, has "proposed a new meeting with Russia next week," which would focus on ceasefire negotiations, prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children to the country, Zelensky said late on Saturday. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Umerov, previously serving as Ukraine's defense minister, was appointed as the country's NSDC chief on Friday.
The Ukrainian president said he needed to meet with Putin "to truly ensure a lasting peace."
"Ukraine is ready," he added. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last week Russia was waiting for Ukrainian proposals for a third round of talks.
Quote:Japan's government has launched a task force to deal with concerns about an uptick in foreign nationals living there.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi announced the "Office for the Promotion of a Society of Harmonious Coexistence with Foreign Nationals" on July 15.
The move comes as the issue of a record number of foreign nationals living there has become an election topic.
Why it Matters
The task force's establishment marked the most visible government response to growing public concerns as the number of foreign residents reached about 3.8 million as of the end of 2024, according to the Japanese data site Nippon.
This is the third consecutive record high, increasing by 10.5 percent year-on-year. But foreign nationals still only make up just 3 percent of Japan's total population of 120 million.
What To Know
Hayashi explained the reason for the task force in a press meeting on July 15, saying there are "situations in which the people feel anxious and unfair due to crimes and nuisances committed by some foreigners and inappropriate use of various systems."
"Realizing an orderly coexistence society with foreigners is one of the important policy issues that the government must address," he said.
Tasks will include creating a shared data information system for central and local governments to use and reviewing existing immigration rules and practices that do not take into account how much more globalized Japan currently is.
Japan has long had strict immigration laws, but the country has slowly eased them as its population has aged and birth rates have declined.
Quote:India's Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor will become the launch site for Japan's next-generation E10 Shinkansen bullet trains.
The Indian Ministry of Railways announced on Monday that the E10 trains, the successor to Japan's current generation of E5 Shinkansen, would make their debut in both countries simultaneously.
Newsweek contacted the Ministry of Railways and the Japanese Ministry of Transport via email for more information on the announcement.
Why It Matters
The introduction of E10 trains in India shows that there are deepening economic and technological ties with Japan. Japan's bullet trains are a huge part of the country's culture and the envy of the infrastructure world, so the fact that they are willing to share the spotlight with India suggests a high level of trust between the two nations.
What To Know
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train initiative will use the E10 model following initial testing of E5s.
The E10 series is set for commercial debut in Japan in 2030, at the same anticipated time that the Indian rail project will provide full connectivity to Mumbai.
The Indian Ministry of Railways said in a statement on Monday: "The Japanese Shinkansen [system] is currently running E5 trains. Next generation trains are E10.
"In the spirit of strategic partnership between Japan and India, the Japanese government has agreed to introduce E10 Shinkansen trains in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet train project. It is noteworthy that E10 will be introduced simultaneously in India and Japan."
The rollout will be the first time Japan has introduced its most advanced rail technology abroad in sync with its own domestic launch.
According to the Ministry of Railways, trials for the high-speed trains are scheduled between 2026 and 2027, while full-scale commercial service is targeted for 2027.
Quote:China has welcomed a Russian proposal for the restoration of a three-member bloc with India, saying cooperation would be in their interests and would contribute to peace and security, raising the prospect of a revitalized alliance that could challenge U.S. influence.
The three largest countries on the Eurasian land mass first floated the idea of a trilateral cooperation bloc in the 1990s, and they later held several ministerial meetings. But the initiative has stalled in recent years because of tensions between China and India over sections of their border.
Why It Matters
A revival of the Russia, India, China, or RIC, bloc could pose a challenge to the U.S. if it resulted in more coordinated action by the three nuclear-armed countries on diplomatic, economic and security issues.
The proposal for greater three-way cooperation comes as the administration of President Donald Trump is promoting his "America First" agenda, including the imposition of sweeping tariffs, which has raised questions in some countries about their standing with the U.S.
China has criticized U.S. tariff policy as "bullying." U.S. officials have defended the tariffs saying unfair trade arrangements have to be adjusted. India and the U.S. are negotiating a trade deal while the United States has imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
What To Know
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, responding to a question about Russian negotiations to restore the RIC bloc, said more cooperation between the neighbors would be beneficial for all of them.
"Cooperation among China, Russia, and India not only aligns with the respective interests of the three countries, but also contributes to regional and global peace, security, stability, and progress," the spokesperson, Lin Jian, told a regular briefing in Beijing.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said earlier he was negotiating with both China and India on a revival of the bloc.
Quote:With Iran's military battered from an intense 12-day war with Israel that also involved direct U.S. intervention, China is emerging as top candidate to provide advanced weaponry that could help Tehran reestablish deterrence as tensions continue to simmer across the Middle East.
The trend marks a departure from Iran's long-standing efforts to acquire arms from another strategic partner, Russia, whose ability to deliver on deals remains limited by its ongoing war in Ukraine and other geopolitical constraints.
Beijing, on the other hand, has remained relatively insulated from two of the world's deadliest ongoing wars ravaging Eastern Europe and the Middle East, even if it has continued to cultivate cooperation with Moscow and Tehran.
With Iran's airspace now more vulnerable than ever, Hongda Fan, a professor at Shanghai International Studies University's Middle East Studies Institute, told Newsweek that "strengthening air defense capabilities is clearly an urgent priority for Iran at the moment" and that "China has indeed made remarkable progress in areas such as fighter jet development, attracting global attention."
Such progress was put on rare display in May when one of China's leading partners, Pakistan, employed Chinese Chengdu J-10C multi-purpose combat jets during another brief but intense battle with India, reportedly downing several Indian aircraft, including French Dassault Rafale warplanes.
Given the growing level of unrest that has rocked the international order in recent months, Fan felt the conditions could be ripe for greater military cooperation between the People's Republic and the Islamic Republic, particularly as "both China and Iran are victims of certain policies pursued by Western powers."
But if Tehran was to upgrade its cooperation with Beijing to something that more closely resembled the "all-weather," "iron-clad" pact between China and Pakistan, he said Iran would likely need to reevaluate its foreign policy outlook.
"It is important to note that, unlike Islamabad, some decision-makers in Tehran often see themselves Iran as one of the centers of the world," Fan said. "A great-power mindset is not uncommon in contemporary Iran, which to some extent affects the development of its foreign relations."
"Personally, I believe that if Tehran shows sufficient willingness and trust toward China," he added, "Beijing would not reject cooperation with Iran in military fields such as weapons."
Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Embassy to the United States and the Iranian Mission to the United Nations for comment.
Quote:Iran has "restored" its air defense network heavily targeted by Israel during last month's conflict, state media reported on Sunday, citing a senior Iranian military official.
Why It Matters
Israel homed in on Iran's air defense network ahead of launching its strikes on the country's nuclear sites and other military targets in June. Iran retaliated, the repeated exchange of strikes becoming what has been dubbed the 12-day war.
Israel quickly said it had established "full aerial superiority" over the Iranian capital and the area west of Tehran, meaning it could operate its advanced aircraft over Iran with little fear they could be shot down by air defenses.
Israel's knocking out of Iranian air defenses also cleared the path for U.S. aircraft to launch their own strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran then attacked the U.S.'s Al Udeid military base in Qatar before a ceasefire was reached.
What To Know
Israel's "first targets" during the June war between the two countries were Iran's radars and air defense systems, Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, the deputy chief of operations for the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, said in comments carried by several state media and semiofficial outlets.
Mousavi said "some" air defenses were damaged. Israeli national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said in June the Israeli military had destroyed "dozens and dozens" of Iranian air defense systems.
"With the efforts of my comrades, however, the damaged systems were replaced and deployed at predetermined locations," Mousavi said. The Israeli military declined to comment when approached by Newsweek on Sunday.
There are many types of air defenses, including large ground-based systems designed to intercept advanced missiles or keep aircraft far away from key targets. Iran has operated a mixture of domestically-made and imported air defense systems, including the Russian-manufactured S-300 long-range system and the shorter-range Tor.
Quote:President Donald Trump has warned Iran not to attempt to rebuild their nuclear facilities, after he claimed recent U.S. military strikes in June "completely destroyed" Iran's sites.
The President wrote on Truth Social on Saturday: "All three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED. It would take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations, prior to those sites being obliterated, should they decide to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Why it Matters
The stakes surrounding Iran's nuclear program remain high for U.S. national security interests and for stability across the Middle East.
President Trump's warning comes against a backdrop of ongoing debates about the effectiveness of U.S. strikes and the future of diplomatic efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
What To Know
On June 21, the U.S. military—under an operation code-named Midnight Hammer—conducted airstrikes against three of Iran's principal nuclear sites: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
President Trump and defense officials publicly claimed that all three sites were "completely destroyed," saying that Iran would require years to reconstitute its nuclear program if it tried to rebuild. Trump reiterated this with his message on Saturday.
But some U.S. intelligence assessments have challenged the administration's narrative.
Only one out of three of Iran's nuclear sites was destroyed with the other two surviving enough to be able to resume nuclear enrichment within several months if Tehran wants it, according to NBC News, which cited five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the assessment.
The Defense Department and the White House have pushed back, asserting that their own intelligence showed all three facilities were "completely and totally obliterated."
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Purnell said: "President Trump was clear and the American people understand: Iran's nuclear facilities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz were completely and totally obliterated. There is no doubt about that."
"The credibility of the Fake News Media is similar to that of the current state of the Iranian nuclear facilities: destroyed, in the dirt, and will take years to recover."
Iran maintains that its nuclear program serves peaceful purposes, despite long-standing Western suspicions.
Iranian diplomats are set to meet in Europe next week for discussions about a possible nuclear deal, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
"Iran has not softened its position on its right to enrich uranium on Iranian soil, which makes it unlikely that Iran will accept a nuclear deal that includes a zero uranium enrichment demand," the Institute said in its most recent report.
And just in case anything goes wrong, Iran now wants to discuss the nuclear issue with Europe...
Quote:Leaders from Iran, Germany, France, and Britain are finalizing plans to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, a major source of global tension, "in the coming week," a German diplomatic source told Newsweek on Sunday.
Newsweek has reached out to press representatives for France, Britain, and Iran via email for comment on Sunday.
Why It Matters
Iran's nuclear program has long been a source of international concern. In 2015, Iran and several world powers including France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement aimed at limiting Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. The JCPOA is set to expire in October.
The United States withdrew from the accord in 2018 under the Trump administration, reimposing sanctions and reigniting diplomatic friction.
Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear program is intended for civilian purposes, while the U.S. and some of its allies like Israel have accused Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons capability. Tensions spiked again last month when the U.S. conducted airstrikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, prompting Iranian retaliation with a strike on a U.S. military base in Qatar.
What To Know
The three European countries, known as the E3, "are in contact with Iran to arrange further talks in the coming week," a German diplomatic source told Newsweek in an email Sunday.
Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported a source informed on the matter, saying, "The principle of talks has been agreed upon, but consultations are continuing on the time and place of the talks. The country in which the talks could be held next week has not been finalized."
The organization of talks with E3 leaders and Iran comes just days after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held discussions with French, German and European Union (EU) officials. That was the first formal call since the Israel-Iran war.
A German diplomatic source told Newsweek that "Iran must never possess nuclear weapons."
Quote:Saudi Arabia's flagship urban development, The Line, entered a critical phase of evaluation this week, as the kingdom's Public Investment Fund (PIF) engaged external consulting firms to assess the feasibility of the megaproject.
The review aims to determine whether project goals remain attainable amid rising costs, shifting timelines, and a downturn in oil revenues.
Newsweek contacted the Public Investment Fund and Neom by email for comment.
The Context
The Line was first announced as a "linear city" of the Neom development, stretching 105 miles, featuring twin 500-meter-tall skyscrapers and promising residents that all daily needs would be met within a five-minute walk. The project was originally designed for nine million inhabitants, served by a high-speed train network, and to operate on zero emissions.
However, the scale and timeline of The Line have drawn skepticism, with reports last year suggesting that the project has been scaled back to house fewer than 300,000 people, though Saudi Arabia has not acknowledged reports of the change.
What To Know
Now, it appears that officials are accepting the project's scope may have to be reigned in, with Saudi Arabia calling in consultants to assess whether or not the current approach is feasible.
The review will also include suggestions of alterations to the design, according to reports from Bloomberg. Newsweek could not verify these reports.
In a statement on the review process, a spokesperson for Neom said: "As is typical with large-scale, multiyear projects, strategic reviews are common practice and occur several times over the course of a major development project or infrastructure program.
"The Line remains a strategic priority and Neom is focused on maintaining operational continuity, improving efficiencies and accelerating progress to match the overall vision and objectives of the project."
Despite the ambitious targets, progress on The Line has been limited. Satellite images published by Newsweek in April showed large-scale excavation and support-zone development near the site, with around 2,800 workers and staff housed in custom-built accommodations.
However, independent evidence of progress on the skyscraper elements remains limited. There were also allegations of labor abuses—particularly involving foreign workers—raised in the British TV documentary Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, which claimed that some workers at NEOM were treated as "trapped slaves" and "beggars."
In response, the Saudi Arabian National Council for Occupational Safety and Health told Newsweek: "In reference to the misinformation circulating across various media platforms—particularly claims suggesting an increase in worker fatalities linked to working conditions in Saudi Arabia, accompanied by unfounded statistics lacking credible sources—the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health in Saudi Arabia unequivocally refutes these assertions.
"The council affirms the work-related fatalities in Saudi Arabia is 1.12 per 100,000 workers. This figure positions Saudi Arabia among the lowest globally in terms of work-related fatalities.
"The International Labour Organization [ILO] acknowledges this progress, highlighting on its official website that Saudi Arabia has made significant advancements in improving occupational safety and health and reducing workplace accidents at the national level.
"Similar commendations have been offered by other reputable international organizations, including the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management and the British Safety Council.
Quote:Americans held in Venezuela will be included in a prisoner exchange with El Salvador, home to the supermax prison known as CECOT where the U.S. has deported hundreds of illegal migrants.
Newsweek understands that at least some of the Venezuelan immigrants sent to CECOT in March were on board flights headed to their home country Friday afternoon.
"Well, there were already rumors that a flight from El Salvador was leaving in a few hours," Danielvi Henriquez, sister of one of the deported Venezuelans Wilvenson Guevara Munoz, told Newsweek Friday.
"But we realized the plane was headed there. It landed, and they confirmed that there would indeed be an exchange — political prisoners here for our innocent Venezuelans in El Salvador."
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment by email on Friday afternoon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later confirmed the release of 10 Americans from Venezuela.
Why It Matters
Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been strained for some time, with El Salvador becoming somewhat a bridge between the two nations when it comes to deportations and prisoners. Venezuela has been reluctant to take back nationals deported by the U.S., with CECOT taking many Venezuelans instead.
What To Know
El Salvador will send 238 Venezuelans held in the prison to Caracas in exchange for five U.S. citizens and five permanent U.S. residents to U.S. custody, according to Reuters, which cited two U.S. government officials.
Exact figures remain in flux, but one of the officials told the outlet that the numbers appear to be close to expectation.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:The Trump administration has long insisted that America should not be a haven for criminals. Last week, it brought one home.
Dahud Hanid Ortiz — a Venezuelan-born American citizen and former U.S. Marine convicted of a brutal triple murder in Spain — was among 10 Americans repatriated from Venezuela in a high-profile prisoner exchange between the White House and the South American government.
Ortiz was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 2016 triple homicide in Madrid, according to Venezuelan and Spanish court records reviewed by Newsweek. Spain requested his extradition, but Venezuela's Constitution bans extraditing its citizens. Instead, he was tried in Venezuela, which permits prosecuting crimes committed abroad.
The Trump administration has not explained how Ortiz ended up on the list of "wrongfully detained" Americans, alongside a group that, according to pro-democracy activists in Venezuela, includes tourists used by Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro as bargaining chips.
When Newsweek reached out to the State Department for comment on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson declined to comment on the specific case of Ortiz and defended the operation: "We were able to secure the release of all Americans detained in Venezuela; many of whom reported being subjected to torture and other harsh conditions."
Why It Matters
Venezuela on Friday released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents in exchange for the return of dozens of Venezuelan migrants who had been deported in March by the United States to El Salvador under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, officials said.
The Venezuelans had been held in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT — a massive prison built to detain alleged gang members as part of President Bukele's war on gangs. Trump had invoked the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law, to swiftly deport the men, accusing them of ties to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang.
However, the administration did not provide evidence to back up those claims.
What To Know
In a bitter irony, while the Trump administration has championed the deportation of migrants accused of minor crimes and condemned countries for sheltering fugitives, it repatriated Ortiz as part of a deal it billed as a humanitarian breakthrough.
"We delivered murderers for you," Venezuelan minister Diosdado Cabello told the deportees aboard their flight home. "They were in hell. Today they are in Venezuela."
Spanish media reports first identified one of the men as Ortiz, 51, a fugitive wanted in Spain for one of Madrid's most shocking crimes in recent memory — the grisly murders of two Cuban women and an Ecuadorian man in a law office.
Investigators say Ortiz, driven by jealousy over his ex-partner, stalked her and her new boyfriend, hacked her devices, and planted microphones before traveling to Madrid and killing three innocent people he mistakenly thought were connected to her.
Quote:A California doctor pleaded guilty Wednesday to supplying Matthew Perry with ketamine in the weeks before the actor's fatal overdose. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 43, admitted to four counts of distributing the powerful anesthetic during a hearing in federal court in Los Angeles, becoming the fourth of five individuals charged in connection with Perry's death to enter a guilty plea.
Plasencia had previously pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to stand trial in August but agreed last month to a plea deal that includes the dismissal of three additional distribution charges and two counts of falsifying records. Standing beside his attorney, Plasencia answered brief questions from U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, confirming his legal team had reviewed all plea and sentencing options.
"Dr. Plasencia is profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry," the doctor's attorney, Debra White, said in an emailed statement after the hearing. "He is fully accepting responsibility by pleading guilty to drug distribution. Dr. Plasencia intends to voluntarily surrender his medical license, acknowledging his failure to protect Mr. Perry, a patient who was especially vulnerable due to addiction."
How did Matthew Perry die?
Matthew Perry, 54, was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled his death an accident caused primarily by the acute effects of ketamine, with drowning and coronary artery disease also contributing factors.
What was Matthew Perry's cause of death?
The official autopsy identified the cause of death as "acute effects of ketamine," noting that Perry had high levels of the drug in his system, which triggered cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression, ultimately leading to drowning.
Prosecutors noted in court that Plasencia did not provide the final dose that killed Perry but admitted to regularly supplying him with ketamine in the month before his death.
According to court documents, he provided Perry with 20 vials of ketamine totaling 100 mg, along with lozenges and syringes. He also enlisted another physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, to assist in the scheme. In one text message, Plasencia referred to Perry as a "moron" and said, "I wonder how much this moron will pay," as noted in Chavez's plea agreement. After selling the drugs for $4,500, Plasencia reportedly asked Chavez if they could continue the arrangement and become Perry's "go-to" ketamine providers.
Who was charged related to Matthew Perry's death?
Five individuals have been charged in connection with providing the fatal doses of ketamine: two doctors, Perry's personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, a supplier named Erik Fleming, and Jasveen Sangha (dubbed the "Ketamine Queen").
So far, four have pleaded guilty—including Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who admitted to illegally distributing ketamine to Perry in the month before his death—while Sangha has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Quote:The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered another victory to President Donald Trump, allowing his administration to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), marking Trump's 16th consecutive win before the High Court.
Why It Matters
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has granted a slew of Trump's requests filed through the emergency docket since the president took office in January.
Among other things, the court has handed the administration wins on its efforts to shrink the size of the federal government, immigration enforcement, deportations, scaling back legal protections for transgender people, removing independent government watchdogs and more.
What To Know
On Wednesday, the court granted an emergency request from the Department of Justice to overturn a lower-court ruling reinstating the three Democratic members of the CPSC. The DOJ argued in its request that as the head of the executive branch, the president has the authority to remove agency commissioners without cause.
The three liberal justices dissented, echoing concerns raised by U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, who had ruled in June that the dismissals were unlawful.
Maddox, who was appointed to the court by President Joe Biden, emphasized the CPSC's role as a semi-independent body tasked with protecting consumers through recalls, litigation and safety regulations. He had sought to distinguish the commission's duties from those of other federal agencies where the Court has upheld similar firings.
Justice Elena Kagan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, was particularly sharp in her dissent Wednesday, saying that the High Court's ruling nearly overturned the precedent set by the 1935 case Humphrey's Executor v. United States. The court ruled in that case that the Constitution allows Congress to make laws limiting the president's power to fire some executive branch officials who are part of an independent agency.
Kagan was joined in her dissent by the court's other two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor.
The Supreme Court has not formally overturned the 90-year-old precedent, but Kagan wrote: "On the Court's emergency docket—which means 'on a short fuse without benefit of full briefing and oral argument'—the majority has effectively expunged Humphrey's from the U.S."
Quote:A federal appeals court delivered a win to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell on Wednesday, ruling he does not have to pay a $5 million award to a software engineer who challenged Lindell's claims that China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals found that an arbitration panel exceeded its authority in awarding the money to Robert Zeidman, a Las Vegas-based engineer who participated in Lindell's 2021 "Prove Mike Wrong Challenge."
Why It Matters
Lindell, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, has been a leading voice in promoting claims that the 2020 election was rigged, despite more than 50 failed court challenges from Trump allies and clear statements from Trump's own Justice Department rejecting widespread fraud.
What To Know
As part of a "Cyber Symposium" Lindell hosted in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he promised $5 million to anyone who could prove that the packet capture data he released was not from the 2020 election. Zeidman submitted a 15-page report debunking the data and, after contest officials refused to declare him the winner, he filed for arbitration. A panel of three arbitrators—including one chosen by Lindell—ruled in Zeidman's favor and awarded the $5 million. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim later upheld the decision, despite calling the contest rules a "poorly written contract."
However, the appeals court disagreed. In its ruling, the 8th Circuit said the arbitrators strayed beyond the contract's clear terms.
"Whatever one might think of the logic of the panel's reasoning, it is contrary to Minnesota law. ... Fair or not, agreed-to contract terms may not be modified by the panel or by this court," the court wrote. The case was remanded to the lower court with instructions to vacate the award.
"It's a great day for our country," Lindell said in an interview following the decision. "This is a big win. It opens the door to getting rid of these electronic voting machines and getting paper ballots, hand-counted."
Zeidman's attorney, Brian Glasser, criticized the ruling and encouraged the public to evaluate the original arbitration decision for themselves.
The ruling comes amid a string of legal battles for Lindell. Just last month, a Colorado jury found him liable for defaming a former voting machine company employee by accusing him of treason, awarding $2.3 million in damages.
Quote:President Donald Trump's administration was dealt a new legal loss by a federal appeals court over his executive order regarding birthright citizenship on Wednesday.
Why It Matters
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit marked a significant setback for President Trump's efforts to redefine U.S. citizenship rules. Trump's executive action seeks to prevent children born on U.S. soil from automatically receiving citizenship if neither parent was an American citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of birth.
Wednesday's decision from the appeals court reinforced the 14th Amendment's long-standing interpretation making birthright citizenship accessible to nearly all individuals born in the U.S., regardless of their parents' legal status.
What To Know
The appeals court ruled on Wednesday that Trump's executive order is unconstitutional and upheld a lower-court decision that blocked its nationwide enforcement.
Judge Ronald Gould, writing the opinion for the court, said Trump's executive order "contradicts the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment's grant of citizenship."
The ruling added: "The district court correctly concluded that the Executive Order's proposed interpretation, denying citizenship to many persons born in the United States, is unconstitutional. We fully agree."
Wednesday's ruling was 2-1, with two judges appointed by President Bill Clinton forming the majority, while one judge appointed by Trump dissented.
In an executive order posted on the day Trump was inaugurated, the president said that "the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'"
Quote:Democratic mayoral primary winner and New York state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was issued a stark warning by Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on Wednesday, saying that if Mamdani's supporters spout antisemitic rhetoric, "you can't leave room for that to just sit there. You've got to condemn that."
...
The rebuke arrives at a pivotal moment not just for Mamdani's campaign, but as Democrats nationwide wrestle with internal divisions over Israel policy, rising anti-Jewish hate and endorsement strategies, all holding significance for the 2026 midterm cycle. Jewish communities and party leaders are watching these developments closely as political rhetoric and policy stances on antisemitism become central campaign issues.
Mamdani's surge has intensified debate within the Democratic Party over its future direction, as his platform sharply contrasts with those of more centrist and establishment-aligned figures.
Unlike establishment Democrats—who have historically championed incremental reforms and avoided expansive tax policies targeting high-earners—Mamdani has proposed increasing taxes on residents earning more than $1 million annually, raising corporate tax rates and implementing a citywide rent freeze. These positions are central to his campaign, which he has framed around affordability, housing justice and public investment in services such as free child care and public transportation.
As Mamdani awaits critical Democratic backing, he sat down with business leaders this month, where he said he would discourage the phrase "globalize the intifada," according to The New York Times, citing three people familiar with discussions.
What To Know
While speaking to Jewish Insider, Shapiro took a swipe at Mamdani, saying, "He seemed to run a campaign that excited New Yorkers. He also seemed to run a campaign where he left open far too much space for extremists to either use his words or for him to not condemn the words of extremists that said some blatantly antisemitic things."
The assemblyman and democratic socialist has yet to secure key backing from Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also of New York, ahead of the November election.
The Democratic governor said he is "concerned that support for Israel in the United States broadly is down compared to what it was a decade ago." He later added that "There are policies of the [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government that I don't support. I've been very vocal about that. But there's a difference between not supporting the policies of whoever's in charge at a particular time, and the underlying notion of a Jewish state of Israel."
"I do think it is important to strengthen people's understanding of Israel and the relationship America should have with Israel and to strengthen that bond," Shapiro said.
The governor also handed out a piece of advice to Mamdani and any future leader: "You have to speak and act with moral clarity, and when supporters of yours say things that are blatantly antisemitic, you can't leave room for that to just sit there. You've got to condemn that."
Previously, Mamdani seemingly defended the phrase "globalize the intifada" as "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." He has also called antisemitism a "real issue" in New York City and said Hamas' attack of Israel on October 7, 2023, was a "war crime."
Quote:Former U.S. President Barack Obama has been the subject of online death threats and calls for imprisonment after President Donald Trump and the director of national intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard accused him of treason regarding Russian influence in previous presidential elections.
According to a report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), social media comments calling for Obama's imprisonment or execution surged between July 17 and July 20, after the administration claimed Obama's administration "manipulated and withheld" key information on the extent to which Russia was involved in the 2016 election. Obama has denied the allegations.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Newsweek: "President Trump and the entire administration strongly condemn all forms of violence. The Trump administration also believes in accountability and that individuals who participate in criminal activity should be held to the fullest extent of the law."
A DNI spokesperson said: "DNI Gabbard strongly condemns all forms of violence. The Director also believes in shining light on the truth, investigating wrongdoing, and holding those who participate in criminal activities accountable to the fullest extent of the law."
...
The threats started after Gabbard released a report on Friday alleging that Obama and members of his administration manufactured intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election to "lay the groundwork for what was essentially a yearslong coup against President Trump."
She said she would refer the officials to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Then on Sunday Trump weighed in and posted an AI-generated video to his social media platform, Truth Social, which showed Obama being arrested and put in jail.
Since then, between July 17 and July 20, comments targeting Obama have surged on Truth Social, Gab and Telegram, the researchers found.
On Truth Social, comments made calling Obama treasonous and deserving of either imprisonment or execution rose from three to 36, an 1,100 percent increase.
On Gab, these comments increased from nine to 48—a 433 percent increase.
And on Telegram, comments of this ilk increased from zero to 12.
GPAHE told Newsweek: "GPAHE's research continues to show a spike in online bigoted and violent rhetoric whenever the president targets people with his online posts. The combination of Director Gabbard's and President Trump's conspiracy-laden and racist posts, not only inflamed extremists, but further normalized language and ideas that are completely unacceptable in a thriving democracy. We, as a nation, cannot contribute to this normalization by staying silent."
Since the time period the researchers investigated, Trump has continued to make comments about Obama. On Tuesday, he called the former president "the leader of the gang" when it came to the Russia investigation.
He said: "He's guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever even imagined."
He added that it was "time to go after people," and accused other political opponents including former CIA director John Brennan of unlawfully conspiring against him.
Later that day, Obama's office released a statement rebutting the allegations, which they called "outrageous."
Quote:Senator Ron Wyden, the most senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has written to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to "follow the money" and launch a fresh investigation into the financial affairs of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein using Treasury Department documents.
In his letter sent on Monday, Wyden said the Department of Justice (DOJ) "failed to conduct a real investigation into the funding of Epstein's sex trafficking operation" and accused four major banks of processing "billions in suspicious transactions that flowed through Epstein's accounts" that were not flagged to the Treasury until after the financier's suicide in August 2019.
Speaking to Newsweek, a DOJ spokesperson confirmed receipt of the letter but declined to comment further. Newsweek contacted Senator Wyden on Thursday via email and online inquiry form respectively outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
Earlier this month the DOJ and the FBI released a joint statement insisting Epstein "died by suicide" and had "no incriminating 'client list.'" The move sparked a furious reaction from a section of President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, which has long believed Epstein was murdered to cover up the participation of prominent figures in sexual abuse.
Wyden's letter shows the Trump administration will continue to face intense pressure to further investigate the Epstein case, or release documents it has concerning this, despite its apparent efforts to close down the subject.
What To Know
Addressing Attorney General Bondi in his letter Wyden said he was "convinced that the DOG ignored evidence found in the U.S. Treasury Department's Epstein file," which he said "contains extensive details on the mountains of cash Epstein received from prominent business owners that Epstein used to finance his criminal network."
In response to what he termed "the DOJ's lack of thoroughness" Wyden provided Bondi with "a road map with a list of 'follow the money' leads on Jeffrey Epstein."
Wyden noted the Senate Finance Committee on February 14 2024 reviewed "thousands of page[s] of Treasury Department files documenting the flow of money in and out of Jeffrey Epstein's accounts" which he concluded "contains significant information on the sources of funding behind Epstein's sex trafficking activities." He said this included documents showing more than 4,725 wire transfers involving Epstein's accounts from 2003 to 2019 totaling $1.08 billion.
Quote:UnitedHealth Group has said it is under investigation by the Department of Justice, which is probing its involvement in Medicare, a federal health insurance program for those over 65 and people with disabilities.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
UnitedHealth runs one of the nation's largest health insurance and pharmacy benefits management businesses. It also operates a growing Optum business that provides care and technology support.
It has come under intense scrutiny in recent months, as its profits soared amid controversy over its health insurance practices, a painful financial burden on many Americans, a large number of whom feel that the whole system is designed to take advantage of them.
Fraud Investigation, CEO Murder
Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal said federal officials had launched a civil fraud investigation into how the company records diagnoses that lead to extra payments for its Medicare Advantage, or MA, plans.
The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024 on his way to the company's annual investor meeting. The alleged shooter, Luigi Mangione, is on trial. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
UnitedHealth Group SEC Filing
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), UnitedHealth Group stated that it had "proactively reached out to the Department of Justice after reviewing media reports about investigations into certain aspects of the Company's participation in the Medicare program."
"The Company has now begun complying with formal criminal and civil requests from the Department," the company said in its filing on Thursday morning, July 24, adding that it "has full confidence in its practices and is committed to working cooperatively with the Department throughout this process."
UnitedHealth Group said it "has a long record of responsible conduct and effective compliance," and that "following a decade-long civil challenge by the Department to aspects of our Medicare Advantage business, a court-appointed Special Master concluded there was no evidence to support claims of wrongdoing."
UnitedHealth Revenues Rise, Shares Fall
Company shares were down nearly 4 percent, or $11.51, to $281.12 before markets opened Thursday.
But UnitedHealth raked in more than $400 billion in revenue last year as the third-largest company in the Fortune 500. Last year, its share price reached a new all-time high of over $630 before the recent declines.
The company's UnitedHealthcare business covers more than 8 million people, making it the nation's largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans. The business has been under pressure in recent quarters due to rising care use and rate cuts.
Quote:Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man at the center of a long-running legal and political controversy over U.S. immigration enforcement, must be released from custody and returned to Maryland, two federal judges ruled Wednesday in separate decisions.
The decisions come after months of legal battles following Abrego's controversial removal to El Salvador in March, a deportation that the U.S. Supreme Court later determined to be unlawful.
Late on Wednesday, in a third ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes delayed Abrego's release from custody for 30 days, following a request from his attorneys. They cited government advice that the Department of Homeland Security would begin removal proceedings if he were released.
...
The orders from U.S. District Judges Waverly Crenshaw Jr. and Paula Xinis mark a significant turning point in the case. The orders are the latest developments in a high-profile saga involving immigration, criminal proceedings, and alleged violations of constitutional rights. While the decisions represent a significant legal victory for Abrego, federal immigration authorities have signaled that efforts to deport him may soon resume.
What To Know
Abrego, who entered the U.S. without authorization over a decade ago, was living and working in Maryland under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervision order when he was detained and deported to El Salvador on March 12, 2025.
The deportation directly violated a standing immigration court order from 2019 that prohibited his removal to El Salvador due to credible fears for his safety there.
After being expelled, Abrego was held at El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, a prison known for violence and overcrowding.
His removal prompted legal challenges that reached the Supreme Court, which found the deportation violated both the Immigration and Nationality Act and Abrego's constitutional right to due process.
Following the ruling, the federal government delayed for nearly three months before returning Abrego to the U.S. in June.
Upon arrival, he was placed in U.S. Marshals custody to face unrelated criminal charges in Tennessee.
On Wednesday, Judge Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled that Abrego should be released on bail while awaiting trial in the Middle District of Tennessee, finding that prosecutors had not demonstrated that he posed a flight risk or danger to the community.
Crenshaw noted that although the government accused Abrego of immigrant smuggling involving a minor, he had been cooperative when stopped by law enforcement in 2022 and had not attempted to flee.
Judge Xinis, acting in a civil case brought by Abrego and his family over his deportation, ruled to both restore Abrego to his pre-deportation immigration status and protect his due process rights if officials attempt to remove him from the U.S. again. Her ruling criticized government attorneys and ICE officials for failing to prepare adequately for court proceedings and for offering limited details about possible third-country removal options.
The court noted that although DHS has existing diplomatic agreements with countries like Mexico and South Sudan to accept deportees, no specific plans had been confirmed for Abrego. Nor had federal officials explained what process would be available to him in the event of a third-country removal.
The court's ruling underscores that any further attempts to remove Abrego must begin in Maryland, where jurisdiction over his original immigration case lies. Officials had previously indicated that any removal proceedings could be initiated wherever ICE found space to detain him, raising concerns about due process and judicial oversight.
Tennessee U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes has delayed the release of alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia from custody for thirty days.
His attorneys requested the delay on Monday, citing advice from the government that the Department of Homeland Security would initiate removal proceedings if he were released.
Quote:California Governor Gavin Newsom has decried a court's decision striking down a voter-backed California law that required background checks for people who buy bullets.
In a 2-1 decision on Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the law violated the Second Amendment. The ruling upheld a lower court's decision from last year.
Newsom called the decision a "slap in the face to the progress California has made in recent years to keep its communities safer from gun violence."
He added that Californians "voted to require background checks on ammunition and their voices should matter."
Why It Matters
The law took effect in 2019 after voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative on the issue in 2016 and after the state legislature passed a bill changing requirements for buying ammunition.
The law was intended to help police find people who have guns illegally, such as convicted felons, people with certain mental illnesses and people with some domestic violence convictions. Sometimes they order kits online and assemble guns in their home. The guns don't have serial numbers and are difficult for law enforcement to track, but the people who own them show up in background checks when they try to buy bullets.
What To Know
Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta wrote for the majority that the law "meaningfully constrains" the constitutional right to keep arms by forcing gun owners to get rechecked before each purchase of bullets.
"The right to keep and bear arms incorporates the right to operate them, which requires ammunition," Ikuta wrote.
In his dissent, judge Jay Bybee argued that the law creates only minor hurdles to legal purchases of ammunition, and that it does not "meaningfully constrain" the right to bear arms.
All three judges on the panel were appointed by Republican presidents.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez decided that the law was unconstitutional because if people can't buy bullets, they can't use their guns for self-defense.
The law remained in effect while the state appealed the lower court's decision.
Quote:The Department of Justice has sued New York Mayor Eric Adams, challenging local "sanctuary" policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
It wants New York City's sanctuary policies to be declared unconstitutional, saying they impede the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration has viewed sanctuary cities and states as obstacles to immigration enforcement operations, with local police not involved in ICE activity. Sanctuary laws are designed to limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. These laws seek to protect immigrants in the country illegally by restricting the sharing of personal information with federal authorities and preventing local law enforcement from assisting in immigration arrests. Critics argue that sanctuary laws impede immigration enforcement operations.
What To Know
In the lawsuit, the federal government is seeking to have the court declare New York City's sanctuary policies unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause and to issue an injunction preventing the city from enforcing its limited-cooperation provisions.
"Some of these aliens find safe havens from federal law enforcement detection in so-called 'sanctuary' cities, where they are shielded among innocent Americans—who, all too often, later become their crime victim," the DOJ wrote in its complaint.
The complaint was brought in the Eastern District of New York and names Adams' administration as the defendant.
The DOJ's complaint says that New York City's refusal to hold individuals beyond their scheduled release time at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with its prohibition on sharing release or incarceration information without a state court warrant or a conviction for a serious crime, directly conflicts with federal immigration statutes and the authority of the executive branch.
New York first implemented limited-cooperation policies in 2013, expanded them in 2014 and 2017, and solidified them further through Executive Order 50, signed in 2022. These measures restrict local law enforcement and correctional facilities from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in most cases.
Under the law, the city is permitted to honor detention requests only for individuals convicted of "violent or serious" crimes—a list that includes more than 170 offenses, such as rape and murder. Additionally, ICE must provide a warrant signed by a federal judge with each request in order for it to be considered.
"New York City has released thousands of criminals on the streets to commit violent crimes against law-abiding citizens due to sanctuary city policies," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. "If New York City won't stand up for the safety of its citizens, we will."
In the early days of Trump's second term, Adams appeared to strike an informal agreement with the White House. He appeared on Fox News alongside border czar Tom Homan, pledging to cooperate with ICE on targeting serious criminal immigrants. However, publicly, he has maintained he only backs the arrest of serious criminals.
Quote:Three former Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, including Michael Gordon who prosecuted a number of January 6 cases, have filed a lawsuit against the department and Attorney General Pam Bondi alleging they were improperly fired by the Trump administration after it took office in January.
...
After Donald Trump was inaugurated as president for the second time on January 20, dozens of DOJ employees were fired, including a number of prosecutors who had worked on criminal cases against either Trump or those of his supporters arrested after the January 6 2021 Capitol Hill riot.
If some of these firings are ruled unlawful in court, it would be a significant blow to the Trump administration, which has already lost court cases concerning sanctions it imposed on law firms that were involved in legal action against Trump.
What To Know
The lawsuit from three former Justice Department employees was filed on Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, against the DOJ, Bondi and the White House.
In addition to Gordon, the case was filed by Joseph Tirrell, formerly director of the DOJ's Ethics Office, and public affairs expert Patty Hartman who according to CBS News was involved in crafting press releases related to January 6 prosecutions. Gordon, Tirrell and Hartman are seeking reinstatement to the DOJ, and back pay.
According to the lawsuit all three were informed they had been fired via one-page documents signed by Bondi that didn't give any specific reasons for their loss of employment. This "came as a particular shock" to Gordon according to the filing as he was working on a fraud case involving a Florida man who allegedly stole millions of dollars from children with special needs.
The court filing said that, under normal circumstances, Tirrell, Hartman and Gordon would have appealed their dismissals to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a federal agency, but felt this was "futile" after Trump weakened the body by firing a board member.
In the lawsuit, Tirell also said his firing failed to take account of his membership of the Senior Executive Service, giving him extra employment protection, due to his naval service.
The suit read: "Specifically, it is a Prohibited Personnel Practice to 'knowingly take, recommend, or approve any personnel action if the taking of such action would violate a veterans' preference requirement."
Quote:European and Iranian diplomats have arrived in Istanbul in a renewed effort to resolve the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. The talks mark the first formal engagement since June's 12-day war between Iran and Israel, a conflict that included U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and heightened tensions across the region.
The discussions come as the UK, France, and Germany—collectively known as the E3—consider triggering a "snapback" mechanism that would reimpose UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord. In a bid to de-escalate, the E3 are floating a temporary extension of the sanctions deadline, contingent on Iranian commitments to diplomacy and international nuclear oversight.
...
The outcome of the Istanbul talks could determine whether the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has any future. The U.S. withdrew from the deal in 2018 during President Donald Trump's first term. Since then, Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment, prompting alarm in some Western capitals and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The "snapback" of sanctions would isolate Iran further, risk collapse of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and possibly accelerate regional instability. Yet a successful diplomatic turn could restore limited trust and reduce the likelihood of further conflict.
What To Know
Western diplomats say a delay in triggering "snapback" is possible—if Iran resumes full cooperation with the IAEA and engages credibly in talks. European leaders have warned that sanctions will return by the end of August if no progress is made. Officials say Iran must also address the status of over 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, a level just below weapons-grade.
Tehran's Distrust
Iran has conditioned its participation on what it calls "key principles," including guarantees against U.S. and Israeli military action during talks. Tehran suspended cooperation with the IAEA following the recent strikes and insists that its uranium enrichment is peaceful and within legal bounds.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, in a lengthy post in Farsi on X, emphasized that rebuilding trust in U.S. intentions is essential and outlined the principles guiding Tehran's engagement. Meanwhile, President Masoud Pezeshkian stated that Iran is "prepared for another war," while reiterating its program is compliant with international law.
Quote:Russia has launched a new Iranian communications satellite into orbit with one of its Soyuz rockets.
It is another symbol of deepening strategic cooperation between Russia and Iran, a point of concern for U.S.-led Western allies.
The rocket lifted off from the Vostochny launchpad in far eastern Russia, carrying two Russian Ionosphere-M Earth observation satellites, along with Iran's Nahid-2 satellite and 17 smaller Russian satellites.
...
The launch underscores deepening technological ties between Russia and Iran amid rising Western pressure on both countries. It also signals Tehran's continued progress in satellite technology, despite longstanding concerns in the West that advances in its civilian space program may enhance its ballistic missile capabilities.
The timing of the launch—just hours before European nations met with Iranian officials to resume nuclear talks—may also be seen as a calculated show of strength. These negotiations come at a particularly fraught moment, following a 12-day conflict triggered by Israeli attacks on Iranian targets.
What to Know
The Nahid-2 satellite is the latest in a series of Iranian space projects. Iran's state broadcaster described it as a communications satellite entirely designed and manufactured domestically.
It was launched aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The 110-kilogram (242-pound) Iranian satellite is supposed to circle the Earth on a 500-kilometer (310-mile) orbit and has a service lifetime of two years.
How Has the West Responded?
Western governments have long raised alarms over Iran's space program, suggesting its technological gains could be repurposed for ballistic missile development. The dual-use nature of satellite launch vehicles has been cited as a particular area of concern by officials in Washington and Europe.
Earlier this week, Iran tested its own Qased satellite launch rocket, marking a new phase in its space program. State media described the launch as an effort to assess "emerging new technologies" and improve the performance of future satellite systems.
Quote:Hamas has pushed back against remarks by U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, who criticized the group's stance in ongoing ceasefire talks and said negotiators were pulling out from Qatar on Thursday.
In a statement, Hamas expressed "surprise" at Witkoff's "negative" comments, saying that mediators had welcomed its "constructive and positive" position.
...
The deadlock in ceasefire talks has dealt a major blow to hopes of an imminent ceasefire for Gaza and is a setback for months of diplomatic efforts, including those by Egypt and Qatar. Washington blames Hamas for prolonging the war and obstructing humanitarian aid.
Gaza's humanitarian crisis continues to worsen, putting pressure on Israel. If negotiations collapse entirely, hopes for releasing remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza diminish further.
What To Know
U.S. and Israeli delegations recalled their negotiating teams from Doha following Hamas's response to a proposal that included a 60-day truce, phased hostages release, and humanitarian aid entry.
Witkoff, appointed by President Donald Trump, criticized Hamas for a lack of "good faith" in the negotiations. It remains unclear which sticking points in the negotiations led to the rift. Hamas, on the other hand, contradicted the "negative" comments from the U.S. envoy, saying that their position in the talks was positive, constructive and supported by the other mediators.
The war has been fought since Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and with around 250 kidnapped into Gaza. Israel is now expanding ground operations and airstrikes across the strip and had killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-run health ministry. Nearly 900 Israeli soldiers have been killed, according to the military. Some 20 hostages are believed to be still alive.
Quote:Voters in cities and counties across Taiwan will head to the polls Saturday in what local media are calling the "Great Recall."
At stake are the jobs of nearly two dozen legislators and several local leaders—along with the island's political balance of power, which could significantly impact Taiwan's relationship with China.
Proponents have framed the recall as a means of breaking the legislative gridlock. Critics have slammed it as an abuse of the democratic process.
Why It Matters
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) retained the presidency with Lai Ching-te's victory in January 2024, but lost its majority in Taiwan's 113-seat legislature. The opposition Kuomintang (KMT)—which favors closer engagement with China—and its junior partner, the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), have since used their majority to push through a series of parliamentary reforms and enact budget freezes, including cuts to major defense projects.
Critics accuse the opposition of obstructing government policy and weakening Taiwan's hand against China, which claims the self-ruled island as its territory and has not ruled out unification by force. Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan in recent years and this has only escalated since the inauguration of Lai, whom Beijing considers a "separatist."
What To Know
Saturday's recall election, spearheaded by DPP officials and affiliated grassroots organizations, targets 22 lawmakers from the KMT, one from the TPP, and two mayors.
A recall succeeds if over 25 percent of eligible voters participate and a majority votes to remove the official. Those recalled cannot run again in the same district for four years.
With the KMT holding a slim legislative majority, just six or seven successful recalls could tip the balance and give the DPP renewed control in the 113-seat Legislative Yuan. The KMT describes the campaign as an abuse of democratic process, while the DPP says it's a constitutional right for citizens.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office has denounced the recalls in previous statements, while Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council has accused Beijing of trying to influence the outcome.
The vote could reshape Taiwan's politics and signal how the island will respond to Chinese pressure. If the DPP regains control of the legislature, Beijing may retaliate with a show of force, such as the three large scale military drills it has staged since Lai took office.
Quote:Vietnam will purchase helicopters from the United States for its police force, as Hanoi—historically reliant on Russian weaponry—deepens its partnership with Washington.
A Reuters report also stated that Vietnam's Defense Ministry is negotiating with Lockheed Martin over the purchase of C-130 military transport aircraft.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department referred Newsweek to the government of Vietnam regarding the Southeast Asian country's equipment procurement. The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
Why It Matters
Vietnam and the United States—former adversaries during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975—have been expanding their defense cooperation since Washington lifted its arms sales ban in 2016, after which Hanoi acquired U.S. coast guard vessels and training aircraft.
Prior to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia was a major weapons supplier to Vietnam. However, the Southeast Asian country is now diversifying its arms sources and enhancing domestic weapons production, creating opportunities for American defense firms.
Earlier in July, President Donald Trump announced a trade agreement with Vietnam, under which U.S. goods exported to the Vietnamese market will face zero tariffs. Choosing American defense equipment may also help narrow the U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam.
What To Know
Citing people with knowledge of the talks, Reuters reported on Thursday that Vietnam's Public Security Ministry has agreed to acquire two helicopters from Lockheed Martin as Vietnamese pilots have been training with the U.S. defense giant's S-92 helicopters.
According to Lockheed Martin, this type of helicopter is capable of performing a range of missions, including offshore energy transport, search and rescue, and airline operations. A total of 28 countries operate the S-92 helicopter for both civilian and military purposes.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:The pharmaceutical industry is scrambling with scenario planning as U.S. President Donald Trump's 200% tariff proposal threatens to drive up drug prices and rip out corporate profit margins.
The president once again warned on Tuesday that long-awaited industry-wide tariffs would be announced "very soon" after the administration launched a so-called 232 investigation into the sector in April.
Trump suggested that those levies would not go into effect immediately, but get a grace period of "about a year, year and a half to come in."
Analysts nevertheless warn that such a rate — even with a delay — will have a detrimental effect on drug prices and profit margins.
"A 200% tariff would inflate production costs, compress profit margins, and risk supply chain disruptions, leading to drug shortages and higher prices for U.S. consumers," Barclays wrote in a note Wednesday.
UBS analysts cited a "significant negative impact" on margins, where goods are manufactured outside of the U.S. Meanwhile, the hit for patients could be "disastrous," Afsaneh Beschloss, founder and CEO of investment firm RockCreek Group said Tuesday, in reference to an estimated 100% levy.
"That would be potentially disastrous for every person because we need those pharmaceuticals, and it takes those companies a long time to produce them here in the U.S.," Beschloss told CNBC's "Closing Bell."
It is estimated that a tariff of just 25% on pharmaceutical imports would drive up U.S. drug prices by almost $51 billion annually, increasing domestic prices by as much as 12.9% if passed on, according to research from industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which on Wednesday lambasted the president's proposals as "counterproductive" to health outcomes.
Delay brings little relief
Pharmaceutical products have typically been excluded from trade tariffs due to their critical nature. However, Trump has repeatedly targeted the industry for what he deems unfair pricing practices, and has urged firms to reshore manufacturing to the U.S.
In response, global pharma firms — including Novartis, Sanofi and Roche and U.S.-headquartered Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson — have made commitments to invest large sums in the U.S.
UBS dubbed the administration's tariff grace period of 12 to 18 months as "insufficient time" for firms to relocate their manufacturing stateside.
"We would usually think of 4 to 5 years as the timeline to move commercial scale manufacturing to a new site," the analysts wrote.
The industry is now awaiting further details at the end of this month, when the final Section 232 investigation report is due. But in the meantime, firms have little choice but to plan for various potential outcomes.
Yeap, Hunter Biden hates not being the First Son anymore.
Quote:Hunter Biden went off on actor George Clooney and other high-profile Democrats in an expletive-filled response to their calls for his father, former President Biden, to drop out of the 2024 election.
Appearing on YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan’s web series “Channel 5,” Hunter Biden lashed out at Clooney and other members of the party who publicly criticized the former president after his disastrous debate against President Trump last summer.
“F‑‑‑ him. F‑‑‑ him. F‑‑‑ him and everybody around him,” Hunter Biden said during the interview released Monday, in response to an anecdote about Clooney’s political involvement. “I don’t have to be f‑‑‑ing nice. No. 1, I agree with Quentin Tarantino. … F‑‑‑ing George Clooney is not a f‑‑‑ing actor. He is a f‑‑‑ing, like … I don’t know what he is. He is a brand.”
Clooney was among the first prominent Democrats to call on the then-president to drop out, warning in an op-ed in The New York Times last July that the party would lose the election otherwise.
Within two weeks, the elder Biden announced he was dropping his reelection bid and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to fill his place. Clooney thanked him “for saving democracy once again” in response and endorsed Harris.
The former president’s son also lashed out at other high-profile figures in the party.
“What do you have to do with f‑‑‑ing anything? Why do I have to f‑‑‑ing listen to you?” Biden asked. “What right do you have to step on a man who’s given 52 years of his f‑‑‑ing life to service of this country and to decide you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full page ad in the f‑‑‑ing New York Times. … To me — and James Carville, who hasn’t run a race in 40 f‑‑‑ing years, and David Axelrod who had one success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama and that was because of Barack Obama, not because of f‑‑‑ing David Axelrod and David Plouffe and all of these guys … and the Pod Save America Guys, who were junior f‑‑‑ing speechwriters on Barack Obama’s Senate staff who had been dining out on their relationship with him.”
Hunter Biden, who was pardoned over multiple federal charges by his father during the last months of the former president’s administration, has reemerged in public in recent weeks to slam the Democratic Party’s handling of the election.
He is slated to appear on former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison’s new podcast, a trailer for which shows him blaming the Democratic Party’s loss on its lack of loyalty to his father.
“You know what, we are going to fight amongst ourselves for the next three years until there’s a nominee. And then with the nominee, we better as hell get behind that nominee,” Biden told Harrison on “At Our Table.”
Tommy Vietor, one of the hosts of “Pod Save America,” responded to Biden’s comments in a post on the social platform X.
“It’s good to see that Hunter has taken some time to process the election, look inward, and hold himself accountable for how his family’s insular, dare I say, arrogant at times, approach to politics led to this catastrophic outcome we’re all now living with,” he wrote.
Quote:Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg failed to replace outdated air traffic control systems while in office — with his agency instead shelling out tens of billions of dollars on a DEI agenda, according to federal spending records and airline industry insiders.
In one meeting, Buttigieg — who is said to be eyeing a 2028 presidential run — told industry executives that air traffic control upgrades would just allow them to fly more planes, “and so why would that be in his interest?” sources said.
What his department was really interested in was handing out hundreds of diversity, equity and inclusion grants totaling more than $80 billion over four years — at least half of the DOT’s entire budget for a typical fiscal year, records show.
“He was definitely pushing an agenda,” an air industry official said, noting the transportation secretary had “little to no interest” and took “definitely zero action” toward air traffic control modernization.
Buttigieg spent his time in President Joe Biden’s cabinet blaming the airlines for their delays and “vilifying” the industry as a whole while denying his department’s DEI agenda led to any air traffic control staffing shortages or was maintaining an ailing safety system that hasn’t been updated since the Carter administration, sources told The Post.
The flying public paid the price, insiders said.
“At first, [the Department of Transportation] and he were reluctant to say there was an air traffic controller shortage or that the shortage had anything to do with flight delays or flight cancellations,” the air industry official said.
Chris Meagher, a spokesman for Buttigieg, rejected both claims and pointed to increased air traffic controller hiring under the former transportation big, as well as software changes to improve efficiency at airport runways, new flight routes projected to cut up to 100 hours off travel time annually and the development of communications technology to decrease flight delays.
Biden’s infrastructure law also provided $5 billion to improve air traffic facilities’ towers and power systems, he noted.
“Suggesting that Secretary Buttigieg chose not to pursue air traffic control modernization is absurd,” said Meagher, adding that Biden’s budget request for fiscal year 2025 included another $8 billion in funding that congressional Republicans blocked.
“Secretary Buttigieg’s focus was always on safety — not just in aviation, but also on roads and bridges, where 40,000 Americans die on our country’s roads each year. Fixing issues with air traffic control was a priority.”
Quote:FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino boldly declared Saturday that he made recent discoveries about government corruption and weaponization that shocked him down to the core.
Without elaborating on what he found out, Bongino teased that investigations into those discoveries are ongoing and being done “by the book.”
“What I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core,” Bongino said in a shocking announcement on X.
“We cannot run a Republic like this. I’ll never be the same after learning what I’ve learned.”
Bongino did not provide a timeline for when the public might learn what he’s talking about, and underscored that while he is not as visible as he once was during his podcast days, “things are happening.”
“We are going to conduct these righteous and proper investigations by the book and in accordance with the law,” he stressed.
“We are going to get the answers WE ALL DESERVE. As with any investigation, I cannot predict where it will land, but I can promise you an honest and dignified effort at truth. Not ‘my truth,’ or ‘your truth,’ but THE TRUTH.”
Quote:Notorious sex criminal Ghislaine Maxwell answered questions from Justice Department officials about “100 different people” linked to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, an attorney for the disgraced socialite claimed Friday following two days of interrogation led by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during which she was reportedly granted limited immunity.
David Oscar Markus told reporters that his client, currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in Manhattan of federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges in December 2021, was “asked about every possible thing you could imagine – everything.”
“This was the first opportunity she’s ever been given to answer questions about what happened,” Markus added. “The truth will come out about what happened with Mr. Epstein and she’s the person who’s answering those questions.”
Blanche had “every single question” answered during the sitdown, Maxwell’s attorney also said, with the British-born convict declining to plead the Fifth Amendment.
“If she lies they could charge her with lying,” Markus noted.
“They did charge her with lying,” a reporter challenged him, referring to two perjury counts that Markus noted were dropped by the feds after her conviction.
“No one is above the law — and no lead is off-limits,” Blanche posted on X Tuesday in announcing he would speak with Maxwell.
Maxwell, 63, is appealing her conviction and sentencing, and legal observers have speculated her willingness to answer questions is tied to a potential clemency grant by President Trump.
Her attorney described the commander in chief Friday as “the ultimate dealmaker” and claimed his client had “been treated unfairly for the past five years” and “didn’t get a fair trial.”
“We hope he exercises that power in a right and just way,” Markus added.
Trump, 79, told reporters after landing in Glasgow, Scotland that “I don’t know anything about the conversation” between Blanche and Maxwell because “I haven’t really been following it.”
“This is no time to be talking about pardons,” the president added after saying hours earlier while leaving the White House that “I haven’t thought” about the idea.
Maxwell reportedly initiated the sitdowns with the DOJ and answered questions for roughly nine hours, according to ABC News.
The proffer immunity granted to Maxwell allowed her to answer questions without her responses later being used against her in a criminal case, sources told the outlet.
Proffer immunity is typically granted to individuals prosecutors want cooperation from in a criminal case.
In 2022, the Department of Justice expressed doubts that Maxwell could be truthful, writing in court filings that she displayed a “significant pattern of dishonest conduct” and failed to take responsibility for her heinous crimes.
Court papers the prior year revealed that prosecutors never seriously entertained the prospect of offering the women dubbed “Epstein’s madam” a plea agreement after the financier was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting his own federal trial on Aug. 10, 2019.
Quote:Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired back at former President Barack Obama, accusing him of deflecting from his administration’s “absolute failure” to vet intelligence reports used to fuel narratives of Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign.
“The treasonous conspiracy that we have now released to the American people — the complicity, the deflection, and the silence of politicians, of the mainstream media, and of those directly implicated into this speaks volumes,” Gabbard said on Fox & Friends Saturday.
On Tuesday, President Trump called for criminal charges against Obama, 63, for allegedly ordering an intelligence report saying Russia meddled to help him win the White House in 2016.
Trump was referring to documents Gabbard declassified last week.
Obama’s office responded, calling the claims an attempt at distracting from the scandal over the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for Obama said.
“But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” he said, referring to the mounting pressure on Trump to release the Epstein files.
“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.”
Gabbard lashed out at Obama’s answer during her Fox appearance.
“President Obama’s very carefully worded response that came from his office, again, deflects away from addressing any of the truth that was revealed,” she said.
“They would have to admit and actually address the details of their complicity in this or their absolute failure in conducting the most basic responsibilities of, again, asking, where is this intelligence coming from?
Gabbard sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi Friday against Obama.
Quote:The star-studded benefit concert that raised more than $100 million dollars for wildfire victims in California is itself under fire for how the money was spent.
"I have not seen any benefit from the FireAid money, and I am very involved here and neither have my neighbors," said David Howard, who lost two homes in Pacific Palisades.
FireAid billed itself as "a benefit concert for wildfire victims." Aside from music by the likes of Lady Gaga, Jelly Roll, Katy Perry and Olivia Rodrigo, the five-hour show featured multiple stories from victims of the Altadena and Palisades fire who'd lost their homes.
"My house is gone," Altadena fire victim Mark Jones told the audience. Six months later, Jones told Fox 11 in Los Angeles he expected someone to reach out and provide help, but that didn't happen. Did Jones believe he would receive money? "I did, and I am sure with most Altadenians. The fire aid was for us. So, we figured where is the money? Where is it going?"
Fox News asked that question Wednesday of FireAid and the Annenberg Foundation, which helped put the concert together.
Did any non-profits receive money? If so, how much did each receive?
How many fire victims received aid?
How much aid or financial assistance was paid to the victims?
What accounting practices were adopted to prevent FireAid money from being co-mingled with other operating funds among those non-profits receiving money?
We have yet to receive a response, but officials acknowledged receiving our inquiry.
The FireAid website says the concert raised an estimated $100 million designated for "direct relief".
During the concert, host and actor Miles Teller told viewers "all the money raised will go directly to people who need it now and long-term efforts to build it back."
That was echoed by host and actor Samuel L. Jackson, who said, "Go to the website and give what you can. All the money will go directly to people who need help in the short term and the long-term effort to get this city back on its feet."
But last week, in a statement to the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, the charity said, "FireAid does not have the capability to make direct payments to individuals and that was never the plan. We partnered directly with trusted local non-profits...to reach communities in need."
Fox News contacted more than 70 of those non-profits. Some replied. Others declined. Some are well known like the Boys and Girls Club, YWCA and Meals on Wheels.
Others are more obscure or promised to help specific ethnic groups or artists.
One that promoted "self-determination in the Latino community" vowed to use their FireAid grant to create "a more humane and democratic society by responding to the needs and problems of disenfranchised people."
Another claimed to use natural helpers or 'promotores' to "cultivate egalitarian relationships based on trust and respect."
At least $6.5 million in donor money also went to the County of Los Angeles.
All told, FireAid says it has granted $75 million so far to 188 non-profits. The remaining $25 million should go out in August and will focus on "long-term wildfire mitigation, environmental resilience, and sustainable rebuilding," according to the group.
The LA Times this week published an extensive piece on FireAid funding, contacting 100 non-profits receiving aid. It said the money provided a lifeline to many groups, allowing them to provide food, shelter, mental health services and animal care.
So who exactly who is responsible for how the money is spent? That's not entirely clear. The Annenberg Foundation helped organize the concert but claims only an advisory role in how the money is spent.
An Annenberg spokesperson says spending decisions are made by the FireAid Advisory Committee made up of respected philanthropists. They make recommendations to the FireAid Board of Trustees. It includes several executives from the LA Clipper basketball team, a businessman and wife of a prominent media executive.
While there is no evidence of fraud, California Congressman Kevin Kiley wants U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate "where these donations went and who benefited."
Quote:Bryan Kohberger has been transferred to one of America’s worst hellhole prisons overnight — where inmates chowed down on hot dogs and vegan casserole for dinner, The Post has learned.
The monstrous killer was sent to the notorious Idaho Maximum Security Institute after he was jailed for life Wednesday for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, prison records show.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the 30-year-old made it in time for dinner.
But if he did, the Wednesday night menu included hot dogs, salad and Jello pie, a prison official told The Post.
For vegan inmates like Kohberger, vegan barley casserole, baked beans and canned fruit were on offer, the official added.
Kohberger, who was previously being held at the Ada County Jail in Boise during his trial, is now expected to live out his days at IMSI — the state’s only max-security prison.
The lockup, which has been plagued by claims of feces-smeared cages, brutally violent guards and rioting inmates, currently houses “Doomsday” cult mom Lori Vallow’s child-murderer husband, Chad Daybell.
Two of Idaho’s most notorious serial killers — Gerald Pizzuto and Thomas Eugene Creech — are also serving time there.
IMSI was named one of the “15 Worst Prisons in America” by Security Journal Americas in 2024.
Quote:At least 11 people were stabbed in a bloody scene inside a Michigan Walmart Saturday night — causing terrified shoppers and employees to flee — before a brave armed citizen helped detain the knife-wielding maniac, according to police, witnesses and harrowing video.
The terror unfolded around 5 p.m. when the alleged 42-year-old male attacker began randomly stabbing shoppers with a “standard” folding knife in various sections of the big-box chain store in Traverse City, about 255 miles northwest of Detroit, Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea said.
“Based on the information that we have at this time, they were random acts,” Shea told reporters at a press conference Saturday night, adding that the violent knifing is “very uncommon” for the city.
“Eleven [victims] is too many, but thank God it wasn’t more.”
Six of the victims are in critical condition, with the other five in serious condition.
Shea said the disturbing episode started near the store’s checkout counter.
“The whole store started screaming and running,” employee Tasha Nash told Channel2 Now.
“There was a guy with a knife — he stabbed six people. I saw someone stabbed in the eye.”
The knife-wielding monster was ultimately taken down by a pair of brave shoppers, including one who was armed, before authorities arrived and took him into custody, according to police and witnesses.
Video of the chaotic scene showed the unidentified suspect surrounded by shouting bystanders, including the armed good Samaritan.
Photos from Channel 2 Now show the sadistic suspect being placed into a Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office vehicle after the attack.
A shopper, who arrived at the superstore moments after the violent rampage, said she was shocked by the number of first responders on the scene.
“We were getting ready to go into Walmart as this was happening,” one witness wrote on X shortly after investigators asked the public to avoid the area.
Quote:The city Board of Elections asked Brooklyn prosecutors to open an investigation into possible voter fraud Friday after The Post revealed two absentee ballots in a close primary council race were cast on behalf of deceased people.
The BOE said it was asking the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office to look into two incidents surrounding the District 47 race, including the votes cast in the name of people who died over a decade ago and another 22 ballots that were deemed as “potentially fraudulent.”
The BOE didn’t say what made the more than two dozen ballots suspicious, but that the votes had been invalidated following an internal investigation, which was then referred to the Brooklyn DA.
The razor-thin margin primary between Brooklyn Republican Party Chair Richie Barsamian and entrepreneur George Sarantopoulos could be decided by only a handful of votes. Unofficial election night tallies had a mere 32-vote difference between the two candidates.
The 22 ballots were discovered during a manual recount process earlier this week a source told The Post, adding that lawyers from the BOE had been reviewing them in recent days.
Sarantopoulos was maintaining a 16-vote lead as of Friday, gaining two ballots in a manual recount that started Tuesday, sources said.
He had been maintaining a 14-vote lead as of Wednesday, according to a statement from his campaign.
A source who spoke to Barasamian — who as head of the Brooklyn GOP gets to appoint BOE employees — about The Post’s original reporting Tuesday, said that the candidate confided he was “very worried.”
The Barasamian campaign did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Sources said multiple people from the Brooklyn BOE who were involved in the south Brooklyn GOP primary had been reassigned from their roles during the internal investigation.
“The workers from that section were reassigned pending the results of the investigation,” Brooklyn Democratic BOE Commish and retired NYPD detective Frank Seddio told The Post.
Personal devices and computers were seized from BOE employees as part of the probe, sources said.
The BOE previously the election would be certified next week after the manual recount of votes is completed.
Quote:A grenade is missing from the scene of an explosion that killed three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, authorities said Friday.
The July 18 blast at a sheriff’s department training facility killed three experienced deputies on the arson and explosives team.
The deputies were working on two grenades that had been taken into custody by authorities. One of the grenades detonated, and the other is unaccounted for, Sheriff Robert Luna said, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is investigating the explosion.
Luna said authorities X-rayed special enforcement bureau vehicles, searched all around the blast area and examined office spaces and even the gym and haven’t found it.
“You get the drift. We have looked at everything out there that we possibly could,” he said, adding that no one from the public has had access to the area.
Quote:A Democratic congressional candidate was forcibly removed from the Texas State Capitol Thursday and arrested after he filibustered a hearing on redistricting in the Lone Star State.
“It is a shame. It is horrific. For what you have … “ Isaiah Martin shouted as he was dragged out of the House Redistricting Committee meeting in Austin, just before a capitol security official fell on top of the 27-year-old House hopeful.
Martin is seeking to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas), who died on March 5, as the Texas’ 18th Congressional District representative.
The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed Martin was arrested and booked into Travis County Jail on charges of criminal trespass, disrupting a meeting or procession and resisting arrest, according to local outlet KVUE.
All charges against Martin were dropped Friday, and he was expected to be released from jail, his brother said in a social media post, arguing that the state was trying to make “an example” out of Isaiah.
Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove Martin from the hearing after he went over his allotted two minutes to speak and refused to stop talking — even after his microphone was shut off.
It took three men to wrestle Martin out of the room.
“Jesus! Get off of him!” a woman in the crowd demanded after the candidate fell to the ground with the sergeant-at-arms on top of him.
“He tripped,” one of the security members assured the woman.
“America will rise up against you!” Martin screamed as he was finally pulled into the hallway, where it appeared he fell, or was taken down, once more.
Quote:A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden on Friday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit challenging sanctuary city policies in Chicago and the state of Illinois.
The Justice Department sued Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago — along with several state and local officials, including Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson — in February, arguing their sanctuary laws “interfere” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ability to arrest and deport illegal migrants.
District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins concluded that sanctuary policies — which prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities on immigration enforcement — are protected by the 10th Amendment.
“[T]he Sanctuary Policies reflect Defendants’ decision to not participate in enforcing civil immigration law — a decision protected by the Tenth Amendment and not preempted by [federal immigration laws],” Jenkins wrote in her 64-page ruling.
“Finding that these same Policy provisions constitute discrimination or impermissible regulation would provide an end-run around the Tenth Amendment,” the judge continued. “It would allow the federal government to commandeer States under the guise of intergovernmental immunity — the exact type of direct regulation of states barred by the Tenth Amendment.”
Jenkins also determined that the Trump administration lacked standing to sue the “individual defendants” named in the case, such as Pritzker and Cook.
She dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning the Trump administration may amend its complaint if it wishes to continue litigating the issue.
In their lawsuit, the Trump administration singled out the Illinois Trust Act and Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance.
Quote:New York was hit with an air quality alert Saturday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted across the state.
The warning, issued by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health, covers the five boroughs, Long Island, the Lower and Upper Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks.
Officials advised New Yorkers to stay indoors and skip strenuous outdoor activity.
Pollution from fine particulate matter — PM2.5 — is expected to push the Air Quality Index over 100, hitting levels considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, including children, older adults and people with heart or lung conditions.
The tiny particles can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, along with coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath. They can also worsen asthma and heart disease.
The alert is expected to remain in effect until Sunday.
It’s the latest smoke surge to cloud city skies this year. An alert was also issued in early June, when ozone pollution and wildfire haze from Canada triggered warnings across the tri-state.
As of July 23, Canada has seen 3,345 fires in 2025 — scorching over 14 million acres, more than double the 10-year average. More than 50 remain out of control.
Quote:Mayor Eric Adams on Saturday blasted rival Andrew Cuomo for stepping down as governor as he was being investigated over sexual harassment allegations — and swiping his political “playbook” by running for mayor as an independent.
“Listen, he comes from a popular name. His dad was a great governor. His dad stood for three terms and did a great job. In the midst of his obligations to the state, he stepped down,” Adams told The Post while attending the 75th anniversary celebration of NYCHA Bronx River Houses at the Bronx Community Center.
“Personal strife should not cause you to leave office. During my personal strife, I stepped up. I continued to deliver for the city,” said Hizzoner, who had his historic bribery and fraud charges dismissed by the Trump administration earlier this year.
Cuomo, who has long disputed allegations of sexual harassment by multiple women, has been fiercely criticized over his administration’s disastrous March 2020 decision to send infected COVID-19 patients into nursing homes, which resulted in as many as 15,000 deaths.
Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent himself, also accused Cuomo of repeatedly trying to sabotage black politicians to claw back power.
“This is his history, and he’s using the same playbook in my mayoralty,” Adams said.
“He ran in the primary, he lost by double digits. He knew I was gonna run in a general election. Why would he throw his name in as an independent as well, unless he thought he was gonna do to me what he did to others, and it just did not happen.”
Cuomo quickly tossed his hat into the race as an independent after a humiliating loss to socialist Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in last month’s Democratic primary election.
Quote:The leaders of Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” are facing up to eight years in prison, an “abusive” sentencing recommendation critics are ripping as “political vengeance.”
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber sat in an Ottawa courtroom for their sentencing hearings this week after being found guilty in April of mischief for organizing the trucker protest against then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ultra-strict vaccine mandate.
The protest paralyzed the Great White North’s capital for three weeks in 2022.
The Crown is seeking seven years for Lich, 51, of Alberta, and eight for Barber, of Saskatchewan — who was also found guilty of counseling others to disobey a court order.
“It seems like a considerable overreach,” Lich told The Post Friday, during a stop on her three-day drive back to Alberta. “They’re trying to deter others, I believe, from ever protesting something like this again.”
Prosecutors are also pushing to seize Barber’s truck, “Big Red,” which was used in the protest — through a forfeiture order they filed three years after the fact.
“I’ve owned this truck for 21 years,” said Barber, 50, who runs a family trucking business and co-owns “Big Red” with his son. “This is how I make a living. And the Crown wants to remove that from me and destroy it, which is absolutely disheartening to see that they will go to such a level of vileness.”
“It’s just this vindictive vendetta of pettiness,” Lich added.
Quote:This news must have been a hard pill to swallow.
There is a nationwide shortage of common prescription pain medications in Canada — and it could last until early August.
Opioids that contain acetaminophen with codeine or oxycodone — better known as Percocet and Tylenol No. 3 — are in short supply, according to Health Canada, the department in charge of the country’s national health policy, which made the dire announcement last week.
Manufacturing disruptions and increased demand are behind the sudden scarcity, Health Canada said.
“We’re communicating with health care providers, provincial and territorial governments, and distributors to coordinate the sharing of information about this shortage,” the department said.
“We’re also working with manufacturers and stakeholders to monitor the supply of acetaminophen with codeine or oxycodone and looking at options for increasing access to these products.”
The Canadian Pharmacists Association is limiting the amounts of pills it dispenses.
“Usually pharmacists have to dispense the amount that is being written on the prescription unless it is being limited by the drug plan,” Sadaf Faisal, senior director of professional affairs at the CPA, told Global News.
“In a situation like these, pharmacists are documenting on their prescriptions that we are only supplying 30 days right now because we don’t have enough supply.”
Quote:The United States and Mexico have signed an agreement outlining specific steps and a new timetable to clean up the longstanding problem of the Tijuana River pouring sewage across the border and polluting California beaches, officials from both countries announced Thursday.
Billions of gallons of sewage and toxic chemicals from Tijuana have polluted the Pacific Ocean off neighboring Southern California, closing beaches and sickening Navy SEALs who train in the water.
That’s despite multiple efforts and millions of dollars that have been poured into addressing the problem over decades, including under the first Trump administration.
“There is a great commitment by the two countries to strengthen cooperation,” Mexico’s Environmental Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Thursday after meeting with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in Mexico City for the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
The accord comes three months after Zeldin flew to San Diego to meet with Mexican officials and visit the border.
“I smelled what a lot of residents in the community lived through and have to deal with,” he said Thursday.
“I saw the degradation of the Tijuana River valley. I heard about the beaches that were closed. I met with the Navy Seals, who have had their training impacted. It was a powerful visit all around for me.”
Under the agreement, Mexico will complete its allocation of $93 million toward infrastructure projects, including adhering to a specific schedule for priority projects spanning through 2027.
The 120-mile-long (195-kilometer) Tijuana River runs near the coast in Mexico and crosses into Southern California, where it flows through Navy-owned land and out to the Pacific.
Quote:Twenty bodies were discovered — including four decapitated corpses hanging from a bridge near a plastic bag of human heads — after a bloody day of cartel violence in Mexico over the weekend.
All 20 of the victims were male and had gunshot wounds, the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office said.
Five of the bodies were decapitated, with four of those corpses left strung up by their feet along a highway bridge near Culiacán, the largest city in Sinaloa state, authorities said.
The 15 other bodies, including the fifth missing his head, were discovered just yards away in a van.
A plastic bag containing five human heads was found close to the bridge, officials said.
The van was plastered with a banner referencing the ongoing wars between rival drug cartels in Sinaloa, authorities said.
The victims were part of a total of 27 murders reported in Sinaloa on Sunday, including a young man and two women in an armed attack in Culiacán.
The recent upsurge in Mexican drug violence is blamed on clashes between the warring gangs Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, which are fighting over strategic drug trafficking routes in Sinaloa, security sources said.
A bloody power struggle broke out between the two factions in September, triggered by the dramatic kidnapping of one of the group’s leaders by the son of infamous narco boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The kidnapped man was handed over to US authorities by way of a private plane.
Since then, Culiacan, previously one of the more peaceful Mexican cities, has been torn apart by violence as the Sinaloa Cartel has lost control.
Mexican authorities insist they are on top of the violence and are working to crack down on organized crime.
“Military and police forces are working together to reestablish total peace in Sinaloa,” said Feliciano Castro, a Sinaloa government spokesperson, in a statement Monday.
Quote:Kyiv and Moscow will hold a new round of peace talks — the first in seven weeks — on Wednesday in Turkey, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov is in Istanbul to meet with his Russian counterparts to discuss the war and hash out the terms for another prisoner of war exchange, Zelensky said.
Despite Kyiv’s push to reach a cease-fire deal, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the world not to expect a “miraculous breakthrough” from the meeting.
“We intend to pursue our interests, we intend to ensure our interests and fulfil the tasks that we set for ourselves from the very beginning,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
A Turkish foreign ministry source told Reuters that the meeting at the Ciragan Palace would begin at around noon EST, with all eyes set on how Russia would proceed.
“The Ukrainian delegation has come to Turkey prepared to take significant steps toward peace and a full ceasefire, but everything will depend on whether the Russian side is willing to take a constructive approach,” the source said.
Quote:Ukraine’s top military commander called on President Trump to provide long-range missiles capable of attacking deep into Russia to cripple Moscow’s war machine.
Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky said that along with the new Patriot air defense systems Washington and NATO have promised, Ukraine needs more long-range weapons, like the US-made ATAMCS system, to directly target Russia’s arms production plants, the Washington Post reported.
Syrsky told the outlet that taking out Moscow’s war infrastructure would send a direct message to the Kremlin and hinder Russia’s ability to fire hundreds of drones every night — attacks that have been escalating and killing civilians.
“So, of course, we need supplies of ballistic missiles in order to be able to give the enemy a fitting rebuff.”
“The availability of any missile weapons is in itself a deterrent,” he added.
“I hope that thanks to President Trump’s position, this process will be much easier and … we won’t have any of the difficulties we had before.”
Syrsky was referencing the Biden-era ban on most deep strikes against Russian military targets, which has kept Kyiv on the defensive and largely relying on its own, home-made drones to attack targets hundreds of miles over the border.
It remains unclear if Trump would greenlight deep strikes against Russia, with reports revealing he had asked Zelensky earlier this month if Ukraine was capable of attacking Moscow or St. Petersburg.
Trump has since said Kyiv should avoid any direct attacks on the Russian capital.
The US and UK only allowed Ukraine to use their long-range missiles under limited circumstances last year, prompting backlash from the Kremlin who accused Western powers were getting directly involved in the war.
It led Russian President Vladimir Putin to update Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, opening the door for retaliation against any nuclear superpower that props up an enemy nation that fires into Russia.
Quote:Thousands are marching across Ukraine for the first time since Russia’s invasion to protest President Volodymyr Zelensky after he signed a bill to curb the country’s top anti-corruption agencies.
The controversial move allows a politically appointed prosecutor general to have more power over Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), threatening the independence of the two agencies tasked with weeding out decades of corruption in Kyiv.
Critics have now taken to the streets to protest the bill, which may even threaten the people’s dream of joining the European Union.
Zelensky, who has enjoyed popular support since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, is facing his first wartime protest at home after the bill was fast-tracked through parliament and presented before him on Tuesday night.
The president has defended the move as a necessary step to rid the two agencies of “Russian influence” and to address why some cases have been stalled for years.
“There is no rational explanation why criminal proceedings worth billions have been ‘hanging’ for years,” Zelensky said in a statement. “And there is no explanation why the Russians can still get the information they need.”
The approval of the law came following federal raids against NABU employees and an investigation into SAPO’s handling of state secrets, with two people arrested on Monday over “suspicion of working for Russian special services.”
Opponents, however, slammed the bill’s passage as a way of putting political pressure on what should be independent agencies that targeted some of Zelensky’s close allies, including former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov.
Critics have previously accused Zelensky of refusing to face the alleged corruption going on inside his inner circle, which opponents say has hurt Kyiv’s ability to fight back against the Russian invasion.
Quote:Russian intelligence obtained damaging information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s health amid her 2016 presidential campaign — including evidence that she had “psycho-emotional problems” that were being treated with severe sedatives — but Vladimir Putin chose not to release it before that year’s election because he thought the Democrat would win.
The astounding revelations were contained in a Sept. 18, 2020, House Intelligence Committee report that reviewed Russia’s influence on the 2016 contest and was declassified and made public Wednesday by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, “possessed DNC communications that Clinton was suffering from ‘intensified psycho-emotional problems, including uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression. and cheerfulness,’” stated the report, which the committee based on 20 interviews with intelligence officers and FBI agents, as well as a review of source material for the 2017 Obama-ordered report on Russian election meddling.
“Clinton was placed on a daily regimen of ‘heavy tranquilizers’ and while afraid of losing, she remained ‘obsessed with a thirst for power.’”
By September 2016, some of those communications showed then-President Barack Obama and Democratic party bosses found the state of Clinton’s health “extraordinarily alarming” and fretted that it could have a “serious negative impact” on her ability to beat Trump that November.
Clinton, now 77, was apparently suffering from “Type 2 diabetes, Ischemic heart disease, deep vein thrombosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” at the time.
A full picture of the former first lady’s condition was guarded by Clinton advisers with the “strictest secrecy.”
The SVR also “possessed a campaign email discussing a plan approved by Secretary Clinton to link Putin and Russian hackers to candidate Trump in order to ‘distract the [American] public’ from the Clinton email server scandal.”
Quote:Thirty-three civilians — including a 10-year-old and two teenagers — were wounded in strikes Thursday in Kharkiv, where Russian forces are testing out a new type of “glide bomb” on innocent people.
The Post was on scene as war crimes investigators, firefighters, humanitarian and emergency services arrived just minutes after the back-to-back strikes, which hit a residential apartment building and a textiles factory around 11:15 a.m. local time.
“The Russians are striking everywhere. Homes, school and children. They won’t stop,” a building resident named Tatiana said, tears welling in her eyes. “This is World War III happening right here.”
“I was just coming from my kitchen when I heard the bomb,” another building resident, Svetlana Shevcheko, said. “I never thought about leaving Kharkiv before, but I am thinking now.”
The northeastern Ukrainian city is just 15 miles from the Russian border, so bombs and missiles can strike into the city before residents are alerted to an incoming air raid.
The strike used a new kind of glide bomb, which is a repurposed Soviet-era weapon outfitted with aerodynamic wings for more targeted precision and range.
The new bombs used on Kharkiv have a range of somewhere between 90 and 100 km — an increase of about 10 to 20 km — allowing Russia to strike that much further into the city.
“They are testing this out on civilians,” chief war crimes prosecutor for the Kharkiv district Spartak Borisenko told The Post.
While Ukraine is building interceptor drones and other technologies to knock Russian Shaheds out of the sky, the only thing capable of protecting Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities from ballistic missiles and glide bombs are Patriot air-defense systems, which the US produces, Borisenko added.
President Trump announced this month that the US will ship Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine and insisted that the European Union would pick up the tab and reimburse the US for the associated costs.
Quote:Russia is forcing the children that it’s kidnapped from Ukraine to fight against their own country once they turn 18 as part of a direct order from President Vladimir Putin, Kyiv officials said.
Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said soldiers on the battlefield are coming face-to-face with the young men, with one rescued 19-year-old recounting the Kremlin’s re-education process that he was made to endure for three years, the Times of London reported.
“We were made to sing the Russian anthem every morning, then physical training — jumps, squats, running, crawling — and we also learned how to shoot,” Vlad Rudenko told the outlet.
“The 16- and 17-year-olds were given dummy rifles and the older ones used live ammunition,” he added.
Rudenko was one of the many children who were taken from their homes when Russian soldiers stormed through the southern town of Kherson in October 2022.
He was only 16 when the foreign troops found him hiding in his mother’s apartment, taking the boy by gunpoint and transferring him to a re-education camp in occupied Crimea, where he and other children underwent combat training.
Rudenko, who was smuggled over the frontlines with the help of his mother last year, considered himself lucky when compared to some of the other 35,000 children Russia has kidnapped.
“The Russians didn’t manage to take anything from me though, they just deprived me of my childhood,” he said. “I am lucky, because there are Ukrainians now who are fighting against their own people.”
Yermak, who slammed Moscow as a “terroristic regime,” said the kidnapping and re-education of countless Ukrainian children serves two goals.
The first is for Russia to fill its ranks with expendable soldiers as Moscow continues to beef up its military numbers in the face of hundreds of deaths a week along the frontlines.
Quote:Russia pummeled Ukraine overnight, killing 10 and injuring as many as 61 civilians, in part of a ramped up aerial campaign to advance strongman Vladimir Putin’s war into the Eastern European country.
The Kremlin targeted Ukraine’s frontline regions with 208 drones and 27 missiles Saturday. In the southern Dnipro region, at least three Ukrainians were killed and six others wounded in the barrage, local officials on the ground reported.
The strikes shattered windows in a residential building, torched cars — and on the outskirts of the city flames engulfed an obliterated shopping center obliterated by a Russian missile, causing an apocalyptic-like scene on the streets of the war-torn country.
The Kremlin targeted Ukraine’s frontline regions with 208 drones and 27 missiles, according to officials.
“A scary night. A massive attack on the region,” Serhiy Lysak, Dnipro’s regional governor, said on Telegram.
In the northeastern Sumy region, another person was killed and three others injured, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said troops blocked Russian troops from gaining ground deeper into the battleground region.
Russia opened a new front in Sumy in early June, deploying 50,000 troops — three times the size of Kyiv’s forces in the key battleground — and capturing around a dozen border villages.
The region, a priority for the Kremlin, continues to face near-daily strikes. But, up until this point, Ukrainian forces have managed to maintain control over a bulk of the region.
Meanwhile, Kharkiv faced a sustained aerial bombardment on Saturday.
Ukraine’s second-largest city was pounded by four guided aerial bombs, two ballistic missiles and 15 drones over a three-hour period.
As many as 29 people were injured, including a child, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
Quote:France will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday.
“True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,” Macron wrote on X.
France is the first major Western power to recognize a sovereign Palestinian state.
Macron teased the move earlier this year, arguing in April that it wouldn’t be done to “please anyone,” but because “at some point it will be right.”
The French president, at the time, also claimed that recognizing a Palestinian state may result in more Middle Eastern countries recognizing Israel in return.
Macron’s social media post Thursday included a letter to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas informing him of his decision.
“In light of the commitments made to me by the president of the Palestinian Authority, I have therefore written to him of my determination to move forward,” he said.
“The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population.”
Macron further demanded an immediate cease-fire to the war in Gaza, the release of all hostages held by Hamas terrorists and “massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
“It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza” and “essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East,” Macron continued.
Quote:President Trump has begun mediating the deadly conflict between Cambodia and Thailand over a border dispute and demanded that the two sides reach a ceasefire to avert a full-blown war.
Trump revealed that he held a call with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Saturday and is planning to speak with Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai in an effort to broker peace.
“We happen to be, by coincidence, currently dealing on Trade with both Countries, but do not want to make any Deal, with either Country, if they are fighting,” Trump announced on Truth Social Saturday.
“And I have told them so!” he added. “I am trying to simplify a complex situation! Many people are being killed in this War, but it very much reminds me of the Conflict between Pakistan and India, which was brought to a successful halt.”
Clashes between Cambodia and Thailand erupted on Thursday over the border between the two countries.
Quote:Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar claimed his country is “very close” to locking down a tariff deal with the US ahead of President Trump’s fast-approaching Aug. 1 deadline for the “Liberation Day” levies to take effect.
Dar met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and predicted a deal is just days away as the Trump administration scrambles to finalize agreements with countries before the deadline.
“I think we are very close to finalizing a deal with the U.S.,” Dar said during an appearance at the Atlantic Council think tank Friday. “Our teams have been here in Washington, discussing, having virtual meetings and a committee has been tasked by the prime minister to fine-tune now.”
“It’s not going to be months, not even weeks, I would say days.”
Since Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs, a deluge of countries have been negotiating with his team to cut lightning deals.
Trump repeatedly agreed to postpone the implementation rate for most of those tariffs, with the most recent deadline being Aug. 1 to give more time for negotiations to play out.
So far, he has locked down tariff deals with the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. The Trump administration also has a tariff truce with China, where there is an Aug. 12 deadline to ink a broader deal.
At the moment, Trump has imposed a 10% baseline tariff rate on almost all imports, tariffs on Chinese imports, 25% tariffs on automobiles, aluminum, and steel, as well as 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico that don’t comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Total US trade with Pakistan clocked in at about $7.3 billion last year, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.
The State Department and Pakistan also confirmed the two sides held talks on trade issues, but didn’t reveal a timeline for a deal getting finalized.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, fighting erupted between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam terrorist attack near India’s administered Jammu and Kashmir. The incident sparked a chain of events that led to India firing missiles into Pakistan.
Quote:A Syrian-American who was taking care of his ill father was among the eight Druze men kidnapped from their family home and executed in the middle of the street in Syria last week, harrowing video shows.
Viral video of the Druze-Bedouin conflict shows the final moments of Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old from Oklahoma who flew back to his homeland to take care of his sick father in Sweida, where Syria’s Druze minority reside, CNN reported.
Saraya and seven of his relatives were hauled out of their house at gunpoint and forced to march to the middle of Tishreen Square, where they were made to kneel before the armed men opened fire on them.
The carnage occurred during a week of fighting across Sweida before a cease-fire deal with the country’s new government was struck.
Fighters for the new regime were also accused of assisting Bedouin gunmen in carrying out the sectarian violence against the Druze, with one of Saraya’s relatives claiming that a man from the government was involved in the massacre against her family.
“One of them was wearing a General Security uniform … the black one,” she told CNN. ““They told us, ‘We are the army of Ahmad Al-Jolani (the Syrian president).’”
“They threatened us, told us not to make a sound or we will kill you,” she added. “They threatened us with rape … he told me if you speak I will come and kill you.”
The Syrian government has denied any involvement in the killings, reiterating that its forces were deployed to Sweida to establish peace between the two groups.
A cease-fire was eventually struck on Friday after the Israeli military launched airstrikes in Syria, warning that it would not allow violence against the Druze to go on nor have Damascus’ forces be deployed so close to the border.
The State Department confirmed Monday that an American was killed in Sweida last week, with Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) later revealing that Saraya was the victim.
Quote:Terrified minorities under attack for weeks in Syria by the country’s new Islamist regime are wary of a fragile ceasefire — despite President Trump’s pronouncement this week calling for the groups to be protected, their relatives told The Post.
More than 1,000 Druze, the country’s third largest religious minority which makes up just about three percent of the population, and 25 Syrian Christians have been killed so far in the southern district of Sweida.
Safi, a Druze lawyer in Syria, described heinous violence, including the indiscriminate murders of children and elderly, while a Christian Syrian named Lama told The Post her father was shot to death while scavenging for food.
“We believe they will continue to attack us – and the fear is growing,” Safi said, calling al-Sharaa’s government “a dictatorship…that is brutal to everyone.”
“We can’t trust them. This is not a government we can make a deal with,” he added.
“Right now, we are besieged by the Islamists who don’t differentiate between Christians and Druze – they’re attacking everyone,” said Lama, 30, a pharmacist who just gave birth to a son.
Her father’s bullet-riddled body was found by members of her church days after he’d gone out and failed to return, said Lama, who is now in hiding.
“There are no guarantees this is all over. With every ceasefire, they go back again with the missiles and snipers to attack peaceful people,” she said, adding civilians are scrambling for shelter as homes are targeted by drones.
Quote:The widow of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, was reportedly smuggled out Gaza with their kids using fake passports — and has already remarried.
Samar Muhammad Abu Zamar managed to slip out of the Palestinian enclave with huge chunks of cash in the early days of the war, Ynet reported Wednesday, citing multiple sources.
The Birkin bag-loving widow fled with the couple’s two young sons to Turkey, where she remained in hiding as Israeli forces hunted down her husband, the sources added.
Then, just months after her husband was wiped out by Israeli forces in a routine ground operation in southern Gaza last October, Abu Zamar remarried.
“She’s no longer here — she crossed through the Rafah border using a fake passport,” one source told the outlet, adding that the operation involved “high-level coordination, logistical support and large sums of money that regular Gazans don’t have.”
Her new marriage and resettlement was orchestrated by Fathi Hammad — a Hamas operative who is renowned for helping terrorists and their families disappear.
Details on her new husband weren’t immediately known.
It comes after footage emerged late last year of the terror kingpin’s wife fleeing into a Gaza tunnel while clutching what Israeli officials claimed was a $32,000 Birkin bag just hours before the Oct. 7 massacre unfolded.
“Did Sinwar’s wife enter the tunnel with him on October 6 carrying a Birkin bag estimated to cost around $32,000?!” an IDF spokesperson wrote on X, alongside a screenshot of the woman holding what appeared to be a super-luxe Hermes bag.
“While Gaza residents have no money for food, we see many examples of Yahya Sinwar and his wife’s special love for money.”
Quote:Hamas is planning to kill the remaining Israeli hostages if the Jewish state sends in troops to rescue them — the latest move by the terror group to undermine peace efforts in Gaza.
The terror group has reportedly reinstated its previously abandoned kill order on its captives if Israeli forces or anyone else closes in an attempt to retrieve the 50 remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip, according to the Times of Israel.
That policy had been scrapped after a short-lived cease-fire was reached in January, Hamas sources told the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat. Hamas also reportedly boasted that an Israeli military operation to free the hostages would fail, the outlet reported.
Of the 50 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, about 20 are still believed to be alive.
The plans come as the US walked away from the latest cease-fire talks in Qatar on Thursday, before slamming the terror group for showing no real interest in striking a deal with Israel.
President Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said “alternative options” to bring the hostages home would now have to be considered, after the latest round of negotiations broke down.
His comments were echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said “together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home”
Neither the US or Israel have offered insight into what those alternative options might include.
But Trump said he would approve of Israel’s military finishing off Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal,” Trump told reporters Friday as he departed the White House for a trip to Scotland.
“I think they want to die.”
“Trump’s remarks are particularly surprising, especially as they come at a time when progress had been made on some of the negotiation files,” a Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
Meanwhile, thousands of protestors in Tel Aviv marched to the US embassy on Saturday night, for the second week in a row, calling for a truce that releases the remaining hostages and puts an end to the war in Gaza.
Hamas captured 251 hostages during the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. Of those, 148 were released following negotiations — 140 alive, eight dead.
Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering “alternative options” to cease-fire talks with Hamas after Israel and the U.S. recalled their negotiating teams, throwing the future of the negotiations into further uncertainty.
Netanyahu’s statement came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic. Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating the talks alongside the United States, said the pause was only temporary and that talks would resume, though they did not say when.
The teams left Qatar on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Hamas’ latest response to proposals for a deal showed a “lack of desire” to reach a truce. Witkoff said the U.S. will look at “alternative options,” without elaborating.
In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu echoed Witkoff, saying, “Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal.”
“Together with our U.S. allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region,” he said. He did not elaborate. Israel’s government didn’t immediately respond to whether negotiations would resume next week.
A breakthrough on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas has eluded the Trump administration as experts warn Gaza is being pushed closer to famine, after months of Israel entirely blocking food or letting in only limited amounts. This month, deaths related to malnutrition have accelerated.
More then two dozen Western-aligned countries and more than 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel’s blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out. The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food.
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognize Palestine as a state. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he said.
Jordan has requested to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza “due to the dire situation,” a Jordanian official said. The official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula.
An Israeli security official said the military was coordinating the drops, which were expected in the coming days. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be-finalized plans.
Desperate Palestinians gathered at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Friday, clutching empty pots waiting for a share of watery lentil soup. Such kitchens distributing cooked meals have been a main source of food for many Palestinians, but the number of meals they produce every day has plummeted to 160,000 from more than a million in April, according to the U.N.
“We’ve been living three months without bread,” said one woman in line, Riham Dwas. “We’re relying on charity kitchens, surviving on a pot of lentils and there are many times when we don’t even have that.”
When she can’t find food, she takes her children to a hospital to be put on saline IV drips for sustenance.
Hamas official Bassem Naim said Friday that the group was told that the Israeli delegation returned home for consultations and would return early next week to resume ceasefire negotiations.
Hamas said that Witkoff’s remarks were meant to pressure the group for Netanyahu’s benefit during the next round of talks and that in recent days negotiations had made progress. Naim said several gaps had been nearly solved, such as the agenda of the ceasefire, guarantees to continue negotiating to reach a permanent agreement and how humanitarian aid would be delivered.
In a joint statement, Egypt and Qatar also said progress had been made. “It is a natural to pause talks to hold consultations before the resumption of the dialogue once more,” they said.
Quote:Two flight attendants were injured after a commercial Southwest Airlines jet suddenly dropped 475 feet to avoid a “midair collision” shortly after takeoff at a Los Angeles-area airport Friday, with one frightened passenger saying the aircraft “was just in a freefall.”
Southwest Flight 1496 dove from 14,100 feet to 13,625 feet just six minutes after taking off from Hollywood Burbank Airport, according to FlightRadar24 data.
The pilot told concerned flyers that the drastic maneuver was carried out to avoid “a midair collision,” passenger Steve Ulasewicz told ABC News.
“The plane was just in a free fall. It was pandemonium,” he told NBC 4 Los Angeles.
Passengers screamed as the plane dropped for what felt like 10 seconds, according to Ulasewicz.
Comedian Jimmy Dore was on the flight, relaying that he and several other flyers were tossed about the cabin during the startling descent.
“Pilot had to dive aggressively to avoid midair collision over Burbank airport,” he wrote on X after landing in Sin City.
“Myself & Plenty of people flew out of their seats & bumped heads on ceiling, a flight attendant needed medical attention,” the California-based funnyman, 60, said.
Dore’s manager was also on the plane and was floored by the near-catastrophe.
“We’re driving home,” Stef Zamoramo said in a video posted on X from the cabin.
Tracking data showed that the plane — moving at 450 mph — proceeded to climb 20 seconds after the initial and sharp decline.
Southwest said two flight attendants were injured during the desperate life-saving swerve, but no passengers were injured.
Another plane, a Hawker Hunter aircraft, was near the Southwest plane at approximately 14,633 feet, according to ABC News.
Quote:At least one person was injured when a plane departing Denver International Airport was forced to abort takeoff due to a landing gear failure — causing passengers to flee the flaming and smoking aircraft on an inflatable emergency slide in a chaotic scene captured on harrowing video Saturday.
American Airlines Flight 3023 had a landing gear incident as it was taking off for Miami around 2:45 p.m. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Flight 2023, you got a lot of smoke,” an air traffic controller can be heard telling the pilot in cockpit audio from Live ATC, 9News reported.
“There was some flames. Looks like the smoke is dying down a bit,” they said.
“You are actually on fire,” the controller quickly added moments later.
Video showed passengers frantically sliding down an inflatable safety slide as thick black smoke billowed from flames engulfing the rear left side of the aircraft.
The Denver Fire Department announced it had extinguished the blaze in a social media post at 5:10 p.m. local time.
The airline said there was an issue specifically involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8’s tire, Denver 7 reported.
All 173 passengers and six crew members evacuated the plane “safely,” American Airlines said in its statement.
Six people were evaluated for minor injuries, with one transported to a local hospital after deplaning, according to Denver 7.
“All customers and crew deplaned safely, and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team,” American Airlines said in a statement.
“We thank our team members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for their experience.”
Passengers were expected to depart for Miami on another aircraft Saturday, the carried added.
Quote:The head of the NYPD’s Aviation Unit was booted from the elite squad this week after trying to block the feds from probing his dangerous mishaps, The Post has learned.
Aviation’s Commanding Officer Winston Faison was an “incompetent boob” who had numerous breaches in safety as he attempted to make himself the unit’s head helicopter instructor, whistleblowers revealed.
When FAA inspectors made a surprise visit to the base on July 16 because of internal complaints to the agency, Faison flipped his lid, police sources said.
“Do not give them anything!’” he barked at his cops, an insider said. “Who let them on the base?”
Members have complained to the FAA and to NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau about Faison, 52, who took over in 2023 after stints at Youth Strategies, Community Affairs and two Brooklyn precincts. Complaints included:
Nearly crashed at the Brooklyn home base while flying the unit’s pricey Bell 407 training helicopter with a student next to him during a hard landing in the last week in June. “He and the student hit the ground hard,” the first source said. Neither was hurt.
Took the same helicopter for a solo jaunt up the Hudson River on April 25, flying in the wrong seat against manufacturer’s rules. “There are emergency procedures that can only be performed sitting in the right (hand) seat,” said a second police source.
The helicopter’s tail rotor leaked oil and Faison didn’t catch it because he doesn’t do pre-flight checks as required by the FAA, the sources said. “When he landed the tail of the aircraft was covered in oil,” the second source said.
Hired new employees without the oversight of the NYPD, the sources said. “He’s working around department rules to get his people in,” a third source said.
Oversped his rotor and “could have torched a half-million engine we just got,” the first source said. “Drooped”(cq) the rotor system down to dangerously low speeds, nearly crashing, the sources said.
Caused structural damage to a $40,000 tail rotor while practicing a “quick stop” maneuver over rocks on July 4. “If that goes, you’re going to spin around like a top,” the first source said.
Quote:French authorities are trying to establish whether a group of young French citizens was removed from a plane bound for Paris from Spain this week because they are Jewish.
The airline, Vueling, has denied the claims.
Several dozen French passengers on Wednesday were kicked off a flight leaving the Spanish city of Valencia for Paris, for what Spanish police and the airline described as unruly behavior.
France’s ministry for Europe and foreign affairs said in a statement on Saturday that the minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, contacted the CEO of Vueling, Carolina Martinoli, to express his deep concern “about the removal of a group of young French Jews from one of the company’s flights.”
Barrot also requested more information to “determine whether these individuals had been discriminated against on the basis of their religion.”
A similar request has been made to the Spanish ambassador to France.
“Ms. Martinoli assured Mr. Barrot that a thorough internal investigation was underway and that its findings would be shared with the French and Spanish authorities,” the ministry said.
Vueling previously denied reports that the incident, which involved the removal of 44 minors and eight adults from flight V8166, was related to the passengers’ religion.
Some Israeli news outlets reported that the students were Jewish and that their removal was religiously motivated, a claim that was repeated by an Israeli minister online. Spain’s Civil Guard said the minors and adults were French nationals. A Civil Guard spokesperson said the agents involved were not aware of the group’s religious affiliation.
A Vueling spokesperson said the passengers were removed after the minors repeatedly tampered with the plane’s emergency equipment and interrupted the crew’s safety demonstration. A Civil Guard spokesperson said the captain of the plane ordered the removal of the minors from the plane at Valencia’s Manises Airport after they repeatedly ignored the crew’s instructions.
On Thursday, the Federation for Jewish Communities of Spain expressed concern about the incident. The group said that Vueling needed to provide documentary evidence of what happened on the plane.
Quote:A small plane nosedived into an Italian highway, crashing into the pavement and killing its pilot and passenger, harrowing video shows.
Footage from the freeway in Brescia captured the moment the Freccia RG aircraft swoops in from the sky nose-first on Tuesday and slams into the road, erupting into a plume of fire and black smoke.
The horrific crash killed pilot and lawyer Sergio Ravaglia, 75, of Milan, and his partner, Ann Maria De Stefano, 60, according to the local Giornale di Brescia.
Two drivers were also injured in the blast, officials said. Video shows several cars driving in and out of the burning crash site.
Ravaglia appeared to be attempting to complete an emergency landing on the highway but failed to regain speed, causing the aircraft to nosedive and spin out of control, witnesses told the local outlet.
First responders rushed to the scene to contain the fire, but found the plane already completely destroyed.
A consultant from Italy’s National Agency for Flight Safety is set to arrive in Brescia on Wednesday as officials begin to investigate the cause of the crash.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Brescia has opened a manslaughter investigation regarding the incident, but the subject of the charge has not been publicly named.
The prosecutor’s office will request a preliminary assessment of the wreck and look into the state of maintenance of the plane Ravaglia was flying.
The Freccia RG is an Italian ultralight plane built from carbon fiber with a wingspan of nearly 30 feet.
Quote:All 48 passengers and crew onboard a passenger plane that crashed in Russia’s Far East have died, the head of the country’s Amur region said in a statement Thursday.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said earlier that it had found the burning fuselage of the Soviet-designed twin turbo prop plane on a hillside south of its planned destination in the town of Tynda, more than 4,350 miles east of Moscow.
The plane, which was operated by the Siberia-based Angara Airlines, had initially departed from Khabarovsk before making its way to Blagoveshchensk on the Russian-Chinese border and onwards to Tynda.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash. Russia’s Interfax news agency said there were adverse weather conditions at the time of the crash, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services. Several Russian news outlets also reported that the aircraft was almost 50 years old, citing data taken from the plane’s tail number.
Images of the reported crash site circulated by Russian state media show debris scattered among dense forest, surrounded by plumes of smoke.
Regional Gov. Vasily Orlov said rescuers struggled to reach the site due to its remote location, 9 miles south of Tynda.
The transport prosecutor’s office in the Far East said in an online statement that the plane was attempting to land for a second time when it lost contact with air traffic control and disappeared from radars.
Orlov announced three days of mourning in the Amur region to mark the disaster, which he described as a “terrible tragedy.”
A previous statement from the govenor said that 49 people had been onboard the flight. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
The authorities have launched a probe on the charge of flight safety violations that resulted in multiple deaths, a standard procedure in aviation accidents.
Aviation incidents have been frequent in Russia, especially in recent years as international sanctions have squeezed the country’s aviation sector.
The plane, whose tail number showed it was built in 1976, was operated by a Siberia-based airline called Angara.
Quote:Air India said Tuesday that preliminary inspections found no issues in the locking mechanism of fuel control switches for select Boeing aircrafts.
The announcement followed a preliminary investigation into last month’s Air India plane crash that the switches shifted and flipped within seconds, starving both engines of fuel.
Air India operates a fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners for long-distance operations, while subsidiary and low-cost unit Air India Express operates the Boeing 737 jets for short-haul flights.
The airline inspected its entire fleet of both types of aircraft. “In the inspections, no issues were found with the said locking mechanism,” the airline’s statement said.
The investigation by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau into the London-bound plane that crashed in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad on June 12, killing 260 people, is centered around the fuel control switches on the Boeing 787 jetliner. One person survived the crash.
Last week, India’s aviation regulator ordered all airlines operating several Boeing models to examine fuel control switches and submit their findings to the regulator by July 21.
Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet, and Air India Express operates 75 Boeing 737 jets.
In the past few weeks, the airline has faced disruptions in services amid heightened scrutiny and additional safety inspections, leading to flight delays, cancellations and growing passenger anxiety.
On Monday, an Air India Airbus 320 flight veered off the runway as it landed during heavy rainfall at Mumbai International Airport, partially damaging the underside of one of the plane’s engines and leading to a temporary runway closure.
The flight had flown from Kochi in the southern state of Kerala. The airline said in a statement that all passengers and crew members disembarked safely and the aircraft was grounded for checks.
In another incident, an Air India flight from Hong Kong had a fire in its auxiliary power unit Tuesday while passengers were exiting the aircraft after it landed in New Delhi.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
News of the World
![[Image: QrnbKlx.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/QrnbKlx.jpg)
![[Image: sGz1ErF.png]](https://i.imgur.com/sGz1ErF.png)
![[Image: liM4ikn.png]](https://i.imgur.com/liM4ikn.png)
![[Image: fdzKgZA.png]](https://i.imgur.com/fdzKgZA.png)
![[Image: sj0H81z.png]](https://i.imgur.com/sj0H81z.png)
![[Image: QL7oRau.png]](https://i.imgur.com/QL7oRau.png)
![[Image: uSqjY09.png]](https://i.imgur.com/uSqjY09.png)
![[Image: GAA3qE9.png]](https://i.imgur.com/GAA3qE9.png)
![[Image: 2Hmnx1G.png]](https://i.imgur.com/2Hmnx1G.png)
![[Image: BwtNdKw.png%5B]](https://i.imgur.com/BwtNdKw.png%5B)
![[Image: SP1-Scripter.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Scripter.png)
![[Image: SP1-Writer.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Writer.png)
![[Image: SP1-Poet.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Poet.png)
![[Image: SP1-PixelArtist.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-PixelArtist.png){kind=tracking}
![[Image: SP1-Reporter.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/GmxWbHyL/SP1-Reporter.png)
Has that judge ever thought that the ICC might have overreached its own legal authority in the US and Israel by any chance?
Yes, Trump's words have been proven right once again. 
