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Quote:The Department of Justice last month announced an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), alleging that the civil rights nonprofit defrauded donors by secretly paying informants associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan.
A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment in April charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, according to the Justice Department.
The superseding indictment retains those charges while expanding on the alleged misconduct.
According to the DOJ, the SPLC "secretly funneled" more than $3 million in donor funds between 2014 and 2023 to numerous individuals associated with extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Movement, participants in the Unite the Right rally and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club.
The original indictment alleged approximately $3 million in payments between 2014 and 2023.
"The SPLC’s paid informants ('field sources') engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website," the indictment states.
Prosecutors further allege the SPLC opened bank accounts tied to fictitious entities in order to conceal donor funds that were allegedly routed to confidential sources.
According to the indictment, the SPLC began operating a covert informant network in the 1980s, and between 2014 and 2023 allegedly paid those sources in a clandestine manner.
The DOJ alleges an SPLC employee instead encouraged the pair to remain involved and offered them a monthly salary of $1,200.
The two subsequently agreed to remain in the organization, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege an SPLC employee instructed the individuals to claim they worked for a company called Rare Books and helped college students with research and writing assignments if anyone questioned the source of their income.
The indictment alleges donor funds were used to pay both individuals through SPLC accounts.
According to prosecutors, the pair were also reimbursed for expenses related to Ku Klux Klan activities, including cross-burning events and associated costs such as wood and fuel.
One of the individuals is also accused of recruiting new members using donor-funded payments. The indictment further alleges the SPLC knew donor funds were used to purchase materials for Ku Klux Klan garments.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, attorney Abbe Lowell, who represents the SPLC, denied the allegations.
Quote:ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Department of Human Services has notified more than 3,400 providers that they will be removed from Minnesota's health care programs after a massive revalidation effort as the state battles with the federal government over $2 billion in funding.
"Minnesota Revalidate"
The backstory:
Since January, the state has gone through the process of revalidating 5,583 Medicaid providers in "high-risk programs." Providers were required to provide the information they gave when they first became providers. The state says they made multiple attempts to contact each provider, including three written attempts and multiple follow-up calls.
Providers had to provide basic ownership disclosures, current licenses, prove they had enough workers, and provide fingerprints for owners. The state would also conduct unannounced site visits at the facilities.
The effort came as the state was under fire from the federal government over its oversight of the state's Medicaid program for fraud. At the time, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had moved to withhold $2 billion in Medicaid funding from the state. As of Thursday, that money remains up in the air.
Sunday was the deadline for the state to complete the revalidation.
Thousands of providers removed
What we know:
Thursday morning, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced the results of the revalidation effort.
Of the 5,583 providers reviewed, officials said only 2,061 were successfully revalidated. A total of 3,411 providers have been notified they are due to be removed as providers, according to DHS.
Of those providers, the state say they are facing removal due to:
- 2,491 providers are facing disenrollment due to incomplete paperwork and documentation.
- 916 providers face disenrollment due to failed verification or site visits
- 4 providers face disenrollment due to failed background study
The state says another 111 providers were removed from the review because they are no longer providing "high-risk" Medicaid services.
Then an additional 59 providers have been referred to the Office of the Inspector General for further review. The inspector general would be the authority to investigate potential fraud cases.
Big picture view:
Officials said the common reasons for disenrollment notices were:
- failure to disclose management authority
- failure to report change in ownership
- failure to report changes in or maintain proper credentials such as liability and surety bonds
- failure to provide access
- incomplete applications.
What they're saying:
In a provided statement, Minnesota DHS Deputy Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said:
"More than 1 million Minnesotans deserve to have confidence and trust in the Medicaid providers they depend on for lifesaving and life-affirming care. We are grateful to the providers who successfully completed the revalidation process and will continue to provide quality care."
Quote:A federal judge has blocked key Trump administration immigration policies that froze green card, asylum and work permit decisions tied to the White House’s expanded travel ban.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell, appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, ruled the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) directives adopted after the November 2025 National Guard shooting in Washington, D.C., were likely unlawful. The policies had halted asylum adjudications and placed indefinite holds on immigration benefit applications for people from dozens of designated countries.
The Rhode Island judge wrote, "In ruling on these motions, the Court is reminded of a line often repeated in discussions around immigration policy: If people wish to immigrate to the United States, they ought to 'follow the law' and 'do things the right way.' This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that."
"Indeed, the agency has violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering, as well as the administrative laws that govern the agency’s actions."
The decision marks a legal setback for the administration’s effort to extend travel restrictions into the processing of applications for those already in the United States, including green card seekers.
James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s General Counsel, told Newsweek in a statement Friday, “The Left has been running the same gambit with so called ‘animus’ claims since 2017. It is sabotage dressed in legal clothing. It goes like this: (1) the admin is racist, (2) therefore a policy I don’t like is motivated by race, (3) therefore it is invalid. They have used it on virtually every Trump era Department of Homeland Security policy.”
Quote:WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee on Thursday to consult with experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran, a source familiar with the trip said on Friday.
The source, confirming an Axios report, did not provide additional details.
President Donald Trump is adamant that any deal to end the war with Iran include a provision that Tehran will not develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran is believed to possess about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium that was at sites bombed by U.S. planes a year ago. Tehran has been adamant that it must maintain the ability to enrich uranium and denies developing a weapon.
Quote:A woman who accused Maine Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner of physical abuse in a New York Times story published Thursday rounded on the Gray Lady early Friday, claiming the paper’s reporters “methodically delayed and twisted” her account into “a gift to the Platner campaign” — including spiking allegations of sexual assault against him.
Lyndsey Fifield described her interactions with reporters Lisa Lerer and Katie Glueck in a pair of lengthy X posts Friday morning, saying she had “bucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists.”
“They connected me to two of the other victims so we wouldn’t feel so alone,” she wrote. “I insisted to each of them that I trusted the NYT journalists and that we were doing the right thing despite their (sadly very accurate) sense that something was wrong.”
Between being interviewed and the publication of the story online Thursday, Fifield claimed, the reporters “kept coming back to us saying the editors needed more. I needed to go on the record (okay). We need more screenshots (okay). I met every bench mark they set, eager to provide more sources or evidence as needed.
“After the story went up I began to ask them … wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham’s by far)?
“Why does it say ‘nobody could corroborate’ when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate? … Where were the screenshots they’d said they would use? … The editors said it was too much, they explained.”
In addition to Fifield, the Times story quoted another Platner ex, Jenny Racicot, as saying without elaborating that he “does not respect women,” while a third woman, who was quoted anonymously, said — again, without elaborating — that she was “collateral damage to the world that is his.”
Quote:Following threats to withhold federal Medicaid funds from any state failing to crack down on fraud, the Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is cutting off $3 million in federal funding to Hawaii’s Medicaid fraud control program.
And that might not be the end of the administration’s campaign against healthcare fraud—based on Vice President J.D. Vance’s previous statements, New York may be its next target.
Why the Trump Administration Is Cutting Funding To Hawaii
Every state that administers Medicaid (a joint federal and state healthcare program which provides coverage for low-income Americans) must have a fraud control unit ensuring funds are used appropriately. These units are maintained by each state’s attorney general.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General Thomas March Bell sent a letter to Hawaii’s Attorney General Anne Lopez informing her of the funding cuts, which he said were prompted by the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s (MFCU) failure to bring forward a single indictment or conviction over the past four years.
During that same period, Bell argued in the letter, enrollments in Medicaid in Hawaii increased by 40 percent and funding by 27 percent, as the unit received $12 million in federal taxes, or roughly $3 million a year.
More than 360,000 people in the state are enrolled in Medicaid, according to state figures cited by Reuters.
Quote:The Senate approved $70 billion to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of President Trump’s term early Friday, following weeks of delays amid intra-GOP sniping over a $1.776 billion settlement fund meant to help victims of government weaponization.
The 52-47 final vote approving the legislation came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans defeated more than two dozen amendments in a so-called “vote-a-rama,” including one offered by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would have redirected payments from the settlement to members of law enforcement who were injured in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The measure goes to the House, which is expected to take it up early next week.
The amendments complicated what should have been an easy vote for Republicans who want to keep the focus on immigration enforcement in a midterm election year.
Instead, they spent almost a full day haggling among themselves over whether to block the settlement fund, even after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers Tuesday it would not go forward.
“This would have been done several hours ago if we weren’t having to deal with some of the issues around the fund,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters shortly before midnight Thursday.
Thune himself was among those who criticized the fund, which was created as part of a settlement that resolves Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns to the New York Times, which published them as part of a report on the president’s finances in September 2020.
However, Thune had pushed GOP senators for weeks to keep the bill narrowly focused on border security and avoid adding new provisions that could complicate its passage in the House.
Still, a group of Republican senators pushed all day and into the night to block the settlement’s payouts through legislation.
Quote:A dozen people were shot and wounded when two gunmen started firing at each other at a family-friendly festival in Ohio on Saturday, officials and reports said.
Cops responded to chaos unfolding at the Old West End Festival in Toledo around 5:40 p.m., according to a statement local police shared on X.
In video of the incident, at least 16 shots could be heard ringing out as people screamed and dove for cover.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said originally eight people were shot and left with non-life-threatening wounds, according to WTOL 11 TV.
WDIV later reported that the toll of wounded rose to 12, including two critical. They said the ages of the victims ranged from 61 to 14.
“Everybody hit the deck,” Kevin Berry, who was relaxing in the neighborhood arboretum when he heard the shots, said.
Other horrific footage captured a man who was shot on the side of his torso walking down the street in his blood-soaked white t-shirt.
“Be still, sit down man,” a panicked witness told the victim. “Call the hospital,” another bystander chimed in before the shell-shocked man finally plopped down on the grass to wait for help.
First responders sprinted down the street and frantically wheeled stretchers carrying bloodied festival attendees into ambulances, according to other graphic videos.
Berry claimed he saw a gun being thrown on the ground about 50 feet away from him as cops already working at the festival swarmed the area.
Officials said that the gunfire came from two gunmen who traded shots at each other and then fled the scene. Both are still on the loose.
Quote:A visibly agitated President Trump stormed off his interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” after a testy exchange with a reporter who grilled him over his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Trump lashed out at moderator Kristen Welker after she insisted he failed to provide a shred of evidence about his disputed accusations that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him or that the elections in California are subject to malfeasance.
“You’re a one-sided crooked network,” Trump fumed during the interview, which aired Sunday. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
Welker pleaded with Trump to continue, recalling how she trekked over to Wisconsin for the interview, but the president was done.
“I sat in the rain with you for an hour,” he grumbled.
“On and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press,” he added. “A country can never be great with a dishonest press.”
After airing that testy exchange, Welker revealed that she spoke with Trump afterward and he agreed to do a follow-up interview with her, though it’s not clear when.
Welker claimed that she and Trump acknowledged complications caused by the rain during the interview that aired Sunday.
The interview had started to get testy towards the final six minutes when Welker pressed Trump on a proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that aimed to award cash payouts to victims of federal “lawfare.”
Quote:Law enforcement negotiated with the “bomb-strapped” Bakersfield Chase Bank robber for hours before they made the decision to end the stand-off violently by “blowing his head off.”
Anthony Scott Searles-Harris’ former defense attorney, Arturo Revelo, detailed how law enforcement drove him at “97 miles per hour” to help stop the harrowing situation.
The 41-year-old man had walked into the downtown bank and declared he had a bomb. He barricaded himself and his hostages inside. A witness said the suspect stated that it was a “bad day to be at the bank.”
Revelo said Searles-Harris requested to speak with him, vaulting him into a hostage situation after law enforcement hurriedly picked him up from his home in Tehachapi. The attorney was driven to the scene in downtown Bakersfield and stayed in the command center there for several hours, he said.
During that time, he tried on multiple occasions to speak to Searles-Harris, but was rebuffed. The attorney said he believed Searles-Harris hated him and believed he contributed to a conspiracy that set him up to be convicted for sex crimes. The suspect believed evidence that would’ve proved his innocence wasn’t used in court, he said.
Searles-Harris, whom Revelo described as a “narcissist,” also asked to speak to one of his victims. The victim, now grown and no longer the underage girl he was convicted of misconduct towards, told him to surrender, according to Revelo.
He refused. Revelo said a box of legal defense documents Searles-Harris requested in exchange for the hostages was received, but he never kept up his end of the bargain. The hostages, employees of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, stayed inside with the man.
Searles-Harris eventually gave up two hostages and had discussions with police about food and water, but negotiations stalled.
Quote:President Trump is no fan of the newly minted Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
The $850 million library and museum, which is set to open on Juneteenth on the South Side of Chicago, has attracted the scorn of Trump before, who’s called it a “very unattractive building that is seriously late and seriously over budget.”
The president shared an AI-generated image Saturday of the towering monument looming over a low-income Chicago neighborhood with a gigantic trash bag draped across its roof.
“The Barack Hussein Obama Library, in 10 years, when fully matured!” Trump trolled on his Truth Social platform.
It’s not the first time he’s called the building literal trash.
Last Saturday, he shared a different fabricated image of the Obama Center, that one of a larger-than-life trash can in a parking lot, under the headline “The Obama Presidential Library” on Truth Social.
“I don’t believe in building libraries or museums … like the Barack Hussein Obama one in Chicago,” Trump told reporters at the White House in March, when he unveiled the renderings for his in Miami.
Trump said his presidential library was “most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.”
Quote:Former first lady Jill Biden gave a bleak update on her husband’s cancer battle — admitting that the 83-year-old former president has “slowed down” from the heavy toll of treatment for the disease he will be stricken with “for the rest of his life.”
“It’s stage four, and it has metastasized to his bones. So that puts things on a whole different level,” the former first lady said of her husband, former President Joe Biden, and his incurable prostate cancer.
“I mean, Joe will have to live with cancer for the rest of his life, which means he’s on special medicines,” she told “The View” co-host Ana Navarro during a book event covered by Fox News.
Observers had questioned why the 46th president’s cancer wasn’t caught during his time in the White House, and his team revealed that he stopped getting blood tests for prostate cancer around 2014 because of his age.
The former first lady shed light on how it was discovered, recounting how she observed her husband using the bathroom about seven times each night while still president. Yet he only saw a urologist once he left the White House.
“I never imagined it would be prostate cancer,” Jill reflected. “I just never imagined it.”
“You know, it takes a toll,” the former first lady explained about its impact on him. “He keeps his schedule, but he’s slowed down.”
“I mean, stage four cancer is — and he’s 83 — so, I think the mix of everything and the medications that he’s taken has made life a little more difficult these days.”
The former first lady, who has been promoting her new book, “View From the East Wing: A Memoir,” has been forced to reckon with questions about her husband’s health and the debate that gripped the Democratic Party in 2024 about whether he was fit for another term in office due to his age.
She has since admitted that he couldn’t have served out another four years in the White House based on “what I know now.”
Quote:An elite California private school is facing backlash from parents after dedicating a two-page spread in its 2026 yearbook to a student anti-ICE walkout — complete with photos of protesters carrying signs declaring “Ice will melt in hell” and “no one is illegal on stolen land.”
More than 100 students at Harvard-Westlake School in LA participated in the nationwide anti-ICE demonstration on Jan. 30, leaving campus and marching along Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Boulevard carrying protest signs.
At the time, school officials told parents they were not officially endorsing the demonstration but would not stop students from leaving campus.
Now, months later, the protest has been immortalized in the school’s yearbook.
The spread features multiple photos from the demonstration and asks students to answer the question: “what moment from the anti-ICE walk out felt the most powerful and meaningful to you?”
The yearbook feature has angered some parents who argue the prestigious school crossed the line from education into political activism.
“I would say everyone is entitled to political beliefs but the school should not be making political decisions. They overstepped the line,” one Harvard-Westlake parent told The California Post.
“It really does go from education to indoctrination.”
The controversy is unfolding at one of the country’s most prestigious private schools. With annual tuition topping $50,000, the Studio City campus has built a reputation as an Ivy League feeder school and attracts the children of Hollywood executives, entertainment industry heavyweights, political insiders and some of Los Angeles’ wealthiest families.
Quote:A sick protester dressed as Charlie Kirk outside an event hosted by the assassinated activist’s widow, Erika Kirk — then re-enacted his murder as crowds chanted, “He deserved to die.”
The protester was seen at the Turning Point USA conference in San Antonio, Texas, wearing a papier-mache head made to resemble the slain podcaster, with the demonstrator suddenly collapsing on the floor as if to mock Charlie’s assassination last September.
The protester pulled the stunt in front of attendees at the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit on Friday — days after someone was charged with threatening to kill Erika Kirk at such an event.
During the sick stunt, a man on a megaphone could be heard shouting at conference attendees, “You are protecting pedophiles. You are protecting Nazis.”
Social media footage also captured fellow protesters celebrating Charlie Kirk’s assassination as they shouted, “Deserved to die!”
The demonstrators then joined the rest of the protesters booing Erika Kirk, 37, who was leading Friday’s summit.
The widow, who succeeded her slain husband as CEO of Turning Point USA, also faced a heckler inside the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.
“Erika Kirk protects pedophiles! Erika Kirk protects pedophiles!” the woman screamed before being removed from the event, video showed.
Kirk took a moment from her speech to address the heckler, urging the woman to change her ways and find real happiness.
“It’s important to remember that happiness comes and goes — and I pray that you find it,” she replied to the heckler.
“That’s an important moment because that just shows duty to faithfulness gives life meaning, and we must pray for our enemies and those that do not feel like their life has meaning,” Kirk continued.
“And that’s a perfect example of that. A perfect example. You pray for your enemies. You pray for those that persecute you,” she added.
Quote:Two California men have been charged over an ISIS terror plot to kill US Special Forces operatives with grenades and drones.
Bereen Dzayee, 25, of Lakeside, near San Diego, and Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, of Porterville in Tulare County were arrested Friday alongside Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, from Leawood, Kansas.
Prosecutors allege the three paid $2,000 to someone they thought was from the jihadi group to buy rocket-propelled grenades and UAVs for the attack.
According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Kansas, the three men allegedly spent more than a year communicating about extremist plans, including discussions about leaving the US to join ISIS.
Dzayee allegedly proposed using drones to target Special Forces personnel while Shamsaldeen is accused of expressing a desire to carry out a knife attack against a US serviceman.
The DOJ alleges Ghafoor made a series of violent statements, including saying it would be “sick” to have his name placed on a drone used in an attack.
Prosecutors also claim he spoke about beheading a female soldier and stated that he wished he could kill 300 million Americans.
Pentagon officials have not confirmed Dzayee’s military status but neighbors and a former classmate told NBC 7 he served in the Navy and identified photos showing him in a sailor’s uniform.
Several residents, including veterans and military family members, said the arrest was difficult to reconcile with their understanding of his background.
“We looked out — it seemed to me like it was a white van that pulled up and tactical guys jumped out and surrounded the house,” a neighbor said.
“Very odd in this neighborhood. So the neighbors started coming out. We didn’t approach, but we were watching.”
Agents remained at the residence for several hours, searching the home and garage while interviewing Dzayee’s parents.
“You immediately — you see Terrorist Task Force, your alarms go up,” the neighbor added. “I actually walked up to the FBI agent and asked if the house was going to blow up, whether the neighborhood should be concerned, and he assured me, ‘No, we’re arresting someone. That’s all we’ve got.'”
Residents said Dzayee kept mostly to himself.” He doesn’t really speak to folks around here, which is, again, unusual for this neighborhood,” the nearby resident said.
OBITUARIES
Quote:US actor James Handy, known for his roles in films including Jumanji and Top Gun: Maverick, has been stabbed to death at his home in Los Angeles, police have said.
Handy, who was 81, was found unconscious in the front garden of his home in Tarzana, California, on Wednesday with several stab wounds to the chest.
Michael Gledhill, 44, the son of Handy's girlfriend, has been arrested on suspicion of murder, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
Officers responded to a report of "unknown trouble" after a caller dialled 911 and told police: "I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin."
Handy was born in New York and appeared in a string of films and TV shows over six decades, often as a supporting character or for a small number of episodes.
Despite rarely being the leading star, Handy racked up a long string of credits, including NYPD Blue, K-9, Law & Order, CSI: NY, Logan, Alias, Castle, NCIS, The West Wing, Arachnophobia, The X Files and Murder, She Wrote.
His most recent film role was 2022's Top Gun: Maverick, in which he played Jimmy, a bartender who works with the character played by Jennifer Connelly, Tom Cruise's love interest.
'Superb character actor'
Paying tribute, entertainment writer Jay Bobbin said he was "heartbroken to learn about the passing of superb character actor".
Writer and producer Don Winslow, who created the 2001 procedural drama UC: Undercover, in which Handy appeared, described Handy as a "terrific actor".
"We were honoured to have him on UC: Undercover in a recurring role," Winslow said. "His performances were always special."
Following Handy's death, the LAPD said Gledhill "flagged down nearby responding officers, telling them he was the one they were looking for".
Quote:“It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many. We know how dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues, and fans of the shows he was in — he loved his job very much, and he always considered himself incredibly lucky, to have been able to work alongside such exceptionally talented people, in such wonderful productions, across a career that spanned several decades.”
Head’s breakout role came in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV adaptation by creator Joss Whedon of the 1992 movie of the same name. As Giles, the bookish but steely Watcher, he helped guide Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) as she came to terms with being the Slayer and supported her missions.
More recently, he played Rupert Mannion, the philandering ex-husband of AFC Richmond owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), on Apple TV’s Ted Lasso.
His credits also included Little Britain and Merlin in the U.K. and a number of stage roles.
Anthony Stewart Head was born in London on Feb. 20, 1954, to documentary filmmaker Seafield Head and actress Helen Shingler; his older brother is actor and singer Murray Head (“One Night in Bangkok” from Chess). He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and had early roles in a 1978 production of Godspell in London, the film Lady Chatterley’s Lover and a number of guest appearances in British TV series.
An early breakthrough came in a series of TV commercials for Gold Blend coffee in the U.K., where he and Sharon Maughan played a man and woman who began a slow-burn romance over a series of coffee dates. Versions of the ads were also made in the U.S. for Taster’s Choice, with Head and Maughan again playing the couple.
His role in Buffy won him legions of fans in the U.S. — but also meant he was away from his family for long stretches as he filmed the show in Los Angeles. “My partner Sarah [Fisher] and the girls — Daisy was four and Emily was six — stayed in England,” he told The Guardian in a 2016 interview. “I’d try to go home to them every three or four weeks. The production team would work dates around me, and every time I got the chance to have six days clear, I’d get on a plane. Anything less than six days was disruptive — I’d have to leave as soon as they were getting used to having me around. I’d hit the ground running, take over from Sarah, take the girls to school and do as much as I could before I had to go back.”
UKRAINE WAR
Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin had warm words for "old friend" Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
Yet while Putin rejected suggestions that the war in Ukraine had pushed Moscow and Beijing together, the quasi-allies remain divided on key interests—including a long-delayed pipeline Russia sees as critical to replacing gas sales lost in Europe.
"I do have a good relationship with President Xi Jinping. He calls me 'old friend,' and I also call him that," Putin said during a Q&A session at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"This is no exaggeration or figure of speech. We have developed a trusting relationship," he said, per a translation provided by APT News. Putin called Russia and China "natural allies and partners" guided by their national interests, adding these interests "coincide in many cases."
Putin was responding to Fu Hua, president of China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, who asked how the two countries had achieved their "high level of close cooperation."
The remarks came just over two weeks after his latest trip to Beijing along with Cabinet members and business leaders.
Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times since the Chinese leader took office in 2013 and have made headlines for outward displays of affection, the occasional embrace—earning their relationship the moniker "bromance."
Newsweek reached out to China's Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment.
Quote:KYIV — Russian forces deliberately struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine’s Chernobyl power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, in an “extremely vile” attack that did not lead to a spike in radiation.
The strike significantly damaged a fuel-reception building meters away from where “large amounts of nuclear material” are stored, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said it had been briefed by Ukraine.
Kyiv’s state atomic agency Energoatom said no spent fuel had been stored in the building at the time of the attack. The resulting fire was extinguished, and no injuries were reported.
Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged strike on the facility, which is located around 15 km (9 miles) from the Chernobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
“An extremely critical infrastructure facility – and an extremely vile Russian strike,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, adding that Russia had used a Shahed attack drone.
“As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia’s brazenness, which long ago went off the charts.”
In a statement, the IAEA said a team would soon visit the site “to inspect the impact.”
In February 2025, a Russian Shahed drone damaged a containment arch over the Chernobyl reactor that was destroyed in the April 1986 explosion and meltdown. Russia, which regularly attacks Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with drones and missiles, denied responsibility.
MIDDLE EAST
Quote:A controversial Israel-and-US-hating NYC college professor defended the murderous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as she clamored to bring down the US empire “by any means necessary” at a meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Corinna Mullin, a radical political science prof once arrested for leading anti-Israel protests that resulted in $3 million in damage to the City College of New York’s Harlem campus, lauded Iran’s “phenomenal” military for depleting US weapons stockpiles in the Middle East, as she urged support for its armed forces.
“Iran has won this war. . . . its indigenous military industry has produced phenomenal results,” she claimed during an unhinged hour and a half “Islamic Revolution Teach-in” she gave to the NYC chapter of the DSA.
“This is having a huge toll on the capacity of the US empire to impose its will. . . . We need to bring the empire down by any means necessary,” she raged.
Mullin, who specializes in teaching anticolonialism, was fired by CUNY in 2025 after eight years on the job.
The termination came after she led an April 2024 encampment at the City College of New York. She fought the move and was reinstated this year, though her name didn’t appear on CUNY faculty pages and it’s unclear if she taught any classes there this spring semester. She also teaches at The New School.
Speaking to more than two-dozen comrades Wednesday evening, she painted Iran’s murderous Islamic regime in a socialist light to justify funding its military — while making zero mention of the riches Iran’s ruling elite has famously amassed through the control of oil and state-owned resources.
“I’d love to see a world with no militaries. But we can’t have peace without justice,” she said. “And so, a state like Iran needs to divert a significant portion of its surplus into military industrialization, so it can defend its workers.”
“The state itself is working on behalf of the working class,” she insisted.
Quote:Iran fired a volley of ballistic missiles toward key US allies that were mostly shot down early Saturday, putting a tenuous cease-fire at risk in the latest military flare-up in the war.
Tehran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, both key allies in the region, posing an “immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” according to US Central Command.
US forces intercepted six of them, according to CENTCOM, with the seventh failing to reach its intended target.
The latest military escalation by the Iranian regime came just hours after the US downed four Iranian “kamikaze” drones that the US said were headed toward the Strait of Hormuz — the site of an ongoing blockade that President Trump imposed in April after Iranian attacks and threats brought commercial transit to a virtual standstill.
Earlier, US forces hammered Iranian coastal surveillance sites “to defend against further maritime attacks,” and CENTCOM posted black and white video of the destruction on X.
The Iranian regime claimed the US strikes on radar and coastal facilities in Sirik and Qeshm Island were a “clear violation of the ceasefire” and an “act of aggression against national sovereignty,” and vowed to respond.
Quote:Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent plans to roll out a new program to help Gulf allies rebuild after a series of Iranian attacks – paid for by tapping into Iran’s own assets.
“Treasury will utilize all tools available to allow Iranian assets to be made available to our Gulf allies to support rebuilding and repairs for any future damage caused by Iran,” a source familiar with Bessent’s thinking told The Post Saturday.
Bessent has “directed his team to assess conditions amongst our Gulf allies and request comprehensive estimates of the costs associated with repairing damage Iran has inflicted since the start of the conflict.
“Treasury will further consider whether Iranian assets could be used to support repairs for past damages.”
The source did not provide a dollar amount for the program, and did not specifically mention Iran’s $24 billion in frozen assets – although they have featured prominently in talks between the US and Iran to end the war that began Feb. 28.
Iran’s ability to generate oil revenue has been severely hampered by the US blockade, which President Trump imposed after Iran drove trade in the Strait of Hormuz to a virtual standstill.
The move, revealed Saturday, comes after the US Central Command announced Iran had fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain at dawn. That followed attacks which damaged Kuwait’s airport last week, killing one and wounding more than 60.
Mohsen Rezaei, a security advisor to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen in public since assuming power, told CNN Friday talks are at a “deadlock,” and depend on the US unlocking the $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
Quote:ANTALYA, Turkey — Iran’s World Cup soccer team set off from Turkey for their training base in Mexico on Saturday, with some members of their entourage reportedly still without U.S. visas, before three group matches in the United States later this month.
The Iranian Football Federation’s secretary-general, Hedayat Mombeini, and its vice president, Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, were among 14 backroom staff and officials without U.S. visas before games in Los Angeles and Seattle, according to Iranian state television.
It was unclear whether the federation’s president, Mehdi Taj, had been issued a visa.
The team’s participation in the World Cup has been complicated by the Iran war.
Problems with processing visas had earlier led Iran to move its training base from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, which is on the border with California.
The federation accused the U.S. of “vindictive behavior” in refusing visas for “key managerial and administrative members” of the team.
The decision had “effectively denied the Iranian national team the opportunity for a level playing field and a competition free from discrimination,” according to a statement on the federation’s website. It added that the federation would pursue the matter through world soccer authority FIFA.
The Iranian Embassy in Ankara, meanwhile, responded to an earlier social media post from U.S. Ambassador Tom Barrack, in which he congratulated his embassy staff for processing the Iran team’s visas.
“You cannot whitewash conduct that violates FIFA regulations and breaches the United States’ host obligations merely by praising yourselves,” the Iranian post read. “This represents the worst possible form of politically biased interference in sport.”
One U.S. official earlier told The Associated Press that all players on the Iranian team were approved for visas, while a second official said visas had been issued for players, coaches, trainers and some support staff. A third official suggested that some applicants affiliated with the team had been rejected for requesting visas “under false pretenses.”
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the visas publicly.
The squad has been preparing for the World Cup at a training camp in Antalya. The team said that it has already received visas from the Mexican Embassy in Ankara.
The players, dressed in blue blazers over white T-shirts, left the luxury Mardan Palace hotel in Antalya on Saturday afternoon. They boarded a private jet at the Mediterranean city’s airport and were due to fly directly to Mexico.
Quote:A suspected Hamas terrorist was arrested in Greece on Sunday for allegedly plotting to attack an Israeli cruise ship, according to officials.
The 37-year-old Palestinian electrician, who has not been identified, was taken into custody on the island of Crete after officials claimed he placed an online order for “chemical agents” that could be used to make explosives.
Authorities discovered cell phones, a laptop, external hard drives and bank cards after searching homes in Crete and the Greek capital, Athens.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Sunday.
His arrest is tied to that of four other Palestinians in Cyprus who are being investigated for “terrorism-related charges” and “belonging to a criminal organization,” officials said.
The suspect was allegedly in contact with one of the four Palestinians in Cyprus — with whom he traveled to Malaysia for training on making explosives using commercially available chemical agents, according to police.
Cyprus authorities arrested two Palestinians on May 22 after finding material in two homes they claim can be used to make bombs.
Authorities there detained another two Palestinian men on May 29 as part of the same investigation.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
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My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
